MMA Fighting - HOAM | What Fight Should Headline the UFC's Return To MSG?

Episode Date: July 15, 2022

The UFC is expected to return to Madison Square Garden in New York later this year, and while there are a few compelling options, which fight will the promotion target to cap off the card? On an all-new "Free-For-All Friday" edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck is asked for his prediction on which bout will headline the UFC's expected November PPV event at "The World's Most Famous Arena." In addition, listener questions include topics such as Nate Diaz's continued battle with the UFC, the MMA Fighting Global Rankings for July, which fighter would benefit from a heel turn, Israel Adesanya vs. Alex Pereira, if UFC 277 and UFC 278 need a bit of a boost, the UFC Long Island fight between Lauren Murphy and Miesha Tate not getting enough love ahead of Saturday's card, 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

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. The Vox Media Podcast Network. It is Friday, July 15th, 2022. It is indeed a heck of a morning.

We are live on the MMA-Flighting Twitter Spaces. and shortly thereafter this entire program will be on the MA Fighting Podcasting Network. I am Mike Hack. Thank you for joining us a lot going on in the world of M.A. in combat sports. We just wrapped UFC Long Island morning weigh-ins, the official weigh-ins, all 24 fighters, stepped on to the scale. All 24 fighters successfully made weight.

Amanda Lamos was the final fighter to step on the scale. She needed the box of redemption. to get it done. And she did. So her fight with Michelle Waterson, the strawweight co-main event is official, as are the other 11

fights on the card. The main event, Yaye Rodriguez, taking on Brian Ortega. That's a big one at 145 pounds. The event has some fun fights, some interesting storylines, stakes in a few of these fights. And it's early

day MMA, which I can appreciate. I love that. I love how the prelims start at 11 a.m. Eastern. Main card starts at 2 p.m. Eastern. So the East Coast is going to be a little bit spoiled. Next week, East Coast is going to be pretty spoiled as well because of the UFC London card. I believe it's almost the same times. I think it's pushed back an hour. The prelims are at noon Eastern. Main card at 3 p.m. Eastern, but then things will go back to normal with UFC 277 and beyond. So this is Friday. It means it's a weekly holiday here on the program. meets a free-for-all Friday.

We can talk MMA. We can talk whatever you want to talk about. And we're just going to take your calls the entire time, probably for the next hour or so. So let's get on in. We get a bunch of people waiting. So let's kick things off with my man, mayonnaise face McFlanigan. What's up, Mike? Can you hear me?

Yes, sir. I'm going to take full advantage of free-for-all Friday and ask a question. I think you might have an answer to. as I have an 18 month old and I know you're a father yourself so what do you think is something that that makes a good father you know what have you seen what have you done I'd love some tips thanks buddy yeah what a way to start at the show that is such a loaded question um you just be there man I mean that's that's really it whether it's a pat on the back or a kick in the butt that's what a what a good dad does so I have personally

very excited today because my son has gotten into golf, enjoys golf. He enjoys the camaraderie of golf, especially because he takes like a group blessing with kids his age, and he really enjoys that. But today at around 5.30 Eastern, I am going to take him out on the golf course. Normally we spend our Saturday mornings out on the range

and we just smash golf balls and we have a good time. We're actually going to play nine holes today. First time, we're going to take him out, play nine holes. he does. So I'm very excited about that. I am actually like a little emotional thinking about it because it's a very cool moment. It's one of those things like when my,

when I thought I was having a boy, one of the things I really wanted to do was I can't wait for the first time I get to actually like go out and play around a golf of them. And we're going to do that later on today after the preview show and everything else. So yeah, you just do there. You just be there.

I mean, you be there, you take an interest. You hang out with them or her. whoever it may be and you just be there. Like I said, whether it's a pat in the back, kick in the pants, you'd be there for all those things. You know, sometimes the conversations aren't great. Sometimes they're fantastic. Sometimes they're memorable.

Sometimes you have to discipline and yell a little bit. But it's just the way the way the cookie crumbles. But yeah, being a parent is the best. It's just the best. All right. I'm a man of my word. Ani. you were left on deck yesterday so you get you get skipped to the front of the line what's up

hello can you hear me hello yes i can how are you i mike how are you thank you so much for allowing me to talk sure yes so let me start off with what we were talking about yesterday you were talking about you know the whole need daz fias fiasco and whatnot right so the ufc was ufc was trying to book, Nate Diaz versus Kamsat Chimayev. First, I do not understand how does Kamsat Shemayev get any more shine than he already got from his fight of the year candidate with Gilbert Burns, right? So this does, I mean, if you ask me, I am more interested to see Kamsat versus Kohlby than Kamsat versus Nate Dias.

And I think his fight with Kohlby sells more. So I don't really understand why does UFC want to book. But this was the question that you had yesterday as well. So my answer to that is I think UFC just wants to get a return on investment for the investment they actually made on Nate Diaz, if that actually makes sense. So taking everything from Nate Diaz and giving it to Kamsa, that's what they're looking at.

That was one thing. And another thing that I want to talk about completely switching gears is you know, Ariel, he says, open scoring, but I have another solution to judging. So whenever there is a split decision, why can't the judge

who gave a dissenting decision write about like, you know, four or five lines or a paragraph explaining as to why did he score that round? Or, you know, why did he score the fight to the other fighter? Because if you go and ask Sal De Amato right now as to why did he score

the fourth round of Calvin Kato versus Josh Emmett to Josh Emmett, I'm pretty sure he will have no answer. So if judges can at least write something and post it along with the scorecards, like, you know, just the way the scorecards are published online, if the judge's explanation is also posted over there, I think the explanation can be used to educate, you know, the judges or whenever these seminars happen. What do you think of that? Yeah, I mean, the judging thing is a topic and will continue to be a topic for a long time. I would love for the judges to be,

because listen, I have, since the pandemic, since I got to M.A. fighting, we do, especially after the pay-per-views, we will live stream the press conference. Casey and I will chit-chat and take questions as we wait for the fighters, a Dana White

or whoever to step up to the table and answer the questions from the media. And during those pay-per-views, it takes an awful long time for each fighter to come up, especially the main event fighter. So the amount of time between, you know,

the winner of the featured bout to like the time Israel Adasanya comes up, it's, I mean, it feels like five hours sometimes. Wouldn't it be nice to bring a couple of the judges up, maybe a referee up, to have them sit down and ask them questions about how they came to some of these conclusions? Like, we're not going to have all of them come up,

but if there's a dissenting judge, Chris Lee, for example, from the Calvin Cater fight, I'd love to ask Chris Lee what he saw there. So at least, like, we get to understand what he was seeing. Now, I understand judging is tough, and I understand that what we see on TV, the judges don't really get those views.

