MMA Fighting - HOAM | What Will Be Biggest Factor In Charles Oliveira vs. Islam Makhachev UFC 280 Main Event?

Episode Date: October 20, 2022

Two days away from the massive UFC 280 main event between Charles Oliveira and Islam Makhachev, what is the biggest question you have about that fight in regards to how this highly anticipated vacant lightweight title bout plays out? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck reveals what he believes could be the biggest factor in the high stakes headliner this Saturday in Abu Dhabi. Additionally, listener questions include which fighter winning would be better for the UFC business wise, Sean Brady vs. Belal Muhammad, Petr Yan going back to a three-round fight against Sean O'Malley, whether or not the talks about Khabib Nurmagomedov potentially coming back to fight will end any time soon, Beneil Dariush being one of the most unlucky fighters in the promotion, the MMA Fighting UFC 280 Watch Party — which takes place Saturday at 1:45 p.m. ET live on the MMA Fighting YouTube channel — and more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser 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. The Vox Media Podcast Network. Thursday, October 20th, 2022, it is indeed a heck of a morning live on the M.MA fighting Twitter spaces. You can hear the show at its entirety after the fact on the M.A. Fighting podcast.

Network. Hope everyone's having a great Thursday. I am Mike Hack. We are on the eve of the eve of UFC 280. Two days from right now, we'll be eating our breakfast, drinking our coffee. Well, all of you will be anyways. I'll tell you what I'll be doing in a matter of seconds, but, and then an hour from right now, two days from now, that's when the prelim start. 10 a.m. Eastern. Main card starts at 2 p.m. Eastern. The card is fantastic. The main event rules, the co-main event rules. All the main card fights have meaning, even the featured prelim fight has a ton of meaning, ton of significance. This card is fantastic. It is spectacular. And I am very excited for it. We have the, if you're listening live,

if you're listening on the podcast, this doesn't really matter to you. But for those here live, we have the UFC 280 press conference going down at 10 a.m. Eastern. It's probably going to be like 10.15 because that's how the UFC rolls. But we're going to go until it starts. We'll go here until it starts. We'll take as many questions as possible. So feel free to hop on in. We'll get to those momentarily.

We'll see what comes out of that press conference. And then, of course, we got BTL coming up at 1 p.m. Eastern, which is going to be a lot of fun. The return. the highly awaited return of Brian Campbell to the show. He's going to take on Alexander K. Lee, AK versus B.C. Let's go. But before we get to the calls, yes, if you watch the M.A. Hour yesterday, the announcement that I've been teasing for a few weeks, it is out.

It's happening. Saturday, 145 Eastern is one. We're going to kick it off. it's going to be myself and good old G.C. Connor Burke's live in studio in New York for the first ever MMA fighting pay-per-view watch party. So this is going to be a ton of fun. And I'm very excited for this. So as you guys are eating breakfast on Saturday and getting ready for UFC 280, I'll be traveling. So this is not a thing where I'm going to be going out Friday and I get to sleep and all that fun stuff. and then just casually get ready for UFC 280.

No, I'm waking up at like 3.30 in the morning, Saturday morning, take a shower, shave the head, hop in my car, drive to the airport for a 6 a.m. flight, fly to Newark, get my stuff, hop in an Uber, right to the studio, and then we're going to get ready to do this damn thing. It's going to be ridiculously fun. We're going to have some stuff going on in between the fights. We'll have special guests joining us, including in the main event. I'm not going to reveal it just yet. We'll reveal it Saturday morning.

A very special guest will watch the main event with us, somebody who you know, a universally, at least from all I've seen, beloved fighter who just happens to be in the lightweight division, who's coming off the biggest win of his career earlier this year. And he's looking for a massive fight. and he's going to be watching this main event, along with the fight between Benile Daryush and Matush Gamrott, I'm sure, very, very closely. And this guy is just a ton of fun,

and I'm excited to have him on. So we will have a very special guest fighter joining us. We'll have MMA fighting staff members. We'll have some other journalists joining us as well, and it's just going to be awesome. Me and G.C., watching the fights. You guys watching along with us, it's going to be fantastic.

I'm so excited about this. And I don't know if this is going to be a one-off. I don't know if this is going to be one of many. I don't know if this is going to be the first of us doing this for every pay-per-view. If I had my druthers, this is the first of doing this every pay-per-view. And I hope that's the case. But this has got to go well. This has got to go well.

So hop on in. Even if you just jump in for a few minutes in between the fights or something, that's cool with me. If you want to watch the main event with us, cool with me. Whatever you want to do. Whatever you want to do, support it, let people know about it. It's going to be fun. A nice little, a nice little option for you. If you want to feel like you're watching the fight with your buddies, that's going to be the vibe, so to speak. If you don't want to spend $75 on this pay-per-view, you don't need to. I mean, you probably should anyways. If you're in this room, you're probably going to do it. But if not,

We'll let you know what's happening. Live on Saturday throughout the entire main car. We'll go a little bit earlier to make sure we have things going. But that is happening. A lot of people thought that the announcement would fall flat, that we're just going to do a Twitter space. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. We're doing this up.

We're doing this right. I will not be in Command Center 4.0. There will not be a little webcam on me with my microphone. No, we're going to be in studio, sitting in comfy chairs. We're going to do this right. we're going to do this the correct way. And hopefully this is something we do all the time for these pay-per-views. But this one's got to go well.

And I hope you'll join us, 145 Eastern on Saturday for the inaugural UFC 280 watch party. And let me just throw another tease out at you. A little tease. The UFC's production team is fantastic. They are incredible. They put out these cold opens, get you all jazz. backed up and fired up for the fights. Ron Perlman, the great Ron Perlman, you might know him as Clay Morrow from Sons of Anarchy,

just a tremendous actor, wonderful voiceover. Guy crushes it every single time. I'm going to go ahead and say this. Hot take, the cold open for this watch party is going to blow away anything the UFC is going to do. It is the best. It is amazing. and wait till you guys see it.

Wait to you guys see it. Wait till you guys hear. It rules. So, all right, that's all I have to say about that, unless you guys have further questions about it, but let's go to the calls. Let's go to the peeps. Your show.

AA is going to kick us off. What's up, buddy? I'm great. I'm great, my man. Okay, quick, I guess I guess, I guess that's my last comment before I start. I don't know what you're talking about. I'm watching, I'm making breakfast before the fight, man,

because the fight starts at 1 a.m. here, only, so I won't be making no breakfast. Well, maybe, listen, maybe a late-night snack of a breakfast variety. Maybe you'll have an omelet or something. Yeah, I've just got two quick ones for you. One, Sean O'Malley said that Peoria Young was bullied into taking this fight with him. I just want your thoughts on that. And Balal and Sean Brady, who has... Who has more paths to victory in this one, do you think?

Have a heck of a morning, man. And to everyone in the chat, you have a heck of a morning too, man. Guys, peace. I mean, just a positive way to start the program. Well wishes to us all. And that's why AA is the man. So, yes, Sean O'Malley said that Piotr was bullied into taking this fight. I don't really believe that.

I don't believe that. I think there was some surprise, I'm sure, on the Yon side that he got this fight. But for Peyotrion, this was the best case scenario for him. This was the biggest name he could get at the time because he wasn't getting a title fight. He wasn't getting T.J. Everybody else was booked. Maraba's fighting Cruz.

Or not Maraumvara's fighting Cruz. Maraub is fighting Josealdo. All the big names were off the board. So you kind of look up and down the line who was left. They weren't going to throw him in there with Frankie Edgar for the retirement fight. So let's give him the biggest, so they gave him the biggest name possible.

