MMA Fighting - HOAM | Which MMA Promotion Should Francis Ngannou Sign With?

Episode Date: January 19, 2023

With Francis Ngannou no longer in the UFC, he seems to have many options in play — whether it be in boxing or MMA. Ngannou said on The MMA Hour that he wants to continue competing in MMA, but which promotion would suit him best for what he wants? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck answers listener questions about the Ngannou situation, and what promotion he could, or should, sign with moving forward. Additionally, topics include the UFC 283 main event between Glover Teixeira and Jamahal Hill, Usman Nurmagomedov's future and whether or not he could end up in the UFC some day, some of the low-key storylines for Saturday's pay-per-view event, if influencer MMA bouts could be a thing, 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

Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo? Great idea. Feel the fun with all the latest slots in live casino games and with no wagering requirements. What you win is yours to keep groovy. Hey, I won! Feel the fun!

The morning will begin when passenger Fisher is done celebrating. 19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Concerned by your gambling or that if someone close, you call 1-8665-3-3-2-60 or visit comex Ontario.ca. With Amex Platinum, you have access to over 1,400 airport lounges worldwide. So your experience before takeoff is a taste of what's to come. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. Podcast Network.

January 19th, 2023, and it is indeed a heck of a morning. Live on the M.A. Fighting Twitter Spaces, you can hear the show in its entirety, shortly thereafter on the MMA Fighting Podcasting Network. Hello there. I am Mike Heck. Appreciate you joining us live or listening after the fact. We are on the eve of the eve of UFC 283, which goes down in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This Saturday, two title fights.

We got the vacant light heavyweight title fight in the main event, Gloverett, Cheshirea, versus Jamal Hill. We have the flyweight championship unification bout, the Tetralogy, part four, Davis and Figurato versus Brandon Moreno. Cannot wait for that fight, Gilbert Burns versus Neil Magny and much more. And there's a lot going on in the world of MMA. Since we last spoke, we have heard Dana White's side

of the Francis Ingano situation, and then a couple of hours after we wrapped up on Tuesday, we heard Francis Inganu side of the story, and it was a fascinating interview. My initial reaction to it was we don't really deserve Francis and Ghanu, to be perfectly honest with you, because there was a whole different route Francis could have taken there. And he certainly had every right to just go out there and blast Dana and blast the promotion.

But I actually thought he handled himself very well, quite professionally. A lot of class. He could have definitely taken a darker road. But he didn't. but he was still telling the truth at the same time, at least his truth. Some people believe what he had to say. Some people side with Dana.

That's just the way that it is. It's sports. You could have different opinions on different things. So I thought it was a fascinating interview. I thought Ariel did a tremendous job. Getting all the big points out, as of right now, no real decision on what is next for Francis and Ghanu.

Seems like if he had his druthers, his next fight will be in the boxing ring. He did call it, I believe, was Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury if he had his choice. I don't think he gets either of those two fights, but who knows? Maybe MVP or Misfits boxing can chuck them in there for something. We'll see where he ends up in M.A. There's a lot going on. And we can talk about that.

We can talk about 283. We can talk about a lot of other stuff. I see some people lining up. We're going to start to show off a little bit differently because this is, I mean, this is a global sport, right? And people listen to the show at all times. Not everyone can be in here live. Not everyone can be here in the group with all of us.

So they don't really get to ask questions or anything like that. So I did get some Instagram DMs with some questions because they're in different parts of the world. They can't jump on. They have questions they want answered. So there's three of them that I have, and I'm going to get to all of you guys. So let's just go to these real quick.

Skyler Shademan. heck of a morning, Mike. I can't believe that we have fallen for this tired sports cliche that it wasn't about the money and that it's about respect. I've watched the NFL for way too many years to know that it's 100% about the money all the time and the UFC is no different. Francis isn't dumb. He's 36 years old.

This is his last opportunity to make the absolute most amount of money he can. And so we asked for three things to do the UFC would never concede, but that everyone except for Dana White and the UFC feels like all fighters should get. one of them is shockingly about money with sponsorships. He knew that he wasn't going to get any of that extra stuff, would look like a martyr for fighters everywhere, and then would test the open market where he's going to make an absurd amount of money because that's what free agency does.

Look at any NFL free agent, even those who are average, slightly above average, like Christian Kirk. But the UFC said they offered him a contract that would make him the highest paid heavyweight, quote unquote, or quote unquote, the coach said the UFC came right. These comments are so funny because, they're exactly what both sides are supposed to say in the situation. The UFC, so they could push their bullshit narrative that they did everything they could,

but Francis doesn't want to take the risk, and for Francis to make it look like he actually wanted to stay, but he had to stand on his principles. If Francis had boxing money wafting through his nostrils like cartoon characters being drawn to a pie on the windowsill, then you know that being the highest paid heavyweight is scratching the bottom of the barrel of the pay that one boxing match could get. look at what Connor was paid before pay-per-view buys or even Fury fighting a no-name in his last fight for a guaranteed 25-mill before pay-per-view. Like every narrative, this thing falls in the middle and everyone has wanted to stray so far from the UFC side because of how utterly ridiculous their press conference was that they fallen in the cliche trap.

Let's have an honest real-world view that Francis is chasing the bag. He very rightly deserves and would never get close to the UFC. see. This is an interesting take. Part of me agrees with some of this. The other part is MMA is not the NFL. The UFSI is not the NFL.

So it's a little bit different. The money structure is way different. Pay structure is way different. Ultimately, to me, I don't, the one thing I really don't agree with is that both sides are saying what they should be saying.

Because Francis, like I said, I feel like he did the right thing here. He could have gone a whole different route with this and he didn't. And then Dana just buried him on the way out. And to me, that's just not the way you should do things. Because who knows? What if John Jones goes out there and just bolts Cyril Gahn? And then he fights Stepe Meachich, right?

And he just goes out there, wrecks Stepe. What's the fight that every single person is going to be clamoring for? They're still clamoring for it. But what's the fight at that point that everyone's going to be at, asking about that everyone's going to be tweeting about it's john jones versus france and gano it's at the peak it couldn't get any higher so why bury the man on the way out when you could potentially get this guy back for i mean if that happens with john i mean that's the i mean that could be the biggest fight in ufc history so i don't know i do get what you're coming from both sides want what they

want. I'm sure Francis wants the big bag. But I honestly think to me, it's, it's, the bag of money is important, but he wants to be able to look himself in the mirror and say, I'm happy with what I'm doing. I truly believe that. I truly believe that. And maybe that was, maybe that was this plan. Maybe just throwing out these things he knew he couldn't get. But one of the things I thought was interesting that he said to Ariel was, let's negotiate here. Like, give me something. Meet me halfway on something.

And they just, they wouldn't do it. So I think Francis handled himself very well. Dana could have handled it better. I know some of you out there, oh, Mike, she's ripping Dana again. No, Dana does this to everybody, but he could have handled it better. But interesting take on this.

We'll take two more of these. Connor Buckley, hi there, Mike, huge fan of M. Mayfying, great website. and yourself particularly. Heck of morning gets you through the early morning slog at work often. I do have one issue, however. I live in New Zealand, which presents a problem because the program is usually live on Twitter space sometime between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. my time, which means it's near impossible

for me to hop in and cheer my thoughts. I guess I was just wondering if I'd be able to ask a question, make a comment that you mentioned on the show. I understand if you don't want to mention live since you have the whole phone and live thing going on. I get that if you say yes to me. You may end up flooded with people in your DMs. Listen, it is what it is.

Therefore, changing the premise of the show. I'm not going to do this all the time, by the way. So I completely respect and understand any way to decide to do this. Even if you decide not to mention it on heck of morning, I'd love to know your opinion thoughts on this. With the upcoming pay-per-view in Brazil being less so, the next three confirmed pay-per-views have very large stakes in the grand scheme of things. Both becoming double champ or Islam's dynasty,

beginning with the scalp of the number one pound-fam fighter right now, John Jones's return, and then Edwards v. Usman, and a very competitive in bottlenecked 170 pound division. With the prospect of a McGregor return, Izzy Alex rematch, Sohudo, I Doe return, and potentially all sorts of other goodies, how might 2023 stack up in terms of headline year?

I've pretty much been following the UFC for a year and a half, two years, so I'm pretty green, but it seems like this year has the potential to be, quite frankly, mental in terms of star power and drama. Just realized I've written a small novel, and for that, I apologize. A heck of a morning, Mike. Cheers for all the excellent,

content you and the team put out keeps me in the loop. Yeah, I do think 20203 could be a headline-worthy year. I still think to this point, 2016 is the most crazy year in the history of the sport, craziest year in the history of the UFC with the UFC 199 drama, Connor and Nate, Connor went in the second belt, UFC 200, everything that happened there. Of course, the sale of the company. It was just a crazy-ass year. And it's going to take a lot to beat 2016.

However, I think, I mean, it's January 19th right now. And this is already on its way to becoming that. Yes, the fights are interesting. Yes, getting John Jones back is big. Connor coming back would be massive. So hoodo, we'll see. I'll believe when I see it. But it's some of the darker stuff that comes.

could take over this whole thing. What's going to happen with this Dana White situation? That's obviously the biggest story in the sport still, even with all the stuff going on. And then the James Krause situation, which is just going to keep getting worse. I mean, we heard the, we saw Nevada suspend Jeff Molina. The UFC put out a statement saying they're not going to book him for anything

until this whole investigation into the gambling stuff comes to, a close and he's somewhat cleared. But like I said before, there is, I mean, like we have been digging into this for months, constantly. And what I will say is this.

Have I heard there are fighters involved? Yes. And the last thing I'll say about it is if, I mean, even if a third of what I've been told is true and we can verify this, holy shit. This is a whole different thing

together. So those two stories in particular are going to make this a really interesting year and then we'll see how the fights all play out and who gets in there. But if there's any year that has a shot of catching 2016 with the way we've started this year, it's

this one. It's definitely this one. But again, it's going to take a lot to be 2016. All right, I'll do one more and then we'll get to you guys. This is from Sean. Oh, Jesus Christ. Hey, Mike. I know this is against your New Year's resolution, but I felt compelled to bring it up anyways. I understand if you don't want to talk about it, but I wanted to bring it up.

A few shows ago on weighing in, Josh Thompson and John McCarthy reacted to the Dana White situation. While Josh's message was kind of on point, I couldn't help but notice he went out of his way to give the media crap once again, like he always does, particularly about the reactions. and potential repercussions for Dana. While Josh didn't mention any names, it seems obvious to me that he was singling or in this case doubling out you and Ariel for how you guys have reacted to it, calling for penalties and calling for his head,

which is a little strange because I haven't really seen anyone in the media call for his head or even to lose his job. In fact, Big John's suggestion for a punishment was pretty much exactly what you suggested, and Josh was okay with that. If you don't want to, I understand, but I wanted to give you the floor to react to it if you have seen it. Thank you for reading or even if you don't for all the content.

I don't want to react to this, but I will. I have seen the clip because a million people sent it to me. And I mean, this is just, this is, it's just silly. I mean, it really is just silly because Josh mentioned like clickbait and, calling us out for wanting repercussions for Dana, which by the way, like this person said, I suggested exactly the same thing as John McCarthy

if we're going to punish him. Ultimately, we don't think anything's going to happen. But to me, it wasn't Dana loses his job. It's that he sits out for a few months, three to six months, does counseling, donates to a DV charity, works with the DV charity,

cuts a PSA, and then he can come back. And then, yeah, I mean, that's all we wanted to begin with. We wanted the UFC an endeavor to take a stance and say, hey, what he did was wrong. Nobody that works with us should be doing this. And there will be punishment if you do. And again, whether Josh heard what I said or not, I don't really care at this point. I suggested essentially what John McCarthy did.

Pretty much verbatim. The one thing that also said, I was like, all these so-called media members are just jumping on the train because it's like the thing to talk about. It's just not true. It's the biggest story in the sport.

How can we not talk about it? And plus, we're on a fucking call-in show. So when people ask about it, what am I supposed to say? No. I'm not going to talk about it because I don't want to be,

I don't want to be, of this. I don't want to, you know, just ride the news train. No. So, no, I don't agree with anything he said. It's dumb. And that's it. Do I think he was singling me out? Maybe. If he was, he certainly didn't listen to a single word I said about this. But I don't know if he did or not. And I don't really care. I will say, because people send me these clips all the time and I don't know why I keep watching them. I will say John McCarthy is killing it. I think the way he reacted to this was spot on.

And that's it. And I actually like Josh's message as well. Outside of that, like listen, that's not kidding. Like, I understand where he's come from. He doesn't like Dana. Him and Dana don't get along. He doesn't want to deal with the repercussions.

And that's fine. Like, you can have that stand. But he took that road just to shit on the media. I don't care. Whatever. So there you go. That's my reaction to it. It was not a good one.

And John was spot on. So there you go. All right. Let's go to you guys. Thank you for your patience. Thank you to those who submitted those messages. And let's go. AA.

What's up? Hello. How you doing? I got you. What's up? How you doing? mate, you good? Mm-hmm.

I just got two for you. Thoughts on Billy Q versus Krabud? There you go, Edson Barboza. There you go, Edton Barboza, sorry. And you're fired at the night for 283. That's all I've got. Have a heck of a morning, everyone. Take care of yourself and peace.

Let me just pull up the card real quick. Billy Q versus Barbosa is awesome. I mean, come on. Just insane. That April 15th card is starting to look pretty good. Fight of the night. I mean, my first thought

was Terrence McKinney is Mila Bonfine because Terrence McKinney is always in fun fights. And I do think that one's got to be a little more competitive than most think. I am very interested in Luan Lacerda versus Cody Stamen, although I think it's too early in the card

to net such an honor, if you will. I think Gregor Rodriguez-Ferrera is going to be absolute madness. Both those guys just go in there and throw bombs. But this might be a shocker. This might stun some people. But after sort of watching some tape and just looking at things, I'm going to say it is going to be Jessica Androge versus Lauren Murphy.

I'm going to go with that. Because I don't think a lot of people are giving Lauren enough credit. She's just a dog, man, and she's so durable. And Jessica is a monster and can finish most people. But I don't think, I just don't see Lauren as somebody, I mean, maybe she finished. Hold on, I'm doing multiple things. Lauren's very durable.

I know Valentina finished her, and there's a lot about that story, but she still, I mean, she took an ass-wop in that fight and made it to the championship round. So I'm going to go with that one. I think it's going to be a gnarly fight. I think Jessica's going to have success early. I think Lauren can weather the storm, and I think by the end, I don't know.

I don't know if I'm going to pick Lauren to pull off the upset, but I'll tell you, after just breaking this one down and watching a bunch of their fights, Lauren is live. She's definitely live in this fight. I know it's not a very popular opinion, and I know kind of a casual perspective thinks I'm out of my mind, but I think that fight's going to be a freaking dog fight.

So I'm going to go with that one. I'm going to go with that one is my final pick. Because it's a main card fight, those normally get the carte blanche, if you will. Let's go to Jack. Jack are you there? Okay, I don't hear anything. Try again.

It's the matcha or the three ensemble Ciceroa of Cephora of the Fett that I just to deniches who energize so much. It's the ensemble. The format standard and mini-regrouped, and so old, and it's practically pre-to-donned. And I know that I'd love these offriars,

but I guard the Summer Fridays and Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez. I'm just the most beautiful ensemble the Cado of the Feds It's at home Shifora. Summer Friday's Rare Beauty, Way, Cifora collection, and other part of the vits. Procurre you see form of standard and mini,

regrouped for a better quality of price. On link on Cifara.ca or in magazine. Black Friday is here at IKEA, and the clock is ticking on savings you won't want to miss. Join IKEA family for free today and unlock deals on everything from holiday must-haves to cozy at-home essentials, all the little and big things you need to make this season shine.

But don't wait, like leftovers at midnight. our Black Friday offers won't last. Shop now at IKEA.ca.ca slash Black Friday. IKEA, bring home to life. Let's go to Raffid. We're going to get to everybody. We're going to go get into this thing and try to get everybody.

As many as we can in the next 45 minutes or so. Raffin, hello. Hey, how are we doing? Hope you're having a good morning. So today... You too, man. Thank you. So Tuesday night, I made the prediction

that Francis Nagano was going to announce the PFL. obviously it wasn't it wasn't correct but I hope it could still happen but my question to you is what do you think about Francis Nagano? Telling Dana White that I'm

obviously not scared to fight John Jones but Dana White is saying that he's scared which I think is ridiculous Francis Nagano ain't scared if nobody so your thoughts on that and I would also like to get your prediction on Jamal Hill and Glover to share.

Thank you. Hope you have an amazing day. You too, my friend. I appreciate you hopping on. No, he did not sign with the PFL. I'm sure every single promotion is offering him something at this point. I honestly have no idea what he's going to do. Like, I'd love to crawl in his head and predict what's going to happen here.

But these promotions are going to have to come correct, not just with the money, but they're going to have to, and I think Bellator and PFL will allow him to go box. And I kind of feel like, like I understand the Jake Paul thing and getting Jake and Francis together is a very big deal. But I honestly think Bellator is like a really good spot for him. I understand it's a big financial undertaking to lock him down. It's going to take, it's going to take some money. Do I think anyone's going to offer him like $8 million a fight? No, I don't think so at all. And the UFC wasn't offering him that either. They were offering him close to that for the John Jones fight,

but that doesn't mean he was going to make that in every single fight that he had. So I think if any of these promotions come to him with like a three-fight deal, allow him to box and do other things, I think they got a shot at him. I think they got a shot at him. So I honestly have no idea where he's going to sign. And I think we're all in agreement, the notion that Francis is scared to fight John Jones is crazy. In fact, he said in the three-fight deal, he wanted John twice.

John Steep A. John. So, yeah, that whole thing is ridiculous. The Glover-Jamal Hill fight, I mean, I think everything's on the table here. What are the betting odds? The last I checked, Jamal Hill was the favorite. But I just want to take a gander. Where are we at right now? Yep, Jamal Hill minus 135, Glover at plus 115.

I think Glover I mean to me like my gut has been telling me since this fight was officially announced that Glover's just going to tackle him and kill him she's going to either beat them up or submit them the Tiago Santos fight just really sticks out in my mind and Tiago took him down I think six times in that fight

Glover doesn't need six to eight downs to win Glover needs one or two and Jamal is good like Jamal has good defensive instincts when it comes to wrestling, but Glover's not your typical wrestler. He just wears on you and uses that big frame and just kind of mushes you to the ground. And then once he gets you there, it's really tough to get him off of you. So to me, this has kind of the Yanbollahovych fight vibes to it.

But let's be clear, if Jamal Hill went out there and knocked Glover-Teshero in the first round, It would not shock me in any way. So I'm back in Glover, because I just think he has more ways to win. There is no dispute that Glover has fought by a million miles tougher competition than Jamal Hill has. Glover's got the home field advantage. I don't know if that'll rattle Jamal Hill at all. I don't know if the travel will rattle him at all. But I just think Glover's good.

Because I think Glover can knock out Jamal Hill. And the Paul Craig fight kind of sticks out. of my mind too. Like how much, I mean, Paul was able to just submit him and that was an ugly submission. And if Paul Craig can do that to Jamal Hill,

I mean, what can Golver to share or do? So, yeah, Jamal could catch him, knock Glover out, sure. I mean, he's coming off a 25-minute

war of attrition with Yuri Perhashka. And he took bombs from Yuri for a long time, but how much, how much of a toll did that take? So, well, I wouldn't be surprised if Jamal Hill wins. My pick, and it's kind of, it's pretty, it is a confident one.

My pick is Glover Tshira, finish in either round two, round three. Something on the ground, either be a TKO or a submission. But again, nothing would surprise me. Either way. Let's go to Tristan. Hi, Tristan. What's up? All right.

So Big Marcel tweeted that Valenciennes-Ratio will be facing, Alexa Grasso on March 4th, and I'm like, come on, man. Like, seriously, you're going to do this? Like, I understand. Now, I understand that you'll see. They're in a tight spot. They're in a very, very tight spot.

They had to get another championship fight on there. I get that. I understand that. But now, you school everything. I mean, come on. Like, I don't understand. Now, if you couldn't get the Nunes trilogy, I understand that or whatever.

But you could, I don't understand why they, from the jump, they should have been like, all right, we're running it back with, with Valentina versus Santos and run that back. And you could have put that on the March 4th court, but it was too late because you already made the fight with Aaron Blanchfield. And Blanchfield, if you take Santos

off that card and put her in the March 4th, Blancho's not going to fight because she needs a full training camp and you're changing her opponent. And then Manel Faro, she couldn't do it because she suffered an injury and she had knee surgery and she's not ready. She said she wanted one more fight.

Alexa Greta had to say the same thing and she wanted one more fight before she fought Valentina, then you would have, then I would have put Caitlin Chirot, I would have put Manel Faro versus, um, Alexa Grasso. That would make more sense. Now you screw Grasso out because if she loses, it's a rap for her. That she's never getting a tough, another title shot. I don't understand what the U.S. he's doing.

I'm sorry I'm getting upset. This is ridiculous, man. This is stupid. Whatever, but whatever, U.S. is going to do whatever because, oh, we got to get this, we got to get this fight. We got to get the championship fight in. Valentina is ready. We're going to pick Grasso, and she's not ready, man.

She's going to get murk. She's going to get melted. Like, I understand, man. What are the USC doing, man? This is stupid. This is dumb. You know, you just react to this, like, whatever. I'm done, man.

Wow, that was incredible. Damn. I was curious because there's also rumors out there that Amanda Nunes is going to fight on that card as well against Erini Aldana. So I'm sure that could potentially piss Tristan off even more. not only they're not going to that Nuneo Shufchenko well, they're both going to fight on the same card against different opponents, potentially.

Here's what I'll say about Valentina Shofchenko versus Alexa Grasso. And I'm going to tell you this from a business perspective, because this is a rule that I like to share so often, and a lot of you know this rule, and bring it up on the show all the time.

You may have noticed that while a lot of people have reported this fight, You may have noticed that on M.AFighting.com, we have not reported this fight. And I bet you're thinking to yourself, why? Do you just not have the sources to report such a fight? The answer is, yes, we do. The answer is we confirmed some information minutes later.

But here's what I can tell you. Those two are going to fight each other. The fight has been agreed on both sides. the contention at the moment is the date. What I'm told is that it may or may not happen March 4th. It is going to happen. The fight has been agreed to. It might happen March 4th.

It might happen April 8th. We don't know yet. That's why we have not reported it. I can tell you the fight has been agreed upon. But it was just, especially if this new day, Because Aldana information is true, do you really want to chuck three title fights on this card? I don't think you necessarily need it because of the John Jones-Ser-Gone fight. It's going to be massive.

It could very well have to March 4th. One source told me it's kind of up in the air, but they believe March 4th will be the date. But it's not done yet. The fight is happening. But happening March 4th as of 12 hours ago, still not. not done for March 4th. So we'll wait. We'll see what happens.

I mean, it could be announced in the next couple of days. But I can't tell you that fight is going to happen. Is it going to happen March 4th? It's 50-50, like literally 50-50. Because it could happen April 8th, especially if the Nunes fight comes to fruition. Because that one, that one doesn't seem like it's a done deal either. So developing is what I can say. So yeah, sorry, Tristan.

Looks like the fight's going to happen. But it is not locked in for March 4th. That I can tell you from multiple conversations that myself and the M.A. Fighting crew have had. But yeah, sorry to burst your bubble. Maybe you had some hope that I had some different information. But no, those two are going to fight each other. both sides are in it's just a matter of when it's going to happen let's go to toke hey buddy

higher my god it's been a while since i've heard him like that jeez gotta love it oh that got me fired out amazing so i want to talk about the stupidest fight that is on this upcoming card so just to uh go off on a small tangent as well because we're going to see the what's what are we going to call it the ugliest kickboxing fight in history because we're going to see johnny walker against paul craig because paul craig he believes in his hands he's told us this multiple times he believes in his hands and we have a perhaps gun-shy johnny walker i know he won against the young kutalaba but he has had let's just say shin issues and i don't i haven't really i don't really trust that they're and I don't think that he has the full, I'm going to go in there and actually just decaditate someone,

which was why we fell in love with him in the first place. So I think we're going to get, we're going to get booing Brazilians. I'm sorry. Johnny Walker is not going to go in there and actually make use of his advantage in the striking game. It's just going to be point kick. with Paul Craig, who is not a kickboxer, by the way. And it's going to, it's going to suck. This is going to be the inverse fight of the night, and it's going to be a horrible start

to the pay-per-view. And tell me that I'm wrong. That's fine. I just wanted to get that off my chest. Brazil. It's a weird fight, man. Like, it's a weird fight. It's one of those fights where you see it right away, and you're like, oh, this is kind

interesting like two rank guys getting after it both guys are typically finishers this is interesting and then the more you look at it the more you feel like i don't know man this could be a tough hang i could see a world where johnny is a little more aggressive maybe knocks paul down a couple times and paul is kind of hesitant to get back up i don't know man like it's it's a wild card I have no idea what is going to happen with that one. We'll see. There's a part of me that's just hoping Johnny Walker is just that aggressive, crazy Johnny Walker that, like you said, we've all sort of fallen in love with. But I'm not really sure if we're going to get that.

But who knows? Maybe fighting in Brazil, getting that crowd behind him. It's been a while. It's been over three years since they've been in Brazil. And the last time they've had a card in Brazil, it was right when the pandemic started. so they did in an empty arena, that crowd's going to be electric. They're going to be on fire.

So maybe that'll pump up Johnny Walker to go out there and try to melt them. And if that happens, then it's going to be fun. But I understand the trepidation. I understand the hesitation. But yeah, it's kind of a tough one to kick off the card with. I almost wish they would put Murphy on Drogh first. Because I honestly, I think that fight's going to be a freaking war.

It's either going to be a war or it's going to be a quick finish. But I don't see the latter. So I think it's just going to be a fun-ass fight. Maybe they shift things. Who knows? But I'm with you. I have no idea what the hell is going to happen in that one. Let's go to Dan.

Hi, Dan. Dan, are you there? Hello. What's up, man? Hi, Mike, thanks for having me on. And thanks for the great content the last few months. These have been the highlight of my day of late. I've got two questions to pose.

if you'll have me. First being, what would the worst option for Francis realistically be? I'm going to propose my idea of hell, and it'd be Francis signing with a new promotion in a new weight division your own Jed recently broke. That'd be Francis Inganu turning up for the pay-per-view finale of Dana White's Snap League and competing in the 265-pound weight division. Follow-up question being, can you see a world where any current or former UFC fighter moves over to that circus. Sorry to put that nightmare in your psyche and have a heck of a morning. Oh, God. I mean, that's not going to happen. I certainly hope we don't see any current or present UFC fighters competing in the Slap League or past UFC fighters, but something tells

we will see past UFC fighters, like competing in that, but I can assure you, I will not be watching it. I did not watch a second of it. it last night. I will not watch any of it. The only thing I've seen is like some celebrities and some people in the space saying it's the stupidest thing ever. Apparently there's going to be a pay-per-view. I thought I saw that somewhere, but what a, I mean, it's so stupid. It's just so stupid. I don't get it. Like, I honestly, I don't understand the excitement. And there's none. I mean, it's been complete misery. Everyone's just dumping on it.

Like some people are circusing it out and like who don't watch M.A. or anything like that and don't care about that stuff. But it's just so stupid. I'm so glad we're not covering that fucking ridiculousness. But what would be the worst option for Francis? Yeah, that would be the worst. That would be the worst option for Francis. Golly.

But he would never do that. He would never do that shit. I hope nobody does I hope nobody else I hope there's no fighter out there who would needs money that badly to do that shit Jesus Christ I'm sorry what's up man

I just got a few things to ask and address my first one is how do you see the Adrian Yannis and Rob Fon fight playing out and where does that lead to the division regarding with that fight and my other

question I want to address is regarding Hamza Chimaev. I mean, I know people keep asking this, but really what is next for him? You know, people keep saying he should be fighting Covington or he should fight Whittaker. But then, you know, we haven't really seen much progress

regarding him as to when we fight. And if they can't make scheduled fights with him, with those two fires, maybe they should go with the alternative route, maybe make him fight a cannoneer or Bilal. Let me know your thoughts on that. I actually have a good time. day.

Thanks, man. Honestly, like, someone brought this up. I want to say it was on onto the next one. And if we can't get, like, one of these massive fights on the books, like if we can't get Whitaker or he doesn't get a title fight or anything like that, and he's going to fight. And it doesn't, even, like, with the whole division the way that it is, and if he's going to fight at 185 and a title shot is not on the cards for him,

and Whitaker's not on the cards for him. him because if I'm Robert Whitaker having a new champion right now, I want nothing to do with Hamzat Shemayas. It makes literally no sense for him to fight Hamzad. To go from Paulo Costa to Hamzat Shemayev, when you are in the best position you could potentially be in right now, like Whitaker could just sit out. Whitaker could just sit out right now. And if Pereira beats Adasania again, that's the direction they're going to go. And Pereira has even said, in interviews that if this Izzy fight

can't get done, they'll just go to Whitaker. So Whitaker signing on to fight Hamzaa makes no sense for him. I'd be fascinated by the fight, but it does

everything for Hamzaat does nothing for Whitaker right now. Especially with Prair is the champion. If Adasanya wins the rematch, they're going to run it back again. You kind of have to hope things fall the way you need them to. But it makes no sense

for Whitaker to fight. Hamza right now. They offered him in that fight and I'm his team. I'm like, no. Cool fight, but you're the next in line with Pereira's the champion. So it makes no sense. I don't know if you've seen pictures of Hamzad. He looks ginormous. Looks like he's been hitting the weights. I like Hamzaf versus, I mean, if they do Hamzaa Bala, I'm cool with that, but it doesn't, by most accounts right now,

and just looking at photos of him. I don't see him going back down to 170. I'd love to see Colby. That'd be a really interesting fight. Bilal would be an interesting fight. I think you'd just kind of chuck them in there with whoever's ready. Someone suggested this, and I like this suggestion.

Hamzaa versus Sean Strickland. I know they train together and stuff at Extreme Coutre when Hamzat's in town. But I just feel like Strickle would fight Hamzat. you're going to fight anybody. So something like that. Maybe Canaanair is into something like that. Canaanair Strickland's cool with that.

But I honestly, he's such a mystery right now. I literally, I have no idea. I have no idea what he's going to do. I have no idea who he's going to fight. Yeah. And I don't think there's a ton of people knocking on his door to fight him. So, yeah, he's going to be an interesting story this year, for sure. Let's go to Louser.

Louser are you there? Yeah, hi Mike. How come in a morning. Thanks. Sorry, my mind is just on like circus things because of a slap fight. I was just wondering, with Jake Paul going to the PFL, do you think they'll have any crossovers with influencers doing MMA instead of boxing? Do you think it could ever get to that point?

In the PFL? I'm just influencers. Like instead of influencer boxing, like two influencers would have an MMA fight. But yeah, in the PFL too. Yeah. I think in the PFL, could definitely happen. I mean, you get Jake in there, it just kind of makes sense, right?

Chuck it on an undercard, chucking on a prelim. I mean, get you extra eyeballs. I wouldn't do like a full card full of them, but I talked to this before, but I remember I covered BKFC 19, Tampa, Florida. It was the Paige Van Zant Rachel Ostevic card. And we go out there, and there's, We go to the press conferences, and there's a bunch of social media influencers who are at the dais, including blueface, and they're going to have fights on the card. And I'm thinking of myself, damn, these influencers are going to go in there and have bare-knuckle fights with each other.

Like, that's kind of wrong. Kind of made me feel a little squeamish, but at the same token, the circus side of me was like, this is like, this is some gusts. And part of me was kind of intrigued by it in a strange way. Wasn't proud of myself, but I kind of was. I was thinking that way. And then it turned out they wore boxing gloves and none of that mattered anyway. So whatever weird negative juju caring about that went away rapidly. But yes, to answer your question, yes, I do think it's going to happen, probably in the PFL.

Yeah, maybe they'll do it on those pay-per-views. Try to get some extra buys. It's not a horrible idea. They're going to pay-per-view. They ain't going to sell a ton of them. So if you can get a couple extra buys by doing an influencer fight, go do it. But I wouldn't do like a whole card full of influencer fights because that would just be insane.

But yeah, that's probably the road we're traveling. Jordan, hello. Jordan, are you there? Mike, how in heckable morning. Hello, sir. I just wanted to ask you. So, and this is just like, I know a bare knuckle FC said they were going to go after Francis,

and I know it's beyond unlikely. But how cool, not cool, how violent of an affair would it be to watch Francis and Big Ben Rothwell go at it in a bare knuckle FC fight? That's all. Have a heck of a morning. Can't wait for the watch along. Yes. Thank you for reminding me.

watch party this Saturday. UFC 283. We're going to have some fun leaving for New York, super early in the morning on Saturday. And we're definitely doing it in February as well. I've already booked all the travel for that. So we're good to go there. And I think we're just going to keep on doing them. So your boy's going to be in New York quite a bit over the next few months

because there's a lot of pay-per-views. A lot of pay-per-views on the docket between now and April 8th. So stay tuned. We're going to have some fun, some trivia, all sorts of good stuff to keep you engaged during and in between the fights. Francis versus Ben, Rothwell, and BKFC would just be ridiculous. I don't know how they do it, but BKFC's got money. Like, they got money. I don't know where it's coming from.

I know they got some of that Triller money, but, I mean, there's been plenty of reports about Triller's financing. I honestly do think they're going to make a play at them. I would be, I mean, I would literally be stunned if he went that direction. But yeah, him and Rothwell would just be freaking bananas in that stage. But yeah, you're right. It's probably likely not happening. But we've all thought about it at one point, right? Francis and BKFC, scary thing.

But I do feel like BKFC is going to make him a pretty, competitive offer. I doubt he takes it, but there you go. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here. Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread

Plus, powered by Peloton IQ. Built for breakthroughs with personalized workout plans, real-time insights, and endless ways to move. Lift with confidence, while Peloton IQ counts reps, corrects form, and tracks your progress. Let yourself run, lift,

flow and go. Explore the new Peloton cross-training tread plus at one peloton.ca. 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.

At just $39.99, how could I resist? This luxurious wool 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. Let's go to James. Hi, James. Hey, heck of a morning to you, Mike. Not first time, but it's been a long time. It has. Kind of all just talking about France is, I kind of see one champion

kind of sweeping in underneath the rug and snatching the big man come over and fight for their promotion. I had to hear thoughts on that. And also, did the UFC mess up? by not having Moreno and Figgy as the headliner. I know, historically speaking, usually they have the higher weight classes as the main event, but just this being the first time ever two guys have fought four times for the belt.

And, I mean, personally for me, I know not everyone feels the same way, but I'm more excited for that fight. I am to watch Glover just have his way with sweet dreams that Jamal. Hill for 25 minutes. But I had to hear your take on that, Mike. Like always, man, thank you for what you do for us. Happy birthday, AK, and have a heck of a morning. Thanks, James.

Yeah, I mean, I get it. But, yeah, it's obviously the lower rate class is part of it. And as much as I love, be some Figgy versus Moreno, it's just not enough to carry a pay-per-view. It just isn't. And it's unfortunate. because this is, we're entering uncharted waters in a lot of ways. But yeah, I think it's a great appetizer.

This is, this is the Intercontinental Title fight. And then the WWF title fights the main event. Like it all works out. It all works out. But I get it. I get where you're coming from, but you put the big dudes in there. Night's going to end viciously, more than likely. I don't think that fight's going five rounds.

I don't even think it's going three rounds, while Figgi Moreno could definitely go all five. So I don't know. I mean, I think we're going to be happy either way. We're going to get a great fight between Moreno and Figgi, and then we're going to get a devastating finish in the main event. So we'll have a lot of craziness to talk about, I'm sure. But I get where you're coming from.

Let's go to Crypto. Hey, Crypto. Doing. How are you? Good. Good. Good, thank you. So first of all, I just want to shout out Toke, because I think his idea of Francis Engano against Puginovsky is an amazing fight.

I really like it. Listen, Mike, I mean, let's be honest here. If we're going to do that dance where we pretend that Francis had a chance of beating Fury, Bionte, Ousek, and so on in boxing, we might as well do the same dance with Puginovsky and pretend that he has a chance against Angano, right? And personally, Mike, I would pay more money to see that. fight. I mean, that would be such an amazing event to see the world's previous and most strongest man. And I think he holds the most amount of titles as well. So, I mean, he's a legend within that field against the meanest man. And even if that fight lasts for, I would assume,

17 seconds, if it's a long fight, it would still be amazing. So shout out to Toc, I think that is a great idea. I don't know why people are against it because that would be so much fun. And As always, MMA is supposed to be fun. So, oh, yeah, and one reflection before I ask my question, Mike, because this has been bugging me for a while, but it's becoming more apparent now with this Francis and Ghana situation. And listen, I usually never try to defend the UFC and so on, but there is one narrative that is completely false in this discussion,

and that is the independent contracting discussion. I don't know where this comes from, Mike, But there's a bunch of fields of business where if you're contracted by someone, you are not allowed to do business with similar companies or within that type of field of work and so on. And I'm actually one of those people. I'm an independent contractor. And trust me, make no mistake here. The contracts I get, Mike, they are full of different terms, stipulations, demands and so on.

So when I work for specific companies, especially if they are bigger and within certain areas of business, I am prohibited, actually, to do business with their competitors, for example. Anything that I could do that could draw business from them to another competitor, I'm prohibited to do that. So I just don't get this discussion. Now, do I agree with what the UFC does? Of course not. I think it's terrible.

I would love to see the fighters having their own sponsorship deals and being able to do whatever they want, fight whoever they want, go boxing and so on. But I just want to put this out there because it's not on. common. It happens all around the world in different fields of businesses, so to say. So it's nothing strange. It happens among the top tech companies in the US. It happens here in Sweden. It is very common. So let's be honest about that. And let's try to create change, but not by driving this false narrative that every other independent contractor can do whatever they want. Yeah, maybe if you're a plumber,

if you do something else, where new customers do not affect your, let's say, initial customer that you have contract with. But there's a bunch of areas of operation where you're not allowed to do that. But Mike, yeah, to my question, Gregory Rodriguez and Bruno Ferreira. Or no, Mike, Mike, sorry, Greg, Greg Rodriguez. So Greg Rodriguez. I was surprised, looking at the odds here. So Greg is a plus 185 underdog against Ferreira. I want you, I want, well, there's two things I want to.

He is? Yeah, yeah, I'm completely shocked. I mean, I just sold my house and put all the money on Greg, but that's a different story. So, no, just kidding. But I'm surprised by that. So I want your take on that. I was just in shock when I saw that. And personally, I think that is the low-key banner of this card.

I think that is going to be a truly violent and interesting fight. But, like, do you know why, or do you have any thoughts on why he's such? I mean, he's a substantial underdog. Ferreira is at minus $2.50 currently, which surprises me. I'm looking at it right now. Gregor Rodriguez, minus 300, Bruno Ferreira plus 250 on draft kings. Oh, but if you look at the UFC website, they screwed that up. They definitely messed that up.

Yeah. And I'm looking at best fight odds right now. Everybody has Rodriguez. The lowest Rodriguez is on any book is minus 286. He's up to minus all the way up to minus 340 in some books. So he's a massive favorite. Well, that was a useless question. In that case, I don't have a question for you because I was confused by those odds.

But now I understand why. Okay. I'll just get my coat and just, yeah, thank you, bye. That's, yeah. Thanks. No problem. Yep. Yeah, Greg.

Good old Greg. good old Greg is a big favorite and I do agree with you I think that has low key bang of potential that fight is not gonna that fight's going under whatever the odds are for the over under both dudes just get in there and try to finish

and yeah it's just going to be a crazy ass fight so I'm looking forward to it uh let's go to Ani I'm waiting for a minute Ani hello

Hello? Right, let me gather my thoughts. First, shout out to talk. I think he makes great points always. And this point that he made about Johnny Walker and Paul Craig, I was actually holding it back because I didn't want to sound like a dick to those two fighters. But I honestly feel skill for skill, this is the lowest skill level matchup. if you know what I mean, because when you,

MMA skill level, to be precise, that's just a comment that I had about that fight. I could be wrong, but that's just how I feel. And I have one question for you. So when you look back in the next one or two years, I think I sent this to you a bit earlier. I'm not sure if you saw it. When you look at performances from fighters,

can you recollect maybe you know one or two perfect performances by perfect i mean 100% like they make zero mistakes for example the way tom aspinall defeated wolkov uh max holloway's performance against calvin cater and we have uh islam's performance against olivera can you think of any other performances. And another thing, I didn't know it was AK's birthday today. Is it his birthday today? In that case, in that case,

happy birthday, AK. And one final thought about the Peter Yan and Mirab Davalishvili fight. What do you think of that? Do you like that fight? Because I don't, to be honest. I

like the fight, but I do not like the matchup. Marab said that he is not going to fight for the title as long as Ajima Sterling is the champion. Then in that case, why are we putting Marab in title contention fights? It's just, this just blocks the division. When you have a stag division, why do you make such decisions? I mean, I think a better matchup would have been, I mean, I don't know, maybe Peter Yang needs to take some time off, but if you want to match up Marab,

maybe put him up against someone like a Ricky Simone or put him up against someone like, you know, what is the other guy's name? Umar Nurma Gamedov. So meaningful fights, useful scalps, or meaningful scalps, but Mirab shouldn't be in title contention fights, man. Like, he just blocked the division because Marab wins by outworking people

and Peter Jan tends to get outworked. I mean, these are my thoughts. That's it from me, Mike. Thank you for having me on. Have a hacker for morning. Thanks, Sam. I'm kind of surprised at the booking, to be honestly.

Like, I get it. There's a storyline there. It's in front of a crowd. A small crowd, but a crowd nonetheless. It's happening in Vegas. It's not happening at T-Mobile. It's not happening at the apex. So that'll be cool.

Like I like the fact that they're doing that. Umar versus Marab was the fight to make. I think a lot of us are in agreement with that. But didn't happen. Now we get this one. I don't have the same issues with it as you do because I do feel like Sterling's time at Bannamweight is very limited right now.

And especially if these women's title fights come to fruition. Sterling ain't fight until the earliest April. We have all these other fights going on. Because who knows? Sterling, maybe the bicep injury is worse for where, and they have to do an interim title fight between Sehudo and Sean O'Malley.

Sterling will fight the winner. So it kind of slows things down. We got Sean O'Malley waiting in the wings regardless. And then we got Cheeto Vera fighting Corey Sanhagen. have to believe if Cheeto wins, he's right there as well. And Jan's in a two-fight losing streak. Marab needs a win.

I don't think it holds them up that much, honestly. Like, I think if Marab just goes, if Marab goes in there and just wins the five-round decision, like, he's just going to be in the same spot, in my humble opinion. That's the way I see it. So I don't think it, I don't think it's a bad fight. Vian wins. He gets right back into the thick of things. And now he's got a win over Sterling's guy and gives him kind of a leg up.

But yeah, to me, he was the Umar fight. I wanted the Umar fight, but I have no issue with this one. I got no issue with him. Someone asked earlier about the Adrianianna's Rob Fomp fight. Love it. Absolutely love it. I spoke with Adrienneas a couple weeks ago. stay tuned for that, fun conversation.

It's going to be a great fight. It's going to be a great fight. I have questions about both guys, for sure. But golly, that's a, I mean, that, that, it's a freaking banger. It's a freaking banger. So I don't know what they're going to do with Simone and, and Umar right now. Maybe they'll match those two guys up, but yeah, I wanted to see Umar versus Marab. and looks like we're going to have to wait on that one.

Hey, good morning. How are you doing? Good. Are we talking about the slap league? God, no. That's what I wanted to comment about. I watched second of it, and I won't. But you can talk about it if you want.

Well, I did watch it. I didn't want to act like, you know, like, oh, I'm not going to watch it and then end up watching it. So just to see, you know, what it was working with. And, you know, I wasn't too excited. I was watching it. It kind of felt like, you know, when you watch a TikTok video of, I don't know, like a street fire or something, and you see a knockout, you're like, oh, shit, you know, that kind of thing. Was it more like, you know, watching an entertaining fire when you were just so into it, like, oh, like a good knockout, a good submission or something? That's kind of how I felt.

I would be interested to see what a live event would look like because, I don't know, maybe it might be a little more exciting that way to hear the crowd or something. but I mean overall I'm not too excited about the same structure it was like the getting competitors to the reality stuff of like you know the ultimate fighter getting them into a house and all that stuff like we've already seen that all that ultimate fighter reality show stuff so yeah I don't know how long this this will go it wasn't too like too crazy or too exciting or anything different I'm assuming it's going to be the same ultimate fighter's structure that Dana's just stuck on. So yeah, I mean, I watched it.

I just wanted to give it a try at least. So that was my only comment. Thank you. There you go. Listen, you scratch the itch. And now you know that probably don't need to watch anymore because it's the dumbest fucking thing in the whole world. No disrespect.

Not dumping on you. I'm dumping on the concept. And if you're watching AEW and you're just like, oh, What's this? I'm sure you're not good in episode two. At least that seems to be the reaction that I have seen from most people. Viking, hello. Viking!

You're muted. Hello, Mike. Hello. I just want to say sorry about the background noise because my sister's kid is screaming like, screaming like, I don't know, like what about, I just want to talk about Islam and his brother, Usman, Mahabha. So, just like Habib said that, you know, Islam is going to defend his title for maybe six times and that's it, and then he's going to be retired. So, so when do you see Usman or Marma Gomedo switching promotions and coming into the UFC?

Is it going to happen according to you or not? Thank you, Mike. Probably at some point. I mean, I think he's going to be, I mean, I just don't see anybody. I don't know. He's so young and he's got room to grow still, which is absolutely frightening. I just don't know if anybody at 155 beats him in Bellator. Like, I don't think AJ beats him.

Messiah's interesting, but I still think I would pick Oosman pretty easily to win that fight. I just think it's like you get through the Grand Prix and then you get a couple of defenses under your belt. And I just think at some point he's just going to get bored. Like, and this is no disrespect to the Bellator roster because they have the second best roster in the sport. and it's not debatable. The UFC has the top one, Belator's number two, non-debat. But eventually he's going to want to test himself when he hits his athletic peak against the true best lightweights in the world.

And by the time he gets to that point, he's going to be in that conversation of, is Usman or Magamadav the best lightweight in the world? Like, he's not in the UFC, but is he the best lightweight in the world? Is he going to be kind of the way we looked at A.J. McKee, after he beat Patricia Pitbull. Is he the best featherweight in the world? So, yeah, man.

I think it happens at some point, but if I'm Bellator, I am not letting it happen. I'm just, I'm locking this guy up and throwing everything at him because he's, he's, he's that good. But I think at some point he will, he will get there. But it probably won't be for a while. I'll probably be in like my mid-40s, which is frightening because he won't even be 30 yet.

so yeah do i think it happens yes do i think it happens anytime soon no four quarter sports hello i'm glad you got viking ms this time ahead of me i didn't want to steal his point but um i just wanted to say is this the year of jelson almeda is this the year we're going to see him make a huge impact in the heavyweight division all right because i'm on the subway oh yeah i lost you uh but i got your question Is this going to be the year of Jelton Almeida? God, I hope so. It's just getting them reps.

It's getting them in the cage. That's been the thing. He's been booked with Shemiel like 783 times, and it's falling out every single time. So hopefully the 784th time is the charm. Jailton goes out there. He's going to absolutely destroy Shemiel Durr Heimov. Like, Shemiel is tough as hell, but Jelton's got to jailton's got to jailton him.

And then we'll see where he goes from there. But, yeah, push this dude to the moon. And just give him step-ups after step-ups after step-ups. You chuck him in there with like Marching Tibor next. I just let's go. If he does it, I think he's going to do on Saturday, just strap the rockets to him and let's do this thing. All right, I'll take a couple more.

I got like three more minutes. So I'll get, see what we can do here. Emilio. Oh, Mike. It's good to be back. thanks for having me once again. Yeah, I guess it's been a week. I think it was last week or the beginning of this week.

Doesn't matter. The point is that I remember the last time that we talked, I asked you how big of a deal it would be if Francis was able to, if Francis went into free agency and signed with the PFL. Like, how big would that be? Well, to be honest, I know for, I know that it's still not 100% sure where Francis is headed right now.

But it's, I got to say, man, I am super, super happy about the fact that I guess it's, I'm happy, but I'm bittersweet. It's bittersweet at the same time to see Francis leave the UFC. You can say what you want to, like, I love the UFC, man. I've been watching since, I don't know, like 2012 or 2011. I remember just skipping through the channels like on TV one night and then all of a sudden, boom, Kane Velasquez versus Big Ben Rothwald was just in my screen. And ever since then, I've been a huge fan. But the fact is that the UFC, they're getting comfortable.

They've been comfortable for a while now as the number. one MMA promotion in the world. Walt deserved as well. But I feel like, I remember last time that we talked you said that if Francis left the UFC, that this could be some sort of, this could kickstart a domino effect. And I really, really hope,

as much as it sucks, not being able to see, like we're not going to get to see John fight Francis anymore. I think that in the long run, this is going to be great. You know, sometimes you've got to fall in order to grow. And I really, really hope that this is the start of,

and this is me just being super hopeful, but I hope that this is the start of something where maybe this leads other fighters thinking to themselves, huh, I think I'm going to start doing, I think I'm going to do what Francis did or not copy-paste the exact same strategy. not everybody's as gifted and as marketable as Francis, but, you know, if we're talking about all these things like fighter pay

and insurance, health insurance, like for fighters, and, you know, like, so that we feel a little bit better about ourselves and the sport that we love. And as much as I hate, you know, seeing Francis go, I think that in the law around, this could be something really great. If he signs for an MMA promotion, because if he goes and does boxing, I love boxing as well, but honestly, like, it's just, I don't want to see that shit. I want to see that shit.

I want to see the start of a movement. But anyways, that's my quote-unquote rant over. I'm just happy that he's out there doing this thing. maybe this is a start of something for like something big, like a shift in the power structure of the MMA promotion universe to kind of balance the scales a little bit more. Because otherwise the UFC is just not going to give a shit and they're not going to try to make any changes to improve their product.

You know, if they have a monopoly, then who the fuck cares? But anyways, that's it. Thanks, Mike. Peace out. Thanks, ma'am. Appreciate it. I'll react to this as quickly as I can. Don't hold your breath.

Don't hold your breath. How many people, an area that talked about this yesterday, and this is something that I've thought about, how many people have actually been like, yeah, Francis, good job, bro. I support you. Nobody.

That tells you everything you need to know. Nothing's going to change, man. It's just not. It's just not going to change. This is it. fighters had two chances to do it and they didn't they could have done it in 2016 and they could have done it with the ESPN deal

and they didn't do it. People shit on Joe Lozahn all the time for giving his opinion about unions and being real with it. He is not wrong. He's not wrong. You're not going to be able to get 700 fighters together

to agree on this. It's just not going to. The big stars are happy, with where they're at. They don't want to rock the boat. And the 10 and 10 fighters or the 12 and 12 fighters, they don't want to rock the boat because they finally made to the UFC.

It's not going to get those guys on board. Like the middle of the pack guys, like they could make an impact, but you're not going to get the big stars in there. You're just not going to. Yeah, don't hold your breath. Real quick, this is going to be like rapid fire. I'm going to give 30 seconds to each of you.

Rips and picks, go. What's up, Mike? just wanted to have your quick just kind of outlook on the 170 division. I mean, we got Colby, Hamzat, Bilal sitting pretty much in the top five and no one really knows what's going to happen with them. So just curious where you think this division is going to end at the end of 2023. Thanks, Mike. Yeah, it's a great question.

I picked Hamzaat Shami if is my champion, but I just, I have no confidence in that pick, just because I don't know what the hell he's going to do. So if he fight, if Hamza fights at 170, he's going to be the champion at the end of the year. But will he fight at 170? Like, Bilal's there. Gila Burns is there. We still got to see what happens with Usman and Edwards. I mean, it's going to be a slow, slow year for the Walter League division.

So strap in. It's going to be a long ride. Let's go to Arc Africa. Arc do we have you? Is you guys have me? Hello. Hello, Mike. What's up?

I'm all good. So basically my question that I wanted to post to you is based on the Volcanovsky and Islam Mahashev fight that's going to happen. My question is that if Volcanov loses his fight against Mahashev, what's next to him? Close, Mike. Thanks, Van. It's pretty easy. He'll just fight the winner of the interim title fight, Josh Amit versus Yaya Rodriguez. And then go from there.

the more interesting question is what happens if he wins because to me it makes no sense for him to still be the featherweight champion if he beats his Lamakachev makes no sense why would like I'm going to be the guy

I'm going to go back and forth and do all this why why would you do that all the money is like the big money fights for Volker at 55 all of them Volk Porier Volk Chandler Volk Conner Volk Oliver

Volgaichi. Like, those are big fights. Those are big money fights. So honestly, the more interesting question is what happens if Volk wins. If he loses, he's just going to fight the Emmett-Yaiyre winner and probably smoke him. Which goes back to Ani's question real quick. Perfect performances.

Holloways was great against Calvin Cater. Spectacular. But he took a lot of damage in that fight, despite the. incredible offensive numbers he put up. So I'm not even going to put that up there. It's one of the all-time great performances. It says a lot about both guys. But he got hit a lot in that fight.

So I will not call that a perfect performance. The ones that stick out, Volcanowski, I would say both of his title defenses last year, about as close as perfect you can get. I mean, he beat the shit out of the Korean zombie, to the point where I actually felt bad for zombie. I'm like begging the referee to stop the fight. that was incredible.

To me, that was one of the all-time great title defenses. And then the Max Holloway one was even more ridiculous. It was actually even better. So those two stick out. And the other one that sticks out to me is the Valentina Schofchenko, Jessica Androj, when she had this, just this chip on her shoulder that, you know, people were like, oh, if anybody can do it, it's Jessica. And Chautenko's like, oh, really, fool?

Watch this. Perfect game. Perfect game, Caitlin Chacon. The Murphy won to a certain extent. So, yeah, those are the ones that stick out to me. But to answer your question, Volk's going to fight the interim championship winner if you loses to Malkichief. Can't wait for that fight.

We'll have a watch party, and by the time that fight happens, it'll be on my 40th birthday by the time those two actually fight. So a lot to look forward to. All right, MMA locker room, close us out. Man, what's going on, everybody? man. I can't wait to watch the watch party where you and Connor Burks, man. Love what you guys doing over there. Let's go. But yeah, man, one thing we got to remember.

A lot of people try to compare MMA to these other sports and saying they should have this, they should have this. They're not labeled a sport. So I think that's the one thing right there to where it's kind of never going to change like that. Like Al Jermaine Sterling said it, you know, this company's been running the same way it has before I came. Who am I to try to change it. So I think that's kind of where, you know, a lot of people got to look at this. Once it's, if it was labeled a sport, then it would maybe have all these unions and health care and benefits and stuff like that.

but this is my real take out of the 11 fighters that got cut by the ufc which one of them do you think was wrongfully cut pavia ubanks trezano rojo davis morales natalvedadadad cadiz paris paren ludovic shalom interesting question uh i saw the purge um let me just pull them up um But you have to remember, too. Just because the bot put it out doesn't mean they were, like, doesn't mean like they got released. Like, Trisano, I remember, said, like, he bet on himself.

That was the last fight on his deal. So it doesn't mean he can't go back. And there might be a few others in that as well. I know Vince Morales said he was cut. I'm sure Nativida was cut. Piva could be in an interesting position. I don't think any, Jay Perrin, I don't think any of them, like, really shock me, honestly.

No, not them really, like, shock me. But, again, we don't know, they could have just fought out their deals and hadn't been re-signed. Like, Mickey Gall's name popped up on there, and Mickey was, no, I just fought out my deal. Probably going to resign down the line. So we don't know.

We don't know all the stories yet. We haven't confirmed all of them yet. So we will see where we are at. Yeah, Brandon Davis is another one. So Jara Eubanks was another one. That one definitely doesn't surprise me. Too many mishaps on the scale. Record, not tremendous.

Talents, but doesn't show up every single time. Yeah, none of them really surprised me. And to your other point about MMA not being to the level of those other sports, of course, they're definitely not. The problem is the man, the face of the company has been saying since the beginning, we're going to be bigger than the NFL. We're going to be up there with the World Cup. We're going to be up there with all this.

Like his goal is to be up there to be compared to all those sports and be in that same discussion. Well, you can't. And that's the big point. You can't. It's not going to happen. And if it does happen, I'm going to be dead and buried. It ain't happening anytime soon.

And that's why it is so important for these other promotions to just do what we say. Do the thing. Just go do the thing. Let's make this interesting. Let's make this interesting. Because I don't think Francis is going to be like the domino that gets everybody to leave or anything like that. But yeah, do I think it's going to be impactful? Sure.

wherever he goes it's got to make some difference 100%. Like if he signs with Bellator, that opens things up for Belator. Signs at PFL opens things up for PFL. One million percent. Someone mentioned one earlier. I would like to, I mean, if he goes to one cool, I just don't think that happens. There have been fighters who have spoken out about contracts and being stuck in deals with one, and I'm sure Francis being as smart as he is,

is well aware of that. So I think one should take a shot out of him. I just don't know if they're going to get him. But you could also give Francis the option of doing other things. Risen could be interesting because he could do a whole bunch of different shit with them. But ultimately, I think it's Bellator, PFL. And I do think, depending on how long this takes, I think you have season play.

Like I do. I don't think he's going back there this year. But again, he's in, Francis is in this position. It's a very risky one. But like I said earlier, if John Jones just goes out and melt Cyril Gahn and melts Steepay, like Francis's value goes through the roof.

Because that's, that's the only fight anyone's going to want to see at that point. Now, who knows what, like, like Jelton Almeida does and some of these other guys, but John's in big fight territory. And if John just goes out and melts those two guys, and he calls out Francis, if Francis hasn't locked up with anybody, like everyone's going to be clamoring for that fight.

And I think the UFC would probably budge on some of the things. Not all of them, but they might come a little more correct to Francis because they understand everyone would want to see that fight. I don't know. France is an interesting spot, and we'll see what happens. All right, I got to go.

BTL, 1230, hour and seven minutes from right now. No Jed this week. Jose Young is going to step in. We don't get to see Jose on these programs all that often during a UFC pay-per-view fight week, but he is in a rare place where he's not out in Brazil covering this event.

Our own Guillermo Cruz is out there covering this one. So Jose is going to jump on. We're going to talk about a lot of the stuff we talked about here. Take some questions at the end. And it's going to be a lot of fun. So we'll see you in about an hour. And we'll see you here tomorrow, I think. Yeah, I think so.

The Wayans are like early in the morning. I think they're at 7 a.m. Eastern. So we'll react to all of it on this show tomorrow morning, 10 a.m. Eastern. And then off to New York for the watch party and UFC 283. So get excited, everybody. Until then, have a great rest of your day and have a heck of a morning. Media podcast network.

Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first, there, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes.