MMA Fighting - HOAM | What's Next For Sean Strickland — and Should It Be Khamzat Chimaev At UFC 300?

Episode Date: January 23, 2024

Sean Strickland may have lost the fight and the UFC middleweight title this past weekend at UFC 297, but in Nate Diaz like fashion, he still came out of the event in the court of public opinion as a winner. If the UFC goes ahead and books a fight between new champ Dricus du Plessis and Israel Adesanya at UFC 300, should Strickland vs. Khamzat Chimaev in a title eliminator also be added to the lineup? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck reacts to UFC 297, the razor close main event between du Plessis and Strickland, and discusses why Strickland vs. Chimaev makes all the sense in the world. Additionally, listener questions include the somewhat lackluster 2024 opener for the UFC pay-per-view year, Raquel Pennington's bantamweight title win, the possibility of an Amanda Nunes return to the UFC, how the UFC has changed over the last decade-plus, if the WWE's deal with Netflix could impact the UFC in their next TV deal, and much more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Why do you save and invest? Is it so you can spend hours every day glued to the stock ticker, worrying about every movement up or down? Or is it so that you can live a better, happier, more fulfilling life? Betterman wants to help people invest to live, not live to invest. With features like automated saving, global diversification, and tax-smart tools,

Betterment is full of ideas to help you reach your goals without having to babysit your investments. They help their customers invest so that they can go live their lives. Go to Betterment.com to learn more. Investing involves risk, performance not guaranteed. Podcast Network. January 23rd, 2023, 2024.

Holy shit. A heck of the morning. We are live on the NBA Fighting Twitter space. You can hear the show in its entirety, shortly thereafter, on the M.A. Fighting Podcasting Network. What's up, everybody? I am Mike Heck.

Hope you're all doing fantastic. Hope you all had a great weekend. As we get to react to the first UFC pay-per-view of 2020, for UFC 297, we have two new champions. Drickus Duplice, the new middleweight champion of the world, split decision win over Sean Strickland in the main event. Raquel Pennington, the new women's bantamweight champion

after a pretty one-sided win over Myra Blano Silva in the Co-Mane event. Big comeback win for Neil Magni against Mike Malotte. And other things happen. as well. Chris Curtis gets a victory over Mark Andre Barrio, Bob Zare of Loyaf, gets a hard-fought win over Arnold Allen. And the prelims were in the prelims. Some good performances, some weirdness happened. This was an emotional roller coaster of an event for a number of reasons. First of all, let me just say this. Went to New York Saturday for the watch party. And I remember telling Connor and the guys in the back, Frank and Joe and Alex, I was like, look, this card is not very good on paper.

It's got a good main event, but that's really the most interesting thing outside. If you want to throw some excitement towards Mavzar, Boi of and Arl Allen. But this ain't a great card. This is kind of bad on paper. And I was like, if we do 80,000 views, I will do the freaking happy dance. because I just didn't think this was going to do well. And lo and behold, now the second most viewed watch party of all time,

which I am stunned by, like truly and utterly stunned, that this was the second most watched watch party of all time. Outside of UFC 285 when John Jones came back, that did like almost 500,000. This one is pretty much at 300,000 views. It's insanity to me. But shout out to all of you.

guys respect, much appreciated. It's just crazy to think about, especially because this card was as kind of bad in execution, maybe even worse than it was on paper, if we're being honest. Not only are we hitting like kind of historical numbers to some degree when it comes to watch party views, but this is the longest watch party of all time because of how long the main car took. This was longer than the Francis and Ganu Tyson Fury one that we did, which we had like no build for. We just jumped on like a random streaming service and did it. And we did it right before the co-made event. And I thought we were on for like four hours. But this one was actually longer than that one because of how the card was. And this was not a good card. If Loy of Alain was

a good fight. I enjoyed it. I like that fight. Chris Curtis, Mark on Gibrio, was good for like two minutes, but the rest of it, and I know Chris Curtis had some, he was feeling some type of way about the commentary, calling it basically a sparring match. He kind of had the same thought watching the watch party. Like, I'm not trying to like disrespect them, but that's just like how it looked and how the execution of the fight was. Things got interesting with like the last two and a half minutes of that fight, but we end up going to Splitty City there and Chris Curtis gets the win. And I thought he clearly won that fight. Neil Magdie, what a comeback against Mike Belod and even that fight.

Like, Mike was looking good. Even that fight wasn't that great. And then the co-main event, and I tried as hard as I could to put the positive juju in there and make the seem like it was a battle. But it was a tough scene, a tough watch, kind of worse than what we expected it could be. But Raquel Pennington is the new Bannamway champion. for her. And I actually thought the main event was really good. Wasn't this, we're just going to throw everything we have at each other until

some guy falls kind of a fight. But it was a real fascinating watch. And I had a conversation last night with Lor Sanko. I don't know when that's dropping on YouTube, probably sometime in the next day or two. And it was, we talked for like 40 minutes about this card. And it was one of those things where it didn't even seem like

we were recording anything. We were just like on a Zoom, just chit-chatting. And at the end, it was like 38 minutes went by. I was like, wow, I thought we were only talking for like five. But we talked about this fight specifically for the most part. And I said this, because I went back at rewatched it yesterday morning. And I still scored it the same. And I'll get to that in a second.

But honestly, this was one of the closest fights I've ever seen. outside of I want to say Volcanowski Holloway 2 was closer and like harder to score and probably right around the same amount of controversy

when it comes to how people felt about the scoring of that fight this reminded me of that 100% it reminded me of that fight that's how close this one was I thought the Strickland rounds were clear as hell

Round one, round five, clear is a bell. Sean Strickland won those two rounds. I thought DDP in round four, there's no real argument there. He won round four. Two and three were super-duber close. And if you want to score this fight 48-47 for Sean Strickland, I have no beef with you whatsoever. Watching it live during the watch party, I scored it 48-47 for DDP,

on the re-watch, had the commentary down, just watched it for what it was. Real interesting rewatch, still scored a 48, 47 for DDP. But just to like, barely, barely. It was so close. Really, really close. And what it came down to,

and Laura essentially agreed with me on this, was something that Jed brought up on the post-fight show. Now, we were a little delirious at that point because it was like 4.15 in the morning where we were at. but we were trying to decide for like what the biggest takeaways of such a close fight are and I think Jed said it best

just go out there and punch really really hard and you can win and that's essentially was the difference in this fight to me was that Sean was landing in their significant strikes the jab was on fire but Drickis was just hitting him harder

and that's all really it was like at the very end it was I won't spoil the entire interview, but I thought everything Laura said was like super interesting. She actually scored it the same way I did 4847, live 4847 on the rewatch and explain why. But really interesting fight, really interesting conversation with Laura about how the scoring came to be. Just the outrage from Sean Strickland fans that he was robbed in this fight, which is absolutely ridiculous. But it really does remind me of the Volcanofsky Holloway two fight because so many people thought Holloway won that fight. And I've

watched that bout in particular, like 40 or 50 times. And every single time I watched it, I've scored it for Volkovsky every single time. And it's super duper close. Like, it is so close. But I remember just the outrage about that fight because I remember tweeting, and this is probably the most hate I've ever got on Twitter, was, guys, Volkadovsky winning was not a robbery. and people just ate me alive for that take, which I still, to this day, you don't understand why. But this is one of those fights where it is so close. It's like inches, like millimeters even.

But just really great fight. And the title of our preview show was, Sean Strickland versus Drickus Duplice, who's for real? Like, who is for real? And I'm here to tell you, both of them are for real. Both of them are for real. Drick's Duplice is everything we thought he could be.

