MMA Fighting - HOAM | What's Next For Nate Diaz After Boxing Win Over Jorge Masvidal?

Episode Date: July 9, 2024

Nate Diaz got the job done this past Saturday night in Anaheim, Calif., earning a majority decision win over Jorge Masvidal in a rematch from their UFC 244 main event in November 2019. With Diaz evening the series at one win apiece, what is next for the Stockton superstar, and could his next fight be in the UFC? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck reacts to Diaz's win over Masvidal, the scorecards, talks the results of a rewatch, and the chances of Diaz's callout of Leon Edwards becoming reality. Additionally, listener questions include UFC Denver, the main event between Rose Namajunas and Tracy Cortez, how Cortez fits in the women's flyweight divisional pantheon and if she can get to a title fight. the UFC Paris bout between Benoit Saint Denis and Renato Moicano, and more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Spend $250 on your first campaign and get a free $250 credit for the next one. Get started at LinkedIn.com slash campaign. Terms and conditions apply. The Vox Media Podcast Network. It is Tuesday, July 9th. Yes, July 9th. 2024, and it is indeed a heck of a morning. We are live a few minutes early today.

On the M.A. Fighting Twitter space, you hear the show in its entirety shortly thereafter on the M.A. Fighting Podcasting Network. What's going on everybody? I am Mike Tech. Hope you're all having a great start to the week. Hope you all had a great weekend. A rare weekend off for the Ultimate Fighting Championship. There were things to keep you occupied.

you could have gotten boxing pretty much all day long from Darren Till's boxing debut at Social Knocko 3, which was just weird and strange and bizarre, and ended with a freaking brawl of some kind, to Shakur Stevenson being a minus 10,000 favorite against the man he defeated, to Nate Diaz and Jorge Mazadol doing the thing in Anaheim, fun fight.

And that was the big story of the weekend overall, at least in our world. We had the rematch. And in the end, Nate Diaz gets some revenge on Jorge Mazadol. Majority decision win, one judge scored at a draw. One judge scored at 97-93 for Nate Diaz. Another judge scored at 98-92 for Nate Diaz. 9793 doesn't crush my soul

9892 is insane it is just one of the most insane scorecards you'll ever see you just cannot convince me that Nate Diaz won eight rounds of that fight I thought the rounds Nate one were the clearest rounds of the fight I thought Nate clearly won round one he clearly won round nine

round 10 it was a little closer than the other two but I thought it was a clear Nate round. I scored it, 9694 for Nate. I thought Nate won, one back and rewatch it again yesterday, and I still think Nate won. I scored it the same across the board. So good win for Nate.

I know Mazdaal is pretty pissed. He called for some home cooking. Don't, man, maybe there's some truth to that with how the scorecards were put together. But in the end, and I say this about MMA all the time when people scream robbery and all of this. stuff and fighter scream robbery. The one thing you can't do,

and I don't think it's a very smart thing to do, is to be like, whoa, look at the stats. See, the stats say that I landed more punches than this guy. How, there's just no way for those to be 100% accurate. It's just, there's no way. There's no way. It's almost impossible. Mazadol definitely landed the better shots throughout the fight,

but they were few and far between through both, watches that I had of the fight. I thought Nate landed way more. He was way more active. Ring generalship means something in boxing. And what people need to understand, especially in the MMA world, the 10-9 scoring and boxing in 2024 is not the same from a striking perspective as a 10-9 scoring round in MMA.

They change the structure. So just because damage means more in MMA, even if you land 50, 50 less punches, it is not weighed the same as it is in MMA anymore. It just isn't. That's why MMA changed it. They don't want their 10 point muscle to be exactly like boxing for that exact reason. So if you go by the scoring criteria of boxing, then I think it's fair that Nate Diaz won that fight. It was fun as hell. I enjoyed it. We'd love to see it again. Even if they box, like I don't want to see them fight in MMA again. I think the MMA fight. I think the MMA fight goes exactly the way the first one did.

Boxing would be a little bit of a mystery. I'd love to see the adjustments the adjustments Mazadol can make. And I would kind of like to see the adjustments Nate would make as well. So I think if they were, if they were to do it a third time, I don't think it should be an MMA. I think I might be on an island with that take, but I'm okay with that. I had a lot of fun watching that fight on Saturday. And I don't know if it made up for the rest of the build for that card, because the build

was awful. They need to make a lot of adjustments if they're going to do this again. Way too many press conferences, way too much unsurety about the date. Fight week was terrible. It was awful. The open workout was a disaster. It was terrible viewing, really, really bad. There was nothing good about it. Press conference, awful, really, really bad. Why even? do a press conference at this point. If Nate doesn't want to be there and Mazadol doesn't want to be there, why do it? Because you're just hurting yourselves.

The final stare down, not great. The fight week did nothing to build anticipation for the fight. Nothing. Nothing. So if they're going to do this again, they need to change a whole bunch of stuff because it was not good. It was not good.

It actually made me less interested in the fight. Never seen that before. It's never happened to me before. Where a fight week actually makes me less interested in a fight. And then having conversations and doing some preview shows, Jose saying, look, it's not about people don't pay for the press conference. They don't do that. Like, we know what these guys are going to do.

Come Saturday night, they're going to get in there and they're going to punch each other in the face whole bunch. And that's what happened. And the fight was great. But Nate gets it done. And we'll see what happens next for both of those guys. We'll talk more about this on BTL. noon Eastern today. We're going a little bit, a couple days early.

Going at noon Easter, Jed will join us. So you get to hear his take on the fight for the first time. You'll hear A.K.'s take on the fight for the first time. And it'll be a good time. So join us at noon Eastern live on YouTube. But if you're listening to this after that, then just go back and watch it. It'll be fun. All right, let's hear from you all.

This is going to be a rapid fire question show. everyone's capped at 30 seconds if you go over 30 I'm just cutting you off there's a lot to get to today it's a very busy day so rapid fire those questions and we'll get to as many

as we can so with that said Lee go ahead hey Mike how's it going good man yeah so I just had a a couple of questions one first things

this the Diaz NAS basketball fight gave me like it kind of reminded me of Nate, when he came back and fought Anthony Pettis, as far as, like, his ring generalship and his activity as far as punching and stuff. Two, you know, Nate called for, you know, Leon and, you know, Jake Paul rematch. But we know for him to go back to the UFC, he would have to sign a, you know,

at least a few fights with his contract. how would you feel if UFC and Connor Skip Chandler just did the rematch with Nate if Nate beats Connor and gets the title shot against Leon because we know they were giving it to McGregor anyways you know if he would have won but yeah I just wanted your take on that agree with the first point 100% I think Nate Nate doesn't BS anybody Nate is who he is he's honest he tells it like it is So when he says, and I kind of didn't look at this as an excuse or anything, but Nate Bate pretty much said, like, look, I didn't take the Jake Paul fight seriously,

didn't really care, didn't really train too much, this is what it was what it was. I believe him because when you see Nate all motivated and in shape, I'm not saying Nate wasn't in shape or Jake Paul because Nate's always in fighting shape no matter what. He just might not look it, but Nate just is like a triathlete when it comes. to his training, dude's always ready to go. But he looked way better, way hungry, came out real aggressive against Bosodol. Usually Nate starts a little slower and then turns it on.

He had it going from minute one of that fight. So completely agree. Ring General Ship was there. I think he did learn some things in the Jake Paul fight. Whether or not he took it seriously, it doesn't seem like he did all that much, but still was pretty admirable in defeat, despite not taking it seriously.

As far as the post-fight callouts go, the Leon one is really interesting to me because that has been the name that has been common throughout this build. I was at the first press conference with these two guys right before UFC 300 in Las Vegas and talking to Nate, they were asking like, who would you want to fight in the UFC? Like who's the best, who are the guys who are carrying the flag, so to speak? Who are the best fighters in the world? And Nate has been saying for a long time now that Leon Edwards is the best fighter in the world right now.

He thinks he is the best fighter in the sport. And he wants to challenge himself against Leon. Nothing has changed when it comes to that. The Jake Paul callout was kind of surprising because I know Nate hated everything about that from just getting ready for it to the unknowns of it, being the smaller guy, Fight Week itself,

being part of that Jake Paul circus, as you saw even with Mazadol, like it's just not Nate's style. Nate's not going to go there and go back and forth with a guy like Jake Paul. He's not going to sit there and build up a fight or anything like that.

But if you mess with him and his team, he's going to slap you in the face and his team will do the same. So when Derek from Better asks Nate a disrespectful question, trust me, I was in Dallas for that fight. There are lots, I know some of the guys who are part of the better team.

There's a reason Derek from Better was not at the fight. There's a reason for that. Nate's team would have found him and they would have gone after him. They don't care about any of that stuff. Just like Neon, that idiot. He goes there, creates a headline, which is ridiculous. They chase him through the parking lot and he wants to look like this victim and all. It's just ridiculous. The whole thing's, that stuff is just dumb. And Nate

doesn't want any part of that. So yeah, if they give him Leon, like, what's he going to say? No. If Leon beats below Muhammad, I think he's going to. Like, what's, I mean, they're Shafcott. But if you, if the UFC has the opportunity and look at how the UFC has done business for the last four years, especially under this new umbrella with TKO. If the UFC has the choice of, look, man, December's coming up. Connor, Chandler, may not happen until next year.

