MMA Fighting - HOAM | What Happens If Leon Edwards Beats Kamaru Usman At UFC 278?

Episode Date: August 16, 2022

Kamaru Usman and Leon Edwards will battle it out for the UFC welterweight title in the main event of Saturday's UFC 278 card in Salt Lake City. Does the champion or challenger have more pressure heading into the championship bout? On an all-new, super-sized edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck fields questions about the fight and what is at stake for both guys, plus, listeners state their case as to why they feel Edwards can dethrone Usman this weekend, and what could happen to the division if he does. In addition, questions include the co-main event between Luke Rockhold and Paulo Costa, what a win would do for Rockhold, Israel Adesanya vs. Alex Pereira at UFC 281, thoughts about Marlon Vera vs. Henry Cejudo, if a José Aldo win gets him a title shot, Shane Burgos signing with the PFL and if that could change the fighter pay discussion in the UFC, and much more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With Amex Platinum, you have access to over 1,400 airport lounges worldwide. So your experience before takeoff is a taste of what's to come. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get a nice rank on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice?

Yes, we deliver those. Goaltenders, no. But chicken tenders, yes, because those are groceries, and we deliver those too, along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Good, everybody. It is Tuesday, August 16, 2022, and it is indeed a heck of a morning live on the MMA fighting Twitter spaces. and you'll hear the show in its entirety shortly thereafter on the MMA fighting podcasting network. I am Mike Heck. Hello.

Thank you for joining us. A lot going on in the world of MMA. We'll start off with some good news, some personal news. For the first time in almost two weeks, I don't have COVID anymore. Woke up this morning, took a test negative for the first time in a long time. and I am very excited to sort of get back to normal life. It has been horrible. I've been pretty much locked in my kids' bedroom for like two weeks

unless I'm in the command center. And it's been rough. I haven't been able to go to the gym in over a week. It's been driving me crazy. But now we are negative. Finally. And now we could sort of solely get back into regular life. I'm drinking a Dunkin' Donuts ice coffee for the first time in almost two weeks.

And it is an amazing thing. It tastes delicious. It tastes absolutely delicious. It's refreshing. Oh, yeah. That's just good stuff right there. So, but let's talk to MMA, everybody. We could talk about UFC San Diego.

Fun events that ended up turning out to be. Marlon Vera gets a massive win, a nasty knockout. of two-time former Banimate champion Dominic Cruz. We had a fight of the year contender in the Colmate event. We had arguably the best fight with two debuting fighters maybe ever in the UFC, the Battle of the Yasbans. It was just a fun card. And then, of course, we are on the road to UFC 278,

which goes down this Saturday in Salt Lake City, Utah, The welterweight title is on the line as Kamara Usman defends his title against Leon Edwards. Their second meeting, of course, Usman won the first one via unanimous decision. And I got to say, I've been a little surprised at kind of the reaction to that fight and the amount of faith a lot of people seem to have for Leon Edwards being sort of a tough stylistic matchup for Kamar Usman. I'm a little surprised to see a lot of people

giving Leon Edwards not just a chance, but like a really good chance to win this fight. So that's always exciting when Usman's in a fight that there are some folks out there think he can actually lose. Right now the betting odds of Kamar Usen as a minus 380 favorite. The comeback on

Leon Edwards is plus 310. Main card is pretty solid. We got Paulo Costa Luke Rockhold. You know the build to that fight's going to be fun, kind of hilarious, maybe a little over the line at times. Jose Aldo Marab de Wallach Willie is a fun one. We get Alexander Romanov back in the Octagon to face Martin Tibora. And then the main card opener,

not the fight I would have put in the spot, but listen, the UFC must know something that we don't. Tyson Pedro taking on Harry Hunsucker. And the rest of the card, interesting. Some competitive matchups, Marita Mavericks back. We got Jared Gordon back. Sean Woodson's back against Luis Saladanya. Francisco Figurato is back.

So it should be a fun one. It should be a fun one. Not loaded with name value outside of the top three or four fights, but not too shabby nonetheless. So let's get to the peeps. I know my man, Four Corner Sports, wanted to take a little bit of a victory lap to kick us off. And let's do that right now.

Hello, Four Corner Sports. Hey, hey, Mike. Can you hear me? Yes, sir. Hey, man. So I was watching the fight with my grandfather, Cheeto Vera. And I got to say, bad habit on Cheeto on starting really, really slow.

But I got to say, I don't know. I don't know if Cruz is just losing. of stuff because he got to, you know, he's aging up there. But I was super impressed that of Cheetos power. You catch on, you know, one punch. Thank you. One punch, sorry. I'm actually at Dunkin right now, too.

Trying to get it the same thing you're trying to get his iced coffee. So I was very impressed on the fact that, you know, Cheetos power just seems like it's growing. And I'm actually looking forward to seeing, you know, how he's going to match up because I do feel that the next fight he might have will be against Fiotr Young. and I know both are notoriously slow starters. I want to get your input on that

because I don't see Sean O'Malley knocking out Peter Yon within the first early rounds. And then also, Nate Landward's fight, I mean, his sock grew, same thing as David Onama, but obviously Nate Landward's fight grew because he ended up winning. What is the ceiling on this guy's future?

Because, you know, this guy became, he could be a star in the making, but, you know, he's good on the month, Mike. You know, I love what I saw. And yeah, Mike, just glad to hear that you're doing well and have a good one. Thanks, buddy. Enjoy your ice coffee. Hopefully you enjoyed as much as I'm enjoying mine. Yeah, Cheeto is, it's got to be so frustrating to fight that guy because, I mean, Rob Font hit him like 500 times. And it didn't even affect him at all. Dominic Cruz hit him a bunch. Didn't affect him at all. Like you go and watch the post-fight press conference, Cheevera.

You go and see him on the MMA hour yesterday. And there's not even a mark on his face. It's like he's never in a fight. He's a friggin zombie. It's incredible. And all he needs to do is hit you once and you fall down. He knocked Dominic Cruz down four times in that fight. And Cruz looked good.

Cruz looked very solid in the fight. All three judges had him up two rounds to one heading into the fourth round. That's just how Marlon Vera rolls. He's not a very fast starter, takes the first half of the fight to kind of get loose, and then he ends up getting going, and once he gets going, he is really hard to stop. The Yan fight makes sense.

It all depends on when he wants to come back. If he wants to come back and fight before the end of the year, I don't think Jan will be on the table for him. We also have to see what happens with this fight with Sean O'Malley, which I think is a much more interesting fight that a lot of people think it's going to be. But I'm telling you, I said this on onto the next one, I'll say it again. I know when we bring up this name, it usually comes with negativity,

but maybe there's a chance. This is the fight I wanted for Henry Sehudo immediately. Him and Marlon Vera makes all the sense in the world. If Henry Sehudo truly wants to fight, go fight Marlon Vera. Because if you beat Marlon Vera, you go to the front of the line, you fight for the belt, you will get no complaints from me. But when you come out on social media and you're saying that Dominic Cruz is up four rounds to none before the knockout, and you're coming out and you're saying that you're not impressed with what this man is done or what this man did on Saturday,

them's be fighting words. So, and if I'm Marlon Vera, I'm jumping all over that fight. Jumping all over it. That's a huge opportunity. That is probably a legit number one contender fight because you know if Sehudo wins, he'll probably get the title fight. And if Marlon wins, I'm sure the UFC won. won't be heartbroken by it, and they'll probably do him a little bit of a favor and give him a title fight. So I like that matchup.

That makes perfect sense. Do it in December. Do it at MSG. It doesn't matter. Put it on one of these pay-per-view cards towards the end of the year. I think that fight makes a lot of sense. Otherwise, he's just going to be waiting around for a while to see how some of the stuff plays out. Because I don't think if Aldo beats Barab, I don't think although, I don't think they're going to match those two guys up again because we saw it not that long ago.

It was a good fight, although clearly won. But if Marab wins, maybe you do Marab. But that's a big one coming up on Saturday between those two guys. So, yeah, if So Hutto really wants to come back, like if he's truly serious about wanting to fight, I feel like Cheetos's the best possible matcher for him. I think it's the most winnable fight for him of the guys he could probably fight. But Marlon can win that fight too.

That's a really good fight. And you're not asking too much. of Suhudo for being honest, like looking at the ranking stuff. Marlon's on a roll, but he's a slow starter. And Suhudo can start pretty quickly. So I'd be very interested to see what that fight looks like. But we will certainly see how it all plays out. And yeah, I forget what your other question was, but I'm sure it'll come up at some point.

Let's go to Tristan. Tristan, hello, sir. How are you feeling? Feeling good? I'm feeling good, baby. Let's go. Before we began, shout out to Ariel Hohmani and the MMA hour crew. Those were great interviews that he had. Shane Berger was going to PFL.

That was a great conversation. I enjoyed every single of it. Demetius Johnson. Sometimes I wonder if he's the best five-weight that ever lived sometimes because the money he was able to put him in the UFC and things of that nature. Shout out, that was just such a great interview, how he looks at the fight. Talked about, you know, training with Henry Seudo, which was stunning. they're cool. I thought that was great. And then I'm also listening to the interview with

Kamar Usman. I think that was great as well. Bo Nikwa watched every part of it. It was just great interviews, great insight, great thought process of everything. So kudos to the crew and me fighting and everything about that. I do want to talk a little bit about the Angela Hill versus Lupi Gudaner's fight. It was a great fight, but I was a little bit disappointed with with Lupi not going for more takedowns. I think she only had one takedown throughout the whole fight, which is her bread and butter. I was looking at the UFC stats and info,

and any time that Lupe goes for five or more takedown, she usually wins the fight. I don't mind her striking, that's fine, but there's got to be a balance. I would like more takedowns than striking. I think if she would have stuck to her bread and butter, Got Angela Hill to the ground, did ground and pound, did what she normally did that she did against Ariana Carnalosi in her last fight, I think she would have been successful. I think after the first round, coaches were in the corner telling her, you got to get her on her back.

You don't get her on her back, you know, it's going to be a problem. And they told her again after the second round. And she said something back to the coaches of what was the problem. But, you know, I was just pretty stunned that she didn't go that route. but it is what it is. I think she'll learn from it. Just want your thoughts on that whole sequence. Going back to Bo Nicol, Mike, I have this unwavering confidence in Bo Neckle.