They sit in their seats, and whatever angle they are at, that's how they have to view the fight. It's not like they have monitors. It's not like they're listening to the commentary. It's none of that. They have to just judge their sitting. So there could be certain rounds

where a fight takes place on the complete opposite side of the cage from where they're sitting and they have a hard time seeing it, so you have to just sort of go by what you see. So I'll give them benefit of the doubt in that regard. But, I mean, yeah, it's a problem. And I honestly think outside of open scoring and all this other stuff, I think if we just change the whole wind show payout structure,

we're going to have less complaints about robberies and things like that. if we stop this whole like you look at Michael Johnson and the type of fight that this man had and the type of wars that this man has had has another one with Jamie Malarkey. Most people felt he won that fight. Michael Johnson felt he won that fight. A lot of

the fighters, his colleagues, constituents, what have you, all felt he won that fight. Fellow coaches, all of them. Like a lot of, many people felt Michael Johnson won that fight. Now, have Michael Johnson fee and got all of the money that he could have gotten on top of the $50,000 bonus that he would have received as well,

we would have been like, eh, that's just, it's a little questionable. It's a little suss, as my kid likes to say. But I think we'd feel a little bit better about things. So, well, I think open scoring would be interesting at certain points. I don't necessarily care. I don't think that's a, that's going to fix it. I think it's just going to make us complain more about judging because we get to actually do it every round as opposed to one time.

after we hear the scorecards being read and get to see the actual cards, now we get to see them in live time, and we're just going to spend our time on Twitter. Like, what the hell is this guy terrible scorecard? So to me, I think that changes a lot of things. I think we will complain less. And I think we'll be like, you know what? I don't agree with you,

but at least Michael Johnson got all the money he was supposed to get. So maybe we feel a little bit better about that. As far as an ADS thing, here's this thing that I keep hearing, and it's kind of silly. Nate, why are we Nate being a hypocrite? Because Nate wants to get out,

but the UFC is offering him all these fights, and he keeps turning them down. That's just not at all true. Did he turn down the Shemaya fight in October because he didn't want to go to Abu Dhabi and the UFC knew he wasn't going to take that fight? Yeah, that's what happened. But the UFC hasn't really offered him anything since.

You know what I mean? like he wants to fight he's yelling out give me a fight i will literally fight anybody so and they're not offering him fights they haven't offered him a fight in a while so i mean that whole thing is oh nate is turning on every single fight the ufc is offering him that is not true at all uh it's just not true it's just not and if they offered him shami if now he would take it and i understand your question about colby being the bigger fight being the more interesting fight yeah you're probably right about that, but it's the pro wrestling world, man.

It's the world of pro wrestling. A lot of what the UFC does, a lot of what the sport is all about comes from the root professional wrestling, where if a big star is on his way out to other things, we're going to use his name and use his star power to put over somebody else.

Whether the guy is already a big star, we can make him a bigger star, or it's a guy we think could be a star, but he's not quite there yet. We're going to use, we're going to like Diaz D. Es Shemiyev would be a right fight. Like Diyash Rokov would be

not like all that aesthetically we'd be like oh my God Nate's hit a fight Shofcott, Rock Madov that sucks. But at the same token, a win over Nate Diaz in today's day and age, especially with a casual audience,

does a lot. It makes a big impact. It really does. So it's just giving the guy the rub, but who knows. I don't know how this is all going to play out. I literally have no clue. Hopefully.

Nate will get his fight and he can then decide what he wants to do. But who knows? Maybe Nate goes out and explores other avenues and realizes, hey, maybe the grass is in this green over here as I thought it was going to be. And maybe he comes back. But why not just like let him go now? Like just give him his fight. Let him go.

And then maybe he does come back. Maybe he feels better about it. I just don't understand why the UFC has to play it like this. but it is what it is and it's dumb. Another one who was left hanging yesterday. Let's go to swap A7X. Swap are you there? I'm good. How are you?

Good. Okay, so I would like to ask you one question. Like, are there any current MMA fighters that you think would benefit to turning ill? honestly, I think Valentina would be a good heel. What do you say? Can you say that one more time? I'm sorry. Okay, so my question is,

are there any current MMA fighters that you think would benefit to turning hill? Like, I think the Valentina would be a good hill. Oh, okay. All right. Wow, I like that question.

What current MA fighter would benefit from turning heel? Yeah, dude, can you imagine Heel Valentina Shepchenko? Wow, that would be awesome. I think that's, I think you nailed it. I think that's the answer. That's the answer. Heal Valentina would be fun.

And we saw like, we see little glip. We were just talking about this on the Way and show that, like, Valentina with the chip on her shoulder, that's a, that's a scary woman. That's a scary woman, because she had that chip on her shoulder when she fought Jessica Andrade, she cut kind of like heelish promo, or at least like a more confident promo than we typically see from a very humble Valentina Shepchenko. And she was just like, you thought this, you thought this is the woman who was going to give me the toughest test of my career? Look what I just did to her. Look what I just.

Especially at this point in her career, she's coming off the tough fight with Tyler Santos. and we it's it's it's this type of sport where i mean if you just if valentine just go out and flatline somebody oh she's overrated oh maybe the division's that not that good oh valentine has benefited from a weak division all wrong by the way all wrong she's just she's that good it's so hard to be on point every single time you fight especially when you're the champion everybody's gunning for you even when they're not fighting you they're gunning for you Casey O'Neill, Manon Fioro, Macy Barber, Miranda Maverick,

Aaron Blanchfield, all of these fighters that are coming up in her division, they're preparing for their opponents, but they're also preparing for Valentina. They're already watching film on Valentina. They're studying. They're not overlooking their opponents, but they're already looking at Valenciennes. And that time comes,

they are as ready as they can be. And it is so difficult to be a champion and just continuously defend your title over and over and over again. That's why some of these records, Demetrius Johnson, Anderson Silva, all those title defenses, that is such a ridiculous record. I mean, just such a ridiculous record. I just don't know, maybe we'll have a time where there's a champion

that continuously defends their title and takes over those names. I don't know if it happens, honestly. this might be the sort of Joe DiMaggio 56 game hitting street type of record. That's just going to be really hard to break. I mean, it's just so hard, especially the evolution of the sport, to just continue to be near perfect every single time. We know you love the thought of a vacation to Europe. But this time, why not look a little further to Dubai,

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Please feast responsibly. Let's go to Fab. Hello, Fab. Good. How are you? Good, good, man. Just wanted to ask a couple of questions here. Main one, Southern Heat next Saturday.

in Columbia, South Carolina, you're going to be there? What's the XMMA? Yeah, yeah, a lot of, you know, vets on there, man. Very good car, big arena. I will not be there. The reason why is I have to fly home to Boston. I have to go to a funeral next weekend. So that's why it's all good.

That's why I'll not be there. Got you, got you. Okay, okay. Me, I know I had asked you last week about kind of breaking in the industry, man. and I'm not going to give it a go with this card, but did you find, like, with the regional cards that it was hard to get press credentials or that type of access to kind of just launch your career in journalism?

Not really. I mean, I think some of these regional cards, like even the XMAs of the world and some of the others, they're pretty loose with who they credential. Like even Bellator. probably credentialed me a lot sooner than they probably should have it for being honest before I learned the ropes if you will but a lot of these promotions they they will give everybody an opportunity it's just what you do with that opportunity like you have to actually

do stuff and do work and like in the UFC when I first got getting UFC credentials very very hard. I mean really hard. And then they would give like the best, like I got credentials early on with the UFC because I worked for a radio station. So if the UFC went to Albany, I would apply for credentials like through the radio station that I worked and they would give them to me. But if I applied for UFC credentials going through like one of the websites that I wrote for, they would turn me down. It's weird how they do that. They want sort of a more local presence than anything else, especially if you're a local news station. or a TV station or radio station,

they will certainly do that. Now, as the years have progressed, the UFC, I feel, sort of loosened up the credential process. Like, they're still very, they're still very tight when it comes to who gets them, but there are certain ones where, especially if you watch them of the press conferences,

you're like, how do this person get credentialed when they're asking that question? Like, there's certain voices that I hear here, I'm just like, oh, boy, like, this isn't going to, it'll be good. And I feel like they've kind of cracked back down a little bit because here's the thing. If you do get credentials, especially if you get UFC credentials, if your main objective is to go to a press conference and get on television and just hear your voice, then don't even apply. It's just a waste of time. Don't do that. There are people who have applied and gotten

credentials that go to UFC cards that don't even bring cameras. They don't even bring equipment. They just go so they can hear themselves talk and they don't actually write anything or record anything or post anything at all. And when the UFC figures that out, they're like, what are you actually doing here? What are you doing? Why are you here?