That was available. So I don't think Peodor Yan was like, no, I don't want to fight this dude. I think Peodor and his team saw the value in this because with what was available, this was kind of the best case scenario for him. It's a fight he could certainly win. And he's a, he's not, I mean,

not as heavily favored as he was before, but he's favored to win this fight. And I think if these guys fight 10 times, he probably wins eight of them. Now, is this going to be one of the two times that Sean O'Malley wins? I don't know. The three rounds

certainly makes this fight interesting because Peotre is a five-round fighter. He's very good at five-round fights. His style has built around being a five-round fighter. He's really good at it. He usually will take the first round off and sort of figure out tendencies

and let the codes kind of go into his brain, and then he turns it on. And what makes his fight so interesting is that Sean, for the most part, we didn't see it a ton in the Pedro Munoz fight, but Sean usually comes out pretty strong. He's a quicker starter than Yon is, and Peodor can't just give rounds away.

In a five-round fight, sure, you can come back and make things happen, and you got 20 more minutes to work with. But in this case, you don't have that luxury. You can't be giving away rounds because then all Sean has to do moving forward is win two or three more minutes and he wins the fight. So I'm really interested to see how both guys handled this. But to me, I think Jan should win, but it wouldn't stun me if Sean won.

But my official pickle product will be Peter Rion by decision. Wouldn't be shocked to see a late finish. The Muhammad Brady fight is really interesting because people talk about how high I've been over the years on Armand Sarukian. For those who will follow be pre-M-A fighting, I've been high on Sean Brady for, I mean, super long, well before he's in the UFC. There are only a few of us doing interviews

with Sean Brady early in his career, and I was one of those people. James Lynch is another. We were two of the guys that were interviewed. This dude, he was running stuff over at CFFC and stuff like that. And, you know, Sean never really forgets that. But this is a great fight because both guys are really good wrestlers, both offensively and defensively.

It's really hard to get both these guys down to the ground. So this could play out a lot on the feet. And I think Ballal is probably the better striker here. Here's where things get interesting. If I'm Sean Brady's team, I'm making it an absolute point to win that first round. He has to win the first round. He cannot let Bilal get going and get out to an early lead on him. Because Bilal's pace is incredible.

I think Brady is an overall better wrestler, but Balal just puts on such a pace. puts on such a pace. And I think Sean Brady is going to be a lot stronger than Balal is going to give him credit for. But the pace of Balal is going to be so interesting in this fight. If Balal can win that first round, he's got a real good chance to win this fight. because I see Belaw winning the third.

So for Sean Brady, it is imperative that he wins the first round. Somehow finds a way to get the fight to the ground. Somehow lands a big shot. He's got to win that first round. Belaw's got a real good chance here. And I'm very high on Sean Brady. What's interesting about Brady, too, is he's had the nose surgery. He's been dealing with that nose issue for a long, long time.

And he's finally had the chance to clear it up. And he said that really affected him in the Michael Kiesa fight because we saw what happened in the third round of that fight. And that's what's giving people a lot of pause on taking Sean Brady. As they remember the third round against Michael Kiesa where Kiesa had him in big, big trouble and had it been a five-round fight, Kiesa probably wins that fight. And to me, if this is a five-round fight, I would take Balaala in a five-round fight. But this is three rounds, and Brady's a very good three-round fighter. So I'm taking Sean Brady, but it's not a pick that I'm fully confident with because Belaw's really good. He's really, really good, and he gets better with every fight.

But this is one of those fights where, and I think a lot of Ballal fights are like this, we're going to know in the first five minutes if Bilal's going to win or not. We'll know. But that first round is massive in this fight. It's so big. It's so big. I'll go to Tristan, then we'll go to Dominic. Tristan, what's up, buddy?

Hey, Mike. So I need also to the rundown of what's going to happen on Saturday. So I'm looking right now, UFC 280, during the post-flight press conference that's on Friday. It's you, A.K. Lee, Sean Al-Shard and Casey. The problem is I'm trying to figure out is on Saturday. Who's doing the pre-fight Q&A? That's at 9.15 in the morning, I believe.

I don't know. There's no way you're doing that. So I guess somebody else is going to host it. And then after the U.S.C. 280's over, who's doing the press conference post-fight? And then who's doing the Q&A afterwards? Are you still doing that? I don't even know. I don't know how the schedule is going to work out.

So just give me an explanation on that. Also, too, I have to shout out. I got a shout out on Benio Darioz. That guy is the man. I've watched all his interviews on these fights. And he's just, man, he's a G. He's going to fight whoever. And he understands, listen, I think he should get a title shot, to be honest.

And in the normal world, he should get a title shot. But he also understands from a business standpoint of what the UFC is trying to do. They're trying to make money. And they're going to try to put the best fights possible in trying to do what they want to do. So I just feel really bad. My heart goes out to him. I'm rooting for him for this fight, man. I know Mitu's scammar.

He could win. This dream could be over for B'Neil. But I really hope he wins, guts it out and gets a win, man, because he deserves it. He's done everything, axed of him, and then some. And he's not put any ill will towards any other fighter. He's not complaining. He's not, like he said, I'm not begging for fights.

I'm going to fight who's in front of me. And then my last point, going back to the Sean Brady versus Balaah Muhammad, you know what I'm hearing what is going to what is going to like win this fight do you feel that Brady's grappling and his strength is going to overwhelm Muhammad or do you think Muhammad is very good strategically on game planning and making sure that he capitalized on a person's weakness to win the fight we saw that we've seen this in his previous fight of his game plans and sticking to that and then winning it that way. So just your thoughts on that and just the rundown of what's going to happen on Saturday

if you have that already planned in your head or mapped out. And again, shout out to Benadirond areas from rooting for you, man. Thanks for everything, Mike, and have a heck of a morning. Thank you, Tristan. So I'll go backwards. So the Belaw fight, I mean, Bray's strength is going to be a huge factor in this fight. but I'm telling like to me I'm telling like to me ball's going to win the third round I just that's just how I see it so imperative that first round is so imperative that first round is so imperative the way I see it I mean because they're both stud defensive wrestlers they're really good and they're both really good offensive wrestlers I think Brady is the better offensive wrestler to but they're both excellent defensively if Brady can get takedons he'll win the fight plain and simple Because if Brady gets on top of Balal, he's going to have a real tough time getting up.

He's going to have a real hard time because Brady's humongous. He's probably the strongest dude that he's fought, at least during the street. And Brady is real good on top. Once he gets you down, it's very tough to get him off of you. And he's very advantageous down there. What makes this fight interesting is that if Brady can't get takedowns and this plays out on the feet, I think Bilal's the better striker. it's just such a good fight.

It's such a good fight. The Darius Gammrat fight, to me, and I know it's impossible to do this, but play this game with me for a minute. And you might not agree with me, but I'm going to just throw this out there anyway because I truly believe this. You take the stakes out of all of these fights.

It's impossible to do, but just bear with me here. Take the stakes out of all these fights. Gamrod Darius is the best fight on the card. Again, there's titles and there's five rounds. I get it. To me, this is the best fight on the card. This is the most competitive fight on the card. This is one where I just have no idea what's going to happen.

I have no clue what's going to happen. I think Darius should win. Because what Gamrod does well, Darius does really well. It might even do it better. But to Trace's point, my one concern, and it's like nothing to do with the fight itself, is that the M.M.A. gods just don't like Binal Darius. I feel like this dude has just been so unlucky. He's been so incredibly unlucky with all of this, with this whole build. But I think Darius just doesn't get enough credit for how good he really is.

He's a great wrestler. He's a tremendous grappler. And he's great in scrambles. Guess what? Darriush could strike too. He's become an exciting fighter. Some of his knockouts are just ridiculous. This fight is fantastic. And it's not getting any love. It's not getting talked about enough. But I think by the time Saturday ends, we're going to be like, damn, that fight was great. But if you're looking at this from a betting perspective, and I understand we're high on Gamrod after that incredible fight, that incredible war with Armand Sarukyan, I just think Darius is super live at plus 160 right now, which is what he's currently at.

