MMA Fighting - HOAM | What's Next For Israel Adesanya If He Defeats Alex Pereira At UFC 281?

Episode Date: November 3, 2022

Israel Adesanya will look to add longtime rival Alex Pereira's name to his championship resumé at next weekend's UFC 281 event at Madison Square Garden. If "The Last Stylebender" is victorious against Pereira, what would be next for him considering he's beat most of the top guys in the division — some twice. On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck gives his thoughts on what could be next for Adesanya with a successful title defense in New York, and if he would consider moving to 205 quicker than most would've anticipated. Additionally, listener questions include the UFC lightweight division, most intriguing UFC 281 preliminary fight, Arnold Allen wanting an interim title shot following his win over Calvin Kattar and why a fight between Allen and Max Holloway is a bad idea, Henry Cejudo, 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

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Live on the M.A. Fighting Twitter Spaces, you could hear the show in its entirety. Sure, thereafter on the M.MA Fighting Podcasting Network. I am Mike Kek. Hope for everyone's having a great week. We are in November. Here in South Carolina, it doesn't feel like November. It's like 75, 80 degrees most days. So if you're in the Northeast, my apology. to you. But speaking of the Northeast, we are on the road to UFC 281. It's not Fight Week just yet, but we do have one more event to go this Saturday, UFC Vegas 64, which is headlined by Marina Rodriguez versus Amanda Lemoche. This card is not storyline written, but it is definitely an upgrade

from last week's card, that's for sure. We got the main event. There's some stakes there. Neil Magny, Daniel Rodriguez is a great fight. I'm interested in the Mark Madsen, Grant Dawson fight. Miranda Maverick's back. Anita Lopez is back. Let's see if Jay Cadley can have himself an impressive performance.

I mean, there's things to talk about, but it's just another fight night card with a couple of good fights. We, of course, have a heavyweighty, heavyweight fight on the main card between Josh Parisian and Chase Sherman. That should be fun. If you're a fight fan, this is going to be fine. This is going to be fine. There are some intriguing

matchups. Not the best card in the world, but not bad either. But I think we're all just moving ahead. We're turning the calendars to next Saturday, UFC 281, Madison Square Garden, Israel Adasania, Alex Pereira,

Carlos Sparza, Zhang Wei Lee, co-main event, two title fights of course Dustin Porre versus Michael Chandler lots going on with that card so let's get to you guys let's see what you want to talk about

and kicking us off is Four Corner Sports. Hello Four Corner Sports Hey good morning Mike I wanted to talk to you about the main event so I know that what's the called Marina Rodriguez she's on a win streak my question is if she wins tonight what's the likelihood

that she's going to get a title fight because I feel like she's going to be placed into this Benio Darayush, like how many more fights that she has to win in order to get a title shot? I'm looking at her age. She's 35, so she's getting up there in age. And you guys have been saying it for quite some time that the older you get, if you're under 170 pounds, you're not going to, you know, age gracefully, you know, in those lighter weight classes.

I mean, do you think she's warranted of a title shot? I mean, she has two draws. Once, what was it? I think with Randam Marco. and I think the other one against Cynthia Calvio, and then the only loss she had was against the champ, Carla Esparza, which you could actually make a debate about whether or not she should have won that fight or not.

But, I mean, that's just my opinion, and I think we're all anticipating the big card for next week. I mean, if there's a card that's not on the main card for next week, which is a fight that you're looking forward to. I know you might pick Montel Jackson, Julio Arsie, but let's dismiss that fight. All right, thanks, Brooke. First of all, I will never dismiss that fight, but I understand where you're coming from.

I mean, it's probably, I mean, there's some very interesting fights on that one. Obviously, I'm very high on Montel Jackson. This is a good matchup. We haven't seen him in a while. Aaron Blanchfield, Molly McCann, is interesting, although I think Aaron will win that fight. To me, if we're looking at prelims for 281, what's the most interesting? It's probably the return of Dominic Reyes. changing camps, changing coasts, training with the likes of Glover Tashira, Alex Pereira, etc.

He's been out since that vicious knockout loss to Yuri Parashka. He's fighting Ryan Span, who is very hungry and excited to have this opportunity to fight a guy like Dominic Reyes. So I have a lot of questions about Dominic Reyes, so I think that's probably the most intriguing to me on the prelims. It's just bizarre that in 2022, on a big pay-per-view event, Dominic Reyes is on the prelims. Now, I know it's not a horrible thing because it's going to be on the main prelims. So I believe it's on ESPN News. It's not ESPN, but it's just kind of strange to see a layout of a card like that

and have Dominic Reyes on the prelim. So that, to me, is probably the most intriguing matchup, the one I have the most questions about. So we'll see how that goes. As far as Marita Rodriguez goes, she has a case right now. out of fight for the belt, but after what Zhang Wei did to Yuania and Jacek, you knew right then and there she wasn't going to get it. But I would say, barring, like, a controversial split decision type of scenario,

she probably gets the next title shot with a win. I'm not, like, 100% confident in that. Because if Zhang wins the belt, Rosamai Yunus has two wins over her. Wouldn't shock me to see the UFC go that route. we don't know what's going on with Brose Dammi Unis. She said she's going to be out. I guess like around this time,

she's going to kind of plan on her next move. She's not really making any decisions right now. But when I spoke with her a couple of months ago, it seemed to me like she wants to give 125 a shot. She didn't 100% confirm that. But it seemed like she wanted to hit the weights, clang and bang a little bit, put on some muscle, put on some size.

when I asked her if that means a move to 125, she said, do the math. That was her answer. So I think that's in play. But we'll see. I think Rose is the big wild card here. If Carlo wins, I think Marina definitely gets it. But if Jean wins, it makes it a little interesting.