You're not helping us at all. You're not doing anything to promote this card. You're promoting just you. And when you become the focus of everything, that is, that's a problem. That's a problem. You should never be above the promotion or the fighters or the storylines that go into these cards,

it should never be about you. It should never be about you. And sometimes journalists have to learn that the hard way. So that's probably like my best piece of advice. If you get credentialed, make sure you do work. Make sure you post things. Make sure you, when the next time rolls around and a card comes to your area, make sure that they will bring you back.

Like you're just going there to sit. You're just going there. I've actually covered events where some of the people who are credentialed like will just sit cage side and drink beers. Like they would have beers and like mixed cocktails at the tape at the media table with no laptop in front of them. They would just sit there and drink and eat and watch the card and do nothing. Like you can't do that.

Don't do that. Go there. Be ready to work. Try to do interviews. Try to get content. within the promotional guidelines, of course. And yeah, you use that, especially like the regional ones,

like use that to try different things you've always wanted to try. That's how I do it. But if you're just going to go there just to get free, basically a good seat for free to an event, don't do that. Don't do that. Let's go to Mikey. Mikey, what's up, man?

Good morning, everyone. How's everyone doing? It's Friday. What's up? Yes, sir. So, um, it's, it may, is it just me or does the, the end of the month card look a little, like, weak at the bottom? Like, okay, we got the pain you fight, the rematch and all that stuff, but like, do you still think there's enough time to, like, maybe both that card with one more fight, you know? So, anyways, can't wait to hear what you guys think.

Have a good morning, guys. Thank you, Mikey. Yeah. I mean, let me take a gander here at these, at these next two cards. So 277. Yeah, I mean, we got a story at the beta event for sure. I love the Raino-Kara France fight. That is a good one. Derek Lewis is on the card.

So that's always fun. Tough matchup with Sergey Pavlovich. Pantosia Alex Perez is a good fight. Uncle I, Anthony Smith is, there's a lot on the line in that fight. And then the undercard is, you know, Drew Dober, Jafel Alves will be fun. Justin Taffa, until Mays. Someone's probably going to sleep there.

Alex Marono, Matthew Semmelzberger. That'll be fun. It's not like a lot of star power. Trachar close. I was fighting Rapha Garcia. Confirmed that from multiple people this morning. First reported by the great Big Marcel. Oh, no, I'm sorry.

I think Alex Bionin reported that one. Gion Kim's now fighting Jocelyn Edwards. to that the other day because the Maria Agapava has a knee injury. I mean, it's fine. Main card's pretty good. I mean, it's... Ankleyev, Anthony Smith, is a big one because the winner of that fight probably will fight Janbovich next for a chance to fight for the belt.

Pantosia Perez is fun. I mean, it's okay. It's fine. 278. I mean, 278 needs a lot more work, if we're being honest. Usman Edwards is the main event I mean you've got Paul Costa Luke Rockhold It's interesting

I'm not like fully confident That fight actually happens Until they're actually in there Aldo Morab is a good fight And then we go to Then we got Marcheine Tebrora Alexander Romanov And I'm very high of Romanoff

That's Sean Woodson Luis Sal Danya Arici Lang Jay Perrin, Tyson, Pedro, Harry Hunsucker, Victor Alta. I mean, it's not a great card. If this is, I mean, Nate, these are the two cards Nate really wants to fight on. Either this one, July 30th, or on this card in Salt Lake City. And I would, if given the option, I'm putting Nate Diaz on this card on 278, because this one really needs it.

really needs it both could probably use it but this one really needs it i love alderman rob alexer de ramanoff i'm glad he's back paul cost of luke rock hold's interesting but i'm again two guys who aren't the most reliable in terms of like pen to paper into the octagon things gonna need some help so that's this is the card i put it on and what happens like i'm not say i have no insights of this whatsoever but what happens like i'm not saying i have no insights of this whatsoever. But what happens? Like at least if like if something happens with Pena and Nunes,

that sucks and that's brutal. But at least we still have Brandon Moreno, Kai Kar, France. Like there's something, there's a title fight there. There's something at least to like about it, right? We can do that. But what if something happens with Usman or Edwards? Like, you've got nothing. You got nothing.

You get Costa Rocco? Like, that's amazing. Like, that can't headline a pay-per-view. Although Marab can't headlight a pay-per-view, as much as I like both of those fights if they actually happen. But I mean, boy, I mean, this one really needs some help. Some competitive matchups, but like, this is a, like, this is your August pay-per-view.

This is a, this is a pretty solid fight night lineup outside of the main event. Right? So, yeah, I think 2708 needs way more help than 277. Let's go to Oki Cowboy. Oki Cowboy, are you there? make sure you're on mute. Okay, God boy.

I'm here. There we go. Sorry about that. I was distracted. Hey, good morning. I was just logged in listening to you guys. I wanted to ask if you had any info about Colby Covington, any real info. I've got some people on Twitter I talk to some real fight fans, you know, and follow stuff.

You know, cut out all the drama. What's going on with Colby Covington fighting soon or at all? Yeah, this has been a very popular question. over the last few days because especially with the Shemaya thing because if you recall after Jacksonville Dana White had said we're going to do an ABC card in July we want to do Shemaya versus Colby five round main event and everyone's like ooh that's really good and now there are a lot of rumors circulating about where that ABC card would take place and there are a lot of conversations being had about maybe somewhere in Florida,

like Tampa or Lando. I didn't think Miami was in the running, but there were talks about maybe having a fight night card in Florida and doing Covington Shami if is the main event, which would have been awesome, by the way. And I will say this and reiterate this once again, I still see this everywhere and I don't know why. Oh, Colby's scared of Shabaya if you would never take that fight.

I'm telling you right now he would have taken that fight in five seconds. He would have taken that fight in five seconds. The problem is he's in the middle of something that the UFC is just not going to be like, okay, you go fight. And the reason I say that is all you have to do is just go to the court documents, which are public. You can go and request them. They're public.

You can go see what's going on with this whole thing with the allegations that Mazadol attacked him in Miami Beach. There's talks about brain injuries and things like that. And if you're the UFC and you're seeing that in a court document that there's allegations of brain injuries coming from this alleged attack from Ori Mazdal, there isn't a commission on planet Earth that is going to allow this man to fight anybody. They're not going to risk any sort of licensing thing or anything like that. So as far as when I think he fights, honestly, I have no idea. Like I literally have no clue. Like normally I can pinpoint these things, but this Mazadol trial is scheduled to start sometime in August. I'm trying to, I think we have the date.

I've been pretty much on this thing from Jump Street. It's sometime in August, it's like the 16th or something like that. 16th, 70th, it's like the middle of August is when this trial is actually supposed to begin. so I think we're probably not going to we're probably not going to be talking about Colby fighting anybody until after the trial is over and then even then with the whole brain thing I don't know

I honestly don't know and as you go out like if you've been following my career for the last several years I don't think there's a single human being on this planet who has done more interviews with Colby Covington than I have from the days where he was coming into the UFC and before he's in the UFC to even fighting for titles.

I don't think anyone on this planet has done more interviews with Colby Covington than I have. And Colby and I have a pretty solid relationship. I'm fully aware that he's playing a character. I'm fully aware that he said some pretty awful things. I've told him this to his face in interviews that he said some pretty rough things and given him the opportunity to sort of defend himself

and how he promotes fights. And if I text or call Colby, he either answers or texts back immediately. I have not talked to Colby since this whole incident happened. So I think the last time Colby was like, it was after he beat Mazat all. It's probably like five days after he beat Mazadol. And then I've hit him up a couple of times

and haven't heard literally anything back for him. The last time I've actually seen Colby's face was when it was part of the court structure. They were trying to set a trial date, maybe some sort of plea and figure it out. but it was on Zoom and Mazadol was there. Colby was also there. Colby didn't say anything.