We need something to fill this December pay-per-view slot. It's the last pay-view of the year. It's one of the majors, as Brian Campbell likes to say. We could go Leon Edwards versus Shafcott or you can go Leon Edwards versus Nate Diaz for the title. what do you think the UFC's going to do? Actually, that's the, consider that a hypothetical because we know what they're going to do. They're going to book Nate Diaz.

Also, to Lee's point, they're not just going to bring Nate in for one fight. He's going to have to sign a multi-fight deal. As you guys know, when you see all these new contracts sign, we're seeing these fighters signing six to eight fight deals. There is no way in hell, at least that I think, that Nate Diaz is going to sign a six to eight. fight deal. Will he sign a four fight deal? Sure. But it ain't going to be any more than that. And I think after going through the Jake Paul build, I think there's a part of Nate that misses

the UFC just because they're much more professional organization and neon isn't going to show up and ask dumb, stupid-ass questions just so he can give himself clout. So I think there's a part of that that he misses. But I wouldn't rule anything out in today's UFC. It would be objectively funny to see them just mess with everything just because it's so ridiculous. But if Shafka doesn't get a title shot, that's insane. If Michael Chandler gets a title shot against his Lamakachev, I'm going to lose my mind.

So there you go. I will have a gigantic problem with that. Nicholas, go ahead. Yeah, I got you, man. First of all, congrats to getting the job done. I mean, the boxing of that guy is really impressive. and second thing is I'm just wondering if Tracy Cortez

has what it takes to get it done I mean does she really have what it takes to become a champ and by the way is she a girl you would like to bring home to meet your parents thank you Mike I mean as a married man

I'm going to like pretend to answer that last question um yeah Nate was good man like he was very Nateish uh and just turned the Nadeish up to 100,000. It's just what he does, man. It's just what

he does. He doesn't change his style. Like you, here's a like you saw the difference in Mazadol, right? Like Mazadol, you could tell he's been boxing and just in the boxing gym and working on boxing for that entire build to that fight. He said

it was since January. I know that he's been in Vegas for a while. And he looked like a dude who was boxing out there. He doesn't box. Like, he does, but it's just in his own style. He boxes the same way he strikes at MMA without the kicks, just goes in there, throws a ton of volume, and does this thing.

It just works so well. He had Mazadol's back against the ropes and in the corner, like 80% of the fight. And in boxing, that's not a good look. That does not look good for the judges. It just doesn't. This isn't MMA. So it was very effective strategy. The other question, does Tracy Cortez have what it takes to fight for a belt or win the belt?

I don't know. I wouldn't rule it out. She's good. She's not, she has not lost in the UFC. She's been very solid. We're going to get some answers on Saturday when she does. Not only is it the opponent, but five rounds doing it in Denver. She said something on the MMA hour yesterday that I thought was, I'm not going to say it's ridiculous.

but I just don't know if it's true. That she got acclimated to the Denver sort of air quality and the elevation in two days. I just don't think that's actually physically possible. But we'll see, because Rose is going to try to drag her into those deep waters as well as she should. That's probably the game plan she has. But I don't know.

It's tough to say. I think she's got something. I'm shocked she's not a bigger star. But the problem for her has been, just activity. You can't, it's really hard to get way over with the community and with the company if you're fighting once a year. It's, it's very hard. It's very hard. All the guys who have really risen up over the last few years, Hamzot, Kevin Holland, et cetera, they got over because they fought a whole bunch. You just, every time you turned away, you would turn on the UFC,

you'd see their name on the next card or on that card. They're just fighting five, six times a year, rising up the ranks. That's what you've got to do. That's what you got to do. So we'll see. Ask me again on Tuesday and I'll have a better answer for you. Race the runners. Raise the sales.

Raise the sales. Captain, the unidentified ship is approaching. Over. Roger. Wait. Is that an enterprise sales solution? Reach sales professionals, not professional sailors. With LinkedIn ads, you can target the right people by industry, job title, and more.

