MMA Fighting - HOAM | What's Next For Valentina Shevchenko If She Loses To Alexa Grasso Again At Noche UFC?

Episode Date: September 15, 2023

Valentina Shevchenko gets her chance to exact revenge against Alexa Grasso after the latter's stunning upset win at UFC 285. Should Shevchenko win back the title, it creates some interesting options for the division moving forward, but where would Shevchenko go if Grasso can get it done a second time in the main event of Noche UFC? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck attempts to answer that question, and discusses why a second loss to Grasso would sting, but it wouldn't knock her out of title contention by any stretch. Additionally, listener questions include Kevin Holland's championship potential at 170 pounds, Khamzat Chimaev's long layoff, whether or not Sean Strickland could become a two division champion, Israel Adesanya's future after UFC 293, Kayla Harrision's return against Julia Budd in November for the PFL, and much more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Ghosts in the Machine, available now, only from Audible. The Vox Media Podcast Network. It's Friday, September 15th. Yep, September 15th. 2023, it is indeed a heck of a morning. We are live on the MMA fighting. Twitter spaces, as you can hear the show.

in its entirety shortly thereafter on the MMA fighting podcasting network. Thank you for joining us on another Friday. I am Mike Heck. Hope everyone's having a wonderful week. We're on the eve of Noche UFC on the eve of the rematch for the women's flyway title between Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shepchenko. I got to say, I knew I would be intrigued by the matchup, but honestly, as time goes by, and we're seeing both ladies get a little bit chippy with one another,

and seeing the type of headspace, both ladies are in heading into this fight, boy, oh boy, am I fired up for it? I'm getting more fired up for it as the minutes go by. And the card itself is pretty good. It's pretty good. I love the co-made event between Kevin Holland and Jack Delamette, Adelina, Raul Rosh's Jr. back. Looking to get back on track.

I'm very excited about the future prospects of one Daniel Zellhuber taking on Christoskeago. So we talked about this a little bit yesterday. Christos Gigos, holy moly. Have you seen the resume of this guy? Have you seen who this dude has had to fight in his UFC career? makes his UFC debut in September of 2018. You know, they kind of threw him a softball. I don't know if you know this guy.

His name's Charles Olivera. Then he gets a couple of wins. Mizuta Herota beats Demir Hadsovic, which is a pretty good win. Loses to Jarkar Close, which is a very good fighter. Gets a win over Carlton Minus, gets a win over Sean Soriano. And then he suffers a couple of losses. I don't know if you know these two names. names. Armand Sarukian,

Tiago Moises, then he beats Ricky Glenn, now he's going to fight, Daniel Zellhuber. Man, this guy has fought a murderer's row, and this is going to be his 13th fight in the UFC. Lupi Godinez is back against Elise Reed. We get some interesting fights. I love the Tracy Cortez, Jazz and Jazz DeVizzi's fight. It should be on the main card.

I know New York Rick loves when we talk about card placement, but I think that fight honestly deserves better. We get Alex Reyes back for the first time in literally six years, six years to the day against Charlie Campbell. It's a lot to like about this one. A lot to like about this card. And we're going to get into things in a matter of second. So this is a free-for-all Friday so we can talk about whatever you want.

We can talk about NoJ UFC. We can talk about how the hangover of UFC 293 is still real. We talked a lot about 293 and Sean Strickland's title win. and what this means for Israel Adasania on BTL. I got to speak to the great John Anick yesterday, who is in Vegas. He will be calling Noche UFC tomorrow, along with both D.C's, Daniel Cormier and Dominic Cruz.

And he talked a lot about what this win means for Strickland and what this sort of means for Israel-Azania. And basically saying, like, look, if you feel like you're the type of fan that wants to poke holes in Israel Adasani's resume, John understands why you're doing that right now. If you're looking for an excuse, you got one right now. He's lost two out of three. And I know the headline led to some comments,

but the headline is John Anik on Israel Adasanias potential big legacy hit. So to clarify one thing, because I respect John a ton, potential being the key word there, because he does admit that losing to Sean Strickland as a massive favorite in a setup like that is a ding for sure but it all depends on how Izzy bounces back if he comes back in like five six seven eight months whether he fights for the title or just fights ddp or fights whoever and just delivers a sensational knockout then it's not a big legacy hit at all if he comes back and goes on another run and wins the belt and runs

off a couple of defenses not hit at all but if he goes out in his next fight and gets dominated again, then yeah, it's time to kind of take a look at things. And I completely understood where he was coming from. So if you want to check out that interview, it is on the M.A. Fighting YouTube channel, I think it got dropped like super early this morning. But you guys can go check that out as well. But let's go to you all and see what you have to say. Little Puppet is going to kick us off. I mean, how can I ignore that username? What's up, Little Puppet? Little Puppet, are you there? You're muted. Little puppet, little puppet.

Where are you? Little puppet. There we go. I got you. Are there? I had you. And then we lost you. All right. Let's go to Dylan. Hey, my. Dylan, what's up, man? How are you? Pretty good. I got to lead us off with something else about last Saturday night.

I kept thinking right after it happened, and especially when Dana started talking. at the post-5 presser and like kind of started kind of disparaging Sean's performance and just like making it more about Izzy underperforming and then I got to thinking I was like of course Izzy is going to get an immediate rematch all night the advertisements have been Izzy as the star because of this new video game that's coming out he's like the cover of the deluxe edition of the game so like of course they wanted to see him win and And, like, of course they're going to give him an immediate rematch, I think. How much do you think that's going to play into it?

Just business decision like that. Like, this guy is the face of the UFC right now. That's it. So, interesting question, because if you ask me this on Monday, I would have leaned a lot more towards them gunning for the rematch because you know how Dana can be. If he's got his feet planted in the sand on something, especially if the reaction to it is a negative one,

And he, and I'm stubborn as hell too. That's just kind of the Boston nature. And he did it with Colby Covington. Everyone's like, oh, Mazadol's fighting Gilbert Burns. What if Mazadol wins? Nah, it doesn't matter. Colby's getting the shot.

So when he came out on Saturday and said, and let me just say this because I'll get to it in a moment. But Tuesday, the tune kind of changed a little bit. Did it not? After the contender series, he went up and did his post-fight interview or scrum, and it seemed like things changed a little bit. He went back to the whole,

well, I never said that. The media, those scumbags, flip my words around. What he said on Saturday, verbatim was, I think you do the rematch absolutely. He said absolutely, ladies and gentlemen, the rematch is interesting. That could be the thing. Two, when you think about Adasania going into the Pereira fight,

a big fight and you've been in there with this guy so many times and then you overlook strickland you come in and i don't know i don't know the answer to these questions but israel does and looking forward to hearing hearing what he has to say and then tuesday he said he was still sort of puzzled by is he not really responding to anything and then he said on tuesday i think if you remember that night people said what do you think you think rematch i said yeah the rematch sounds great i saw the stupid fucking shit that was written by all these stupid fucking websites. Never once did I say, yes, we're going to fucking do this rematch. There's obviously lots of options out there.

We'll see what happens. But yes, I'm not opposed to an issue or a rematch. We'll see how it goes. He said, I think you do the rematch absolutely. And if you look at some of the headlines that came out, I don't think anyone really said Data White calls for rematch. It was more like, he said, he said, absolutely. So how could we not think that that's what he's leaning towards?

when you say something like that. So if you ask me Monday, I think my answer would have been different, but after hearing what he said on Tuesday, he's not burying his feet in the sand on this one. Maybe he's talked to Israel. I don't really know. Maybe he's talked to Israel's team.

And we don't know. We honestly have no idea what's going on with Israel Adasani right now. We don't know if he's just going to be hankering to get right back in there. We don't know if he's going to take some time off. It seems like most people are at least saying, he should take some time up because he has been so active. And I know Sean's been active as well,

but Sean's been an apex made events. He just headlined a pay-per-view with Israelada-Sanya. To compare what Sean has done to what Izzy has done, it's almost not fair because the pressures are different, the obligations are different. There's just so much more towards headlining a pay-per-view and defending your title in a main event that it is fighting Nasrudeen-imov in an apex-made event

or fighting Abu-Maga-Madoff in an apex-made event. It's different things, different schedules, a whole lot more pressure, putting that title on the line and being the face of the promotion and all of that. So maybe Izzy needs a break. To me, I don't think you do the rematch. John Anick said the same thing. I don't think you do it. And I like what Robert Whitaker had to say on the MMA hour. Just give Izzy the belts.

If we're just going to keep giving him rematches every time he loses, then just make him like the champion forever. Because what's the point? It doesn't matter if you run off any defenses. You just get an immediate rematch. No, I would like to see Izzy fight somebody else, or at least take some time off. Let's see how things play out. Do Strickland DDP.

There is a very real world where the Costa Shemai of winner gets Sean Strickland. But even if they go DDP, which I think it should be DDP after beating Robert Whitaker, if DDP wins the title, what do you think the UFC is going to do? What do you think they're going to do? Of course they're going to go to the Izzy fight.

And what a turn of events that would be. Instead of DDP chasing Izzy, now Izzy chases DDP who's the champion? Like that'd be insane. That would be insane. So my prediction, and we talked about this a lot on BTL, is that I think Israel, when he does fight again, will fight for the title. But I do feel like the belt will be defended by Sean Strickland against not Israel out of San. Izzy will take a little bit of time. Let's see what Strickland can do is the champion.

can he defend the title will he retain will he lose it and then we kind of see where things are at and then is he can go back and fight for the belt again because i think they would i do think he's going to fight for the belt again but i don't think he's going to fight for it like next i don't think we're going to see sean strickland isriada sandy too right away and if we do i don't think that's a good call i really don't i feel i feel good about that take toke what's up buddy and firstly i want to say i'm so glad that you people reminded me of the insane, insane UFC tenure that Christos Jagos has had.

I'm kind of amazed that he has the record he has, actually, with the opposition that he's fought. And you just made me realize that I've kind of counted him out and kind of underestimated him through his entire run. So firstly, thank you for that. And then second, Mike, everyone has a price. So what I'm interested in today is to ask you if, you know, what is the magic number that would get you to fight in a equally matched fight? So what I mean by that is just, you know, two guys going in and just fighting on equal terms, same weight class, all that stuff.

What is the number? because I think Damon Martin said that he would get knocked out by Francis Ghanu for a million dollars. And for myself, I would want enough money to pay off my mortgage. So that's about, what, 200K? So I don't know. I'm just curious on this free-for-all Friday. Thank you, Mike. Oh, God.

I mean, look, I'm not a young buck, all right? I'm 40. I'm 40. Now, I feel a lot younger than 40, but I am 40. And growing up in the Boston area, I have been in enough fights. Like, I've done enough. I've done enough. Now, I do have a family.

I do have mortgages. I do have car payments and bills and all of that stuff. However, like most fighters who compete in this wonderful sport, I technically have a manager, and the manager is Mrs. Heck. So I would have to run things by her, and she would, would have to be the one to answer that question. And I think honestly, that number would be very, very, very high. It'd be very, very high. Now, if this is something we're like, hey, we could pay off the mortgages and pay off everything and just be debt free altogether, I have a feeling she would

entertain that idea. But, man, I don't know, I have no interest in doing it. Like, I don't even want to try it. Like, props to, like, Oscar Willis and props to Casey who are going in there and testing themselves and all that. Like, what I train and, like, you know, maybe do like some kind of a smoker, maybe. It's just tough, man. You'd have to clear with her. The number would have to be pretty high. And if she clears me, I would do it for the right number. She's like, yeah, you kind of have to do this. Then I would just go in and do it and let the chips fall where they may. But I literally have no interest in getting in there and fighting anybody because I've had enough scraps in my day.