But Marina's got to beat Amanda Lamos. It's not going to be easy. I'm picking her to win. But Amanda is a finisher. She goes out there and just, it does work. but I think the longer the fight goes, the more favors Marina. I think Marina will win and she should probably get a title shot sometime in 2023. But Rose is definitely a wild card in this scenario.

Let's go to Tristan. Hey, Mike. What up, Mike? So I'm locking into the Neil Magni versus Daniel Rodriguez fight. Neil Magne, I heard him on his pre-fight scrum. and he talked about what happened in the last fight against shop kind of Rachmano. He had a lot of things outside that he was juggling with. I think his wife was pregnant and was going to have the baby and he had other things going on.

And he was trying to kind of balance the two. So, and he said, you know, in his training, you know, I guess he wasn't, he said he wasn't present at that time and we had a hard time balancing it. So thus. And then, you know, Magnet. it's hard from the turnout fights. And it just, it brings a bigger point of, you know, I understand, you know, we love when guys take short-notice fights, you know. And, you know, I don't have a problem with that as well. But, like, when you're facing high-calibre talent, you know, I'd rather, I'd rather that fighter be like, listen, I need a full training camp.

I'm not just going to just turn around and then just keep fighting and taking any short-notice fights like that. It all depends who you're fighting, you know, and that's a thing. And that's the thing. And we saw this when Chito Vera was talking about with Corey Sainagan. Well, why didn't you fight me at this time? And I'm like, and I'm looking at the screen when Chito's talking. I'm like, you really think Corey Sankan is just going to take a turnaround fight when he was just in a war with Sanya Dong?

And, I mean, he was like, no, I'm like, dude, I need a full training cap. You're a high caliber fighter in the top five of the band-in-wain division. I'm not going to just be like, okay, let's fight because I'm going to show that, you know, I don't turn down fights. It's like, you give me three months, bro, and then we can scrap. But I'm not doing that when I'm fighting top five guys. So it just, I always feel it depends on who you're fighting at the fight. Sometimes you can do short, quick fights because you're just that better than that other fighter that you're facing. That's not a problem.

when you start fighting top eight, you start getting to the best fighters in the world, you need that full training camp, you need the time to recover and you need the time to strategically game plan and figure it out at this point. I mean, especially with Sanhagen, he did that because

it was for the title against Peoria Yon, but, you know, it was short notice. He didn't make any excuses, but, you know, that fight might have been a little bit different if San Hagan had a full training camp against Peoria Yon, but we don't know, you know, but again, no excuses on Corey Sent, on Corey Sanhagan's part because

it's for the title, you're going to take it. So I just, I just, I just feel it just always depends on who you're fighting that you could take short non-fights fights against, but other times when you're fighting the top five, top, top three guys, you need the time, need the time to recover, you need the full training camp, you need your full focus on that. So just your thoughts on that, Mike, and have a, have a heck of a morning. Thanks. Thanks, man. So the Sandhagen one for Jan, I mean, he's gone on record many times and said he didn't think the fight with Al Jamein was going to happen on that Abu Dhabi card. And he was already full-fledged into a training camp. He had already been preparing to fight Peter Yan. He was ready. So I don't know if I necessarily buy that. I understand the not fighting Marlon Verra thing. I mean, especially if it was going to happen if they offered it in November, December. I know there was some talks about maybe doing it December 3rd. as the main event for that Orlando card, but obviously that didn't happen.

So I don't blame Sanhagen for not taking that fight. I guess I'm a little confused about the question because I don't know if Magni is saying that he took the Rachmana fight on short notice because he certainly didn't. We confirmed that fight like 10 weeks before the fight actually happened. So let me bring you back in. Is that what you're thinking or was,

are you talking about this fight in particular? What he was saying was he had a lot going on before taking the, uh, the, um, the, um, Raqmana fight. Because what, because, remember, Rachmano called him out. Once he called him out, he was like, yeah, I'll take it. But he was saying he, he, he, what he was trying to say was, he was, he had a hard time balancing what was happening outside his life as far as training. Because he had a lot going on.

So he, he was just having a hard time trying to balance. balance it to now against D-Rod. He's like, I got a better handle of things and things that nature. But I'm just saying like, I'm just talking about preparation-wise where, hold on a second. I'm facing, I'm facing with this guy Rachmano. I mean, I don't know, maybe he would have, you know, like, yo, can we push the fight a little bit back? So I could just have a handle of things. And then I could really kind of focus and zero in and lock in to this fight because, I mean,

listen, when you're facing a guy like that, you want to have complete focus. I think he was just really talking about yet too much going on behind the scenes. Okay. Okay. I get where you're coming from. I mean, he could have done that. I don't know what the conversations were like, but, I mean, he certainly could have just said to we push this one back. And I'm sure Rachmanoff would have been okay with that, but he took the fight.

And I'm not saying this to be disrespectful at all to Neil Magny and what this man has accomplished. But Neil Magny, with 12 weeks of perfect. Reperation loses that fight. He loses that fight in probably the same exact way. It's just a terrible, horrible, nightmarish stylistic matchup for him. It's horrible. So I'm not, I mean, to me, I get it. I totally understand being like a husband and the dad myself. I totally understand. And if you're getting in a fist fight, you want to be as focused as possible. But in this case, I don't think the result changes at all. I think Shafcott just takes him down and beats him up and puts him away. Like that fight goes the exact same way, even if he's had a perfect training camp, in my opinion. But I get where you're coming from. I get where you're coming.

Look at Drod right now. I mean, DROD is coming off. This dude's been dealing with short notice stuff, this entire UFC run. Outside of missing a year due to the hand injury or however long he was out for before the, you're supposed to fight Kevin Holland on a notice, gets his opponent switched on him,

fights the leech, preparing for a totally different fight, and then he's like, I'm going to take some time off, and then he's booked two weeks later to fight Neil Magni, fight gets pushed back, but I mean,

some people thrive on that. D-Rodd loves the short-notice stuff, even when he says, like, I don't want to do a short-notice fight, he does them anyways. She's super active, so I don't know. I honestly don't think the result of that fight changes at all,

even if Neil, like, everything was perfect. I still think he loses and loses badly. But that's just more on how good I think Shafka-Rakmanav is and not an indictment on Neil Magni and his skills. Let's go to Mikey. Hey, Mikey. Good morning, everybody.