He might even be better. And Sean Strickland is one of the best middleweights in the world. He's one of the best fighters in the world, period, after that performance. And I think this is a fight where, and I think Sean's handling this the way we expected him to. He has a case, I think. I still scored for DDP, but I still think he has a case.

And I think it. eventually, and I thought Chris Curtis had to say yesterday, I think Sean has kind of moved on from it to a lot, in some respects, he's still going to say he thought he won, but I think emotionally he's already on to like the next thing. I think when Sean goes back and like studies this fight and rewatches it, and I would love to get Eric Dixick's thoughts on this, so maybe I'll talk to him this week as well.

I think Sean's going to be like, man, I should have just went after it a little bit more in round three or a little bit more in round two. And I think he may win. He might win this fight if he does that. But I can also understand that if you do that, you're also playing right into what DDP does very well. But man, what a fight. What a great fight.

Was it a bloody war? No. I mean, it kind of was. I mean, DDP was all lumped up. Strickland was a bloody mess. But was this the, we're going to stand on the monster energy can, just chuck them as hard as we can. No, it wasn't that.

Is this going to be a fight of the year contender? No. No. But it was a compelling watch. And it was an excellent fight. Great performances from both guys. And congratulations to Drickus Duplice. Now, it's going to be very interesting to see where this all goes. Because it's right there. Ariel talked about it yesterday. I completely agree with them. We've been talking about this on this show for the last like six weeks probably. Where this fight? Probably fights Israel out of Sanya next. I think that's what you do. for the main of NWC300. I think it makes all the sense of the world. And at this point, this is right there. It's right there. Do we have hurdles to get over? Yes.

Seems like is he from conversations I've had behind the scenes. Seems like he's a little more open to the return. It's just a matter of can we get DDP to turn around that quickly. He seems like he wants to turn around that quickly. I think this is what we're going to get. It's all going to come down to where DDP is physically. yes his face is a mess but I don't think

that is going to stop him from fighting like the lumps everything on his face will be gone in like a week so he'll be good to go if he gets a 30 day suspension I still don't think it's going to stop it

because he could still trade and still get ready he just can't fight in 30 days essentially is what those mean so as long as he doesn't have any other like nagging and gnarly injuries I think we could see him there I will also say, and I talked about this on the next one,

I 1,000% feel Sean Strickland should be on the UFC 300 card as well. And I think he should fight Hamzaa Chamaif at UFC 300. I think that's what you do. I think we have set up the main card perfectly. We got the three title fights. And Sean Strickland versus Hamzaa Chamaif is one of the main card fights as well. You have to do, I think you have to do this. if Hamzaa can fight and if you listen to the interview with Brad Okamoto that he did,

he wants UFC 300, he says he's ready to go, he's given Dana a lot of stuff. By the way, we just wrote something up on MAAfighting.com and Hamzaat seemed kind of frustrated about Dana. I don't remember Dana ever saying like, nah, Hamzat's not next. Hamzat's not getting a title shot in his next fight. I don't remember him saying any of that. I went back and watched the post-fight press conference because I had to write it up and I don't want to just write things without getting context and I watched the post-fight press conference and we're going to get there trust me I have a feeling somebody's going to ask about the post-fight press conference but all Dana really said that

I could find was yes Hamzat was really really sick yes I know he's getting better I just don't know if he's I'm going to fight at UFC 300 better and that was his concern I don't I don't remember Dana ever saying no Hamzat's the zero chance Hamzat gets a title shot next. I don't remember that at all. Maybe I'm just missing something, but I didn't see that at all. But I think that's what you do. You do DDP Izzy, if both guys are ready to go,

and you do Sean Strickland versus Hamzat Shemayef, we do a little mini four-man tournament. Off we go. I think that's like as 300-e as you can get right now with what's going on in the space. So, all right. Let's hear from you guys. I talked a lot.

I have way more thoughts about 297, and I'm sure a lot of you are going to bring this up. So we're going to iny, me, me, mini, mony mo this thing, because I think there's six of you waiting. And we will begin with JMAQ. Jamak. I don't think we've heard from you in a minute. How are you, my man? And we may have to wait a little longer to hear from JMAC, because it's not going through for some reason. Hopefully this isn't on my end. C.V., do we have you? Hey, Mike, do you hear me? Yes. Hey, heck of a morning. Just initial thoughts on 297.

I thought the crowd, the Toronto crowd, my home crowd, man, we deserved a way better card just because I felt like no matter how, for all the fights, I thought the crowd really did show up. I mean, like, we're pretty much starved for fights. But my question is Alex Pereira. Does he fight at 300?

And if he does, who does he fight? Thanks. Thank you, J-Mack. I would try to bounce out and then re-request. Usually that's how that gets fixed. So, yeah, it was tough, man. This was, like, $2.97 reminded me of, like, an AEW pay-per-view.

And I know, like, some people like, oh, every time you do a show, Mike, you talk about pro wrestling, you're a mark, I don't give a fuck. But this is what I remind me of. Like, the AEW crowd is, like, red hot at the beginning of the pay-per-view. And then, like, they're there forever. and so much shit happens and it gets sloggy and then you could hear the crowd just fizzle as the night goes on

and that's exactly what happened here I mean they were on fire when Malcolm Gordon came out I was like oh my God like this crowd is gonna be on fire we're talking we might even get to like Paris territory and then we realize like six fights in like no we're not getting

to Paris territory and then once the main card got that once you got to Chris Curtis Mark Andre Berry I was like, nope, they ain't getting there. Mike Malat needs to save the day. He goes out there and just runs Neal Magnet and finishes him in the first round. Like, the crowd's going to come back,

and that just didn't happen here. So I actually thought this, on paper, like I can understand what people are like, eh, I actually thought it was to be kind of a decently fun watch, kind of like 289 was. And if you go to the prelims, it seemed like we were getting there. Like, the Jimmy Flick submission was wild. Jazz and Jazz DeVesia just beat,

Six shades of shit out of Priscilla Cacruera. That was nuts. Sam Patterson, without literally breaking a sweat, submits Johann Leonase. Gillian Robertson comes out and just batters Pollyanna Viana around. We get Ramon Tavares versus Syrhe City, which is a sick fight too. And then we start to slow down a little bit. Then we get the crazy Sean Woodson, Charles Jorda, in situation where Charles Jordaen becomes MMA's Derek Zoolander. because he thought he won.

He's marching up to the dais to give his acceptance speech, only to realize that Owen Wilson's character actually won model of the year. That's kind of what happened here. D.C. had to drop the news on him. And I blame Jaron for, obviously, we blame the referee for this, because he's the one who raised freaking Charles's hand, which I didn't even realize at the time because of how they shot it. But Sean Woodson clearly won that fight, in my opinion.

Garrett Arnfield gets a win, but it's not a fight. We're going to go back and watch. and then if Loy of Allen had a good fight, that was kind of weird. And then things just really slowed down. It was very sloggy. And if you told me, I wonder what the betting lines would have been.

If there was a betting line on who gets, if there's only one finish, who gets the only finish on the card? If you put the money on Neil Magne, you're probably buying yourself a friggin house right now because I don't think anybody thought that was possible. Like if there's one finish on the whole card, Neil Magny might have been like the second,

highest line in terms of profit. So, I mean, that just goes to explain everything. I'm not trying to sit there and, like, shit on Neil Magny, but Neil's not like a huge finisher. And of the list of fighters here, you would think Neil Magny is probably the least likely to get a finish. Raquel Pennington might have been, like, the biggest underdog, but Magny would have been the second biggest underdog.

