MMA Fighting - HOAM | Who Is Francis Ngannou Going To Fight In The PFL?

Episode Date: May 16, 2023

Francis Ngannou, free agent no more! The former UFC heavyweight champion is officially part of the PFL, with a new deal that makes him not only the most famous fighter on the roster, but an executive in partnership with the league. On this edition of Heck of a Morning, guest host Alexander K. Lee answers all of your questions about the Ngannou-PFL alliance, including potential opponents, why fans were so hard on him during his free agency, whether this move might influence UFC stars to demand more from their promotion, how this might affect the PFL’s bottom line, and more. Plus, have we entered a world where Conor McGregor vs. Matt Brown is possible, what are Jailton Almeida’s limitations, who could be the breakout stars of UFC Vegas 73, what’s next for Ian Machado Garry, and where in the world is Khamzat Chimaev? 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 Follow Alexander K. Lee: @alexanderklee  Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco 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 reprise his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster,

The Downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now only from Audible. The Vox Media Podcast Network. What is going on, everyone? This is Alexander K. Lee, filling in for the wonderful Mike Heck, who has jury duty.

We'll talk a little bit about that. I'll share my own jury duty story. and of course, talk about the Francis and Ghana announcement this morning. He had teased it over the weekend. I would love to hear your guys' thoughts about it. And if you didn't hear about it, I will sort of give you a quick fill-in. But let's give the space a little time to populate, and I'll be back with you in about 30 seconds, a minute. Be right back.

All right, everybody. Let's get this show on the road. We've already got a couple of people who want to chime in. First, I want to say a happy – I hope everyone has to be happy – I hope everyone has to be – had a great Mother's Day weekend. I'm a self-proclaimed, proud Mama's boy. I love my mom. Esther Lee, if I didn't express it enough, you are the best,

and I love you very much. And shout-outs to all the moms out there doing it. I have some friends who recently became mothers, super excited for them. And also, I always, of course, I want to give a shout-out to, you know, people who might not have had the good fortune of growing up with a mom or a mother figure.

It happens. It's very common. So, you know, for everyone out there who has someone, who took care of them, you know, who kind of filled that role, show them some love. And if you had to look after yourself or, you know what, show yourself some love, whatever it is. But of course, again, yeah, much love to all the moms out there.

And, you know, everyone else, everyone else who just had a good weekend, celebrate in their own way. As I said a little bit earlier, and Mike has tweeted, he got called in for jury duty. I don't know if he's gotten selected. If he gets selected, you might be hearing more Lee of a morning. I don't know. we do want to talk about the

Francis and Ghana news so I'm going to have to keep the story short but I had my own jury duty selection once and at the time I didn't want to get selected it takes up your mornings it takes up your workday you do get paid obviously I'm speaking of course from Canada perspective I don't know how you guys do in the US

I'm sure you guys get paid too but even given the compensation I would rather just be working I'd rather be doing my stuff for mhmayfighting.com so I kind of went looking pretty disheveled. I mean, I look disheveled normally anyway, but I didn't shave. My hair looked pretty shaggy. I'm like, all right,

there's no way they'll pick me out of this pool. But they had us waiting so long. And I started looking at some of the other people, and I'm like, my pride kind of started to swell up and I kind of do want to be picked. I kind of started getting all these old feelings of being back in school and not getting picked for the team,

you know? And I'm like, well, I kind of want to get in there. So I kind of tried to clean myself up, put a big smile on my face, look a little more professional. I was not selected. There was, I don't want to say exactly what the, the situation was, but yes, it was the prosecution that vetoed me from the selection. So they did not trust me to go against the alleged criminal that they were trying to put away, which really made me question my morals and my appearance and how I present myself. So it was a very sad day for me.

And next time jury duty selection comes around, maybe I'll put in a better effort. But that's not why you guys are here. You're here to talk about Francis and Ghanu announcing early this morning, I believe, 5 a.m. ET, to the New York Times that he is now part of the PFL, not just plan to compete. They are in a strategic partnership. He is taking on a leadership role with the, let me read there, make sure I get the copy right here. The PFL Global Advisory Board, and he is the chairman of PFL Africa. He will all. also be allowed to box. They say he is still planning to box sometime this year, and he will compete as part of the PFL's quote-unquote super fight division in 2024. So it will be quite a long time by the time he steps into the PFL smart cage. It will likely be two full years since we have seen Francis Ngon to compete. He hasn't fought since U.S.C. 270, January 2020, had to sit out a whole year.

It was officially a free agent four months ago, and now he is with the P.S. So PFL's making moves. Francis and Gondon is making moves. There's a lot more details. I won't get into it all now. If you guys have questions, let's talk about it. Again, I'm sure you've seen the coverage, M. Myfighting.com, New York Times,

wherever it is you heard about it. Ariel will be talking to Francis later today. 1 p.m. ET. We'll get even more details. But for now, let's get to your thoughts. Tristan, I think I saw you first. So Tristan, go ahead and hop in here. I'd love to hear what you have to say about the France and Garner deal.

Can you hear me? I can. Hey, AK. Yeah, I want to talk about mostly UFC, what is it, Vegas 73? Sure, sure, sure. So I want to talk about actually the co-main event. I'll tie in also with the main event. So the co-main event is Edmund Shabazzian versus Anthony Fluffy Hernandez.

Okay, I'm pretty high on Fluffy. Now, I want to preface this. I don't know if he's going to be in the top 15. I don't know if he's going to be champion, but he's so fun to watch in a sense of, so if you looked at the fight against Mark Andre Berrio, it was probably Fluffy's best performance where he did not let up.

The guy was in his face the whole entire time. He was the one that was outpacing and out-cardioying Mark Andre Beirio. And Barrio is known for cardio. You name a power bar for a reason. So for him to do that, broke his rib in that fight, dumped him on his head, left a dent in the octagon, and he was just all over him. But the thing about him was, with his grappling,

he nicks to martial arts was damaging him as he's doing. In the first round, there was a sequence where he threw three elbows, two body shots, level change, took him to the ground, started beating up more. By the third round, he was able to, by the third round, it was a triangle joke and there was a rap after that. I was like, my goodness. I'm like, why's not many grapplers doing this

where you soften up the body and then it's going to be easier for you to get a submission? And this ties into McKenzie Dern. This is a problem. Now, McKenzie Dern has talked about in her interview that, hey, I'm going to, I need to get back to my jitin roots. I need to take my opponent down. I'm like, okay, that's all well and good.

But you only have, you got 15 minutes. You got, you know, 25 minutes. You don't have much time. because those minutes go quick. So as you're trying to take her down, damage your opponent. JetMishu went crazy because, oh, you're not going to do any strikes when you have them on the ground to get the submission early.

And that's my whole thing. A lot of the grapplers, and that, I mean, I always will go towards grapplers. This is why I love Tantiana Swara. Benoit Santonis. Chalkat Raqmano. These are grapplers, but they put damage on you. And that's the whole point. A lot of grapplers need to wake up.

This is MMA. It's not presenting jihitsu. It's not wrestling. You've got to put damage to the opponents to make it. easier to finish your opponents. So that's my whole thing. I'm really excited, especially for that Komen

event, and then we'll see what McKenzie Dun can do. And if she's learned from her mistake, because if not, she's never going to get, she's never to get to where everybody or the UFC is trying to push her to be a contender as a title challenger. So just your thoughts of what I said, AK, and thanks for everything.

Awesome. Thank you, Tristan. Yeah, Anthony Hernandez, look, him and Edmund Chabazian, not what I would call an official co-main. You guys know I have a standard for a co-main. I don't feel like you just throw any fight that's in the second to last spot is necessarily a co-main event. This to me just has one main event. This is really just a penultimate fight, which really sounds cooler than co-main. But good for Edmund and good for Anthony Hernandez for being in that spot. Definitely one of the reasons they put it in there. They expect to finish, as Tristan mentioned. Anthony

Hernandez is not going to go in there and lay and pray. He is a guy who, looks for a finish. The UFC loves guys like this. Yeah, I don't know what his ceiling is either. Middleweight is pretty wide open, I feel. I don't know how far away he is from a title shot. Plus, we don't know how long is he going to stay there, so that opens up a top

five spot. And as long as you finish fights, it's also very risky. He's been finished and his two losses in the UFC. But again, you can have a long career, just be a guy who gets performance bonuses, you know, headlines or

co-headlines, fight night cards, the occasional paper view appearance. He's only 29 years old. Doesn't have a ton of mileage on him. He's very exciting to watch. And you're right, you're right, comparing that to McKenzie Dern. On paper, this is a matchup that she should do really well in. Angela Hill, of course, a great fighter, good takedown defense. And McKenzie Dern doesn't have the best takedowns.