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more. That means access to pre-sales, preferred seating, and more savings. For more information about how to step into a world of more with Chase experiences, visit chase.com slash experiences. Benefits available only to eligible Chase card holders. Deposit in credit card products provided by JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A member FDIC. Terms, conditions, restrictions, and limitations apply. The buzzer with Elmack. Go ahead. yeah i want to start off the same thing like Nate looked i mean both of them through a insane amount of punches which was wild to see it was like 1,400 combined between the two um but my question would be my question is going to be about a leon versus belal and who do you think wins that and um i personally

pick leon but who do you think wins that and how do you think they get it done I'm going Leon Edwards in that fight and I'm not saying it because I think Blah Muhammad is a bad fighter in fact I'll say this if Bilal wins that fight and leaves Manchester with the belt it would not surprise me like Bilal's a good fighter

does not get the credit he deserves but he's very good and he's beat everybody's needed to beat I just think Leon is just better than him everywhere the one question I do have is can Leon go at the pace that Bilal is going to go for 25 minutes.

Because skill for skill, Leon is the better fighter. I mean, come on. It just is what it is. But Bilal is just a pest. He's in your face, pushing a pace on you. And he's tough as hell. He's very, very tough. He's very, very durable.

And he gets better as time goes by. But Leon is the better striker. He's the better grappler. It's just going to be, can, Leon avoid being outdogged by Belaw Muhammad. And if he can, he should win a comfortable decision. That's how I have it. I think he's going to win a decision.

That fight is not going to go to the card. I mean, that fight's definitely going to the cards. I just don't see a world where someone gets a finish. I don't see a world war where below stopping Leon. Maybe that's something he's been working on, but he can get you to the ground, but he's just not very opportunistic when it comes to

trying to finish fights down there. It's just not his bag. But you don't need it sometimes. Sometimes you just need to go in there and win fights and that's what Bilal does. They ain't always pretty, but he gets the job done. But I think Leon wins and I think the Manchester crowd

will leave somewhat satisfied. But this is the main, like I just look at what the post-fight show is going to look like for UFC 304, I don't think Leon Edwards will be the talking point of the card when it's over. I think we'll be talking about Tom Aspinall or Curtis Blades, and I think we'll be talking about Bobby Green or Patty Pimble. I think those are going to be like the top two storylines.

And then if the fight goes the way I think it will, I'm going Leon Edwards, by decision. And then we're just all going to be waiting for Shafcott to get his shot. Oh, who knows? maybe he ends up fighting fucking Nate Diaz. What a freaking world we'd be living in, huh? Go ahead, Calhoun City. Years ago that Darren Till would be, when he was walking out to fight Woodley,

that he would be fighting on Social Knockout 3, you know, a little over five years. I would say, what parallel universe are you living in? Man, what a fall from grace. Anyway, who do you got in the Bonfim fight? I think his opponent is tough to get out of there. I'd like to see Bonfim show a little IQ, maybe not try to go for the sub and gas himself out early,

maybe a little patter with the jab and go for the finish in the second or the third. Who do you got in that one? Appreciate it, man. Have a good day. I got Bonfim, man. I think I like Anglosa. Dude's good. When he's on,

he looks good. But I think Brian Battle kind of wrote a blueprint on what you need to do to beat him. and I kind of feel like that's what's going to happen. He's just got to be on his back foot. The fight's going to stay on the feet. He's going to get hit. He's going to hit. Anjosa a whole bunch and he'll end up getting the win.

I don't know if he gets a finish, but I think it's a comfortable win. There's a physical portion to this fight that stands out, but it's also a mental portion of this fight because I would assume, being a professional athlete that it has not been smooth sailing for Anglosa, who many people believe he used the iPoke to quit against Brian Battled. Now, I'm not here to say that, but there are a lot of people in the community who feel that way.

And especially with the power of social media, it is very easy to just go in there and shoot a DM to one of these fighters and call them whatever you want to call them. So I just don't think this fight goes well. Let me just look at the betting lines. Gabriel Bonfim is a minus 340. I actually think there might be a little value there at minus 340. So, yeah, I think a Bonfam just pushes forward and is aggressive. I think he should win this comfortably. But if he goes in there and tries to be too cautious and he lets Losa take the fight to the bad and put him on his back,

because Andrew is a big, big dude, man. He's a physical presence. And if he sits on top of Gabriel Bonfim is even as gifted as he is with his grappling and he's pretty damn good down there. Could be a tough night. Could be a tough night at the office for him. So, yeah, I think Bonfine wins that fight. And the Darantel thing is insane. It's insane.

All right, let's keep this train rolling. Left lane, go ahead. Yo, what's on, Mike? Can you hear me? Yep, I got you. All right, sweet. I got a couple just quick ones. first of all, what's your prediction, what's your, like, kind of mini breakdown

for Dober versus Gene Silver this weekend? Looking forward to that fight. Personally, my most anticipated fight on the card, I'm picking Gene Silver. Also, I know it's looking ahead, but it was recently announced Moikano BSD. What are your thoughts on that?