But that's just what the card was. And, yeah, it was tough. This will not be event of the year. We're not going back at rewatching a lot of this outside of the main event. That's just kind of how it is. Alex Pereira, as I said on this show, so many people are so confident that he's fighting at 300. And I was like, I don't think he's going to. I don't think he's going to fight at 300.

I don't think he needs to. And then things I was hearing behind the scenes that, like, I just don't, it just didn't seem like he was going to fight at 300. He was very smart. And he continues to be very smart about just, you know, staying in the headlines and posting something to social media, like even just a little thing like, I'm back. Everyone's like, oh shit, he's fighting a 300. When that is probably not the case. You don't need them.

They're going to Rio in May. So just like, put him in Rio. Put him in Rio. Do we really want to see him fight Bacabat-A-Galif right now? Or do we want to just wait for Jamal Hill? I think we should wait for Jamal Hill. Jamal Hill can fight in like July or August. Let's just wait at this point.

If he's not going to fight a 300, let's just wait. We don't need to rush Pereira. into a fight, especially if they're going to do DDP versus Zizzy. So that's where we're at right now. I don't think he's fighting a 300. Maybe that happens, but I'd be surprised. I would be surprised. Defenders in cybersecurity are always there when we need them.

They should get a parade every time they block a novel threat and have streets, sandwiches, and babies named in their honor. But most of all, they deserve AI cybersecurity that can stop novel threats before they become breaches across email, clouds, networks, and more. DarkTrace is the cybersecurity defenders deserve and the one they need to defend beyond. Visit darktrace.com forward slash defenders for more information. Support for this show comes from the audible original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The earth only has a few days left.

Roscoe Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their mind. into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster, the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? of the downloaded two ghosts in the machine available now only from audible let's go to any mini money cole good morning mike um i kind of wish i was later on in the show because i don't

i don't mean to be so negative but um do you want to get back in line you know to save you no i this will be good this will be good just it's fine i just don't want this to be like one of the main takeaways of the event, but I couldn't help, but, like, just have to call in about this. Like, I'm not new to all these MMA retirements. I know what they are. I know, like, how long they last. But to hear Amanda Nunes be interviewed in the first thing that comes out of her mouth being like, you know, I'm young, I'm a fighter.

On the fucking night that her vacant title is being fought for for the first time. Like, Mike. That, I'm a big Amanda fan, but, like, her saying stuff like that, it's like, damn, you really were dodging Juliana. Like, you really don't want to fight Juliana, don't you? Like, is that not just the most frustrating thing? Like, we know what MMA retirements are. It's not a surprise. But come on.

Like, the night that her title's being fought for, she's saying, like, oh, I'm young. I'm a fighter at heart. Like, God. That's all I got. yeah i mean look that that interview with with megan olivy was interesting because a lot of people felt like okay maybe she's not closing the door altogether um i have john anic has told me many times um and not even off the record just i mean literally in our conversations about amanda nunez and john has a very very good relationship with her it's not like john is just this is hearsay

This is John who is very close with Amanda Nudas, has said, it's going to take something real big to get her back. And I don't, first of all, her and Raquel Pennington have a very close relationship. You saw the reaction to Raquel winning the title. So if you're thinking Amanda Nunes is going to come back and fight Raquel Pennington, it's not going to happen. That fight's never going to happen. Maybe Juliana with what she's doing, maybe Amanda feels that could be big enough.

Like, let's be clear, guys. Juliana did beat Amanda the first time. No doubt about it. But Amanda farmed her around in the second fight. That fight was not competitive at all. Now, there were certain moments where Giuliana, like, flirted with submissions. But Amanda beat her ass, man. Like, that was not a competitive fight.

And we said it right after that fight on the post-fight show. That was the most compelling ass-wopin we've ever seen. it trumps the Calvin Cater Max Holloway fight. Whereas just like, man, this is as one-sided as it gets, but it's not like, it's still not bad to watch. This was not Jazzad Jazz de Vizius Priscilla Kachua by any stretch of the imagination, but this is one side as you get. So to say, like, even if you feel that way, it's just not true.

Amanda ducking Giuliana Pena, that's just insanity. That's just insanity. And Juliana shouldn't say that. She should say that. But it's just not true. I don't, I just don't know if Juliana is like the fight that gets her back. I mean, if Juliana goes out and beats up Raquel Pennington

and wins the belt and she gets like super over and she becomes like Stricklandesque, maybe Amanda see some extra dollar signs there. But to me, it's going to be, it needs to be like a, one of those things where it's like, it's an offer too good to refuse and the potential is too good to refuse.

And I just, in this division, this division is, So bad. It's so bad. So my heart of hearts, I don't think she comes back. I also understand the comments she made about like, look, I'm young and all this. When you fight for so long and you feel like you've accomplished anything, everything, and then you go away, it's hard to let that itch go, man. Like, it just is. Even for someone like Amanda who's really got nothing compelling right now. even her fighting Juliana maybe Juliana could

build that but it's going to take something big like real big I think so but again she was there she got interviewed she probably feels like she could stroll

and just win the belt right back which is probably not wrong but also like if I'm Valentina Shipchenco right now if I'm Valentina Shepchenko I ain't fighting Alexa Grasso I'm going up to one 35 and I'm fighting Raquel Bennington or I'm fighting Giuliana Pena.

Her next fight should be at Bannonway. She should just move up and be like, Alexa, two great fights. Congratulations. I'm done here. I'm going up to win a second belt. At this point, fine. I'm okay with that. As long as she stays there, I'm good with it.

She's not the champion. So go right up there. Go fight for the belt. She'll probably win. If I'm Macy Barber and I go out and thump up Caitlin Chukagian, and Valentina has not moved up to 135. We're still trying to figure that whole thing out. I would think about, and Giuliana wins the belt,

Giuliana's already meme in her, I would go up there and fight for the belt. Aaron Blanchfield, if she beats Bannon Fioro, she could go right up and fight for the belt if she wants to. Like, I think this division could get real interesting, but it's not with the current crop of bantam weights. It's with the fly weights who have long roads to the title, but are super talented

and probably would do well if they fought for belt. So I don't know. I understand why people thought like, she just hasn't closed the door. And I was a little surprised by the conversation as well because I thought she'd like shut the door

and locked it. But I didn't come away from that interview being like, yeah, she's coming back. I didn't feel that way at all. So that's where we're at. But I can understand some frustrations. J-MAC, do we have you now? Yeah, you got me now.

Thanks, Mike. Yes, I was just going to piggyback on what you were saying about the next matchup should be Sean Strickland versus Hamzant Shamaev and obviously the belt should be between Adasanya and DDP. What I wanted to ask you, Mike, is if you think the UFC would be, you would be a lot of book both those fights for 300, and then you could do the winner versus winner and loser versus loser of those matchups.

Tell me what you think about that idea. Appreciate it, man. Yeah, they absolutely, if they can book that fight, if they could book both those fights for 300, they absolutely have to do it. They have to. As a fan who had, even with the loftiest of expectations right now,

and these are mostly, I don't, like, I don't even know where some of that comes from, because I'd been the be patient guy with 300. But if we go from what we had, which I also thought was pretty good through like six, seven announcements, if we go from what we had to then getting Gachi Holloway for the BMF title, to getting Drickus Duplice versus Israel Adisadya, also getting Sean Strickland versus Hamzaa Shemayev?

I mean, if you have any complains, about that card and how it's constructed with still other things in play. Like, I don't know what to tell you. I just don't know with the current product and what the UFC can actually present. You could get any better than that. And that's, you know, with the factor that Connor and Chandler expected to fight in June. But, I mean, that's right now, that's like as good as you can do. So, yes, if it's possible, I think you should book that fight.

Sean Strickland versus Hamzot Shemayef is such a fascinating fight to me. And if Hamzot wins, Hamzat versus either Izzy or Jerk his duplice are equally as fascinating. More so a DDP. So, yes, I think this is a no-brainer. If we can get both guys in, cool, I understand if Sean's like, yeah, man, let me take a break. I also understand that that is, to quote John Eck, not the cloth of which Sean Strickland is built. shot would probably fight at the apex February 3rd if you asked them to

if Roman Deleuze falls out or I don't know he was he won't fight Roman but because I think they trained together he's already thumped up Nasardine he'll just be like all right fine I'll just go do it again or if Jack Hermanson falls out and he wants like yeah I'll go fight Joe Piper like he would just do it so oh god if they could pull that off it'd be incredible incredible So yes, if we could do it, both on 300 for sure. Braden, go ahead. Hey, Mike.

With the co-made event of 297, even though it wasn't the greatest fight ever, I really, really do like seeing vets finally break through, become the champ for the first time. So now reflecting back on Raquel's career, she really has built up a really sneaky good resume. She has wins over six in the top 10 fighters in her division right now, on top of wins over other former champions and title contenders like Jessica Androj and Tanya Evanger and Batchahara. And it might sound crazy because of her reputation with not many exciting fights and a whole lot of losses.

But my question is, is where do you rank Raquel all time? And what's her ceiling if the street continues? Thanks, Mike. Sheesh, where do I rank her all time? Wow. I have no idea. I got to think about that. Like at Banimley, she's probably like 10, 12ish.

I mean, she might even be better. She might even be slightly worse. I don't know. But she has been in there with everybody. And one of the things that I took out throughout the week, because I'd come on the show and people had asked, like, how I felt about this fight. And I was like, yeah, I kind of think Myers is going to go in there and beat her.

And then we got to Media Day. And it's not always like what you hear at Media Day in the press conference. but sometimes, like, you could just kind of see the look in the eyes and you try to play armchair psychologist. I just immediately was like, after Media Day Wednesday, I immediately put a bet on Raquel Pennington. Immediately went on and placed the bet on Pennington at doggone. I'm like, she's going to win.

She's going to win this fight. And I was like, I have a feeling like this fight might not be great, but I feel like Raquel is at least going to try to make it a little more fun. And for a little while, she did. round five i get it round five i get it like i thought she got actually got the tapped in round five there was a moment where sylva did the pat pat but we didn't get the third one so i thought she tapped her and then dc was like yeah she listened to dc kind of faintly in my ear during the watch party i was like yeah well maybe she's just kind of like just cruising to the title win

which i don't really blame her for So not a great fight, but probably it was better than most people thought it was going to be. And that was really the promise I made. I was like, this fight is going to be better than people think it's going to be. But the bar was so low for it. But I think it leaped over that bar. But good for her, man. Good for her.

She is scratched and clawed and she has done the thing. She got back. I thought after the Amanda Nunes last, she would never fight for the title again. But she did it. and respect to her. What's the ceiling? If we're not there already, we're very close.

We're very close. Because I think maybe she beats Juliana? I don't know. I think this is going to be, it'll be a close fight. And if she beats Juliana, like,

what I think is going to happen with this division, with like the Blanche fields potentially coming up and maybe a barber or even if valentina's just like screw it i'm going to one 35 like she's not be she's not gonna be valentina i just don't see it happening so maybe she gets a defense maybe too but i think we've kind of reached the ceiling maybe she can go a little bit higher but she ain't a

spring chicken she's been doing this for a long time that was her i believe her 24th professional fight she's 35 but still like solid if her career ended right now she she's She's incredibly solid, resume-wise. If she can get a title defense and with the way Dana feels about her, she goes out and beats Juliana Pena. She might even get like a Hall of Fame nod. And I know some of you are just like, oh, get the fuck out of here.

But understand, this is not the mixed martial arts hall of fame. This is the UFC Hall of Fame. And the UFC could put in whoever they want. So Dana talked about it at the Post-Fight Press conference. we are very, very close. She frustrates me because she doesn't listen to her coaches, which is absolutely true. But we're very, very close and very happy for her.

So good for her. Great story. Great story. Eric, go ahead. Eric, hop out, hop back in. We'll see if we can get you on. Let's try Ebs Walia. Have good morning.

Just have two questions. I want to ask. I'll firstly just start up with it. the 297 stuff with the middleway stuff yeah so I enjoyed the fight I think Drieker's easily won and I think a lot of fans

are definitely very biased with the whole situation he just outpays Sean better simple as that what's next for Drikas I definitely like your idea make Easy versus Drikers for 300

at least that's also got that star power that the fans are very desperate for and it makes perfect sense Hamzat I don't mind if he fights the winner of Costa and Robert Whitaker If Costa wins I think should be Costa Or maybe Sean Strickland that puts him easy to

Number 1 spot if he be short and conveniently Fashion But yeah I mean for Sean You know in a way I also don't want him to fight some like Hamza Because I kind of feel like he's He's one or two wins away from that Rematch or title picture again

And I'd like to see him win more fights is a very good fight and, you know, sometimes entertained to watch just by what many people say. And just the other question I have is, I'm sure you may have seen the news of WWs come to Netflix. Do you think you'll see will follow the same pattern very soon if they decide to break with ESPN? That's all I have, have a great day. Wouldn't surprise me. Wouldn't surprise me. That's huge.

I was very excited to see that. honestly raw is a tough watch because it's so fucking long it's three hours and that's just so much shit you have to fill for such a long time frame on a Monday night but I also don't have cable I just have like the streaming platform so getting the chance to watch raw will be nice and I can obviously like watch it on peacock and I think like Hulu updates them but I don't I get everything I need from Raw, like on social media. So obviously it's a big move, and they're getting lots and lots of money. And I assume, I think it's, they're getting what?

I don't remember the terms of the deal. I want to say it was, I mean, in the, I mean, in the multi-billions for this deal. So it's huge. And I think the UFC can probably get something close to that. So yeah, love it. Love it. Disagree with you on the Strickland thing. look, you have to strike while the iron's hot with Sean.

And while I understand Whitaker and Costa are viable options for Sean, we also live at a world where if Drick's 2++C goes out there and beats Israelada and then Drick's Dupluze goes out there and, like, there's not a lot of fresh matchups. You know what I mean? Like, I think you just got to do it. And even if Sean loses to Hamzat, like, it does. doesn't, it just depends on, like, if the fight is somewhat competitive, Sean loses nothing.

Like, Sean lost nothing on Saturday night, in my opinion. He lost the belt, and he lost the fight on two of the judge's scorecards. But like you said, in the court of public opinion, Sean Strickland won. And Sean loses nothing from this. Absolutely nothing. He's more popular than he's ever been. The rage from people who feel that a 4840s, ddp scorecard is just trash i mean it's i've seen it everywhere i've seen it absolutely

everywhere sean strickland lost nothing in fact i compare like i compared this in my conversation laurencancow which you'll see in a couple days hopefully soon rather than later sean strickland it was this was very nate dyesie schrecklin had a nate d a tiasy type of weekend where yeah he lost but he won His stock rose. People found ways to think he wanted. Like, look at the Leon Edwards. Like, look at Nate Diaz, Leon Edwards.