So, yeah, she is going to have to show something on the feet I feel to threaten Angela Hill to put her in positions where she's able to get in and clench and trip her down and throw her down unless she's developed a blast double and just starts in just double legs uh angel hell out of the gate and takes her down if she's if she's suddenly going all chaltern al-maid on people that'd be fantastic but it does seem unlikely does seem like she needs to round at her game yes great she's going back to her roots i always say that i don't want to say hashtag keep the martial arts apart she's a thrilling grappler but if you're trying to get where she's trying to get to, which is a title shot, which the

UFC would love to do. They're McKinsey Dern fans through and through. Since she was a high profile signing, really since she entered MMA, it feels like everyone has said she should compete for a world title someday. She fixed the weight-cutting issues. And now she has to show that

she's just more well-rounded. Because listen, you can get to the top being one-dimensional. I've been saying Johnson Al-Meda is going to win the heavyweight title, just taking people down and jujitsuing them. I think it's a little bit hard to do at straw weight. weight is as we said is just you know if you can finish you can go a long way i mean you could you could you could one-punch knockout your way to a uc title straw weight is a pretty deep competitive

vision where the best fighters of the top are all well-rounded i mean rosanamajunis jang wei lee carlos bar is obviously a little one-dimensional but you know i would still say she's she's more well-rounded that people will give her credit for even though she's an intensely focused wrestler and the joanna jacek i think was also a pretty well-rounded fighter a striker yes but great take down defense great grappling defense so i'm gonna come mackenzie daren get there i don't know glad she's getting this headlining spot um it made last week's card weaker but at least it'll you know this card needed something so but yeah i do i'm with tristan though i do like to see people be a little more offensive on the ground but hey it's easier than done when you're in there and

someone trying to punch your face off you know you might you might tend to a position favor favorite position over submission or damage in those situations. Michel and Jonathan, I see you guys both. Michelle, I'm going to go to you first. Do I see a Jamaican and a Scottish flag in your profile, sir? Am I correct? Hello, Michelle. Do I see a Jamaican flag and a Scottish flag?

Are my misreading my flag? Yeah, my heritage. Oh, wow. You are. You're not actually sorry. My heritage. So I just want to talk about the Francis and gone. PFO move.

I was actually speaking to my letter by yesterday because he's not really a big UFC fan but he asked about UFC and stuff like that. He asked about Francis and I was saying I don't know where he goes. I thought it would be more boxing. I thought that was a logical sense. But obviously today's really something with PFO.

I'm a bit shocked. I don't really know how stacked me heavy weight the division is. And like obviously I know he's doing boxing this year. I don't know who would fight to be honest, but I just want to see your thoughts on like where do you think he would fit in in terms of fights and who would fight in that division? Thank you.

Okay. Thanks, Michelle. Yeah, that's the big question. So I should have plugged at the beginning. Jed and I, Jed Mishu and I got up pretty early today. We did a reaction podcast. I think that's live on the network now. I think the post is going out shortly.

But you guys can listen to that, but I have so many thoughts on it. I'm happy to keep talking about it. This is one of the downsides of the signing and one of the, like, Like for people who want to criticize him, ending up with the PFL right now, as opposed to, like, immediately, you know, having locked in a big boxing bow, you know, the ideal, let's be real, the ideal world was he gets it, him and Tyson Fury. Him and Tyson Fury, you know, they had the face off a while ago. It seemed like both men were interested, but of course, the world of boxing was pretty slowly.

Francis, I think, was not a freezing at the time. We all kind of knew that he was just going to sit out until, from January, January, and be free. but I don't think he was in any position to negotiate in a hard any hard meaningful way. So this isn't that. This is not the Sussain Fury Flight. This is not, wow, is France going to make $50 million to defer his pro boxing debut? I get it's not that. It sounds like he's getting good compensation, not just because he's a fighter, but also, like I said,

he's taking executive roles with PFL Africa, with their global brand, what, global advisory board, excuse me. So there's really good money being made there. I don't think Francis regrets it. But if you want to knock the competition, he's going to face the PFL, at least based on the current roster, it's understandable. There's just not a lot of huge names here.

Maurice Green just came over from the UFC, Yorgina Castro, another former UFC guy. Seza Fajara, like a career middleweight, is blown up and out of, well, he's out of the season now. I shouldn't even mention a few of these guys. I mentioned Bruno Cabalosa also out of the season. Ante Dalicia, we kind of joke about that matchup a lot, but I mean, that could be the direction.