I honestly have no idea. Until this whole thing's cleared up, I don't think we're going to see Covington fight. So I would say earliest next year, maybe, would be my guess. But again, with all this going on, the legal mumbo-jumbo, no idea. Let's go to just simply Rob.

Then we'll go to Brian. Then we'll go to Brent. Hi, Just Simply Rob. Try again, Just Simply Rob. Let's go to Brian Gross. Hey, Mike, how are you? Two questions for you here. Good to hear.

One, for the Lauren Murphy, Misha Tate, I don't know why I'm so fed up about this, but it just blows my mind that it's the first fight on a fight night when it's two former champion and a title contender who just had a title fight. when you have karate, haiti, who is great, is great. Waterson's great. Lamosch is great, but I mean, the comparison of resume is like, don't even stack up.

That just blows my mind. And number two, the biggest one, where's my man, Mike Davis? He's one of my favorite UFC fighters. I've been missing him so much. I am just waiting for that dude to explode. So I appreciate that, Mike. Thanks. Thanks, Brian.

So the tape, Murphy, we have to remember that this fight was supposed to happen at 276. This is a late edition of the card, and this is just kind of where it got slotted in. So that's that Even though there's stakes here But this is sort of the What can we put on first On this ABC card to kind of keep people in Oh my God, that's that's Misha Tate

She was on Big Brother So this is the classic Let's hope we catch somebody flipping through the channels And we see somebody that sees Misha Tate And it was like oh yeah I just watched Celebrity Big Brother And she was on it and she won the whole damn thing I'll stick around to watch this entire card

Because you and I and everybody else here, we're watching no matter what. We're all watching. UFC doesn't care about us, but they really care about us because they know we're going to watch everything. But how do we get that time slot and how do we set it up so that the channel surfer flips through and is like, oh, her, let's see what she's doing in a cage with another woman.

And they'll stick around and maybe watch the rest of the card. Mike Davis is interesting. one of my there's one interview that I did that never saw the light of day it was just kind of forgotten about but it is honestly one of the most fascinating interviews

I've done since I came over to MMA fighting it was with Mike Davis it was after he fought Mason Jones and got that victory and that dude was just banged up heading into that fight the amount of injuries that this man has suffered over the last two or three years

is just, it's mind-blowing. And apparently, I mean, he had some, like, really bad hand injuries. I think he had an arm injury. He had a whole bunch of injuries coming out of Mason Jones. It's like really bad injuries to the point where he probably shouldn't even have fought Mason Jones. Like, he took that fight really injured. And, yeah, I just think it's been a whole bunch of injuries. And, like, the amount of injuries and how far it set him back,

in terms of just activity has just been wild man and that interview just never got released and I don't know why I don't know why it never got released but it was a really fascinating one I think it's just really just a whole bunch of injuries just adding up and he just hasn't found a way to get back in there I know he's been booked a few times but it's just guys had some really bad luck physically really bad luck so hopefully you see him back in there I talked about Mike Davis the other day on this program one half of the greatest contender series fight of all times what Mike Davis fought Sunni Kusuf.

If you're bored, if you're a newer fan, if you have no idea what the contender series is, either way, highly recommend. Go on Fight Pass or wherever you could find this thing. Go find Sunniq Yusuf versus Mike Davis on the contend. You will thank me later. Let's go to Brent. Brent, how are you?

Yes, sir. From Fort Worth, Texas. Been thinking about how a couple of the most fun UFC divisions are in kind of transitionary periods right now if you could take a magic two year peek into the future in one division

what would it be I think for me it would be 170 thank you thanks Brent there's two that stand out to me just off the top of my head and I think you can make compelling you could probably make it excuse me a compelling case come on English bell compelling case for all

the divisions. I will say there's two that really stand out. One is not a surprise. One might be a little bit of a surprise. Probably not one that's going to come to the top of everybody's mind. I'll start with that one. The women's flyweight division. Two years from right now, I'm very curious to see what is going on there.

Is Valentina Shufchenko still the dominant champion? Where is Casey O'Neill in all of this? Where is Aaron Blanchfield in all of this? Has Manon Fioro fought for the belt yet? Where's Jessica Andrade? Is she staying at 125? Is she going back to 115? I know she said that she plans go back to 115,

but who the hell knows? Where's Misha Tate in all of this? Does she stay at 25? And then like just all of these up-and-cover, Macy Barber, like, we're all these fighters. We have this new crop of 25ers that are going to make things real interesting. Like they're not ready now,

but they're on the road to being ready. And two years from right now, I'm curious to see how ready they are. The other one is 155. Good Lord. especially with Fiziv and Sarukian and Matush Gamrods and some of the other

They're high level 55ers that aren't even ranked right now They're not even talking about right now Like Claudio Poyas, like we're not even talking about Claudio Paius right now We're not even really talking about Grant Dossett right now Like two years from right now Where are all these guys going to be? Like in my opinion, I think Armand Sarukia

will be the UFC lightweight champion two years from right now. And I know Ahed's here, and I know he gave me a bunch of crap. I don't say this again, Ahed, and you could say whatever you want in response. I have now, because I watched it again last night, because it's so good. I have now watched the Gamrod-sur-Rukia on fight six times, six times in its entirety. Sometimes with the commentary on, sometimes with the commentary off. I've scored it for Sharukian every single time.

Initially, I scored it 49 for Sirukia. The second watch, I scored a 48-47-sur-Rukyan. Third-time 48-47-sur-Rukian. The last three times, 49-46-sur-Ukian, every single time. And I will say this, and Aheed, you can attack me all you want. I don't care. You can make a... There is more of a case for a 49-46-sur-Rukia

than a 48-47 gamrod, in my opinion. But that's either here and know there. The fight rules, it's fantastic. And both of those guys are going to be fighting for titles. Rafael Fizzis will be fighting for a title. 55 is the best division in the sport. I am fully on board that. And two years from right now,

55 will be by far the best division of the sport. There will be no other conversation. There will be no other division that we're going to be talking about in such high regard. I think we'll be Banimate's always fun and featherweight's going to look real cool in a couple of years. But feather weight is just going to be the bomb. It's always the bomb,

but I think it's going to be even more so when we inject this new crop of talent. because I think Fiziv Jalen Turner. I didn't even mention Jalen Turner. Fiziv, Sarukian, Gammat, Jalen Turner, all these other guys at 55.

That division is spectacular. It's so good. Let's go to Zique. Hello, Zique. Zique. Unmute. Oh, we lost them. Rell.

Good morning, Rell. Heck of a morning, Mike. How are you doing? I'm good. I'm good. So I want to get two, maybe three. First, who is your, like I heard you mention the all-time, like, title shot leaders and stuff.

Who is your like Mount Rushmore as far as, you know, basically UFC and stuff. I heard you mention DJ. Hers you mentioned Anderson. We know Khabi just retired. He gets thrown in there a lot. We all know John Junk, you know. So who do you think is the all-timer?

or at least top four, top five, however you want to rank it. And then you said, you said 155. I think you might be right. I can't, I was going to say 135 because I think, I think Islam going to have the belt, but then I maybe Charles might have the belt, but I don't know. I think that's a good one. I can't, I can't, I can't disagree. Have a good morning.

Thank you, sir. Yeah, listen, 35 is great. I say this all the time. I throw a pro wrestling comparison reference as much as possible. The Bannonweight Division is like the Intercontinental Title. It's where it's not going to let you down. There's always going to be great fights. There's so much talent.