Also, if you could just run through really quickly, like your sort of mid-year awards, like CO, submission, fight of the year, debut of year, that kind of thing, just real quick. That'd be cool. And also, why does Kamar Uisman have no drip? That's all.

I don't know. I am certainly not one to judge anybody's drip or lack thereof. I'm a very basic New England guy. I don't shop at the fashion institute stores. I go to marshals and buy the clearance crap. Like, I wear T-shirts and the occasional golf polo. and if I have to dress snazzy, I shall. And I can rock it.

But it's just not my bag. It's not my bag. So I'm not going to judge Kabbar's drip. He did look like a piece of spearman gum. And maybe that's a thing. I don't know. I'm not kind of paying attention to that world. The mid-year awards I'm not going to do because we're going to be doing them on

MMA fighting. I think they're going to drop on Thursday. I mean, just kind of like top of my head. I mean, fighter of the mid-year is pretty obvious. If you're a fighter of the mid-year is not Alex Pereira, you're wrong, plain and simple. Knock out of the year, it has to be Max Holloway. And then the other stuff's kind of up in the air. Is fight of the year Holloway Gagey?

Is fight of the year Strickle and DDP? Is fight of the year... Am I missing one? Like Islam Dustin? I don't know. the submission of the year is elmachachev because he did it in such a big spot i mean there's it's tough but prayer is obvious back to hallways obvious but we're going to drop our awards on thursday so those are being worked on there may be a podcast element to that as well so stay tuned

for that uh what else are we doing here oh the dover geon silva fight those two dudes are just going to chuck them until somebody falls it's just basically what's going to happen I don't know if I have a pick I'll probably go I'll just go Dover because he's been in there with way better guys I understand why Gian Silva

is a very popular choice but I don't know you're giving me Drew Dover at minus 110 against the guy who's only fought the UFC

a couple of times and Dover's been in there with everybody from the champion on down Giann Silva's going up a weight class I mean you did miss wait for Jordan but

it's going up to 55 I've just fought. Went through camp, turning around, going to Denver where Drew Dober lives. I think if we're looking at pros and cons lists for this fight, I think there's more pros on the Drew Dover side of the equation. So I will pick him, but it's going to be fun as hell. Someone's going to sleep very, very quickly in that fight. And I think that fight will be exactly what we all think it is.

Moikano BSD, I talked about a couple of weeks ago when we confirmed that fight. It appears it's going to be the main event. but there you go. It's a good fight. It's a big one from Wicano. Big one, obviously, for BSD, because he's going to do it at home in Paris. And I think it's just going to be one of those situations,

kind of like, I'm probably going to, let me see if there's an actual betting line on this yet. I assume Moikano's going to be the underdog, but if it's a good price, I would probably bet on Moikano for the same reasons. that yeah i don't see a line yet for the same reason that um i picked dust and for a i just think he's been in there with better dudes and that that means something that means something to me i'm

looking at some of these lines right now uh let's see some futures michael kiesza minus 395 against toadie ferguson comes back a plus 310 mackenzie durin lupi godinez is a coin flip Vicente Luka, a minus 440 favorite against Nick Diaz at plus 340. Figgie Smalls, minus 155. Marlon Vera plus 130. Umar, big favorite, plus 258. Corey Sanhagen comes back at plus 210. Izzy, the favorite over DDP.

Sean Brady, the favorite over Gilbert Burns. Anthony Fluffy Hernandez, the favorite over Michelle Pereira. There's be some really interesting fights coming up. All right, let's keep the wrap. fire going. Love the energy here. Let's go to Adi. Sorry to get him in for some quick questions. Go ahead, Ani. Mike, it's been a while. How have you been? I've been good, man. So, like I said, it's good to talk to you, but I have a few questions. A few of them are just rapid fire. What's going on with Misha Tate and why is Cyril Gown not headlining UFC Paris?

And very quickly about the Adisania and DDP match fight. I don't understand why Izzy is the favorite because Izzy's just had three losses. And if you look at the first loss, he clearly got out physical by our own. on Behovic. He was just too small. In the second one, he was winning until he was not. But in the third one, you could clearly see the difference in his performance. He was like, it's like he just wasn't in his prime in the third one. That's what I thought. It was like, he grew old overnight. That's what I thought. Maybe I'm wrong. But it's just not one of those performances where he can tweak something and get back on it. I just feel like he's not the same guy anymore. Or am I jumping into

conclusions very quickly? Thanks, Mike. Thanks, man. Yeah, let's touch on that. I've gotten a lot of messages about this. Why is you the favorite? Why is he the favorite? Because stylistically, this is a good fight for him. Like, it's a good fight for him. Let's not forget, man. Like, Sean Strickland beat that ass in September. There's no doubt about it. Sean Strickland went in there and put a beating on Izzy. He just whopped him all over the Octagon. But as good as Sean was that night, just doing Sean Strickland things. And him winning the bell is still one of the funniest things that has ever happened in the history of the UFC when they just set this fight up for Izzy to just cruise.

And then Sean Strickland beats him. They're like, oh, let's just give Izzy Sean Strickland. Ricklin because he's just going to go in there and wipe out Sean and then he'll go fight DDP and the fight will be gigantic. And then Sean Strickland goes in there and just thumps him around. And it was one of my, it was just incredibly funny. When the UFC's plans kind of go to shit, it makes me laugh. It makes me laugh. Because I know that they will find ways to make it all work.

And that's just, it's fine. But to seeing this, when we're all just screaming at the UFC from Jump Street, why is DDP even fighting Robert Whitaker. Why are we doing Izzy versus Sean Strickland? Like, just do it now. What are we waiting for? And then they played with fire a little too much and they got burnt and now we eventually would get this fight.

But I do think it's lost some sizzle. I certainly think we lost some sizzles with that one. Having said that, if you go back and watch Sean Shirkland fight, Sean won. It was his night. Izzy wasn't himself. Like, there's no, you just can't say that. you just can't watch that fight and be like, you know what? That was his his best game.

That was his A game, his B game. It wasn't even a C game. Especially if you rewatch it. You're just like, man, that is not the same dude. It's not. So I get it. I get why he's the favorite. It's not like he's a minus 200.

He's a minus 135. By the time we get past 304, we're going to see movement on that line. I would guess DDP will probably be the favorite by the time they both walk to the cage that night so I wouldn't look at the line too closely

like this is just the opener this is the way the sharps look at it and I kind of don't disagree with it maybe you can lie it slightly closer but the money's going to start coming in on DDP no doubt about it so I'm not too worried about any of that stuff not too worried about it.

I'm Nilai Patel, editor-in-chief The Verge, and Decoder is my show about big ideas and other problems. We've talked a lot about generative AI on the show lately, which is a very big idea that is causing quite a few problems. And one thing we keep hearing about over and over again is that generative AI is causing a lot of problems in schools. There are a lot of people out there, including many of the listeners of the show who email us,

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It was outstanding. I love that. Izzy talked about taking some time off away from the sport, and taking up golf, which I loved, which I loved, you know, the content creator in me. Wheels are spinning, little swing rounds of Izzy in the future. That'd be fun. But DDP just hulking up and dropping that. I'm glad you took up golf because that's your retirement sport.

That was just ice cold. Ice cold. He cooked Izzy good there. Good stuff. Go ahead for core sports. Would you even try to? I'm actually trying to, you know, dissect that in my head.

How would I go the swing rounds with Izzy? I think that would actually be some captivating stuff right there. If you can actually get that done with Jed, I mean, I'm pretty sure that's going to put, you know, phenomenal numbers. But what I wanted to talk about is the matchup between Montel Jackson versus DeMont Blachshare. is this too much of a big step up for the Mon Blackshare?

I wonder how this is going to go because I think DeMond Blackshare, I think he's one of like three fighters that has ever gotten a twister done in the UFC. But I think that was against like low-level competition. I don't know. I feel like Montel Jackson, you know, is probably going to win comfortably.

But I just want to get your input on that. And, yeah, I feel like if the fight goes all five rounds, for the main event this weekend between Tracy Cortez and Rose Namakunas. Would that favor the former champ just because she's already acclimated, you know, towards, you know, being in Denver as opposed to Tracy who works out in Arizona. I don't know. I just feel like it's the longer the fight goes, I just think that Rose is going to end up dominating the fight. And I think the, I feel like the only path of victory is if Tracy ends up utilizing takedowns

at least once per round, just because, you know, she is, you know, pretty good when it comes to wrestling. But I agree with you. You know, she needs to fight more. I know she said on the many hours she wanted to fight. If she gets past Rose, she wants to fight Alexa Grosso. I don't see that happening. But, you know, she's only four, five times in the UFC. And there's people that, like, Kevin Allen, who's done it five times just in 2020 alone.

and I just think that, you know, she has a big, you know, fan backing, but it's mainly, I feel like, it's because of her appeal. I think if she actually fights more often, I feel like she can actually climb up the rankings, and, you know, she would have already gotten a title shot by then. But I just want to get your input on the main event and DeMont Blachshare versus Montel Jackson. Thanks. Thank you. Is this too big of a step up for DeMond Blasher? No, he just fought Mario Batista, so no. too big of a step up. It's arguably a step back, considering how good Mario Batista has looked

in his last few fights. So, no, this isn't a step back, or step too big of a step up, because he just fought a dude who's in the top 15 in a very deep division. So, um, but Montel's a beast, man. I mean, I, I, if you guys have been listening to my content for the last several years, uh, even pre-M-A fighting, I've been telling you guys about Montel Jackson. I think he's the dark horse at 135. He's been that way for a long time. Much like Tracy Cortez, his issue is he just can't fight.

He just cannot get in the cage, whether it's, you know, they book him and he gets hurt or they book him in a fight and then his opponent gets hurt. Like, or in the case of Montel Jackson recently, they book him against two fighters and both fighters get hurt. Now he gets them on Blackshe. It's a body. He gets in there. He fights in Denver.

I think Montel's going to look good. Dude hits like a truck. Great grappler. He just is who he is, man. But we just don't see enough of him. And that's why I don't think he's on enough radars. I don't think he's on enough radars. And then the answer to main event question, yeah,

I'm completely with you on that. Rose is probably going to win a decision here. Now, there's a couple things to keep in mind. Tracy Cortez is going to be the bigger fighter. She's going to be able to kind of hoss rose around a little bit, especially in the grappling exchanges. I think this fight's going to be pretty fun. Because Tracy hasn't had a ton of time to prepare for this.

I know she's preparing to fight Miranda Maverick. But now she's getting a former champion. By far the biggest name she's ever fought. Just a lot happening. A lot happening there. But yes. Denver, elevation. all of that, Rose, her experience

fighting in five-round fights. I think it's pretty clear that the longer it goes, the more it favors Rose. And I think Rose will win a fun decision. Like, I do think this is going to be a good fight. I do think it's going to be a good one. But I will go with Rose. Even the over four and a half is minus 280.

So the sharps are expecting this to go long. And I also think it's going to go wrong. We'll see what Tracy's made of. And this could be a fight where, even if she loses, her stock rises a little bit. Real quick from the other, from Ani, what's happening with Misha Tate? No idea. What's why is Cyril Gahn not headlining UFC Paris?

No idea. No idea. I know he's filming a movie, which is why he's not fighting Tom Aspenol later this month. But I don't know. Maybe movies going longer. Maybe they offered him a fight that he didn't want to take. I got to tell you, man, Cyril gone has kind of dropped the ball a couple times

with all this, yet still somehow has found his way to getting offered a title shot. But I don't think it's about Cyril gone being Cyril gone. I think it's about the UFC just not wanting to give Curtis Blaine's title shot more than anything.

So, yeah, since Cyril Gons win over Sergei Spivak, it's just been like, what are you doing? Just no selling Aspinall who flew to freaking Paris for a face off of you. And then you were like, I'm not fighting anybody unless it's for the belt. And then you had to watch Tom Aspenol go fight and win the interim belt against Sergei Pavlov,

who you should have called out after that Paris win. You should have called out Sergei Pavlovich. I understand you're not wanting to fight Tom Aspinall at the time, or not thinking it's like an appealing fight. But you should have called out Sergei Spitz, excuse me. Then you could have been you fighting at Madison Square Guard. but I have to sit back and watch. I don't know where Cyril goes from here.

No clue. Chase, go ahead. Hey, what's up, Mike? Real quick. I've been having this discussion with some of my friends about the M.MA Mount Rushmore. It's like the four most important or iconic people in the history of the sport. I end up with hoist Gracie, Anderson Silva, Ronda Rousey, Connor McGregor is my four. I wanted to hear your thoughts on that and what would your in the name Mount Rushmore be.

That's all, man. Have a heck of a Tuesday. Oh, man. I don't know, man. Like, Hoist deserves a spot, I think. I don't know if I put him on mine, though. I get why he's there. I think Chuck Liddell probably belongs up there.

I mean, he was, Chuck was a freaking star, man. Like, he was. He's not like Connor or anybody like that. But, like, Chuck was, like, MMA's first star. I remember, this is what? 2002? 2003, maybe. I go to a rock festival.

It was a show that my friends from high school and I would go to, like, every year. It was always the summer. It was called the WBCN River Rave. It would be either, like, in August or, like, like early September. And we went to the show, and it was just, it was awesome. It was just, it was the best.