direction it goes in. More likely, the, the, the, the, the, the ffl will bring people in. The PFL will bring fighters in. Who can they get? I mean, listen, this opens the door. I think showing that they can play ball with guys like him with, with, uh, Francis is going to go a long way. Now, now, now, obviously, your average heavyweight signing is not going to get all these concessions that Francis got, um, from, you know, permission to box elsewhere. Um, the, the, you know, this executive roles, uh, the, the, the, the pay-per-view revenue that he's supposed to be getting as part of the Superfight Division. Though,

though I will say the wonderful John S. Nash has been doing some reporting, and this is well, and some of the things he discovered, is that his opponents will have a certain minimum salary. This is something that Francis said that he was fighting for was, when Chachry Citadong of one championship said, well, one of the reasons, he was listing all these reasons they didn't, you know, kind of aligned with Francis in negotiations,

was he wanted this, he wanted this. And one of the things was saying, like, he wanted to have some control over his opponent's pay, which sounded like malicious, but it meant he was, his opponent would have a comparable pay to himself. So we don't know what that means exactly. John S. Nash is saying it's possibly as high as a million dollars guaranteed for his opponent. So if that's true, they're not going to have too much trouble luring people into the, to PFL, opponents for Francis, even if it's like a one-off deal. That's like a Roy Nelson. If it's Roy Nelson's out there, I get it. I know not the sexiest matchup, but it's a well-known name, it's a veteran body.

This is what you want for Francis now. You just want to see him perform. I don't know how many fights he has left, but you want to see him perform. You want to draw in those casual eyeballs who recognize his name. And again, maybe recognize it Roy Nelson and Alistair Overeem, whatever other heavyweights are out there that might consider one to step into the smart cage. What Francis is supposed to mean a $1 million payday, possibly more, given other, I don't know, incentives, how these things work out. but I will say the current roster if you're just looking at the current PFL roster

it's not super appealing I do think you will see other names brought in for his first fight I would be very surprised if it was like York and the Castro or I don't know Denny Skultsov something like that with respect to these guys with respect to these guys

they're listen they're going for that one million dollars right now good for them if it gets them a fight with Francis fantastic maybe that's they dangle that carrot whoever wins the tournament will also you know fight Francis in early 2023 but that's a lot to promise i think it's more likely they bring someone in from the

outside but thanks for the question michel jonathan let's bring you in all right jonathan we can talk ufc we can talk influencer boxing we can talk the francis deal you're muted right now sir hello hey uh hey john i'm sorry about that i got you what's going on uh so i wanted to talk about the whole frances situation and the signing um and i want to go like a small many ramp before I ask you a question and you know get out of here. What is the deal with UFC fans? I'm so confused on their views and fighters and and I it just makes zero sense to me. Like when Francis left the UFC, he left in the good position and all UFC fans can just talk

about is, oh, he felt a bag. Oh, he's overrated. I just don't understand why UFC fans just cape for corporations that beats down the fighters, that for, you know, like, they just beat down a dude that's literally trying to fight for fighters' rights. Just literally trying to fight for equality and, you know, equal pay. I'm just confused on why UFC fans are like this, you know, know and because they even fumbled the back with with with the glory champion it is it's just I don't know but yeah but my question to you is um is uh what is your whole take on the fans

and and the UFC just well the fans that are siding with the corporations in the UFC of yeah It's all got. Hey, great. Thanks, Jonathan. Yeah, that's a, well, that's a pretty broad question, but certainly relevant, certainly relevant in the, the, uh, Francis and Gano discussion. So thank you for letting, sending that in. let me say first as the prince of positivity i firmly believe the majority of like mma fans combat sports fans are pretty like nice smart people just going about their day and just enjoying the product and they don't get as much into the nitty gritty as you know those of us doing the media and hardcore fans like yourself and others um and so when you see a lot of the negativity out there and again this isn't this is with almost any topic it's it's it's it's

It's the vote people being vocal, that they're vocal to complain, we're not necessarily as vocal when we're being positive, when we're complimenting something, we're saying that we like someone. Think about, hey, you interact with your friends, right? You and your friends are more likely to sort of bust each other's chops, right? That's good, and then you are to say,

hey man, you smell really good today. That's a weird compliment, but just as an example. We're more comfortable, I think, as society, sort of being, being sort of, Not always negative, but leading with an insult, leading with a jab. And then when you get to discussions like this, talking about, you know, debates, discussions, things like that. So who's in there? I see CV, I see you.

I'll bring you in next. People want to see, people confuse cynicism with intelligence. And I'm sort of stealing from Conan O'Brien here, but cynicism is like the most useless quality you can have as a human being. Do not mistake cynicism for being intelligent, for being cautious, for being educated. There's no benefit to it, especially when discussing a topic like France and Ghani, when people were so quick, even before, like six months after, six months after the Zasidilgan fight, before he was even a free agent. There was just feel like, oh, well, he'll come crawling back to the UFC.

He'll come, like, he hasn't fought yet. He'll come crawling back. What other offers could there be out there? There's people upset with him because he's not fighting. He's not giving you what you want from Francis Ngano, right? If you were a fan of Ferencangano turned on him, you were originally a fan because you'd like to see him and punch people in the face.