If I'm betting on this fight, if I have to bet on this fight, I'm betting on Darius at plus 160. But this fight's great. God, I can't wait for it. And then the other part with the programming, tomorrow, I believe it's at 12.30 Eastern. We're going to do our preview show.

We'll do it live. Saturday, we'll have the same programming. We obviously are adding the watch part. I will not be on the Q&A because I don't know what the hell is going to be happening. I'll probably be in an Uber at that point getting to the studio. So I think Jed and Casey are going to do it. And then the plan is once the watch party wraps, I'm going to try. Maybe someone else will begin the press conference stuff.

But I will definitely be on the post-fight show. I'll just do it in the studio. I don't know how the setup's going to be. I'll probably just bring my mic and my webcam and just do it off my laptop. But I will definitely do the post-fight show. I will probably be able to hop in for the press conference stuff. But that's how it's going to work. But I won't be on the Q&A.

That is for certain. Boarding for Flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. 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. What you win is yours to keep. Grooving.

I won! Boating will begin when passenger fisher is done celebrating. 19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Concerned by your gambling or that if someone close you, call 1-8665331-260 or visit Comexonterio.ca. With Amex Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too. That's the powerful backing of Amex.

Conditions apply. Let's go to Dominic. This might be a first time caller, actually. Dominic, hello. Hey, Mike. How's he going? Good. How are you, man? Good, good, good. So I had like two questions for you.

Well, I just wanted to go off the last stuff you talked about. Yeah, the Blah Muhammad-Chang Brave fight, that's a great fight that I actually can't wait to watch. Watching Blah Muhammad against Ficente-Luke and him, like, beating him like that, that was absolutely crazy. So that's, like, a super tough fight to, like, bet on and like you know predict the outcome um and then like the benair dar yush fight i also had a question regarding him like i i saw on social media that umlexander volkenovsky was the backup to charles olivaura and islam makashev and then i saw somewhere that banal dar yush thought that he was the backup so i was wondering why that was like a thing and like why benal d'ar yush thought that i don't know if he was just like

trolling or just, you know, trying to get a shot. Because, yeah, you are right that, like, that guy gets no love. His winning streak and he doesn't get a title shot, like, that's crazy. Absolutely crazy. But my two questions for you were, um, first was obviously, um, who do you think is going to win this main event, Charles and Islam Makashiv? Like, I bet against Charles, like, when he was fighting Gaichi, um, solely because of, like, he lost the bell.

He was, he missed weight by that, by that half a pound. And I was like, oh, man, there's no way Charles is. going to win this, you know. But after he fought Gaiji, that really showed me that not only he's, is he physically strong, but he is mentally very, very strong. So I'm really just wondering who do you think is going to win this? Because, you know, obviously, you saw Makashiv. That's like a Kabib 2.0, Kabib number two. Like, it's crazy. So it's like, I really just don't know. So I'd look to get your insight on that. And then my last question is, um, why is this fight in Abu Dhabi? Like, I'm kind of surprised this wasn't in Brazil. You know, this is,

Obviously, everybody sees Charles as the as the champ. Like, why isn't this in Brazil? Like, why isn't this, why isn't it on his home turf? Why are we on a Islamakashem's home turf? But, yeah, thank you for giving us all this information. I appreciate it. Thanks, man. So it's in Abu Dhabi because the UFC is paid lots of money by the government to put on the best cards possible.

And this is what happened. So this is the fight that got made. I think the co-made event being on this card makes less sense between Sterling and Dillishaw when they could just fight at MSG three weeks later in Sterling's home state. So that to me is a little stranger, but I get it.

Bala, I mean, not Bala. Charles Alvarez is not the champion right now. He doesn't really have a lot of power in this situation because this is for the vacant title. But I also think for Charles, I think he gets a little more. carte blanche if he wins. If he wins in Brazil, it's just like, okay, he won in Brazil.

But if he wins on the road, so to speak, in a circumstance that is not tailor made for him, if you will, UFC gives him more options. Now, we've talked about this a lot. And this being on this card tells me that Charles Oliver, if he wins, will have a little more power with the bat, if you will. which means if he wants the Conner fight, I don't think it's out of play.

It's silly to say, it makes no sense meritocratically. But if Charles wants the Conner fight, I think he has a much better chance of getting it. If he wants Volcanowski over a Darius or a Gamrot, he'll get it. Now, I know Dana White, I know things are coming out saying Dana White said

that Volcanowski is definitely next. If you actually watch the interview, he just said that it makes sense, it's just Dana being a little bit noncommittal, right now. He just said it makes sense. So we'll see what happens because Volk's in a really interesting spot

because he could, let's just say Olivera goes out there and does the damn thing and he's like, I'm on a fight in Brazil. And they offer Volcanov to get that fight. Is he just going to say no? Because I want to fight in Perth. I don't know what he's going to do. Are they going to try to have that fight in Perth and have Volk headline? I don't know.

I don't know. But the options will be a plenty if if Charles Olivera wins this fight. As far as my prediction goes, looking at past fights, looking at the styles of both guys, it would be very easy for me to just come on here and say that Islam O'Machachev is just going to win this fight.

And boy, does he have the style to beat Charles Olivera. This is just a really awful style matchup for Charles Olivera. But we have said this about Charles Olivera in almost every fight he's in, that it's a horrible style matchup for him. So the way I'm going with this is not from a technical standpoint. I'm going with the vibe standpoint.

This is what my vibes. This is what my gut is telling me. I am not going to pick against Charles Olivera until I'm given a reason to do so. I'm done picking against him. I'm done doubting him. I'm done saying that this is a terrible stylistic matchup for him. I'm done saying it. Until I'm proven wrong, I'm going with the Rick Flair approach to this.

To be the man, you got to beat the man. And if Islam Makachep beats Charles Olivera, awesome. Good for him. Congratulations to you. But until I see it, I'm not picking against Charles. I'm not picking against him. And it has nothing to do with the skill sets. It's not me hating on Islam because all the signs are telling me that Islam should win this fight.

from a technical standpoint, from a stylistic perspective. But to me, until I see it, I'm not picking against Charles. So it's a total vibe pick. That's where I'm at right now. I don't want to overthink this because it's going to drive me crazy because the fight's really interesting on paper. I just feel like at some point in the first 15 minutes of this fight, as patient and as sound of a fighter as Islam Makashev is,

Charles Olivera is so good at creating chaos. And no one is better fighting in chaos than Charles Oliver. He thrives on it. And he actually becomes more powerful once chaos ensues. And at some point in the first three rounds, there's going to be, that's going to happen. It's going to happen early in this fight. it's going to happen early in this fight.

Now, the longer this fight goes, the more it's going to favor his on Machachev, in my opinion. If this goes to the championship rounds and Olivera didn't win the first three, it could be a rough final 10 minutes for him. But I don't know. This just seems like if chaos appears at all that Olivera could win. If it doesn't, but it will. It's just going to happen. It's just how is Islam going to deal with that?

That's the biggest question I have in this fight. Otherwise, all sides are pointing to Islam being the guy to beat Charles. But until I see it, I'm not picking against them. Let's go to Four Corner Sports. What's up Four Corners? Hey, what's going on, Mike? Question, how long would you be seeing in New York? And I just want to know, like, what places are you planning on visiting?

Like, do you have any restaurants you're planning on visiting here in New York for a time being? I didn't get to watch Ariel show because I was from my first. and getting back from New York. So I don't know too much of the full details. All I just saw is that you're going to be doing a thing with Connor Birx. So I don't know if you could just give me like a quick rundown of what's going to be like the watch party like. Yeah. So we're going to start at 145 Eastern.

