MMA Fighting - HOAM | What Is Tony Ferguson Fighting For At UFC 279?

Episode Date: September 8, 2022

Tony Ferguson returns to welterweight this Saturday to face Li Jingliang, but what is he actually fighting for at this point in his career? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck discusses the co-main event matchup for Saturday's UFC 279 event and where Ferguson could go regardless of the results. Additionally, listener questions include the heavyweight title picture, Khamzat Chimaev vs. Nate Diaz, the UFC 278 payouts, fighter pay, Paulo Costa's future, Danyelle Wolf's UFC debut, what could be next for Ricky Simon following his finish of Jack Shore at UFC Long Island, UFC Paris, 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

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Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. Explore the new Peloton Cross-training Treadplus at OnePeloton.ca. The Vox Media Podcast Network. Everybody is Thursday, September 8th, 2022, and it is indeed a, heck of a morning live on the M.A. Fighting Twitter spaces. We will hear the show in its entirety, shortly thereafter on the M.A. Fighting Podcasting Network. I am Mike Heck. Thank you for joining us. If you're in the space live with us, apologies for the short delay in getting this show underway because I'm wearing many hats right now. Not only am I wearing my patent in Boston

Red Sox hat literally, but I'm also doing many things, running the website. So there's a lot going on, and I can only do so much. So apologies for starting about a minute late. But we're going to have some fun today. We're going to go for about an hour. A lot to talk about. We're on the eve of the eve of UFC 279, main event, Hamzaa Shemaiah versus Nate Diaz. The betting lines just continue to fluctuate mostly on the Shamiya's side.

That one's up to minus 1150 for Shemayev. So not a lot of faith for Team Diaz right now. We had Media Day yesterday, and of course, Nate Diaz being Nate Diaz, the whole media day goes through swimmingly. Everybody's on time. And then Nate Diaz, being Nate Diaz, I believe he was close to three hours late for his media day. But he showed up, did his thing, was very casual about everything. And then he got up out of there, him in the 25 to 30 dudes he was rolling. with as Nate typically does.

So a lot of interesting things were said throughout the media day. So we could talk about that. We could talk about everybody you want to talk about. Al-Nauts real quick. Moving forward, and I posted this on Twitter earlier, which you could find at MyTech underscore JR, BTL moving forward for the foreseeable future will be a 1 p.m. Eastern start time,

10 a.m. Pacific time start time. That's the time. We were always going at 3 p.m. Eastern. We're moving that back. We're starting at 1 p.m. Eastern. We started last week. We made the internal decision that that is going to be the plan moving forward. So a little bit earlier debate start time.

This week, Jed Bishue is back delivering the fiery hot takes that you would all expect. This week he's taking on a professional fighter, former UFC fighter, former Invicta fighter, BKFC fighter. She just had her pro boxing debut, a successful one at that. It's going to be Jed Bishu versus Pearl Gonzalez this week. She's a very sharp mind in the space. She does color commentary for some different promotions,

most notably Jorge Mazadol's icon FC. And I've talked to her a bunch over the years. She's just a very, she's a very interesting and sharp take on the sport of mixed martial arts from a fighter's perspective, from an analyst's perspective. So, and she can bring it too. So I think that'll be a fun matchup.

1 p.m. Eastern talking UFC 279, UFC Paris, and all the other craziness going on this weekend. So that's at 1 p.m. Eastern. Eastern. This is now. Let's get into this thing. Tristan Gordet was in line immediately, so we will kick things off with him. Tristan.

How are you doing, Mike? How's everything going? It's good, man. All right. That's great to hear. I have two questions. So I was listening to There's a Kevin Holland And he's talking about

Yeah I'm gonna beat Dira I could beat this guy one hand in my Behind my back And And then he also said You know If I say the guy is tough Then you know I would say it

But it's gonna be you know Pure Dominance if I don't dominate here I'm really very disappointed And I'm trying to give Kevin Holland Benefit in the doubt Because I'm like Well you know it's just Kevin Holland Being Kevin Holland

But I'm like I have to say to myself, and I think everybody on Twitter was saying it when I was reading in the comments, it's like, Kevin Howland underestimating DRAD because I'm just getting that feeling, I'm getting that vibe, he's underestimating it, because people have forgot how good DROT is. I'm like, I didn't forget,

because I've watched them fight multiple times. So I just want to know if you think Kevin Howland's actually underestimating DROT. You know, that's my first question. My second question is with Tony Ferguson, if we see vintage Tony Ferguson at 170 here, I mean, you know, if he goes out there and beats Lee Gillian. I mean, because if you think about it when he fought Michael Chandler, you know, he was winning that fight before he got knocked out. So, and, you know, I had to say, you know, Tony Ferguson would look pretty good. So if he gets to win against Lee G. Leighang, I mean, and we see vintage Tony Ferguson out there.

You know, what is your projection moving forward if he gets to win against Lee Geely Yang? And it looks very impressive doing so. So those are my two questions, Mike. Thanks for everything. Have a heck of a morning. And talk to you soon. All right. Thank you, Tristan.

I'll address the first question. Kevin Holland, very confident as he typically is. I don't think he really overlooks fighters. I just think he's potentially just playing some mental warfare, trying to possibly get under DROT's skin a little bit, possibly think that maybe he's not taking this as seriously or whatnot. I know Holland's been training in Las Vegas at Extreme Couture. D-Rod trains at Syndicate,

so maybe there's like a little thing going on there. I don't know. D-Rod's not really going to play into that stuff. D.Rod had a media day. We didn't post that. And the reason why is because I spoke to Drod about a week ago, and that interview is going to drop on YouTube and on MMA fighting, I believe at 4 p.m. Eastern, so you'll be able to check that out.

And he gives his thoughts on all of it. I don't know, man. Like, I don't bet on MMA, but I understand. I like to look at the betting lines to determine value. and when I make my personal picks, because we have our own M.A. fighting topology group where we pick fights and we just kind of talk shit with each other about who's better at picking fights.

The value from a betting perspective is all on D-Rod here. It's all on D-Rod. Kevin Holland's a minus 200 favorite. Daniel Rodriguez is a plus 170. I know D-Rod hasn't fought in a while, and I think a lot of this betting line and the way people are viewing this fight is, This is a recency biased thing.

Kevin's looked good at 170s, got back-to-back finishes, and he did that in between the last time D-Rod fought. But D-Rod, like, if you go back and watch tape on D-Rod, he is real good. His boxing in that Walterweight division is one of the, he is one of the best boxing skill sets in that entire division. That dude can box his ass off. And as dynamic of a striker as Kevin Holland is, I don't think Kevin wants to stand all that much of D-Rod.

Because there's a, I know Kevin has a huge reach advantage. He uses his length really well. But D-Rod's not the tallest welterweight anyway. So a lot of the guys he fights, he's at a disadvantage in that sense anyways. Maybe not as much as he will be on Saturday. But a lot of people are like, oh, Kevin Holland short notice. This is what he does. Same with D-Rod.

Same with D-Rod. D-Rod was just as active as Kevin Holland was. during his run. I think he debuted that Tim Means fight. It was like February 2020, and he's had like eight fights in the UFC. The dude is super active, for sure.