I just do the way he was talking to Ariel and saying, and people I saw on the comments where, like, this guy's out of his mind. What is wrong with this guy? You're not being easy. What is wrong with you? You are crazy. And I'm just like, and I understand he's only, you know, two and oh. And I understand.

But the wrestling career, the statute that he's done for college wrestling and possibly, if he didn't go to M.A., he would be going to the Olympics. And I've never felt this unwavering confidence in him since maybe, since Bobby Habib. I mean, he says what he's going to do, and then he actually goes and does it. And he's done it such a high, like he said, I've been fighting since I was six years old. I've been wrestling since I was six years old. Nobody's going to be able to stop me. It's going to be one of those situations just like Abea. I call him the American Habib, the Mecca Medov, where to the point, you know what's coming,

but you're not going to be able to stop it. And it's just this unwavering confidence in him. And it's the same I know with you that you have about, um, Surukin. It's the way that you have that confidence that you have in, Mohamed McIev. I have this unwavering confidence. conference about Bo Nicol. And I always said he's going to beat your favorite middleweight fighters. And I think I truly believe he's going to be the pound-for-pound best fighter that we've seen

three years, four years from now. You know, and he understands it's a process, and he understands these certain things. But I'm just so high on Bo Neckle. I'm just like, who's going to beat this guy? I'm telling you, man, he's just going to get better. And he's just going to beat everybody that you put in front of him. Mike, and that's my feeling about it. And that's all I have to say, thanks, Mike.

I'm glad you're feeling better. Shout out to the whole MMA crew and everything. And I hope you have a great day. Have a heck of the morning, Mike. Thanks, buddy. I just remember what the other question was from Four Corner Sports. Nate Landware, his ceiling. I think he's just going to be a fun guy at 145.

I don't know if he's going to be fighting for titles, but I say this all the time. You can make a great living just being a fun, exciting fighter. And at 145, there's a lot of fun matchups for him. If they do the Billy Q fight, I'm all in on that one. Those two are just going to beat the brakes off each other, and it's just going to be a lot of fun. The Loopy fight, I said this on the people's pre-fight show, maybe on the preview shot. I don't remember what it was, but I felt like skill for skill, I felt Loopy was the better fighter than Angela Hill.

But sometimes you get in these situations where your fight gets moved up two months. you're dealing with a crowd that's going to be really into the fight, and sometimes you just kind of lose your way a little bit. You land a good strike, you start to fall in love with the striking a little bit, and I feel like that's what happened with Lupi Godine is. It was a fun fight, a fight that she didn't win, but again, she's, what is she, nine and two, but she's also been like, she's eight and three, excuse me, eight and three, but she's been so incredibly active as a fighter.

It's been unbelievable. So I think she'll grow from it. I think it'll be fine and she'll come back and she'll be a top 15 strut weight sooner rather than later. And then Bo Nicol, I got a lot of heat for this on Tuesday of last week after he won. I think Bo Nicol is, if not the most talented guy to ever fight on the contender series.

He's one of them. And it's just naturally, it's just the wrestling. The sport was just a natural thing for him. We talk about athleticism all the time and how it's a cheat code in MMA. And Bo Nichols is a freak. He's a freak athlete. Now, I think he needs to slow his role a little bit with the Izzy talk. But I do think right now, let me just, I'm going to pull up the rankings.

I do think right now that he can hang with a lot of guys in the top 15 in middleweight. I think he can hang with a lot of guys. I think Chris Curtis would be an interesting fight just because of the, the size discrepancy. Chris Curtis is a really good takedown defense, but I think he could do pretty well in that fight. Brad Tavares, I think he'd do okay with. I wouldn't put him near Drick's Duplice or I'mov.

But you're telling me he couldn't, he doesn't have a chance against a Kelvin Gasol him right now. It doesn't have a chance against a Darren Till right now. I think he's a chance against both of those guys. And I think he's going to be a problem for a long, long time. But we'll see. He's got to fight at the end of the contender series season. He'll probably win.

It's a tailor-made matchup for him. A guy who gets taken down a lot. Doesn't have great take-down defense. I know he won his last fight with the late submission, but if you go back and watch that fight with Miles Lee, Miles Lee took him down a million times on that fight, and then he threw up a triangle in the fourth round and won the CFFC title. But the UFC knows what they're doing.

They know exactly what they're doing. and it should be another quick easy win for Bo Nickel. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think I am. So excited to see what his career looks like. Let's go to Hendo Slice. How you doing? Good, doing good. I'm semi-heated this morning because I'm calling with a little anger from last time.

We were talking or you were talking about how fighters had missed their chance to unionize and stuff. And then I had called in saying that Cruz was making a lot of mistakes, probably because he didn't have a manager. And then a caller came in after me and said, like, fighters don't need managers, like they just need to use the opportunity, whatever. So I was a little steamed. But then when I saw the payouts for Cruz on this fight, I was like, this is exactly the problem. You know, like, if you look at it, uh, because California had it come out, he, he made 175 and then I assume he had another like a win bonus of another 175 that he didn't get. Number one, like Cruz is or Vera is making 150 150. So there is nowhere near as big of a name as

Cruz. You would think like over the history of M&A like Cruz could have negotiated better. But also one of the first things like a good manager would tell you is get rid of the win bonus. because, I mean, I work kind of in a similar field. I work in like music contracts and stuff like that, but it's sort of similar. And a win bonus, number one, like when you're winning, more money is coming in. Things are going well.

Like you're getting more advertisements. When you're losing is when you need the extra money, you know? So it's better to take a contract that helps you when you're, even if you lose. And then on the other side, a win bonus also in, incentivizes your employer to make really hard matchups for you. You know, like the UFC saved $25,000 because Vera won.

You know, so you never want that, you know, as a contract, like that just, it's, it's leaning against you in so many ways. And I don't expect Cruz to understand these kind of things.

Like, he needs to worry about fighting and he's such a great fighter. And I think he did really well in the fight and everything. So I, it just goes to show like, so many things are being missed because either the managers aren't very good or people don't trust their managers or whatever. But it's just, it's sorry to see. But then just to even it out a little bit, I just wanted to say like, there's a lot of people hating on Cruz now and saying he's never as good

as whatever. Like, Cruz invented some things in MMA. And there are some things that are even more important than being a champion. And I think innovating the martial arts is like, that's the top of the top. And the way Cruz talks about being a martial artist, I think that his long term innovations in the sport are what people are going to remember him by in his like unique footwork and people are going to study that. And they already do. So that's more important. I think than him getting in the title a third time. I just hope he doesn't get knocked out next fight. So all right, those are my two points. And yeah, great show. Keep it up. Thank you, sir.

Yeah, listen, here's the thing that is kind of stunning to a lot of people. Marlon Vera has twice as many UFC fights than Dominic Cruz. Crazy to think about, right? Like, I know Cruz is in the WEC and all that, and technically they're tied together in a way. But if we look at actual UFC fights, Marlon Verra has 20. Cruz has 10. I mean, that's it. And here's the other thing.

Like, I don't think Cruz isn't like, I'm going to be a full-time fighter. and all this stuff. Cruz does just fine financially. He does the broadcast stuff. He does desk stuff. He does a lot of stuff for the UFC. So I'm sure he's doing just fine financially. It varies just the more active guy too.

So, I mean, he's earned the right to earn around the same as Cruz at this point just because he's got double the actual UFC fights than Cruz has for the actual UFC. So Cruz is still really good, man. Like, he looked, he looked very solid in that fight. He just got caught. There were certain things that he does that hasn't changed in a long time, which Eric Nixik pointed out, which other people pointed out as well. Jason Perillo saw that, sent Vera a screenshot about Cruz's head going to the side,

opening him up for that head kick, and Marlon Verra is just a true student of the game, man. It was a great performance. And the fight, like, the whole fighter pay thing. and all that. I've talked about it in nauseam. What else can we say? And I hate the win bonus structure and a lot of people

still throw out the open scoring thing. Remember a couple months ago, it's all we were talking about was freaking open scoring. We don't need it. We don't need open scoring. If you just take away the win bonus structure

and just give fighters guaranteed money, you don't need open scoring. Fights will change. Things like, like the reason that open scoring is a thing and the reason why we are all up in arms about some of these decisions. The biggest reason is because of the pay structure. The win and show money.

It's just dumb. The whole thing is dumb. It should just be guaranteed money for everybody. You show up, you make weight, and you walk into the cage, you get your full purse. And then if you get a finish, you get a bonus. Like you just do it that way. Things will change. We won't be complaining so, so much about split decisions and robberies and things of that nature.

We won't. We won't. But that's just the way the sport has run. And until someone, until fighters are ready to walk away and just not fight, this is the world we're going to be living in for a little while now. And that's just the way that it is. But I understand where you're coming from. But I mean, if you're the UFC, no one's doing anything about it. The media can, the media and the fans can talk about it all we want.

But it's not going to make any difference whatsoever until the fighters are willing to just step away, walk away, not fight, all of them, every single one of them. But until that happens, nothing's going to change, and that's just it. It sucks, but that's the where we live in. When I got a great deal on a great gift at winners, I started wondering, could I get fabulous gifts for everyone on my list? Like this designer fragrance for my daughter. At just $39.99, how could I resist. This luxurious wool throw for my sister. This gold watch for my partner? A wooden puzzle for my niece? Leather gloves for my boss? Ooh, European chocolate for the crossing guard? At these prices, could I find something for everyone at winners? Stop wondering. Start gifting. Winners find fabulous for less. It's the matchat or the three ensemble Cado Cephora of the fact that I just de-niche who me energize o'clock. Hmm, it's the ensemble. The form of standard and mini-regrouped. Call-O-ben. And the embellage, too,

Oh, beau, who is practically pre to donate. And I know I'd like they're offerers, but I guard the Summer Fridays and Rare Beauty

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Rare Beauty Way, Cepora collection and other part of the video, regrouped for a better

quality of price, on line on Cepora. On Cepa or in a magazine. Let's go to Mikey Bats. Mikey,

you're there. What's up buddy? Not much, just freaking really like two hours of sleep.

But that's not here, the nearer there. So, like, so Luke says that if he beats Polo Kossi, he's going to sit and wait out a title shot against AdSanya. I'm actually on the same way, like, than him. But beyond that, do you think, like, I was just watching the first episode of Embedded, and this is either near or there, because, you know, what does it matter when you see something on video? But it looks like he's kind of found his spark back.