It's going to be me and GC in the studio. Mysterious Frank will be a part of the broadcast as well, which I'm excited to meet the mysterious Frank because, frankly, he's been a mystery to me. I've never met the man. I've never even spoken to him. but I will get to speak with him on Saturday. I'm very excited. Along the way, we're going to play some games, have some trivia questions for G.C.

And for the peeps in between fights. Maybe we'll have a John Jones announcement to react to. I have no insight on this, but maybe we will. We will have special guests along the way. Some of the MMA fighting staffers will jump in. I believe our man Drake Riggs is going to hop in for a fight to represent the bloody elbow MMMA man mania side of things. and then the main event, we will have a special guest,

highly ranked, lightweight contender who everybody seems to love. He will join us to watch the main events. So we're going to do something a little bit differently. And again, this is the first time we're doing this. So this is going to be a learning experience for us all. And if this goes really well and we can do more, then I mean, my wheels are going to be spinning because that's how I work. When I find out this is going to be a thing,

I was already 10 moves ahead of everybody. So that's how it's going to be. It's just going to be us hanging out. It's going to be you just basically looking through a screen and we're all going to be watching the fights together. It's just going to be how you would be, like if you were at a bar or something. We're just sitting around shooting the breeze and talking about fights and reacting at the same time, which I'm very excited about.

I will be in New York for a day and a half, I guess. So my flight Saturday is like super early in the morning. but my flight home is on Sunday at like 8 o'clock at night. So plan is check out of the hotel. Do on to the next one live with AK Sunday morning. And then probably go somewhere. I may meet up with GC or something and watch some football have some food before. I have to go sit back at the Newark Airport.

But yeah, I'll be there until Sunday night. Let's go to Vikings waiting for a minute. to everybody, I promise. Let me get to everybody. We'll get to William next after this. Viking, what's up? I'm good. How are you?

What is the reason you have started with space maybe one hour early? I was not expecting this. Well, we did it earlier because the press conference for 280 starts at 10. I thought it started earlier than that. I thought by the time we started the show, we'd be reacting to it, but it turns out

it doesn't start till the top of the hour. So we're going to do it before. Just wanted to get it done before that because after that it's going to be a little tough with BTL coming up at WAND. And I wanted to make sure I gave you guys some time here. Okay. No worries, mate. I just want to tell you one more thing. I'm pretty happy about the question I ask about the pressure situation in the fight between Charles Silver and Maka Jeev in the space a few weeks earlier.

And now I'm very – and now every – Other podcast networks and guys who take interviews are asking the same question to the former fighters and analysts. And my girlfriend told me that you put that as a headline of a heck of a morning episode of that particular space into the pod network. So really appreciate it. I just want to talk about the main event of your C-280. and I think one of the reason why this fight is highly anticipated because they feel like they are the two best in the division, Charles and Marketsu. But if Charles win, he's the light with goat for many people, many, many, many people. Goat,

Chaltses light with goat and Khabib will have just that 29-0 mark for an elite elite level grappler or wrestler meaning high-level competition. But if

Markach wins, the competition they already have in the lightweight division killer after killer so what What do you think about Makajew will Markajew can start to rival Khabit legacy if he successfully defends his title three more time after this one? Please Mike don't say that Magadja is his brother and he will be happy to be beaten by his own brother.

Thank you, brother. Thanks, man. So, yeah, I mean, that's been one of the big questions is the legacies of both guys depending on who wins. Now, Oliver if he wins, he's definitely in the conversation. Some people feel like he is the best lightweight of all time if he wins. And like I said, I'm not willing to make that leap just yet. He's definitely there. Like he's in the mix. At worst, he's number two. He's probably 1B. There's arguments that can be made for both sides. Now, if Islam wins, and then he starts on, if Islam wins, he's not there. I'll just put that out there. He's not there. He just doesn't have

the resume that either Habib or Oliver has. Olivera is a big win, but you just feel like at some point the way Oliver has been fighting and the risks that he takes, that this is going to have to end at some point. Now, is it going to end on Saturday? I don't know. But if he wins, obviously that's big. And there's a lot of talk about what Islam will need to do to overtake Habib. And it's just, he's going to be in a real interesting spot because eventually,

the top of this division is going to have to part. We're going to have to start seeing these young bloods getting their opportunities. We're going to have to see the Fizives. And, I mean, Gamrod's getting a big opportunity, but we're going to have to see some of these guys, the Jalen Turner's, the Saurukians, eventually the Grant Dawson's, possibly the Claudio Pueises, get their opportunity.

So by the time Islam starts to go on this run, he might be just looking at a whole different crop of guys. and to me, if Islam can go out and beat all these dudes, like the current top five and then some of these up-and-coming killers, his resume could end up better than Habib's. Here's my devil's advocate. Here's how I'll play this. I think everything that Islam Makachov does

will have an attachment to Habib. So to me, it's not just like whose legacy is better. with every success Makhachev has, it only makes Habib's more powerful because not only was he doing it as a fighter, now he's doing it as a coach, now he's doing it as like the number two. So he's, his legacy only expands himself

with the success of Islam Makhachev. So I don't, I honestly, like truly, and I know like you said, this is a fencing answer and it's a, it's whatever, but I think I honestly do believe, that in Habib's mind, it is more important for Islam to be that dude over him. I think it means more to Habib as a coach and a number two to be that guy.

I think that means more to him than him being that guy, if that makes sense. But it's a conversation that will be beginning if Islam can win this fight, and it's really interesting if all of Erdogan. So it just adds more elements to the storyline. William, what's up? Hey, pal.

How you doing? No complaints. All right. Let's get to some real question. We're doing a weighing show tonight, bro? Yes, of course. Do you think AK is going to miss out on that opportunity? This is like Christmas for him.

Oh, my gosh. So thankful. I just saw you guys update a bunch of stuff on YouTube with upcoming shows, and I didn't see the weighing show. So I was just drinking my morning coffee, wondering what was going on. Happy to hear it. I muted myself.

There we go. Yeah, there will be a way in show. I don't know exactly what time that's going to begin. We will let you know. But, yeah, AK is going to be a busy man today. He's going to work. He's going to do BTL. He'll take a breather, maybe take a nap, and then he'll be back later on.

I'm even pondering, jumping on that as well. I got a couple of softball games. I'm going to be jacked up from those because that's, I'm just a competitive dude like that. so I might still have some adrenaline flow and I might even hop on for a little while. Who knows? But yes, we will do one because AK will be very upset if we don't have one.

Kirkland, what's up? Oh, not much, Mike. How's it going? It's going, man. Sure it is. I just kind of wanted to piggyback over one of the last things you talked about with Habib.

I was yet again on the great website, MMAfighting.com, and read the write-up about his recent appearance, and I can't remember the name of the podcast, but on a podcast where in his interview he basically said his heart was never in it. I was kind of blown away by that, to be honest with you. I didn't know that somebody could not completely love something and be as great as he ended up being.

But I was just wondering if that made you feel vindicated on your opinion that he's steadfast and not wanting to come back. and, you know, the further opinion that he wants to be great as a coach now and wants Islam to further, you know, surpass him. I mean, do you think that the conversation about Habibu coming back will finally die with interviews like this, Mike? Because personally, I'm really hoping so. I'm hoping that the man can just move on with his existence because he really seems like

he's done to me. But anyways, happy 280. Really looking forward to the final. have a great day. Thank you, sir. Yeah, I honestly, I never thought Habib was coming back. I never thought Habib was coming back.

And I know A.K. is going to come on BTL today, and he's going to say, Oliver beating his on Machachev will get him back. No, it won't get him back. When he made the decision to be done, he was done. He was done. Him losing his father, just that was it.

That was it. He gave him one more, and then he was, he's done. He's just done. And to him, it's more about carrying on that legacy of being a leader and being a coach and growing talent from the ground up. Some of them are just so good and that he already had a big hand in. But now we have some of these other fighters that, that he corners and he coaches and stuff like that.

And who knows? by Thanksgiving, he could be the coach and like the number two, so to speak, of the lightweight champions in the two biggest organizations in the sport. Because I firmly believe Usman Narragamatov is going to beat Patrici Pitbull and win the Bellator lightweight title. He could be sitting there with two world champions, same weight class, two completely different promotions as a coach. And to me, I think that means just so much more to him. I don't think he's coming back. I think a guy like Habib, when he says I'm done, he's done. He's done.

And that's why I thought the whole build of Dana trying to get him back and them doing that ABC card on Fight Island and say, we have an update on Habib Naragam Adolf and he gave us nothing, he ain't fighting. He's not fighting. He's done. And I understand the need for people to want more from him, because as great as he was as a competitor,

I don't think we ever saw his best. I don't think we ever saw the best of Habib. And that's going to leave us wondering what else he could have done. How great he could have been. I just don't think we saw the best of him. I think there's more room to grow. I think he could even gotten better.

So I think he's done. I think he's done. And I think being the coach now and being that dude, I think that means more to him than fighting. So I don't think the conversation will ever stop, by the way. Hopefully in like two or three years it will stop, but I don't think it's going to stop anytime soon. In fact, the first question people are going to ask Charles Olivera

after if he wins is about Habim. And this is going to continue to go on for a little while longer. but I think if Oliver wins and then goes on to fight Volk or fight whoever gets another win or two and he's still the champion, I think the conversation dies out a little bit, but I don't think it's ever going to fully go away. Yeah, yeah. How are you? What's going on, Big Mike? Happy Thursday, bro. You too. So I know you mentioned earlier that Islam's style can be problematic for Charles O'Ovara. What do you think in Charles O'Over, style, will be problematic?

for Islam, like his striking, or do you think his jiu-jitsu will pose, like, a bigger challenge for Islam? Thank you, bro. To me, it's just the chaos factor this guy can bring. He is not afraid to take a risk at all. That's it to me. Like, Oliver is a powerhouse. Like, Justin Gaci talks about it all the time. Justin Gaci has said, Justin Gaci has been in many, many, many wars with very powerful strikers. And to him, Charles Olivera, was the most powerful guys ever fought. Islam has been knocked out before. No doubt, he's, anyone can get knocked out. Anybody can get knocked out. So the striking advantage is going to be with Charles,

but it's not going to be as significant as people think, because Islam can strike too. And what troubles Charles Olivera in exchanges on the feet is leaving himself open to left-hand And you know who does that really well? Islam Makachap does that really well. Now, does he have the power to like just bolt Charles and like knock him on his ass? I don't know. That remains to be seen. But here's the difference here. This is a great point that that Jedmishu made on No Bettsbarden, something that I thought of. And he put it in like the best possible words. So allow me to try to paraphrase this if I can. What Charles Oliver does so well

is that the times he gets knocked down, yeah, he gets hit hard. Yeah, there are times where he gets clipped a little bit and he falls down. But what Charles Oliver does so well is he uses that as like a defense mechanism. When he's fighting Chandler and he's fighting Gachey and he's fighting Porre and he's fighting guys like that,

he knows he can use that as a defense mechanism. It's worse for Charles Olivera if he's getting smashed up against the fence and he's just kidding like if Poria goes off on him or Gaichi starts teeing off on him or Chandler starts teeing off on him. It is better for him defensively to just fall to the floor. For two reasons. One, if someone goes down there with him of those three names I just mentioned, no one's going to be a big problem for him down there.

And two, he can use that time to get his wits back. Because for the most part, no one's going to follow him down there. Islam is going to follow him down there if he drops them, which to me means is he going to look at things defensively a little bit differently in this fight. Because that thing he's used to kind of get his wits back about him, take a deep breath. He's not going to have that advantage in this fight. Because if this fight goes to the ground, Islam's just going to get right on top of him and just smush him and beat him off.

And I know there's a lot of talk about Charles's guard and stuff. But he's susceptible in that guard. We've seen it many times. We've seen guys do very well in Charles's guard. But Paul Felder fight in particular stands out because he sat in his guard and just elbowed his face off. Kevin Lee had a lot of success in his guard too. Kevin Lee just ran out of gas.

and he shot a sloppy tape down and he got gillied. Islam's not going to get sloppy. So for Charles to win, I don't think it's like any particular skill set. He just needs to invoke the chaos clause and just go all in on it. Because we don't know how Islam can handle that. Because usually Islam does what he does. He makes it his fight. It's X's and O's.

We do this. We do this. We do this. Charles don't fight like that. Charles wants Islam is just a nice little rainstorm. Nice little rainstorm, you know what's coming. The sky's going to be dark.

Rain's going to fall. There's going to be puddles. Like, we know this is going to happen. Charles is like, no, I am not a thunderstorm. I'm a freaking tornado. I'm a hurricane. I'm unpredictable. I'm here for chaos.

I'm here to knock down trees. I'm here to knock your power lines out. I want this to be as chaotic as possible. And he's going to do it. He is going to try his ass off to do that. Now, how will Islam be able to deal with that? That is the biggest question I have in this fight. Because if he deals with that well, he's going to win.

And skill for skill, he matches up excellent with Charles Oliver. But it's that glimmer of chaos. It's that potential of all-out anarchy that Charles thrives in. but we haven't really seen Islam in, especially with a guy who could hit as hard as Charles. And that's what makes this fight so interesting. Skill for skill, Islam should win this fight. But it's that chaos factor.

Because you can sit there and you can, you can prepare for jujitsu. You can prepare to defend wrestling and defend takedowns. You can sit in camp all, like he could sit in camp all day long. and prepare for Islam's takedowns. Just bring dudes in and just take him down, try to take him down over and over and over again. You can prepare for that.

You can't prepare for the chaos that Oliver brings to these fights because he's so unpredictable. You never know what he's going to do. Unless you just like throw Islam in a cage and turn the lights off and throw five dudes at him, like how can you possibly prepare for that? So that's the biggest intangible I think Oliver has is just his ability to thrive in the absolute anarchy of it all.

And we'll see how Islam handles it. If he handles it well, he should win. Mark, what's up, buddy? Charles has been notorious for visual impairment, and he reported that he just got LASIC-Stan not too long ago. and I'm thinking that that's going to bring that left check hook. I feel like he's going to react to it differently now. Maybe not.

We don't really know, right? But him getting hit with the check hook could have played part in bad vision, right? It's a slow reaction. Yes. I mean, look, it's possible. But habits, old habits are hard to break, even if he trials all there. but you don't even need to change that much. I mean, you're winning.

You're one 11 in a row. You just finished, you're finishing killers left and right. You finished 10 of 11 fights, and your other win was just a complete thrashing of Tony Ferguson, which at the time we didn't realize, I mean, that wind doesn't age as gracefully and as well as it probably could have,

but again, Like, that's, I mean, while his arm lands at check hook and other guys have had success to it, that doesn't make Charles like a worst fighter. It's just an opening that they have, but he still found ways to win, which is what makes this guy so interesting. But I think Charles is going to have to just let it fly and just invoke chaos for as long as he can do it. Because eventually his arm's going to get him to the ground. Now, Charles can create scrambles and that's where he's most dangerous on the ground.

It's not just being off of his back or anything like that. It's his ability to scramble and, again, create chaos. Chaos rules for Charles Oliver. Chaos rules. And he needs to invoke that chaos as much as possible. Or it's going to be a long-ass night for him. Let's go to Paradise Catina. Paradise.

Hello. Yeah, buddy, Ronnie for Paradise. Good morning, Mike. How are you? We're good, buddy. We're waking up at 6 a.m. on the West Coast just to get the condition for the weekend. So I got a clear head. There you go.

Well done. I got to tell you, you know, you're spot on about that, Olive's. I mean, I've been bet, Nick, I didn't even know the hell I've been doing the last. I've been killing every goddamn main event. And I always bet I guess Oliver where it should be. The guy is just, I think, because we all had those flashbacks of him giving up and being a quitter, like every one of his fighters have said you know his opponents have said and well the kid just grew up he grew up in the u.c i mean he grew up and he became i don't know he's a grown

ass man though and i'll tell you he's not afraid of anyone but i feel like the only way he really does win this fight is exactly that just fire fight i mean i was positive positive that nobody could be more comfortable and chaos than just in gasey just from watching every single a fucking fight the kid's ever been in. And he was the one that was panicking. He was the one that against Olivera. It was just wild to see. But for

some reason, I don't know if it's just that pace not worried about getting taken down or what it is. The guy just goes out there with this supreme confidence, that high knee, and just swing it. I mean, the first punch

he threw against gauging. I mean, it it had a lasting effect on the entire round. And Gage even admitted it, you know? So I think the guy's a different dude. I just think it's hard for everybody to just to get rid of those memories. You know, shit, it seemed like yesterday that Paul Felder was smashing him on the ground, you know, in that guard they were talking about.

But I don't know how this guy, every time you look on paper, Islam, absolutely. There's no reason that he shouldn't go out there, take him down, smash him. and do what he does all the time. I just have this feeling that maybe I just don't want to get burned by olives anymore. But that guy just seems to be that dude. And he, but I was in attendance when he fought Porre at Team Mobile. And I'm telling you, it just seemed like, oh, yeah, Porriere's too tough for him. He's just going to just wear him out, beat him up.

Next thing you know, he's tapping out. You're like, what the hell? The kid just finds a way to win. And there's something to be said for that. You know, um, Islam is a machine. But having said that, I mean, the only got, Surukian, that fight was tough. And he was a kid, but there was grappling versus grappling. This is different.

I just, he's never been in that battle because he's never had to. I mean, he's been that. You broke a, I lost your paradise. All good. A lot to sort of decipher from all that. Yeah. I mean, that's, and that's the thing. that's the thing like Islam has been in like chaotic grappling scrambles like the

sarukyan fight that fight if we're talking about fights that age incredibly well that fight is aged incredibly well because saruk I still like I don't care I still think surukian be gamrod I'm not going to die on that hill but every time I've watched it I felt like surukion won that fight I'm on surrogion's going to fight for the title and in my opinion he's going to be the champion at some point that dude is going to be a world champion. I'm very, very confident in that. But this is a different beast.

This is a different beast. So we'll say, like, again, all things considered, Islam stylistically should win this fight. But it's the chaos. How will he handle it? Because it's going to happen. He's going to, that is going to be, especially early in this fight. Charles is going to create chaos early. And I think that's the best time for him to do it.

because the long, I've said it before, and I'll say it again, the longer this fight goes, the more it favors Islam Makhachev. Because that style just wears on you. And here's, and if this fight gets to the championship rounds, Islam's got a real good chance to finish this fight, and it's not because of the quitting and anything like that. But if Islam can deal with the chaos well and just swim in it and be fine, it's got to be a rotten night for Charles Olivera

like really tough and that is he's just going to wear on him like I could see a round like the first round is going to be insane second round is going to be probably insane but a little less and then by the third round

Islam's going to turn it on he's got to get takedowns he's going to start to wear on Charles. The momentum of the fight probably shifts midway through the third round. And then Islam's going to get cooking. And it's just a matter of time. Either he just deals with it or he's just like, this sucks. I'm like, I don't know.

So many questions in this fight. But again, skill for skill, Islam should win. What he does well, Olivera is kind of overrated at. but reputation precedes him and Islam's not wrong when he says these guys didn't go to the ground with him after they dropped him I'm not going to be afraid to go down there with him

and he won't be and he'll do fine down there especially later in the fight but it's just how will he how can he handle the absolute lunacy that Charles Oliver brings into that octagon that is the biggest question I have in this fight 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 rink 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. out 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 cross-training tread plus at one peloton.ca. Let's go to Jordan.

Mike, I just wanted to talk to you this week. I saw the announcement yesterday, a U and G. having the watch along for UFC 280. I had to go off work to make sure I could just be around and be around for the whole thing. It's one of those type of pay-per-views. I just wanted to touch base out of all the pay-per-views we've got on store this year so far. Is this the one that you're like, this is the card.

This is the one. Yeah, probably. I mean, it has top, I think it's the best card of the year. It's the best main card by far. Even the featured prelim has stakes and it's interesting and it has,

it'll have real effect on the division. So, yeah, I just, and plus I just love me early day MMA. Like, I look forward to these October pay-per-views because I know we're getting them early in the day.

and that's okay once in a while you you screw around and give us an early day card i love that i feel bad for some of the other folks internationally but we'll be wrapped and packed with everything at like 10 30 maybe earlier saturday night might go out and get a pizza in new york all of time it's beautiful but i can't wait this i mean the main card is spectacular it's so good every fight matters. It's an excellent card. Excellent card. Let's go to King Cat. We got six other people waiting. I'm going to get to

all of you and then I got to go. King Cat was up. Hey Mike. So you know the UFC always kind of in the back of their minds want someone to win? Who do you think they want to win? Islam or Charles? You might think it's Islam because they can kind of

do the Kabid 2.0 but it might be Charles because he's just more entertaining and, you know, it's always going to be an exciting fight and people are going to want to buy that pay-per-view. But who do you think they're really wanting to win here? Thanks. I mean, I don't know. You could probably make arguments for both of them, but I would say probably Islam just because of, I mean, you could have Islam as the lightweight champion headlining Abu Dhabi as much as possible. The UFC is going to be thrilled with that because they're going to,

this relationship will continue on. It'll be very profitable for the UFC and being able to throw that due in the main event spot. It's good for business. It's good for business. But they'll be able to sell it either way. But business sense, I would lean Islam.

Just again, like you said, the Havid factor doesn't hurt. But you can make an argument for Charles too because they are going back to Brazil and don't think Charles would fight. I mean, maybe he will fight on this car, on this January card if he wins, but I think the relationship with the,

this relationship with Abu Dhabi is better for business. And that's cool. Let's go to Zique. I got about eight minutes. Zeke, what's up, buddy? Mike, what's going on? I'll be short and tweet. I mean, I'm souped about to watch the party.

That's how I kind of, you know, tired my way in here. when Henry Suito was butchering the English language on the Eagle FC watch along. So I'm souped, M.M.A. fighting. Fantastic network, besides these spaces and the watchalong, you guys are going to be offering. So check out M.A. fighting. Lastly, give me a preview. I don't know if you talked about it a lot. I think it's getting a little overlooked. I don't know if it is. Peter Jan, Sean O'Malley. I like the size. I think the striking, obviously, from the hands of Sean is going to be immaculate.

It's going to be great to watch, especially with the close guard of Yon. my question to you is do you think yon wrestles a little bit do you think peter yon's going to have to wrestle do you think he can out shy sean i mean maybe sean will start a little early but i think yon maybe even want to try to keep it on the feet i don't know i guess maybe do you think he'll have to wrestle is there a preview uh that you have in mind thank you mike let's have a heck of a week do i think he'll have to wrestle no do i think he will wrestle yes I think he will wrestle. I don't think he has to wrestle,

but he wouldn't be incredibly intelligent if he doesn't. So, yeah, I think I'll wrestle. I don't think it's a necessary need because I think he can win this fight on the feet too, but I think at least just imposing the idea that he can't wrestle is going to be huge in this fight. The way I see it is, the first round is

I honestly don't see I don't know what the first round is going to look like I have so many questions because I just don't know if Jan will be able to take that round off like he typically does usually we'll take that first round off and just kind of develop his game plan

in his mind like what is he doing what can I take advantage of he doesn't have five rounds here he's only got three so will he come out a little more aggressive and here's honestly like the more the more I think about it,

the question to me isn't will Peter Jan wrestle. The question to me is, will Sean O'Malley wrestle? After watching that first round with Aljo and seeing the success he had, and I understand that Sean isn't as strong

with the wrestling base and getting takedowns as Sterling is, and Sterling get that back real quick. But Sean does no slouch on the mat. That dude, he's got skill down there. He's not a guy that's going to shoot Islam Makachev's waistlock and bring you down,

but what if Sean takes him down? What if he does it in the first round? That makes things real interesting. Now, I don't know if he's going to do that, but the more I think about it, I'm sure Sean and his team are very smart. They saw holes in Jan's game in that second fight with Aljo.