How's everybody going? How is everybody doing? So, listen. Mikey, try again. It's not connecting. Let's go to Viking MMA. Let's see what the Viking man has on his mind this morning. usually takes second for Viking to get connected.

I'm here, Mike. I'm here. Sorry, I were the delay. Viking, do we have you? Yes, brother. Hello, can you hear me, Mike? Making sure my internet is not crap in the bed like it did the other day. All right. Viking try again. It didn't go through. Do we have Mikey? Because I was on earlier then. Hello? Can you hear me? Can you hear me, Mike?

Golly. What's going on? Can you hear me? Were you having the same issues the other day? Oh, no. Because I can hear you. I don't know if you can hear me. I don't know why.

My internet's flying. My network's fine too, so I don't know. Oh, this is so frigging brutal. It drives me insane. Maybe it's like where I'm set up. I don't know. Crypto, do we have you? All right.

Maybe I just need to walk around a little bit. Mike, you try again. Viking try again. 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 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-draining tread plus at Onepeloton.ca. Crypto, what's up, buddy? Good. Mike, just to let you know, everyone else and the call can hear the other people talking, and we hear you as well, but it seems as if you don't hear anyone else.

it wasn't connecting but you got through just fine so i don't know what happened but uh i'm going to walk around and move around and it seems like that's that's working so hopefully we can get everybody back in what's going on thanks mike yeah so mike um i actually don't have a question today but i would like to extend an invitation because i know that you and ariel and a lot of people at the best website in the world mhmatfighting dot com has been have been talking about the ks w and going to an event there. And I just want to give you a push, Mike. So now it's on the record.

It's official. If you decide to go, I'm paying for you and another person's ticket to the event. I can fund two tickets for you to give you that additional push because, yeah, you're going to miss the amazing heavyweight fight in December, I assume because I haven't heard anything about you going there between Khalido and Puginovsky. is just going to be fire.

Just a really fun fight. But Mike, if you decide to go, two tickets are on me, and I'll show you, even though I'm from Sweden, I'm fluent in Polish and so on, I'll show you the town in which the event is in. And I think it's time for you to go to an event in Poland. So, yeah, that's all for me, Mike. I would love to do that someday.

I appreciate the offer. I don't think it's going to be possible because December December's going to be an insane month for your boy, Mike. It's just going to be all over the place. Lots of holiday travel and there'll be some traveling

for some other things, which I cannot say. You guys could probably figure it out. I might cover the Orlando card, so that's four or five days on the road. So I appreciate that. I would love to go. I just don't know if now's the time.

so hopefully someday we get to go check it out that would be very very cool all right do we have you mike i think i have you mike finally can hear me what's can hear me now let's go on right yeah i got you all right again again i come a morning to you brother every morning to everybody else hope everyone have a good day um so just to shoot right into the card um listen maria rojjigas is the main story obviously because to a lot of people she's been you know long overdue a title shot, but we can't ignore the fact that, listen, there may not be

the original scheduled main event, but it was, this is to me a happenstance, good luck thing for the UFC, because Amanda Lamos, we forget, I think people are still stuck on her loss to Jessica and Josh,

but that's her first loss at Strawweight. She has one loss in that division in three years. If she, you know, she could steal the thunder and put herself right in the mix of a title shot, if not a number one contender bout with an impressive win. And two,

I think, I think, I think the winner of that fight could very well be the next one in line, because I think you have to, this trend that the UFC kind of like doing these instant rematches and quick turnarounds is kind of getting annoying. Like I, I don't mind it to a certain degree,

but I have to admit it's kind of getting a little fatiguing because I'm, you know, we should let these divisions breathe, you know, like get some new blood in there. get things rotated out, you know, so that way people can get their experience with,

with title fights and stuff like that, because it's like, because like you said, if Carla beats, because now we're being forced in the situations where we have to root for a specific outcome to get the straw weight, any division moving.

And I think that's unbecoming of all these divisions because you can't just, like, logjam them all the time, you know? Like, if Carla retains the title, yes, that would be preferred. But if Zhang Wei gets the belt back, she doesn't have to fight. fight Rose right away. At the very minimum, Rose should probably fight the winner of

this weekend's card, you know? Also, one more note. Eileen Pereira, the little sister, little sister of Alice Perhera, is debuting a couple days before he fights at the Sanja and she's making her anime debut in an LFA card and she's a flyweight. And I tweet about yesterday and like, I think she'll be in the UFC soon because you can't, that clout of her brother being there. She's also a kickboxer. And flyweight needs, names and fresh contenders so oh you know keep an eye on that be kind to one another till next time guys thanks man listen i get where you're coming from there's a lot of people on the marina deserves a title shot bandwagon the problem is she just needs to go out like the win over

mackenzie durn was dominant like that was a dominant win but it was just it was just really tough luck for her because Carla had, Carla was in a position to fight for the belt. Like, you couldn't deny her anymore. She just, she was up. And maybe there is a world where McKenzie because of her, I guess, popularity or drawing power, if you will, could have snuck her way in there if she went out there and submitted Marino Rodriguez in the first round, but that didn't happen. And then she takes a, she just takes a lot of risky fights and I take my cap off to her. because she's just building that resume. The Janjonan win wasn't great.

A lot of people felt like she lost that fight. So that hurt her. I think she would be the first one to admit that. Bounce back. And now she's taking this fight. So I think this one should put her over the top. But she needs to do something like emphatic. Like she's not saying she has to go up there and just finish Amanda Lamash.

But she has to, this can't be a split decision when. she's got to go out there and win convincingly. And if she does that, she's got a good shot. But we know how the UFC does business. They want the biggest fights possible. And even though Marina was in decent position to maybe get herself a title fight, Zhang Wei Li destroyed Yuanian Jacek and retired her with just spinning hell. And hurt her and took her out of the sport.

So that's one of the knockouts of the year. When we think back on 2022 in that division, we're not going to remember the title fight, but we're going to remember that moment. And that's why she's getting the shot against Carla. She's probably going to beat Carla. And then we could do Zhang versus Marina or we'll see what happens with Rose. She does have two wins.

But to me, Marina, if she goes out there, beats Amanda Lamos, drops a 49-46 on her. that's enough for me but this has to be one where we're like all right marina definitely won give her a title fight can't be a splitie or anything like that she's got to go out there and

she's got to win and do so convincingly and I like the the prayer signing to LFA it's smart and if Alex wins the title she's probably going to get signed right away so Viking hello I just want to know I just want to know about your thoughts

on Rose Jr. I mean, he's just an 18-year-old, and he's fighting amongst the big boys and winning, too. But I really don't know about the fighters who have came into the UFC in the past at the age of 18, but I know about Charles Solvera. He came into the UFC when he was, what, 20 years old, if I'm not wrong. But he came in. And also he came with the BJJ background, right?

But the damage he has observed over the years is brutal. I mean, look at his chin now. He just get under the ground by a very low blow. So do you think it is good for Rosa Jr. to entering the UFC? because he's so far away from his prime. So I personally think he should have waited for a few more years. But, you know, if you ask Dana White, if he wants to throw a fighter in a fire pit for money, he'll do that.

So that's my main concern about this young fighter, Rose Jr. And the damage he is going to absorb. And that's it. Thank you, Mike. Thanks, man. I mean, I get it. I get it. I mean, they didn't give out

any developmental deals, which drove me crazy. They just need to give out so many more of those. I mean, we just saw what the latest, you know, purge of rostered UFC fighters who got cut or released

or their contracts expired. I mean, they just give out so many contracts. Some of them are deserved. Some of them are not. Like, There were a bunch of contract winners on this past season that didn't deserve them, in my humble opinion. But they got him.

I have less of an issue of roses getting one. And you kind of had a feeling he was going to get one anyways, just because, mostly because of the age and how different and unique that whole situation was. But the other thing was, if he had fought and didn't get a contract, Belator would have locked his ass right up. Belator's good at just picking those prospects, picking the right guys that the UFC passes on. They would have locked him up in a second. And they probably would have given him a similar deal that they gave to like Aaron Pico and others.

So I think this is just more of, let's just lock this dude up, make sure it doesn't go anywhere else. And I like the booking with Jay Perrin. I like Jay. I've been talking to Jay Perrin for years well before he got into the UFC and this is the exact matchup I asked for

because roses will be heavily favored to win. Perrin's going to give him a fight and what's good about this is that Jay on the ground is a much better fighter than Jay on the feet. And Raoul and him are just going to have some fun scrambles

and we'll see what happens. So I like the matchmaking there. Don't throw him in there with Montel Jackson anytime soon or anybody like that. Don't throw him in there with Mario Batista. like these guys. These are the guys who should be fighting. So I have no issue with the matchmaking.

And hopefully they just slow roll him. Like it's a different situation than Bo Neckle. Bo Nichols, you know, 26, 27. He'll fight Jamie Pickett, which is similar matchmaking if we're looking at rankings and meritocracy. And then if he goes out there, beats Jamie Pickett in March,

then push him. but I wouldn't do the same with Raul Roses. But we'll see what happens. I like the matchmaking here. It's the exact match I picked. And this is what they did. Hello, Toke. Kay Lee, for his serenade to me on to the next one.

That was strange. So other than that, you know what I'm talking about. You know that I want to come in here as the resident Dane. Talk about the Danish guy fighting on the card. So Mark Madsen, I realized this weekend he was interviewed by a Danish media outlet, the one that carries the UFC TV rights. And he said there that he was pulled aside by the UFC who told him that it's not enough to win. You have to do it convincingly, quote unquote. So this leads me to the fact that the UFC is not the right place.

for Marco Madsen. He's 38 years old. The way he wins is not exciting and they can't really build off of it quickly enough for him to even get to what he wants, which is he wants to show that he's the best. He wants to get a title shot. He's never going to get that in the lightweight division. Never. So my thinking is he would be a perfect fit for his short career that is going to be, he would be a perfect fit for PFL. But he's now in here with the UFC young guys in lightweight, and he has to somehow break into the top 15 with a style that the UFC is not going to promote.

So this has me quite annoyed. So I just, this is actually not even a question. I just want you to maybe elaborate on it or something. but this just doesn't seem like the right fit for him, at least when he's in the UFC at the age of 38. I don't know what you think about that, but there you go. Yeah, it's interesting. The problem, like, it's not, and I don't know, like, what he,

I have to go and maybe check out the interview and possibly get a translator or whatnot, but the thing is, Mark's winning, but he's, I agree to a certain extent. He's not winning convincingly. Like, he struggled with Vince Pichel and Vince is a dog, man, so I get that.

He went to a spitty with Clay Guida. Like, I love Clay Guida. Don't get me wrong. Super exciting fighter. But, like, these are the guys you should be 30-26ing, and you're not doing it. Like, you're going out and you're getting wins,

but you're getting wins that no one's talking about after the fact. once Marco Mattson at UFC 273 did his post-fight media scrum, that was it. That was the last we heard, this was the last anybody talked about him. People were talking more about Vince

Pichel than they were Mark Madsen, if we're being honest, because Vince brought the fight to him. So this is a super tough matchup for him. I give Mattsons, I actually get Mattes a lot of credit for taking this fight with Grant Dawson because this is a nightmare matchup for him. It's really

tough because I think Grant even if the wrestling is nullified, Grant is a much better striker. And I think Grant has a little more dog in him than Mark does. But this is why we have the fights. We've also seen Grant fade down the stretch. The Ricky Glenn fight sticks out to me where, I mean, he dominated Ricky Glenn for two rounds.

