MMA Fighting - HOAM | Who Are the Biggest 'What Ifs' In UFC History?

Episode Date: February 9, 2024

There are fighters who came through on the ground floor to become big stars in the UFC and the sport of mixed martial arts, there's others who just didn't have it when the octagon door closed, but there are others who seemed to have it all and their stories were never fully told. Who is the biggest "what if" fighter in UFC history? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, it's Free-For-All Friday where listener topics include some of those fighters who, for one reason or another, weren't able to finish their career stories in the way fans may have expected them to. Additionally, questions include star building in the UFC, the UFC Vegas 86 main event between Jack Hermansson and Joe Pyfer, the WWE's WrestleMania kickoff press conference on Thursday in Las Vegas, 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 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 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 Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever.

Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser 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. It is Friday, February 9th, 2024, and it is indeed a heck of a morning. We are live on the MAA fighting Twitter space to hear the show in its entirety. shortly thereafter on the NBA Fighting Podcasting Network.

What's going on, everybody? I am Mike Heck. Hope you're having a wonderful Friday. Getting ready for a nice weekend. We are on the eve of the UFC back at the world's most famous apex. UFC Vegas 86 goes down tomorrow. Middleweight main event for the third card in a row. This time, it is Jack Herbanson versus Joe Pfeiffer.

co-made event, Dan Igay versus Andre Feeley. We have Ehor Potaria versus Robert Breijek, Brad Tavar, Gregory Rodriguez, Michael Johnson, Darius, Darius, Hidalpha, Vera, Armin Petrosian. That is your main card. And we have 14 fights. And we'll see how this one goes.

Last week's card was a slog and a half. I have a feeling this one's going to be more fun. I like this card better as a whole. So we'll see how it all plays out. It's been kind of a weird week, everybody. Not a ton going on. A lot of speculation on UFC 300. It's really it, man.

I mean, there's just not a lot going on right now. Shout out to Alexander Volkovsky and the crew over at Sportsbed. That video, I'm sure you're going on. I saw it by now. If you haven't seen it, go to MMAFighting.com and check it out. Volcanowski just leaning into this too old narrative in just a spectacular way.

It is tremendous stuff. If you haven't seen it, highly recommend you guys go out and check that out. But we can talk about Vegas 86. We could talk about a new main event that was just announced for Vegas 87. Good Lord. We could talk about

MMA combat sports. It is Friday, so we let our hair down a little bit. Those of us who have it, I am not one of those people. We can talk about whatever the hell you want. So, left lane, MMA was first in line. We will begin with him. Left lane, MMA, are you there? I'm here. Can you hear me?

Yes. All right, well, you're talking about UFC Vegas 86 and UFC Vegas 87, but I'm sure you have not heard the recent fight announcement the news of the century. We've all been waiting for Umanamagamato Fight News, and we've got it. He's fighting some random guy making his debut. So, yeah, exciting stuff.

I just wanted to get you... I can't read you the guy's name right now. I don't have it on me, but I just wanted to get your thoughts on that. I didn't really know what I was going to ask, but I saw this just before I was going to jump on. So I thought it might as well get it out there, fighting some Kazakhstanie dudes, 17 and 1, I believe I saw the record. And I know there's going to kind of be...

be two narratives going around. There's going to be like the, why is this fight being made, Umar's just getting an easy opponent, why shouldn't he be fighting someone better? And then I assume the counter to that will be all the people that are better don't want to fight him.

And I'm not really sure fully where I sit, because I'm sure there are a lot of top 15 guys that have probably said no to that matchup. But if you look at the Bantamite rankings, a lot of the top guys won are already booked. So it's not like he was going get a top five opponent, nor would he have deserved that, in my opinion. He hasn't been any

ranked opponents. He got ranked by beating Nate Menace. Don't know how that happened, but it did. So I'm just curious, I don't know, what are your thoughts on that? How, to what extent do you think these top guys are just saying no? And to what extent do you think that would be called ducking? Or if you get like a guy like Corey Sandhagen, who's already accepted it, I know he's injured, but like I would never call that ducking for a top five guy who is in no. place to fight down the rankings for him to say no to that fight. So if there was a guy like a Rob Font or a Martinez that said no,

I think that's a different conversation. Then you can be like, all right, maybe he's ducking. But I don't know. My opinion, it's just whatever. It'll be interesting to see Umar back in there because he hasn't fought since January of last year. And yeah, we'll see how he goes. And I'm actually kind of intrigued.

Because usually these short notice opponents against really high level guys do pretty well. Like, obviously, Yakim Silver did well against Armand Lopez did well against Evelorff. So do you think we could maybe be in for a similar situation here and we get a little bit of a scare on the Umar Hife train of sorts? But that's all I got. Thanks, Mike.