And when I talked to D-Rod in Las Vegas during international fight week, he was cleared and he said, I just want, like, give me a short notice fight. I'm ready. If it's next week, the week after,

I don't care. Call me and I'll say yes. And that's exactly what happened here. It's nice that this one's out of catch weight at 180. I think D-Rod is a very good chance to win this fight. I don't think Kevin's going to wrestle all that much of them. D-Rod isn't the greatest defensive wrestler,

but he's fine. But from a pure striking standpoint, Holland's going to have to use his length really, really well here. I don't think there'll be a lot of shots taken. I don't think this fight's going to spend a lot of time on the mat. So to me, this is a stand-up fight, and it's a close fight. Certainly not with the betting odds.

suggest in my opinion. I think this fight should be closer to like Holland minus 150. But you're giving me D-Rod a plus 170 against most guys in this division. I would look at taking a flyer on that. So I don't know if he's necessarily overlooking him. Kevin just likes to play mind games. Him and D-Rod have been sort of linked up for over two years now. I just think this is one of those fights that just has to happen.

I think Kevin's going to be excited to just stop talking about D-Rod. and vice versa. I think Drod's going to be excited to have this fight on the resume and move on so people don't have to ask about Kevin Holland anymore. So there you go. And with the Ferguson thing, I don't know. And like, this is one of the reasons why I thought this fight was so puzzling because I don't think, honestly, either guy gains a lot here.

Like if Lee beats Lee's a huge favorite, he's minus 305 to be Tony Ferguson. So a lot of people expect Lee to win this fight. I just don't know if he gains a whole lot from this because of Tony's recent fights, the beatings Tony's been taking in these last fights. And yeah, he looked good against Chandler in the first round. But he just got brutally knocked out like a little over three months ago. But it wasn't that long ago.

May it was not that long ago. The beating, he got dominated by Benile. He got dominated by Oliva. Justin Gage, that was just one of the more brutal beatings you will ever see from start to finish. That was like one of those because that was the empty arena fight and that's just one of those

every time I go back and watch it, it makes you cringe a little bit the amount of punishment that guy took. And if Tony wins, like, I mean, if he just goes out there and blows the doors off of Lee and just like drops him quick and jumps on him

and submits him in like two minutes, yeah, that'll be a huge thing for him. But like, what does that do for him in this division? I don't know. I don't know. I think there are other ways you could go with this. I understand you needed Tony on this card to try to boost ticket sales and pay-per-view

buys because this car's been met with some moans and groans overall, but you add Tony Ferguson, you add Holland D-Raw, which is the best fight on the card, in my opinion. It makes it a little bit better, but still top to bottom. There's some interesting fights, but it's still kind of a tough hang for 75 bucks, especially since three weeks ago, we just had a pay-per-view. We had two in July. So we've had four pay-per-views in three months.

You're asking fans of a lot here. And not only that, you're asking the people of Las Vegas who like to attend these cards to pony up a bunch of money again when they were just there two months ago at T-Mobile. So the last I checked, the ticket sales weren't doing that hot,

but I also thought the same thing with the San Diego card and somehow that ended up on the UFC sellout streak. I don't know. I just don't, I don't think this like naturally sells out. I'd be stunned unless this press conference later on today just goes bananas. But I don't know.

You're asking a lot of fans. You definitely are. Let's go to Abs Wallya. They'll go to Four Corner Sports. What's up, man? Yes. Good, good. So I have two questions.

I'll make the first one quick before I get the second one. The first one is thoughts on the Sang-Yodong fight with Corey Sanhagen next week. What's your thoughts on that and how do you see that playing out? What do you think will be next to either fight or based on whoever wins? And my second question now is to do with this Saturday win with a battle with Hamzad and Nate. Like, for me, I'm predicting that Hamza will win the fight probably much earlier based on how this whole press conference is going. So if he wins, and I know we've discussed about this many times,

but realistically, if he was probably to stay immobilite, who are the two fights that you can see that he could probably face next if he potentially meets Nate Diaz this Saturday? That's all I have. Thanks, man. The Sanagging-Di-Dong fight is a great fight. I can't wait to see it. It's just, it's a battle.

I think the winner will probably be looking at a Rob Font, perhaps, because I think the timelines will match up pretty well, because this fight's happening end of September, October, November, December. Eh, maybe. You're waiting a little bit. Last I heard because I asked about this, because I had heard during one of the on-the-nose segments that someone hit up Ariel and said that

they were told Rob Font versus Adrian Yannes was the done deal, which is 100% not true. So I reached out to Fon's team, and I was told that the UFC not only has not presented them with anything at all, but considering the last two fights that Rob had with Josealdo and Marlon Vera, Robbie fight until the first quarter of 2023.

March is what they're looking at right now, and that's the earliest time frame. So that could probably line up, especially if like Sanhagen wins. Sanhagen Fon is a fight that I want to see. I think it would be really interesting. But Song Yidong, Rob Fon, would make a lot of sense too. So I think something in that realm,

but again, you also have Pejorda Yan and Sean O'Malley, so maybe the winner or loser, well, unless Sean O'Malley wins, we know what that's going, but maybe the loser of that fight. I mean, there's options. Bainabwe's fun. Who knows what's going to happen in the title fight. But Rob Font seems like a fun matchup for either guy.

I'd probably lean that more for Song, but Sanhagen Fon's a fun fight too. Both those guys are kind of far away from the belt at this point, considering everything happening at 135. But I'm excited to see that fight. That's going to be a banger. I don't know who's going to win. I'm probably leaning Sanhagen,

but Song is real good and he's real young and he's only going to get better. So if I am buying stock in either guy, I'm buying the Song Yudong stock. Not saying that Corey Sanhagan can't pay off, but I know Song Yudong will. Might not pay off now, but it's definitely a futures investment because he's still super young. He's already been in there with some really good fighters. He's got some big fight experience already, and he's only going to get better. He's not even sniffing his athletic prime yet, which makes him a very scary guy. for Hamzot

I don't know it seems like it's either if he's going to stay at Walter Waite it's Colby or the title I don't think the title is going to be in his future unless something happens

let's just say like they have a date in London to book that trilogy fight and for some reason Usman can't make it with enough time let's just say like two months out and Hamzok gets the call and can travel over there without any issue that's there.

The suggestion I had was if Colby, I think Homzat Colby is the way to go, like a legit number one contender fight, even though Hamzat really doesn't need it, but that's coming off of a win over Nate, a win over Colby would just make you indisputable as the guy that should be next fighting for the belt. So you could do that,

or in Hamzat's talked about this before, maybe just goes up to 185s. If Adasanya beats Alex Pereira on November 12th, and Izzy wants that fight, the UFC would do it. But my other option was, and I mentioned this the other day, and I talked about it on to the next one, Hamza v. Robert Whitaker scratches me right where I edge. It's a win-win.

It's a win-win for everybody. Because if Whitaker wins that fight, he's the clear guy. Whether Adasani is still the champion or not, he's the guy. You go out there and you beat Hamzaa Shemaya, you're the guy, you're fighting for the title. It doesn't matter who the champion is. Doesn't matter what happened in the past. It doesn't matter. That's a huge rub he would get.

And if Shamaev wins that fight, he's the number one contender in two divisions. And then we can have some real fun. We have some real fun with this situation. So I like that idea as well. But to me, I think he probably stays at 170. I think Colby would take that fight. And that would be a really interesting matchup. So that's how I would do it.

But who knows. Who knows how things are going to play out? It's a crazy sport. It's hard to predict that far down the future. 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

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Good. How are you? I just wanted to ask you about, so I know that. Porre and Chandler got announced last night. But how close were they to booking it for December? Because I know there was talks about having it in December. Was it ever close at all or not? And when was the last time that Porre ever fought in a three-round fight?

Just because I feel like he's been fighting in consecutively in five rounds. And does this benefit Pori or does it's a benefit Chandler that it's a three-round fight? And lastly, is there any news? as for what time that Abu Dhabi card might start. The only reason I'm asking is just because in a dilemma, I'm hoping it's later tonight, but if it's during the day, it's really going to suck because I might have to miss out

that Abu Dhabi card for my alma mater. All right, thanks, Mike, and I have a good one. Thanks, fan. So as of now, according to the UFC website, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but they're saying 2 p.m. Eastern. So I assume that'll be the main card, which means we're going to have 11 a.m. prelims,

which either way is five. They do 2 p.m. prelims and a 5 p.m. main card. I'm fine with that. If they do 11 a.m. Eastern, 2 p.m. Eastern, even better. But that is going to be an afternoon card. That'll be on local time over in Abu Dhabi. So, yeah, unfortunately, you're going to, might have to miss out for your alma mater.

sorry, man. I hate to be the bear of bad news. Chandler Poirier, was it close to December? I don't know. Like I said many times before, that was the holdup in whether on the like full on announcement of the fight

because Chandler wanted December. He wanted a little extra time. Porier was adamant about MSG. But one of the crucial things about putting this fight together, which we reported, I think Brett Akamoto, when he announced it as well, reported the same thing. Michael Chandler signed a new deal. So I think, I don't think Chandler was like holding out for more money or anything,

but I think this was kind of the tipping point where it was like, all right, let's just get this done. What is it going to take? And UFC probably just offered Chandler a new deal with some more money. And Chandler is like, well, I got a family to worry about. a wife and two kids to take care of. You're going to give me some extra money? Yeah, I'll fight a month earlier.

Why the hell not? Yeah, but December was definitely in play. I know that's what Chandler wanted and his team wanted. I'm not saying anything that hasn't already been reported or I haven't talked about 5,000 times before that. But that was the plan. And Porier always wanted MSG. Neither seemed to really be budging.

And Chandler got a new deal. So good for him. Good for him. Everybody's happy. Three-rounder. Very cool. When was the last time Porre was in a three-round fight? Was it the first Eddie Alvarez fight?

Must be. UFC 211, Eddie Alvarez, the illegal knee, the no contest. In Dallas, May of 2017, that was the last time Porre was in a three-round fight. Everything else has been a five-rounder. Pettis, Gachie, the rematch with Eddie. Holloway, Halbeeb, Hooker, McGregor, McGregor, Oliver, all were five-rounders. Who does a favor? I don't know, man.

I don't think it favors either guy. Probably Porre. If I had a guess. Porre could just go all out for three rounds. He tends to get tired, like in the third anyways, even in the five-round fight. So I would say it probably favors Porier a little more, but Chandler's just a freak athlete. I don't think he's going to slow down. I mean, Justin Gates, you beat the shit out of that guy.

for 15 minutes and he didn't he slowed down a little bit because he just took a beating but energy wise he was there so yeah I would say poor you though but that fight's going to be great there's going to be some heat on that one which I'm very excited about let's go to average avenues 11 what's up buddy yeah I got you good I've got a question and and comment my question is because I've been trying to rack my brain about this. What exactly is Tony Ferguson fighting for? Like, realistically, does he actually believe he has, like, a chance to fight for the title at 170?

And my comment is, this might sound a bit corny, but I don't care. I've been a sports fan all my life, right? And with sports, you have your chance from the fans. And one of my favorites has become the DAS chant. It's short, but it's simple, but it's effective. And I'm imploring everyone in this base when they hear it this week to just take it in because it might be the last time we hear it in an MMA setup or an FUSC set up. All right.

Cheers, mate. Have a good day. Thanks, man. Yeah, man. I mean, listen, the Nate thing is, who knows it's going to happen with that. That's what makes this fight so intriguing is we don't know what the future is going to hold for either guy. Nate gains. Nate can gain a lot from this

or he can just gain nothing and still be just fine. Like we throw out, it's kind of cliche now, but we throw out when fighters are massive underdogs that this is a quote unquote house money scenario.

This is the definition of a house money scenario for Nate. Yeah, he might take a beating. Yeah, he might lose. Yeah, he might get run over. But at the end of the day, Nate still gets what he wants. He gets to leave the UFC.

and go explore whatever the hell he wants. Now, I don't, like, I don't think his, I don't think his, his buzz or his value drops at all. Unless, like, Shamiya just, like, flicked him in the face and he collapses and falls and it's just, like, weird. Unless Nate's just, like, doing it as a work. And then still his stock rises. But if he goes out there and just gets tackled and gets his face beaten in in the first round, like, he's just going to go on his merry way. He's going to flip the double birds. He's going to walk away.

And we'll remember that. And Nate will go off and fight Jake Paul or do whatever he's going to do and be just fine. Shamiya, he's kind of like in the complete opposite scenario where I don't like, I don't know how much his stock rises with this win. Everyone is expecting him to go in there and just run Nate over. And even if he does it, like what is that going to do? it doesn't do much. So it's all really interesting.

I'm very curious to see where Nate goes. And if Nate Diaz friggin wins, oh my God, that is a post fight show that I cannot wait to be a part of. I don't think it's going to happen, but holy crap, would that be something? For the Tony thing, I have no idea. I have no idea what this man is fighting for. Again, I don't see really why this fight was put together

because if Lee wins, Lee is expected to win. It's just a nice name to have on the resume. But even like Shimae F Diaz, like, usually you put guys in these scenarios that can really get the rub from fighting a guy like Nate and fighting a guy like Tony Ferguson. And I don't feel like Lee's going to get that rub. I just don't.

All we're going to be talking about win or lose is Ferguson. I don't think Lee's going to get the credit for win, it's just going to be either Ferguson's back, baby, what a performance or, oh, poor Tony. Why was he even fighting? And Lee just kind of doesn't get the credit for it. And if Tony wins like that, it's a bottom, I mean, Lee's a good fighter, and he's just a delight, always smiling, always excited, always positive.

But what's he, the number 14 welterweight at that point? Like, who are you going to put him in there with? I don't know. You're not going to put him in there with Bala Muhammad or somebody like that. I don't think. I mean, what do we do now? Wonderboy, just do fun fights? Are we trying to get him on a title run?

I just, I don't know. It's just such a weird booking. I understand why Tony's fighting because you have to put him on the card and he's got to fight somebody. And he said yes. So, yeah, I don't know. I don't know what it is he's fighting for. Probably just wants to get some of that bad taste out of his mouth. but what I don't want to see is us living in a world where,

and I'm not saying this is the case. I'm not saying this at all because I love Tony Ferguson. Good dude. I think we have the same birthday. Good guy. I remember it was a long time ago the last time I interviewed Tony Ferguson. My kid was maybe one and his kid was a baby right around the same age. Our kids were bored right around the same time.

And I remember wrapping up the interview and he just sent me this like really cool quote, this really cool like dad quote. And I like thought that was just the coolest thing ever. But yeah, I just don't want to feel like Tony is that guy. We've seen this in M.A. so many times

where Tony just kind of acts like the guy who doesn't realize that his time is up. Like everybody sees it, but he doesn't and he just keeps going. I just don't want to see that for him. but I don't know. I still don't understand the booking in the fight. All right, let's go to Viking MMA.

I'm going to try to get to everybody today. We'll go to Viking, and then we'll go to, we'll go to Raphael next. Viking, what's up? Fighting.com. I love that. Okay, Mike. So let me ask you the same question I was asking before.

Just tell me, Mike, how much, a fighter get paid if he gets into that quote-unquote money fighter, McGregor or Ned Diaz fight. But I just want to know the actual figure, $1 million, $2 million, $100 million. Why every fighter is, you know, excited about this money fight and give me the figure or at least give me the give or tech amount. And the other thing I want to ask you about that,

I was listening to someone on YouTube, actually, and that guy was a UFC fighter. I think he still has a skin in the UFC. I don't know. He must be an official or something in UFC. I just have to dig about that. But that guy was saying that Neidiyadh has made over 500 to close. to a billion dollars for UFC by fighting for them.

Is that true? And the one more thing I just want to say about AK Lee. I mean, AK Lee couldn't see the image of Sean Strickland's fingers photo. I mean, I love AK, but he is my brother, but he is too delicate, man. He couldn't see that finger. on. Thanks, Mike. And sending my love. She's my brother. Thank you Mike. Thanks, man. Yes.

AK doesn't like to dive into the cringy stuff, the stuff that makes your stomach turn. And God bless them for that. It's totally fine. I wish I had answers to either of those two questions, but I really don't.

Like, I mean, what I could certainly say, I don't know who said that Nate's made close to a billion dollars fighting for the UFC, but that is just not true at all. I think if Nate made close to a billion dollars fighting for the UFC, we probably wouldn't be in this situation we're in right now. So I would say whoever said that is full of, you know what?

Money fight, money generating. I don't know, man. Like, it's, you get, the problem is you don't get with most states, you don't get disclosed pay. Like, you don't get them in Vegas. You used to be able to get them in a bunch of them, but now you only get them maybe in Arizona. California.

You got him in Utah, but our own Steve Morocco, I mean, he literally spent like two weeks trying to get these figures from Utah and finally got them. And what they disclose is not the actual amount.

Like for me, when Connor fights, and I don't know this at all, I'm sure if he fought like in California or Arizona and it disclosed his pay, it'd probably be in like the $2 million range

would be my guess. but you know he's making a lot more on top of that because that doesn't put in pay-per-view points. I'm sure a guy like McGregor gets a piece of the gate and other things behind the scenes is probably discretionary bonuses and things like that that you see in sports all the time. So I wish I knew,

but it's in the millions for sure. I bet Connor makes all said and done 10 to 15 million every time he fights in the UFC, which is a lot of money to me and you and everybody else. but even like at this point in Connor's career with the star he has been with what he has done for this company that sold for $4.2 billion in 2016 it's worth a lot more than that now even that is not enough for a guy like Connor and I know a lot of fighters out there would love to snip somewhere even in the vicinity of that money but they ain't and Connor should be even should be getting more than that so yeah I don't know like actual figures because you just just They're just not out there. They're just not out there for you to find. And it's hard to get any figures at all.

It's very difficult because they're disclosed or undisclosed. They won't allow them release to the public. Now, oftentimes you'll see on social media, there'll be these accounts that just throw out little graphs with figures on them. But they're not true. They're not true. And we try to warn you of that. If you don't see it from us, then they didn't disclose them. And it's from a state that you can't.

and Florida used to disclose them, but they don't anymore, which kind of bums me out because I asked for them after one of the Eagle FC cards, and they were like, nope, not giving them to you. So I wish I had a better answer, but the answer is it should be more. All right, let's go to speaking of, I think speaking of Connor. I don't know if that's Connor. I can't see. My eyes are sucky.

Maybe that's Michael Chandler. Let's go to Soldier. Hello, Soldier. Hello. I want to make a comment about something you said. before. You said Justin Gage was beating Michael Chandler

for 15 minutes. Yeah, I think Gagee won the fight, but I think the first round was clearly Michael Chandler's and I think he won that round handily. Like he was hitting Gagie with some very good shots, wobbled him a couple of

times and I just disagree with that comment, but I think the Dustin Porter fight, he Dustin Porter is a bad matchup for Michael but if he tries to strike in the first round

and wrestles in the second he can scrap a 29.28 this season because Dustin is probably going to win the third round but I'm not really sure how do you see that fight playing out which fight I'm sorry

I was trying to do 10 things on Michael Chandler versus Dustin Porter how do you see that going oh okay cool all right thanks man yeah I mean listen sometimes sometimes i get on here you're all my friends i sit here i feel like i'm sitting at a bar stool and i just say things so if i say like jessie beat the shit out of michael chanler 15 minutes

this is not a michael chandler sucked at fighting that night this is a just he took a beating that night um yeah and some some people saw the first round for chanler others didn't one judge scored at 3027 for gaichi i'm looking at i made decisions right now everybody scored it for gaichie I see some 4 3026s in there. I see 3.3027s in there. So, but again, even in that first round, while he had success, and by the way, I picked Michael,

I was the only one to pick Michael Chandler in that fight. I went on the People's Pre-Fight show right before that event, and I said Michael Chandler was going to knock him out in the first round, and he almost did. I thought he was going to do it. And everyone thought I was crazy, just because I just didn't think Michael Chandler's getting any credit in that fight whatsoever. But it was a good fight.

He took a beating in that flight. It was a fun scrap. Like, to me, that one, that one got MMA Fighting's fight of the year. I didn't, personally, to me, I didn't think it was the fight of the year. I thought Yuri Perashka, Dominic Reyes, was the fight of the year. Because there was a back-and-forth crazy fest from start to finish. Not saying that Gaetchi Chandler wasn't crazy because it was, but that third round wasn't, I mean, it was fine.

Chandler had his moments walking forward. He's a mess trying to get in Gaichie's, face. But both guys are just zapped at that point. So the third round wasn't all that compelling because both guys, and rightfully so, just zapped. But Chandler Porte, man, it's such a, it's such a close fight, honestly, because Chandler's such a wild card.

He's such a wildcard. Porre is a very smart fighter most of the time. But there are certain times where he makes mistakes. and he made him in the Oliver fight, he made him in the Habeb fight, he's made them in other fights as well. But Chandler, if we're talking skill for skill,

I would pick Chandler to win that fight. If this is Bellator Michael Chandler fighting UFC Dustin Porier, I'm picking Michael Chandler to win. But Michael Chandler is not Bellator Michael Chandler anymore. He is UFC Michael Chandler, and UFC Michael Chandler

is a completely different dude who cares equally as much, if not more, about entertaining the fans and putting on crazy-ass fights than even winning in certain points. And hats off to the man. So I just don't know, he's back at MSD, the same site of the Gaichi fight. Is he just going to go in there and chuck hands with Dustin Porier?

Maybe. Is he going to go in there and try to wrestle Dustin Porier? Maybe. And if he does that, he's got a very good chance to win. But if he wants to sit there and chuck hands and Dustin, who's a huge lightweight, could be a recipe for disaster. But Chandler has shown to be quite durable at times as well. But he's also been caught in a lot of his UFC fights, not the Dan Hooker one, but the other ones after that, he's been caught in every single one of them. So it's a good fight.

It's tough to pick right now just because Chandler's such a wild card. And I can't, it's so hard to kind of pinpoint what he's going to do. And to me, being back at MSG, fighting a guy like Porier, a guy who clearly doesn't like and vice versa, I could just see him going in there truck and mitts at Porier and which is totally fine with me. And I'm sure it's fine with everybody else too. But if he goes in there and tries to wrestle and tries to take Porier down and try to tire him out a little bit, he's got a good chance to win.

But I just don't know if we're going to see that. All right. let's keep on rolling here. We've got like 25 more minutes, perhaps. Toe, hello. I have a few things. First of all, thank you to the greatest website in the world,

M.A fighting for actually getting the pace out for Salt Lake City. Because that got me to thinking, what interest would Polo Costa even have in coming back at all? Because he got 65-65, and it was four fights ago that he was in a title eliminator with Joel Romero. Like, what are we doing? It seems so crazy to me that he could be the face of PFL. He could be the face of Bellator's light heavyweight division.

Like, this is crazy to me. So first of all, I want you to speak a little bit on Polo Costa and him. even coming back to UFC, which seems like it would be the stupidest decision ever, because he's not going to suddenly get 250, 250. And the second thing was Daniel Rodriguez, because I really like Daniel Rodriguez. He's really, really good and just fun to watch. But if he loses to Kevin Holland, it places him in a weird spot where he loses in his first fight back in over a year, right?

And how far does he then fall? I know that Kevin Holland is really good, and that shouldn't be a deflation of your stock. But his stock has already fallen since he hasn't fought in that long. So is this a situation where we could see him, okay, let's get him back on track and revenge his loss from 2020? And loss in quotation marks, because I know three judges say that Dolby won that fight,

but I'm saying this, a Danish guy, by the way. Dolby did not win that fight. We all know that. But is that the state where he could, is that where he could go with a loss, just go back and avenge his quote-unquote loss to Dolby? Where do you see Daniel Rodriguez going if he loses to Kevin Holland?

Yeah, thanks. Thank you, buddy. Yeah, the Paul Costa thing's really interesting. Unfortunately, he's kind of in a tough spot because he still does have a fight left on his deal. So he's kind of stuck on that contract. And you have to think about it also from like the UFC's perspective. He obviously delivered in the Luke Rockhold fight.

That fight was bananas. He made weight. But it wasn't all that long ago that we had the shenanigans of Barbatory. And that left a bad taste in the promotions mouth. And it should. And it should. So I didn't, like there's just no world what the UFC was going to hurry up and get him locked into a new. deal or anything like that.

Just not going to happen. He's probably going to have to fight one more. I know if Costa's smart, he should probably just not even resign a deal. Even if they offer him like 125, 125, 125, if I'm Paul Costa, if I'm a lot of these guys right now who are far away from a title shot or things of that nature, I'm just fighting out these deals. Go in there, bet on yourself. You win, you're a highly touted free agent.

If you lose, you're probably still a highly touted free agent. Because you don't have to fight at 185, you can fight at 205 for Bellator, fight a 205 for PFL. And as soon as that last fight is done, the second PFL or anybody else can contact Paul Costa, you get his ass on the phone and you get a deal done and get him in your organization. Deal with the shenanigans.

UFC doesn't need to deal with the shenanigans. Belator could use some shenanigans. PFL could use some different kinds of shenanigans, Belator as well. I mean, BKFC could throw some money his way. I mean, there's so many avenues he can go. So if I'm him, I ain't signing an extension or a new deal at all. F that.

The other point, I mean, it's, and yeah, so with the payouts and all that. The D-Rod thing, yes, I agree with you. I thought he won the D-Lby fight. I actually thought he won his regional fight that he lost a split decision on as well. The man should be undefeated in MMA. But the thing about D-Rod that people liked about him, And while I lost to Kevin Holland sets him back on the pursuit of fighting for a world title sooner rather than later, D.Rod is an active, active dude. Yeah, he had to sit out for a year, but that's because he had a hand surgery.

It didn't take. Then he had a second one. That didn't take. And then he had a third one, and that one's fine. And now he can come back. So it's kind of a weird scenario. Because when I talked to him after the Kevin Lee fight, he was thinking December or January, after he had the first surgery. He was like, all right, I'm already like almost ready to go.

And then the surgery he didn't take. And he had to get two more. And that's what's kept him out for all this time. But he is a guy who fights like every month or two. And he's a superactive guy. And that's what got him people on, that's what got him on people's radars to begin with is because every time you turned on a freaking fight night card,

D. Rob was fighting somebody. So while a loss to Holland hurts, if he can stay healthy and he can stay on kind of the same trajectory or somewhere close to what he was before where he was fighting often and getting wins, I don't think it'll be that long until he's back in that conversation. So a lot sets him back,

but I don't think it kills him. I think Dalby would be too big of a step back at this point, even though he would like to avenge that one. But in his eyes, he won that fight, and he's kind of already moved past that and feeling like he won it. So, yeah, that's what I would say. I don't think it sets him back too far.

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All right, let's go to Mikey. Hello, Mikey. Mikey. All right, Mikey, try again. Kaye, you've been waiting patiently.

Crypto, you've also hit it. We'll get to everybody, I promise. Kaye, hello. Yo, what's up, Mike? I caught me off guard. I'm actually driving. I just want to say,

heck of morning, and happy birthday day, okay. Excited for the fights these week. All right. Thank you. Like the positivity. Well done. All right. I have to do it. The hot tag. Let's go. To a head. There's no mute button on this page ahead. How are you? Oh, yeah. We can hear you. All right. Good, Mike, because I have to tell you, it is not a heck of a morning today. Unfortunately. And I'll tell you why.

I mean, Toc stole my point unintentionally because I saw those figures and I knew everyone's going to cry again about Fighter Pay. And Toc brought it up. It's like, if you don't want to be here, Lee, it's their company. It's their freaking company.

Like, they can set what they want. That's what happens when you set up your own company. Like, you take in most of the rewards, okay? And the thing about, like, media and fans that's crazy to me is that in this game and most sports, but especially here, everyone is two-faced. You know, when fighters win three in a row, everyone wants to be their best friend and we love them.

And when they lose three in the row, we say, oh, they're washed up, they're this, they're that. And I'm like thinking, like, so we're all two-faced to an extent. So why is everyone trying to act all virtuous and self-righteous and trying to make Dana the scapegoat so they can feel better about themselves in their little moral high chair. It's ridiculous. But Paolo, if he wants to leave, leave.

Like, as an I agree with Toke, leave, go to PFL, make that million dollars, make that money. But it's more than that. It's like, Ouzman. People are, oh, how dare the pound for pound get half a million or million, whatever? And I'm thinking like this, right, when it's the three African kings, when Izzy had came out and said, oh, I disagree with how the UFC was treating Garnu, they could have all come together. the mic, they could have all come together when they were all champions, they all had leverage, a ton of it.

They could have done something, but they didn't. And this leads me on to my next point, Nate Diaz's ESPN interview. He called out Usman and a bunch of these other dudes for the well-behaved little, like, little sucker-ups that they are, right? They don't want to, they're all in it for themselves. They're fake, and they want to just try and be the perfect champion. And Nate's ESPN interview highlighted, he's not rebellious. He just wanted autonomy.

He stood up for himself, and that's a good thing. But the other part of the media is that, like, Nate, he's giving off pre-UFC 266, Nick Diaz vibes. He's like he doesn't care and all that stuff. And so thoughts on that. And lastly, Darren Till, Duplessi, UFC, 282, December. I've got Darren Till via pullout, probably some sort of knee injury. And then Michael Bispink is probably going to go and say, guys, guys, guys. don't worry.

Down Till is going to become the champion. That's all I've got for you today, Mike. Drop the mic, Mike. Thanks, buddy. Yeah, I will defend Tocke for a moment. I mean, I don't, like, kind of when I said, like, when I said, like, Justin Gagee beat the shit at a Michael Chandler. I meant it as just like, we're all friends talking.

I don't think Tocke was, like, complaining about Fighter Pay. He was just looking at Paul Costa in his state where he's at right now and why he shouldn't resign with the UFC as he has the opportunity. So I wouldn't call that, quote-unquote, crying or anything like that. I know a lot of people complain about fighter pay and stuff like that. Again, with the Usman thing,

like I was saying, when Viking MMA asked the question about payouts, Usen made more than 500,000 people. He made more than 500,000 bucks. He got pay-per-view points. He got probably cut of the gate. He got other money behind the scenes.

He made much more than 500,000. He probably made a few million, which isn't enough, if we're being honest. But again, And the fighters could have done something about this years ago, and they didn't. So this is this place that we live right now. This is the sport. This is where we're at.

And that's why competition is good, right? It's happening in pro wrestling. It's happening again in pro wrestling where you have multiple competing companies that have money, that can spend money a little wildly if they want to, and the fighters have options now, which. which is a good thing. And the fighters have a bunch now because one is spending money like crazy. Because like I've said before,

if one signed Roberto Sold Each, they're paying him a lot of money. A lot of money. You got BKFC. They're paying out a lot of money for different things. You got Bellatory, you got PFL. They're paying out money like crazy.

So there might be like a little bit of a shift in certain ways, but the fighters have options now. They could fight out their deals and then go see what they're worth any elsewhere. Shane Burgos, great spot. Coming off of the win, crazy fight with Charles Jordane, knew where he was at in the UFC, got a life-changing offer from PFL, and he took it.

Competition is good. Competition is good. So instead of talking about UFC fighter pay, we should be talking about these different options for the fighters, because now they have them. And the opportunity is to get to grow. PFL, I think, is going to be real aggressive moving forward, and they should be. Go after these names that create headlines but may not be fighting for titles in the UFC.

Go after the Policostas, the Shane Burgos's, all these fun fighters, heavyweights especially, go after all of them, pay them, gives them options. And then if it's all about money for the fighters, which I think money is certainly a factor for everybody, they have other places they can go, which is cool. I like that. I like that. And then they interviewed the SBN. I mean, I didn't really take too much from it. Honestly, I didn't take too much from his media day scrum.

It's very indifferent about the whole situation. The thing that struck me the most, because I had people like de-bbing me, saying like, see, you said that Nate wanted this fight, and then he told Brett Okamoto that he told, didn't want the fight. It's a little contradictory, if we're being honest, because when we confirmed this fight and we reached out to Nate's people about it, Nate's people said, well, let's just clear this up. We didn't essentially, quote, unquote, agree to the fight. We've been

asking for the fight since April. That's what his team said. That was their public reply to the fight, was that we asked for this fight. And then they, they, does the interview with the SPN and says, I didn't ask for it, I still didn't ask for it, I didn't want it then, I still don't want it now. This is just Nate being Nate. It's just Nate being Nate. And that's what makes this fight even more intriguing.

Like there's a difference between intriguing and exciting. Like I wouldn't say I'm excited to watch this fight. I am certainly intrigued by what could happen. And I think Nate's just kind of playing that. He's feeding into all the intrigue for the potential story. lines that could happen. Because there aren't people out there who feel like nature's going to go in there and tap the mat and walk out and flip the UFC the birds and just leave without a punch being thrown. So, I mean, I don't think that's going to happen. I don't even know if there's

legal ramifications for that happening. It would be the funniest friggin thing I've ever seen if he did do that. But, I mean, it just adds to the intrigue. There's intrigue and there's excitement. Intrigue far outweighs the excitement when it comes down to this. So I didn't think much of the Nate interview. I don't... Nate, all of Nate interviews are very similar.

He plants seeds in different ways. He comes off like he's one way but he's really another. Nate's just a smart dude doesn't get enough credit for his savvy.

So we'll see what happens. I mean, the press conference should be real interesting today and that's if Nate even shows up. Or maybe he'll show up two hours late.

Who the hell knows? All right, we'll take a few more. Mikey, what's up, buddy? I got you now. Awesome. Perfect.

Morning, everyone. Morning, Mikey. Are you here in Vegas for this week? I'll be at the way in tomorrow. I'll be at the way in tomorrow. So maybe I'll see you. I am not in Vegas. I wish it was, but I'm not.

Okay. Maybe December I'll see you or something, huh? But anyways, point well-being, I looked over the card again. And man, this car will keep talking about the main fights as we should. But like, the more you look at it, yeah, oh, people can talk about how underwhelming the card is, but just from a dialogue perspective,

this card has a lot of possibility of just stupid fun. I mean, the card has Chris Barnett and Johnny Walker and Yon Kutalaba on the same card. That's just going to be stupid fun. I'm like, I can't believe. I just, I just realize it's like, where's Barnett and Johnny Walker are on the same card? And then the three women's fights,

Daniel Wolf is finally going to fight in the UFC officially after two years, and she's pushing 40. so that'll be interesting, he's facing Norma Dumont. And, of course, Macy and Ereira, Aldaia, that might determine the next contender at phantomweight or even featherweight, for that matter. So I think, you know, AMA fans talk about like, oh, the U.S. doesn't promote enough.

I'm like, you guys also don't talk enough about the fights you claim the one to talk about. And as for Nate Diaz, guess what, guys, even your favorite fighters lie. Of course, he's going to say one thing in the media, because why would he give up leverage? Why would he admit to something just to give up leverage? You know what I'm saying?

Anyways, always. Much love to you guys. See you around the timeline. Thanks, buddy. Yeah, I mean, you named some names there and look, Johnny Walker has had his moments. No doubt about it. But since the Corey Anderson fight, there hasn't really been a lot of excitement behind Johnny Walker.

His fights have not been all that thrilling, if we're being honest. I mean, he got colded by Jamal Hill, but Jamal Hill can make anybody exciting. And I guess if we're trying to make Johnny Walker exciting Johnny Walker again, Iwan Kutalaba could be the guy to bring that out of him. But Ewan has become kind of a smarter fight himself. He's still a little chaotic, but we've been seeing like D1, Ewan Kutalaba lately.

So when this fight was announced, everyone's like, oh my God, these two are just going to stand there and trade bombs. each other until somebody falls. I don't know if that's how this fight's going to go. Like this fight could, this is one of those fights that could be really fun or could be really bad. I don't think there's really an in between here.

I don't think we're going to be coming on and be like, yeah, that was a pretty good fight. We're really going to be like, holy shit, that fight was insane. We're going to be like, oh, man, this was just not as fun as I thought it was going to be. That has all the makings of that. I do like the Aldana Chias on fight. There are some stakes there. Hakeem Dawato, Julian de Rost is just going to be a fun scrap. Jelten al-Made is just an absolute stud.

Chris Barnett's on the car, but he's fighting Jake Collier. Who knows how that's going to go? The Norma Dumont, Danielle Wolf, like, I just, boy, oh boy. I just don't see how Norma just doesn't crush her. I just don't know. I didn't really, and I'm not trying to, like, disrespect Daniel Wolf or anything like that, but like I didn't understand why she got a contract. I didn't,

like a lot of people felt like she didn't even beat Tanisha Tenet on the Contender series. Her striking wasn't that great. She was being outstruck in that fight. Her boxing credentials, she's got gold glove experience, but she's got an amateur background, but her boxing record wasn't all that great.

And she's got one pro-MMA fight. It's been two years since we've seen her fight. Now, in those two years, she has developed into something else. But I just, I just don't see a world where Norma Dubot loses this fight. I just, I just don't. I think Norma, it's just going to, like, smush her on the ground and submit her. I don't think this fight's going to last very long.

It's not all that appealing to me. But I don't know. Listen, there's things to like, and then there's some things that make you scratch your head a little bit. And I'm trying to, I'm trying to be very positive. with this card, but we also have to be realistic with some of these cards in this lineup as well. Like there's going to be fun fights, but people are spending $75 for the main card.

And the main card's not bad. It's not bad. I mean, the top three fights are great. I don't know. We'll see what happens. This could be one of those cards where it's like, see, never judge your book bites cover,

but there we are. This can be some things that are good and some things that are probably not so good. All right. Let's go to Gero. Jero, or Gio, Are you there? Hey, how are you doing?

Thanks for having me on. Sure. Yeah, I had a couple of questions real quick. What do you think is next for Ricky Simone? Do you think he gets that Edgar fight he's been wanting? Or do we see him fighting someone else higher in the ranking? I think he definitely showed that he can. And what do you think would be next for Jalen Turner?

I think that's another exciting guy we can see in the future. And lastly, what are your thoughts and, like, What do you think are the chances of John Jones actually returning in December in Las Vegas against DIPA or whoever they put up against him? Thanks, man. Let's see, Ricky Simone. I mean, if they give him the Frankie fight, I'm okay with that. That one's fine. If they want to do Pedro Munoz, I'd be fine with that.

That would work. Something like that, I think is fine. I wouldn't put him against like Umar and Amagamata or anybody like that. I think that went over Jack Shore has put him in a position where he should get a name. And he deserves that. I mean, if Joseo Alto wants to keep going, Ricky Simone, Josealdo isn't that bad of an option because Aldo is officially out of the title hunts, as far as I'm concerned, which sucks to say out loud, but that's where we're at right now. So, yeah, that's kind of where we're at with him. I forget the other matchmaking question.

I apologize. The John Jones thing, I don't know. I just feel like at this point, if you're John, you just wait for Francis. I think you have to wait and see what Francis does. I talk to Eric Nixick. They're saying February and March looks realistic. December or not realistic.

So if you're going to trot John out there, why not just wait two or three months and you just get the fight you want anyways. We all want, the UFC wants it, Francis wants it, the teams want it, everybody wants it. They want John versus Francis.

And if you can wait two months to get John versus Francis, just wait two frigging months to get John versus Francis. But again, we have to wait and see what Francis does. Now, if Francis decides, in December, like, I'm not resigning, then you strip him of the belts,

you just let him go on his merry way, and then you can do John versus Stepe for the undisputed title January or February. I just don't think John's going to get booked in December. And if he gets booked, I will, if John gets booked in December to fight Steepay, to me, and I have no insight into this whatsoever, but if they book that fight for an interim belt or whatever,

that's the title fight. Because that tells me that the UFC feels like they ain't getting Francis back. because it's two months. It's two months. You should just wait if you're going to do that. So I don't know. We'll see. But I would say at least with no insight whatsoever,

I would say probably not. But who knows? It's all depends on Francis. All right, we'll go to swap B on crypto. Then I've got to go. Swap, are you there? Good morning. But Tony had the brutal knockout right on chain out cold.

And that was so much damage, man. But I don't think he's recovered from that knockout. I mean, what's the hurry to get into that fight, money or some other things? Why is fighting in this short amount of time at this age? Like, Li Jiang has a power in his face. So do you think accepting this is not a good for Tony health-wise? And if he's fighting for money, then UFC is not behaving with the fighters in a good manner.

Thanks, Mike. Thank you, Swab. Yeah, I think, listen, I think a lot of people have the same concerns as you have when this fight was booked. I mean, money has to do something with it. I'm sure the UFC is paying Tony a little bit more to jump in on short notice. But Tony's a. Tony is a competitor. He's a gamer.

And the dude just wants to get out there and fight. So to get him on the card, someone had to step up. Here's Li Jing Liang who's going to do it. Now, another side of this coin that I think is kind of interesting. Let me just pull this up real quick. Tony could be banking on the – because look, as you would expect a guy like Li Jing Liang to say, Li Jing Liang was like, wow. Like his reaction to all this is like, oh,

my gosh, I'm fighting Tony Ferguson. This is so cool. Like, how could I ever say no to this opportunity? And damn it, that's how you should handle it. But maybe, just maybe Tony's banking on the fact that Li Jing Liang might be a little starstruck in there. Might be a little starstruck. Maybe the moment becomes a little too much for him.

Because we have seen what has happened when you throw Li Jingleong in some of these matchups. Botniel Magny, he lost. the Hamzaa Shemaya fight, he got bulldozed. And maybe that, who knows, maybe the Moan was too much and Samayev just grabbed a hold of him. Maybe it was just Hamzat's night. Maybe just wasn't prepared for it.

I don't know. But those kinds of fights, some of those bigger names, those guys up in the rankings, Lee has not done very well against. I mean, he beats Aleschi, good win. Ponsonibio is a good win, but Ponsonibu is also out for a really long time. Salikov win was nice,

but Salikov wasn't really like setting the, world on fire at the time. I'm going to be really interested to see how Lee handles this whole situation. Is this going to be, it's all business. I get to go out there and take care of this guy. I have a ton of respect for. Or is he going to look across the octagon and be like, wow, that's, that's El Cuckooey. That's Tony Ferguson.

I don't know. That's what makes this fight somewhat interesting to me. But if Lee can kind of keep all that out of the conversation and just fight, I just, boy, I think it's just got to be a tough night for Tony, man. But we'll see. This is why they fight. Maybe Tony at 170, maybe not having to cut that extra weight makes Tony even more durable. I don't know.

I don't know. It's a puzzling matchup, but I will say this. I'm hoping to be proven wrong. And these two dudes just get out there and get after it and have just a all-out great fight. And nobody gets heard and anything like that. But we'll see. Cryptocurrency. take us home, my man.

Hello. Yes, I can. Comment on this. I mean, this fight does not think for no one. I mean, this whole Tony Ferguson, Jing Liang fight is just ridiculous. If Jingleang wins, I mean, does it do anything for him in the ranking? Absolutely not. I mean, it does not give him a greater fight in the future.

It's just a ridiculous fight. And let's say Tony wins. Let's say he does actually win. Where do we go with Tony? nowhere. There's nowhere to go with Tony. It is an absolutely strange matchup. I think we all know what's happening here. And please also, Mike, I mean, remember that these suspensions and these medical checkups, they are a joke. They are an absolute joke. I mean, if you look at some of the suspensions, look at, for example, Dominic Cruz, he got a seven-day mandatory suspension. And then on top

of that there were some other suspensions, but when you read into it, you actually realize that those are up to interpretation. So it depends on if you get clearance from a doctor and a bunch of other things. So I mean, this is all just stupid. I mean, yesterday, Tony celebrated the four-month anniversary of becoming a highlight reel. Four-month. I mean, his consciousness got sent all the way back to the end of the universe before returning back to Earth. So, I mean, this is just strange. I think it's irresponsible, no matter what happens. It's really just sad because Tony is at a level right now where he should be fighting interesting fighters, fun fighters,

basically enjoying the fruits of his career and not being thrown in there with Jim Liang and then what? And also, Mike, I mean, you lift weights and you know this. It does take a lot of time to gain quality weight. It takes time. And then you need to get used to that weight. I mean, that's a completely different story. You need to be able to utilize that weight gain inside the octagon,

which also takes a bunch of time. So this is just all strange, but yeah, I don't know, Mike. I want to take on that. And also, just lastly, if Nate goes in there and just taps out and flips off Dana, I would be willing to pay $200 for that pay-per-view. I would love to see it. I would pay $200 to see the facial expression of Dana. when Nate just tacks out, flips him off, takes the mic,

and basically just to spice things up, because Dana thinks that it's an awesome ID that Nate is starting his own promotion. He just basically says for everyone that has bought this pay-per-view, the first pay-per-view on Fiting will be for free for all of the people that paid for this card and just drops the mic and just walks out of there like a freaking boss. That would be amazing. $200. I promise you, Mike.

I'm willing to pay that if I'm no, if I know that that is going to happen. Thank you. Thanks, buddy. I mean, geez, Louise. That would be, like I said, that would be just the most Diaz thing that could possibly happen. There's a great roundtable if you guys want to look it up on Mbafiting.com talking about UFC 279, some of the storylines. And one of the questions I was asked was, what is the most Nate Diaz thing that could happen at UFC 279?

and there were two options. One was exactly that. Nate just goes in there, taps the mat, flips the bird who walks out or the other side of the coin, whoever's in his corner and baby's brother just throws him the towel and he does the same thing and storms out. But the other thing was, what if Nate just goes full Connor McGregor,

takes a beating in the first round, comes out in the second and just strangles Shamiya's into submission? like can you i just can't even imagine what that would look like and the fallout of that like it just depends man like if nate wants to show up and be a tremendous fighter he can he's shown it before we've seen it we saw it in the money and we saw it against seroni

we saw it against michael johnson we saw it against cona mcgregor we saw it against anthony pettis like the dude can show up and if he feels like it's all on the line he has to be at his best and he really truly is into it the guy can scrap man it just all depends on his demeanor and what he wants to get out of this is he going to go in there just like completely indifferent i don't care what happens i'm just going on my merry way as soon as this is all of a sudden done perhaps but again i think nate is smart enough to know that this is a house money fight for him if he loses so what everyone expects him to look at the freaking betting line he's a plus seven

50 underdog. Everyone is expecting him to lose. Even Nade has said on a few occasions, planting those seeds. Beat me. Take my spot. Take me out. Get your name off of me.

Go right ahead. But did you see what he also did during that media day yesterday? You know what he did? He planted seeds for Jake Paul. He planted seeds for Anderson Silva. Because he was asked about that. He was asked about a potential fight with Jake Paul. Anyone know what he said?

Nothing bad about us. either guy, put over Anderson, being a legend, and he put over Jake Paul as a young, hungry whippersnapper who's trying his best to be a boxer. He didn't say anything bad about Jake Paul, because Nate Diaz is smart. Nate is a smart guy. Nate coming out in saying, Jake Paul sucks at fighting, he's terrible at boxing. What does that do for him? It might get him the fight, but what if he loses? Then you lost to a suck bag. Like, that's just bad business. That's just bad business.

That's why when pro wrestling was at its peak, you never heard the bad guy wrestler or the bad guy manager say anything, like they would probably make fun of the way they'd look or something, but they never said like, oh, this guy's a terrible wrestler. He's a terrible competitor. He's easy money. Because then if he lost, like, oh, yeah, you just lost to the easiest money guy in the promotion or whatever.

Nate's smart. Nate's smart. He's doing everything right. He goes out and gets run over. His stock remains the same. If he goes out and wins, his stock is already through the roof. It is at another stratosphere. And if Nate just lands like one punch that has Shamiyaf going backwards and he points at him, his stock goes up. Worst case scenario, he goes out there and gets trucked. His stock remains the same. And he could still leave that building, flip in the middle birds, doing a post-fights press conference, talking to Joe Rogan,

saying a bunch of things that will be headlines for articles on every major website covering the sport. And even if he gets run over and says funny things, he's still going to get some shine. Because that's how Nate is.

Nate has set himself up that way. Nate is a smart guy. He puts himself in his position that no matter what happens, he can find a way to make it work in his favor. And he's great at that. There might be, I don't think there's anybody better.

in the sport than Nate Diaz when it comes from that. Because Nate is not the greatest fighter of all time. He's been in some fun fights. We love how really is. But he still gets over every time. Leon Edwards dominated him, except for 24 minutes. And then he landed that right hand,

had Leon hurt. And everyone's like, in the streets, bro, Nate beat his ass. Nate won the fight and pride rules. That's just the magic of Nate Diaz. So it's house money, all house money for him.

And I think our hearts are going to be racing a little bit. Would both those guys make the walk on Saturday? Just wondering what is going to happen. Is what's going to happen what we think is going to happen? Shmai's just going to tackle him, beat him and finish him. Can Nate pull off the big upset again? Can Nate have a moment? Is Nate just going to tap the bat and say,

FU, UFC, I'm out of here. There's a chance all of those things are in play. All right, I have to get out of here. ETL, 1 p.m. Eastern. we're back at it. Good matchup. Should be fun. We'll be live on the YouTube channel,

so check that out. Tomorrow, by the way, I forgot to mention this earlier, but I'll say it now. We're going to go earlier tomorrow, 9 a.m. Eastern, because we have a very busy day. I want to make sure we get a full show in,

get to as many colleges as possible tomorrow. And I see Salam and Daniel. If you guys jump on tomorrow, we'll get you up there as quick as possible. We're going to go at 9 a.m. Eastern because we have the, the weigh-ins for UFC 279. Jose is in Las Vegas.

He's on site. Me myself, Prince of Positivity, A.K. Lee. Casey, we'll have live way-ins. We'll have our show answering questions during lag times, stuff like that. That's going on at noon Eastern. So I want to make sure we get everything in in enough time. I don't want to shortchange you. So we're going to go a little bit earlier tomorrow, 9 a.m.

Eastern for heck of a morning. But until then, everybody, enjoy the rest of your day. We'll see at 1 p.m. Eastern for BTL. Hi, I am ICAC. Have a great rest of the day. And as always, have a heck of a morning.