And I'm okay with all of that at this point. So what an interesting question. That is a free-for-all Friday question if I ever heard one. But the number would have to be high and she would have to approve it. And she's probably going to take a, I mean, her percentage is basically 100%. Panda, go ahead. Oh, shocking revelation there. Panda doesn't get through on the first try.

Four-quarter sports. Let's see if we can get you in here. Go ahead. Very curious to hear your fight stories from your Boston days. I feel like you should probably elaborate maybe one or two fights that you had in the past. But I was going to ask you,

did you ever get the chance to see the Pierce Morgan interview? I felt like yesterday somebody had made a call and you said something about you don't ask Dana tough questions at a press conference. It's more of a one-on-one. And I felt like I saw Dana in very uncomfortable situations when Pierce Morgan was asking him questions. He elaborated a lot

from Khan McGregor, to the incident about, you know, him slapping his wife and how his kids didn't speak to him to, like, the death of his parents. And I got to say, if you haven't heard it, a pretty good interview. But I did want to talk about, what's it called, Tracy Cortez versus Jasmine Jazzavidavius. I feel like it's bad placement on the card. I feel like Jasmine had an excellent performance. what do you feel about this fight going to distance

or you feel like this fight is not going to make it to the cards all right thanks Mike I think it's going to make it to the cards I think it'll make it to the cards I mean both women both women get to the cards a lot I believe Tracy Cortez all of her fights

at least in the UFC have gotten to the cards let me just check and see if she has she does have a couple of finishes but she has been to the cards in one, two, three, four, five, six straight fights, including her contender series fight and all of her UFC fights. And Jasmine, Jazz DeVizius has been to, that when she started, she was pretty much finishing everybody. The only person she didn't finish before the Elise Reed title fight for CFFC was

Kylie O'Hern. And me being from New England, I am very, I know who Kylie O'Hern is. Kylie O'Hern is a, she's like almost impossible to finish, or at least she was in 2019. She is just as durable of a regional fighter as you can get. She's just an absolute animal. And Jasda did everything she could to try to finish her, and she couldn't. And then her other fight she finished. Elise Reed went to a decision.

And honestly, I think the Gabriel Guffin fight for CFFC was the last time she hasn't gone to the cards. Let me just pull it up real quick. Yeah, because she fought Elise Reed for the CFFC title. Loss of Splitty. I thought Jazz had won that fight. Decision went against Ashley Dean in her next CFFC fight. Decision on the contender series. Decision against Kay Hansen.

Loss of decision to Natty Ice. Decision against Gabriel Fernandez. Decision against Miranda Maverick. This is going to the cards. What are the odds here for, oh, yeah. Look, I mean, the betting community certainly. thinks it's going to the cards over two and a half is minus four seventy five it's minus four seventy five so yes i do think this is going to be a dog fight i think it's going to go the full 15 good little parley

piece right there maybe go the connor burke's chalky chalk special and go under one and a half which i'm sure is like minus 700 or something like that uh pretty good parley piece this is going to be a good fight it's got to be a good fight tracy hasn't fought in a hot minute jasmine's coming off a great win over Miranda Maverick. Odds are very close. Cortez is a slight favorite at minus 125. I like this fight. I like this fight a lot.

It's super important for both women. I think it's, I think Tracy, Cortez really needs this more than Jasmine does because I think Jasmine is a super fun fighter. And even if she loses this fight and bounce back, she lost to Natty Ice and then came back and had a great win over Miranda Maverick two fights later. So she's got the ability and the. fighting style to be able to bounce back and get into good position. But I think, man, I think Tracy needs this one bad. She hasn't fought since May of last year. So almost a year and a half

she's been out. Actually, it's, yeah, well over a year since the Melissa got a win. So curious to see what she looks like. She looks motivated and very hungry to compete. And Jasmine's always game. So I love that fight. I love it. I would put this honestly, I know. I know. know the UFC wants to put Raul Roes Jr. in these big spots. He's 18 years of age, and they're going to use that forever. And I don't blame them for doing that. But this should be the featured fight. Outside of the main event, and I guess you could say the co-made event. This is, this fight has the most divisional stakes of any other fight on the card. So I would put this a little bit higher, but I don't think the fighters really care. Like, they get to spend

the rest of the day in Las Vegas and have a good time. Panda. Go ahead. My man, Mike, take two. How are we? What's up? None short and sweet for you on this heck of a Friday. First thing, first. I mean, this line got chopped in half from the original rematch.

We have Alexei Grasso up plus 155 against Valentina Scho and minus 180. As a D-Gen, it is very hard not to take Grasso in this matchup. You kind of think Chepchenko's days or maybe passer, but is it like a Vegas trap kind of Mike, how you feeling? Secondly, we'll take it away from MMA and UFC. This Yankees Red Sox series is just ugly. There's no serious real baseball being played. If they were playing a different sport, what sport would you want to watch them play? Maybe if you want to lock two or three Yankees and Red Sox into a UFC Octagon, who and why? Thank you, Mike. Have a heckled morning.

I wouldn't even lock them into the octagon, because I don't think they really give a shit at this point. shout out to the Red Sox for firing Heinbloom well overdue. Now we get to get somebody in that position, hopefully with a little more testicular fortitude to spend some money and make some moves because that's been super frustrating. They've just done nothing.

And then hearing people say that when Chris Sale got injured, they could have traded him for a bunch of prospects and they would have paid off the rest of his deal and they didn't do it. Like, what the fuck is wrong with you? Like, that's just bad business. It's just bad business right there And Chris Sale has a very high ceiling

And if he's on, he's great But the dude just been a walking injury Why? You had a chance to get rid of that contract Oh Drives me insane, dude They can play pickleball Maybe they'll play golf

Maybe they'll play golf We'll just do a little golf Rider Cup type thing We'll put them all against each other But golly man Boy, the Red Sox just Just been a rough stretch and what they do

what they've been doing is making you believe like they could sneak into the playoffs and then we buy in and then they lose like in the shittiest ways possible and you're like, oh, they're done and then they win like seven in a row

and you're like oh, maybe they're okay and then they suck again and now they just continue to suck. John Anick was telling me yesterday because if you ever listen to John Anick's betting stories he never likes to bet on his teams he likes to bet against them

and he's basically said like he's bet on the Yanke Yankees every day and he hopes he loses and he just never loses because the Yankees just keep winning because the Red Sox just don't give any shits at all. Grasso should take this fight, like I said, at the top, I'm very, very interested in this fight. I'm very, very intrigued by this rematch from a betting perspective. I think all the values on Alexa Grasso, even though the line has completely shifted from the first time. Because I think after watching the first fight, it's a 50-50 proposition. And if you're giving me a 50-50 fight,

just kind of going off the back of what Jed said on No Bet Spard, you take the value. And I think Alexa Grasso plus money, there's some value there. And I like the mentality of both women this week. Alexa Grasso just calm, cool, collected, but confident. She's kind of firing some jabs of Valentina, which I dig. And Valentina just wearing the fatigues and looking like she wants to punch everybody in the face. She's scaring media members with the look on her face.

She just looks like she's ready to run through a brick wall. And we haven't really seen her in this sort of mindset since maybe before the JustCon Drage fight where people are like, eh, maybe Jessica Androge could be the one to beat her. And she came in with this big chip on her shoulder. And she just ran over Jessica Androge. So I don't think that's going to happen here. I think this is another fight that's going to go to the car. It's going to be a close competitive fight.

but I haven't made my official pick yet. I will on the preview show. I keep flip-flopping. But, man, this could go either way. Nothing would really surprise me if we're being honest. It's a great, great, great fight. Joe, go ahead. Hello?

Hello. Hey, bro. Sorry, I'm at work right now. Oh, good. But real quick, how do you see the Kevin Holland versus Jack fight go? Again, another tough fight. another tough fight I am curious to see if Kevin will wrestle in this fight

I think that's not a bad idea but Kevin's just Kevin's just game man dude's gonna go in there and throw a bunch stuff this could stay standing obviously JDM is the more technical fighter better technique better boxing overall

from a aesthetically you know technical standpoint and Kevin Holland is kind of a wild card throws all sorts craziness you never know what he's going to do. It's really hard to prepare for a guy like Kevin Holland unless you're just going to wrestle him. And JDM could wrestle him too.

Like he could just take Kevin down and lay on him, but I think Kevin has spent a lot of time working on that aspect of his game. And I don't know if JDM has the top control to keep Kevin down the entire time. So I do think a lot of this fight stays in the feet. I am curiously if Kevin will actually wrestle here and end up on top because I think there are, big, I think a big hole was kind of exposed in JDM's game in his last fight where he's pretty

good top position grappler, but when he's on his back, it's kind of tough. And Kevin's a pretty good offensive wrestler. So that could be kind of a stalemate. I don't know. It's super interesting fight again. Looking at it from a value perspective. Kevin Holland, the plus 124 dog right now, I think he's worth a shot. I think he'd be worth a shot.

but it's a good fight. J.D.M, this is a very important fight for J.D.M. Very important fight. Kevin Holland, as he said all week and he's been saying for years, rankings don't mean nothing to this guy. Getting to a title fight means nothing to him. He just wants to fight and make all the money. That's it.

He would rather fight seven times a year than fight for a title. That's just how he is. All about fighting and making that mullah. JDM, I think, has a different mindset. He wants to eventually get up there and fight for a world title. He's got to be Kevin Holland to get there. This is a very big test for him. This is an important, important fight for JDM.

So I think JDM needs this one a lot more than Kevin Holland does, but that's what makes Kevin shine. He just goes in there with very little pressure on himself. He obviously wants to go in there and win. And he'd like to do it quickly so he can turn around and fight in three weeks if they need him to because that's just the type of dude Kevin Holland is. So great fight. Its top two fights are really interesting tomorrow.

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Marshalls. We get the deals. You gift the good stuff. Good. Good, Absolio. Yeah. So I just got one UFC question to us and just off-topic something about the NBA. the U.S.

one, just regarding the lightweight division. You know, I'm just curious, based on some of the upcoming fights that we are receiving, such as the Gamma versus Physiof fight and then possibly down the line, like the rumors, if it's true, Amman versus Benil, who do you see winning those fights? And let's say maybe in the next six months, what are your predictions for maybe the top five rank fighters in the lightweight division? And also just my question with the NBA is If like this Paul George Kauai duo

ends up like breaking up after next season Do you see T. Liu leaving the clippers and possibly going to join another organization and coach maybe let's say like the Orlando Magic or maybe you know another stuff Thanks for having a great day Maybe. I mean, it's possible. But the NBA in particular is so hard to predict like wires in the beats a year in advance.

So it's possible. I mean, if the season doesn't go well for T. Lou, then I'm certain he's going to try to get out of there. But who knows? They could go out there and just go on a huge run and he might see some potential there. So I don't know. Kind of tough to say. Let's see Top 5 lightweight

So we got Markachev and Oliveira Gaechee's in the wings Horier wants to fight But we're not sure who he's going to fight Darius unbooked I've heard nothing about Darius Surukeon by the way For those wondering

A lot of people thought like this fight could happen in Abu Dhabi and I kind of hope it does But I've heard literally nothing about it At this point And then Chandler's number five Looks like him and Connor, but who the fuck knows with that? Fiziv and Gamrots, great fight. That's next week.

That's a fun one. That's a fun one. I did talk to Raphael Faziv earlier this week, so you can look for that on M.A Fighting's YouTube channel heading into that fight. Fiziv is just, the guy is just the best. He's just sitting out.

He's sitting outside with the palm trees around him doing the interview. It's just so funny, man. Dude is so funny. That fight with Gamrod is super fun, and he knows what it is. Gamrod's going to try to wrestle me over and over again, and that's why he likes this fight so much. Sarukian, who knows? Dan Hooker is at number nine.

I'm not really sure what they're going to do there. Grant Dawson's fighting Bobby Green in a main event. RDA, I still don't know why he's ranked at lightweight when he's not fighting at lightweight anymore. And there's Jalen Turner and Hanata Moikano and Matt Vervola and Diego Faheda. Lightweight's just a juggernaut, man. It's so good. It's the best division in the sport.

All these matchups are fire, every single one of them. Alex, go ahead. Alex, you just got out and mute yourself. Alex. All right, try again. Let's go to Aziz. Go ahead, Aziz. Hey, Mike.

Hello. What's up, man? How are you? Good morning. Good, good, thanks. I hope I can ask. I have a question about Hamzad. his one year layoff. Is that cool to ask you or are we just focusing on the cart?

But it's like, you can ask whatever you, you could ask whatever you want, my man. Yeah, yeah, it's free for all Friday. I just read. Do we, have you had any inklings as to what happened with Hamzad in his one year layoff? Was it like something was his visas and connection to the Chechen guy and not being able to enter the US or was it by design, any kind of news to that end? because it's pretty, you know, pretty weird. A guy like Humza fights only one year. No? Thanks. It is very weird.

And I don't, honestly, I wish I knew the answer to this question, but I have no idea. I mean, we can hypothesize it. We could take guesses. But none of us really know because even when Hamza was on the M.A. Our Ariel asked him about the visa issues and stuff. He said, no, he could fight whenever. So I don't know if like the UFC's holding them back. I have no idea.

honestly I have no clue I have no clue he did fight twice last year fought in April with Burns and then fought in September that whole debacle with 279 and Kevin Holland and Nick and Nate Diaz and all that but yeah 13 months another long layout for Hamzaat Shamaev so that's why I'm like a little hesitant to be like oh the winner of if Shamaif beats Costa he's definitely getting a title shot that would make a lot of sense and it'd be big business and a lot of people would be

interested in whoever Hamzat would fight for the belt but it's just a matter of getting him into the cage if he can only fight in Abu Dhabi right now like that ain't good that's not good so there's going to be a day where there's going to be like a Hamzat Shamaif documentary or like a 30 for 30 or just a

complete introspective into his career and this moment in time during his UFC run where we find out what actually actually happened. And it's going to be a fascinating watch when that does, because I'd love to know the answers to this. The UFC doesn't want to say anything. Hamzat is keeping to his story. I have no idea. I have no idea. But hopefully this is outside of, I mean, the first really long layoff was COVID-related. Like he got COVID real bad, and it took him a long time to recover from it before you could get back in there. This one, I'm, I'm,

I don't think it's the same, but again, we have no, we literally have no clue. We can guess all we want, but that's, that's one of the, that's a million dollar question right there. It's a million dollar question that I do not have the answer to. CV, go ahead. Oh, Mike, heck of a Friday. Since it's free for all Friday, I know I usually keep it short and sweet, but I'm just going to put it out there right now.

I believe Kevin Holland has a 65% chance of becoming the next World War II Champion. I'm being serious. I seriously think that he can, I don't know, pull off like the Deshaun Strickland where like he just stays active. And, you know, he's just ready for any like short notice fights, whether someone drops out of a fight. So I'm just putting it out there right now. In 2024, Kevin Holland is going to become the next welterweight champion.

Damn, dude. I mean, look, it would be a cool story that the guy who never wants to fight for the title all of a sudden wants to fight for the title. but here's here's my issue with your 65% on this one and I mean look if there's a again like I told I believe it was octagon blog who said Sean Strickland had a 65% chance of beating Israel out of Sonia go make a futures bet go make a futures bet right now I'm curious with the line it is on Kevin Holland as a futures bet to be welterweight champion here's my and look I've learned enough at this point that I'm wrong most

of the time and that stylistic matchups don't mean shit because anything can happen. But just kind of look at what would be lying ahead of him as he moves up the ranks. And what was Kevin Holland's big issue at 185? He could win fights. He could beat the jocquerase. He could beat guys who would strike with him. But like Marvon Vittori just took him down over and over again. Derek Brunson took him down over and over again.

Once we get to the top six, it's Shofcott. Gilbert Burns Hamzat's there but he probably shouldn't be Balah Muhammad, Colby Covington Kamar Usman. What are those guys going to do to Kevin Hawth? They are just going to shoot takedowns on this dude over and over and over and over again. So I, again,

anything can happen. But boy, Holland getting in there with all these wrestlers is a tough ask. It's a tough ask. I'm not saying he couldn't win but wouldn't favor him. in a lot of these fights. Like if Kevin Holland fought Sean Brady right now,

who would you pick? Would you pick Kevin Holland comfortably? I don't know. Kevin Holland, Jeff Neal would be fun. We already saw Kevin Holland Stephen Thompson and Wonderboy won that fight. But listen, put some cash on it, man. Put your money where your mouth is.

Make that futures bet. I'm trying to get Charlie in here, but it's not letting me for some reason. We'll try Alex again. Alex, hello. Hey, Mike, can you hear me? Yep, I got you. All right.

So I was watching Ariel's interview with Ian Gary on Monday, and he kind of talks about moving up in weight and even moving up two weight classes. And I was just wondering if you see a path for that to happen. And if not, if there's any current UFC athletes right now that can pull off the. triple champ status. Wait, well, who is this again?

Ian Gary. Ian Gary wants to move up to maybe light heavyweight. Really? Is that what said? He said he kind of wants to move up one, and then he said he might want to go to 205. I mean, dude's confident. I'll give him that.

I mean, I can see Hamzaq going up to 205, been doing it comfortably. Because like I said, I've stood next to that, man. He's a, he's a friggin monster. I don't know. Who knows? I mean, he's super young. So, I mean, he's got to get bigger.

He's going to fill out more. But he's going to have to take time off to get to 205. Maybe he wants to take a fight at 185 here and there. I don't know. He's got work to do a 170. And I'm very high on Ian Gary. I think this guy, I think he will fight for him. for a belt.

I definitely think he'll fight for the welterweight title at some point. Like, I'm very, very high on him as a fighter. But yeah, I think I think we need to walk before we run here, if we're being honest. But, you know, get to the welterweight belt.

You run off some defenses. You want to go up to 185? Cool. And then you want to try to go for 205? Cool. I'm not, like, I think we're going to live in a world at some point where someone is going to win three titles. I just don't, that fighter has not,

that fighter is not in the UFC right now. I don't think. But there's going to be this new evolution of fighter that's going to come up that has been training since they were three. Instead of playing t-ball, they took jujitsu instead. That have been training and preparing for this moment. Like I, at the gym I work out at, one of the women who works there,

two kids, like 12, 1's 8 or 9, and they've both been wrestling and training jiu-jitsu since they were like four years old. And both of them, one for sure, because I've talked to him,

his dream in life is to be a UFC fighter at like 12 years old. It wasn't like that back then. Barely like that now. It wasn't like that five years ago, but now it is. It's a whole different world. And there's going to be this new evolution of fighter that by the time they get to the UFC, they're just going to be so much better than the fighters that came before them because they've had all this

training and all this work done and they just spend so much time preparing for these moments at such a young age. It's just, it's going to be incredible. This sport 10 years from now is going to look vastly different. The level and caliber of fighter in a decade is going to be ridiculous. I mean, just look at how much the sport has evolved over the last 30 years. It's mind-blowing. It's only going to get better. So I think there's going to be a day where that happens. I don't think it's anybody on the current roster, though. I could be wrong.

I'm wrong about everything. So might as well bet money that there will be a three-division champion within the next 18 months because I'm wrong about everything. Kat, go ahead. Hey, Mike, how are you doing? I'm doing great. Thanks for asking. I have not been around in a while.

I don't have a question. I just have a suggestion. I love your shows. I love everything that you do here. I try to tune in as much as possible. I just sometimes I miss it. So I really would just like to suggest if you turn on the recording options for these spaces

so that way they're like episodes, we can always come back and watch. That was all. I love what you do here, Mike. Thank you so much. Thank you. I really appreciate that. Well, the beauty of this program is it goes right to the podcast network

and you can listen to it anywhere you want. Apple, Spotify, wherever you can find your podcast, you get to listen to the entire show every single day. So just go ahead and the best thing to do just subscribe to the network wherever you find your pods and you don't even have to do anything you don't even have to push a button as soon as it goes you'll get a notification on your phone boom and it comes up as h oam and then whatever the headline is and you can listen to the entire show and the beauty of the pod network once in a while there'll be an interview that pops up on there that you

don't get to hear live on this show doesn't happen all as much as i would like to but from time to time we get some bonus stuff on the pod feature. Just to wet the whistle a little bit, I'm going to be doing that a little bit more moving forward. So one of the things people have been asking is about doing more interviews. I know that the powers that be would like me to do more interviews. I feel like I've stepped up the game a little bit. I get some cool stuff coming up from conversations that I've had.

We got Anik up there, had Laura Sanko, right before 2.93. I talked to Fiziv. I got some prospects coming up. I talked to Gianni Vasquez, the guy who's on the receiving end of that Fury Fisd, some real interesting stuff to come from that.

So we're trying to figure out how to lay that out. But Gianni Vasquez, who almost got his arm ripped out of his socket, came back and won a regional title. Want a regional title. His arm barely works. And he's still out there submitting fools. this dude's story is incredible.

He's still dealing with Texas and the bullshit from that whole thing, but there's going to be a follow-up to that whole thing coming up in the next couple of weeks just trying to figure out how I want to lay that out. But, yeah, so subscribe to the pod network and you get some bonus stuff here that you don't get here.

How about that? Let's go to Clay. What up, Clay? Hey, Mike. Good morning. So I'll go one thing to say Do you think the UFC will final decide to book Sean Strickland versus Alex Pereira for a vacant light heavyweight built? So Shauna Sicklin could be a double champ by the end of this year.

That would be incredible. Oh, my God. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine this world? Look, the UFC is not just going to straight book that fight. But can you just imagine. Let's just say like Shot O'Malley can't fight in December and Connor vanishes off the face of the end. earth and they're like, all right, let's do Yuri versus Alex as the main event of UFC

296 for the vacant light heavyweight title. We're going to flirt with danger again and book a light heavyweight title fight to close out the year. And then lightning strikes twice. Something happens with Yuri and he can't fight. And I want to put this negative juju into the world, but you ask the question. And then imagine on like a week's notice, Sean Strickland steps in because he would do in a friggin heartbeat and then beats Alex Pereira and becomes a two-division champion.

This would be the greatest thing that has ever happened. Sean Strickle would become, I mean, to me, he's already the fighter of the year after beating Izzy. He's got to be at this point. He'd be like the fighter of, you'd have to give it to him in 2024 too, just out of a principle. And in like a, what, a three-month stretch, Sean Strickle becomes a two. two-division champion when he was like a plus 500 underdog against his your honor's on it oh my god play i want to live in this world it would be absolutely

incredible cheese louise yeah going back to the other thing uh my man charles johnson in the chat yeah i didn't know what mma was was 21 yeah that's just again the evolution of the sport is going to be wild. I saw Arnold trying to get in, but, oh, there he is. It's the matcha or the three ensemble Ciceroa of Cephora of the Fats that I just denichie, who energize so much, it's all the same.

The form of standard and mini-regrouped, what old are then? And the embellage, too be pretty pretty to give it. And I know that I'd love these offrary, but I guard the Summer Fridays and Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez. I'm, I'm pretty best

ensemble, the Codes of the Feds We'll find at Shephora. Summer Fridays, Rare Beauty, Way, Cifora collection, and other part of the vits. Procurre you see foreman standard and mini, regrouped for a better quality of price. On link on Cifera.a.com. Unwrap holiday magic at Holtrenfrew with gifts that say I know you. From festive and cozy fashion to Lux Beauty and Fragrant sets, our special selection has something for every style and price point.

Visit our Holtz holiday shop and store or online at Holtrenfrew.com. Let's see if we can get Arnold in here, but I'm seeing the wheel of dew. Wait a minute, do we have you, Arnold? It's not connecting. Oh, wait a minute. I think I got you now. Are you there? What, do?

What's up, man? Come, son. Come, son. Come, son. Come, son. You got it? Do I have you? Are you there?

No, no. Why? Hello? What? What? going on here maybe it was a butt dial wouldn't be the first time uh brandon hello hey mike are you doing can you hear me yes what's going hey man how's it going what's up um i just wanted i had two questions for you i just wanted to ask about uh what does valentina do if she loses this

weekend um you know i don't see her really getting behind the line behind these young contenders to fight back up to the title do you think she moves back up to 135 because i can see her getting an immediate title shot if she does that. And do you feel like it's the end of an error if she does lose this fight? Because, you know, Amanda's gone now. Yonnas are tied. Rose isn't champion anymore. I just want to eat thoughts on like the evolution of women's MMA.

And I also wanted to ask about Derek Brunson. He's been a staple, you know, for over a decade in the Middle East Division. And he just got released out of nowhere. I just wanted to know the story. about how that happened and what you think about his career thanks so with valentina look she could honestly if she loses this fight she can just go fight rose nomi unis like they can just go ahead and book that fight and that's that's a big one and if rose wins they could just throw her right into a title fight like this is rose moving up to 125 is really for

one purpose so she could fight valentina shi chenko in my opinion and she's talked about that a lot not because she like dislikes her it's just like a challenge she wants someone she's trained with them the past. So you could go back to that fight and do it, whether it's three-rounder or a fight-night-made event somewhere. You could go and do that round. Bounty, you could just get like, you know, legacy fights. Fights against big names that she didn't get the chance to fight before.

And I wouldn't say she's, like, completely out of the title picture altogether if she loses this fight because we had this new crop coming up. Manon Fioro is right there. Aaron Blanchfield's right there. and then we got, you know, the Tracy Cortez is, the Jasmine, Jazz and Jazz DeVizius, the Casey O'Neill's, they're on their way up. So this division is going to get real, real interesting. So I wouldn't rule out Valentina altogether, but it would be a tough loss, but she could go fight Rose if she beats Rose. That's like a huge name to have on the resume, and she's right back into the picture.

So I think her legacy is set either way. If, you know, losing the Alex de Grasso twice, even though she's beat pretty much everybody else except Manan Nunes, really. And, And yeah, I don't think this really hurts her legacy. Now, if she gets the doors blown off her tomorrow, that's a different conversation. But I just don't think that's going to happen. I just don't think that's going to happen. So, yeah. Yeah, so you just go fight Rose.

That's a fun fight. Derek Brunson, yeah, that was interesting. We had heard as a website, like before the roster about put it out that. there was something going on. And I know Derek's longtime manager, Ali Abdelaziz, had tweeted out something about free agent, something about someone being a free agent.

Maybe it was earlier this week or late last week. And I guess we know why. It's Derek Brunson. So look, from what it sounds like, it wasn't like a straight release. It's more of like a mutual parting of ways where Derek Brunson is like, can I go?

and the UFC's like, yeah, you can go. Because I just don't know what else Derek Brunson can do in the UFC at this point. Let me just pull up his resume real quick, and then we'll get to my man, New York, Rick. Like, Derek Brunce is not fighting for the middleweight title. Like, those days are over. He's got two losses. Got finished by Drinkus DuPla C. Got finished by Jared Canaaner.

He went on a nice run. He's got a lost it. He got knocked out badly by Israel, Adasania. I mean, he's, dude's fought Anderson Silva. He's fought everybody he could possibly fight.

He's fought Robert Whitaker. Dude's fought everybody. He's not getting back to the belt. He's at best, probably like a top seven or eight. He's the top 10 middleweight in the UFC. And he's a good fighter, real good fighter.

He's been kind of in and out saying like, this is going to be my last fight. I got two fights left. You got one fight left. He's 30. He's going to turn 40 in January. So at this point, like, you're on the back nine.

The career's winding down. Go somewhere and see what you can get. Go to PFL. Try to win that Millie. Possible merger with Bellator. That opens up some doors too. Maybe you can go fight Jake Paul, because that was the first thing he did when this news broke.

But, yeah, I think he's just kind of done. to me, like when I moved to South Carolina from the Berkshires and Mass, like one of the conversations my wife and I had was like, we've done everything we can here. We've milked this area for all we can. There's nothing else we can do. So it's time to move on and go to a different venture. And that's kind of where Derek is right now.

He's done everything he can do in the UFC. He's not going to win a world title here. He's not even going to get close to fighting for a title, especially after back-to-back finish losses. Go to PFL. Go to PFL, try to win that Millie. Go box a YouTuber and make a lot of money. Like, go make that money.

Go make that money. Build that bank account. Secure a legacy for you and your family. And break the norm. A lot of fighters have a tough time after the careers. Chance to cement things financially in a different way. So, yeah, good for Derek Brunson. This reminds me of kind of like the Corey Anderson situation.

where Cory Anderson had done everything he could, wasn't getting a title shot, he got knocked up by Jan Boehovic. He wasn't getting the title fight. He wasn't going to get the John Jones fight. So, yeah, you've done everything you can. Now, if you want to keep fighting, go tackle a different challenge.

So good for him. Good for Derek. New York, Rick. I mean, what do we owe this honor and pleasure, my man? Heck of a morning, Mike. I come to you with hat in hand. And I asked, can we still be friends again? I didn't realize that you are a card placement purist.

I didn't realize that that was important to you. I love you dearly. I know I'll never be your best friend. I know he's in this ex-base right now. I know I'll never be able to take that spot. But I just want us to be friends again. And I never meant to disrespect you. I love you dearly.

My question, well, do you want to answer that? Can we be friends again? Yeah, of course. We were friends, even after you trash me on live YouTubeing. I'm very glad to hear that. I look forward to you getting your revenge. I'd be happily trashed by you at the time. My question for you is, this week we got the announcement of Kayla Harrison's return to the PFL. She's fighting Julia Budd during the PFL's championship.

My question is a very like 10,000-foot view one, but does Kayla Harrison fighting feel like a big event anymore. And the impetus for this is I don't feel like the loss to Larissa Pacheco hurt her much. In fact, I'd argue that sometimes fighters like that losing add some layers and some character and some rebuild opportunities that helps them.

But the retirement of Amanda Nunes to me feels like a big hit because it felt like Kayla Harrison was building toward one of two fights, which was always going to be Amanda Nunes or Cyborg. The Cyborg one is still. on the table, but it's always kind of felt like they're dancing around each other and not really dancing together. Whereas Amanda Nunes, it seemed to have some momentum. Kayla Harrison was

in the crowd at UFC events, and it felt like once her PFL deal was done, that was a fight that was going to be ours, and the animosity between former teammates was building, and now that's gone, at least for the moment, does Kayla Harrison fighting still feel like a big event, and what does she do when her PFL contract is done? great questions as always thank you new york rick um so to be fair like i'm not i'm not like a card placement like i'm not that dude it's like oh just but like when certain fights that are just kind of buried on the prelims it annoys me like cortez jazz de vizius is like the third most interesting fight on this card and it's the third fight on the card doesn't really make a lot of sense that

that one deserves better especially for an event like this and tracy cortez she could be a potential star honestly for this division and she's just buried on the prelims and i and then i kind of just think the previs mixes should have been the main event of the bellator car but for the most part like when the ufc opens up paper views with rando heavyweight fight as opposed to like two ranked women's fly weights being on the prelims i i get where that is coming from like the ufc wants to start the show with the big knockout and kind of get the snowball rolling downhill so i get that and I really have huge issues with that, but card like this,

Noce UFC, some states here. Someone deserves a little bit better for being honest. Kayla, I'm with you. I don't think the loss changes this discussion all that much.

However, I think the layoff does. I think the layoff does. Because it's going to be a year before we see her again. And so many times on this show, it's been, oh, what's going on with Kayla Harrison,

when she's fighting again? Like, she's always been a state. of these seasons. And for the first time, since she's been in the PFL really, and they started this format, she hasn't fought at all. She's just been a big mystery. All we've really seen her do is do the occasional interview, do some commentary, and that's it.

I was wondering if she wasn't going to fight this year at all. But I think PFL wants to milk whatever they can out of her, because it doesn't seem like she's going to resign with them. she might if this Bellator merger comes to be gives her something to do but I feel like if she's going to go to the UFC like she would have went to the UFC the UFC would have just ponied up a whole bunch of money

and it didn't seem like the UFC was going to pony up a whole bunch of money like Bellator came to the table with a bunch of money PFL matched it so she's there but she's got options now but with this PFL merger potential with Bellator you could do the cyborg fight. Like that fight's still there. Is this musty TV?

Is this like, oh, I got to spend 50 bucks to watch Kayla Harrison fight? No. And I don't think she really was there anyways, because the whole pay-per-view model for PFL to me makes no sense, at least right now, until like France's debuts. But even like last year, like who was excited about spending 50 bucks on the PFL finale? The card ended up being fun. and we got storylines and we saw Kayla Harrison

freaking lose, which is wild. Big moment for Larissa Pacheco. But no one was excited about spending $50 for that card because there was just, it was a PFL card. They just don't have that pizzazz. And I think with all the moves PFL is made and some of the storylines that have come out of this season in particular and the Francis signing and Jake Paul and all that,

like Kayla's not really the face anymore. Like absence, the layoff has kind of hurt her, really. But I am intrigued about this. Let's see how she does against Julia Budd. I expect her to go in there and do Kayla Harrison things and get a big win. But I'm curious to see, she doesn't lose very often at anything. And now she's got the chance to come back and coming off of a loss in a year layoff. I'm intrigued, but this isn't going to be.

to like the big selling point for the pay-per-view. So, yeah, I'm curious. And maybe we can get hurt in Cyborg. If Cyborg takes care of business against At Zengano at Bellator 300, I think that fight is a fight you have to make. Because, I mean, how much more time does Chris Cyborg have fighting? That's a big question. So, yeah, the layoff has hurt her, for sure.

but I think people will be a lot more intrigued about this fight after the layoff than they were before the Pacheco fight. Because a lot of people just kind of felt like she's going to go in there and win. But the good thing that has come out of this is that people are really understanding how good Larissa Pacheco is. And I kind of wish they went back to that rematch, but they didn't. So I think they kind of missed an opportunity. there, but big spot for Kayla. Let's see what she can do. All right, Panda, send us home. We got to go. All right,

never mind. Classic Panda. You've done it again, sir. All right, we are done. Thank you very much. Good week of shows. What a lot, just so much to react to in regards to this wonderful world of mixed martial arts. We will have a way in show.

Top of the hour, noon Eastern, Noce UFC. Jose is boots on the ground. So you can check that out. A.K. Lee, Casey Leiden will be live for the official Noce UFC Wayans. We'll have a preview show

3 p.m. Eastern. We'll talk about the main event. We'll talk about big storylines. There will be ceremonial Wayans. I don't think we're streaming it, but it's going to be outside today in Las Vegas. John Anick will be hosting. It's going to be outside in Vegas. That would be pretty cool for this event. And then we'll have the People's Pre-Fight show

tomorrow. Jose, like I said, is on the ground, so you'll get post-fight interviews with the winners. We'll have the post-fight press conference. We'll have the post-fight show. We'll have on to the next one on Sunday. And then we'll circle back around and get you ready for UFC Vegas, whatever the hell it is, or Raphael Fizier versus Matush Gamrod. So thank you all very much.

I'll see you guys at 3 p.m. Eastern for the preview show. Until then, have a great rest of your Friday. And as always, have a heck of a morning, everybody. Listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. You know, Thank you.