Leon Edwards beat up Nate Diaz for 24 minutes. And then they'd had like one moment. Still lost the fight in pretty one-sided fashion. But everyone was like, yeah, Nate won. On the streets, he wins. And that's exactly what's happening with Sean Strickland here. And if Sean loses to Hamza, it doesn't matter. Sean is a draw.

Sean doesn't need the title. He doesn't even need to fight for titles. He doesn't need. made it. So let's just chuck them in there with Shemayev. Let's go. Put them on 300. They're both kind of the backups, if you will.

And then the winner gets a title shot. I have no issue with that whatsoever. I don't want to see Strickland fight Robert Whitaker right now. I don't, like, Costa would be just like interesting at a grudge matchy kind of way, but you could do that fight any fucking time. Anytime. It's a back pocket fight. If you need something, you throw those two dudes in there.

to build something up. If there's a decent main event for a pay-per-view, but the rest of the card is kind of trash and these two guys are available, throw them in there to build up anticipation for a fight. Give them the Tony Ferguson role. Just get it in there so they could say some crazy shit and build it up and then steal headbugs.

But right now, with everything that's happened, and what this middleweight pitcher looks like and the response and the reaction of how people feel about Sean Strickland and the performance, people thinking Sean won, let's just throw him in there with Hamza Tchaimaev. He loses very little in that fight. Most people aren't going to give him a chance to win that fight. And if he is somewhat competitive, I still don't think he loses anything.

He's still a win away from being in the picture. This is not a meritocracy. This is not Bellator. This is not the Professional Fighters League. This is the UFC. And they will just put the biggest fights possible. That's what they're going to do. So let's just do it.

Let's just do it. Let's make 300 as big and as weird as can possibly be. Four on sniper. Hey, heck, for the morning. Long time, no speak, but I just got a quick one for you. So I heard Dominic Cruz, I think during the Movzar, Eveloev, and Arnold Allen fight, he made a comment on, I think, damage that Arnold Allen took.

He made it seem like the damage that he took from one round cost him the whole fight. And John Anick sort of had to correct him and remind him that fights are scored round by round. So I want to know your thoughts on why do you think it is that some of the fighters, commentators, and even some fans are confused about the rules and how we can make it more clear moving forward to how each round is scored or how the rules are, like what each rule in place is said is. Because I realized one rule that I didn't understand completely until recently was a grounded fighter was one that had to have his palms placed on the ground, not necessarily his fingertips or his hand, but his whole palm had to be placed on the ground.

And that was something I learned recently. So what are your thoughts on just that whole situation of why some commentators slash fighters are confused about the rules? That's all, Mike. How do I want to say this? I'm trying to figure out like the right way to say this, but I don't know if I can find it. But I'll just go ahead and say this. They're stubborn and they don't give a shit.

That's where I think Dominic Cruz is. Dominic Cruz is from the old school and he wants to just stand by like this is what it was like back in my day and when they try to tell him like dude it's not the same like the rules have changed he's just like well fuck it

my rules are my rules and this is what I want like that's what I get from this that's what I get from this now the beauty of doing the watch parties is that I don't have to hear the commentary I don't have to hear it I can hear it when I want to

it's faintly in my ear just so I know that it's there and if there's like certain moments in the fight where like nothing's happening or we needed like an explanation for something like I could be quiet and listen to it but man Dominic is just getting hammered

left and right because of this and when it comes to like the scoring and stuff like come on man like you just got to go to the fucking course go to the course go to the rules committee things that they do every single year. The annual meetings, like, go.

Go do it. Like, even as a still somewhat active fighter, like, you need to know this shit. You need to know this stuff. Go get a certification if you want. Like, just do it. Just do it. Like, Bisbing's bad with the rules too.

He's getting better. DC used to be horrendous with it. But he learned, like, all right, I'm going to learn something. And then Annick is great. Like, it's tough when. And like, it's tough when the people on the broadcast who know the most about the rules are John Anick and Brennan Fitzgerald. Like, it's not a great look when you have a whole bunch of like active and current fighters doing color commentary. It's crazy.

On the other thing, when it comes to the rules and the ground and stuff, like, I don't want to like jump on, I mean, I'm kind of jumping on what Ariel and everybody said yesterday because I completely agree. I feel bad for the fighters who, you know, they fight in Vegas one time, and then they go to Ontario the next time they fight, and it's like completely different rules. The grounded knee rule is frigging dumb. It's awful. Just get rid of it. Let grounded knees happen.

I don't understand the problem. I don't get it. This whole thing, oh, you have to lift him all the way up off the mat. And the way that the rule set is written in Ontario, I think the third knee that are around through is deemed illegal because he still had a tip on the mat because they didn't change that rule. Or it's not the same as the Unified.

It's just fucking stupid that you go to different places and the rules are different. It's just so frustrating. I feel so bad for the fighters. Like it just doesn't make any sense. It just doesn't make any sense. But yeah, Cruz has got to get better with that, especially on a pay-per-view.

It's just tough. Apparently it was really tough, but you gotta get better, man. You gotta get better. You can't be so fucking stubborn about it. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time.

Play Ojo? Great idea. Feel the fun with all the latest slots in live casino games and with no wagering requirements. What you win is yours to keep. Grooby. Hey, I won! Feel the fun. Play Ojo.

Boarding will begin when passenger Fisher is done celebrating. 19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Concerned by your gambling or that if someone close, you call 1-8665331-2-60 or visit Comex Ontario.ca. With Amex Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too.

That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. Brian, go ahead. Hey, Mike, how you doing? Good. Good to hear. I think the guy before me kind of took my question, but I was reading A.K. Lee's article this morning talking with Chris Curtis. And yeah, he pretty much hit on the head with Dom Cruz. And the stubbornness also definitely the problem. But who would be your go-to backup pay-per-view crew? Obviously, Annick lead in the play-by-play. But I do understand Rogan doing less events, but you kind of do need him just for that. It really does keep that UFC feel. I mean, I've been watching. watching it for 10 plus years now, and it is nice to hear that familiar voice. But for those,

like, international paperfuse, who would be your replacement for them or even if you could, if you could, if you would replace DC as well? Just wanted your opinion on that. Thanks, Mike. I kind of, like, got used to DC. I know he's not, like, tremendous all the time, but I'm kind of gotten used to him, and I do think he's, like, at least trying to get better. So I'd probably keep D.C. there. Because if you take both, if you take both Rogan and D.C. out of there, then I completely agree with you.

Like, it has a little less pay-per-view-y feel to it if you take both out of there. So I would go, so I'll answer in both ways. Lorisanko is the correct answer for both ways. She should be the one doing that. Because she knows the judging, too. I guarantee you there would be high praise

for Laura's commentary when talking about certain situations that happened on that card. So yes, it's her. For sure. If I'm replacing D.C., like if D.C. has to coach

a wrestling tournament or something, you can't be there. It's Paul Felder. It's Paul Felder. He's so good. He's good. And the post-fight interviews are great.