You know, like he finally looks like he's back into this thing. Again, like he looks like he likes to do this again. So do you think, how much do you think that's going to factor into, you know, his performance on Saturday? You know what I mean? Like they always say about sports, right? 90% physical, 9% mental, 10% physical. So I'm curious what you think about that. So thanks, man.

Good morning. Thanks, buddy. Yeah, I interviewed Luke maybe a year and a half ago. And he was fired up then. He was super fired. up. It was like my favorite Luke Rockhold interview ever. He was personable. He was smiling. He was laughing. He seemed like he was having a good time. He was just in good spirits. We'll see. This is a tough matchup for him to come back to. I'm curious how he is going to be taking a punch and taking a kick.

His Paul Cost is a powerhouse. And Luke Rockhold is not Marvin Vittory. He's just not. He's been knocked out several times. Some pretty bad knock. So you could be as up as you want. You could have the spark all you want, but what happens when you get punched in the face or kicked in the head? Can he take it? Is that chin going to hold up? That's the big question. By the time Saturday rolls around, that fight will be the most talked about fight.

It might be now. But once you get these guys at Media Day, once you get them at the press conference on Thursday, they're just going to talk a lot to each other. They're going to say a lot of things. And yeah, it'll be probably the most anticipated fight on the entire card. But I'm super curious to see how Luke looks. I don't know if he's getting a...

You know what? He might actually find himself into a title fight if he wins his fight. Because, I mean, who's left? Sean Strickland is fighting Derek Brunson. Maybe if Sean wins, he gets up there, but he's coming off of a lot. I don't know.

Division's kind of a mess right now. It won't be cannonear. It won't be Vittory. Unless he just bolts Robert Whitaker, maybe. It won't be Whitaker because we just saw that fight. We saw Paul, we saw the Paula Costa, Adasania fight. Alesson just ran him over. But there's still probably a little bit of heat there.

I don't know. Middleweight's kind of wide open right now. So if Rockhold comes out, it just bolts Paul Costa. who knows, maybe he does get himself a title fight. It all depends on Adasanya and all depends on how the rest of this all shapes out. But he's definitely in the mix if he goes out there and puts on a great performance against Paul Acosta. But we'll see. He does seem sort of ramped up.

He seems motivated, seems ready to go. We'll see if that all translates on Saturday. It's a really interesting matchup. Let's go to Verl Nico. Hello. Good morning, Mike. I have a question, right? I was having a debate with a few of my friends in our group chat about Jose Aldo's career.

And then, like, how do we see him and, like, compared to the other UFC and W.E.C. legends. Like, I was saying that he has, like, a big claim for, like, top 10. What do you think about that? Of all time? Not of all time, but he has a chair there, but also I'm counting like what he's done in like his whole like career. Yeah, here, in my opinion, and these are debates that are just kind of dumb and kind of silly. And it's all based on personal preference. In my eyes, if we're doing, I don't know if he's a Mount Rushmore, but you can make a compelling case he's top five all time.

he's the greatest featherweight of all time Bolkanowski's not there yet Holloway wasn't there yet I know Holloway has two wins over him but what Josealdo has done at featherweight and what he's doing at Bannamweight what he's done throughout his career to me he's top five all time

pound for pound top five not everybody will probably agree with me on that but he's definitely got a seat at that table his resume is incredible he's had some tough losses along the way, but most fighters have. Just to see what he's done at Bant.

Like after he moved, like he moved to 135. He had a hard time making $1.45. He transformed everything. Moves to 135. Has the tough fight with Marlon Marais. Has the loss of Peoria, which by the way, if you go back and watch that fight, it's super competitive until the championship rounds. then Jan takes over and then he finishes him brutally at the end of the fight.

But, I mean, come on, man. This guy is unbelievable. He should be fighting for the title now. Instead, he's going to go fight freaking Barab to Wallach-Willi, which is not fun for anybody. And I don't bet on MMA, but I will say this. Jose Aldo is an underdog. Looks mighty enticing.

He's not like a huge dog, but he's plus 105. It's basically a coin flip fight, but you're giving me Jose Alto a plus money against pretty much anybody at 135. It's a nice looking line. It's a nice looking line. But yeah, I think he's top five all time. Let's bring in Anthony Freaking Taylor. What's up, buddy?

Just got to unmute yourself. There we go. Are you there? All right, try again, my man. I'll get you in. Let's go to Toke. There's a lot of people waiting. I might get to everybody, I promise.

Toke, what's up, buddy? I think of bringing me in. So I, regarding Tuesday and I contender series today, I was wondering, are there any promotions where the UFC would be compelled to not sign them directly? Oh, sorry,

where they would sign them directly. Because I'm thinking about Jack Hartwright, who is Cate Warriors champion in the Bentonweight Division, and they have him going through the contender series, which seems to me for such an excitable guy, seems to be a weird choice because I think he could fit right in without the fight.

So it's just, are there any promotions left where the UFC would sign them directly instead of going through the pipeline of contender series and that stuff? I mean, it probably all depends on the fighter, especially in today's social media era. You go out there and you have a viral moment, you get a much better chance of getting signed.

It also depends on like the timing of everything as well. Like let's just say, contender series ends at September this year, like the late September. Let's just say you go out and have a viral knockout in October. There's a chance you get signed outright. Like Dominic Reyes is like a perfect example of this because Dominic Reyes was, what, 5-0 or something like that when he signed with the UFC,

but he had a viral knockout before getting signed. He fought some dude who was, like, too big for his britches, just trying to be a little cocky with Reyes, and then Reyes, like, absolutely bolts him and then get signed to the UFC, like, right after that because that video of the knockout went completely viral. I think Bo Neckle is a pretty good example of that as well. Like, if Bo Nickel, as an amateur,

just got some takedowns and won 30, and wasn't just knocking dudes out. Do you think he'd be in this position right now? Probably not. But when Bo Nickel thought even as an amateur, every single major website picked up on it, every single one. And those videos, those highlight reels, they spread. So Bo basically, he's on the contender series,

but we all understand what's going on here. He assigned to the UFC. Basically, it's like their own version of a developmental deal. They're just putting him through the ropes here, getting them out there. And I think guys like Jack Cartwright, especially when it comes to trying to fill these cards up, you're trying to get more of a worldwide global audience. And I think you're going to have more people from the UK, from Europe, who watch Cage Warriors.

They're going to be watching the card tonight. They're going to wake up early and they're going to watch this. They're going to watch and fight Jose Johnson. And I like the matchup here. Jose's got a ton of experience. He's another guy who's had some viral COs. He's had like three or four of them. but Jack should probably win this fight.

And it's just to get Jack in there. This is like, we'll see what Jack does is the opportunity. Reminds me a Jake Hadley in a lot of ways. But Jake missed weight, still got a contract, which is one of the more weird things we've ever seen on the contender series. But I think Jack should win this fight. There's a little bit of heat on this one. If you saw the weigh-in videos, they were John getting after it a little bit.

So, yeah, I mean, there's like Haley Cowan's another one who some people feel like she should be in the UFC already coming from LFA and stuff like that. It's all the, I don't think it has anything to really do with promotions. I think it just has to do with the individual, the performances, and how well their performances translate on a social media scale. The UFC pays tons of attention to that stuff. Like if Haley Cowan had a knockout in LFA, they got like 10 million views, she'd probably get out. signed. But if you don't have that, you go on the contender series and there you go. Jack's probably, I don't know if he's in, but as long as Jack has like a decent performance tonight, he's probably going to get signed. Either way, even if it's like a short notice

opportunity down the line. You put him on like another Europe card. If they go back to London, you can put him on that card. He's probably, as long as he doesn't get the doors blown off him tonight, he'll probably end up in the UFC for his next fight. At least that's what I think. But I think it's all about the individual and numbers on social media and how well some of these finishes translate in terms of numbers and viewership are some of the big websites picking up on them, stuff like that. That's a good question.

Let's go to Brian. What's up, buddy? Oh, I'm doing it. So my question was about this weekend. Obviously, we have Leon and Kamar fighting for the title with 170. My question was more, so if and when Leon wins on Saturday, do you think that no matter how he wins that they immediately do a rematch next, or do you think there are other directions they could go,

given how things may fall with Hamzad or Colby, et cetera? That's actually a really good question. Are you saying, because you said if and when? Are you picking Leon? Oh, yeah, I believe 100% of either of the win. Wow, I love it. Love the gusto. I think it all depends on Oosman.

Honestly, if Ousman is, if Ousman wants the rematch, I think he'll get it. I don't know. That's a good question. Probably have to wait until like September, the end of the night, September 10th to really get a grasp on it. But I'd be stunned if they didn't. We've seen immediate rematches for. with guys who had like one title defense or in some cases didn't have any title defenses and gotten immediate rematches,

I'd be stunned if Usman didn't get one, but Shemayev is in play and if he goes out there and just runs over Nate, which a lot of people feel he's going to do September 10th, be hard to deny him, but I think that's going to all depend on Usman. If Usman is screaming from the mountaintops, I want to rematch, he goes to the post-fight press conference, he wants a rematch.

He'll probably get it. But it's probably something they're going to have to turn around relatively quickly. Maybe end of the year, early next, and then have Shemaya fight the winner after that. I don't know. What will be interesting is if Leon does win and they run it back and Usman beats Leon, will they run it back again? Or will they just move on? That would be a really interesting question.

but I would lean towards the rematch just because Ousman's been the champion for so long he hasn't even really been tested in a lot of these fights outside of the Colby fights and I do think Ousman's going to win but like I said at the beginning there's a lot of people who feel like Leon has a much better chance

than the betting odds are indicating it's kind of surprising let's go to Stevie Stevie are you there can't hear you jump back in Stevie I'll bring you in let's go to Cody Cody

hey Mike you're on mute there you go how's it going hey buddy good good um so yeah just the last question that guy said I actually do think

Leon Edwards has a pretty good chance of beating Usman so my question is what are the chances you see Usman if he loses or even wins what are the chances you see him retiring after this fight

hmm Probably not. I would say probably not. I don't think he's going out on a loss of Leon Edwards. I don't think we have a lot of time left with Kamar Usman, the fighter, if we're being honest. And I was talking about moving up to 205. A loss of Leon will certainly take away any of that 205 chatter. That's for damn sure.

I don't know if he retires. I think they'll probably try to run it back. And if I'm him, I think you have to realize how big that Shemaya fight could be for him. So if he loses, I think he's going to try to get the rematch, try to get the belt back, and then try to get one big payday with Shemaya. Because Shemaya is the biggest fight he can get right now.