Maybe you like this personality too, but for the most part, you'd like to see this huge guy, knock people's heads off, and then he willingly takes it. He's part of taking that away from him. He is saying, I am not fighting again.

I'm sitting out my contract. It creates resentment. It creates resentment. We see what other athletes too. When an athlete in a sport gets injured, gets injured. They miss three, weeks or they missed for long periods of time.

People turn on that athlete. They say, what's wrong with this guy? Why can't this guy get healthy? Why can't he get in there? Someone signs, someone leaves your team in free agency. Well, I hate this guy now. You know, this guy played for my team for seven or eight years, but they left. I hate them now.

So part of it is not getting what we want from France and Ghana. And then, yes, there is the general siding with the UFC. There is the, well, I love the UFC. The UFC gives me nonstop entertainment, 52 weeks of, you. a year, 40 whatever cards a year. How can I complain about the UFC? They must be in the right. They must be doing something right.

They're the industry leader. Their product has helped to, you know, advance MMA, to push MMA into the mainstream. How can I complain? What a fool, Francis Tsengano is for leaving. And that is what he's up against, right? He's not just up against a corporation. He's up against a brand.

And he's up against the court of public opinion, which is heavily influenced by that brand. So I give him and his team so much credit for, I think, how they've handled this. Just trickling out information here and there, making sure their voice is heard, not overreacting when, you know, some promoters kind of almost say call them out, but kind of give their sort of lopsided side of the story. It's really rough. It's really rough. And again, like I said, I don't think this is the majority of fans. I really don't.

I would guess the majority of fans are pretty happy for Francis. most of them were not on social media the last whatever six months saying like where's Francis where's Francis? Francis dropped the bag. Francis screwed up he hasn't signed with anyone. I think your average person just goes about their day and is like oh, no Francis update today.

Okay, moving on. Moving on with my life. Let's see. I can't wait to see what happens with Francis. I'll wait until tomorrow and there's no update tomorrow. I'll wait until the day after that. So I still consider a vocal minority of fans of it who are so negative who are saying everybody sucks. Every fighter sucks. the fighter loses, they suck.

Most people, I really believe, don't feel that way. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I don't talk to enough people in person about MMA. I don't know. I just see the social media conversation, and I try to take it with a grain of salt. So, CV, let's bring you in, please. Let's get CV in here.

CB, what are we talking about? Francis, UFC, influencer boxing. What do you got for me? Yo, what's up, AK? What's up? Hope you're having a Lee of a morning. Oh, yes. I do agree with you with your earlier statement about jury duty.

I had it before. It sucks. It really sucks. I know it's a civil duty, but I think it's a waste of time. What was your, what was your, do you remember? Are you allowed to talk about it? No, I actually didn't get picked for the case, but I just remember sitting, like, sitting down the whole day. It's a big waste of time.

And hopefully for a heck of a morning state, Mike doesn't get selected. But, yeah, I just want to comment on Ian Gary from last week. Very impressive. I just listened to Otno earlier and I do like your Jeff Neal pick I like Mike's pick against Kevin Holland I kind of want to see him tested against a grappler like maybe Kiesa

but who knows but like yeah and I kind of want to see him like I think it's too early to pair him up with Jack Delamadella Madelena but I think that'd be an amazing fight down the line that's it for me man thanks thanks Stevie oh Jack Delamadelan a matchup

yeah you'd like to if you're at the UFC you dream of that being for a world title someday. You know, world title fight in Australia, a world title fight over somewhere in Europe. That's instant money. But, yeah, we were saying on onto the next one, I think also on the UFC on ABC for UFSI show, UFSA Charlotte, say, post-fight show.

And I think, and Ariel was asking on the M.A. hour, is it crazy to say that I amechato Gary was like the second biggest story of, Tok, I see I'll bring in a second, was the second biggest story of UFC Charlotte I think it's crazy to say he wasn't number one I love Jelton Alameda I'm driving the Jelten Alameda train

his stock didn't rise as much as Ian Machado Gary did Machado Gary like there's just a lot of questions he's benefited and also been hurt by the Connor McGregor comparisons right because for one thing they have very little in common other than they're both in Ireland

they both fight in the 170 to 155 range if you want to make it even more broad and they're both like super confident guys uh uh with with good good stand up when when the comparisons to mcgregor come along manchato gary embraces them so he's not like shying away from it but other than that there's not that much in common but because of uh there's you know people want to make that comparison then there's then i almost feel like he's being discounted i almost feel like there's a little bit of like oh he's people think he's a hype machine when like he had a pretty he did some pretty substantial work in cage warriors as did Connor.

As did Connor. And I think he's looked good in all his UFC appearances. The Dea Rodriguez fight was a legitimate test. Great matchmaking. I had actually picked Dea Rodriguez to win. I just kind of was going with experience and I thought a little more toughness,

but, man, I mean, Down Rodriguez put him away. I'm sorry, Ian Machado Gary put him away. Under three minutes. Headkick, signature move. It couldn't have gone better. I had a great promo. I didn't mind the callout. I wish he knew.

It sounded weird like he'd. didn't know that Neil Magni was booked, though he did clarify on the MA hour that like he did know, but he still wants to fight Neil Magny. He just has a bigger name than like Magny's upcoming opponent, Phil Rose. So it wasn't like a terrible callout. I was kind of down with it. But yeah, he was he is a good example of is going to sound bad of like a corporate MMA star. And I say that because he's a guy who's being very smart about his career. He is. the product of someone who has come up watching this modern era of MMA, he's very open about his team. Ariel asked him, who handles your social media? And he's like, well, my wife, Layla, she's a wonderful manager and his team. He has another guy who helps him with the social media. And that's great. You should have someone helping you with your social media.

Like that's not, I hope no one took that. I was like, oh, what a phony. Like he's not running his own. No, why? He's a fighter. He's a great fighter. It seems like a charismatic guy. Social media might not be his thing.

Let someone else handle it. You're a professional athlete now. This is how it should be done. They're talking about branding him, sort of making purple his color, like even a little thing like that. I wish, I wish, like, that the UFC wasn't so strict on their, you know, their gear.

And he could wear purple shorts because we always bring up Anderson Silva. The yellow shorts. I mean, even if you, you know, even if you didn't know who Anderson Silva was, if you saw him fight a couple of times, beyond just his performances, you remember those yellow shorts.

You remember those yellow shorts. They're so important, so distinct. So for him to even something as little as saying, well, I'm purple. When you see purple, I want you to think Ian Machado-Garry. That's huge. That's huge. Is it going to stick? I don't know.

I don't know. A lot of things, listen, you've got to try things in M.A. And so far, a lot of the things he's tried have hit. I'm big on the Ian Machado-Garry train for sure. I think his ceiling is, I mean, I'd be surprised. He's trending towards a world title fight someday. I'm sure there could be a loss in between. But this is the kind of guy I feel like can have a nice.

like, you know, eight and one start to his UC career and just find himself on the title shot. He wants to, you know, headline a card in Dublin. Hopefully they can make that happen. If it does, then, man, this guy's plan is just like cruising. So, yeah, big fan. I think he was, honestly, the breakout star of UFC Charlotte. Toc, let's bring you in here.

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Comexonterio.ca. With Amex Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. Bob Lent, I see you as well. Tulk, what's going on? And I thought it was a fun weekend of fights. I just want to quickly. Have you seen everything everywhere at once?

Of course, multiple times. Cool, cool. So I want to say, who clicked their heels, yelled, I'm a bunny, and then click their headset? Because this seems like we've landed in a dimension. or sorry, multiverse, whatever, where it is possible in the future,

and I know this is far-fetched, to get a matchup between Matt Brown and Connor McGregor. I know this is weird. I know this is odd. This seems like the universe with sausages for fingers. But because of the comeback that Matt Brown did on Twitter with, I'll fight you for it, like the K-O record, I kind of actually see the path there.

But do you see how, like, is this a, if Connor loses to Chandler whenever that happens? Is that kind of a thing? I would like you to kind of guide me through the universe if you can. And one last thing. I listen to a podcast where they call Mandy, Mandy Baum, Mandy Bum. And I'm kind of annoyed by that because she, She literally did the right thing here and actually just, hey, I got knead in the head and I'm dizzy. Like, I'm not going to fight through this.

And people are still mad at her and that just makes me annoyed. So just, I don't know if you have any commentary on Mandy Bone, but those two things are all I have. Thank you. Thanks, Top. Sure. Yeah, I can talk about. We talked about that for like friggin' an hour on the Postpite show and, you know, that's a bit much for me. But I'm more refreshed now.

I can certainly talk about it. Let's talk about Matt Brown and Connor first. Yeah, listen, it's possible. Maybe this is like, like you said, he loses some Michael Chandler, and Matt Brown's kind of like a Donald Serroney kind of, you know, bounce back fight. I think Matt Brown maybe has a little more in the tank than Donald Serroney did when he fought Connor. But there's some similarities there.

Size, I think, will be an issue. Matt Brown's like a legitimate welterweight, not like a massive guy, but he is a legitimate welterweight. So size would be an issue. but it's certainly possible. Listen, I've been so wrong about everything in Connor McGregor's career. Long before the Nate Diaz fight manifested, you know, Nate Diaz called him out. You've taken everything I work for, MFer.

I remember there was an article. I think it was vice.com, I believe it was a vice article or Fightland. I think Fightland, I was part of Vice. And it would say something like Nate Diaz is the perfect opponent for Connor. And this was after, I want to say, let me do it. Let me refresh myself in Connor. here this would have been after which fight was it it was I mean I just remember someone's tried to speak this fight into existence and there was a lot of mockery and I

think I was part of it I think I was like why would he fight Nate Diaz and sure enough we get two Nate Diaz fights Nate Diaz rockets into superstardom off of that feud and we're living in the universe we're living in now so it's not impossible at all the Matt Brown fight happens the we're fighting for the knockout record is a little bit weird. I don't know if my math checks out there. It's a bit strange, but no, I don't think it's crazy at all. Do I think it's unlikely? Yeah.

I mean, if I were betting, if I were betting, if it's a strict yes or no, just getting off the fence, I say no. I don't think that happens before both men retire. But if you're Matt Brown, boy, how can you not be eyeing that as your last fight or one of your last fights, right? Win or lose,

you're just seeing dollar signs in Connor McGregor. And yes, after the Chandler fight, If McGregor loses, man, I don't know. For me, I'd say he, like, disappears for another year. And if that happens, then I think, I don't know if Matt Brown waits for that. He probably wants to retire sometime soon, you know, while he still has his faculties about him. But it's out there now.

This is how combat sports works. It's out there, man. People say things, and at times it seems ridiculous. And then before you know, it's a reality. And they're in a case swinging at each other. Mandy Boehm, yeah, she did nothing wrong. I hate when people say fighters faked it after he getting foul. I know I'm sure it happens sometimes.

I've said Al Jel's the biggest case. People say he faked it. And I'm like, I've watched that knee 50 friggin times. He was definitely super hurt by that knee. Talking about Al Jemina, definitely super hurt by that knee. If you want to say he didn't want to continue after and that like he wanted out because he was losing the fight, I mean, maybe I would also say that he probably shouldn't have continued after taking that because I think his bell was wrong.

And there's just no reason for him to proceed. Same with Mandy Boeum. people saying she should have fought why why she didn't commit the foul feels like the knee the knee maybe she's like what was you Jan Shanah was sawing the knee to the shoulder or she thought that man you boom wasn't crowded that's your responsibility that's that's that's that's that's that's excuse me a Gian Kim that's Gian Kim's a responsibility accident listen intentional intentional intentionality excuse me in a fight is so difficult to

determine but you have to And Jed was harbting on this, and he's right, you have to, in a situation where it's unclear, you still have to err in favor of the person who was fouled. Even if it might not be fair if it wasn't a quote-to-quote accidental strike. You have to, you cannot punish the person who was foul. You just can't. That is the one outcome unless there's somehow, you know, you go to the replay. They're blatantly faking.

The need didn't come close. I remember Josh Kosteck faked one of those ones. I can't believe you got away with it. But that's a rare situation. Most situations, you have to protect a person who was foul. old. Mandi Bowen had no reason to continue. I'm, I frankly would have qualified Gian Kim. So I

think even though the scores were screwed up, I think Mandy Boehm won two, like the first round and two judges' cards, which seems a bit odd. Somehow justice was served. She got out, walked out with a W. But yeah, I think insulting Mandy Boehm after that verdict is just completely out of pocket. So I'm not

into that at all. Uh, four corner sports. Let's bring you in. Four corner sports. What is going on? Hey, AK, so I just chimed in. I saw the big, for instance, Ingano. I'm pretty sure you guys spoke about it. But do you know any details?

As for, you know, like how many years, how many fights? If not, I'm pretty sure that's going to be discussed on the MMA hour. Yeah. But I did want to talk about Ian Machado Gary. I know I told Mike that I felt like that was a big step up and man was that wrong. I mean, what's it called? I felt like what's it called, Danny Rodriguez was going to give him like a good litmus test, but he wasn't able to even do that because Ian Machado Gary just exceeded expectations.

And, I mean, he called a shot. He called the shot. He said he was going to hit him with a high leg kick. And he was able to get that done. So I just feel that he should have called out Kevin Holland. I know I put for my Aunt Nopick Neo Magny, but if it's not Kevin Holland and if it's not Neil Magny, who would you want to see him fight inside the top 10?