Interesting. I was not aware of this. I was not aware of this. Wow. I'm just kind of looking it up right now. I guess underdog management, who I would guess is the management squad of one Bexat Al-Macon, which if that is the fight,

that's super fun. Al-Macon is like real good. Dude is a finishing machine. He's looked incredible over the last few years. Just beating dudes up. So if this is the fight, it's a pretty good one. It's a pretty good one. I mean, it's not like one you'd expect to happen,

considering where people kind of rank Umar right now. But look, it's a good test. And this might be the toughest test he's had, honestly. So I like it. To go from Corey Sanhagen to Bexod is a little different. But at this point, like, if I'm the UFC, and I'm sure they are paying attention to how people view him.

I'm sure they pay somewhat attention to like how people rank these fighters and obviously as a website, we are very high on Umar Tamaga Madov. You just got to get him out there. You just got to get him out there. I know he wanted to fight March 2nd. You're not going to get a guy like,

you're not going to get an established, ranked name to say, yeah, I'll fight that guy on like a month's notice, you know? So this is probably the best of all the worlds we could get here. It's a really intriguing fight. And for those who like look at Beckzat's name and they think to themselves like, oh, this guy is just going to be a pushover. I don't think so.

I think this can be a good fight. I like it. I think Beckzat's UFC ready. He's ready than 60% of the contender series guys. So yeah, good matchmaking. If this is it, we have to say having like fully. confirm this but we'll we'll work on it pretty wild pretty wild stuff I hope that's the fight I really do I as well I got yeah so mark kick of the morning I

just wanted to discuss a few things firstly with this upcoming weekend really have winning between Joe Pisa and Hermanson and what kind of strategies do you reckon her Manson can really utilize you know to I guess counter some of Joe's striking adventures that he has against Hermanson you know do you also think his he he has if he beats Joe Fizer I mean he's not really going to be anywhere in the division but do you think it helps him kind of get back in in the case of being a good key for division and another thing I just wanted to briefly talk about was

about Jorge Marcel just a little bit of a vision as history just more as a fan how I'm proud I was seeing him become a successful he did and you know

just gone a little bit trived down memory and I was watching a lot of his older fights recently and some of his older interviews I just like saw how he was talking about how he wanted to be

this really successful style for the sport and make a lot of money and it's crazy because he I remember like when he I was watching in 2017 That's kind of when I got into his game more, I saw how he was talking about. Like, oh, you know, I'm working like two jobs, you know, help my kids, help myself.

And then, you know, and you will never imagine two years later, he won that amazing incredible run in 2019, became a fucking mega star. And not only just a start for the sport, but people who don't even watch the sport knew who he was. And then, you know, he was the reason in 2020, the UC had their biggest card of the year outside of, you know, Conover's cowboy and that that wouldn't have been possible without his thing and I sometimes wonder if he had beat Usman Does he become even more of a bigger household name for the sport and does he You know, maybe Fight Usman for rematch or does he just do other things like have the Grouchman

Kobe fight you know, you know Gilbert burns down the line you know I sometimes wonder how those things were I mean You know the guy was definitely he was not the best fighter but I definitely think um he was a was a very interesting guy and I think a lot of you uh mMA fans are taking him for granted in you know recent years due to all the shit that's happened with him but trust me man you know five years time people will come to appreciate that run like that run that you know Jorge maswell had as a fighter he's one of the few people I can say who had that

or a mystique run that we talk about when comes to connemagrebri you know maybe when we talk about it comes to hamzad or um even like anthony peters and successful you know That's really well I have to say. Thanks, yeah, I'll talk more about Mazinol in the second. Main event tomorrow, I'm picking Joe Piper. I just think he is just a madman.

And as far as, like, a strategy for Jackermanston, look, I don't think it's a really, like, technical strategy here. I think it's honest, for him, it's survive, survive the early rounds, because Piper's not a guy that sees a lot of third rounds. He certainly doesn't see a lot of fourth and fifth rounds. So I think Hermanson's best bed is just survive. And he's been pretty durable.

Like he's been finished, but he's been pretty durable. So if he could just survive the onslaught and just kind of let Piper wear himself out, if that's even possible, it's probably his best chance to win. But the UFC matchmakers know what they're doing here. This is really good matchmaking for what they're trying to do. They're trying to turn Joe Piper into. a rising contender in this division. And he's a very interesting case right now.

Middleweight is very fascinating right now. I know there's a ton of middle-weighty, middle-weight fights. And in fact, we just kind of had one in the main event last week. We have some contenders tomorrow for sure. But, yeah, I think Piper's going to win. But if this fight gets to round three, it's got to get really interesting, in my opinion. Yeah, I have the Mazol. was insane.

There's lightning in a bottle. I don't know if you're ever going to see that. Like, we might see that again sometime. Maybe it's Jim Miller. Like, maybe Jim Miller is that guy right now, because he's just on a great run. If he goes to the UFC 300 and runs over Bobby Green, like maybe he's the guy that we look at,

like, ooh, maybe he can go on that run. We all kind of thought Bobby Green could make that run. A guy who just fought a lot. kind of has that star potential but just never really got the opportunity things just didn't click at the right times but it happened for mazadol and mazadol's an oh geez been doing this shit forever and got his opportunity made it work and yeah he saved the day got a lot of money for that first usman fight which was not a good fight but again mazadol took that on super short notice and it cut a lot of weight Usman just did what he had to do to survive and win,

but I think it still kind of worked out for him, right? Like he still got big-ass fights, got the rematch with Usman, which a lot of people felt like he didn't deserve. But because of Mazadal Star Power at the time, that he got brutally knocked out, he's one of the few, at least in this modern era, who is headlined a pay-per-view in a non-title capacity against Colby.

that was an extreme buildup and then you know gave it gave it a go of Gilbert Burns and that's it like I think the one thing that we missed out on was the Leon Edwards fight

like it's kind of like if there's like one regret for the Mazadol run it's that we never got that fight like how we didn't get that fight is unbelievable to me like that was about as a big a layup as you could possibly get

but it just never happened so if there was like a what if that's probably it but other than that, dudes out there just doing the thing, made a lot of money, trying to establish himself in other ways as a promoter and

looks like he's going to end up boxing Nate Diaz when and where we don't really know yet, but it looks like they're close to finalizing that one from what I understand. Not done yet. No official announcement to be made at this moment, but looks like they're getting closer

to putting that fight on. he's going to make more money. So good on him. Well done. But yeah, the Mazda Rump was fun, even before 2019. It was a lot of fun. Viking, go ahead. Hi, Mike.

I just want to know about Super Bowl. What is exactly a Super Bowl? I mean, it's the single match or the league? What is Super Bowl exactly? And I just want to know why do you guys call rugby football? Because, you know, I've seen rugby matches. And in those matches, there are very few chances when you kick the ball. So what is the reason behind it?

Thanks a lot. Thanks, man. Well, in the States, we call rugby rugby. So we don't make that mistake. Sometimes, you know, you hear football being referred to in the soccer context, but rugby, at least in my world, is rugby. And the Super Bowl, it's the NFL championship game. You go through the regular season, you go through the playoffs, there's two conferences, there's the AFC, there's the NFC, and the last team standing in each conference plays in the Super Bowl. They play one game for the NFL world title.

It is the most watched sporting event of the year every single year. It is a very, very big deal. That's why all these cities vie to have it. It is the biggest sporting event in the world. It's gigantic. And yet the Chiefs and the 49ers and the Taylor Swift effect, this might be the most watched Super Bowl of all time. And it's going to be a good game.

I like both teams. I like both teams. So we'll see how it all plays out. But yeah, that's the Super Bowl. It's just the NFL championship game. one game 60 minutes on that field decides at all and only one team will remain but should be a fun watch looking forward to it let's go to j smack what's up jac mac oh no jop do we have you no uh do the thing jac bounce out bounce back in and we'll make it happen uh let's go to octagon obsessed

Tell a little Octagon obsessed. Hey, Mike, can you hear me? Yep, I got you. Okay, awesome. So, I was curious. I lost you. All right, try again. J-MAC, again, I would bounce out if I were you.

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You always got me crystal clear. You got any thoughts on the Super Bowl? I mean, I know you were just talking about it, but I got a couple props for you that I like. I want your thoughts on them. The jersey number of the first touchdown score over 22 and a half. Gets you McCaffrey and Kelsey. You might be screwed if Pacheco runs in it.

or something like that, but I kind of like that one. Also, with a little bit of juice, I like both teams to get a first down on the first drive. That's what I like. Anything from you, you got like a heads or tails bet. Anything you say, I'll ride it for a buck. What you want. Golly.

So I like to play the props. If I do place any wagers, let me see if there's like anything fun. I always love the national anthem prop. That's like one of my favorites. And right now, the over-under is 87.5 seconds. And I believe it's Reba McIntyre who was singing the national anthem. I have a feeling it's going to go under that number.

I have feelings going to go under that number. I always love the run-pass bet, too. Like, what's the first play of the game? I like your bets. like your plays. I think the only one I'll actually do is the National Anthem one, because I always like that one. And I'll go under 87 and a half seconds because Riba,

Riva doesn't mess around. She gets in there and does her thing and gets out of there. So I like the over under jersey number, first score prop, especially with McCaffrey and Kelsey. And I like the first down prop. It's good. Those are good ones. Those are good ones.

But I think the anthem is the only one I will actually place some sort of wager on. And I'm going under 87 and a half seconds. Do we have you now? Octagon obsessed. J. Mac, you're next. Hey, Mike. Can you hear me? Yes, I have you. Okay, awesome.

Thank you. So, quick question. So I asked people, I see this all the time about how the UFC, you know, does not want to create. stars or is bad at creating stars. So my question to you is really what's your opinion on that? And is the UFC like actually bad at creating stars or they don't want to create stars? Or is it just basically borderline impossible to replicate another Connor-like star? You know, my opinion on this is that I really, you know, I really just want your opinion. So thank you, Mike. Have a great day. It's a good question.

It's tough to say because obviously they want stars, right? Because you're selling pay-per-views. And when said star fights on said pay-per-view, you want people to spend money to watch said fighters. The problem is they want fighters to become stars and they will position certain ones to do so. but in this era of the UFC, at least this is my opinion, they want the fighters, whoever it may be, to be second fiddle to the company.

What I mean by that is they want the UFC to be the star. They want Dana White to be the star. They want Dana to be the face of the company, regardless of who's fighting. And that's how they positioned it. Like, it's all about Dana. It's all about the UFC. They are the brand.

They are the star. They are the selling point right now. And they just, I don't think they want to run into any more situations where, while Connor McGregor was gigantic for them and is a huge reason why they were able to sell the company in 2016 for $4 billion plus, Connor became bigger than the company. And we saw how some of that stuff played out. Connor wanted a box. the UFC obviously made that happen

and made a good amount of money doing it but then Connor was able to kind of negotiate himself out of some certain things they don't want that again they don't want that again they want to be able to kind of like control the narrative they want to be able to sort of and I'm not saying this in like a bad way

I'm not saying this as a shot this is just what it is right now the UFC is the star the fighters are part of the platform but they're not the biggest star. That's what it is. They just don't want to run into a situation

where there's a guy or a gal who comes along who is bigger than the company. And you had it with Connor. And you had it with Rhonda to some extent. And there are like others who are close, but they don't want that again. They don't want that to happen again. So can they build stars?

Sure. Look, I mean, I don't think Sean. Sean O'Malley is like the biggest star in the world. But if he goes out there and melts Cheatera de he is certainly in a position where they can turn him into one. There is a certain demographic of people and fans who love shot O'Malley. And he passes like a lot of casual tests that others can't. And they're going to try to do that with Joe Piper.

And they're going to try to do that with other fighters as well. If Iliate Teporia goes out there and beats Alexander Volcanowski, like they have no choice. Like he is going to become a, he's going to become a fucking superstar if he goes out there and waxes Volk next Saturday. They're going to have to go to Spain. They're going to have to do all that shit.

But they will not let him get bigger than the brand. And that's basically what it comes to be now. They're going to build people up to a certain level, but they seems to be like they don't want them to go beyond that level, if that makes sense. They don't have to deal with the bullshit in negotiations. They can kind of control how everything plays out. They can be the star. They could be the selling point.

Dana's the face. But we have these other cool fighters over there. And again, not a shot. It's just the nature of the business right now. That's why they become so successful. That's why they're printing money left and right. They don't even need to announce made events anymore. In fact, they can announce me.

main events such as Jarosnia Rosent Strike versus Shemiel Gatsyev at the fucking apex and people are going to be like okay this is dumb but you're still going to watch it so yeah they want to be the top billing more so than they want the fighters if that makes any sense that's my opinion on it J-Mac do we have you now yes can you hear me yes okay good all right great well in the spirit of um you see free for all Friday I just want to know if you watch Dana White's Fucket Friday and if you ever tried any of his recipes and do you think it'd be funny I think it'd be funny if he came out with a cookbook Dana White's Fuckett Friday cookbook and also I was going to ask you there's two names that I thought were

going to be huge stars in the UFC that never amounted to anything well not anything but Gregor Gillespie and Mirsad Becht and I want to know two names of UFC fighters you thought we're going to be big stars that never really amounted to anything. All right. Thanks a lot, Mike, and I'll listen to out the air. Jesus, man. That's a good question. I mean, those are very good names.

I mean, look, Gillespie is still, I mean, he's, I don't think either those guys are going to be, like, superstars. But Gillespie has actually gotten more mentions not fighting than he has when he was fighting. Because he's not fighting right now. Everyone wants to know where Gregor Gillespie is right now. And I think you know where he's at. He's out fishing. And I have no clue what is going on with him.

Like literally no idea. We know he's out there just to join the outdoors life. But what the fuck, man? Like when is he going to fight? It's been years. And he's like always been like an interesting player in this division. But he wanted the Tony Ferguson fight. It never happened.

He wants, I know he was offered the Armant-Saurukian fight before Surukian fought Gamrot. And he said no. And there you go. I mean, if he's happy and he's making money and he's doing the thing, then good on him. Good on him. But those are, man, those are good names. Those are good names.

I have to think about this. Roger Huerta would probably be like one of the names that sticks into my mind. There's a whole bunch. I have to think about this. if I have to only pick two but where it's just like one that I thought was gonna he was gonna be like a pretty big star

and it just never really happened for him I'll say one that's like still active right now and it's just one of those things because I interviewed at least like coming up I interviewed so many fighters who either were like not in the UFC

about to get into the UFC or only have like one fight on their books I have to say after my first conversation with Alexander Hernandez, I was like, damn, this guy, if he can get some wins, like he could talk a lot, like he can get over, whether you like him or not. And then he kind of walked into that whole Donald Serroney situation and he goes to the press conference and he's the talking point of the entire presser before that card, that first

ESPN card and then Serroney just kind of waxed him. And I don't think Hernandez has ever really recovered from that. Like he's gone out and gotten some wins and he's still in the UFC and he's probably making some decent money. but he's a what if what if he went out there and beat cowboy what if he went out there and just ran his ass over and then like at the same token

what if his first UFC fight was just a normal UFC fight what if it wasn't Benny Derrius on short notice where he goes out there and just knocks him out in a minute and then immediately is a top 15 guy gets in there with OAM wins a grueling fight

and then gets bumped right up to Sorote in just this third UFC fight. Like what if he got to develop at 24, 25, 26? Like most of these guys did. What if the contender series was a thing back then? And he just went in that way. Like there's, he's one of the big what-ifs. And I honestly think, like, if he went out there and beat cowboy,

like we're looking at him in a whole different light. Because he's got it all. Looks good getting off the bus. He's had some good fights and finishes. Dude could talk his ass off, but it just never fully all clicked for him. So that's one name that comes fine. The fucking Fridays, have I ever watched them? Yes, I watched them early on.

Do I watch them anymore? No, I do not. I do not. I was rubbed the wrong way by, you know, the New Year's Eve thing happened last year. The video comes out, and it's just like, all right, maybe the world needs, like, a little breather from Dana. and then like we get a we get a fuck it Friday video like that week when we're still waiting on like statements from the UFC and from Endeavor it was just in bad taste and from that point on I was just like nah rub me the wrong way so I just kind of stopped but hey good on him

people watch it and people like it I've never tried a single recipe from it and I probably never will Jay go ahead hey Mark are you able to hear me yes all right so I just wanted to get your on the Instagram post that Sage Northcut made, I believe, yesterday about his situation in Japan, because he tagged almost like every big MMA media outlet in that post. And I would not think he would be doing this if he didn't, if this did not happen. Because the way he described the situation made it seem like Chachari and the people over at one did not inform him about the visa situation between him and his coaches until the day of the day of the situation. the fight and that potentially if they were to corner him that they could potentially be in jail and convicted of not being able to get a work visa. So I just want to know if you guys at

MMA fighting have been interviewing him or asking him questions because it seems like he wants to get the story out there by tagging every NBA media outlet. So thanks for having to back good morning. Yeah, we end up brighton about it. I will assume he will probably end up on the MMA hour to talk about it, but my first reaction was, oh, one is dealing with weird and unfair business practices? What a shocker. You mean, Chhatri is leading people to believe that things aren't what they seem to be? Wow, look at my surprised face.

It's just dumb. I mean, I don't know. I get, I don't know the whole story, but am I surprised? am I surprised that a fighter has come out? Like our own Guillermo Cruz talked to one of their fighters who really shat on them. And from, you know, if you just go and read that article, and I don't remember, maybe it was Bionna Fernandez. I'm not 100% sure.

But it seemed like there was more than needed to be said. And if you got Sage, you've got Sage Northcut threatening to run down your business, you got problems, man. Like, you got big problems. problems. So yeah, this is going to be interesting to see how it all plays out. It seems like he's just kind of dangling the carrot right now. Here's my side of the story, but boy, do I know a whole hell of a lot more? So stay tuned. So we'll see how it goes. Just hasn't been a good run for one. From a business perspective, from how fighters have come out and said they've been

treated. It's not every fighter. Like I'm sure to be just Johnson is very happy. It seems like guys like Jared Brooks, who was in the UFC, and ended up going over to one and is now a champion, is feeling pretty good about things. But Buddy Elbow has talked about their financials. I mean, it's all documented. Like, they have it all docked. So, I don't know.

It's got to be interesting to see what one is like. I actually thought last year from a, like, in, from a products. standpoint, like a fan viewing standpoint, that was pretty good. Like, I liked watching them, the cards. I like how they mix it up. Like, it even got to the point for me where it was like, you can't compare them to the UFC anymore because they're doing like their own thing. But now it seems like they're entering 24 where they want to be like, oh, no, we're going to be,

we're going to get back in MMA. We're going to be the number two organization or the 1B organization. We're like, why? What the hell are you doing? just golly it's just misstep after misstep after misstep and if you got super nice and kind sage northcott running you down um not good so i have a feeling we're going to hear a lot more about this story and it's going to be kind of funny i think boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes oh what sounds like ojo time play ojo great idea feel the fire

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you call 186653310 or visit Commexontera.ca. 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. Tadjikvang, go ahead. Whoa, Mike, a long time, no-see. How are you? Yes. Good, good. I think we talked about the stars of the UFC, whether UFC is interested in promoting star or, you know, containing stars. I agree with

your point that, you know, UFC would rather have the control of the narrative. And, you know, And I think they're still interested in promoting the stars, but it's a limited promotion, and it normally goes in two ways. One is geography, right? So you would have like cards, like, let's say, Mike Mallet or Jasmine Justavicious, right, who have some very limited upside in terms of being global stars, but have an upside in being a Canadian star, right? So one is geographical promotion, right, like of a fighters.

and another is more like agenda driven, right? So you would have somebody like Sean Streakland, you know, talking crazy stuff or like Belal Mohammed or pushing his own agenda, right? Whereas what we notice in general, the guys who have been successful and making money throughout the sport, they have been, you know, transcending throughout the sport without geographical limits, right, like Connor, or without any particular agenda. So these are the good examples of, like,

somebody like John Jones, Connor McGregor, maybe Khabib a little bit. You wouldn't see much Khabi pushing the agenda either. And throughout the geography, he was pretty popular across the spaces. So that's the kind of a thing. You know, when you think about the UFC's promotion, you have to understand is that either the fighter is going to be pushed through a geography or he's going to be pushed

throughout throughout particular agenda which is creates which allows UFC to control the narrative so that's kind of a little bit continuation of your thought and in terms of what if I think if you're trying to think of the stars maybe what if like probably

if he doesn't end up winning the title is probably going to be somebody like Hamzachamai right because I think UFC could have pushed him much earlier and he grew frustrated and then he subscribed to a particular agenda now. So what we're, what we are seeing now is him being, you know, maybe controlled by narrative, by UFC narrative a little bit more. And I don't think we're necessarily going to see with that and the combination of obviously with injuries with him being in a bad management, choosing the bad management. But all in all, I think it's great. You know, these are just a couple of insights

that I'd like to share. In terms of upcoming card, I'm hopeful this week that Jack Hermanson is going to sink up that anaconda choke. It would be great to see Andre Fili winning and making it in the top 15. I think we have a great card. You know, I call this type of cards like a glorified Dana White Contender series. You can put literally any fighter right now. It's borderline Dana White Contender Series and people which will watch because the sport

is saturated and there is so much there's just prevailing there's just a dominance of one particular organization and it affects the quality of the sport which is unfortunate so and final thought I'm going to finish with this UFC and then MMA is one of the very few if not the only mainstream sport you know compared to NFL MMA MLB and NHL right where the main stars of the main stars of the sport are not the fighters themselves. Because if somebody asks you, like, who are the most famous people in the space of the, in the MMA space, people will either say Dana White or they're going to say Ariel Helwani.

And I think that's another shame, right? And this is something I want listeners and MMA fans to think about is to support and cheer for their fighters and do not necessarily go behind like Dana White's and aerials of the world and instead enjoy the sport and appreciate the fighters. Thank you. I mean, Connor has to be in that conversation as well. I mean, everybody knows what Conne McGregor is. Passes the public says. I go to Publix right now, talk to anybody. Have you ever heard of Conne McGregor? And 100% of the people will say yes. So he has to be up there. Even though he's been inactive and he's not really fighting, everybody knows who he is, whether for good or for bad.

So, yeah. It's just weird, man. It's just a weird sport. And that's the thing. The UFC has gotten, just think about some of the stars that have emerged. And the UFC didn't, had nothing to do with it. Sean Strickland, perfect example. The UFC had did nothing with Sean Strickland. They put him in a, he was the apex main event guy. And Sean would just say a bunch of weird things. But they never like pushed him as a stop. In fact, there was all these questions about whether or not Sean would ever fight for the title because like, do they want to actually risk that? Does ESPN want to risk that? And Sean falls into the Izzy fight and he gets over huge. And he did that by himself. The UFC didn't put Sean in that situation to become a star. They just put him in that situation to lose to Israel out of Sanya so that Israel can move into 2024 and fight Jersey's duple see. Unfortunately, those plans did not.

pan out, which made it absolutely hilarious to me, but the UFC has just gotten so fortunate where they just can't lose. They just, nothing can go wrong for them right now. It just can't. Sean Strickland dusts up, Izzy, and

becomes the star in Australia. And then they booked this fight with Strickland and DDP where like, why are they doing it in Toronto? Why is Sean Strickland's first title defense in Toronto? and Sean Strickland by himself got over in Toronto. And a lot of the stars that have come up,

it's not the UFC making them stars. They did it on their own. They just did it. They became interesting. And then they delivered performances. So, yes, there are certain guys in gals that they do build up. Joe Pfeer, perfect example. Danaway wants Joe Piper to be the middleweight champion.

bad. Trust me what I tell you this. Like, they're going to build this dude up because Dana wants to be like, see, off my show, this guy became a champion. And Joe's like the guy. He's like the, you know, when you think of Dana White's contender series, Joe Piper is kind of like the guy

that you look at first because the B. Joe Piper speech, what I thought the contender series is going to get super interesting again. What Dana White said, all you guys suck. You got to show up on Tuesday night and deliver a performance. Don't be like these guys.

Be Joe Piper. That was like my favorite moment of the contender series the last two years. It was like, yes. Now it's like the first season or the second season where even if you get a finish, like that's not enough. You've got to go out and deliver across the board and we give out a contractor two every week. And then of course, right after that week, every single fighter got a contract. And now we understand why. But again, you can't really blame him for that because it's a good business and no one's stopping them from it.

So there you have it. There you have it. When you mention some of the, like, what ifs, what ifs? When you mention Hamzat, Zabit Magamad Sharapov is probably the number one answer. Like that, this is family feud. Bing, number one. Undefeated. Everybody was like, this guy was going to be the champ.

And then all of a sudden, I'm not fighting anymore. that was a stunner. So it's probably Zadie. All right, let's keep going. Eric, I'm trying with you, but it ain't working for some reason. CV, go ahead. C.V. Unmeat yourself, and I think we're good. All right, try again. Jared.

Let's get Jared in. Jared? Are you there? Unmute yourself, Jared, and you're good. What's up, ma'am? So this is my first time calling in. I can't believe this is what I want to talk about. But I've been slowly getting into WWE again. Shows you kind of how slow the MMA landscape's kind of been.

But I don't know if any of you all watched the WrestleMania press conference yesterday. But I was kind of getting big, Steep A, Jones, Aspenol vibes. I feel like John Jones, Roman Raines, like the face of the company wants to fight the old legend in Steepa or the Rock, while the deserving champion Aspinall, aka Cody Rhodes, is the one that the people want. I don't know, maybe TKO is sharing ideas. I don't know. So, yeah, it's Friday so we can talk about that. I did watch it, and I thought it was spectacular.

I loved it. It was great. And I think the UFC should do something like this. Like International Fight Week, UFC 300, like, announce, like, the stars to come out and just, like, talk to the people a little bit. They get a couple questions. We do a little face off and we get out of here as opposed to, like, the normal, like, vanilla things we do every single week. Like, let's have a little fun with this. And I think maybe seeing something like that, like, the crowd was on fire.

They were into everything. Just star after star coming out. It was pretty fucking cool. I loved it. I loved it. Rock coming out and turn and heel and then he slaps Cody in the face. And Cody chooses Roman and everyone loses their minds. And now like Roman and Rock are like they leave the building together.

They're like on a team now. Like what the fuck's happening? I have no idea. So the build to mania is going to be really fun. And I have no idea how this is going to work out. Do they do like Cody Roman Sunday, but then Saturday? Do they do Roman Rock? Do they do Cody and Rollins versus Rock and Raines headlining night one and then do the title match on Sunday?

Like, it was good stuff. It was good stuff. I enjoyed it. I'd like to see more of that. UFC, UFC should definitely do that. International fighting, like not exactly the same. But they should do something like that. I think it would be fun as hell.

But yeah, I enjoyed it. It was great. WWU's on fire right now. I know there's some, the shit with Vince McMahon is awful. But the product they're putting out there, they are just destroying it right now. What's up, Eric?

The press conference yesterday will stick. Rock's flat Cody, bro. I think they're going to do, uh, yeah, I think they're going to do a rock Roman and then rock Cody on Saturday. No, Saturday is going to do Rock and then Rock and Cody on Sunday. So, no, no, no. Look at this one.

Thanks, guys. Yeah, it's going to be interesting to see how that all works out. But, yeah, I enjoyed it. It was good stuff. They should do that. This should be an annual thing. 1,000%. CV, go ahead.

Yo, Mike, can hear me? Yes. Okay, not bad. I had Twitter fingers there. I was driving. I just got home from a workout, so I'm kind of fired up. Yeah, just to add on to what JMAX said earlier about any UFC fighter that could have been a star, one name that comes to mind for me is Dooh Choy, a Korean Superboy.

I thought he was going to be like the next face of Korean MMA picking over Korean zombie, but it is what it is. But since it's free for all Friday, and we have two undefeated fighters fighting in next week's pay-per-view, Ian Gary and Ilya, my question for you is, out of D.D.E.E.E.D.E.E. these four fighters who stays undefeated who takes their first L and just your just your thoughts on them who's who remains undefeated out of these four um Ian Gary Ilya Tupura amza Tremayev and Shabkat Rachmanov thanks Jesus ah man Jeff Neal is like it's good it's such a good fight like I'm glad they're I'm glad

they went back to this one not that I was like like staunchly against the Lou Ge booking but this one I like better. So we're going to get some answers. I do think Ian's going to win. But Jeff's no pushover, man. Like when he's on, he is very tough to beat. Like, he beat the hell out of Vicente Lucke. Yeah, he lost to Neil Magdie.

Yes, he lost the Wonderboy, and yes, he got beat by Shafkaat Rukmanoff. But I think everybody's going to get beat by Shafkaat Rikmanoff. So I think Ian's going to win. God, Volkadovsky versus Duporia is. it just rules. This fight rules. And I know everyone's talking about $299 and $300. And I understand that. $2.99 is stacked. It's a loaded card. I get it. $300 is $300. All the questions are about $300. But do not sleep on $298. The main card is fantastic. It's so good. Anthony Hernandez, Roman Coppulov, is going to be an absolute shit show in the best possible way.

and Gary is going to be the fight everyone's going to be talking about on Friday, heading into that Saturday. Marab and Henry Sohudo is just sneaking up on people. Robert Whitaker, Paul Costa. That fight is so under the radar right now, it's incredible. And then Volcanowski-Tuporia is probably the best fight on the books right now. There's just so, I'm so freaking fascinated by this fight for so many reasons. I just have a million questions.

I love this fight so much. It is the best fight on the books. I cannot wait for next Saturday. I cannot wait to sit in that studio with GC and watch this fight happen. Because if Ilya Tepori goes out there and wins, he's the dude. They're going to Spain. You have to make it happen. He's going to be a superstar.

But if he loses, he is going to eat a shit sandwich the size of a double whopper, at least for a little while Ilya will come back no doubt about it dude is super talented when you talk all that shit and you go on your Instagram page and you say

I'm already 15 and oh and I'm the UFC featherweight champion and you don't deliver it's going to be a tough tough scenes for you but if he wins they got they got something real special

with this guy so cannot wait for that fight it's so good do not sleep on two Please, I'm telling you, do not sleep on this card. Are the prelims sensational? No. Are they going to be fun?

I think it will be. Are we going to get a lot of finishes? Yes, I think we will. But the main card's where it's at. The main card is where it's at. If there's 80 bucks to spend right now, you spend it on this main card. It is going to deliver.

It's going to kick ass. It is going to be the best card of the year. I know it's only the, what, fourth or fifth event? 297 was pretty awful. Vegas 84, not great. 85 was not great at all. 86, I think, will be a little more fun, but not a memorable one. This one, I think, is going to be really good.

This one I think is going to be memorable. And then I think we're just going to be off to the races after this one. Because we go from here to Mexico City. Then we've got to take a stop back at the world's most famous apex for Jarzini. Rosenstrike versus Shemiel Gadsieff, but then we just have to stay positive here. Okay? Because once that fight ends,

once Jarazidio versus Shemil Gadsiaf ends, it's UFC 299 fight week. It's in Ghanu versus Joshua fight week. And then we're just, we're just off now on the road to UFC 300. So it's got to be an interesting time for the UFC and for the sport. And so get ready. We just got to get through one more week.

We're just got to get through tomorrow. And I think we're going to be okay. I think we're going to be okay. All right. Last call. What do we got? If you haven't asked a question, hop on in. If not, we'll wrap up because we do have a preview show coming up to discuss this card.

And I think we have done it. So next week, we'll be back here on Tuesday. We'll do the damn thing like we always do. We'll be back here on Thursday. We'll do the damn thing as we always do. And then Friday, we will probably be on YouTube for the program because it's a paid for you week. And I'm sure you guys will have a lot of questions. And that will lead you into the way in show.

Leo, you can hop in. Leo, I was just trying to bring you on around. So, Leo, do we have you? Hop on in. And we tried. See if you've got any questions to the comments. Okay, we're good. All right.

I guess we'll see you Tuesday. 1 p.m. Eastern, Vegas 86 free show. I think it's me. We got Jed and New York Rick. That is the crew for the preview show, 1 p.m. Eastern. So we'll see you then. Thank you all very much. Have a great rest of your Friday.

And have a heck of a morning, everybody. To the Vox Media Podcast Network.