The best fight on the card more times than not is going to come from that division. But the storyline is going to come from 55. It's going to come from like, we'll watch an episode of Raw. I will be like, holy crap, Brett Hart and Mr. Pervert for the intercontinental title was great. but at the end of the at the end of the day we're going to be like Hulk Hogan post and that's all we remember Hulk 1 and that's how I view the lightweight division 35 is the bannam weights 35 is the intercontinental title 55 is like the world title in pro wrestling comparison at least in my eyes so I love that division the Mount Rushmore

question I don't know but top of my head it's Jones Anderson GSP and then four is always tough Habib is in the conversation DJ's in the conversation there's so I mean it's always a loaded question but it's one of those questions that like I really want to spend a lot of time

and like really dive into it from there but we'll see let's go to Joga Joga are you there make sure you unmute if you are there all right

try again. Patrick, you're up. There he is. Mike. Yo. Hey, buddy. Thank you for letting me get all that stuff off my chest yesterday. I feel like I sound like, I listen back to myself and I'm like, I sound so dumb. I'm like stuttering. So I respect what you do that you have to go back and listen to yourself and you actually sound coherent and know what you're going to say and you have it ready to go. You're much better at this than me. But I feel like I could have gone on and on about this, but I'm feeling better after venting it. So my one thing with Nate Diaz, that hasn't come out of any of this news is like, what are the scenarios with the contract? What are

the specific scenarios? Because if I understand it, right, the UFC has to contractually offer three fights in a calendar year. Is that correct? Yeah. So it's supposed to be like, it's like three months or like three fights or every six months, they have to offer him something. So they need to offer him something by,

do we know the date that they have to offer him something by? Not really sure, but I mean, they could just say, they could just say, hey, Connor's coming back in February, we'll offer you to fight to fight to fight Connor in February. And he could just be like, no, I'm not weighing that long.

And they can be like, well, we just offered you a fight. So sorry, dude. Oh, but they can pick the date that the fight is into a indefinite future? They give, I mean, it's clear what they're trying to do. They're trying to get the Connor trilogy fight done before he leaves. Well, I know what they're trying to do, but I'm trying to say in the constructs of the contract, like what is the minimums that, like, there has to be timeframes based on that when they offer the fights. Like, they can't say, we want you to fight Connor in three years from now.

and we're going to hold you. So, like, what is the latest date that they have to have him a fight by? I have no idea. Like, I don't know how the actual wording of the contract is, but if the UFC is like, yeah, we're just going to kind of ice you, but, like, our idea is you fight Connor first quarter of 2023, and then we'll let you go. And he could just be like, uh, no.

And then it'll be like, well, we just offered you a deal. We just offered you a fight. So tacked six months on. You know what I mean? Like, that's the game I think they're trying to play here, is that they really want to get this Connor fight done because the UFC's not dumb. They understand that Connor, Nate has one fight left.

Connor has, from what I understand and from multiple reports, he has two fights left. So the UFC's just like, okay, if we lose both of these dudes, then we're not going to get the trilogy fight on our books. And Nate's probably thinking, hey, we'll do the trilogy fight, me and Connor on our own, and we'll keep all the money. Yeah, I think the exes is avoiding that.

I mean, I agree with that. That's what they should do. I would love to see that for them to make the most money. But have you seen this stuff on Drod's Instagram about how he's been kind of positioning himself for that Nade-D-S fight? That's not a bad idea. Dude, it's so hilarious. You should check out his Instagram, man.

He's like doing the sparring thing where he's like leaning back like, swinging back like swinging, like wildly. And yeah, he's just doing a bunch of kind of neat Diaz kind of mocking stuff. But that's my pick. He should just do it. Let the man go. And I love the heel turn question. And I think the best one would be Stephen Wonderboy Thompson. If he was cornering Wyden at the next fight and say like,

Weidman lost his fight. And it could be a double heel turn where Wyden's like, you know, I'm sick of this nice guy's shit. I'm working down here in the gym with the karate people and, you know, what does it have the show? You know, nice guys finish last.

And then he's like, and I'm cheating on your sister. Oh, dude. Then they're like, and everyone's like, what, what? It's like this big reaction. Stephen's in his corner. And then Valentina comes out. And he's cheating on her, on his is on Stephen Wonderboy Thompson's sister with Valentina.

And then Ray Longo and Matt Sarah busts in and they're like, you're a scumbag. You're a scumbag. And they grab Wydenman by each arm. And then they make Stephen Warnerboy Thompson sweep his leg. Oh, my gosh. Cobra Kai. I got to let you go, Patrick.

That is amazing. And I can tell you been thinking about this quite a bit, but I love that one. Can you imagine if like Wideman? like, Widman loses his next fight and then Wonderboy is just like, oh, good job and like shakes his hand. And then when Wideman, like, goes to, like, salute the crowd,

Wonder Boy just comes over and just, like, kicks him in the knee. Oh, my gosh. That's crazy. That's hilarious. All right, let's see if we get Joga in here. Try this again. There's a lot of people waiting to talk, and I like this. I'm also a little overwhelmed because I don't know how much time we have.

Joga, are you there? Yes, I'm here. Got you. What's up, man? Yeah. I was just, I was reading over your article about the pound for pound. And I've got a few questions about the woman's pound for pounds. Not Valentina per se, but you've got, I was reading, and someone has Kayla Harrison as high as number two.

Who is this person? Who is this enemy of progress? Who is this? Fighting cans and you go up to number two. What's going on? They must really, we must see this person so we know, okay, this one doesn't know what he's talking about. There you, Joe got.

Yeah, I honestly, I will let them reveal who that is. I will say with complete clarity and complete confidence, and complete realism that that was not I. I do have Kayla ranked. Let me see where I have her ranked. Let me pull up the old spreadsheet here. Where do I have Kayla ranked pound for pound? I have her number seven.

I have Kayla number seven. I'm okay with that. I'm okay with that. Because again, I am betting on the talent and the ceiling. So yeah, I get Kayla number seven. I'm trying to see you as... Okay. There's actually, there's multiple...

There's two people who have Kayla number two, by the way, Joka. Two people. I'm not one of those people. I have her number seven. But I understand the whole quote-unquote can thing, but you fight who's in front of you and you treat them accordingly. And that's what Kayla's doing.

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Morning, Mike. The shade. I was the first one on the call and I'm getting picked until now. Sorry, man. You're there and then you get lost in the shuffle. It's all random. I understand. I'm just playing.

So I'm amazed of how Dana White is underpaying the NELC boys. The NELK boys have like six minutes. million, seven million followers, and he can only give $250,000 for their birthday. It's a joke. I'm just kidding. But on a serious note, I've always noticed that MMA seems to be a big sport or, you know, following, if you want to call it a sport. And I always run into people, including myself, that say that they don't have friends or, or coworkers that watch the sport. but it seems to be like I said in the events sold out

a huge crowd like why do you think that is are we just degenerates that like the sport or MMA or why does it seem like not too many people follow it when it seems otherwise do you know what I'm saying I do because there's people you can argue that like I remember in 2016

I remember 2016 I am uh I'm this lowly radio guy trying to make a name for himself in the MMA space and I reached a man who comes on my podcast at the time and his name is Ariel Hawani and Halani jumps on the show. We have a conversation like we would have right now and I asked him

point blank like can the sport get bigger? Like a we like how much bigger can this get? And at the time they were on Fox and the sale of the company and all this stuff was happening. We're like, man, like, it could get bigger, but like, there's no way it could get much bigger than this. Like, this is way bigger than we ever could have possibly thought that the sport would get. And then fast forward to right now and it's ESPN and all this, like, everything that's happening right now. It's a very, very big deal.

And the amount of money that ESPN is putting into the promotion and making it sort of the flagship part of the ESPN. and plus subscription service. It's a very big deal. It's a very big deal. And you're right. You ask, if I go to the grocery store right now and I ask 25 people, as big as the sport is right now,

the amount of my UFC's baking, and the gates that this company puts out, puts together, I'm going to the grocery store right now here in Hilton Head, South Carolina. And I said, hey, are you going to watch UFC Long Island tomorrow? 24 of those people are going to look at me

like I have five heads and like, four kneecaps. They can be like, what are you talking about? No, we're going to like go to the beach and go to the movies and play mini golf.

What is this is? UFC stuff you're talking about. And that's just the way that it is right now. And that is exactly why, we talked about this earlier, that is why we are seeing the Nouth Boys. That is why we're seeing Barstool.

That's why being some of these different social media conglomerates being at the forefront of U. coverage because they're trying to find a way to get new eyeballs on the product. And now they got a lot of new eyeballs when the COVID-19 pandemic happened because they were the only thing going. And once people started understanding what it was and why they're idiot friends who watch the M.M watch the EA.

They're like, okay, I get it now. I understand why you're into this thing. I understand why you're so passionate about it. And it seems like almost in a way that that peaked. They got so many people, but now they're kind of back to where they were in 2018, 2019, where it's like, how do we introduce new people to these sports, to the sport? Now we have full send and bar stool who are going to cover it in favor of the UFC. They're going to very positive.

Dana is going to do interviews with them because they're not going to ask Dana any hard questions. And that's fine. I'm not sitting here being a hater at all. This is what they should be doing. This is very smart on their part in order to get new fans on. So you use these platforms to get new fans on, and then they will eventually graduate from that point. Like someone who got into MMA by watching a Robbie Fox interview with Dana White,

if they continue to watch the sport three years from now, they're probably not going to be watching Robbie Fox interviews to prepare themselves for fights. They're going to be watching some of the stuff that we're doing. They're going to be watching the MMA hour twice a week. Like, this is what you do. It starts as a first love, and then you break up with the first love, and then eventually you find yourself,

there's a certain fight or a fight card that becomes like the one you marry. And then from there, you're all in. You're sold. You're not missing a thing. You're not missing anything. And that's how the relationship with the sport is. Most people, especially like my age or who have watched it for a long time, you're not, like some people just got into it right away.

Like some people go to high school and they marry their high school sweetheart. And that's who they're with forever. And they're happy as a clap. Sometimes you're your high school sweetheart, you think you're going to marry her. You go off to college. You beat new people. And then five years later, you find them again and you marry them. Like, that's how a lot of MMA fans are.

Like, I got into it. I was like, wow, this is awesome. And then I was like, I'm not going to watch it for a little while. And then Ken Shamrock comes over and fights Tito Ortiz at UFC 40. I'm like, I'm buying that. I'm buying that. And then you kind of lose it again. And then the ultimate fighter comes on and you're like,

who is this weirdo Diego Sanchez that's doing yoga? He's like John Claude Van Dam in Bloodsport. He's doing splits on the top of a 45-foot balcony. Is he going to fall off? So I'm going to keep watching this. And then eventually you find something that just keeps you tied to the sport. And that's where we are. Like some people just don't get it.

my mom thinks like this stuff's mom thinks it's pro wrestling. I wasn't even real. And I'm like, it's real. And my dad felt kind of the same way. I took him to watch UFC 205. It was like, he got to see Connor not going Eddie Alvarez. He was like, holy crap, people love this guy. And then we watched UFC 251.

It was the first, it was the Fight Island pay-per-view. And we were watching the prelims. And my dad watched a guy get kicked in the nuts. five times in a row in the same flight. He goes, yep, this isn't fake. And then he kind of understood why I like it. It's not for him, but he understood why I liked it. And that's all that matters.

Let's go to... Let's go to you, Steve. You're very active. A lot of waving. What you got, man? Oh, oh. You're here. Oh, what's up?

What's up, what's up, what's up? Dang, I forgot what I was going to say. Oh, no, man. all right right put me back thank you Steve we'll move on Terrence

hey buddy sorry I'm meeting my my meeting um that work so I wanted to ask I was going to also ask oh it case is that cool I can ask so what the

135 the women's division need to do in order to get back to its glory it seems like the UFC has kind of like forgot about them and a lot of like the 135 main events wind up turned to

145 because a lot of them become catch weight events. And then the second one would be who do you think in the swinging things we're having a lot of people retire, a lot of women retire and things of that nature.

Do you think Waterson or anyone else from like the original women's MMA batch retire soon? And then the last question I have is who would win kind of like going on when you talk to a favor

about the WEC no it was a favor excuse me it was um who was it again cup thank you um when you're talking about WC card and bringing that to fruition who will win if they did like a versus of like legacy fighting

LFA like that's all that's one and then you have Invicta and then you also have I can't think of the name sorry I'm drawn in blank the one that Rhonda and Cyborg and I was on up on. I'm who would win.

Thank you. I don't know. Well, I can't think early in the morning. But yeah, who do you think will win out of that? And do you think that would be something fun, even though we know, according to you and Jed, the UFC never does anything fun. But who do you think will win? How do you think that will go over with the fans?

Thank you. Yes. And Jed is not, and Jed and I are right. The UFC doesn't do anything fun. And this would be fun. Can you imagine that? Like once a year or like twice a year, they just, they have all these events to fill. and rather than put on, rather than put on, like, listen, I'm not saying I'll fight night cards,

but there's some bad fight night cards. Like, let's be honest, there's some really terrible fight night cards. We're all going to watch them, and we're going to find the positives in all of them. But if you had a choice between watching one of these fight night cards and then watching, like, a WEC throwback show where you take some of the old WC fighters and we headlined it with your eye of favor versus Cub Swanson or something that these guys are trying to build towards, like, I would rather watch that. Use the blue cage.

You do it in like a small arena, like a lot of those old cards used to be held in. Like that would be sick. And then you'd like a Strike Force reunion show. Like Rhonda Rousey and Gina Carrano have been talking about maybe fighting each other sometime. I would rather see them like headline a Strike Force reunion show than a UFC card. Like there's like you see that'd be perfect. That'd be perfect. I would love to see that.

Do a little Invicta throwback card. Like, Invicta's still cooking, but WC. Strike Force and these other cards, like, it'd be sick. That'd be so sick. A WC event, like a WC one night only event, like WWE did with ECW. Oh, golly. That'd be the balls, man. I would love that.

Have some fun, UFC. Have some fun. Let's go to Justin. Justin, are you there? Try again, Justin. Let's go to Max. Max, are you there? Oh, hey, sorry about that, Mike.

All good. What's up, man? Yeah, so I'm planning to go to the MSG card with my friend, and we're curious on who you think might be headlighting that card. Oh, good question. I have no insight into this whatsoever. Man, this is tough. I would say, I would say, man, man. Because I feel like they're going to try Steep A for that one.

Like, that's what I would do. That would be the fight I would use to headline it. Because John Jones comes from New York. He's got a following in New York. Be a great place for him to return. Steep A would be a big fight. Like, that would be the fight I would choose. There is that September 10th card.

I just don't see a world where it's going to be Sterling versus Dillishaw. as the main event of that card. I just don't see it, especially coming off of 278, where it's just not a great card. And 277 has some fun fights, but it's not great. Like, 276 was loaded.

275 had some really fun fights. 277 is there. 278's kind of a bad pay-per-view card, if we're being honest. So maybe they try to do JCPA on that September 10th card. I don't know. But that would be how I would do it.

That would be the fight I would use to headline. Now, if that doesn't work, Adasania Pereira would be a good one. Because Pereira does now reside in Connecticut. It's not that far of a drive. You can get all the Tashire MMA boys down there. Put Adasani on that card. That works.

Yeah. Those are probably the two things. Or you do Olivera Mocki... You know what? Oliver Mockachev. Oliver Mokachev. That's what I'm going with. That's the one.

I don't know what headlines Abu Dhabi. Maybe do the Yiri Phrashka, go over to share a rematch on that card as the main event. But the correct... I'm going with Charles Oliver is Lomachev. Joan Steepay. Maybe they do get on that September card. Maybe they save it for December...

in the Juadisania, Pereira, maybe in December. But yeah, I'll go with Oliver and Machachev. That'd be a very big deal if Mokachev headline MSG. It'd be a very big deal. A large contingency of, of, like, Russian MMA fans that are in New York, that'd be a very cool thing to watch. So, yeah, I'll go with that one. I'll go with that one.

But they're going to load that, they're going to load that card up. I'd love to see versus Raphael Fiziv on that card as well so that'd be fun I am waiting for this I've been we gotta do it

because I don't know how much time we have let's bring in our man to heed yeah he's the star of the ringer MMA show and now he hops in here whenever he wants and thinks he can just

you know when they don't take his calls he hops in here is that is that what it is a heed love but love like I'm on here you know like they don't appreciate me properly the Rigg MMA show, you know.

Ariel kicks me off, so I've had enough of him. He does? Yes. Like, he just stops me, like midway. Like, at first I thought it was funny, right? But then, like, you know, like, Ariel, anything you say against Ariel, like, that you don't agree with Ariel, like, you know, I criticized him on open scoring. He threw it.

Like, anything, right? He just stops me. I was talking about Adisania last time around. And, you know, Ariel's a bit of like a paradigm boy. Like, he just stopped me midway for no reason. It was wild. But anyway, no, I'm on here, Mike. You always give me time, and I always appreciate it.

I'm like, even before these spaces. I'm on here. I've tried to get on every single time. It's just something's gone in the way, but I've tried to be here. I'm back. We're happy. What is on your mind, my man? So much.

Firstly, though, like, let's just start with Mike okay forget Saru Kha Gamma I haven't got a heat with you there what I've got a heat with you is you're talking about the fight nights being bad that is a horrible take don't you know that the greatest fight night

in October are going to take place McKenzie Dern and Yan Zhaonan how poor of journalism that you know you were talking about how you appreciate MMA where clearly that is not the case. Disgusting but and I also want to give you heat

I want to give you heat for those you and MMA fighting for those trashy pound for pound rankings I mean in what world is Dustin Porre is still above Kobe Covington the last thing that Dustin Porre did was getting choked out again in the title fight again right and then before that it was fighting a celebrity

in Connam and Gregor it's no different to fighting Jake Paul at this point like what did Colby do? What did Colby do? Colby whooped Madidal. So clearly there's a difference there. Like, Dustin didn't want to fight Colby initially. So, yeah, Colby should be above Porre.

This is so silly. And also, like, the disrespect one championship gets. I've always said it. UFC is 1A. One championship is 1B. Adrian O'Mearae is 20, but Pitbull, who just got by by the skis. I didn't even watch that fight. Apparently he just got by against McKee is like 10 places above.

This is garbage. And Angela Lee doesn't even make the top 10. She's top five women's pound for pound. You've got Carlos Faza, Caitlin Vieira. Like what the disrespect is crazy. But I also want to hear up comment on Alex Pahara's interview yesterday. Alex Pahara is such a breath of fresh air. He's so honest and so just to the.

point, you know, like he, he just, he just says things how they are, you know, he, he didn't get to watch cartoons because he was working in a garage and I really admire him. In contrast, Adasania is a narcissistic, stinky breath like it's, it's like an odor that sends you to sleep. Like that's sleeping gas, right? It's crazy. This dude, like he, he believes, I don't have a problem with the 20 leg kicks, the 20 boring title defences at all, at all, Mike. He can do, I actually admire him as a martial artist. He's very technical. What the problem with me is, is he is so, he can never be in the wrong, Mike, ever.

It's always someone else's fault. For example, Colby Covington says something offensive to Usman back in 2020. Colby's a villain. Colby's disgusting, but is he touching people's back sides without consent? Like he's this dude is so such a you know what I'm talking about like at costa Vittori and now he said he did it to Strickman he's a freak that that borders on harassment look it's not just that all like the boring fights it's it's no it's never his fault ever Romero canonyer it is never his fault um it's just a crazy thing to me how this guy and

his last couple fights no one's really been interested in him so this is your headline for heck of a morning, okay? If Adesana performs poorly against Perjara, win or lose, he should lose his rights to main event. That's the thing. And lastly, as well, UFC Sweden, Mike,

Hamza Tchimae, Shaka, Rachmanov, number one contenders fight, undefeated, undefeated, let's go. Damn, I would love to see that fight. I would love to see that fight. Man, a lot of people just harping, jumping on the palm

for pound rankings. You want me to tell you, let me tell you something. The biggest travesty, the biggest travesty from the ranking panel this month, the ban and weight rankings and the only rankings that matter, the MA fighting global rankings,

does not include Danny Sabatelo. Does not include Danny Sabatelo. Now, one, two, three, four, five. Half of, more than half of us were correct in ranking Danny Sabatelo. The other half did not. The other three individuals did not rank him. In fact, there is one panelist in particular who was going to come on the ranking show and attack us and give us crap for putting Danny Sabatel in the rankings.

Let me just tell you something. We were right. You are wrong. And that's the biggest travesty of this entire thing is that Danny Sabs, the Italian gangster, is not in the top 15, the only rankings that matter. that's not a hear no there all right Justin we have you Justin oh for the love of God

he fell off all right I'm any meaning for two more okay closing my eyes I don't know where I'm going I missed shit all right Emilio

no I really did miss that was really bad I almost I almost stopped the whole space what's up Emilio that's so beautiful Mike I've been waiting What's up, buddy? I've been waiting.

Patience. Patience is the key. Yeah, happy to be here. First of all, a heck of a morning to you. And my God, is it a beautiful, it's going to be a fantastic weekend. It's been a great week overall, you know, on the one hand, you know, because U.S. Long Island, for as much, maybe people are kind of downplaying it. and it's an okay card, blah, blah, blah.

I'm super excited about it because it's one of the few cards that us Europeans, or us, the European audience, gets to enjoy without having to stay awake until four in the morning or something like that.

So I am really looking forward to that. Apart from that, I mean, I'm a little bit surprised, I guess, Nobody has mentioned this, but I am also very excited because

one of my favorite fighters, I don't even watch Muay Thai, but everybody knows the name Buakau. And this man just signed for BKFC, which is kind of a shame

because one of my favorite things is watching Bua Ka just just tread and break bones and souls with kicks and knees. It's a beautiful thing to see. But I guess, you know, at the end of the day, I don't really care because I just like to see this man

get in a fighting environment and just throw down. It doesn't matter if it's Muay Thai, if it's kickboxing, if it's BKFC, if it's boxing, whatever. Yeah, I'm just excited as hell about this. that. I don't know of you. I mean, am I, am I being a little bit naive assuming that maybe you don't know about him? I don't know. I don't want to, I don't want to disrespect your, uh, your, uh, fighting knowledge, but yeah, I don't know. I just wanted to hear your thoughts on that, um, you know, bookhouse addition to the BKFC roster. Um, I think it's awesome. And can't wait for the weekend.

And I wish you also a great weekend. Have a good one, Mike. Thanks again. Thanks, buddy. Yeah, the bootcats outing was, it's just one of those ones that my reaction to it was, huh? Like, really?

Hold on a second. I'm trying to figure something out. Trying to book a big interview while I'm doing this show at the same time. Okay, there we go. It was just one of those, like, weird ones. It was like, huh. Okay. It's exciting, and you're just like, wow, this guy might actually murder somebody in the ring,

but there's just kind of a weird one. Like, there's one of those ones that if you were like, hey, Mike, write down a list of 10,000 people you think BKFC is going to sign this year. Bukai would not even make my list because I just didn't think it was possible. But here we are. It'll be really interesting. Curious to see when he'll actually fight and who he'll actually fight. but yeah it's pretty cool and i love the long island card and i and i would uh hold that one second

sorry the i like i would be i would enjoy these fight night lineups more if we had earlier start times there's nothing worse than seeing some of these fight night cards and they're 15 fights and the prelims start at 7 p.m. eastern and you're like are you shitting me right now and we have a six fight main card we're watching these fights to like 3 a.m. and then it's the week before a pay-per-view, which does the same thing. And like, listen, I'm not, I'm not trying to, like, complain. I love my job and I love that. But, you know, come on now.

We could do this once in a while. It's okay to cater to different audiences, cater to the European time slot, cater to the East Coast time slot every once in a while. I actually would love to see the UFC pop off a Friday night card once in a while. Pop off a Sunday night card once in a while. Do a Thursday one, like a rare Thursday one. Like, let's mix it up. That's like the one thing.

that I wish the UFC do better is that it's just like it's so vanilla sometimes like all the walkouts are the same for the most part it's the times are all the same like everything is the same every time it's just frustrating

like especially like with the fighters not being able to show their personalities and shine a little bit like some of these entrances are frowned upon like come on man like let's mix things up a little bit doesn't always have to be Saturday at 10 p.m. Easter Like, let's mix it up.

A little Friday, a little Friday action. A little Friday action. That October card in Boston was on a Friday, and it was excellent. It was excellent when that happened. Once in a while they pop off a Sunday. Like, that's great. That's great. All right, we're going to do one more.

Now I've got to get out of here. There's so much going on. This is why. All right, who do I got? Who do I got? Who do I got? I missed again. All right, Zeke, you get the Duke here.

I'm screenshoting this for for Tuesday. show and seeing who is on the list left behind and you guys will go first next week. Zeke, are you there? Hi. Ooh, we got them. What's up, buddy? I have such an issue the first time I get in here. I'm stupid.

I get to kick, uh, end this off. Heck of a morning. Everybody. I will be short and sweet because there's a couple. Can you hear me, Mike? Yeah, I got you. Oh, okay. My fault.

Um, yes, I'll be short and tweet. There's a couple comments, uh, you guys made throughout the show that I want to get to and maybe, you know, get your opinion on. Uh, first things first, Kobe Covington. I mean, I'm not going to lie, he's my favorite fighter. I'm going to, you know, probably go on and on about him. However, it's just such a tough situation. Like, do I think he's ducking Humzot?

No, but I feel like this court case is definitely helping him and not having to do with that challenge yet and maybe have to fight that fight down the line for, you know, a solidified number one contender's bout or even, you know, maybe a belt if Humzad does get to Uzlan first. However, my question to you in that wealth weight division is, how many fights do we have left with Usman? Like you see Usman barking at the bed,

calling out Canello trying to get as many, you know, M's or zeros as he can get before he leaves the UFC and kind of, you know, make that star power last for as long as he can as he does take care of his, you know, daughter and family and whatever else Mr. Camaro has lined up and planned. My question to you is, do you think he's that good of a commentator or do you think he's just sitting there next to Henry Sadha? Like, you know what I mean? Like, it's pretty easy to look good behind the mic when Henry Sanu is out there, you know,

butchering names up and down. That was a joke. Kamaro obviously knows what he's talking about on the couch. And I love when they do that whole, you know, four set up with Khabib and Chale, and they bring in another guy and they just kind of shoot it. I think that's, you know, some real raw media coverage that the UFC, and I guess you could say Eagle FC provides.

And then going in, I don't really want to go into this weekend. I want to go into this Alex Pereira, Israel-Azania, matchup that hopefully it looks like Madison Square, Garden will be hosting? I'm not 100% sure. It just looks like that's the little hype beast in the Twitter world right now. What do you think happens to the lead-up of that fight? And while they have those press conferences, do you think Adizania versus Pereira isn't going to catch as much steam because of

Pereira not being, you know, as bilingual as he could be? What are your thoughts on maybe that possibly, you know, conflicting the numbers that that fight should have? do because in my opinion it's definitely Izzy's toughest task. We've seen what Pereira's hands are made of. They're literal stone, glass, granite. I don't even know what those hands are made of. So yeah, I'm excited

to see that and I mean obviously you went into Kobe before but to wrap it up, you're looking ahead to Izzy and Pereira and maybe you know what's Kobe's next fight? What do you think? You know, it's definitely tough. I know you mentioned the lawsuit but yeah, thank you for everything you do. Mike and have a heck of what starting on that.

Thanks, buddy. Yeah, Colby, Colby's just kind of one of those names that, like, if you listen to On the next one, we ban certain names from onto the next one because it's just, like, when Kevin Holland was going on that run in, like, 20-20, Kevin Holland was, like, banned from on to the next one because booking him a specific matchup, trying to find, like, a specific time frame was, like, impossible to do because he was fighting, like, every two weeks.

So he had, like, a slight ban from, from On the same. to the next one. And I kind of feel like Colby's in that boat right now because there's just so many unknowns. We like honestly, I don't I don't know. Because the Shamaif is the grass grass bat is the fight. And it's just a matter of

when it can happen and if it can happen. So, I don't know. Adasani Pereira I think, I think the UFC will really put the promotional push behind the fight by telling the story by getting the kickboxing

footage and just really telling the story that way. And unfortunately, this might be kind of a rough promotional stretch for Adasanya because I feel like Adasani's done a nice job of trying to sort of prevent that seed of being planted. And a lot of casual fans who just look at Apology or look at the records are just going to be like, oh yeah, Adasanya lost to this guy twice. But in reality, if you go back and watch those two fights, I, like, I've watched the first kickboxing match a few times.

Adasadio won that fight in my opinion every time I've watched it. The second one, I thought Adasani was winning until he got knocked out, until he got clobbered. He got caught. And that's what happens in fighting sometimes. Sometimes you're winning until you're not winning anymore. And I feel like that's what happened there. And I feel like the UFC is going to show,

you're not going to tell the whole story. They're going to show the image of Pereira knocking out Israel Adasania over and over and over and over again to help build this fight. long as Adasani is aware of that, it can be fine with that. That's the best way for the UFC to promote this fight, especially to a casual audience. So, yeah, I think that's how they'll do it. And trust me what I tell you, since UFC 276 fight week, people are very interested in

Alex Pereira. They are. They want to hear what he has to say. They want to read what he has to say. Pereira has been somebody who's generous of interest since Media Day of UFC 276. People want to know about this guy. They want to know more about him. He has done something without really having to do much.

All he's done is fight and people care. And that's good. Not a lot of people can pull that off. So, all right, I got to get out of here. There's a lot going on. We get the preview show coming up. I believe it's at 3 p.m. Eastern. Maybe we'll roll sooner.

I don't know. We'll figure that all out. But we'll let you know right here on M.A.fighting.com. If we didn't get to you today, I apologize. We'll get to you on today. This is a very busy show. These free-for-all-F Fridays get a little cray-cray. And I appreciate everybody hopping on and listening after the fact on the M-A fighting podcasting network.

Guys, preview show. We'll have the People's Pre-Fight Show 10.30 a.m. Eastern tomorrow on the YouTube page. We will have our post-fight show after UFC Long Island. We will have on to the next one on Sunday. I think A.K. and I are going to go live for that one because we owe you one. So we're going to try to maybe do it live on Sunday. we appreciate it. So as always,

have a great Friday and have a heck of a morning, ladies and gentlemen. You are the best. You're much appreciated. The Vox Media Podcast Network.