Like, he has done a really good job. I think he's incredibly underrated as a color commentator. He's super good. good at it. So if you're not, if we're, if we're doing a paper

broadcast without Rogan or D.C., it's Anikfelder. Sanco. That's it. That's what I would go with. So I'll talk, I'll, I'll mention something else

that I kind of talk about around. I'm surprised nobody asked about it. Dana White at the press conference, the post-fight press conference. He had a tough one. Like this was the most disengaged Dana White I think I've seen in a long time

when it comes to a post-fight press conference and trying to generate any kind of excitement. Now, there's a number of reasons why this could be the case. But, like, he just seemed bored. He didn't want to be there. He didn't want to answer any questions. He doesn't know who half of the fighters who fought on the card even are,

which drives me kind of crazy. But I think the line of, that kind of got everybody sort of up in arms was the whole Mobbzar of Loy of Arnold Allen was one of the worst like one of the most boring fighter I don't remember the actual quote

but it was like one of the worst fights he's ever seen and bobsar could should just take the criticism that comes with that that he's the decision machine or whatever what the hell are you talking about that fight was was really compelling and it was super good

so to me I'm thinking like okay, there's, he must be mixing it up with something else. So I will give him a little bit of a pass on that. But man, he just doesn't seem into this whole thing at all. I don't, I can't put my finger on it. And I don't know if it's like this whole, you know, influencer culture that he has completely bought into. Where it's just like, we only want to deal with people who will give us positive press all the time

in positive results all the time because obviously he went off on John Pollock and everything that happened there and the whole AK Strickland situation where he said that he baited Strickland and all that which again I've already responded to that so we're not going to go down that rabbit hole but man it just seems

it just seems like he wants to get a viral clip on social media with like those people and those people in those websites and those accounts more so than like putting over the product because that's what it seemed like to me and when john pollock mentioned the leash thing you could just see the look in dana's eyes like all right here we go now i'm going to get it it just it was kind of frustrating and i remember watching it as it was happening because

watch party raps i just go into like a little space like in the studio portion of the building where we're doing the watch party because I don't want to go back to the hotel at three o'clock in the morning and do the post-fight show because I'm going to wake, punch people up and people are going to be pissed at me. So I don't want to deal with that. So I'm getting all the time stamps already. And I'm watching this. And John Pollock's like, I believe the exact thing he said was, I know you give fighters a little bit more of a longer leash than most sports organizations or something like that. And Dana heard that word and he just went with it. And everyone's like, oh, this.

fucking guy. He's our hero, all that shit. I was like a little surprised that he reacted the way that he did because I didn't think like to me the longer, when someone says like, oh, you, you're on a little bit of a longer, or you put these people on a little bit of a longer leash than anybody else. Like that to me is just like a figure of speech. It's like, anytime you like you talk about sports, like if you talk about Bill Belichick as the head coach of the wing on Patriots, like, Bill Belichick has won all these Super Bowls and all this stuff. So, like, when it comes to his future and whether or not he stays around or if he's quick to be fired,

you say, like, this is what we say in America. This is what we say when we talk about sports. Like, Belichick's on a little bit of a longer leash. Or Tom Coughlin as a giant, as the head coach is a giant, he's on a little bit of a longer leash than maybe the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons because they suck and they haven't won in. anything, but at least he won Super Bowls. That's how I took it. And then just he went off about the leash thing. And I'm like, I don't know why.

And then John Pollack had come on and said, like, I should have used latitude. And I actually talked to John about it. I reached out to John. And I was like, I just thought it was like a regular figure of speech. But that was the word that like Dana latched on to and just wanted to drive his point home about all of that. here's another thing that I've learned from all of this situation because it's been a it's been an interesting week for amade fighting since all that happened and ariel talked about it yesterday and i 1,000% agree with everything he said maybe some of us in cincinnita like kind of maybe lighten up a

little bit but i think like as a whole as a community i think everybody needs to lighten up a little bit. I've accepted the fact that this is what this sport is now. That it is always going to be the 600 maniacs on the roster and that things are going to be said. We're free speech, all that. Like, I've accepted it. I've accepted it. Sean Strickland saying what he says, I got to be honest, man. I don't give a fuck what he says or what he believes. I don't care. I don't care. I don't care about any of it. Most of my issue with all of this was just how he insulted somebody that I'm very close to and a colleague of mine. So yes, I am always going to defend my colleagues when I don't feel like they did anything truly wrong.

Now, if you want to say maybe not the time of place, fine. Cool. Ariel talked about that too. Cool. But I will say this as well, piggybacking off what Ariel said and what I said last week, when is the time? Like, if you're ever going to ask the question, like, when are you? supposed to do it. And I don't think A.K. was baiting Sean at all. I really don't. I just think it was like, okay, I'm going to ask the question because you said these things. Do you still believe these

things? And if Sean just said, you know what, man, you're an asshole. I don't want to talk about this shit. Fuck you. I would have been like, okay. I would have had no issue with it. None. But then everything else that was said. And whatever. So I'm just defending my guy at the end of day. That's really all it comes down to. But I have also, I'm not too sensitive for this shit. Like, this is what I signed up for. I know what this world's going to be. And I knew what this world was going to be a few years back. I knew what this world was going to be when Greg Hardy and Rachel Ostovich were on the same card, on the same main card together. I knew what this world was going to be more so. This is the exclamation point of it all when

they did the fight island thing and Dana took everybody's words of like hey we have concerned about the health protocols and it turned to the media tried to kill us which was not true at all and they put out the hit piece and all that stuff and I especially knew what this world was going to be after

New Year's Eve last year. We found out everything that happened in Mexico and the UFC didn't give a fuck and Endeavor didn't give a fuck and no one said a word about it. This is it guys. This is the world we're going to live in. And you know what? I'm okay with it. I'm not trying.

I know for a fact, I ain't trying to censor anybody. I don't think AK was trying to censor anybody either. I don't think John Pollock was trying to censor anybody. I just think people need to quote the movie Stripes. Lighten up, Francis. Just fucking relax. God damn about everything.

Just enjoy what you want to enjoy. Like, just watch fights and enjoy them for what they are. enjoy the personalities for what they are. Not everybody feels the same way. But if you don't like what Sean Strickland has to say, like don't fucking listen to them. If you don't like what we have to say, don't listen to us.

I don't care. You should be happy with whatever choice you make, with whoever you listen to or whatever you watch. That's what we all, we just as a community need you to lighten up. We just need to fucking chill out and watch fights. Like this is, it's fucking dudes fighting each other. They ain't taking charge.

arm school classes. We're not going to watch Sean Strickland walk around in a tuxedo with a fucking plate on his head. Like, these are what these people are. There is no moral compass in the game. But we also have to understand at the same time that because there isn't, and that's okay, all the conversations that MMA and the UFC is going to be mentioned in the same sentence as the NFL and Major League Baseball, all that. It's just never going to happen, guys.

It's just never, ever, ever going to happen. And I'm also okay with that as well at this point. For a long time, I wouldn't have been okay with that because I want to see the sport grow and become a massive powerhouse. And for the UFC, it has certainly done that. They are making money hand over fist. They are on fire. There's nothing they can do that is wrong.

Every decision that they make comes out in their favor, and they're just crushing it right now. And kudos to them for making that happen. Respect. But now I've come to the realization that this MMA being a top like six sport in the world, nope. It's just not going to be that way. We're going to be a major niche sport.

We're going to be a niche sport nonetheless. And I'm okay with that. I have accepted that after this past week and I'm fine with it. I think you should all be fine with everything that happens as well. Let's just all lighten up and enjoy this. This doesn't have to be a political thing. This doesn't have to be, well, it's this side versus this side. This is the beauty of this sport.

I saw somebody post on Twitter the other day. Some sort of like statistic where, and I think this is 1,000% true, because I thought about this and I'm like, I think they're right. The average span of MMMA fanhood is like five years. You're in for five years and then you're out. It's so true. with the swings of the sport. Where we were in 2010, in 2012, in 2016, to where we are now, it's a completely different place.

It's totally different. Five-year span. I mean, it's a decent run, but it's basically, like, the span of an NFL player. Like, the average, like, NFL player plays, like, five seasons, and then they're done. Then they have to retire. It's obviously not the same, but it's just not a – it's very difficult to accumulate lifelong MMA fans. So let's just all relax, guys.

Let's all relax. Let's move on with our lives. Let's enjoy the weekend off from UFC action. Do you want to watch MMA once get an event? You can pay the money and watch it. And then we're back at the world's most famous apex for the next two Saturdays. And then look, we're on to February 17th. We're on to Volcanowski v. Teporia.

And I can't fucking wait for that fight. cannot wait let's just all relax all take one more and then I get to get out here we'll go to Ani go ahead sir what can you hear me yes yes so here's the thing first things first so I don't want to be this you got to begin with but I have you one of my closest friends, a pair of them really, they're gay. And for the longest time, one of my childhood friends, he just had these, you know, really bad views where he would just, whenever we spoke about Khabib or whenever we spoke about anyone from Dagestan or Russia, the word that came out of his mouth was terrorist. And so for a while, I actually stopped

speaking to him about Kabib. I stopped speaking to him about Islam or anyone. Apologies for not giving you a context. He's an MMA fan as well. So after that, I just stopped talking to him about that because it's like, you know, if he bring those things up, it's highly likely that he is going to talk shit and it is going to sort of, I wouldn't say affect me, but you know, ever since I came to the UK from India and I've been exposed to these various cultures, like varied cultures. I just feel like just because of the exposure that I have right now, I empathize with them a lot more. Does that make sense to you, Mike? I empathize with people from different communities a lot more than I did back when I was in India. So here's my question to you. You can choose

not to answer it. Let's say that it was you interviewing Sean Strickland. Do you think you would bring this question up again, knowing that he's still going to talk shit and it is going to hurt a few people? Or would we just, you know, leave him be with his views and sort of just not touch that topic? But there's nothing wrong in asking him that question. And like AK, like AK is my best friend as well as much as yours, if not more. I really like it. But would it be wise to bring that question up again? That's one question. And another random point that I just wanted to mention, it might be a hot take, would be, I think the Brazilian UFC crowd is one of the more worse crowds. They're not the best. I think they're bad.

not because they're wild because of the way they treat their fighters man they do treat people like Charles Olivera Joseo Alto like if they if there are winners they treat them really well but look at what happened to Glover you know people were

leaving the arena I just felt that was extremely disrespectful to Glover after he you know he left his heart out against Yiri Prohastka this is the way you treat him which is why you know I sort of appreciate the UK crowd a lot more because whether the fighter loses or wins, it's always right or die.

But I just felt it was weird. I know these are two drastically different points that I've raised. But yes, that's what I had to say. And to finish off a third drastic point, Sean Strickland, I'm taking your words. Strike while the iron is hot and UFC is not a meritocracy. Put him up against Colby Covington. That's all I have to say. Please give me your thoughts, Mike. And allow me to reiterate again and again.

I come from a place of respect and I think you know that. And I'm not saying that asking Strickland, that question was wrong. I genuinely just have a question and I asked you. I hope you wouldn't take it in a disrespect. You wouldn't take offense to it. If you did, I'm sorry. Thanks, bud. No, no disrespect.

No disrespect. Well, I'll start with the Strickland Colby thing. No, fuck that. I have zero. I mean, I could not have less interest in any fight in the world than Sean Strickett versus Colby Covington right now. So no. No.

No. no, no, no, stay in your own division. Sean Strickland is like, no, I don't want to see it. I have Zippo interests in that fight. Sean versus Hamzot, yes, that's where all my interest lies. So let's go ahead and just, let's get that thing cooking, shall we? Sean Strickland versus like Ian Gary? Now, that would kind of interest me, but we're not there yet.

But Sean versus Colby, no. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No. the strickle thing like putting myself at AK shoes again I don't I don't blame AK at all he had a he's from Toronto it's the community all that stuff there's a huge population stuff and this is not like AK was just like oh fuck this guy like watch what's going to happen like AK and he even was on BTL and explained himself and I highly recommend if you want AK side of all this go listen to the first, I don't know, 15 or so minutes of BTL last week, and he explained himself. And truth be told, and I'm not lying to you, I had a bunch of people who, when I tweeted out, you know, my best friend is better than your best friend, my support of my best friend, A. K. Lee, the amount of pretty awful responses, which,

On Twitter, not really surprising. But the amount of awful, like, DMs and shit that I got just for, like, being a loyal dude and having my guys back for something that I don't think he did. Like, Ani said, I don't think he did anything wrong. I don't think he did anything wrong. He is taking something that Sean Strickland had said, that he fucking said. It was basically just like, you still feel the same way. That's it. And then it went to the other thing.

Like, again, I don't know when you're supposed to ask him. We're not getting one-on-ones at these fighters because we know the outlets and we know who are getting the one-on-ones with these types of fighters. They're like the influencer crowd who will not ask questions like that, who will not cross the line, et cetera. So if you're in A.K. Lee and you really want to know, like that was the time to do it. I'm glad he didn't do it at the press conference because now had been a whole different thing. But in that moment, like, when else are you supposed to do it without getting a one-on-one? Now, obviously, the one-on-one would have been better. Would I have done it?

I don't know. Honestly, I don't know. I don't think I would have. But, you know, AK went through the proper channels and, like, you know, again, just go. If you want to hear what AK, I say about it, go listen to first 15 minutes of BTL and you're good to go. Do I think there needs to be follow-ups on it? No, I don't. If Sean wants to talk about it, you can.

At this point, we just need to accept that this is what the sport is. Also, something Ariel said yesterday that I fucking loved, and I completely agreed with, it wasn't always like this, guys. It wasn't always like this. And Ariel pulled out receipt after receipt, after receipt, after receipt, explaining why it wasn't always like this. where just for tweets, fighters were suspended or fined

or forced to publicly apologize. Data White himself publicly apologized for some comments that he said that were, you know, it wasn't always like this. So asking questions like AK asked at that media day,

if you're a longtime fan, that ain't new, man. It's not new. This is not, this is something that has been going on in this sport for a fucking decade at media days. I know it's not the same now. I know there's a whole different crop of fans,

but I'm telling you right now, this is shit that was talked about and reacted to by the fucking promotion for decade, for well over a decade. Guys getting fined. Guys getting suspended. Guys getting fired for tweets. It's not the same.

The old or marrow thing. I love that. That was a great. receipt right there. Oh yeah, we don't censor these guys. You can talk about whatever you want. You can talk about religion. You can talk about politics. We'd love that shit. Yol Romero says, looks at, talks about Jesus and all of that. No, no, no, no. There's no place in that sport for this. Like, there's receipts.

That's why. Like, it wasn't always like this. Five years ago, okay to ask those questions. Like, you're supposed to. It's just a different world now. That's all I'm trying to say. when it comes to that situation. I don't think AK did anything wrong. Sean reacted the way that he did. Should we have been surprised that Sean reacted the way that he did? No. Am I blaming Sean Strickland for reacting the way that he did?

No, because that's who Sean is. And in today's UFC, today's world, with this company, now that shit matters. Like, people are going to say what they want. There's no repercussions for the most part. That's that. So we just have to accept it.

We just have to be okay with it. We have to be okay with how the UFC is running things, whether we like it or not. And on the other side, we have to be okay with people being held accountable for things that they say. There's no bait. There's no leading questions.

Like, you fucking said it. You said it. It is in print. It's on the record. So being asked about something, like, you shouldn't be. frowned upon. It would happen at every other major sport, which again, I've now accepted the UFC, MMA will never be a major sport. It will be a profitable sport. It'll be a popular

sport, but it will never be a fucking juggernaut. And that's fine. That's okay. I'm totally okay with that. So I probably wouldn't re-ask that question, unless it's like a one-on-one interview and like, Sean's okay talking about it, like whatever. Like if I got a one-on-one with Sean and, you know, when I, when it pop into my head to bring maybe just something up about that exchange in general, I probably, I don't know, it's tough to say. I'm not like a big prepare things kind of guy. I'm just like, hey, let's just feel it out and go. And that's kind of how I've always been.

But yeah, that's really it. Like, I just, I'm at this point, like, we all just need to like, chill out and enjoy what this sport is right now. Like, it's just utter, pure chaos and with some fights. And that's fine. That's fine. I even said, like, in my initial reaction to this,

I support AK, but if you don't, like, fine. Like, that's your opinion. I'm not calling you some of the shit that I was called. Some of the shit AK was called. Everyone just needs to, like, fucking relax, dude. But that's it.

That's all I'm going to say. about it. I forget what the other question was, but that's it. Tristan, take us home. Last question. Can you hear me? Yeah. Okay. In regards to the Women's Van der Weirut division, I mean, I don't know what questions that you asked Laura Sanko, but hopefully that was a point of emphasis of really honing into, you know, how can they make this division better? But, I mean, we talked about this years ago, not, I mean, not months ago or so. And I understand your point of, well, just have Aaron Blancher, or Macy Barber.

I don't like that idea because then you're taking talent away from 125. Because if they're going to move to 135, they got to stay at 135. They can't be doing going back and forth, going down away, up away. I don't like that either. Chachenko, it makes sense because she's done everything she can at 125. She was a championship for a long time. I don't mind her going up and staying at 135.

But the rule of the problem is they have to find a way to insert more talent. They were able to do that in the women's flyweight division. Because remember, I remember you were saying before at that time, women, 125 wasn't great. It was just Champchengo dominating everybody. It wasn't great of talent. But then what happened? They got four or five great young talent coming into that division.

You have Aaron Blanfield, Macy Balba, you have Natalia Silva. You have Miranda Maverie. You have Casey O'Neum. And all of a sudden, 125 is revived again. We're like, oh, my gosh, this is great. right so that's the whole thing about it is the women's band-o-way division UFC has to really hone in and try to bring natural 135ers into its division they have all the resources that they can't and if you can't do that and it's too hard which i understand it's hard to

get 135 us and shut the division down you might as well to shut the division down and then make open up an animal division because you probably get more talent in adamant there's people that are at straw rate are 115 that are not natural 115's they're natural 105 that are animal division And you could go to other organizations, whether it's the regional scene or overseas, where you could go to one championship. You could go to Invicta. You can go into RISN and get and pull one-on-fivers and have them come over to the UFC. So that's that's the real problem. They have to figure out a way if you want to keep the 135 women's bandway division around and you want it vibrant and you've got to figure out a way to get use your resources to get natural 135ers in. you have the Dana White Continent Series. You have the ultimate fighter that you can utilize.

And that's it. And that's my feeling, Brian. And that's my opinion. So just your thoughts about it. Thanks, Mike. I mean, you're not wrong, but there just aren't enough of them out there. And those that are there are super duper green. And let's not forget, guys.

You want to know how the 125 pound division was built? Do you want to know why it got more interesting? Because they took ranked fighters from other divisions and made it interesting. Like, that's what happened. You influxed it with fighters who were on decent runs at other divisions that were long away from title shots to come on over for the chance to fight for the title quickly. That's how it was built and then the young talent followed. We need something, man. Like, we can't, this division has been a, has been in the shits for years now.

For years. Since like 2018, probably. just, Amanda, just rifling through everybody. Like the Holly Home fights over and over and over again. Yes, we get, look, apparently Jermaine DeRanami is getting ready to come back. That's a nice little addition. She's up there in age as well. We'll see if Norma Dumont can make 135.

Like, she's a nice little addition. There are some good young up-and-coming fighters, but I just don't want to be in a position to watch Melissa Dixon fight for a UFC title in 2020. because she's the only one on a win streak when she's only got like five pro fights. But we need to put this division back into some sort of relevancy where there's like recognizable names across the board that people want to see fight. I'm not saying influx everybody.

I'm not saying like every top 10, 25 or should go to 135. But I honestly believe, and you have to think about this too. why are these women in this sport? They're in the sport to make bunny and as much of it as possible. So if you're Macy Barber and you're getting all right to fight Caitlin Chukagian and you see the state of this division right now

and you're thinking to yourself, it could be like another year, two years before I fight for the belt. If Giuliana Pena goes out, wins the Bannamoy title with what Julianna's been saying, Macy could probably walk right into a title shot. So why shouldn't she try to do that?

if Aaron Blanchfield beats Bannon Fioro and the UFC is like, hey, Dana comes on and does a social media thing and he's like, hey, September, no J UFC at the spear. We're doing Alexa Grasso versus Valentina Shepchenko 3. We're settling the score. We're doing it at the spear.

What's Aaron Blanchfield supposed to just wait? Just wait until 2025 to fight for the belt after she wins? She could go up to 135 and fight for the belt right now. We were talking about this on our Slack channel yesterday about like this exact idea and like where some of these fighters

would be ranked right now. I'm trying to see if we could find it. We're just like all right, if Aaron Blanchfield and Macy Barber and some of these other fighters that we mentioned, like if they went to 135 like where would they be ranked right now, I think Aaron Blanchfield would easily be in the top

three to five. Macy Barber would be in the top 10 for sure like without even a single fight. Like, they can just state their intention to go to 135, and Macy Barber is a top 10 Bannam White without a single Bantamweight fights. Man in Fioro, probably a top 10 Bannam White without a single Bannamweight fight. Most of these women are probably ranked without actually stepping into the OXConnor's 135 pounder.

We need to build this thing up. Somehow, some way. Lorisanko talked about this like, hey, I hope we have a lot of Bannamweight fights on the contender series. It's true. There's not a lot out there. Can Kayla Harrison make 135? Obviously, she'll be interesting.

So here's, I mean, I've been saying this for like two years now. We never needed the 145 pound division anyways. Let's just turn that division into the heavyweight division of the women. Or call it Bamptherweight and just do from 134 to 146. Like, that's the class. Any of these fights can happen in any of those weights. If you weigh in 138 for a Bannonweight title fight, you're good. If you weigh 144 for the Bandaway title fight, great.

You're set. You're all good. They should just combine it and call it a day. And that's it. This is not a lot of talent out there. But what could you do? All right, we are done. Thank you all very much.

Lots going on. We will have the newest ranking show. I think we're recording it today. So that's going to come out tomorrow. So that should be fun. We'll be back here on Thursday. At the same time, do the damn thing. BTL Thursday as well.

We'll be here Friday to do the show. We'll do a full-on free-for-all Friday. And then we have kind of a weekend to enjoy ourselves to get ready for the February-March stretch for the Ultimate Fighting Championship and some of these also events. I don't know if you guys saw this, but PFL lost probably the most competitive fight on their PFL versus Bellator champs card.

Jason Jackson now fighting Great Cooper III instead of Magamette, Mogamette Karamov. That's a tough one to lose. It's a tough one to lose for a card that just doesn't seem super good anyways, like some cool stuff, but not a great card. But now the most compelling fight on it is not happening anymore and kind of bums me out. But yeah, I think the next couple of months are going to be fun overall. So thank you all very much. Appreciate you all.

We'll see you Thursday. Have a heck of a morning, everybody. To the Vox Media Podcast Network. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first, there, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes.