MMA Fighting - HOAM | Where Does Bantamweight Division Go If Sean O'Malley Wins Title At UFC 292?

Episode Date: August 15, 2023

Sean O'Malley will have his opportunity to capture UFC gold this Saturday when he faces bantamweight champ Aljamain Sterling in the main event of UFC 292 in Boston. Should O'Malley pull off the upset, does the division get flipped upside down? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck discusses how the UFC matchmakers could proceed should O'Malley win the title, who has more pressure on them between Sterling and O'Malley, and more. Additionally, listener topics include the co-main event between Zhang Weili and Amanda Lemos for the strawweight title, Chris Weidman's return against Brad Tavares flying under the radar, Khalil Rountree's title hopes at light heavyweight, and more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco 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. Support for this show comes from the Audible original The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian

in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster, the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now only from Audible. The Vox Media Podcast Network. Buddy, it is Tuesday, August 15th, 2023.

And it is indeed a heck of a morning. We are live on the MFA fighting Twitter spaces. We are live at the Savannah Hilton Head International Airport. for this program. And you can hear the show in its entirety shortly thereafter on the M.A. Fighting Podcasting Network. Hello, everybody. I am Mike Heck. As I said, at the airport,

getting ready to head to Boston, Massachusetts for UFC 292 fight week coverage. I will not be there the entire time. I will be there later on today through Saturday morning, and then I will leave Saturday morning for an early a.m. flight to New York for the watch party with Manjee C. So yeah, it's UFC 2992 fight week.

I'm just going to take questions from you all for the next 30 or so minutes. And then I'm going to get ready to board a flight, which I hope goes off on time. We've already gotten like a five minute delay, but hopefully that's the only one. The weather in Boston apparently is really shitty. So hopefully that changes quickly so I can get the hell out of here and back to my hometown. So if you guys got questions, things you want to get off your chest, line on up. and let's get this rolling. We will begin with my pal Toke,

who didn't get a Zotno submission read on Sunday by AK. I blame him for this. Yeah, yeah, that's fine. I'm going to get to that in the second. I want to talk about this card, which Dana apparently wasn't interested in either. He was busy finding three months old tweets from Ann Evans, which was strange.

But what I want to talk about is, of course, as you said Khalil Round 3 so he was the star of Saturday and I feel like I want to give him a main event I think he's earned it

I think he's there and we have a guy in the top 10 that needs to get a comeback fight and that is Alexander Rakich and I think that would be fitting I know this is I mean

that's an apex main event right it seems like a chance to get them both five rounds if it goes that long not that I think that it does but I think that's the matchup to make

and yeah so that's one and I want to hear what your thoughts are on that because I don't think anyone else actually suggested that on the show and the other thing is Terence McKinney he talked about

on the MMA hour that he might already have an opponent in September and I don't know if you've heard any whispers or if you could shed a light on some of that and I know he didn't remember which date it was so he doesn't know if it's Apex or Paris but I mean if you could find if you have some info on that we would like to hear it thank you thanks man as far as McKinney goes it's so hard to confirm his stuff because even if we

get wind of it those guys um from that management group They all have like their only fans account and they want to break news on that. So even if we could get the other side, trying to confirm the other side is going to be really tough because of how they like to announce their fights. So no real clue there, but it could be anybody. Terrence is just kind of in that position right now. The rackage idea for Roundtree, I'm fine with it. The only reason I didn't suggest it is because we just don't know what the hell's going on with him at this point. We have no clue.

So until I see something that he's ready to find. fight or he goes on social media and says fight announcement coming then i'll kind of have a better idea but yeah if they want to do that fight as a apex made event i'm fine i said i suggested azumat merzikhanov there have been far worse fight night main events of the apex than that one so that would work as well but yeah i'm cool with him getting a main event give him a fun fight and let's see what he can do for five rounds i mean we've we've had some pretty bad apex main events and Coleil deserves it.

Give him a shot. He didn't call it a name. He was very respectful as he always is. Give him a shot. See what he can do. And the Dana thing is just hilarious. I didn't see the tweets or the responses or anything, but it's funny that I saw a clip

like going through Instagram, like, reels yesterday. He was on Tyson's podcast, and he was like, live life. Don't fight. Don't get in fights with people, all that stuff. and here he is searching for fights on social media. The dude is already won.

I just don't understand it. But what can he do? It's the Boston and him. Foreign sniper, hello. Yep, I got you. Heck of a morning. I just want to talk about the co-main event going on this weekend between Zhang Wei Lee and Amanda Limos.

I haven't heard anybody really talking about the fight anywhere, like YouTube or even. on Twitter. I just wanted your thoughts on that fight and I guess how do you think it goes? What do you see? Yes. So, yeah, it was funny. We were joking on our Slack channel about that on Saturday because I honestly haven't heard the UFC even mentioned that fight until the broadcast on Saturday. But yeah, Zhang Wei-le defending her title in Boston against Amanda Lemosch. This just seems like a, look, Amanda Lemosch hit hard. She's a finisher. She's a, she's a good good fighter, but John's just on one right now, and I feel like this is going to be sort of a

showcase fight for her. I'm actually going to be on No Bet Spard this week. We're going to record later on this evening when I get to Boston. I'm actually going to play some ponies here. For science sake, never, I've only made one bet ever in MMA, and that was Frankie Edgar beating BJ Penn for the lightweight title. So it's been, I have not placed another bet. But for the sake of science and going on the show, you know, I'm going to play the ponies for. UFC 2992. Why the hell not? It's for science sake. It's for the show's sake. And there will be bets placed on Jean-Wea-League, for sure. Yeah, this is just kind of like what's going to happen

after that. Now, could Amanda Lehmush go in there and pull off an upset? Sure. Would it be surprising to me? Yeah. I wouldn't be like totally stunned after what we've seen the last few years. But I feel like Jean-Wea-Lee matches up really, really well with Amanda Lehmos. I think she gets her out of within the first 10 minutes in the fight, honestly. Let's go to Joe. What's up, Joe? Mike, I just wanted your thoughts on the new rules that the ABC passed this week about the icon, how you can get a cut person.

If there's a clash of heads that leads to a cut, like accidental clash of heads or even intentional. And then they changed it so that physician, they have to wait a minute and a half before they can ask the fighter if he's all right to fight instead of being able to go in there. There's like several small changes. I don't want to take too much time mentioning every one of them, but I'm just curious, your thoughts, your feedback on the changes by the ABC.

Thanks, man. Let me see if I can pull them up. I did see the cut rule. And that's fine. Let me see if there's other ones. Let's see what they, three new rules. So we got, let's pull them up. Five minute recovery time for a fighter cut by.

a foul now allows cut man and a cage rule number two concerns referee positioning after a file referees now have the discretion to position fighters appropriately after a file to ensure neither gains an unfair advantage or suffers a disadvantage from the incident i like the idea of that rule um but i kind of have to see a play out if it's the referee's discretion i don't know it depends the referee's going to have to know fighters very very well but it's a start when it comes to cheating and grabbing the fence If there's a fence grab and the ref wants to stop the fight and change positions. Cool with that, I've been saying that with fence grabs since day one.

It should be automatic position change. Or if it's for a takedown and a fighter holds the fence and can't get the takedown, rather than the referee just slap the hand away, he should stop it and be like, all right, it's a takedown. So get on your back, start it off, let's go. And then if it happens again with the same kind of consistency, you put them in the center of the cage, nowhere near a fence. And if it happens again, you take a point. So hopefully this is a good rule, but I don't know, I have to see it sort of play out. And rule number three, cooperation from ringside doctors and referees after an eye poke or any other file.

Clarification emphasizes that doctors should not ask fighters immediately if they can see after an eye poke. This ensures fighters are given the appropriate five-minute break to recover from an eye-poke incident. So yeah, that's a fine rule. But again, these are rules that sort of make sense on the surface, but we got to see them play out. I like the idea of rule number two, but I think there needs to be more to it than that. But at least they're trying. So I give them that.

Jay Stad, hello. You too, man. Thoughts on the Demand Blackshare versus Mario Batista matchup? How do you see that plan? Now, personally, I think Blackshare could get it done, but it's going to be tough. So what are your thoughts about that? So I was going to talk about this in the monologue,

but I figured I would wait until somebody asked and I knew somebody would. It was reported last night by bjepen.com that demand Blackshare is going to turn around real quick and replace Cody Garbrant to fight Mara Batista on Saturday. As of now, that is the plan. Blackshare is certainly the front runner, but that is not done yet. Contracts have not been signed. Anything like that has been agreed upon, at least from the conversations I've had, but to say that that is done and locked in and set in stone, would be premature at this time. But yeah, it's a good fight.

Listen, especially at Banimate, if you want to move up the ranks, if you want to make a name for yourself, if you want to make the big boss happy, these are the types of things you need to do. If you want to get over with the fans, if you want to get more well-known in a division that is as loaded as Banimate,

you fight as often as possible and you get on television as often as possible. If this fight does go through, and I actually think it's going, to, based on the conversations I've had, it's kind of a win-win for DeBan Blackshy. If he goes in there and is somewhat competitive and has a fun scrap of Mario Batista, that's good. The stock doesn't really drop too, too much, but I do feel like Mario Patis is probably going to win that fight. I know it's probably a little disappointing for Mario. Had a fight with the former champion,

a fight that he was probably going to win, let's be honest. But now he gets to stay on the card. I'd be stunned if this remains on the pay-per-view broadcast, but yeah, at least Mario gets to fight, he gets a paycheck, and if he can go in there and do work and get a finish of Demand Blackshare, or at least get a sort of a one-sided decision, good for him. But DeMond Blackshare is playing with house money here. Either way, the UFC is going to be happy with him, so it's an interesting fight. I mean, DeMond looked good, got the twister.

He's got a lot of buzz right now, so, yeah, take a shot. And if he can go out there and get a win, he makes a big leap because to me, Batista's like a top 20 guy, top 25 at the worst. That immediately puts him on Blackshare up there. And if you were saying before UFC Vegas 78 that, hey, in two weeks, this guy's going to be a top 25 Banimweight, probably wouldn't have believed me. But he's got the opportunity potentially and we'll see what happens. P Money, hello. Hey, good morning, Mike. So obviously, you know, Algebra and Sterling saying,

He wins. He's up. I mean, that's been expected. You've been saying that for a while. So let's say, you know, the UFC really like Sean. So if it's close, could I see him being the other half to that Marab fight for the belt? Yes. Well, let's say it's like, you know, a dominating 50, 45.

It's a submission, whatever. Are we really looking at Sehudo in the other half of that? Because, you know, Sanhagen, that was a boring main event. He's injured now. Like, is Sehudo the guy now for Marab? And then also, just quickly, I listened to between the links last week for the first time. Can you just explain, like, the scoring and the K-O round and, like, the meaning behind the name and all that? Thanks, Mike.

Sure. I think, honestly, I don't think San Hagan will be fighting for a vacant title. I just don't see it happening because, not only because of the performance, but because of just the injury and stuff like that. so I don't think Tommy's going to line up for him. I do feel like Henry Suhudo was a big winner after that card, after Sanhagen's win over Rob Font. So I think there's a very good chance that Sehudo ends up getting in that fight. The UFC seems to like him.

They like to put him in these positions. And there's a story between Marab and Henry Sehudo. However, if Sean O'Malley is super competitive or is on the wrong side of a splitie or something like that, and it's a really competitive fight, and Sean has his moments and he cuts a good promo after, maybe maybe who knows they could just do sehudo versus shahomali like that that's a possibility i think between those three guys should al jo vacate the belts defend successfully on saturday and move up to 45 it's between those three guys marab should 1,000 percent be a part of it now it's just a matter

of who his dance partner is going to be and he's got history with both those guys he's got history at sehudo he's got history with omali with the jacket i don't know i don't know i don't know maybe o'malley gets another win and then fights the winner of that one between marab and sehudo i actually feel like they're going to go sehudo and then sean gets another win somehow maybe they do him and chito the winner gets the title shot something like that but listen if if sean o'malley ends up winning this fight then he flips his whole division upside down and then there's just too much there's too much that could happen so yes i feel it's between those three guys and just a matter of how it all plays out.

Four corner sports. Oh, yeah, four corner sports, go ahead. And I'll talk about BTL in the second. Four corner sports, go ahead. All right. He's not in. We'll try again. So BTL was a show.

I started, I don't know, probably like six or seven years ago. It ended up being just like a panel show. I would just bring on different media members and we would just kind of yap back and forth. And it wasn't really a competition show at first. And then. There was a show on the loudmouthed MMA podcast now before I came to MAA fighting. It was called like Around the Cage or something, something of that nature.

And the guy who was hosting just wanted to be a panelist. So we just rebranded it as between the links. And it ended up being like me. And then it was like, I believe it was a four person panel. And we'd do two rounds. We'd eliminate somebody after the third. We'd eliminate somebody after the fourth. And then we'd go down to two.

and we do the knockout round at the end. We thought it might be too much when we got to end up fighting. It's hard enough to get two people to debate back and forth at each other, nevertheless four, and then do the points that way. And honestly, like I've said,

a million times of the show, the points mean nothing. Sometimes, like, I don't have to necessarily agree with them to get points. We really just go to the knockout round. Like, I want to get to the knockout round, and then we let sort of the people decide. Maybe I'm just a wimp,

and I don't want to make decisions. but that's kind of how it is. And I would love to do like a big one with like four people that we can just start eliminating people on once in a while. But yeah, that's basically how it was. It's just kind of morphed into all these different variations. So yeah, I'd love doing that show. It's one of my favorites.

And it's honestly one of those shows I think we could do much more with if we had, I don't know, if we had the logistics to do it, like do it into studio with multi-camera. is like I think we could do something really cool with that. But yeah, it's just really tough. And it's really, it's just easy to do it on the computer. But there's lots of stuff I have in mind that I think would be really cool. But I love BTL. When I got a great deal on a great gift at winners,

I started wondering, could I get fabulous gifts for everyone on my list? Like this designer fragrance for my daughter. It's just $39.99, how could I resist? This luxurious will throw for my sister, this gold watch, for my partner? A wooden puzzle for my niece? Leather gloves for my boss? Ooh, European chocolate for the crossing guard? At these prices, could I find something for everyone at Winners? Stop wondering. Start gifting. Winners find Fabulous for less. It's the matcha or the three ensemble Cadoce Scyphora of the fates that I've been to denishé who

energize o'clock? Mm, it's the ensemble. The form of standard and mini, regrouped, what old bo? And the embellage, too beau, who is practically pre to donate. And I know that I'd love them. But I guess I'd give them. But I guard the summer I'm sorry Fridays and Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez. I'm just a couple of desks of Cado of the Feds Cajora. Summer Fridays, Rare Beauty, Way, Cifora collection,

and other part of Vite. Procurre you see form of standard and mini, regrouped for a better quality of price. On link on Cifara.C. or in magazine. Let's go to Mikey. What's up, Mikey? So, another pay-review week. Ah, so curious. My mind's a little blank right now,

but I figured, I just thought of something the rest of this moment. If O'Malley wins, what's stopping him from? going up to 45 to go for two belts. And should the UFC entertain that? Now, as for the Maraud thing, as for, oh, and as for speaking of Aljo,

if Aljo retains, I wouldn't be opposed to him getting an immediate title shot at 1.45. I mean, it's basically a champion versus champion fight, you know what I mean? So anyways, happy fight week, y'all. Be kind of another. See you guys around. Yeah, I don't think O'Malley's going to do that.

And I don't think the UFC would let him. This division needs to move forward. And there's big fights for Sean O'Malley at 135. There's a Sohudo fight, which would be a big one. And honestly, if Sean O'Malley wins in Maraaba, Marlon Vera beats Pedro Munoz, which I'm expecting him to do in a competitive fight, they're just going to do that fight. They're just going to go ahead and run that fight, the rematch for the title.

It'd be massive. It'd be absolutely massive. If Sean O'Malley beats Algebrae Sterling and has this moment in Boston, because you know the fans are going to be behind him, he's going to just be positioned as a big star for the company. So it's basically going to be whatever he wants, but I don't think he's going to go to 45. I really don't.

Maybe run off three. Like if he wins, if he beats a hoodo and like beats Vera and then beats Barab, then sure, then go to 45 if you want to. But you got to, there's just too many contenders right now. And O'Malley would be the star of the division.

He kind of is already, even though Al's the champion. So, yeah, I don't think he moves to four. 45 anytime soon just because there's big fights. It's made event opportunities for him at 135. Not saying, I don't think the world's clamoring for a Volk fight. In fact, the world's not really clamoring for an Aljo Volk fight at this time.

But should Aljo move up if he wins and he will, he will get a title shot in this first fight? Is he going to get it immediately? No, he won't because they're going to do Volkanowski versus Iliotspur first. And then we'll see kind of where Volk is. Maybe Volk wants to go to 55, maybe they do another. term title situation. But that's got to be a really interesting story. Like, do they just throw Aljo right into a title fight?

They should. But we know how the UFC kind of feels about Al Jermann Sterling. They don't promote him as the guy. They really haven't since he's won the belts. And it's been a very strange title run. But even if he beat, it's just the Aljo story is going to be a really interesting one. I think he's going to be one of those guys kind of like a DC and a DJ where he'll be much more appreciated when he's gone. Like when he calls it a career.

he's working the desk or something. I think people are going to appreciate what he did a lot more. But even if he goes out and beats John O'Malley and just washes him, it's just they're going to be like, well, O'Malley's never really that good. And he's still not going to get the credit. So interesting spot. We'll see if he gets an immediate title shot,

but I think they will do the Tuporia fight first before they entertain that idea. Or who knows? Maybe they just want to throw Volk right in there for the lightweight title again. Maybe in February and March, or something against the winner of Islam and Olivera. Maybe they do Toporia versus Aljo for the interim title. I don't know. That'd be kind of a tough draw, though.

There's a lot that's in play here, that's for sure. Full Corner Sports. We're going to go for about eight more minutes. So if you last call, if you want to get questions. What's that for four sports? Can you hear me now? All right. Yep.

All right. So I feel like a lot of people are not really talking about these two fights in particular, the Jean-Wei Lee fight versus Mandelamos, and Chris Wyseman. versus Brad Savarres. How much percentage do you give Brantt on what's it called Chris Wyman defeating Bratts of ours? I feel like it's a huge question mark to see how he does.

Recurring from that nasty injury that he had against Uriah Hall. To be honest, I never wanted Wyman to return back because I just felt like he was at the tail end of his career. But, you know, I'm going to be locked in on that fight. And then also, as for Jean-Wei Lee versus Man at Lemos. Now, I didn't realize that Lemos did fight at 135. She found out about that in the U.S.C. countdown. Zhang versus Lemos, I actually think that this fight can not make it to the cards.

Is there a possibility that you think that Jean could get caught? Just because I feel like she looked unsophable against everybody that's not named Rosnamain Eunice. and just very intrigued on this matchup because if that, if she could get passed through Lamos, then they could do her against Yonge Jannan, and then, you know, maybe possibly Tatiana moving on forward. And then lastly, what's it called, the Sean O'Malley wins, how big of a stock is it going to be boosted up for him?

All right, thanks, Mike. So I touched on the Zhang Lamos fight. Could Lamos catch her, sure? I just don't think she does. I mean, I honestly think that's the only way Lamos can win this fight if she lands a big shot out of nowhere. But I think Zhang's just got to beat her up. She's going to take her down.

She's going to either submit her. She's going to punch her in the face a bunch. John's just on one right now. She's just, she's in the zone. I think she learned a lot from the Rose Knockout loss. I actually thought, I actually thought John won the rematch. Even then the rewatch, I thought John won that fight. So I think she took a lot away from that.

And she just absolutely steamroll caro Sparza. And, you know, Lamos is big and, strong and she's powerful, but Zhang is just better than her pretty much everywhere. Lemos does have some power, but so does Jean. John could land a big shot knock out of Madoge too, so I just think

Zhang's better, if like equal or better everywhere, and she has a big advantage on the ground. Her top control is nasty, and I think she's going to do really well. Yeah, I am with you with not a lot of people talking about the Chris Widman fight.

I feel like Wyden's got a chance. I think it's a really good like comeback fight for him you can't just give him you can't give him jamy picket no disrespect to jamey picket you can't give him that you got to give him somebody with somewhat of a name of that top 25ish guy and i i feel like this is about as good as it can get for for chris wyden he has advantages with the wrestling i i expect a grappling heavy approach from chris wyatman and i think he's got a good chance to win this fight i think he's got a good chance to win this fight. It's going to be interesting to see how Tavares plays this out. Is he going to go in

and start kicking him in the legs over, like immediately? If I'm him, even though some people will give him crap for it, it's probably what I would do. And we'll see how Wyman can handle it. See what happens when he throws a kick, checks a kick. But I do expect a grappling heavy approach from Chris Wyman. If that's

what happens, if he's able to get takedowns early and can hang on, I think it's a fight he can win. I really do. I really do. And if Sean O'Malley wins, it's a huge shock rise for him. He beats the guy, he beats one of the longest reigning champions in the history of the division. The only guy to defend the title three consecutive times, it's a huge win for him.

It's a huge win for him. It solidifies everything the UFC has been trying to do with this guy for a while and everything he says he is. And I'm not ruling it out. I'm not ruling it out. But I do think I was just going to win. But I'll just definitely get going to have to mind this piece and cues in this fight. for sure. All right, so we got Mafu, Jemir, and Eric.

There's four people in mind. I'm going to get to all of you. We're just going to go rapid fire because I've got to get out of here. So, uh, mafu do we have you? Mafu do we have you. You just got to unmute yourself. Hey, what's up, man? How you doing?

There we go. Good, good. So I just want to go back the last time I spoke on here, I spoke about Khalil Round Shui. And yeah, my boy is now ranked 11. I still think within the next two years, he gets a title what's your thoughts on that keeps doing what he's doing he's got an opportunity keeps doing what he's doing he's got a chance but he's consistent he's won four in a row and this is

it's always that warrior with roundtree it goes out and has a blistering performance and then bounces back the next fight and it's just not the same guy but he's brought the he's brought the violence pretty much consistently across the board so yeah i like what i see how quickly will he get to a title shot i don't know man i actually i don't know if two years If he's super active in those two years, it wins like five or six fights, sure. But he's just, he's not like a callout guy. He's not going to make headlines outside of his fights. And there's nothing wrong with that.

I appreciate that oftentimes. But you got to kind of have it all to get bumped up real quick. And this division is just really weird right now. I've had the title vacated a whole bunch. Jamal Hill is probably going to vacate. It appears he said he was going to. We're going to do Yuri versus Alex. at some point.

Apparently that fight is almost locked and loaded. Date TBD, but I mean, I think that's the one everybody expects. Then Jamal Hill is going to come back and probably fight the winner. So the road's going to be kind of a tough one for him. But yeah, if he keeps doing what he's doing,

he's good to go. We'll keep this rapid fire going. Real quick, Faisal, hello, if we can get you. Do we have you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hello, hello. Hello.

Thanks for having me on, bro. a question. Don't you think it's just better for the Bantam Warwick Division in general if Sean O'Malley wins because then there's a storyline against Marlon Vera if he wins his fight because obviously he lost to him. It's his only loss. And also what Sterling is planning on moving up to Featherade anyways. So he pretty much beat everybody.

What do you think about that? I mean, it'd be great for the UFC. Obviously, it's best for business for the UFC if Sean O'Malley wins his fight because he's a bigger star than Al Jermaine Sterling. It just is what it is. so and then you could do these big fights but it just depends on what you're looking for if you're looking for box office yeah it's best for ufc for shahmalley to win the belt and then we could do the vera fight and all

that but then you kind of screw over the marabs the sandhagans not that i think san haggen would get a vacant title fight anyways but imagine being cori sanhagen who just put the wood to marlin vera even though it's labeled as a split decision it was not a split decision it was not a like that was a clear win, clear one-sided win for Corey Sanhagen. Can you imagine if Marlon Vera beats Pedro Munoz and then leapfrogs him to a title shot? I would get it and that's probably what's going to happen. But if I'm Sanhagan, I'm like, oh, come on, man. And then Marab doesn't get a title shot?

Like, that's just wild. That's just insane. So for the UFC, business-wise, yes, that's what they want. And I think deep down, they'll never come out and say it, but they're rooting for Shawto-Malley. 100%. They're rooting for Sean O'Malley. because he becomes an even bigger star if he wins this fight.

But if you're a fan of meritocracy and who deserves what and all that, it's not good. It's not good because Marab ain't getting one. Sohudo, you know, probably ain't get one anyways, but unless it's vacant, Sanhagen gets jumped over probably by Marlon Vera, who just lost the Sanhagen in his most recent fight. So, yeah, the division looks way different if Sean O'Malley wins.

but the UFC will be okay with that because O'Malley Vera is the biggest fight they can make in this division right now. Daniel, hello. Hey, Mike, can you hear me? Yes, sir. Perfect. Well, a heck of a morning to you.

Just wanted to get your opinion on Contender Series this week. I know we talked about a little last week just how crazy how many contracts they gave out, but I didn't think it was a coincidence that they also had seven fighters coming into last week's UFC card on a losing streak, including, you know, guys like Chris Dawkins and J.P. buy. So I feel like they had a couple guys to cut and give contracts, but just curious what you

think this week's Contender Series is going to look like and how many contracts they give out. Have a safe flight, Mike. Well, they're going to give away four at least. If Hyder Emile, who I like a lot, if Hyder Emile wins, he may not get one because he missed weight, but there is precedent sent that you can miss weight and have a finish and look good to Dana and still get a contract. So we'll get four or five. we'll get four or five this is the George Hardwick show this is this is what this event is

but I think all the winners are going to get contracts Hyder Emil will be interesting because he did miss weight but this is what the show is going to be this is what the show is now unless the fights are just awful but even then we saw

Kyle Machado get a contract and that fight was not fun at all so look at this is what the show is you get on the show you get Tuesday fights hardcore Mets fans love it and then we get to make some dreams come true and that's great but to me it's just it's losing its luster it's watered down and i went through last week season one and two like how hard it was to get a contract like we had guys getting 46 second spinning back fist finishes and

weren't getting contracts because they didn't feel the ufc was ready but this is a whole different thing now we have the espn deal we have to fill spots we have apex cards we need to fill with these kinds of guys. We've got to cut some of the big money fighters who are on losing streaks and bringing guys on 10 and 10 and 12 and 12. Like we know what this is. But I wish there was some sort of threshold where you have to at least do this much to get a contract, not just going and win. So yeah, I think we're getting a four or five. And that's going to be the, it's going to be what happens every single week. We're going to get 45 to 50 contracts this season, without a doubt. Jamir and then we'll go to Eric and the next. And the next,

going to go jane what's up man i was asking um do you think leon and colby's going to co-main the john jones d'bate car and then who do you think will be the main and co-main for a december car if connor isn't ready it's a great question yes to the colby one but i have no like actual insight i'm just trying to play tetris here with these fights uh dana said there's going to be another fight announced for october uh the co-main event for abou dhabi assume it's going to be the women's band-in-weight fight, but maybe they do, who knows, maybe they do Yuri versus Alex on that card as the co-main event, because you're not going to, like, it's usually the higher weight class gets the billing, but in Abu Dhabi is on

Mokchev's fighting. He's got to be in the main event. So maybe it goes there. I don't know. We kind of have to wait and see. Kind of have to wait and see. December, like I've been saying for a while, I do feel like we're going to get the Conor Chandler fight on that card.

I feel like we're going to get it. I don't know. I've been, I've been, I guess, a little more optimistic than most. A lot of people worried about the USADA thing. Why? Why are you worried about that? He's Connor McGregor. He's Connor McGregor. This isn't Mario Batista coming back after a two and a half year layoff. Don't disrespect Mario Batista. He's a really good fighter, but he's not Connor McGregor. Like, Connor, there are no rules for Connor. He's the biggest star in the history of the sport. Connor wants to fight in December and just wants to pass two tests to get it. They're going to make it happen.

They're going to make it happen. Remember, the UFC doesn't work for Usada. Usada works for the UFC. So I do feel like we're going to get that fight. Chandler's been teasing some stuff that people have been kind of quote tweeting and screenshoting. He's going to be apparently at ESPN headquarters talking about Tuff and a potential fight with Connor. This is the last episode of Tuff. Later on tonight, I kind of feel like they're going to announce the date.

and I think it's going to be December. But again, no real insight. This is just some of my guts telling me and this is what my guts been telling me the whole time. So what will co-man event December? I have no idea. But I kind of feel like, kind of feel like maybe, I don't know.

I don't know. It's tough to say. There's many, there's multiple title fights. I'd like to see the Islam Olivaa card get the Yuri Alex vacant title fight. November we do Jones Steepay, Leon Colby,

vacant women's Bannamway title fight, and then December, we do Connor, and then it really doesn't matter. It really doesn't matter. Maybe you do like Wonderboy Usman as the co-main event? Like, who's going to complain about that? So Connor's the big wild card here. But I, again, I'm way more optimistic than most

that that flight's going to happen in December. All right, Eric, last one. I got to go. I apologize for the other guys waiting, but I have to go. I have to hop on an airplane. Eric, hello. I can see Aljo taking it to the later round.

And I agree on that December card between McGregor and Notcheno that's going to happen. So thanks, guys. Yeah. Honestly, I did. You know what, maybe I'll take a couple more. This fight ain't going to the cards.

I'll be stunned if this fight goes to the cards. This Al Javier main Sterling, Sean, and Malley fight. I think either Sean's going to just clip him within three rounds or Alger's just going to smush him and tap him within three rounds. rounds. Like this fight ain't going. If it goes to the cards, then it's going to be

one of the best fights of the year if it goes to the cards, honestly. But Aljo's got a huge chip on his shoulder. Look, is it bad for O'Malley if he loses this fight? Sure. But this is like all the pressures on Aljo here. He's supposed to walk in and beat this dude. Sean O'Malley, if he loses this fight, all he's got to do is win one more and he's right back in the mix. So there's not a ton of pressure here for Sean. Is he going to deal with like, some short-term backlash and some shit talk, sure. But is he going to lose a lot of luster if he loses to Sterling? No.

He'll be right back. So I think all the pressures on Algebra and Sterling here. And I think it's going to be a fun fight. All right, Septian, real quick. What do you got? If we can get past the spinning wheel of doom. Oh, do we have you? Unmute yourself.

We got you. Septiana, you're there. Unmute yourself. all right we tried okay well that's it everybody um gonna get ready to hop on a plane off to boston lots of content this week we got media day tomorrow we got the press conference on thursday this is going to be another media day on thursday as well uh i believe tataena swores is going to be there rob font calvin cater joe lozon and then friday obviously well the morning way in the ceremonial way ins there's going to be a 30th anniversary

street Q&A at the garden with font, cater, Lozon. I believe Chal Sondon is going to be a part of that as well. So that will be fun. And no bets barred. I'm going to be on No Betts Bard this week with the fellas with Jed and G.C. We're going to be recording that later on today. So lots of content. Stick with us.

M.AFighting.com. As Jed says, it's a terrific website. And shout out to Jed going on MK and just absolutely crushing it with my man, B.C. That was a good time. If you haven't checked it out, go check on Morning Combat. Jed was on with BC. But thank you all very much.

Back on this show Thursday, 10 a.m. Eastern will be live from Boston, Massachusetts, and we'll answer your questions again. So until that, everybody, thank you for listening. Have a great rest of your day. And as always, have a heck of a morning, everybody.