There's no doubt about it. He's not fighting Canelo. If he goes to 205, it's probably not happening anytime soon because that division's kind of a mess right now. It's just not like a, clear path. Now, it could be interesting is if Adasania loses to Pereira and then they run it back and if Pereira beats him a second time, then maybe Goosey will just go up to 185.

But we'll see. I don't think he retires with a loss though. I don't. I think the competitor in him will not allow that to happen. But we've seen Stranger Things happen. All right. Stevie, do we have you? Yes, you have you now. Thank you. I wanted to say a couple of things. One thing about the Cruz's pay thing, you did mention it, but he doesn't fight a lot,

which is a big reason why these guys are getting pay bums when you see Kevin Holland, even you see Vera who has a pretty good pay. These guys fight a lot, and that's how they get new paychecks. They're new contracts, it seems. So that's a big deal. The other thing I wanted to bring up was this 17-year-old,

or, yeah, 17-year-old guy that they're seeming to be having on Dana White Contender Series. I'm not sure if you heard about him. Seems pretty interesting. 17-year-old fighting. I'm not sure how they're going to, even if he wins, I don't know how they can sign him and then not sign Bo Nickle after a win.

So I'm just interested in what you think about that. Thank you, Mike. Oh, I'm sorry. I don't know why I was muted. Yes, Raul Roses Jr. is his name. 17 years of age. He's 5-0. He's fighting.

September 12th. 20th against Mando Gutierrez. I'm trying to make sure it's the same dude. Because Gutierrez was supposed to fight somebody else, not on the contender series? Who was he supposed to fight? He was supposed to fight somebody else. I think for lights out,

he was booked to fight somebody else. I forget who it was, but now he's on the contender series fighting a 17-year-old. So we'll see what happens. in order to be licensed by the Nevada Athletic Commission, which oversees the Contender Series, fighters must be 18 to 38 years of age. However, special licenses may be granted

to those outside the age range with special commission approval. The law reads, if an applicant for a license to engage in unarmed combat or an unarmed combatant has not reached 18 years of age, the applicant must have his or her application for a license or for renewal of a license reviewed by the commission, or time does not permit and no concerns about the application

have been raised by the executive director or any commissioner, reviewed by the chair or chair's designee. So that is that his or her qualifications may be considered before the license is issued or renewed. And from what I understand, he had to get like parents' permission to fight. Pretty crazy. We'll see what happens.

17 years of age getting ready to fight, potentially for a UFC contract. this guy has, I mean, this would probably be a developmental deal for sure. They must see something really special in this kid. I've watched a fight a couple of times. His level of competition has not been tremendous, if we're being honest. But, hey, listen, they must see some, they must see something in this kid. But he'd be the perfect developmental deal kind of a guy, at least in my eyes.

But we'll see what happened September 20th. let's go to stealthy stealthy are you there Mike heck this is Brett Gellman how you doing my friend how you've been all right good what's up my man I love listening to your show man I don't always

chime in but uh but I try to listen when I can on my ride to work is I love all MMA all MMA talk man but I want to touch on just two quick fights and I'd like to get your opinion um first of all my favorite UFC fighters of all time just for the

scrappiness and what he brings has always been Nate Diaz, and I just love what he's always brought to MMA and his attitude. I just wish he, his attitude hasn't kept him from so many fights over the years. I feel like he got cocky and everything, but what do you have thoughts? You think he even has a shot versus Cosmet? I mean, not that he has a shot, doesn't have a shot that he can compete with him, but do you really think he has a shot to win? And my next question was, and I'm going to just listen and let you touch on this, is I can't stand Sean O'Malley. I was so glad when he lost the Cheatera Vera. I just think he's cocky, and he just rubs me the wrong way.

And I would love nothing more than see Peter Yan beat his face and to take his hype train down to a level of a cab or an Uber. I just want to get your thoughts, Mike, and a good half of you. My man, Brett. So, funny story about Brett. I've known Brett pretty much my whole life. My oldest brother and him were really good friends growing up. and spent a lot of time with Brett Gilman.

Good guy, glad to hear his voice. You could hear the Boston accent really come out and just a good dude. Nate and O'Malley are very similar cases because they both understand that they are both stars and they want to be treated as such. They want to be treated fairly. Sean O'Malley has kind of changed the way a lot of fighters view their careers. We talked about Dominic Cruz and his thoughts about managers. Shot O'Malley manages himself.

And he has his own reasons why. You'll go back and listen to his interview with Ariel O'Wani. Sort of explains that stuff that managers do, at least in his eyes, he could do himself. So that's what he does. I think this is a great matchup for O'Malley. I think as long as he doesn't get the doors blown off him in the first round, I think his stock could definitely rise here. He's long, he's lanky, he's a really good striker.

He can keep Yon at range. I feel like he's going to have to blow the doors off early because once Yon gets cooking and figures out O'Malley, which he will because he does that with everybody he fights, if O'Malley could just be somewhat competitive, can have moments in the fight, I think he's going to be all right. I think it's a great fight for both guys,

especially with what's available and what has been on the books. I think it's a great opportunity for O'Malley. As long as he's somewhat competitive and has moments, I think he's going to be all right. And with Nate, Nate just has been done wrong by the UFC for a long time now. He's getting this fight with Shemaya. He just wants out of this contract. Do I think he's going to win?

No, I don't think he's going to win. Do I think he has more of a chance than a lot of people think he has. has. Yeah, I do. But it's going to have to be something that he's going to have to take a beating to get there. If this fight gets to round three, Nate's got a chance. Nate's got a chance. We saw Shamiyev kind of fade in the Gilbert fight. I'm sure he's working on that. But I've stood next to this man. I've stood next to Hamzaa Shamiyev. I stood next to him in Jacksonville a couple of times. I cannot believe this guy makes 170 pounds. I can't believe it. Can't believe it. He is a monster. He's a giant. If he didn't fight in the UFC and I saw him in Jacksonville and

someone's like, hey, see that guy over there? He's a light heavyweight prospect named Hamzaa Shamaif. I'd be like, wow, okay, I could see that. He's huge. That's a big weight cut for that, man. Big weight cut. The one concern, like the concerns I would have on the Shamiya's side are one, if the fight gets extended. And two, just that, that weight cuts got to take a lot out of him. He's humongous. He's so big. He's a giant. I'm picking Shemayev to win as of right now.

But it would be the most MMA thing in the world if Nate won that fight. It'd be the cool. It'd be the most unbelievable thing ever. And what an ending to the UFC story, at least for right then and there. And maybe it won't be the end of the story. Who knows? Maybe he goes and boxes Jake Paul and comes back. Who the hell knows?

But this is why they fight. This is why they fight. But the long of that fight goes, the more it favors Nate. That's for damn sure. But getting him into the later rounds could be tough because Shabaev is just going to pick them up and toss him around a little bit. But Nate is a very, very durable guy. I can't wait for it.

The rest of the card stinks. It stinks. But that fight is super interesting, and it's going to do really well on pay-per-view. All right, let's go to Viking MMA. There's a lot of you waiting. I'm going to try to get to everybody, I promise. Viking. Hey, buddy.

Hello, Mike. Is my sound good? Hello, sir. Because it's raining heavy. Perfect. I got you. My question is about Alex Pahara and Israel, Adesania. You know, everyone is talking about Alex Pereira could possibly beat Adesania,

but can beat other five guys at the top in the middleweight division. I mean, don't forget that he is with one of the elite grappler blow at Shira. And I mean, come on, Vittori and Robert Wittaker are not that really good. Now, wrestlers or grapplers, you can say. Vittori clearly had his black back and, you know, he had that choke and he wasted that opportunity in the process of being his punchline, the first Italian UFC champion. He loses ground. I mean, Marvin Vittori loses good positions every time in the grappling exchanges. Good, okay, Parada is not going to wrestle, but he can defend.

I'm going to kind of that Bruno Silva fight. Because you know, you make mistakes and learn. Glover is not going to ignore that fact that they will try to wrestle with him. It's all about that guy has an awkward power. So try to find some flaws that he can wrestle and can't beat the top guys. We'll choke him. That's ridiculous. And my second question is why no one gives the shit about Benile Darius,

just because he's not active on social media. Is that the reason? And again, one more question. Which head kick do you think head kick knockouts was the clearest head kick knockout? Kevin Lee versus Greg Gillisbee or Cheetah versus Down? Thanks, Mike. Thanks, buddy. Man, that's a great.

That last is a great question. Kevin, it's got to be Kevin Lee to me. Cheetos are super clean, though. But that's like asking what kid I like better, and they're both really good. Yeah, they're both really clean. The Cheeto one's super clean, too, but the Kevin Lee one is just vicious. I was there that night. That was a wild freaking knockoff.

But Neil Darius, man, he just, he had a lot of buzz after the Tony Ferguson fight, didn't he? A lot of people leave, like even on the show when we're talking about who's Charles Oliver going to fight, a lot of people were still feeling like Benio was the guy who deserved the title shot over Islam Makachchev because Benio least had a couple of big wins in the division against higher-ranked competition. But the injury man, him not fighting Islam, that really hurt. That really stung. Because I would have loved to have seen how that fight played out.

It would have been a really interesting matchup. and yeah that's where we're at right now now he's going to fight Matush Gammarad I do feel like he's kind of I know Volcanowski is saying that he thinks you know he's he's planning to be the backup for that title fight that would just be

pretty dirty if something happened Volcanovsky slotted in there and not B'Neil so yeah it's boy is that it's tough spot to be in tough spot to be in he's kind of where Ferguson was when they were trying to get him in Hulbib.

And Ferguson had a little more buzz because he's always so interesting. Social media game is very Ferguson-esque. He's kind of in a league of his own and cuts all these promos and says a lot of crazy things. And B'Neil isn't really like that. So he's just in a really tough spot. It sucks.

It really, it sucks. He's in a tough spot. Because even if, I think the best thing B'Neil could hope for is that he wins and then Islam wins and then they'll just try to match those two guys up. Because if he wins and Oliver wins, he's still probably going to have to wait for a title fight. Because I do believe Connor is fully in that conversation, especially if Oliver wins. Which isn't right, but it's the UFC business world we live in, folks.

Let's go to Noel. Noel are you there. Yeah, man, what's up? I'm doing good, man. I just have a couple of questions. There's big fights coming up in the fall. Kind of really excited about UFC 280, 281 as well. From New York, so definitely hoping to go to Master Square Garden.

But I'm trying to see any more fights coming up. Tony Ferguson and Dan Hooker. I was trying to see if that fight could probably be in New York, or you think it would probably be on a UFC night. Because I definitely, they were going at it. I'm not sure. It tweets, but that would be a massive fight in the card. So, yeah, what's your take on Ferguson and Hooker career beyond?

Thanks, man. I like that matchup. I do like it. I don't know if you get at MSG, but I like the fight. I think it lines up perfectly for both guys. I'd rather see Ferguson fight Dan Hooker than fight Armand Sarukion or some of these crazy guys at 155. So yeah, I like that idea. I don't think anyone's going to complain if it's on that MSG card

or if they do it in December. The two guys have basically built the fight themselves. So just let him freaking fight. It's right there. But 281's starting to come together a little bit. They haven't announced the Chandler-Pourier fight on that card. I would say that more likely than not.

it'll happen on that card, but I know they were looking at December as well. So that's not 100% done. Porre had the emoji of the Statue of Liberty. But, yeah, I think I wouldn't be shocked if that one ends up on the car. We found out Aaron Blanchfield versus Molly McCanns on that card. We confirmed yesterday a report from M.A. junkie.

Dominic Reyes, his comeback fight is on that card against Ryan Span. I still think it should have been Dominic Reyes, Dustin, to Jacoby, but Jacobi's fighting Khalil Roundtree. And this is, I think this is fine. I think this is fine.

Let's go to a head. Ahead. Oh, no, I lost you. Try that again. Oh, by the way, I didn't address Viking MMA's question with Pereira. I can't wait for the fight.

But this is exactly, like, the UFC planned this out perfectly. They match made for Pereira perfectly and it's set up this fight. As soon as he got to the UFC, we understood what they were trying to do, try to get to this fight as quickly as possible. You could dog on the UFC all you want,

but if it's one thing they do really well is when they want a guy or a fighter to climb the ranks, they want to set up something big more often than not, it ends up happening. And that's exactly what happened here. So, yeah, I don't think they, they just needed to see it one time. And we got a quick before Adasani decides to move up to 205

or lap around the division again. They got to this fight quickly, and it was the right thing to do. Whether you're impressed with Pereira, whether you, no matter how you gauge his chances in that fight, the story is there. He's earned the right to get to the title fight.

Got Sean Strickland. Sean Strickland would have definitely got the title fight if he won, especially with how he carried himself during that fight week in July. It worked out perfectly. The UFC's really good at that. and they've done it again. So it's an interesting fight.

And plus, by the way, it's been a long time since Adasanya has gotten into the octagon or gotten into a fight with somebody who already has a win on him. Not only does he have one win, he has two wins over him in the kickboxing realm. So I'm curious to see if that just lights a fire under Izzy or if he's going to be a little more tentative knowing all that. I can't wait. I can't wait to see what that fight looks like. Who knows? Adi's not.

and I could just blow the doors off him real quick. And is that such a bad thing if that does happen? Probably not. Maybe he gets that fire in his belly like he had for Paula Costa. Who does? Let's go to three stripes. What's up, Mike? Can you hear me? Yes, sir.

Hey, so I have two points, and I kind of want to hear your opinion on him. So I'm an Usman fan, but I also like Leon, and I think a lot of people are underrated. Leon's well-roundedness. I think he can kind of do it all. His takedown defense is really good. I think his striking might pose problems for Usman because he's pretty composed and he doesn't really throw himself out of position too often.

And I think if the fight stays on the feet, I think Leon can actually make Usman look a little silly. My second point is the Jose Aldo versus Marab fight. People seem to think that Jose is just going to run through Marab. And I think Marab's style of fighting where he takes you down and kind of lets you get up and takes you down again and lets you get up and takes you down again, that's going to be a problem for Jose's gas tank, because we've seen recently that he does kind of gas out, you know, heading into like the mid-second round or so. And I think Marab can can upset Jose in this fight

pretty easily. What do you think? Thank you, three stripes. I think if Usman just wants to win, and just kind of get Leon behind him, I think you could just wrestle him for five rounds. I kind of feel like that's where we're going to see. If it does stay on the feet, I think it's pretty close to 50-50. Leon can be a dynamic striker at times, but Ousman's got that power.

Usman's very composed in there as well. He's got a great team behind him. They know everything about Leon Edwards right now. And Leon has a lot of pressure on him in this fight. Like, Ousman's got pressure sure, but I think all the pressure is on Leon here because it took him so long to get to a title fight. And I hate throwing out like must win when it comes to title fights. But in this particular case, it is a must win for Leon Edwards because he's probably not getting another title shot ever again if he doesn't win.

So in the back of his mind, he has to know that. If I don't win, I'm probably not getting a title fight. ever again, because it took him so long to get one to this point. And he's only here because there's really nobody else, if we're being honest. I mean, Shamiyev's right there, but... So there's different pressures heading into this fight, but I think of Ushman's smart. He just takes him down over and over again

and has sort of an Uspin-like decision that we had before the second Mazadal fight, that type of performance. before he started finishing everybody, it would not stun me at all to see Usen just kind of cruised to a decision. Because he's got that wrestling in his back pocket. We just haven't seen it in so long because he hasn't needed it. But it's there when he needs it, and he's definitely a much better wrestler than Leon is.

So that's how I feel Uspin's best path to victory is, but Ousman can hang on the feet with Leon. For sure. But like I said at the beginning, I'm stunned that a lot of people are giving Leon this much of a chance considering how people felt about Leon heading into this fight. I know a hid who I'm going to bring on right now has been talking about no one caring about Leon,

and now here we are fighting for the title. How are you, Mike? I got you, I got you. All right. Good. All right, cool. UFC 278, Leon Edwards' Fight Week. You already know what I'm going to say. He never deserved the title shot in the first place.

You said it right there, Mike. No one else has left. That's the only reason he's here. But it's like with Markerchev, he never deserved the title. He didn't fight any top guys. Now, that's partially not his fault and it partially is. But like Markachev, I'm actually going to say Leon wins this weekend. But it's funny how badly I've crapped on Leon Edwards, but I think Leon will win.

The reason being is because I'm going fourth round TKO. And the reason is, is because of, Like, we've seen this story so many times in mixed martial arts, how someone has worked their entire life for this moment. And you're saying the pressures on Leon, I really don't think so. I think it's on Usman because this is just another title defense. You know, I'm really shocked.

Usma took this fight. I feel like he should have exercised his right to wait. And we should have gone with your patented idea. You should put like a trade. That's right. That's right. Tom's right. And Leon, because it just would have made a shit.

like Lee, Usman should have used leverage. He really should have leverage his position as a champion and waited. I'm really surprised he took this fight. But we've seen this. Usman is talking about everything except Leon. He's talking about Connor. He's talking about Jake Paul. He's talking about two or fiveers.

He's looking at Wakanda. Congratulations to him. But I'm just saying like he's looking at all this different stuff and not Leon. So I really feel Leon's going to get the edge. I expect, though, to be a trilogy, and I expect Usma to smash his head in. So that's point one. Point two. UFC 282.

What the hell is happening? Like, what the hell? Like, Ariel's reporting different things. It just changes every two seconds. It's ridiculous. Like, first, it's Stipe and John, then it's like, oh, Francis might come back. And it's the what? And then Brandon Gibson is, for some reason, going everywhere, like, saying, oh, John's going

come back. John's looking brilliant. And I don't think Brandon's a liar. Brandon doesn't seem like a BS guy. He seems honest. But it's just the wildest thing that's been playing out. And also last thing, Mike, I know you're like obviously you building up the position you are in MMA journalism. How does someone like me want to break in? Because it feels like I'm just getting all these bullshit excuses from everyone saying to get the job, you need experience. But to get experience, you need the damn job. and like no fight like I'm trying to get off to fires and managers I don't like managers

because I think they're like fucking parasites but yeah that's all I've got for you today Mike Ah, Hid Always bringing the heat Yeah I mean I'll address the last question Because you said everything And we'll let everybody sort of digest all that

But just I don't know I mean Before I got to M.A. fighting I just free- and just got with whoever would give me an opportunity. And I think I was writing and doing interviews for like seven or eight websites before I got the MA fighting job. And there's lots of like up-and-coming sites that will give you the opportunity to get your stuff out there. Some of them are not as readily available as they were a couple of years back, but some are.

So basically what I made the decision to go freelance, I just hit up everybody. I hit up everybody. Do you need anybody to do interviews? Do you need anybody for this? Do you need anybody for this? And I took every yes I could get. And then opportunity came along. And I just tried to do a little bit of everything.

So I was doing interviews. I was breaking news. I was doing all different kinds. I was writing like full-length features on pay-per-view fight nights. I was doing basically live blogs or. you know, recaps of like every single fight on a pay-per-view. Like I remember working for a Miami-News.com for a while before I got to MA fighting. And I would watch a pay-per-view and I would

I would do recaps of every single fight on the card. Everyone. Everyone, from the first prelim to the bait event, I would just do them all. And then I would cover the press conference and I would just do all this stuff because it was just building experience. So, yeah, it was always something my dad always said. It was like, you could be great at one thing, but try to be good at everything. Try to at least have experience in every aspect.

Because you've got to get, you know, some of these opportunities, you're going to get thrown right to the fire and you've got to be able to do everything. So, yeah, it's tough, but just go after it and go get it. There's places out there that you can gain experience for. them 100%. So if that's what you want to do, go get it. Go get it. Let's go to Alex. Alex, are you there? Alex. There we go, Mike. We got him. How are you? Now I can't hear you. It's like you were kind of hesitant. Like you're not 100% on board. You don't really love that. I personally do. It feels like, I almost kind of like a Seroni thing. Of course, Soroni never defended a bell.

but he's like just down for anything. Okinawkis, like, it's put me anywhere. Let's do it. Alex, jump back in. You were breaking up like crazy, but I'll address the Volkadovsky thing. I don't have an issue with Volkinovsky going in to be the backup. My issue is there's guys already there,

Benil being one of them. And it's just a tough spot from the being in. But I'll grab your second question now that I see you. All right. Yeah, if you want to throw your second question out, Alex. One said, Cody Garbrand, I don't really like that fight. I like the storyline, but Dominic's obviously older than he was when he lost to Cody the first time. Cody still has power.

I think Dominic, a few more fun fights or... Yeah, I lost it again. Yeah, I mean, if Dillishaw loses to Aljo, you could do the rematch there. If Cody beats Ronnie Yaya, you could do that rematch. I would rather him get those kinds of fights than... I don't know. I mean, there's options for him. Cruz still is a name.

Cruz is still performing pretty well. He looked good in the Cheeto fight for two and a half rounds. Barr started to take over in the third, and then he knocked him on the fourth. But he was up on all three judges' scorecards heading into the fourth. So I think Cruz still has some gas left in the tank. It's all on him. And whatever he wants to do. I don't think he's just going to slyly go on the MAA hour and retire or anything like that.

but I do think he strikes me as a guy that's going to be like he'll book a fight and then he'll just say it's his last one heading into it wouldn't stun me but he's got he's got a future in broadcasting he's he's getting a lot of experience on the on the broadcasts doing the color work I'd like to see Cruz on the desk a little bit more I think he was saying September 10th he's going to be on the desk I don't think he's going to be on the broadcast booth but I think he's going to be on the desk and I think Cruz is great that stuff. I think he's excellent. Let's go to George. Man, I can't believe how many people are waiting? I'll try to get to everybody. George, how are you? Hey, Mike, thanks for having me. I just have a quick question, and forgive me if it's already been talked about. I'm just curious your thoughts on

Rory McDonald retiring recently, and on the same weekend, you had a new prospect, Aaron Jeffrey, unranked, knockout, Austin Vanderford in Bellator. Just curious your thoughts around that and the Canadian MMA scene. And yeah, any thoughts? on his performance. Thanks, man.

Yes, happy trails to Roy McDonald. What a career this guy had. Part of just some amazing fights. It was just weird. Like, once he went to belt, like him moving up to 185 to fight Gagar Mursasi. If we're talking about like what ifs, like what if he didn't do that?

Like I understand the opportunity that was in front of him, chance to be a two division champion and all that. But, I mean, he just got the boots put. to him in that fight, like real bad, and he just was never the same after. So a guy that, and I'm not saying, but he's had some amazing memories,

amazing fights. Guy also fought for a really, really, really, really long time. And just a guy just accumulated a lot of damage over his career, but he's also part of just some amazing fights. The Robbie Lawler fight is just incredible.

And even Robbie Lawler said that that one means more. to him than any other fight he's had in his career. Just the crowd, everything surrounding that fight. And Roy just had a great career. Might have went out a little bit too long, and he made some good money down the stretch. PFL is paying him really well. Bellator paid him pretty well.

He was a champion over there. Got to become the world champ. I'm interested to see the M.A. Hour tomorrow, because he's going to be on with Ariel and good on him. I think we kind of saw the writing on the wall after that fight on Saturday. But what a career that guy had. Second best Canadian fighter of all time. And then Aaron Jeffrey, a guy who is starting to really put it together.

I think there's a lot of pressure on him, you know, with the contender series and trying to get that UFC call. And I think once Bellator just gave him that opportunity and signed him to a deal and the pressure just kind of came off of him. didn't have to really get that get over the hump fight because he just got signed out right by bellator and now that pressure is off of him he's got a home in bellator i as soon as he stepped in to fight vanderford i had a really good feeling he was going to go out there win i didn't think he'd go out and knock osn out in the first round like that but guy's going to be tough he's going to be a tough out of one 85 tons of talent between the ears has always been his biggest issue and it seems like a lot of that is maybe a thing of the past here. So I'm curiously how

Bellator will match make for him next. They should give him someone pretty high up, in my opinion. But that was a great performance, and happy Trails to Roy McDonald. What a career that guy had. Let's go to Torino. Trino, you're there.

Let's make sure you're on me, buddy. All right. Trino, try again. I mean, I've had salads before, but I've never spoken to an epic salad. let's break that streak. Hello, Epic Salad. Just got to unmute.

Can you hear me? Wait a minute. I got you. All right. So I had two questions for you. Let me just say, first of all, I'm a big fan of the show. But my first question is, what do you think of Tony Ferguson moving to Jackson Wink? And do you think that will help him?

Or do you think he's just a shell of himself and will stay the same? And my second question is, what do you think about? about the Belator title fight between Patrici Pitbull and Uzban Nirmagamatov, and who do you think is going to win that fight? Thanks, buddy. The Ferguson-the-Jackson wing thing is great. I don't know if that, I don't know if this means like he's going to be a Jackson-Wing fighter for the foreseeable future or if he's just kind of cross-training and that's just

a stop along the way. But that's a big thing that Tony's been missing for a while. I was just getting with the team, getting with coaches, getting with teammates, where you can get consistent work. He was bouncing around, you know, 10th Planet, Eddie Bravo, Freddie Roach, never really planted a flag anywhere, at least he has it for the last few years. So I think getting some different looks, working with different people, working with different coaches. I mean, the guy now gets to train with Aaron Pico on pretty much a daily basis.

there's worse guys to get rounds ed with on the practice mats. That's for damn sure. Brandon Gibson's a great coach. I'm sure he's going to be working with Brandon a lot. Jackson's got great game plans. One of the best minds in the industry. Winkle John, I mean, there's worse places he could be. So we'll see what that translates to.

It's kind of early to see how that's going to translate until he actually gets in there and fight somebody. But let's not forget. He won the first round against Michael Chandler before he got brutally caoed. And we saw like little glimpses of the Tony that was on that long winning streak for a while. So I think this is good for him. I think it's really good for him. And yeah.

And then Patricchi versus Usman Armaghamedoff. To me, Usman Armaghamedov is one of the best prospects in the sport. He might even be the best prospect in the sport right now. He's in the top three. Mahayev, him. bow-nickel, at least to me, you can mix and match those three guys. Those guys are spectacular. And I think Usman's going to beat him.

I think Usman's going to beat him. I think he's going to finish him. Within the first two rounds, I'm just that high on that guy. He's just so talented. A lot of people feel like maybe this is too soon. I don't. I don't. He's that good.

And I'm intrigued by that one. But I'm picking Usman to win. Let's go to James. Hello, James. Hey, good morning, Mike. How are you? Oh, been better. I think you gave me the COVID-Bode.

Oh, no. No, it's okay. It's my second time going through it. It's really not as bad the second time around. But I was wondering with Aldo, as long as he just wins and Sean Amali loses, do you think they'll finally give Aldo another title shot at 135?

And I feel like you and I have the same distaste for Henry Sehudo. So what's more annoying to you? Hearing Sehudo say he's going to come back or hearing Usman say he's going to box Canelo. Thank you, Mike, for all you do, and have a heck of a morning. Man, that's a, that's a, it's an evil question. The answer is Usman Canello by far.

But Sehudo keep continuously saying he's coming back and then not coming back. That is frustrating. but I'm giving Suhudo the benefit of the doubt here. I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt. I'm feeling better. I'm going to try to be more positive with this whole situation. The man's saying things, saying he's not impressed, trying to break down Marlon Vera.

Go fight him. Just go fight him before the end of the year. Just go fight the man. Please. I would love to see that fight. It makes perfect sense. And if Sohudo wins, he gets his title fight. That's it.

go freaking fight him. And then Aldo should get the title shot. He should be getting the title shot right now, but that's just not the way that this all played out. Now he's going to fight Marab. And I know one of the callers earlier was asking if Marab could upset Jose Aldo. Marab's the favorite. I expect that line to be extended a little bit more.

I bet it'll be like minus 140 by the time Saturday rolls around. But Marab is just a bad match. for a lot of guys. But I actually think Aldo skill-for-skill matches up pretty well. Take-down defense is pretty good. Obviously, he's the better striker. I think we're going to see a lot of Aldo leg kicks in this fight. Maybe that's a dangerous move on his part because Maraq can catch leg.

But it's a real interesting fight. And it's very fascinating. Like, skill for skill, it's the fight I'm looking forward to the most. The drama is obviously in the co-main event. The main event is for the... the title. Can Leon accomplish the dream? Can he prove a lot of people wrong? But Aldo Marab in terms of like action fight, I know Ariel likes to take credit for people's main event. I'll give him credit for it, but people's main event is Aldo Morab, and it's not even close. Let's go to Vinny.

Vinny, you're there. Okay, I don't hear you try again. Christian. Christian. Do we have you? I don't hear you either. Try again. We'll get you in. Emilio, Emilio, are you there? Yes. Yes, Mr. Max. It's good to hear your voice once again.

I'm happy to hear also that you have made it past the rough COVID part. COVID, yeah, it sucks. And I'm happy that you're... It does. I'm happy that you're enjoying that Dunkin' Donuts ice coffee, man. Let's go. I respect that. That's a great drink.

Or at least it sounds... It sounds like it. Maybe you should get Dunkin' Donuts to sponsor the podcast because you're making a hell of a, hell of a promotion for them. Let's go. So I've been kind of hearing in and hearing out a little bit, so I'm not entirely sure if this was already discussed or not probably, but I'm just going to give it a go. I saw the MMA hour with Ariel yesterday, and I got to see the announcement that Shane Burgos made about him joining the PFL.

And I think that was, I think that's great. I mean, I'm very happy for the guy he seemed pretty convinced about his decision. And yeah, I mean, I guess all I want to say is that I give him props for making that choice because you got to follow the money. And even though I don't know exactly how much he was paid by the UFC and his latest contract, I think that there might be a bit of a trend or he might have kind of started a trend.

or he might have kind of started a trend, or at least there's a possibility that he did that in the sense that he's setting a trend from maybe fighters that are still in their prime going out there and testing free agency. And I think that, I mean, I'm looking at way into the future, into my crystal ball,

but maybe that would also lead to the UFC Do you get, like, paying their fighters more? I don't know, but obviously if the competition starts attracting more attractive fighters in a way more exciting fighters, younger fighters that are not just going there to live out the twilight of their careers and get a big paycheck, I don't know. I think that has a potential to weigh down the line maybe be good for the UFC. because at the end of the day the UFC has, it's a monopoly. You know, that's why so many people nowadays still, when they talk about MMA,

or when they say UFC, they're actually talking about MMA. So, yeah, I just wanted to get your thoughts on that. And that's it. Thank you so much for what you do, sending you good vibes. And have a heck of a morning, Mike. Thanks, buddy. Yeah, it was a great move for Shane. He said that from pretty much Jump Street,

that him not testing the market and seeing what his value is would be sort of just wrong for his family. And he was right. PFL comes in with the big deal, and Shane's going to get to do all the things he wants. He gets shot at the million, gets to have the chance to become a world champion. He gets to commentate, which I think is great,

because he's awesome at that. stuff. I always want to get burgos on BTL or on preview shows and stuff like that, but he's always so busy. But he's great in that role. Spectacular. So now he gets to do that. He's going to make some more money. He's got a chance to win the million and a really good chance to win the million. And what I'm really interested in is like how will fighting for the PFL change the way he fights? Will he be that same guy who's just a sort of get or get got type of? a fighter who's just looking for, I mean, he wants performances of the nights, but he always finds himself in these incredible wars. Now that he's got sort of a tournament structure to play with,

will that change the way he fights? Will he fight a little more cautious? I mean, I don't think, I don't know how cautious a guy like Shane can get, but maybe his approach changed a little bit, knowing that, okay, I have a fight here, but I know like two to three months down the line or even less, I'm definitely fighting again. So maybe I'll wrestle a little bit more. Maybe I'll go for more takedowns. Maybe I'll just not get in these absolute crazy battles and crazy wars every single fight.

So I'm curious to see how that plays out. And unfortunately, I don't think it's going to happen that the UFC is going to be like, oh, no, we lost Shane Burgos. We have to start paying our fighters more. No, they're not going to change a damn thing. They're just going to say, okay, we like you, Shane, but on to the next one. That's just the way that it is. And if you're a fighter that's testing the market, like, unless you just want to be with the UFC forever,

it's just like, I have to be with the UFC. If I'm not a UFC fighter, I'm nobody. Like, if I would not, if you have one fight left in your deal and the UFC gives you the option to resign. Why would you do that? Just bet on yourself. Go out there, get a win, test the market, and see what you're worth. And if I'm, if I'm fighters kind of in, in Shane's boat, or I'm a fringe top 15 guy, people like me, people enjoy watching me fight, I think you're crazy not to look at the PFL. Because Shane, Shane has a good chance of winning that whole tournament next year, especially if you're, like, if you're a heavyweight that's on the tail end of a UFC deal,

and you're like a decent hand, you have to look at the PFL. You have to look at the PFL. Now, the PFL is providing opportunity for fighters. And I get that. But boy, oh boy, do they have a lot of work to do in terms of even coming close to catching the UFC or even like they keep touting that they're the number two promotion.

I don't think they are. They make so many mistakes. this tournament moving the playoffs overseas was just a thing of dumbness. And now guys who were favorites to win the million can't get visas now because they've changed this to go international. It's just dumb. And it screws a lot of the fighters over. It's just dumb. They make really bad decisions.

I don't know how this pay-per-view model is going to work. Who knows? But if you're a fighter, you have to look at the PFL. You have to because of the money and the opportunity that it provides, even though their business practices are not great. But we'll see. Good for Shane. I hit him up yesterday.

Told him congratulations and good for him. Vinny, you're there. Yes, sir. Finally able to join you. I either of a mic. Heckle of a morning to you too. Glad you're enjoying your coffee as well. Thanks, buddy.

I just wanted to say that I'm a lot. with you as far as Usman winning this weekend but why are the odds so bad or why is everybody picking against them everybody's taking

everybody's staying Edwards and is it because they're fighting in Salt Lake City? I mean is that one of the things I don't know I'm just curious about that and the other thing I wanted to comment was about the fight last weekend on Yasmin against that fight against the Brazilian

girl what a fight. Let me tell you That was the best girl fight I've ever seen in a while. Yep. Great fight. Yasmin Harrogai is going to beat Heragie. Excuse me. She's going to be a problem at 115. The battle of Yasmin's delivered it a big way.

It was a great fight. I went back to watch it again this morning. It's just so fun. But Harri-Gi is going to be somebody to watch. And they both are. They both are. It was a fantastic fight. Yeah.

the approach to this fight between Usman and Leon has just been really interesting. It's just been real interesting. A lot of people giving Leon the rub here. I feel, I just feel like Usman's, I don't know, maybe it's just, I know we had one caller mentioned it before, excuse me, that maybe it's just,

Ousman's looking past him a little too much, and people are seeing that, but Ousman's done this, like, a lot lately. He did it heading into the Colby fight too, talking about Cannelly. and all that craziness. But I don't know. Usen's been like near unbeatable.

I mean, he has been, he's been unbeatable since he's been in the UFC. Colby's given him a couple of tough fights. But other than that, he's just, he's dominated everybody's fought. But I don't know. Maybe people seeing things that I, then I'm not. But I just, maybe Leon can get it done. Maybe there is something too. this overlooked thing, but I don't think

Usman's like truly overlooking him. I just think he gets asked questions based on things that he said in the past, and I think he's just answering him. But I think Gooseman's going to win. But maybe I'm wrong. I don't know. Let's go to Alan. Alan are you there? Make sure you're on mute. All right. Let's try. Let's go to Kay Faye. He's been waiting for a while. Hey, hey, good morning, Mike. So, hello.

Here, still talking about Cheetah Vera. If he wants to take time off and wait for the Sean Piotr-Yon winner, I really want Aldo to beat Marab, however, I don't think that's likely. If Marab wins, that's who Henry Suhudo has to fight. He has to go fight Marab. while everybody else gets to wait. Heck of the morning. Happy birthday, AK.

Check. That's interesting. That's interesting. I don't know how much Sehudo is going to want that fight, but, like, I think, I think Vera is probably, and I'm not saying this disrespectfully at all. Because what Marlon has done lately has been, it's just been incredible. But I think the most winnable fight with the guy with a lot of momentum. right now for Sehudo is Cheeto. The risk reward is there.

I don't think the risk reward is necessarily there for Marab. But I would, I mean, that's fine too. But I feel like Cheeto is an option for Sehudo. I really do. And I'd like to see it. Let's go to Alan. Let's see if we can get him in here. Alan are you there?

Unmute. There we go. Yeah. Are you there, Alan? Yeah, I am. What's up, buddy? I think, yeah, Edward's going to rock to all, Usman, Oliver.

Why do you think that? Because I was just, and now I've been watching for years. And that's what I think. Well, we will see on Saturday, my man. See another pick for Leon. This has been very interesting. Let's go to Rips and Picks.

What's up, Mike? How you doing? Good. Hey, you know me? I'll keep it short as always. Everyone always talks about fighter pay and everything in the UFC, but honestly, I think what Burgos is doing, that's going to be the one thing that would probably solve fighter pay.

The more fighters that are willing to go to Bellator or go to these other organizations that are going to pay more, that's probably the only thing that would probably force the UFC to up their money and everything is if other fighters start leaving. I'm just curious, because I'm sure you probably hear a lot of stuff about fighter pay, but do you think just these other organizations, Shane Burgos, you know, sign them with PFL, do you think that would probably be one of the bigger game changers in fighter pay? No. No, I don't think so. Because we've, they've had fighters leave before.

They had Rory leave when he was in a good spot. I know he lost a Wonderboy on the way out. Gayguard was on a great run when he left to sign with Bellator. Benson Henderson left to sign with Bellator. I don't think this changes anything. Now, let's just say Like, they need a star to leave. They need, like, Mazadol to leave, or Adisanya or somebody like that. Like, if one of those guys leaves and goes to PFL, goes to Bellator and makes an actual huge dent and an impact, maybe. But they have, like, they just have so many guys. Like, Burgos is great.

I like Shane Burgos a lot. Grid fighter. but a guy who's probably not going to be fighting for a title at all in the UFC. He's just, he's an exciting fighter. And the way they looked at it, they look at it in a way is, hey, maybe we lose Shane Burgos, but look what just happened on Saturday in the same division. We had Nate Landware, just have this absolute war, and then he cut this incredible promo, and now he's got momentum.

And David Onama and a lot of other guys at 145. I don't think Burgos leaving the UFC is going to change. anything. Like I don't. It's not going to change a thing. They just be like, okay, next man up. They're just going to keep signing contender series guys at 10 and 10 and hopefully a couple of those guys hit. Maybe if a big star leaves. I mean, Nate's leaving, but if Nate goes to PFL or Bellator, which I don't think he will, maybe it's going to take somebody like that. Connor, Mazadol, Izzy, One of the big names, Francis and Ghanu, it's going to take one of these massive names,

these like, I'm not going to say irreplaceable, but close to it. Because even if they lose, like, some of their big stars, like they have others. Like if Shemayev left inside with Belator, that's different. Colby, that's different. Guys with big names, buzz, main eventors, losing Pettus and Rory and Benson and and even Shane Burgos,

all the respect I have in the world for Shane Burgos, it's not going to make a difference because they'll just sign five guys off the contender series tonight and that's it. So unfortunately it's not going to make any difference in that end. We're going to some overtime here. Christian, how are you?

Try again, Christian. We're going to get people who have not jumped in already. We're going to get the first. timers here. Let's go to Swap. Hello, Swap. How are you? I just have a question about Erman Saruk Kian. When I saw him first time with Makashu, I would just turn after that performance. Since then, I have been supporting him, rooting for him. But lately I noticed that he is not focusing on that what he is very good at, which is basically, like Khabib and Islam.

You could better at things you are better at. You can't be careless about your resume. Yes, he has become a phenomenon, a striker. And I want him to become that dominant champion in the future, not just another champion. So do you think he must focus and uses wrestling? I mean, I mean, must focus on wrestling more instead of striking in the octagon. Thanks, Mike.

Thank you. Um, I mean, Armand Surukyan is going to be a UFC champion. 100%. The matchup with Gamrod was a tough one because Gamrock could wrestle his ass off too. So you saw him strike a little bit more. Excuse me. So, yeah, I get that.

And same kind of with Usman, too. Like, Usman's in winning with the striking, hasn't really needed the wrestling. It's in his back pocket. So, yeah, I mean, Surruchian will probably go back more to wrestling, but Gamrott was just such a, Gamrod's so good with his wrestling. He was able to create a lot of scrambles with Sarukian. And it was his first five-round fight in the UFC. Gamrots had a million five-round fights in KSW and stuff like that. So what a learning experience that fight will be for Surukian hasn't changed the way I feel about him at all.

And as a matter of fact, I've watched that fight. probably more than any fight this year. And I've scored it for Sharukian every single time. Every single fight. Every single time I watch it. I feel like Surukian won that one. He didn't. It was one of the best fights of the year.

It'll be on my top five unless something insane happens. But I can't wait to see what's next for Surukian, who he should fight. And Gregor Gillespie would be a tremendous matchup. I don't know if it ever gets put together. But Gillespie's got to fight somebody. Give me Gillespie versus Sauru Kian. and I will be a happy, happy man. Christian, do you there?

Can you hear me? I got you. Thank you. So I just wanted to say, first I want to say that, like, I'm glad you're talking about the Usman Leon thing, because I've also been a little bit of surprised with how much love Leon's been getting against Usman, because I just think he's like, I think Usman's like a freak of nature.

And he's just, the craziest thing is that he just, like, keeps evolving every fight, you know, as good as he already is. But I just wanted to ask, like, with kind of the rise of Cheeto, you know, going from somebody that, like, you know, was somebody that, you know, maybe, you know, was just kind of the guy that was fighting Sean O'Malley and just kind of like a whatever kind of fighter to, like, somebody that's like super, like he's just super popular now, it feels like, or he's growing really quickly. And he's just like super, to me, at least like almost like, it's like alluring, right? like his fight style, you know, on the mic, he's awesome. I guess, like, my question for you is, you know, I'm kind of asking you to call your shot a little and pick one kind of male fighter and one female fighter that you think is going to be maybe in the next year,

kind of like have one of these rises like that where it's going to be like a fan favorite, you know, kind of pretty quickly. Thanks. Hmm. I think we saw two of them fight. past Saturday. Yasmin Hargi, I think, is going to become a fan favorite. I think she's already becoming a fan favorite.

She was one of the big stars, if not the biggest star, on Saturday's card. So I think she could be one that the UFC could build upon for sure. And then maybe Nate Landware. I don't know, like, I don't know if they're going to become like superstars, but I think both of those fighters, at least right now, are two examples of every time they're booked for fights, we're going to react in a very positive way. So yeah, I could definitely see them kind of get.

But this sport changes so quickly. Like remember Bobby Green? Remember the rub Bobby Green was getting? And then he fought Islam, stepped in, got the Islam fight. We're like, oh, this guy's the man. He's the best. He's a gangster. And then he went out and kind of got smushed.

And we still like Bobby Green, but he doesn't have the same sort of rub that he had heading into the Islam. fight. So it's kind of tough to say. But if we're just going on recency bias and what we've seen recently, I think Harrogie and Nate Landware are two pretty good, pretty good choices, honestly. Let's go to Jay. Jay, are you there? Not hearing you, Jay. Try again. Whoever, like, whoever's in line now, uh, that's whole wrap. We've been a really long time. That's fine. Avenues. Hello.

Yes. Okay, so I've got just two questions for you. So I've got, with Poré and Chandler coming up, I'm sort of going back and forth on who to pick. I'm not a better per se. I'm just sort of leaning back and forth day by day, kind of. And the second one is,

after Figgie and the Brenda Moreno sort of finish up, do you think they deserve like a big time documentary, like a 30 for 30 type thing? All right. Cheers, mate. Yeah, I think there'll be some sort of documentary on that on that rivalry for sure. I mean, you could have done this four times in a row. The figgy injury kind of halted that, but yeah, I would like to see one on that.

I'd like to see the ins and outs of that fight continuously being put together. I'd be very fascinated by that. And I can't wait to see those guys fight again. Maybe they'll do it on the Brazil card. I think that makes perfect sense. be a good co-made event for whatever headlines that one. Maybe it's Amanda Nunes. Maybe it's Charles Oliver's first title defense.

If he beats his Lamachev. Who knows? But I think that one happens in Brazil. And just seeing Brandon Moreno is like the bad guy, the heel in any fight, is just going to be really interesting and really fascinating. Because everybody likes Brandon Moreno, but he's certainly going to get boot out of the building in Brazil. Jay.

Hey, Mike, can you hear me? Yes. Hey, so everyone's talking about UFC with Edwards and Usman, but no one's talking about overall this weekend, and there's, like, so many good fights. And so I wanted to ask if you had to place a bet on what would be just the most entertaining fight this week, like the back and forth or maybe an amazing finish, between MVP, Mike Perry, Ucig versus Joshua, or Usman versus Edwards.

Who would you have to bet on? and my other point is am I wrong for saying that I've been enjoying these past fine nights recently more than the pay-per-views. I say over the summer I've been enjoying much more of the fine nights than probably most of the pay-per-views overall throughout the whole year

so far. So those are just my two points. Thanks, Mike. Have a heck of a morning. Thanks, buddy. Listen, the fight nights have, I think people enjoy the fight nights or have been enjoying them recently because like people were saying that we owe

that we in particular owed like the last two cards apologies because they weren't tremendous on paper and we sort of pointed that out. I think we're just going in to these fight nights with excitement. Yeah, we're watching people get in the cage and punch each other in the face. Like, everybody likes that. But they're over delivering. The expectations are at a certain level and we're seeing a bunch of finishes. We're seeing some crazy fights. Like I will take, give me UFC San Diego over of UFC Vegas 59 every day of the week and twice on Sunday. Like UFC Vegas 59 had all

finishes, but it still wasn't a great card. There are finishes, but it wasn't like a spectacular, it's not, we're not going to be talking about that card at the end of the year for events of the year. We're not going to. San Diego was fun. We had a couple of fight of the year

contenders. We had a breakout moment for Cheeto Vera. We had, it was just, it was a good card. It was a better card. The fans make such a difference, especially when they're up and they're all fired up. But yeah, I think the expectations for those fight night cards are a little bit lower. And when they actually turn out to be really good, we're like pleasantly surprised. And that's what we've gotten the last couple of weeks.

And then 278 is just, it's there. We get a really solid main card. Tyson Pedro, Harry Huntsucker, come on now. That's not a pay-per-view-worthy. fight. No disrespect. It's just the way that it is. And the rest of the card is like, it's very fight nighty. Daniel De Silva, Victor Alta Marano, Shana Young, Miranda Maverick, Sean Woodson, Luis Saladanya, Leo Santos, Jared Gordon, Wu Yanan, Lucy Pudolova, Amir al-Bazi, Francisco Figurato, A.J. Fletcher, Ang, Lusa. Richie Lang, J. Perrin. These are fight night

fights. There's going to be some fun finishes and some fun scraps in there, but we're paying, I mean, we don't have to really pay for this one, but a pay-per-view main card with Tyson Pedro and Harry Hunsucker is not tremendous. I'm sorry. We're asking you to pay $75. And now they're adding taxes onto this. It's like nearly $80 to watch a UFC pay-per-beed out.

And Tyson-Pedro, Harry Hunsucker, I mean, the UFC is banking on Tyson-Pedro to just deliver. a highlight real knockout. And that's likely what's going to happen. I mean, look at the betting lines. They're suggesting that. But I get where you're coming from. But these four fights, Usman Edwards, Costa Rockhold, Aldo de Morab,

Ramanov-Tibura. It's a solid four-fights slate right there. Like, real good. All those fights, all those fights have stakes, all those fights of meaning, all those fights have light at the the end of the tunnel for whoever wins it and those are good a lot of these fight night cards don't have that it's just oh this is fun oh these are two fighters who are like middle of the pack

who we're just going to go in there and fight there weren't i don't know there's i mean there's stakes in every fight but there's can be clear night is day like right there for the world to see there's much bigger stakes on the pay-per-view but our expectations are higher for pay-per-view especially because we're spending $80 on them. So we need them to deliver. All right, we'll take two more. We got Con Diggie. The question is about the light heavyweight division.

We have three people at the top who are matching good with each other and to have the next title shot. Who you think should fight each other? Is it Yen and Jamal or Ankalife and Yan? And my second question is, why doesn't Usman get more love than he does? Because in the last couple of years, he's the most entertaining champion aside from Charles Olivera. He has great finishes, but I don't think the fan base love him so much.

Thank you, Mike. Thanks, buddy. Yeah, I think the Usman thing is just sometimes he just says things that are like, come on man like the canello thing just rub people the wrong way the move the 205 kind of rubs people the wrong way when he's got a title fight at 170 like staring him in the face um and he just hasn't fought in a while he was the most active champion for quite some time but since the colby fight we haven't seen him and people just i guess need to be reminded of how good he is like i think he's got to beat leon Edwards. I think he's going to

I don't, I mean, I think Leon's going to have moments, but I just again, I'm really surprised how many people are backing Leon here. And I don't know. Usman's battling not just for the title, but he's battling to maybe get his pound for pound spot back.

Like, MMA fighting global rankings, Volcanowski's the pound for pound guy just because he's been so active and his performances have been incredible. Usman hasn't fought in a while. we'll see what he does against Leon, but there's a lot at stake here for Usman, and there's a lot at stake for Leon, too,

because like I've said before, I don't think Leon's got another title shot. This is it. He's got to do it here. So it's an interesting fight, but I just, I think Usman's going to win. All right, the AM, take us home. Are you there?

Oh, and then the light heavyweight thing, I think they're going to do the rematch. It seems like all signs are pointing towards, towards Yerry versus Glover, maybe in December. Not done yet, but that's what's being discussed. We confirm that. That's what the UFC is angling towards. And I think they'll just do Jan versus Ankleyev.

I think that's the way to go. And then Jamal Hill's kind of the odd man out, but it's okay. He'll get there. Musa, are you there? The wheel is spinning. Do we have them? Okay. It's not working.

NEL. Are you there? Gotcha. What's up? Yeah. I'm just thinking like, you know, Usman and Leon. So from the stat being seen from past fights, I think, you know, Trevor Whitman has lost two fights like Rose Namayunas and, you know, Justin Gage. But I think that, Leon has a chance to win this time, and he's going to grab his title, for sure. We shall see. Again, a lot of people back in Leon. I'm surprised. But, hey, Deam, are you there?

That was exciting. All right. I think we've done enough. I gave you nearly two hours. It's the longest show we've ever done. So thank you all very much. We'll be back on Thursday. We'll do it again.

10 a.m. Eastern right here on the M.A. Fighting Podcasting Network. I'm going to go relax for a little while. And then I'll be back on for coverage of Dana White's Contender Series. Very excited to see who gets a contract tonight on the Contender Series. But thank you all. Appreciate all the calls. Appreciate all the insight. All your thoughts on UFC 278 and beyond.

You guys are the best. Back on Thursday morning. Appreciate it very much. Have a great rest of the day. And as always, have a heck of a morning, you animals. The Vox Media Podcast Network.