And then Ricky took it over and got a 10-8 and ended up being a draw. But on the flip side, that was a featherweight fight. Grant learned big time that he's not a featherweight anymore. He's a lightweight, and he's a big-ass lightweight still. So love the fight, very intrigued by it. I'm picking Grant Dawson to win. Grant's a pretty sizable underdog, pretty sizable favorite in this fight.

So, yeah, give me Grant to get it done. I think this is a tough fight for him. And I get where the UFC's coming from, but I get where you're coming from. I think Mark, Matton, the PFL would be a great move. and maybe that's what happens. I don't know. But he's calling for these top 15 fights and top 10 fighters

and he ain't getting them with these performances. It's just not. So we'll see if he beat Scrant Doss, and I think he gets on people's radars a lot more. That's for sure. Brett, hello. My friend and Mike, how are you, buddy? I'm good. How are you?

Excellent, excellent. Hey, real quick. I just want to get your take on Adasania and Pereira. and I think Adesania's going to take this one I think he's really hungry for this and I just want to know who your thoughts are on

who could be next for him and when you said the Bo Nickel Cod, Bo Nickel fight that's going to happen in March I'm thinking for like a co-made event for two fights that the 135 Division would love to see would be Aljo Tudovara

versus everybody's fucking arch their nemesis, Henry Suhudo and the meth man Sean O'Malley. Tell me what your thoughts are, Mike. And I'm going to listen in and have a heck of morning, bro. Thanks, man. I mean, Banoid is such a mess right now. I don't know what the hell is going to happen. Now Al Joc saying he's not going to fight till June, but he's also, like Aljo does, he says things, then he kind of takes him back a little bit. He's like, well, I'm saying June, but maybe the UFC will entice you with something. Like, if you want to sit out until June, like, sit out till June, dude. Like, it's all good.

You've had a crazy year. Sit until June if you want. It's fine. But to me, he should be going all in on Sean O'Malley. I've talked about this a million times. Sohudo should fight Cheeto. That's the fight I've been screaming for since Sehudo said he was coming back and he's starting to scream for title fights.

Go fight Cheeto. Go fight that guy. Number one contender fight. Let's go. And I also gave Sehudo some props earlier this week because he's trying to do the thing, trying to get this fight together with Sean O'Malley. If Aljo's going to sit out until June, do that. Like, do that fight.

That's fine. That's why I was saying, instead of going right to Aljo, T.J., you go Aljo, Aldo. T.J. can get the winner. Or you just did Aldo versus T.J. and the winner gets a title fight. Like, if we have to have these conversations where we have arguments for both or several fighters, just have them fight each other.

Like, so what? Just have them fight each other. I know we can look at the featherweight division right now and we're like, oh, well, we tried to do that, but we still haven't had anybody emerge. But that's a different story. It's just so weird and bizarre, and it's almost like it's cursed in a way.

But it's proving Volcanowski's point that no one's emerging in that division. And it's by good luck or bad luck, however you want to slice it. As far as what's next for Adasania, I don't know, man. It's tough. We got guys in the come up.

We got on Germany's. We got guys like DDP, but they're far away. I mean, do they go back to the Whitaker well? I don't know. I just don't. And that's like kind of the argument that a lot of people have for Adasania being the pound for pound best fighter over Volcanowski is because, because of this exact scenario that we're in.

Adasani's beat everybody. He's beat everybody in this division. I mean, could you go Sean Strickland if he beats Jared Kennanier? Maybe. And you know that fight will do bonkers because Strickland will be Strickland and say a lot of crazy things. And Adasania will be all good to fire back at him. But, I mean, I just don't see a world where Strickland beats Adasania. So that fight isn't even all that compelling.

So I don't know what they're going to do. I don't know if Adisani is just going to bump up. He wants to go to 205, and I think if he gets this Pereira win under his belt, that might be enough. Like, he's done. What else can this guy do at 185? Like, he can wait for Andremenis or wait for GDP or some of these other guys. But they're a long ways away from getting to a title fight. Unless Izzy just straight calls for him.

I know Izzy has mentioned Gregory Rodriguez as a guy he'd like to fight someday, but we're so far away from that too. So it's a big fight for Adasania. It's huge. It's almost like the best thing for this division is for Pereira to win. And then you can just run this one back and you can let the division kind of play catch up a little bit. But we'll see what happens. That's a great fight. I haven't given a prediction yet because this is going one of two ways.

And I know it's super fancy and obvious. But if this fight gets stopped, Pereira wins. And if it doesn't, then Adasani's going to win. If it goes to the coffee. Odisona wins. If it doesn't, I think Pereira wins. But I'll look into a little bit more. I'm sure we'll be talking about this a lot. Heading into UFC 281.

And I can't wait. Things are happening for 281. Stay tuned for our announcements. You may know where I'm going with this. Boating 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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Mike, heck of a morning. I just wanted to ask a couple questions. First one, obviously, Ariel touched on it yesterday with the Josh Thompson comments on it being the media's job to promote Bellator versus Risen and what are they going to do. But second, just touching, would you be more interested in seeing Sean O'Malley fight Sohudo right now, or running it

back with Cheeto and just getting that out of the way for a number one contender. Hmm. Thank you, sir. I don't know. Like, honestly, I mean, if I have a choice, if I have a choice, man, that's tough.

Because there's such a story with, with Cheeto and I want to see that fight, but I still think we can see it at some point. Like, that's a back pocket fight, and I think we can get there at any point. I kind of want to go the Sehudo route just because I want to make sure this guy's going to fight. Like, I want to see if he's serious.

Like, the biggest question in this division is Henry Sehudo serious about fighting. That's, that's it. It's not a stylistic thing. It's not a merit thing. His resume is incredible. He's one of the best fighters of all time, in my opinion. He's great. But he's also not a star.

He thinks he's more popular than he is. and no one believes that he's fighting. And the ones that believe he's fighting, they don't really care that he's fighting. And for the reasons that I just mentioned, no one believes that he's serious. He thinks he's Connor McGregor. He's nowhere near it.

So I just want to see if he's serious. Just wave the white flag up and say, hey, I'll go fight Sean O'Malley. You take that fight, you go fight him, you win. Go fight for the title. You will get no argument for me. Go fight anybody. So let's Song-Yadong.

Go fight Song-Yong. You beat Song-Yadong get a title fight. Go fight somebody. So to me, I'll go O'Malley Sihudo just because I just want to see it. I just want to see if Sehudo is actually going to fight somebody and that he's serious about it. Because my one concern is they make this Aljo fight.

He wins, wins the title, and then he just holds up the division because he wants to fight Volk. And then we're in a worse position than we're in now. Or he just retires again. pay me more, or I'm done. These are the things that concern me about Sohudo. The Josh Thompson thing, I mean, I don't know how much more I could say about that whole situation. I think I'm done talking about it because Josh is just wrong.

And I know he did. They had another episode of weighing in and Josh was like, see, you reporters, you journalists, you picked, took my words and you twisted them around. You know I meant cover. I meant's cover, not promote, obviously. But it's not that. Like go back and watch that clip, the first one, where he says, your job to promote.

And then he laid out what we should be doing. It's your job to let everybody know that this is happening. To promote the shit out of this card. And then he's like, oh, well, maybe I use the wrong word. And he tried to, like, double back on it. I've said enough about it. Ariel said essentially the same thing. this was about Josh getting himself over.

This is about Josh getting his podcast over. That's 100% what it was. Had nothing to do with the events, nothing to do with Bellator, nothing to do with Risen, nothing to do with AJ McKee or Patricia Pipple or any of the fighters on the card. This was a Josh Thompson move.

Let's get myself over and trend on Twitter. That's what it was. And that's my biggest issue with it. I will say this. I have reached out to Bellator and I will double and I will say this once again before I go on to that point. I don't blame Bellator for any of this.

I've had multiple people in the organization reach out to me and tell me, Mike, I know you were going to go off on this. I know you're going to respond to it. But just know, this is not a Bellator thing. What Josh says on his show is his opinion. It's not our opinion. And I've said that every time.

I'll continue to say it. It's not a Bellator thing. I do not blame them at all for what Josh said. There's lots that I do blame them for, and we've talked about it a lot on this show. They have done a terrible job promoting. They've done a terrible job. The Milan card?

Like, most people don't even know that was happening this past Saturday. We have a big one coming up in Chicago. It's like very little promotion for that. You have a Nurmaga made off. in the main event or in the co-main event. Habib's going to be in the building. Habib's about to coach the two lightweight champions and the two biggest promotions in North America.

Why are we not putting out videos about this? Why are we not promoting Usman Armaghamatov right now? Because I think he's got to wash Patricki Pitbull and win the belt. Like, what are we doing? Corey Anderson, Vadim Nemcoff are fighting in that rematch. No one's talking about it. And that's not our fault.

So I'll say that about Bellator with the promotional aspect. They're bad at it. But the Josh thing is just the more I say about it, the more gives him a greater sense of righteousness to fire back at us. And I'm just done doing that. I don't need this dude pissing me off any more than he did. And I'm actually upset that it got me as fired up that it actually did. But the thing I was going to say was I reached out to Bellator and I said, let's have me and Josh have a conversation. Let's do it.

I'll see where he's coming from. He can see where we're coming from. And then we can just put this to bed forever. We can understand what both of our roles are. He can understand what our role is media is, what his role is, which is in the media, by the way, no matter what he says, He is part of the media because he's on the damn broadcast. He's just not a journalist, but he's in the media. And let's do it.

And from why I was told, Josh doesn't want to do it. Josh doesn't want to do it. He feels that his response on his last podcast was explanation enough. And I told him, I said, well, that's not good enough for me. That's not good enough for anybody. You're just twisting one thing. And I said, he was like, what other problems are you? you have.

I said, one, he promoted his podcast over your event, and two, the whole,

the whole UFC credential thing is just fucking stupid. It's so fucking stupid. God, it's so dumb. I've covered, since I got to

M.A. fighting, I've covered twice as many Bellator cards in person as UFC cards. I've done a lot

of stuff with Bellator. I've covered Jake Paul fights in person. And the UFC never banned me. They don't give a shit. They don't care. So that whole thing was just ridiculous. He didn't speak up about that.

So these are the questions I have. Josh ain't interested, but I tried. I wanted to have a little conversation. Not even a debate per se. But just here's my issues with what you said. Let's clear them up. So we don't have to have these discussions anymore. He didn't want to do it.

So there you go. Let's go to Billy. Billy are you there? Billy you're muted. I cannot hear you. Hello, Mike. There we go. What's up, buddy?

I just wanted your thoughts on what to do of the February 8 division at the moment, obviously with Arnold with the weird win and obviously IAir with a weird win over Brian Ortega as well. And then you also got Emmett and, who's the other one? Oh, yeah. Okay. So we talked about this on the post-fight show.

We've talked about it on this show. This is what I think the UFC is thinking. They're going to go, all right, Arnold Allen. We're going to the UK. We're going to do an interim title fight. Arnold Allen versus Blank. I think that's what they're thinking. I think they're going to call Yahir first.

Gage where he's at. because they think he's a bigger fight, name value-wise, and they're probably not wrong about that. And if Yayae continues on this just awful road of, I'll wait three years to fight Volcanovsky if I have to. I'm not fighting anybody else. Then you do Arnold Allen v. Josh Emmett, and you're good to go. There's another popular choice that I hate,

and that is Arnold Allen versus Max Holloway. Hate it. Not the fight. The fight is cool. But Max Holloway should be as far away from these three dudes as possible. Because we're trying to get people emerging. We're trying to get people moving forward. And if we do our round versus Max Holloway,

there's a good chance Max Holloway beats him. And then we're like, now what? Do we do Holloway again? Like, we don't want to, I don't want that to happen. So if Holly's going to stay at 145, the Mitchell-Teporia winner, somebody like that. like somebody that's going to get them up but the Arnold Island one is not it

it's not it because Max I would pick Max to win that fight and then Arnold's gone and out of the conversation for the foreseeable future I don't want to do Max Holloway versus Josh Emmett big fight for Josh but I don't like it because Max probably wins that fight

and then Josh is out as a contender we saw the year fight so I'm doing Arnold Allen versus one of those two dudes, interim title fight, do it in the UK. That's how I'm doing it. And I'm keeping Max Holloway far away from these dudes. And I'd rather see Max just have fun fights at 155.

Go fight Charles Olivera. That's fun. First fight ended in a strange way. Let's have those guys fight. He could fight Dustin. He could fight Chandler. He can fight Justin. and Gaichi. These are, these just fun fights. Holly doesn't need the belt. He doesn't even

need to be sniffing the featherway title at this point. He doesn't need it. So keep him far away from Arnold Allen and all these guys. And you know if New York Rick's chiming in, he probably disagrees with something that I said. Hello, New York, Rick. Heck of a morning, Mike. How are you? Good. How are you? I mean, I'm doing fantastic. I'll get to that in a little bit. So my question is a hypothetical. There's a train coming. and Josh Thompson and Henry Suhudo are tied. I'm just kidding. I wouldn't do that to you.

I was thinking about last night, there was a basketball game. I'm not sure if you saw it. It was the Cleveland Cavaliers versus the Boston Celtics. It was an incredible matchup and the best team in the East won, the Cleveland Cavaliers. And there's a player on that team named Evan Mowgli, who's going to be a future MVP and he's a tremendous basketball player. And it got me thinking about prospects. It got me thinking about how excited I am about Evan Mobley and how excited I am for his future. And I was curious in MMA, who's the one prospect that you can't get out of your mind, that you can't stop thinking about, that you can't, you know, that you can't wait to see against top competition, become champion, all those things, all those accolades.

And maybe not necessarily like a Hamzat Shamaev, who's already kind of like on the cusp, but maybe somebody who's got a little bit of a further road that you can't stop thinking about getting to the. the top. I like the question. I mean, long-time listeners to the show know probably where I'm going with this. There's two. McAyef is one, and Armand Sarukian is 1A. I just, I, from the first time I saw him fight outside of the UFC, I was like, this dude's going to come to the UFC, and he's going to win the belt. And he's going to get there. I still think he beat Bituch Gamrott. he should have been the one fighting Benny Darius, if we're being honest, but we got a great fight nonetheless. Sarukyon's going to fight his Magulov.

That fight ruled. Isamagulov's another guy that I'm very excited about? Montel Jackson, another guy I'm very excited about. I know he's, I don't know if you'd call him a prospect at this point because he's been the UFC for a hot minute, but he just hasn't been active. He's so good. And this dude just doesn't, he just doesn't fight enough. And it sucks.

And like the one big opportunity he had, he lost to Brett Johns, I believe. So we'll see what he does next Saturday. But those are three that I think about a lot in terms of how good I think they could be in their ceilings. I think McIuff could be a two-division champion. I think he's that good. And I think Shurukyan versus Islam for the lightweight title in 2024 is going to be fascinating television. They fought before, Surukian, short-noburn. notice, UFC debut.

He gave good old Islam one of the toughest fights he's ever had. And that was his debut when he was like 22 years old. This guy's only 25. 24-25s. He's only going to get better. So those are the ones. And by the way, typical Cavs fans celebrating a November win. Good for you.

Come talk to me in May and June. We'll see where you guys are at when you're watching the Boston Celtics. play for either the NBA title or the Eastern Conference title. And the Cavs are all playing golf. Zeke, what's up? My man, Mike. How are we? Good.

How are you? I'm in the whip. I'll keep it short and sweet as I try to. Sometimes they get on those long tangents, but I can't help myself. You know what I mean? When we're on Mike Heck's type of a morning show, it could go wild sometimes.

First things first. Yeah, I mean, I'm going to take you back to that mess of a locker room that I took you into once. Any comments on what's going on with you doca? It looks like he's getting poached out of Boston. Ewie, ewy. That locker room's a mess. Secondly, back to the UFC and the MMA.

Is Colby Covington actually holding up the welterweight division at the moment? I'm a Kobe Covington fan. I know it's weird to say, but I'm actually starting to agree. Like, Kobe, we've got to get active here. I understand the whole Jorge Mazda all in the head thing. But is he going to fight Humzod? Is this fight ever going to happen? but I know I always ask you about this.

And lastly, of course, we knew Armand Sarukia was coming to the answer to the last question. I actually have a guy I want to throw in there maybe, you know, I don't know if you forgot. Jalton-O-Made is a freak. You can lock them in there with a light heavyweight and a heavyweight on the next card. I don't care.

He will rip them apart. Shamil looks like he's going to be his opponent right now, and I know you didn't love that, and I don't love that either, man, because I think Shamil's going to pull out. So, yeah, Mike, Celtic locker room, maybe a little Kobe Covington update and Jalton Alameda. Have a heck of a morning, man.

The Celtics locker room is like, yes, get him the hell away from us. They're like, take them. They can't wait to get that guy off the books. He's going to be gone at the end of the season anyway. So if we're going to make this easier on them, do it. Do it. Maybe they can get a little something in return. I don't know.

But yeah, get rid of that guy. Get him out of there. And if Brooklyn wants to take on that headache, It's only fitting that he's the dude. And then he has to deal with that horseshit with Kyrie and we had to deal with him for a while too. And he was just an idiot. He's even more of an idiot now, if we're being honest. But I'm not going to talk about that.

If you want to hear more about that, Ariel Hawani just went nuclear on the MA hour yesterday about it. And I could never say it anywhere close to as good as the way he did. So there you go. Colby, is he holding up the welterweight division? No. You could probably make, you could probably make more of an argument that Hamzat Shabayev is,

because he's the one who missed weight. Colby got to his welterweight fight and won. Then all that stuff happened behind the scenes, but Hamzat missed weight by eight and a half pounds or seven and a half, whatever it was. And they had to change the whole card around. And now we're waiting to see, well, is he going to fight at welterweight?

We're going to give one more chance. this guy's holding up the division more because he can't make the frigging wait. UFC gave him a layup and he failed. So I think there's more of a case to be made that Jamiah's holding it up more than Colby is. And I don't know if Colby will... I haven't talked to Colby in a while.

I've checked in, I've asked him certain things, haven't gotten response in a while. I get it. Dude's off the radar. and I don't blame him for that. But I think if he's ready to go, this is the best fight for him. Shamiath will be the favorite.

Like I said, I think it's an interesting, much more interesting matchup the most because Colby doesn't get tired. Homsat will over five rounds. But it's just, can he survive that early storm? Very few have been able to do it. Gilbert Burns did. So, yeah, I don't know.

I don't think Colby's holding up to the division. And another prospect I'll throw up there. Yes, Jail-Lameh is good. Is a guy who's going to be the Bellator Lightway champion in a couple of weeks, who's been Armaghamedoff, who might actually be the best prospect in all of M. M.A., because he's going to win the Bellator Lightweight title in a couple weeks in Chicago. So it's another great pick. Let's go to J.D.

unmute. J.D., you're mute. Here we go. Sorry about that, man. How you doing this morning? I got you. I'm good. How are you?

Fantastic. fantastic. Here's a little question for you. Just kind of prospecting where the lightweight division will be with Islam at the top. Where do you think Raphael Fiziv could be in giving Islam a good fight? Because he has good take down the fence and he has great striking. And I think he has a little bit of room to grow. But he'll probably have two fights to work on that.

Just want to know your thoughts on it. Thanks, dude. It's a good question. I mean, Ruff, I mean, Fiziv's great. He's got to fight for the belts. Like, of all the names that we mentioned on the come-up at 155 that we talk about all the time, Fiziv's probably going to be the first one to get a title shot.

But I hope it's not anytime soon just for the reasons that you laid out. Like, Fiziv's a great striker. He does have good takedown defense who started in the RDA fight, but RDA is not his Lomachachev. It's a whole different beast. whole different bag of worms. So, I mean, give Fiziv three more wins. I'm still picking his on to win that fight.

But Fiziv is a dynamic dude. He's a super athlete. Love the fight. But I don't know. It's got to take a lot. It's going to take a perfect night for not just him, but like anybody in this division to beat that guy. So, yeah, I think he's got a chance.

But we'll see what happens with him next. I'm curious to see who they line him up with. is it gaichi? Do they do the gaichi fight sometime next year? I don't know. It doesn't seem like gauchy's all that interested in it. But I get it. Gagchi wants to get to a title fight himself

as quickly as he can. So he's already talked about maybe fighting Oliver again because he said the loser of the title fight, winner of Chandler-Pourier. I don't think anyone's going to complain about either of those fights. But I would kind of like to see Fiziv get his chance. Because that's the problem with this division,

is none of these guys are getting that chance. Like we saw Gamrod get Benile, but it's just not the same. Like you don't get the same rub as fighting a Poirier or Chandler or Gaichi as you do fighting Benile. And that's unfortunate to say because Benile's great, but he's just not, it's not one you get supremely over against if you beat him. So, but the others, yeah, 100%. But hopefully we can get this, hopefully 2023 is a year.

of movement at 155 where these up-and-comers, the Sarukians, the Fiziziz, the Isma Gulovs, you know, Gamrod as well, some of these other dudes

on the way up the Grant Dawson's, perhaps Claudio Puez, if he beats Dan Hooker at UFC 281, I mean, what else is there? I mean, there's just a lot of talent at 155 right now,

so many. I want to pull up, see if we got any more names that I'm forgetting, because this division is the Cadillac Division. Isba Gulov's great. Guram Kutata Latsay is another guy. Had a tough fight with Isba Gulov. A lot of people thought he won that fight. Now, Drew Dober's winning.

We talked about Mark Bet. If I'm I'm going to go back to 155, he's a player. We got Patty, Terence McKinney. I mean, there's just, there's lots of them. tons. So hopefully this is the 2023 is the year of movement. At light weight, a feather weight,

Bannam weight as well. And let's see how this works. All right, we're going to get out of here. BTF, Eastern. We're technically calling it an exhibition match because Jed has retired from full-fledged BTL competition,

but Jed will be on for an exhibition matchup with fellow MMA fighting representative Damon Martin, so that should be a lot of fun. We'll have UFC Vegas 64 coverage throughout the weekend. We'll preview show sometime tomorrow. People's pre-fight show Saturday, post-fight show Saturday, onto the next one Sunday. And then we are on the road officially to UFC 281 on the road to New York, the Mecca, Madison Square Garden. And it's exciting stuff.

So we'll be back here tomorrow, 10 a.m. Eastern. Until then, everybody, thank you very much for listening. Have a great rest of the day. And as always, have a heck of a more.