And I'm walking around backstage, not backstage, but I'm walking around the pavilion. And all of a sudden I see, dude with the Mohawk walking around. Like, who? I'm like, holy shit. I'm like, that dude looks just like Chuck Lidl. And sure enough, it was.

Like they, the radio station flew out Chuck Liddell to come on stage and introduce a band I forget who the band was but he went up on stage like they had different celebrities come on and do introductions and they brought they flew Chuck Liddle out to do it and I was like damn

they didn't realize how popular Chuck was but Chuck was a big part of the evolution of the sport he got people watching it because he's such a vicious violent dude and he was always in fun fights his rival Ritito Ortiz was was such a big deal. And Chuck was the reason why the UFC ended up on, like, Fox Sports for a lot of respect.

They were on the best damn sports show, period. And they did like a UFC event on the best damn sports show, which at the time was a big deal. This is a very big deal. And Chuck was a big reason why that happened. So I think Chuck probably deserves a spot. Connor for sure deserves a spot Ronda Rousey for sure deserves a spot I mean you can go hoise

Man that last one's tough That last one is tough And go Anderson Silva And go Jones We're talking about just like importance to the sport And man I mean if we're just talking about the sport in general And not actual fighters

Dana White should probably be up there. So this is a good question. I think Chuck should definitely be up there. He was like the leader of that generation. Rhonda was obviously huge. She deserves to be up there. Connor obviously deserves to be up there. And this Mount Rush War, again,

for those who are just jumping in now, it's not about who the best fighters were. The question that was relayed was who was the most important people in the history of the sports. I think those three have to be on there. Hoist is fine. Andy's fine

Silva I mean you can you can make a case for Nate Diaz he became a big star and Jose brought up something really interesting I think this was during the watch party or maybe it was

I don't know it was on the post fight show on Saturday when he heard Pedro Gomez who is a baseball writer for ESPN does a lot of different things for ESPN and he talks about how he does his Hall of Fame voting

and he said, if you cannot tell the story of baseball without this person, he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. And for Nate Diaz, if you can tell the history of the UFC without Nate Diaz, I don't think he can.

I don't think you can tell the history of the UFC without Nate. He was a very important figure here. Now, I know the relationship between Nate and the UFC was not always a great one, but he's a very important piece. of this puzzle, especially in 2016. Like, I know Connor gets the lion's share of the credit for the company selling for $4 billion in 2016. But let's not forget what Nate Diaz did in 2016, beat Connor McGregor in a gigantic fight

that came together on pretty short notice. And then that set up everything leading into UFC 200. Nate slapping Dana White in a promo video UFC 199 getting the fight with Connor UFC 202 like Nate was so big

so big for that time still is still is this is an interesting question and I dig it I respect it obviously the Mount Rush War you know the one that Dana gets asked

every single interview he does is about the best of the best but this is a different one this is a different one i'm looking at damn i didn't see that coming looking at the betting lines for saturday as we confirmed i believe on friday fatima klein now making her ufcd debut on saturday fighting jasmine jas and jazdivis going fighting at 125 fatima cline the favorite minus 120 over jas and jaz divizia jaz divizia plus 100 that's shocking I'm not saying that like Klein's not a good fighter and she can't win, but it is, I don't know.

Did not see that coming. Very interesting betting line. I talked to someone who works with Fatima and they straight up asked me once this fight was announced and out there. Like, what do you think the old, what do you think the betting line is going to be for this fight? And I'm like, I think Jazzans will get like a minus 200 favorites, like to open, but I felt like the line would close because of, you know, the circumstances of it. Short notice, Denver. She's supposed to win in the Contender Series.

She's only 5 and 0. Jasmine's been in the UFC. She's been in there with some pretty good fighters, some dogs in there. And she was, jazz was a minus 170 favorite over Viviani Aroozhou, who was like a win away from a title shot not that long ago. So I thought like that would be a fair opening line.

But that's kind of surprising to see. I'm looking forward to that fight. Looking forward to that fight. And there you go. UFC back on Saturday. We'll be talking more about that throughout the week. We'll talk a little bit about that on BTL at noon Eastern. So join us for that.

It's going to be fun. We're going live a couple days early. Next week, BTL will be sort of back to normal, back on the Thursday to get you ready for the UFC's return to the world's most famous Apex. Jake Paul, Mike Perry. all of that. That'll be a Thursday show. But we're done here. We'll be back here on Friday, and we'll do this all over again. So until then, everybody, have a great rest of your Tuesday,

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