MMA Fighting - HOAM | Where Does UFC 295 Lineup Rank Among Promotion's MSG Cards?

Episode Date: November 10, 2023

UFC 295 will take place at Madison Square Garden, a historic arena that has featured some of the biggest moments in combat sports, and memorable UFC events. While Saturday’s card is incredibly interesting for the hardcore MMA fan, the vibes for an MSG fight week don’t seem to be there compared to others. Where does UFC 295 rank on paper compared to the promotion’s other six events? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck discusses that topic and goes through the prior lineups for the UFC’s annual trip to The World’s Most Famous Arena. Additionally, topics include the UFC 297 lineup, possible underdog value from a betting perspective, the upcoming Alexander Volkanovski vs. Ilia Topuria title fight slated for UFC 298, and much more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco 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 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. To the Vox Media Podcast Network. All right, everybody, it is Friday, November 10th, 2023. It is indeed a heck of a morning. We are live on the NBA fighting Twitter spaces.

You can do the show at its entirety when we're done here on the M. Fighting Podcasting Network. What's going on, everybody? I am Mike Kack. Not only is it November 10th, we are on the eve of UFC 295.

The Wayans just wrapped up not that long ago. Hope you guys got the chance to check out AK and Casey and Jose on the Wayans show. The big fights are on. There go. Alex Pereira, Yuri Perashka,

both under the championship limit. Pereira is at 204. Brahachka, 204.2. And the heavyweights in the co-main event for the interim title, Sergei Pavlovich 259.8. Tommy Aspinall actually weighing in more than that, 261.6. I think that's the most Tom Aspinall has weighed

in his UFC run thus far. And we did have two misses. Jamal Emers, missed weight by a pound ahead of his fight with Dennis Bajuka. No word. on fines, what's going to happen there. I assume that we'll go forward.

And the other weight miss, although not very surprising, although I'm seeing a lot of people give him a bunch of crap for this, but Roosevelt Roberts, who took this fight on less than a week's notice, miss weight by two pounds. So I assume that fight will probably go forward as well with Wittuch-Rabetsky. And we will see how that all pans out. Hopefully we'll get word soon on what happens there. Once I find out, I will let you guys know as well.

But, yeah, let's take your calls. We're going to go for about 40 or so minutes. Let's get through as many of these as we can. Four corner sports, go ahead. Okay, it's not going through for some reason. Let's see if we can get Absualia through. There we go. Go ahead.

How are you doing? Hello, sir. Good. Yeah. So I just wanted to ask your thoughts on, with Elya Teporia and Volk, right. I know that fights months away,

but I was just watching a few of their fights, you know, recent old stuff. I'm rarely curious to see if Elia's boxing will get the upper hand against Volk, despite how good a strike of Volk is and his switch stance and distances, and also, you know, the wrestling and jiu-tzu,

that's a very massive question. You know, Volk's probably the toughest dude to probably ever submit in modern U.S. history, in my opinion. But I'm definitely curious to see how that far goes. And another thing I really want to see from Volk is, will he be able to use his wrestling really effectively the way he did on, you know, Ortega, on Jaya Rodriguez, and even, you know, some of the other fighters he thought when he just first. joined the UFC. That's all I have. I have a great day. It's great fight. I am I am incredibly fascinated by that one, especially after Volk just got obliterated by Islamakachev. Like is February too soon? Is father time catching up with Volkanowski? We knew this day would come at some point. Has it arrived? Was it the short notice nature? It's not an excuse. Never going to use it.

Neither will he, but we're going to find out in February because Iliott's poor. He's not going to go in there and try to point fight Volk. He's going to try to take his freaking head off. So, yes, fascinating fight, looking forward to it. And we're going to learn a lot about both guys here. We're going to learn a lot about both guys. I feel like February is too soon for Volk, but it's better than January. So I'm okay with that.

It is February 18th, so it's about a month after that. So he gets an extra like four weeks. I'll take it. But yeah, it's a huge fight for Volk. It's a huge fight. He could be leaving February 18th with losses in three of four. And no longer being the featherweight champion. But boy, after that lost to Makachev, there were a lot of questions.

Can he come back? Yeah, here's a really difficult style matchup. And Volk pretty much perfect gameed him as he's done to his last bunch of featherweight opponents. Did it to Zombie, did it to Holloway, did it to Yair. I mean, he didn't even break a sweat in either of those fights. Three incredibly impressive title defenses. So the good thing about the Makachep lost is now Volk is just going to fight featherweights. And that's a world I want to live in.

Because there's all these people out there keep telling Mike, Volk has cleaned out this division. No, he hasn't. No, he has not. He's not even close to cleaning out the division yet. So there's like three or four guys that are going to be coming for him and starts with Toporia. We got a Vloyaf. Arnold Allen's coming. There's a lot of dudes coming that I want to see Volk fight. So it's going to be an interesting stretch for him through 2025 or 2024 and into 2025.

if he's still the champion. Jamack, go ahead. Hey, Mike. I was just looking at the card this weekend, and there is three dogs I like. I like Pravola. I like

Gaudinez and what was the other one? Godinez is a favorite. Oh, she's favorite now? Mine's one seven. Yeah, she's been the favorite all week. Okay, well, never mind that on that one.

And then I was looking for a third, and I was thinking, Sabatini possibly versus Diego Lopez. What do you think about some good dogs this weekend? What's your take? Thanks, man. Let me look at my bets real quick to see what kind of dogs I'm looking at here. What do I have for dogs?

I got Diego Lopez. Sabatini is the favorite, but just like it's down to a pickup now. I got Diego Lopez a plus 100, so I took that. I took Tabitha Ritchie against Loopy. Not loving that, but I kind of feel like they're very similar in a lot of ways. It's almost like Tabitha is what like Lupy, like if Loopy wasn't as, I don't know what's the word I'm looking for. I'm not going to say reckless because Lupy's not reckless, but she is a little more chaotic. She does bring the fight a little bit more.

But Tabith Ritchie is a very smart fighter, and she's been able to neutralize fighters who bring the ruckus and they're able to bring the chaos and can get quick finishes and throw flurries and do all that. She's done very well in those types of fights. And I think Tabith has probably fought better competition all in all, a little bit more experience inside the Octagon. She's on a nice run right now. And Tabith has been very consistent.

She's been very consistent. Loopy has looked great when she's been great, and she's looked pretty bad when she's hasn't had her had her fastball so i think there's value at reachie a plus 142 wouldn't shock we have loopie lost if loopy won but i think there's i think this should be lined a little bit closer so i think there's a little bit of value there uh sabatini still the favorite they're both minus money right now sabatine's minus 118 deago lopez minus 102 so it's dropped two points it was minus 120 for sabatini plus 100 for diego when i took it boy that line on for vola is dropping a little bit.

For Volo was like a plus 220 a couple of days ago. He's down to a plus 180. So apparently you're not the only one who feels like he's a, he's a dog. But man, I got a bunch of exposure on Ben Wasson Tini here. It's just, he has just been a friggin' wrecking ball. And he's gonna be a tough off for anybody. And it's tough to pick against Matt. I kind of don't like that I'm doing it, but I got a lot of, I got, uh,

Where's my exposure here? I got Santany by KOTKO at plus 165. That's what I have. And then I have, I have like a little weird parlay with BSD and Dern that pays out a plus 119 because I didn't want to bet on them individually. So I just parlayed them together. So that's where I'm at here. Let me see the rest.

Uh, do, do, do. I feel like Dern's just going to. a smush And Raj, but I mean, I do think there's value at plus 170 there. She doesn't look great, but who knows? McKenzie reverts back to the pre-Angela Hill McKenzie, then Andrade has a very good chance of winning that fight. I mean, Kyeongho Kang, it dog money's not bad. Yeah, it's not like a ton. This is a weird card to bet on, honestly. It really is. So I don't have a ton of bets. I mean, the things that I have

wagers on for the watch party, I have like just a lot of exposure on. So I have like a lot of props, a lot of parleyes, some over-under stuff. I think the only individual bets that I have are, that aren't proppy is Lopez, Aspinall, Pereira, and Ricci. Everything else is like a parlay or

some sort of proppy prop. But I guess that's a good match-made card because it gives gamblers some, some tough choices to make. Four Cornersports do we have you? Yes. So I wanted to talk about, what's it called? Matt McIvola versus Ben-Wan-Saint-Denis.

So I have, I wasn't sure of who to pick. I just put it as under two and a half, and fight ends by knockout. Just because I know Ben-Wan-Santhini is very tough and very durable. I think his lone loss in the UFC was at Welterweight. but something I wasn't sure who to pick but something tells me that

Maxoval is just going to feed off the energy that's inside the garden and pull through but then, you know, how can you bet against BSD? I was talking to what's the call a couple of my buddies and we were discussing

I don't know, I feel like the momentum and the vibes are screaming that Lupi Godinus is going to pull this one through. I know that Tabba's, her long loss was against a manor funeral, but I just feel that Lupi, I think she's grown better as a fighter, and I think her growth and her development, I feel like especially, you know, training down there with Moreno and the rest of the guys and girls in Mexico. I feel like she has more tools to expose Richie than Richie exposing Lupi. I have a parlay of

Lopez and Lupi. I think I got it at like plus 120 now. But yeah, what do you think? Do you think Lupi gets it done over Ritchie inside the distance?

So you think this fight goes to the cards? Thanks, Mike. This fight is definitely going to the cards. I mean, let me see what the over. It's got to be a two and a half over.

Over two and a half is minus 425. That should tell you everything you need to know here. This is going to the cards for sure i don't know i mean look let's look at her resume i thought she beat jessica pennay it was a close fight she did take it on somewhat short notice savagna gomez horres no longer in the ufc launa carolina i mean she lost that fight but that was one of those ones where she went up a

weight class and fought seven days after the gomez hwarz win beats loma age as well carnalosi Okay, fighter, not great. Gets a step up against Angela Hill, loses that fight. Close fight with Cynthia Calvio. Very, very close fight. I felt like Loopy probably won, but that was way too close for comfort

against someone who was on that big of a losing streak. Emily to Cody, fine win, not a great win. Elise Reed, not a great win. I mean, she's doing what she needs to do. She's a good fighter. She's a good fighter. but is she a top 15 fighter? We're going to find out.

Let's look at Ritchie's resume right now in the UFC. Lost to Fioro, beat Olivera, beat Viana, beat Penny, beat Jillian Robertson. This is a good fight. I feel like they're just, they're so similar. Their games are very similar in a lot of ways. So, and I just feel like Tabith has been doing this just a little bit longer. longer and like at this kind of a level.

I know loop loopie's got more actual fights, but early on in her career, she was just fighting everybody on the regional scene. I don't know. It's going to be a good fight. That's why I, like, I think when I actually do like my MMA fighting staff picks, I'll probably pick loopie.

But I got, I just think there's value on Ritchie because I think they're just so similar. It's plus 140. The line really hasn't. moved. I think it's lined right, but two similar fighters. I don't think one's truly better than the other. I'll take a shot on the dog here. I'm not confident, but I'll take a shot on the dog. That's where I'm at. And please don't tail me on any betting. Like, I'm literally betting. I literally bet on

just the watch party cards and the ones that I'm on no bets barred for. Like if I have to hop in for Jed or GC. I am by no stretch somebody you should be tailing. The one bet you could have tailed me on was my all-in bet that Logan Paul Dylan Dennis actually happens. So I'm actually like up units on the year, even though my record is horrendous. But I bet I went like banana. I think it was like a 15-unit bet on that fight actually happening. And it did. So I'm over the top here.

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Stop wondering. Start gifting. Winners find fabulous for less. Let's go to Cole. Yeah, Cole. Hi, Mike. Given that we're at MSG tomorrow, I just want to know if you feel the same way about how I feel about this. But UFC 205 in 2016 at MSG the first time,

I think that to me, like whenever I look back on that card, the UFC's never been more credible, more professional, more grand. Just everything about that main card, not even talking about Habib, Michael Johnson, really, just everything about that main card and the way it was put together the production, the crowd, Connor, freaking Chris Wyden, Yowell Romero, Yowana versus Carolina, and then Woodley and freaking Thompson putting on a hell of a fight. I mean, that card to me, whenever I look back at that is just, let's kiss UFC.

like it felt so big that night like i felt like the sport could never have been bigger the sport was on a rocket ship after that night i just i just want to know if you feel the same way about that yeah that was i mean look there's been a there was a fight for years to get the ufc and m mma on a professional level legalized in new york and it took forever there were hurdles to jump over so many things crooked to ask politicians, like all sorts of things they needed to overcome in order to get this to pass. And it was close many times, never went through. And then finally, it came through in 2016. And they went right to Madison Square Garden.

That's where it all started. This is the first event in New York under this era, like where the UFC was just sold for over $4 billion. Connor's the biggest star in the sport coming off the win over Nate. 2016 was the most chaotic year ever I mean this card was everything just fuck it like look at this card it's insane

Liz Karmoucheathe Caitlin Chukagian that was the first fight of the card Jim Miller Tiago Alves that was the second fight Vicente Lucke Bilal Muhammad that was the third fight

Tim Boch Hoffiel Natal was the fourth fight on the prelimbs by the way Habib Narmaga Madoff against Michael Johnson. That was the coming out party for Habib Namauga Madov. To me, and this includes the Connor fight,

I know Connor's the bigger fight, but this was the most important night of Habib Nirmagameh Madov's rise. This was it. This was when everybody was like, all right, this guy's got something. Cut the promo, beat the shit on Michael Johnson. He's talking to him.

He's telling him, like, just stop fighting. Just stop fighting because I'm not going to stop. He's talking to Dana White while Josh Thompson's trying to give him instructions in the corner. Calls out Connor. And if you recall, before Connor was going to fight Eddie Alvarez, Habib was the guy. They used Habib as like a bargaining chip in order to get Connor in there. It's crazy. And then Habib just destroys Michael Johnson, who, by the way, knocked out Dustin Porriere in his fight before that.

So Johnson was on a nice little trajectory. And that is just about, I mean, Habib just mauled him. And there's this moment where Joe Rogan's like, oh, he heard him, he heard him. No, he didn't. Because Habib got 10-8s off that. The landscapers are here, of course, at the perfect time. But we're just going to battle through it. Frankie Edgar, Jeremy Stevens was the feature prelim.

Then we got Misha Tate's retirement fight where Kel Pennington gets the win. The sad moment where Chris Wyman gets knocked out in the third round by Yowell-Romera. Yoanna and Caroline Colvich actually a pretty good fight. Yonahua One. Woodley Thompson fight that people sort of forget because the second one was so terrible. This was the fight of the night. And then Connor has the perfect game against Eddie Alvarez. Like this was an incredible event. This was an incredible event.

And then they followed it up with the Bisbing GSP card, which was fine. It turned out to be GSP's final fight, so that's obviously a very big deal. But we got that. We got Dillishat Garbrat, Rosamie Unis. Yawani and Jacek. Actually, this car wasn't bad. Like, now that I think about it, it wasn't bad at all.

Stephen Thompson, Jorge Mazadol was on that card. Paul Costa, Johnny Hendrix. That was kind of like the beginning of the end for Johnny Hendricks. We saw it. We were watching the rise of James Vic at the time. knocked out Joe Duffy. OSP head kicks Corey Anderson. A lot happened on that card.

And then we got UFC 230. This was a tough hang, my friends. This was a cobbled together card. We ended up getting Daniel Cormier and Derek Lewis in the main event for the heavyweight title where neither guy was healthy, but they just needed something. We had another sad Chris Widman moment with Jockeray. Jared Cannonier, David Branch, was the first. featured about Carl Roberson, Jack Marshman was the second fight of the main card,

and Israel Adasani, Derek Brunson opened the main card. It's a tough one. That's a tough one. And then we got 244, BMF title five with Mazadol and Diaz, but that's not a card that honestly is, like, aged gracefully in terms of like, man, we have to go back and watch that. Prelims are good. prelims are good and then Kevin Lee just annihilated Gregor Gillespie and then the main card was

Derek Lewis Blagoi Ivanov going to a split decision Thompson-Luke was a good fight Darren Till Kevin Calvin Gassum was a terrible fight and then Mazadol and Nate ended in somewhat controversial fashion but that was probably the best Mazadol has ever looked in a fight then we get Usman Covington 2

Adasania Pereira and then we get this card A lot of people have been asked me like where I rank this one compared to like MSG cards. For what like they bring to MSG, it's probably like I love this card, me personally. As someone who is going to watch these fights, I am looking forward to it. The top two fights are incredibly fascinating. McKenzie during just gunge, fine fight. There's stakes. It matters.

BSD and Frivola is awesome. That fight is great. Diego Lopez, Pat Sabatini, like, I know we're going to get there. We're going to get an absolute chaotic scramble fest. It's going to look like a cartoon fight where you're just going to see a bunch of rolling around and smoke. That's what those two guys are going to be. So it's going to be a super fun main card for us, all of us who are listening to my voice right now. But like the casual appeal, like, is this going to do great on pay-per-view?

No, I don't think it's going to. I don't think this is going to do great on pay-per-view. I don't think it's going to do like $500,000. I think it might do like $3.000. it's just Joan Stepe this probably does close to a million but that fight is nowhere near as interesting as the two title fights we're getting tomorrow so it's just one of those weird cards I think action-wise it's great but if you look at the actual top to bottom lineup compared to most of these other cards I mean too like just look at 281 Carlos Ulberg Nikolai Negamarianu was the first fight like that's a good fight montel jackson julio arse was the second fight we got mike trezano we got carolina

colvocavich on the like early early prelims mat frivola knocks out ottman ozaitar to close the those are the fight past prelums and then we get petrosky term we got erin blanchfield's coming out party against moly canne spanned dominic reyes hanato moikano cuts the promo of the year after he submits It's Brad Riddell. And then we get hooker, Pueyes. We get Gutierrez, Edgar, which is sad because the way it ended. But the feature fight was Dustin Poyer, Michael Chandler, and then we got two title fights. So, yeah, I don't feel like, I just don't feel the same energy for this one as I did last year, as I did for 268, as I did for certainly 205.

I don't know if you're going to ever top the vibes heading into 205. But yeah, man. But this is, yeah, 2.05 is the perfect storm. This is just a card. Like, it's a, it's a really good card. You put this card anywhere else and we're like, yeah, this is sick. But MSG, I just think as fans we expect, big names and like a top to bottom stacked lineup. And while I love the lineup and I think it's going to be a fun night of fights,

this isn't the typical MSG lineup, if you will. But it's certainly not the worst UFC card at MSG. Even Bellator did an MSG card. It's Sun and Silva, Mitrione Fador, and that was the infamous Brent Premis Michael Chandler

fight that ended when one of the commission members moved Chandler's stool out of the way and Chandler fell on his ass. So, yeah, some history at MSG, my friends. Oh, I mean, if you guys want to keep going, we'll keep going. But we got a hot bone in here.

Otherwise, we'll wrap up. We do have a preview show at 1.30 p.m. Eastern time. So we'll be talking a lot more about that. MMA hour live from New York City, 6.30 p.m. Eastern. That's going to be a lot of fun with Ariel G.C., New York, Rick, and the crew. There's probably some special guests along the way. We'll have the People's Pre-Fight Show tomorrow. And obviously, we'll have the watch party.

and all the other shenanigans as well. So it's going to be a fun weekend, everybody. Let's go to Clearst Values. What's up Clearst Values? I've been to talk to you in a hot minute. You know, Mike, heck, we're moving and shaking over here. We're not spending as much time on X, unfortunately. Hey, I don't blame you, my man.

It's, you know, there are better places, unfortunately. But regardless, so Mike, just to give you a little bit of background, I'm here in Manhattan, I'm here in New York City, and I was eyeing these MSG tickets. for a couple months now. And I decided I wasn't going to pull the trigger when they were $1,000. And then the John Jones fight fell through. And I was like, all right, that's kind of a bummer.

But I think it's going to lower the prices. So I look at the prices and keep in mind that, like, it's still New York, so it's always going to be pretty stupid. But right now, they're sitting at about $3.50 to get in the door. What is Mike's heck's number that makes buying tickets? for Madison Square Garden for this UFC event worth it? What is your threshold? Have you been to a UFC event before? I have not been.

I've been to, I actually went to a PFL event before I went to a UFC event. Um, I mean, look, I've, for me, because I've been to a, like, even before I started covering events, I would go anytime I could. Like, when they're in Boston, I went to everything. I think I went to every single card in Boston, whether as a fan or covering it. And that includes the Frankie Edgar BJ Pen card and the James Tony, Randy Couture fiasco and all that shit. But I've been to a few, and obviously I wasn't spending $350 on tickets. Like I think I would, I went as a fan with like the same buddy three years in a row.

And we had like good seats. We're like right in the middle, in the loge section. We're in the balcony. We're in the floor. We're right in the middle, which is like Primo in terms of fight viewership. Like you can actually watch the fights and not have to look at the screen. And I think like, I don't think I ever paid more than maybe $90 for tickets. And that includes a pay-per-view.

That includes the fight night headline by T.J. Dilloshan, Dominic Cruz. obviously when they went back to boston this past year the prices were i mean i so many friends hitting me up being like dude it's way too expensive i'm not going and i'm like i don't blame you i don't know if i'm spending 350 on this card i don't know and that's probably going to get you like in the back the bowels of the building if you will in the way way back it is msg and it's the ufc it's going to be like fun it's going to be fun i don't know maybe we'll until tomorrow. I don't think this is going to be an official sellout. I don't. I think the gate will still be great. It'll be one of the high ones. If we got Jones and Stepe, I think this would have

been a legit sellout. They're very close to selling out. That once the fight fell through, a lot of people gave their tickets back. So, I don't know. You can look at it right now. There's still There's still a lot of tickets left from what I saw yesterday, unless they just got like this whole. Let's see what we got here. Let's take a gander. Let's take a look at the map and the colors. All right. All right.

All right. Yeah. So right now, cheapest ticket, $331.16. That is section. It's not on the balcony. 227. Yeah, it kind of is. It's up there.

I don't know. I just think it's going to be fun. If you want the whole, like, experience of MSG and watching fights, like, there's really nothing like it, man. Like, I covered UFC 244. I didn't watch a single fight in the arena until the last two. I watched the last half of, I got to go cage off the last half of Darren Till and Calvin Gasolam.

And I was like, geez, I should have waited another 10 minutes. And then the whole experience of the last half of the last half of the last half of the last half of, Mazadol and Diaz and their walkouts and like, I mean, there's, there's just this, a special energy in that building. There's just, it just is. It's, there's no place like it. I've seen Pearl Jam probably 30 times and I've seen them all over the place, but I saw the Masters Square Garden once and it was like, damn, like this is, it's just a

different feeling. I would wait a day because I don't think this, like I said, I don't think this is going to sell out and I think some of these prices might drop a little bit. Maybe wait until tomorrow. I think if you can get down to like 250, 275, I think the vibes and the excitement are going to go up a little bit. The tough thing about this card too, and then I'll go to CV, there's just like no drama here.

You know what I mean? Like there's just no drama. And that's not, and that's okay. As hardcore fans, like, I don't need to see personal beef with every single fight that I watch. But boy, that was a, that pretty. Press conference was, look, I don't, like, I don't need the all chaos. I don't need bottles to fly at every press conference, but this was, I mean, I don't even know how to describe it.

It just was like, there was a professional press conference, but it didn't sell an extra pay-per-view for a fist fight. You know what I mean? I didn't hate it, but it wasn't like, it wasn't a memorable thing where it's like, oh, now, now it's on. Now these guys really don't like each other. It's all respect. And Tom Aspinall is comparing himself to different animals,

says he would lose a dick measuring contest to Sergei Pavlovich. Like, he's funny. Pavich Aspedal was great. But I don't know, man. It's just, uh, this is a hardcore fans card. I'll leave it at that. But if it gets down there, go. I think the energy will still be good.

CV, go ahead. Hey, Mike, heck of a morning. Happy Friday. Yeah, I do agree with you. The press conference yesterday was, um, it was very sterile. like very clean professional almost like lifeless but you know the fights are going to be good

fights you're going to do the talking for itself and all this MSG talk for contacts I went to 268 two years ago it was the Usman Covington rematch and we also got balcony seats me and my friends and we paid like $800 Canadian so I would say

that's like around $600 US I mean super expensive but I would say it was say it was worth it and that'll be probably the only event I go to. And speaking of like future events, now that we got like two, 297 shaping up here, I'm on Tapology right now. I was ready to like shit on this card, but actually like, you know, like obviously we got Strickland Duplice and we got the women's vacant Bantamate Championship. I don't know if this fight's been confirmed yet, but Arnold Allen and Eloviev and we also got Chris Curtis versus. Mark and Andre Barrio, like, I know it's a Canadian card, and obviously, like, the Canadian

cards are not as good as when, like, when GSP was still fighting. And obviously, Canada doesn't have, like, a big MMA start right now, but, like, I mean, 2087, I was ready to shit on it, but I'm, like, just looking at how the card is shaping up to be. I mean, it's not too bad, but I don't know. Just want to get your thoughts on that. No, it's not too bad. And like for context with UFC 268, which you paid $600 for, you got Usman Covington,

you got Rose Damby Yunus, Zhang Wei Lee in the rematch. You got Cheeto Vera, Frankie Edgar, Shane Burgos, Billy Q, and Justin Gagey Michael Chandler. That was your main card. You had the UFC debuts of Alex Pereira, Chris Curtis, Ian Machado Garretto, And was that Chris Barnett's debut? I think it was. Oh, no, he lost to Ben Rothwell. That was Chris Barnett's BFC Paperview debut.

Yeah, that fight. I mean, that car was insane. That car was insane. There's a, I mean, there is a buzz to that one. Bobby Green, ally Quinto was on that card. The first fight of the night on the main car was Justin Keachey versus Michael Chandler. like that is nuts and then after that Shane Burgos and Billy Quarantillo had like a top 10 fight of the year

which was like impossible to follow Gagy and Chandler yeah but 297 let's take a gander here yes Arnold and Vloyve is accurate uh we can we ended up confirming that uh we reported we first reported Neil Maggi and Mike Malott so that's happening Charles Jordaen Shod Woodson Laynais and Patterson Malcolm Gordon Jimmy Flick Sadai versus

Ramon Tavares Tavares Gillian Roberts and Pollyano Biana Brad Cotona Garrett Armfield Chris Curtis MAB We get two title fights Look having Sean Strickland's first title defense in Toronto is just

Promotional Malpractice I'm just going to put that out there It just literally makes no sense however this is the best the UFC can do and it's a damn good fight and I love it I love this fight

a lot of people are kind of down on it I love it I think it's gonna be absolute mayhem and I think of all the actual available options this was the best way to go and I've been saying it for a while they should just go ahead and book Strickland DDP because I don't want to see Volk fight on this card

after getting knocked out by Islamakicep so yeah it's not bad man I mean, it's, it's not bad. It's better than 289. It's like the main card is going to be Strickland-DDP. The Pennington's Splino-Cil will fight. We're getting Arnold Allen, Mobsar of Bluet. I'm sure Mike Milott will be on the main card with the Neil Magdie fight.

Maybe Charles Jordane kicks it off with Sean Woodson. Like, that's going to be a fun friggin fight too. So I think the main card will be solid. And the rest will have a lot of local flavor. So not bad. Not too shabby. All right. We'll go to four on sniper Henderson.

We'll try Nicholas one more time. and then we're got to go. Go ahead, Foreign Seiber. Let me, Mike. A heck of a morning. Just real quick, I wanted to ask you, was there any large, like, plus money props that stick out to you? I'm on my sports bookie right now, and I'm looking at a line for Tom Aspinall for a second round submission at plus 1,400.

Anyone on Tom Aspenall by submission, I would recommend you play that. And I just wanted to get your thoughts on any other, I guess, large plus money props. That's all, Mike. Yeah, I think, um, I don't think I went like with the rounds, but I do have, I do have a bet on Tom Asselm all by submission. I got a plus 350. So I doubled up on Ascoe. I've asked it all straight at minus 118.

I've asked it all by sub at plus 350, but I don't mind doing the sprinkle thing. I would probably do. I'd probably take like a unit and just do like half on submission round one and half on submission round two. Like I like that value there. I really do. But I think that's like the biggest prop I have. Everything else is just tied up in a bunch of parlias. So here are all my bets.

You'll see some of them. Some of them you'll see on the screen tomorrow. Some of them I'll have to tell you about because there's so many. And we don't want to take up the whole screen. So I have Alex Pereira at minus 122. Aspinall minus 118. Aspinall by sub plus 350. Main event over one and a half at minus 150.

Lopez plus 100, Lopez plus three and a half. So I kind of hedged on Lopez. Because even if he loses, he's going to cover the, I think it's going to be a super close fight. It's probably a split decision. So I have Lopez plus three and a half points, minus 165. BSE by KOTKL plus 165. Tavit de Ritchie plus 140.

Parles, I got Sontidi and Dern plus 119. Embers, Rebetsky, Dern, plus 140. I have the main event under four and a half, Co-main under three and a half, and Erseg versus Costa over one and a half pays out a minus 108, and then I have just like a fun main cardy propi parlay that the last four fights don't go the distance.

Revolvesantani, Dern Androge, the co-main event and the main event. None of them go the distance. That pays a plus 126. So that's going to be fun to watch as it all unfold. But I like the ass what I'll play. If you're going to pick and choose, they're a little sprinkle on rounds one and two.

Why the hell not? Henderson, go ahead. To you're really excited about tomorrow's card. Just wanted to say about MSG, like for those of you that might be visiting for the first time or not really from New York City, you might not realize, but MSG is like in the heart of this middle of Manhattan.

So it's a great place to go see everything real quick, see Broadway, go to MSG, see some fights. And the train station to get in and out of there from New Jersey is like literally in the basement of MSG and Penn Station. So there's a lot of things that you can do around there and make sure to take advantage of that. I can't afford to go, but maybe one day I'll win the lottery and I can go to an MSG card. But we'll see how it goes. just one other point for a free-for-all Friday was that one group of contracts that got exposed in that lawsuit that was interesting for me, maybe in a good way, was the Anderson Silva contracts because it kind of put into perspective why he stuck around for so long. He was making like four or five

million per fight even at the end of his career after he had lost the title. And over the course of his career, it seems like he might have even made more money than Connor McGregor, strictly off purses. So I just was wondering if you knew how Anderson Silva got such a beneficial contract when the UFC really wasn't giving them out. Like he was making like twice what Rousey was making. So another little victory for the spider even in the midst of that losing streak. But just wanted to hear your thoughts. That's a good question.

I honestly don't know the answer. Anderson was a big star man. Like he was, he got over big. He was in a lot of people's minds during that middleweight title run. The best fighter in the world, regardless of weight, regardless of anything. So, yeah, I think that's probably part of it. I mean, the dude has so many title defenses. He headlines so many cards.

A lot of those performances were memorable and some not so memorable. But, yeah, Anderson was in the good graces. and earn that right. And maybe that explains some of those performances as well. Some of those title fights like the Damia Maya won and so forth and so on because he was making all that money. Yeah, this, I'll tell you what, man, this, this antitrust suit is going to be crazy if this gets, and honestly, like there's going to be another discovery period later on this

month. So I think more stuff will come out. And I think the UFC will probably try to settle this. They would be in their best interest to try to settle it. I don't know if they're I don't know if the fighters involved are going to settle. And if they don't, like we're going to see a whole bunch of stuff. Like you can't change the industry if you settle. But you're also taking a risk if you don't. So yeah, this is going to be this could be the biggest this could end up being the biggest story in the history of MAA. Like there are enough legs on this that it could be. It could literally change the entire sport

when it's all said and done. It's gonna be a fascinating next six months to a year when it comes to this story. Nicholas, do we have you? Close us out. Can you hear me? Yeah, I got you. Okay, thanks, bro.

Two quick questions. Should I bet my house? and my girlfriend on i can see durn on saturday and uh is there going to be a guest on the watch party hashtag nick the azami yes there will be two guests on the watch party um shehine al shoddy will join us for the main event and back by popular demand look well we have a a big heavyweight fight we have to bring in the goat we got to bring in the goat For the heavyweight fight, it's Paca Porter, my friends. Paca Porter returns to the watch party to watch the co-main event with us.

We had a lot of fun with him for the Strickland-A-Cardia card for the Taitui Vasa fight. And he's going to come back. So it's going to be a lot of fun. The goat returns to the watch party. Very excited. My man, Paca Pota, will be joining us. Do you bet your house and your girlfriend on Mackenzie Dern? No.

No. I mean, I have exposure on McKenzie Dern, but I'm not betting houses or girlfriends or anything more than like a cup of coffee on any of these fights for the most part. Like the betting units are not very big. Like don't feel bad if I lose bets. G.C's, like gambling units are. way more riskier. Like the dude just, this is what he does.

I just do it for the entertainment purposes. We got the Draft Kings thing, so why not? Why not have some fun? That's what I say. We're going to have some more fun at a little over an hour's time. 1.30 p.m. Eastern live preview show,

myself, Shaheen, my best friend, AK. We're going to have some fun. We'll go for about an hour. We'll have the People's Pre-Fight show tomorrow. probably around 515 Eastern time to get you ready for 2.95 and all sorts of fun. So we are done here. Thank you for all the questions. I didn't want to leave you guys hanging.

Kind of a weird schedule today, especially with the way-in show starting at 9 a.m. Eastern. But I didn't want to leave you guys without a show today. So thank you all for popping in. If you couldn't get a question in, join us for the People's Pre-Fight show tomorrow at 5.15 p.m. Eastern. That's all we do. We're just going to take questions on the YouTube channel. and don't miss the M. May hour. Live from New York City, City Winery, 6.30 p.m. Eastern.

If you can't get a ticket, you can't because they're sold out, but you can watch it on the YouTube channel. So thank you all very much. Have a great rest of your day. And as always, have a heck of a morning. To the Vox Media Podcast Network.