What if Sean wrests? It's interesting. But I think Jan's going to win. I think Jan's going to win. Could be 29, 28. I don't know. Maybe it's a late finish. I don't know.

But I think Jan wins this fight 80% of the time. But is this one of the two times that Sean wins? I don't know. This is a five-round fight. It's a no-brainer pick. But the three rounds makes this more interesting. Let's go to Gallery Hope. Hello, Gallery.

Hey, my brothers. How are you doing out there? Good. I'm good. I'm good. I just, I'm just. I'm actually logged into another account, but this is Brian Simmons with Grappler's Quest. And I just wanted to thank you for always supporting the small events from sport fighting to Grappler's Quest that we ran over the years.

Your site has been amazing and I really appreciate what you do. My question is, and maybe it's just more of a deep thought, is have you noticed that when the athletes, you know, when an athlete wins, just like in any sport, they can thank anybody they want. Have you ever seen the difference, though, when someone says, and they talk about, for example, Jesus compared to Allah, which Islam always seems to thank, which it's his freedom of speech. I'm a big freedom of speech guy, freedom of religion. But have you seen Dana White ever say anything against people not thanking who they want to outside of Jesus is my question? It's very strange to me. I've been watching the UFC since the early, early days, and obviously a big supporter. I was a partner with them for a long time. And I even remember us having a couple of T-shirt designs that had the Christo with Brazil at UFC Fan Expo. And they literally were like, take those down. So I just wanted to know anyone's thoughts on that. Have you noticed that?

Not really. But again, that's not something that I typically, I don't pay attention to it, but it's not something that I typically look for. we see fighters all the time. I mean, I covered Mazdaal's event on Friday, and I know it's not the UFC, but I covered Mazel's event on Friday, and everybody who won, thank God. Thank Jesus.

They thanked whoever they believe in. And we see that in the UFC a lot, too. So, yeah, I don't know. I don't, it's not something I really paid that much attention to, but I'll certainly look into it. We can readdry. all right. We got five people in line. Let's get to everybody real quick. Ab's hello. She got on mute. Hey, brother. Great to hear. This is the first time I'm joining you guys in space.

So I have just a quick question. One is that you were talking about the chaos with the Charles Olivera fight, but what do you think, how do you think the factor that Islam is defensively probably the most responsible guy, at least hit fighter. How would that play in nullifying Charles' offense? And the second question I have is that how do you see Bilal was there, Sean Brady, now that Bilal actually was working with Dagestani crew for full camp, actually. This is the second one camp, he did half training, and this is a full camp. So how do you think it going in the fight?

Thank you. And why it is it not on main card? I was always wondering. Thanks. Thanks, and so to answer your second question, it's not on the main card because they want to use that fight

to get more pay-per-view buys. And to me, that's, if you're not in the main event or the co-main events, that spot that that fight is in, that's where you want to be. That's who you want to be. That means the UFC's value in you.

That's, in their eyes, that's like the third or fourth most important fight on the card because that, you want to get those last. last minute buys, you want to have people watching ESPN, do I want to spend 75 bucks on this? You put a high-level fight like that on there. And there's major stakes there.

Unfortunately, just something had to go. And the toss-up was, do we do Chukagian versus Fioro? Or do we do Brady versus Muhammad? You weigh it out. There's, I think, I think personally we're more excited about the, Brady-Mahamed fight, but there are more stakes in the women's

flyway fight. Manifiora wins, probably getting a title shot. Brady or Muhammad win, they're not getting a title shot. Not any time soon. So it's probably just stakes more than anything, and the UFC's putting faith in them

to deliver a great fight. I'm picking Brady to win. I'm not confident in that pick. I don't think him training with Habib changes my opinion on the at all because I don't think like both are just excellent defensively with wrestling both are great offensively with wrestling I think Brady's power and his strength in that department is just stronger than Belaw's he's just a bigger stronger guy he's just a more athletic big dude

who is just huge for the weight class O'all's not huge for the weight class John Brady's huge for the weight class. But to me, the difference in that fight, it's the first round. I think Brady's going to win, but he has to win the first round. If he doesn't win the first round, I don't think he wins. I don't think he wins because I think Bala is going to win the third. He's got that pace.

It's hard to deal with. Now, Brady had the nose surgery. We'll see how he hit, how his cardio has improved, how much of a difference that makes. But Bala is going to keep that pace on the entire fight. We'll see how Sean could deal with it because you saw him fade a little bit in that kiesa fight this fight could play out a lot on the feet and i think balla has the advantage on the feet but brady brady's striking is getting better every fight

and he hits pretty damn hard but ballal is just the better pure striker and the volume's going to come so it's a really interesting fight i'm going with brady but i don't i don't love that pick i don't there's a lot of fights in the sky where I'm not confident in either side. I feel good about Brady, but I could definitely see many scenarios where Ballal's pace just becomes too much and he's just defensively sound and keeps his fight standing. That's the best thing Belaw can do is keep this fight standing. And even then he could be in some trouble, but he just does not want to be on his back

with Sean Brady on top of him because it's going to be, it's going to be a long one, be a long few minutes. that he's going to be on his back because it's going to be really tough for him to get somebody like Brady off of him. And then, yeah, listen, the defense with, again, on paper with the Machachev-Oliv-A-R fight, stylistically skill-for-skill, defense, all that.

Makachchev should win this fight. But it's one thing to defend your typical martial arts styles. It's another to defend a frigging tornado coming at your face. That's a whole different thing. But Makachev should win on the skill set side. But again, you can't prepare for that. You just have to, you can deal with it or you can't. And we'll see if Makachev can deal with it.

Try to get Jackson in here. Good morning, Mike. Wheel is spinning. Good morning, Mike. Can you hear me? Not working. Let's try Kavez. That's not working either. let's try crypto.

Real quick, you got like three minutes and I got to go. Man, we are just struggling here. Can't get anybody in. Let's try JD. Can you hear me? Man.

Everyone just got the spinning wheel. I can't get anybody through for some reason. I'll try Kavez and crypto one more time. Let's see. I'm here if you want to podcast listeners are like, what the hell are you doing? Okay. All right. Let's see. I can't get anybody through. I don't understand.

We know. Mike? Are you able to hear me? All right. All right. So we tried apologies. All right. I haven't tried J.D. a second time. So this will be the last go. If not. Oh, wait a minute. Unmute, J.D. Unmute. Yes. We got him. All right. Awesome. Hey, how you doing, man? Good are you? I'm fantastic. Listen, I got two questions for you. One, I'll try and make it quick. In a world without Valentina, the women's flyweight champion, who do you think it would be? Does Jukagian have a leg to stand on with that?

And then two, seeing as Ray Long as the bandway champion and Robb, or say, Rob, how do we feel how close is he to being coach of the year? anyway thanks man love all your content to-de-l-l-loo how close is he being the coach of the year man I mean Aljo puts a beating on T.J. tomorrow that certainly helps the case hmm that's an interesting question

I haven't really really thought about that but he's probably in the make if Aljo wins if Aljo beats TJ he's got a case he's got a case I don't know that's going to be a highly contested conversation, but it's got, I mean,

it's got to be tough to beat Eugene Barerman right now. It's going to be tough to beat that, dude. All right, we'll try us one more time. Presser's going on. Wait a minute. I think we have Kavas now. Just got to unmute yourself, and I think we're good. Yeah, can you hear me?

Yes. Oh, cool. Cool. Well, thanks for having me. I just want to say first that we're happy here in Serbia that for once the time is on our side. We'll be starting at 4 in the afternoon. But basically, my question, like, you address the chaos factor for Charles in the fight.

My question is more like with the ground game. Like, we know that Islam's ground game is absolutely top-notch, like his risk control, his weight distribution, his awareness are like among the best, if not the best. But we also know that Charles is really good at baiting for mistakes. Do you think that could happen for, for... for Islam, could he bait him into making a mistake and into getting the win on the, on the floor? Thanks. And have a pack of the morning. From like a, like a natural sense, no. From a, again, this all comes back to chaos.

Where Charles thrives in these spots on the mat, it's creating scrambles. It's high energy. It's not accepting positions. it's using momentum to your advantage. And what Islam does so well is he's not your traditional MMA grappler. He ain't shooting singles and doubles and just trying to get a takedown and just trying to accept that. If I can't get a single, like, I'm just going to keep trying. No, he starts low and goes high.

He gets to your body. So when he gets you down, he's already, and he's so good at, like, landing in position. in a really tight spot. Now, I think for Islam, while it's advantageous to be inside control and try to advance position and stuff like that, I think that could be to his detriment

because I think that's what Oliver is looking for. Islam's best hope is just taking this thing to the ground, sitting in his guard, and just pounding them, like, and just wearing on them. That's best case scenario. Just pound them out. Sit in that guard and try to pound them out and try to wear him down.

That's his best thing he could do. But he doesn't want to get into scrambles of Charles. That's where he could find himself in trouble. But if he just does what Islam does, takes him down, gets in his guard, starts landing shots, making him uncomfortable, getting that gas tank to work a little bit harder, that's where Oliver is going to shine.

I mean, Bach Jeff's going to shine. But if he tries to advance a little too quickly, that's what Oliver is looking for, think. Again, this is where the chaos comes in. This is, this is Oliver's best weapon in this fight because we haven't really seen Islam in these types of scenarios. But if Charles can't create that chaos, he can't create that storm. It's going to be a long, long night for him. It's going to be a long, long night. He needs to set the tone early, and he probably needs to get Islam out in the first 10 minutes. I think if this fight sees round three, it's not going to go well for Charles

Oliver. All right, Crypto, take us home because I got to go. I'm probably getting in trouble. Crypto. Hello. Good. Yeah, so Mike, pardon my voice. I woke up today, realized I had the Rona, but that's not even the craziest thing that happened today because I started scrolling and I had Bryce Mitchell explained to me why the Earth is flat and why gravity doesn't exist. I mean, it's just getting crazy. So it's been a crazy day so far, but I'm going to keep it quick and simple here, Mike, because I know you need to go. So who is the biggest winner and the biggest loser in the upcoming event prior to the fights actually happening? So what I mean by that, just to give you two examples,

for me, the biggest winner is Sean O'Malley. Because basically, I mean, if he wins, he gets most, or most likely at least gets the title shot. If he loses, I mean, he will still be popular. He'll recover from that. Biggest loser. for me is Benil Darius because, I mean, if he loses, yeah, that's not good. But even if he wins, he's still in a very strange situation.

Like, yeah, he's not going to get the title fight, especially not now with this whole Volcanovsky situation. For me, for me, it is sorry, Mike, for me, these two fighters are the winners and the losers,

so to say. How about you? Before the fight happens. It's a good question. Man, this is tough. I mean, I think you got me with that one. I think O'Malley, I think you make a good point about O'Malley. I think he's in a, I think he's in a house money spot. The one, I think this fight, I think Yon's going to win,

but I think it's going to be, it's not going to be a fight where he just runs and just trucks O'Malley. I think O'Malley's going to have moments, and I think that's what's going to be helpful to him. What would just be horrible for O'Malley's if he just gets absolutely wrecked? Like if he gets 30, 20-fived or just gets run over in the first, that's not good for Sean.

That's really bad. Hard to come back from that. It took him a long time to come back from the Cheeto loss. Biggest loser. I feel like it's probably Al Jermaine Sterling. I mean, at least now. With how I think the fights are going to play out, Here's my hope.

Here's my hope. Because I want to say, I want to say Bilal Muhammad is the answer for two reasons. One, if he loses to Sean Brady, that streaks over and his road back to top five titles contention. It is super duper long. I mean, it is, it's a marathon for him at this point. for Bala to get a title shot, he can't lose.

He can't lose to anybody. He's just got to keep winning. And here's the other way, and here's the other piece of the puzzle. Let's just say Bala wins. Let's say Balao beat Sean Brady. It is going to be imperative that he says the right things on the microphone because he has fallen flat the last two times. He has fallen flat.

he can't do that again he can't call leon out because he ain't getting that fight he can't call colby out because he ain't getting that fight he's got to be smart with this he can't call somebody out and then go and do the interviews after and call out hamzat like if you want hamzat you cut the promo on hamzat cut it on him right now hamzat let's go don't call out oosman and colby and then call it Hamza later when you realize that you should have called them out to begin with. So I think this is such an important night for Bilal Mohammed. Because he could be the biggest winner and the biggest loser. He's nominated for both.

Because if you meet Sean Brady, that's massive. Gigantic keeps him going where he needs to go. But he could blow it on the mic. And I like Bilal a lot. And I want to be able to come on this show and be like, Belal, good job. Good call out. Way to cut your promo.

Well done. I want to say that. I want to be able to say that. But I haven't been able to. So losing is horrible. Winning is great, but it could also be bad. Because if he doesn't do it right on the microphone, he's probably going to have to fight like Shafkat Rahmanov next.

So you got to be smart. You got to be smart. Call out Gilbert Burns. That's a fight he could probably get. He already be Vicente Lucke. There's a story there. but just be smart about all of that. The post aftermath for Balaa is so important.

The fight's huge, but afterwards, that's important too. Be realistic. Know your audience. Know what's possible. Don't shoot. Don't overshoot. Shoot it just right. Look, call out Mazadol.

Call out Mazadol. You have a good chance of winning that fight, stylistically. That's a big name. And you have a better chance to get in that fight than you do Colby right now. So, yeah, Balala is in the mix for all of these. But I got to go, pressers going on. I got to hop in and help out the squad. You guys are the best.

Apologies again for having to shift the start time on pretty short notice, but this is what we get to do sometimes. But we're back tomorrow. I believe we're back at 10 a.m. Eastern. We'll do it again. We have BTL, 1 p.m. Eastern. A.K. versus B.C. Brian Campbell returns to BTL 1 p.m. Eastern.

Lots to talk about, a lot of 280 chatter, and a lot more. So see you guys tomorrow. Stay tuned. I'll let you know what time. Sometime by tomorrow morning, but we'll plan on 10 a.m. Eastern. We'll plan on 10 a.m. Eastern. But until then, everybody, have a great rest of your Thursday. And as always, have a heck of a morning. Fox Media Podcast Network.

Okay. Only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first, there, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes. Hi, I'm Sophia Loper Caro, host of the Before the Chorus podcast. We dive into the life experiences behind the music we love. Artists of all genres are welcome,

and I've been joined by some pretty amazing folks, like glass animals. I guess that was the idea, was to try something personal and see what happened. and Japanese breakfast. I thought that the most surprising thing I could offer was an album about joy. You can listen wherever you get your podcasts. Oh, and remember, so much happens before the chorus.