MMA Fighting - HOAM | What In the World Is Going On With Conor McGregor vs. Michael Chandler?

Episode Date: June 4, 2024

Islam Makhachev and Dustin Poirier's 20-plus minute battle in the main event of UFC 302 certainly saved a lackluster card, and while the MMA community continued to appreciate the greatness of the fight throughout Sunday, the UFC 303 press conference in Dublin was postponed ahead of Conor McGregor's return against Michael Chandler. On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck discusses the roller coaster weekend, Makhachev's tremendous win over Poirier, the challenger's gutsy performance and his fighting future. Additionally, listener topics include McGregor vs. Chandler, whether or not the fight does end up happening on June 29, the speculation surrounding it, what the backup plan could be if the bout is scratched, the chances Makhachev moved up to welterweight to challenge for a second title in his next fight, Dana White saying Jon Jones is the best fighter in the world right now, and much more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

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

the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two,

Ghosts in the Machine, available now, only from Audible. To the Vox Media Podcast Network. June 4th, 2024, and it is indeed a heck of a morning. We are on the MMA fighting Twitter space. You can hear the show in its entirety, shortly thereafter.

On the M.A. Fighting Podcasting Network, What's going on, everybody? I am Mike Heck. Hope you're all having a fantastic start to the week. We are coming off of UFC 302, a card that when we go back and look at it, it did in fact take place in Newark, New Jersey. And boy, was it a toughie. It was a slog and a half.

It is not a memorable card at all. Outside of a couple of key moments, the main event between Isam, Makachev and Dustin Porier was really, really good. That was a great fight. And about three minutes into that fight, I was thinking of myself, we might be watching the worst pay-per-view of all time. Because I thought Makachev could have just gotten Pori out of there in the first round. I thought it was possible.

I thought it might happen. And boy, would that pay-per-view have ended with a thud if that was the case. However, Dustin Porier shows his grit, his toughness, and the first round just kind of woke him up a little bit as he became quite competitive down the stretch, probably won a round. I know on the watch party, I had it two to, two, heading into five, but if you guys were watching as it was happening, it was a vibes pick, and that was really all it was. You could convince me that Machchev was up four rounds to none. Very, very possible. I had it realistically 3-1, and then the fifth round happens. And, I mean, just sensational stuff from Islam Makachaf in the fifth round.

Just amazing, amazing stuff with that sequence that finished the fight. The kind of ankle picks sort of drag it, leg sweep leading into the dars, Dustiporia has no choice but to tap. What a fight, what a performance from. What a performance in defeat from Dustin Porre. And you can't help but be impressed by what both guys did. Maybe the best Dustin Pori we've ever seen considering what he was up against. And what a shitty experience it must be to fight a guy like Gisla Mokachev.

What a performance. The guy just continues to get better and better. His striking is really good. He won most of the striking exchanges. Yes, Porier had his moments, especially in the clinch. where he was able to land some good shots to the body and break that clinch pretty quickly. Obviously, the wrestling and the takedown defense was top-notch. Poyer was able to get up from tough spots later in the fight.

It was just a really good fight. Really good fight. And it saved the entire card, in my opinion, especially after that co-main event, which was really tough to watch. And Islam Makachev gets it done. We assume he will go on to fight Harmon Serukia next, which signed me the hell up for that. There is literally no other fight I want to see right now than that one.

That fight is so, so good. And if Islam Makachev wants to move up to 170, go beat Armin Sarukian. And if you do that, if you want to go to 170, you can vacate the lightweight title, go right ahead. I have no issue with that whatsoever. But Machachev continues to do the thing. Dustin Porre will see where he goes. maybe he comes back and fights again, maybe he takes just an extended break.

I don't know, but after a performance like that, after going in there and giving his en Bacchev a much tougher fight than most people thought he would, I just, to me, I don't think he needs to do anything else. I really don't. I really don't.

So if this is the last time we saw Dust Siporier compete, what a career that man had. and we'll continue to sing his praises forever and ever. Sean Strickland beats Paulo Costa via split decision. If you guys watch the watch party, I got the big fat hose job on one of my bets. I had Sean Strickland minus five and a half points. I felt very, very confident that I was going to hit that bet. And then David Trelli decided to screw me over by scoring the fight 49-46 for Paul Acosta.

I went back and rewatched it because Jed kept saying on the post-fight show, look, there's a discussion to be had that you could score it 4-1 for Costa because some of the rounds are close. And I'm just like, all right, let me see if I was just completely wrong about this. And I went back and re-watched it. I'm just like, what are you talking about? There's no justification whatsoever to score that fight four rounds to one for Paula Costa, let alone even the fight in general for him.

You want to score 4847 Strickland? Like even that's a card that I would have to like scratch my head and think about a little bit. But boy, that one, that one stunk. That one really stunk losing that one. But Sean Strickland wins not the best fight of all time. I don't necessarily even blame Sean Strickland for that. But Paul Costa came out on Sunday and was like, no more of this. Let's try to win rounds thing.

I'm going in there to take people's head off. and that's kind of what I thought we would see on Saturday, but that did not happen. Kevin Holland, maybe outside of Islam Makachep, the MVP of the card, submits Mikhail O'Il-Zechek and just kind of a nasty arm bar. Good win for Kevin Holland, great post-fight interview as well. And then Nico Price and Alex Marono had a fight that will technically go down in the history books as a fight. Not a very good one, but Nico Price returns, gets a win. Randy Brown continues to get victories, defeats Eliza Zaleski.

That was a pretty fun fight. Roman Koppeloff beats Sazar Almeida, another split decision that really made no sense because Roman Koppelof clearly won that fight. Jelton Almeida returns to the win column, submits Alexander Romanov in less than a half around. Robanov just didn't even seem like you wanted to be there. Good for Jailton Almeida to get back in the wind column. Grant Dawson beats Joe Selecki.

Again, in a fight, we will never go back and watch again. but Grant really needed a win. He got it, and sometimes it doesn't matter how you get it. You just got to get it. Jake Matthews, this seems to be a theme, my friends, beats Phil Row. And again, a fight we're never going to go back and watch again. Basil Hefez, Mickey Gall, great fight. Really, really good. They just beat the shit out of each other 15 minutes. I actually thought Mickey won that fight. I was holding a plus 300 Mickey Gall ticket as well, so maybe I'm a little bit biased, but I actually thought Mickey Gall won the last two rounds.

but I'm not going to make a big stink about it because of the fight ruled. And hopefully they got taken care of in the back end. Eileen Perez wins another one against Jocelyn Edwards. And then Andre Lima wins another split decision. That shouldn't have been a split decision defeats Mitch Raposo and Andrelema now 2 in the UFC, although he did miss weight by a bunch. And he cheated a whole bunch and not a single point was taken, despite a hard warning given by the referee.

And after giving said hard warning, Andri Lima grabbed the fence clearly and didn't get a point taken. So always cheat, my friends. Always cheat because the referee is never going to do anything about it. So that was Saturday. And during Saturday's broadcast, we get a promo for UFC 303, which will be headlined, at least at this moment, by Connor McGregor versus Michael Chandler. We got to see what the main card looked like with the graphic and all. And the excitement, the anticipation levels continue to rise. We're preparing for a press conference in Dublin on Monday yesterday.

And then we find out late Sunday night that press conference no longer happening, postponed per the UFC. And that has led to rampant speculation by the entire. world. Is this fight happening? Is this fight going to be a thing? Is somebody injured? Did Connor McGreg get in trouble? What is going on here? And Ariel Hawati talked about it on the M.A.R. Monday has nothing to do with any, as he put it, salacious material outside of the cage, no arrests or him getting in trouble or anything. Michael Chandler was getting ready to go to the airport, to fly to Dublin for it,

was informed that the press conference was canceled just before he was set to head out to set airports. And now we don't know what the hell is going on. We didn't hear from Connor. We got some sort of cryptic tweets from Michael Chandler. We weren't really sure what the hell was happening. There are some reports that Connor may have suffered an injury. Nothing has been really truly confirmed on that end. But Connoberger did speak, at least via Twitter, 3.42 p.m. Eastern yesterday and tweeted out, and I quote,

in consultation with the UFC, today's press conference was canceled due to a series of obstacles outside of our control. I apologize to my Irish fans and fans around the world for the inconvenience and appreciate all of your passion and support. I can't wait to put on the greatest all-time show in the Octagon. So who knows? Who knows what's really happening here? is Connor injured? Doesn't seem like Chandler's injured at all. Is it something that Connor will be able to fight through? I don't know because we don't really truly know anything.

We could speculate. You know, he said, she said, all I could tell you is that as of about 9.30 p.m. Eastern time last night, talk to a couple people, nothing has really changed. Nothing has really changed. I haven't really learned anything. that I could really talk about or that could really change the story.

But as of 9.30 p.m. Eastern last night from the people I've spoken to, the fight is still on. But who the hell knows? I know a lot of people are kind of throwing some things out. You know, maybe they do, Dana White was saying, oh, we're thinking about a BMF fight. Maybe it's maybe they do Michael Chandler versus Max Holloway headlining that card for the BMF title. Who the hell knows? Again, I have no insight to this whatsoever. So don't be going off and aggregating.

Am I going to say this is going to happen? No, I don't know what's going to happen. This is going to be a very interesting next 25 days or so trying to get to UFC 303. How are they going to do this? What is going to happen? I think I saw some reports. Maybe there's talks about doing Yuri versus Alex in the main event of that card. But again, I can't confirm nor deny any of this stuff.

So we'll see how it all plays out. It's something we're certainly going to keep an eye on. And hopefully this fight is a go. And if you're Michael Chandler right now, you must be losing your damn mind. All this sort of work behind the scenes past year plus waiting for this fight to happen. You kind of put your career on hold for this fight. You finally have a date. Your faces are on a poster.

There's promos. There's all this. And now thinking to yourself, maybe it doesn't happen. So got to feel for Chandler. more so that he has to wait and kind of see what's going to happen here. Pretty wild stuff. Pretty wild stuff. And yes, the UFC is back in Louisville for a fight night event.

And not the best offering that the UFC could put together. I mean, obviously there's some stuff here, but not a great card. It should be a fun watch. but not a ton of like divisional stakes outside of the main events and even the main events. I don't think there's real title implications between Jared Kinnear and Nasrudin Nemovoff, considering who's at the top of the division. Dominic Reyes, we'll see how he bounces back against us with Jacoby. We get Raul Roos Jr. back.

Punisoriano dropping a 170 to fight the returning Miguel Baezza. So yeah, that's a card that is going to happen on Saturday, and we'll watch it and we'll cover it. And I actually think it's going to be pretty fun to watch. But again, there's just not a lot of stakes here. Not a lot of stakes at all. So, all right, let's hear what you all have to say on this Tuesday. I'm sure there's some things in the monologue that I didn't even touch upon, but those are the two big ones.

Absolia, kick us off. So, Mark, kick of the morning. Firstly, I just want to say, usually 302 was, like you said, a really horrible event. I really enjoyed that main event, though. I think Dustin Purié did a really phenomenal job at handling Islam really well. Islam really showed out why he's the current champion. I just want to go right into it with a few questions with the future. Anyway, firstly, I'm sure you saw Valentina Shepchenko's recent comments about the Sophia.

Do you reckon that the UFC is going to maybe try and do three-titled, three-title fights for that card, just put a bunch of random string of fights just to, you know, compensate for a big event, you know, quote and quote, according to Dana. Or do you see them kind of mixing it up and I guess still doing what they typically do when they stack up cards? Another question is regarding Sean Strickland. I mean, like, what does he realistically do? Because truthfully speaking, I don't really think he's in the title shot. I still think he's in the picture, but he probably needs to do a lot more to win. Does he fight maybe Robert Whitaker Hams up, regardless whoever wins that, you know, loses that fight?

Or should he have the right to sit out and wait and, you know, possibly fight Ardissania for a second time, though he beat him once, or maybe Dracis de Pleisies? And my final question is, do you see Islam, you know, possibly find Leon Edward in November? But if Leon can successfully be below Muhammad a very, you know, fast amount of time, that's all I have. Have a great day. All right. Let's start with the Shepchenko stuff.

You know, I've heard some rumblings, and I don't think Valentin has really shied away from it. If it's like a Mexican Independence Day themed card, she just fought on it last year as the challenger. It doesn't seem like she's all that interested in doing it. that again, but she's saying that she's been assured that it's not going to be shaped as such. And the truth is, I have no clue what they're trying to do here. Dana has talked about doing the Mexican Independence Day sort of theme every single year moving forward after Noce UFC last year and the success of that event and how fun that all was. So, but then you're going to the sphere for the first and only

time do you just stack it up i don't really know um yeah i don't know i honestly don't know i think if they and like i said valentina has been kind of open about this i feel like if they are going to do a nocha ufc part two for this ufc 306 card i believe it is might be tough getting valentina on board if we're if we're being honest um and i know alexa grasso had mentioned in some interviews that she'd be open to fighting man and fioro on that card if valentina doesn't want to go and if that's the case boy what are we doing here like why are we even doing this ultimate fighting season ultimate fighter season it's got to be probably the least watch ultimate fighter of all time i mean they couldn't get viewers for connor begrugger on the show let alone elix de raso and valentina

Shifchenko. So, yeah, I would say, Manon Fioro should probably be ready, just in case. But, yeah, I do think they're going to stack that card up. I do think this is going to be, like, a three-title fight card. They're at the sphere. Data wants to make this the biggest event of all time. So I do think they'll probably do a trio of title fights on that card would be my guess. What's next for Sean Strickland? On to the next one. I said, Robert Whitaker, win or lose on June 22nd against Tomzot-Chimai F. If Tom's at Chimai F, Strickland is way out of the conversation.

But again, it is Tomzot-Shimaev, so you just never know. So if you're Sean Strickland, you fight Robert Whitaker, or you just be ready for a phone call that comes. Someone needs to step in, fight DDP if somehow Izzy doesn't make it to whenever that fight happens. I think we all assume it's going to happen in Perth. Just be ready to step in if you needed, my man. be the backup fighter or something, go weigh in, make a couple extra bucks, and just be ready. As we've learned, and as Sean Strickland has learned, maybe more than most, availability is your best friend, and sometimes availability can pay off.

And it certainly did for Sean Strickland last year as he became the champion by stepping in on a couple months notice. DDP wasn't ready after UFC 290. So Sean Strickland stepped in, made the most of it and became the champion. So he's probably going to be in a similar position, but I don't think he's just going to slide into a title fight, considering where this division is at right now. So we'll have to wait and see. And should is on fight Leon?

No, no. You already know how I feel about this, guys. He should not fight Leon Edwards. He should fight Armand Sarucan. He should fight Armand. He's got a legit guy. waiting for him. They could do it in Abu Dhabi.

They could do it at MSG. Who cares? It's either the co-main at MSG to John Jones or he gets to headline in Abu Dhabi. But either way, that's the fight. That is the fight. I have zero interest at this very moment in watching Islam Akachaf go fight Leon Edwards. Leon Edwards still has to be Balaamahmah, which is going to be tough. And at the same token, both guys have people to fight.

Islam has a legit number one contender to fight, and if Leon Edwards beats Bilal Muhammad, he also has a legit number one contender to fight in Shafkat Rahmanath. Now, let them both go out there and win whatever they have to win, and then if Islam wants to move up to 170, fine. I have no issue with it. In fact, I'll also say this. If Islam's like, nah, I ain't fighting, Armin, I'm just going to fight for the World's Way Belt. I'm not going to love it because I really want to see Islam versus Surukian 2.

But if he does that, as long as he vacates the lightweight title, I have no issue with it. But you cannot hold up the division to go up to 170. You can't. You can't. There has to be some sort of stake. There has to be something to lose for the guy that's moving up. So take the rip. Like that should be what it is.

If you want to move up and do the champ champ thing, cool. But you can't go in there thinking, well, if I lose, at least I'm still the lightweight champion. No, fuck that. I'm sick of the champ champ stuff. I'm sick of the going for the second title stuff. I've been sick of it for a while, especially when there are legit number one contenders ready to go. So no, I don't want to see it unless Islam is like, all right, peace out, lightweight, I'm done. Then I'm okay with it.

But until then, and only until then, I don't want to see it. Zero interest. And it doesn't seem like Dana White's all that interested either. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo? Great idea. Feel the fun with all the latest slots in live casino games and with no wagering requirements.

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your travel bug, but your taste buds too. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. Four ounce type. Yeah. Hey, heck of a morning. Real quick, I wanted to talk about two things. First things first.

Shout out Roman copy log. I actually saw not a single person in the betting community pick Roman to win. They were all going for Caesar Almeda. So I went back and did the research. I did the film study. And I didn't see what they saw. You know, I saw Caesar. I mean, he's a good fighter, but I saw him struggle terribly with the takedowns.

You know, he's got good power, good get-up game. But I figured if Roman turned this into an MMA fight, I thought it was easy work for him. And, you know, finally, I get a prediction right. so it was good on Roman to get that win. He needed it, bouncing back off a loss from what's his name, Anthony Hernandez. And, yeah, that's... Okay.

Yeah, good win for Roman. Good win. Looking at the... Let's look at the M.A. fighting stat pick, shall we? Let's see. One, two, three, four, four out of six of us picked Roman Coppulov. One person got exactly right by decision.

I picked him second round knockout. I think Jed picked decision as well. Yeah, most of us picked Roman. Most of us picked Roman. So, yeah, I didn't understand why that fight was lying so closely. I didn't understand how Almeida end up being the slight favorite there. I didn't get it. I didn't get it.

We talked about it on the show as well last week. I just didn't see it. Didn't see it happening. So yes, agreed. And there you go. Good pick. Good pick. Well done.

I'm going to try to get wheels up in here. We're getting the circle of doom. But maybe we can get them in. I don't know. No, no blancoino. Wheels up, bounce up, bounce back in. Maybe we can get your connection better. Four quarter sports, go ahead.

Hey, Mike. So what's it called? I do want to see Armin versus Islam. If Islam does move up to Walter weight, I agree with you, he has to vacue the title.

And I don't know. I've always had a feeling that he's trying to avoid Armin for whatever reason, maybe because he gave him a really tough fight. Doesn't look pretty impressive, not going to mind. I wasn't anticipating for him to get to the fifth round, although I did

like a tree of like over one and a half, over two and a half, up to over four and a half. And it worked out pretty well in my favor. With Dustin, do you predict him coming back for the Nate fight as early as 2025? Just because I agree with you, I don't see him fighting anybody else outside of neat. He'd already beat Connor. I know money talks and stuff like that, but he just seen like somebody that's not really interested in finding anybody else outside of Nate Diaz. and lastly

NBA finals are I think on Thursday I know you're picking the Celtics something's telling me that Kyrie and Luca they're going to put up good numbers against Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum

and I feel like the only people that get in the way of the Boston Celtics are the Boston Celtics but I don't know the vibes are just feeling like it's going to be Mavs and 6 I know you're probably going to disagree I would do like a friendly wager with you on like Dunkin' Donuts Ice Coffee. I'm not sure if that intrigues you or not.

How long do you see this series going with NBA funds? All right. That's what I got. Thanks, Mike. Yeah, Pori looked real good, man. He looked real good. It was one of his best performances. And like I said, on the Postwhite show, I think the only way he would come back is to fight Nate.

Or if like he slid into one more title shot. Just like a short notice, somebody fell out. out, Dustin, can you take it? That's it. That's it. There's nothing more for him to do. There's no reason for him to fight Connor again. He's got money. He doesn't want to go through the headache. If he was the champion and headlining and getting all the paper viewpoints, almost, it's very hard to turn that down because he's probably making $20, $25 million for that fight. But I think it would be nade or nothing, honestly.

It's, he doesn't need to fight anymore unless he just really wants to. But here's the thing too. We don't look at Dustin like Tony Ferguson right now. Like we don't cringe when we see Dustin's name on a, on a fight card.

Not at all. The dude fought the best fighter on the planet and hung with him. Was 2-2 heading into the fifth on one of the judges' cards, three one on the others. He was in there. He was in.

And he looked damn good. It was probably the best he's ever fought. I know he's had some big wins and some great performances, but considering who he was fighting, setting what the betting odds were and how people just viewed the fight in general, dude, showed up. That was incredible. It was incredible.

My official pick for the NBA finals, and yes, there's some bias to it, but there's also just some thoughts about it as well. Dallas has played their absolute best basketball over the last like three or four games. The best they have played season. By far, the best they have played all season. The Celtics have not even come close to playing

anywhere near as good at basketball as they can over these playoffs. They have not played one good Celtics basketball game the entire postseason, not one good game. And they have rolled everybody. And yes, wasn't the most difficult path to get to a championship. But they played like, shit the whole time. They need this break. They needed this break. I think they're going to beat the holy hell out of the Mavericks. I don't think this series is competitive at all.

And I even said it to the crew, G.C. and company in the back, they all thought I was crazy. I think the Celtics are going to beat six shades of shit out of the Mavericks. I don't think this series is even going to be fun for anybody not a Celtics fan. Southlix and five is my pick. People think I'm insane. I don't care.

See, the Mavericks, they live and die by Luca and Kyrie. If they both don't play great basketball in every game, they're not going to win. The Celtics can win without Brown or Tatum or even both guys not playing great. They can still win. They are way deeper, way more dangerous. And those two guys are very good. but there's nothing I want to see more than Kyrie Irving cry his little eyes out after the Southwark stomp a mud hole in them.

I just, I don't want to see anything else. Just give me that visual because it would be the best. And he deserves every bit of it. So give it to us. Give it to us all. It'd be incredible. YVMZ, go ahead.

Hey, Mike. Heck of morning. Just had a quick question. Do you think, I know you just said, that maybe Dustin could, you know, slide into a title shot if needed. But how about they just make, you know, just the trilogy with Max Holloway for the BMF belt? Just want to get your thoughts on that. Thank you.

Maybe it didn't seem like Dust was all that interested in it. The only trilogy that would make sense for Dustin is Gaichie. Because they're one-one against each other. Gaichi knocked them dead in July of last year. but there'd have to be something to it and I just don't like I don't know I believe Dustin when he says look I need a goal I need to accomplish something here

and I know Volcanovsky called them out and I mean it wasn't even like a true callout but it was just like hey let's have some fun I might have to wait to fight for the featherweight title if they do especially if they do Toporia versus Max which I would be kind of surprised if they don't do that but maybe things will change I don't know.

But, like, I don't think that fight interests Porre at all. Like, what is that accomplished for Dustin Porier? Would it be a fun one? Sure. But is that like, is that a goal accomplishing fight for him? Is, like, one of the boxes he needs to check off for his career is to fight the former featherweight champion of the world? I don't know.

I just don't know. He's 35. this is exactly when he wanted to walk away. He wants to keep his faculties in check. He doesn't want the sport to retire him. I mean, it's just a damn good way to do it. Like when Luke Rockhold retired after the Paula Costa fight, I was like, this is a damn good retirement.

This is a damn good retirement because he went in there, had a tremendous fight, an underrated classic with Paulo Costa, and then he walked away and said, this is it for me. This is great. Of course, we knew he would come back like two or three months later and say, I'm going to keep fighting, and ended up getting his face broken by Mike Perry, but he probably made a ton of money to do it.

But that was a great time to leave. And we felt a little bit different about Luke, actually way different about Rockold than we feel about Dustin Porre, because the dude could still compete. But again, for Dustin, the way he kind of spoke about his career, unless Islam just leaves the division altogether and goes to Welterweight,

vacates the lightweight title and is staying at welterweight for the foreseeable future, there is no path back for him unless he wins like three or four fights. Does he want to go fight, you know, the Raphael Fizibs of the world? Does he want to fight those guys? I don't, I don't know. Does he want to fight the McTebeck Oral buys in 18 months? Probably not. I think he'd fight Nate and I think that's it.

He wants that. That would be like an accomplishment for him. That'd be a goal, something to strive for. He's wanted that fight for a year since they were booked to fight a Madison Square Garden. So, yeah, we'll see how it all plays out. But, I mean, if they offered him max, maybe. But I don't know. He was asked about it at the post-fight press conference.

He didn't seem all that interested in it. So, uh, Kowloon City, go ahead. Can we stop with the Islam doesn't want to fight Armin? The dude has seven finishes in his last eight, number one pound for, pound in the world. If any other fighter was in that position and they were asking to be double champ, like, we wouldn't say that he's scared of the next guy. Like, just think there's an inherent bias against the Dagestani sometime. With that said, between Islam and Habib, gun to my head, if I need one of them to win a fight, I'm still probably going with

Habib. I think Islam puts himself in a little dangerous situation sometimes. Habib, you knew what he was going to do, couldn't stop it. I'm still. taking Habib over Islam right now. And the last point, I don't want to see Max fill in for 303. I want to see Max fight I'll fight I think that's fight of the year, written all over it. I don't really want to put that in jeopardy.

Thanks, man. I'm with you, but it's still a big fight if they do it. And Max should get rewarded handsomely for that. And who knows? He could still fight Ilya. He's got good management. He's a very smart guy. And

if I'm Max, I would say, hey, you want me to come in and save the day and fight this dude? Sure. But I want all the money and I want to guarantee that I'm still going to fight for the featherweight title. If the UFC says yes, go get it, man. Like, it's a huge payday for him. But, yeah, of course, we would rather see Connor come back. Like, that's the whole intrigue.

But the question is, if Connor is really hurt, do we want that version of Connor at this age? Now, Conner has obviously performed very well injured in the past. Chad Mendez fight, even the second Nate fight. He was a little dinged up, still when had the greatest performance, maybe in a title fight we've ever seen against Eddie Alvarez. Still a little dinged up as well. I don't know. It's going to be interesting to see how this all plays out, but I'm with you.

I'm glad you brought up sort of the hot takes coming out of the Islam fight, the victory over Dustin Porier because there's been a few. One is what you just said. He doesn't want to fight Armin. I don't know if he does want to fight Armin. So I'll say that. It's not because he's like scared of

Armin, but he's already fought him. He already fought him. He already won. And if he has the chance to go and fight Leon Edwards at 170, of course he would rather take that over fighting Armin Sarukin. But he's going to fight Armin Sarukin regardless. Like that's, they're not going to do Leon in Islam.

unless they have to, like everything falls apart, that they have planned, John Jones gets hurt or something or whatever, and, like, they just need something big. They don't even know how big that would be. Like, I'm way more interested in the Sarukian fight. And if he goes and beats Armand, like, as it stands right now with what this division looks like, that's it. Like, he's essentially, I'm not going to say he's cleaned out the division entirely,

but he's beaten all the guys that are in play outside of maybe Max Holloway, who's probably going to go to fight for the featherweight title at some point. So he doesn't seem all that interested in fighting Max Holloway, who's only had two fights at lightweight, which I get. So the other, here's a couple of the other ones. He got exposed by Dustin Porre. What the hell? What are you talking about?

Got exposed. Islam looked great in that fight. He battled through. He battled through almost what the exact fight Porre wanted to give him. And he won. And in most people's eyes, he won all four rounds, despite poor he having a little bit of success. He dug deep in one against a guy who improved dramatically, dramatically. Islam was so good on Saturday. He was so good. And despite Dustin's best effort. And again, I'll say this, again, Dustin's had some big wins and some big moments. To me, after going back and rewatching it,

I think that was the best Dustin Poria we have ever seen inside the Octagon. I think that was his very best performance across the board. He fought his ass off, and he fought great, and it still wasn't good enough, and his arm still won. The guy's so good. He's the best fighter in the world. I don't care what Dana White says.

He's the best fighter in the world. Dana coming out and saying the John Jones thing was so crazy, because he wasn't. even asked about it. Aaron Jose Young's was just like, where do you rank is on Machachev amongst like the greatest lightweights of all time? And then on his own accord, Data White,

to just kind of knock down Machachev's accomplishments, which I thought was really weird and odd that he would do that. Oh, as long as John Jones is still fighting, he can't be the best pound for Palm Fighter. What are you talking about? What are you talking about?

So John Jones can just fight once. John Jones had one fight in the last five years, but it's okay because if you locked John Jones in a room with this on Machachev, John Jones would walk like, no, I don't understand it. And to pick that time to make that stance was just super weird to me.

On his own accord again. No one asked him, Is Islam the best fighter in the world? Is he the number one pound for pound? The question was, where do you rank Islam in the pantheon of lightweights? And then on his own, Dana said, well, he's not the best fighter in the world. That has to be John Jones. Who, by the way, Dana has said not so great things about John Jones.

As recently is when John took time off to move up to heavyweight. You remember when the Francis and Ghanu fight was a thing? When he was like, if I'm John Jones, I'm staying, I'm going back to light heavyweight. or all these things. It's John's fault that this fight didn't happen. And of course, Francis chose to leave the UFC on his own accord. And now of a sudden, oh, John's the greatest. Cyril Gahn was the best heavyweight in the world.

And he beat him like he was nothing. Like all this stuff, I just, I didn't understand that. I didn't understand it. But give Islam as do, man. Like, I know as a community and even on the watch party, like it was a bummer watching Dustin get. in the fifth round. It was a bummer. Like, ah, because I think all of us collectively, just because we've been following Dustin, we've been along for this ride for so long, we're

just like, imagine if he does it. Like, can't he do it? This is his last chance. Can't imagine if he gets it done. And then it just ended. And we're just like, ah, and you're kind of heartbreak broken. And I think that stemmed not just from him not winning the belt, but also from the fact that, man, this could be it. It could be the last time we see him fight and there's just like almost a collective disappointment about about that so yeah give his on his props man he's the best fighter in the world he just is he's active he's fighting he's winning 13 wins in a row tied for the most title defenses in the lightweight division and now he's going to go fight arm and surruki and it's going to be the best i can't wait cannot wait for that fight

But stop with the Islam slander. It's ridiculous. 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. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here. Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus, powered by Peloton IQ. Built for breakthroughs with personalized workout plans,

real-time insights, and endless ways to move. Lift with confidence. While Peloton IQ counts reps, corrects form, and tracks your progress. Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. Explore the new Peloton Postrating Treadplus at OnePeloton.ca. Sinbad. Hello. Sinbad are you there we go. What's up, ma'am? What's up? After watching this Saturday, I kind of just like opened on my eyes on how good Khabib was. Because when we were watching Islam, Islam is more of a like position over submission guy when it comes to his grappling. And we see when it goes for submission, sometimes he will lose that position. But with Khabib what made him so good was that he was able to maintain that position and that ground impound and his pressure.

And the ground and pound and pressure is like some of the two things that Islam doesn't have, but Islam submission game is so good that he doesn't even really need it to be such a high-level grappler that he is. You know what I mean? Yeah. dude Chabib is the man Habib is the man He was just so dominant man

Like no one No one gave Habib Even like a remote problem Like he had a close fight like early in his UFC career But I mean he just ran over everybody I think he's lost Two rounds his entire career

Um And that's that's pretty much that so yeah so the hobib is the man so dominant even got pretty fun down the stretch too you know islam's will islam takes a little more risk than he'll be does the striking is really good but hubib is just so dominant just so dominant really really good uh blundel go ahead uh didn't go through let's go to benjie's diary Yeah, what's up? What's up, ma'am?

Let's talk about Conner, because is the fight off? No. As of right now, it's not off. Because ESPN removed the whole promotion thing of the website. Connor is saying, thank you, God. It's like weird, right? Because we have no clue. And like I was tweeting, like the UFC, as real as it gets, you know, they always tell the truth.

Connor is always talking about telling the truth. is all like it's so vague right it's like you you start thinking about the weirdest possibilities like his child is sick or his child is dying you start to think about really weird stuff when he when he posts like thank you god and a picture of his family so i don't know what's going on what is your what is your take i mean as i said earlier um as of 9.30 p.m eastern last night it's like he was still on so i don't know Your guess is as good as mine right now. It's up in the air.

You would assume that it's on the Connor side. The reports that I've seen have come out and said that Connor suffered some kind of an injury. But at this point, you would think with all the promotional hype and the build and it's been so long to see Connor fight, if Connor is able to go, they're going to try to get him in there. They're going to try to get him in there. So, yeah, I don't know. I think we need to prepare ourselves for everything. But, yeah, as of last night from conversations I had with people who would know, the fight was still on.

But it's going to be interesting to watch. Like I said, be prepared for everything at this point. Blundell, go ahead. Do I got you there, Mikey? I got you. Okay. So this weekend, we were down at the fights live, first time in New York City, first time doing the UFC fights, and it was quite an experience.

Definitely will have to go again whenever they come back up to Toronto or Montreal, or something like that. But my question for you is, because I'm assuming everyone's bugging you about Connor and Islam and Dustin, my question to you is about the new gloves, actually. So in the first fight of the night with Andre Lima, Mitch Raposo, about a minute before the first eye poke, you really noticed Andre Lima kind of extending his hands forward with the open hand. And I understand that's like a bit of a timing thing to kind of get the range, so on and so forth. But I'm wondering if like maybe just a rule change would be more effective than the glove change where maybe fighters aren't allowed to extend their hand forward with. an open palm type of thing, unless maybe it's a strike, i.e. the stock and slap, something like

that. But like where guys are just kind of reaching forward and kind of just getting a feel for things, that's where a lot of the eye pokes kind of come in. So I'm wondering if maybe just a rule change might be a little more effective than the necessarily the glove change. But yeah, it'd be interesting to know your thoughts on that one. I mean, the rule changes, I mean, obviously we need, we need some rule changes. I mean, it's pretty bad when I have to come on all these shows, and I have no real sort of technical advice to give to anybody right now. Right? But at the same token, every coach should be telling all their fighters to cheat.

Just go ahead and cheat. Because nothing is going to change. they're not going to do anything like the fact that Mitch Raposo in Andrelema the fact that Andreelima didn't lose a single point in that fight is ridiculous

it's absolutely ridiculous Herb Dean is telling him hey this is a hard warning don't do it again and then literally 30 seconds later not even he grabs the fence in plain sight of everybody

in front of everybody it's crazy but the referees have publicly come out and said, look, we don't want to be the reason why a fighter loses half of their money. Why? You're the referee. You're the ref every other sport. Every other sport.

You know? Like, if you do something wrong, you throw a flag or you do something wrong in hockey, it's a penalty. Like, you do all these different things. Like, it is just really. ridiculous that none of this shit is called. It's really crazy. It's really insane.

It's insane. It's absolutely insane. But none of the stuff's going to change, and that's it. The judging is awful, too. David Torelli with two horrific scorecards, at least, and nothing's going to change. Nothing's going to change. I'd love to see the rules change. I'd love to see points taken.

And for like newer fans, when they say, well, they didn't get a warning, they didn't get this, they didn't get that. Listen, technically your first warning is given in the back before you go out. Before you go out there, you're given your first warning. This is what you can and cannot do. And it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Because they don't want to be responsible. Well, then what are you doing there?

It's adjoin. It's just, it's so dumb. just keep cheating just keep cheating because they ain't going to call it uh left lane go head yeah oh my can you hear me yep all right what's up um i just wanted to talk about islam markachev um and i'll if i can just give myself a little bit of self-promotion because i did a quick video on my youtube channel and i was talking about the next fights in terms of obviously we all agree armin should be for islam should be fighting arman next um but the kind of of discussion is like who can beat is Lamakachach.

A lot of people are talking about that. A lot of people are saying like, oh, would he beat Leon? Would he not beat Leon? And even though I obviously don't want to see him go up right now, I want to see him fight a lightweight more than once, but we all kind of get the feeling it will probably be one more and that'll do it. But I did the video and I was talking about how I think you would go against Arm and how I think you would go against Leon Edwards.

And I also chucked in earlier to Poria there. Again, not a fight that I think we need to see or I want to see right now. Obviously, Ilya has business defending his own belt first, but just a match-up stylistically that I thought was interesting to talk about. And I think, honestly, out of all of those three, I actually think Armand, in my opinion, has the lowest chance of beating Islam-Markov. And to me, it's more of like a stylistic thing. I think Armand has a really good style to not get dominated and not get finished by Islam

in comparison to like an olivera who could have the potential to finish Islam but a lot of the time in that fight is going to get dominated but in my opinion Armand does not really have the potential to like win that fight I mean he can win but I don't I don't

see it happening because I'm like what's he meant to do to Islam to win that's my personal opinion I know you're high on Armand I know you think he's going to win so if you could actually give me a rundown of like what you think he would do better than Islam to win a fight, then I'd be interested to hear that.

And then also, just a quick pick. Would you pick Islam or Leon Edwards if they booked that fight for MSG in November for five rounds? Again, not what I want to see to happen, but if it did, who would you pick? Thanks, Mike. Oh, man. The second question is tougher because I would look at that from like a betting perspective. I would probably lean whoever the dog is,

and I would assume Leon would be a slight underdog in that fight. I could be wrong. But if Leon is the dog, I would pick him. I would probably bet on him. Like, again, here's the thing. I don't think Islam was, quote, unquote, exposed or anything like that. I just think he is who he is, and he's fucking great at all of it. but I think Leon matches up

decently with him so it would be like it would definitely be like a value play with how it would view that fight I definitely would have to watch some footage but I'm kind of like Jed where like I didn't look at that fight thinking Armin had

like Armand Sarukin had a better or worse chance against Islam because I think it's a tough fight for him anyways but I did feel like you know what? Leon might actually do pretty well here. So it's interesting. It's interesting. Armin, I just,

Armand just is super athletic. I don't think he can match the, like, grappling of Islam, but he is definitely wiser to some of the transitions. I think his get-up game is obviously better than Poriase. If he somehow gets on top in that fight, I think he is a problem. Even for a guy like Islam, his top position game is great. Just ask Charles Olavera. But he does take some risks that he probably shouldn't take,

which would feed right into the opportunistic style of Islam Makachev. Armin can hit really hard. And I don't think Armin gets enough credit for how good of a striker he is. Is he like top level best in the division striker? No. Is he way better than people give him credit for? Yeah, he is. And he can hit like a fucking truck.

Ask Vanil Darius, how hard this man can hit. Because he can hit. He's a hitter. Surukian would have to fight maybe the most patient fight of his career. He would have to. Be willing to fight without taking any of the chances that make him successful, especially on the ground. And he has to somehow lure Mokachev into a brawl on the feet, which is not going to be easy to do. I think Army can take a lot away from what Dustin Pore did.

I think naturally, seeing how decent his takedown defenses and how he is on those stand-up scrambles, especially against defense, I think he already has a little bit of an advantage over Porriere, but still, he has to be very smart and very wise, and he has to be willing to, even when he feels like, oh, I think I could see an opening to take a risk here, to not take that risk, if that makes sense. So I think Army can win.

It's going to be tough. He needs to have the best, he needs, and I feel like we're going to say this with everybody is on fights. they have to be perfect. They got to be perfect and they have to hope Islamism. And that's their best chance. Now, will I pick Armid Sarucan in that fight officially? Yeah, because I have to.

I've already put myself out there. It's already imprinted that Armand Sarukian will be the lightweight champion at the end of the year. No one in the media space has been higher on Armand for as long as I have. And I've cashed in the money in the bank briefcase on Armin doing the thing this year. So will I pick it in the media space? him, yes. Will it be because of some technical proficiency? No, it won't be. It'll just be the gimmick and all that because I've already gone this far and I'm going to keep going with it because I think Armand's that good. But Islam is the best fighter in the world. And like I said, I don't, I didn't

come out of that fight feeling like Armand's chances were better or worse. I really didn't. I felt like it was a tough fight for him anyways. It changed nothing, at least as of now, way I viewed that fight on paper. The Leon one, however, a little different. I feel like Leon has a better chance than I thought he did heading out of that. But again, this is not me saying Islam got exposed. This is just seeing what Porre did successfully against Leon. I think Leon could have some similar successes in different areas.

Plus, he's a bigger man, and he's awkward as hell. and I think he's underrated in a lot of aspects of the fight too. But again, Leon's got a tough fight ahead of him. He's got to fight Bala Muhammad, who is, you know, people may not love Balaal. He may not be their favorite fighter, but Balaal is very good. Bala is very good. And Leon's got to get through that before he can think about Islam and Connor and all these other potential matchups it could be in front of them.

So it's going to be fun. But again, the moral of the story is, if you're saying Islam got exposed by anybody, then you're out of your friggin mind. You're out of your frigging mind. And to quote Jed Bishu and something we've talked about on the site for a long time, it's really hard to become a UFC champion, especially at lightweight. I think honestly winning the UFC lightweight title is probably the hard. hardest thing to do in all of combat sports, because I think that division is just a murderer's

row. But being able to hold on to that title, time after time after time after time is going to be very difficult. It's a hard thing to do to go in there and continuously defend that belt over and over again. And this is where Islam is right now. So, okay, I think we've, we've discussed things enough. Obviously, stick with us at MAFighting.com. If there's any updates on UFC 303, the Connor McGregor and Michael Chandler fight, things of that nature. We will keep you posted on all of that. We will have a ranking show coming out, I believe, tomorrow morning, following UFC 302, and then we'll be leading into Louisville. for the latest UFC fight night offering at the KFC Yum Center.

Wow. What a venue name that is. The main event, more middleweights, Jared Kennedy, Mavov. We got Dominic Gray's Justin Jacoby. I think, boys, like I'm just looking at this lineup. Is this one better than St. Louis on paper? Is it worse?

I don't know. But as I said at the top, there's very little stakes in any of these fights. But the way that they're matched up, I do think we're going to have some fun watching fist fighting on Saturday. And at least it's not a 10 p.m. main cart, which we also like as well. So thank you very much. We'll be back here on Friday. We'll do it all over again. But until then, everybody, have a great rest of your Tuesday and have a heck of a morning. Instacard, you get groceries that over-deliver, so you can over-share your preferences. Want russet potatoes with no brown spots? You got it.

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