And I did want to ask you about what's called Jelton Almeda. Do you believe that he may have some limitations just because of the fact that he finished his fight so quickly? I think, what is it, like nine of his fights, they don't get out of the first round. So that's all I wanted to say. Okay. Thanks for Cornersports. Great questions.

Thank you. Bob, I do see you. Sorry, I didn't mean to skip over you there. Let me talk first about, yeah, a little more about you and Machado Gary. And I'll just say, I'm with Mike. I liked the Kevin Holland matchup because just in terms of name value, he is higher than a lot of people in the official. I'll go to the official rankings, you know, not that these matchup. matter. You guys should be looking at the MAA fighting global rankings.

Let's look at the official UFC.com rankings. And we have, let's see, the fringe of the top 15 here. Well, Ian Machado Gary today, this is just updated today. Now in at number 13. I'm laughing because he got a number 15 tattoo. I don't know if you guys saw that to celebrate that he beat Dale Rodriguez. And I think most of us read it as like, oh, he thinks he'll be in the number 15 spot. And then Ariel's asked, what if you're number 14? And then, thankfully, Machado Guerra is repaired. He's like, no, no. He's like, the 15 represents breaking into the top 15. Into the top 15.

This is a milestone moment. I don't think he meant specifically he had to land in the 15 spot because he is now number 13. He is ahead of Jack Delamadalena and Michel Pereira. So the tattoo still stands. Machado, Gary, I'm with you. It would have been, maybe you should have waited. Maybe you should have waited. Maybe you should have waited.

Could have gotten yourself a 13, but the 15 is still good. listen he's higher ranked than he thought it would be that can't be a bad thing but yeah listen i'm saying Kevin Holland has more name value than a a uh I was obviously more name value than a sean Brady I think Kevin Holland has more casual interest than a Sean Brady well who else in there even shopcott shopcott among the hardcores we know he's super deadly he's not as well known as Kevin Holland Kevin Holland has a little more mainstream cachet is obviously a little more of a reputation as like an action fighter not that shopcott is boring at all but like stand up fighting so i i understand i understand why mike push for kevin

holland i said jeff neal jeff neal is in the ucc's top 10 right now number eight so that to me is the top 10 guy he's not coming off a win he's not coming off a win he got he got uh choke nearly choked to hell by uh shopcott but that's fine i don't think ian machado gary needs to necessarily be saying well i won i should only turn guys who won fights he should be going after anyone that's above him in the rankings uh jeff neil did lose to meel neal magni he's he's is the lesser of the two neels i understand but i don't think he should wait for the magni row winner that's like the end of june of then who knows when magno will fight again he's pretty active what if magni loses i think it loses some of his luster so for me i went with jeff neil uh

jelzen almeda yes uh very serious uh limitations um i said going to the rosasdry fight man wouldn't it be cool if this fight went you know past the third round we no one thought it would How could it? And we were all right. Wouldn't it be cool if his, like, you know, striking defense was, I don't need to see him knocking people out, but I need to see striking defense. Because Jarzino, you know, was a one-hitter-quitter, right?

I'm like, man, if he can survive a few exchanges with this guy, I'll be really impressed. Didn't really get to see that. Almeda's offense is so potent that, you know, even if Rosenstrik, you know, blocks one take down, you knew another attempt was coming. Eventually he was going to get him down. Eventually, he's just going to slice his guard up and choke him out.

So, yes, if you were asking me today, I've been telling everyone, I think Jowleton could beat, like, John Jones, I think he has a possible. But if I'm a betting man, I don't know if he can take John Jones down. I don't know if he can last on the feet with John Jones. John Jones, we know he's a great wrestler. We just saw him dominate Cidal Gahn with his wrestling. I still think he's a great striker and an outstanding defensive striker. So there's nothing, I think I'm made it good to him on the feet.

Like literally nothing. And if Jones was disinterested, just dragged it to like a five-round, you know, one of those five-round decision wins that he was having near the end of his light heavyweight. run i don't see elmada winning that either so i'm huge on almeda i i just yeah i i wish we'd had a few more questions answered uh at uc charlotte because i can tell you it affected his ranking i can tell you he didn't go as high up as he could have gone uh on some of our panelists um ballots he's he's behind curtis blaze a lot of them i put him over curtis blaze just because in my mind almeida's top five heavyweight so he had to bump someone out and his blaze i got bumped but you put him in there with the Curtis Blades

he's going to have some problems he's going to take Curtis's blades down it will no maybe maybe trip him down eventually but just take him down with ease hell no Curtis Blades is amazing taking down defense and probably is a better striker than Almeida didn't look great against Pavlovich

but that's not the guy you should have struck with but Almeida it's probably a better striker than him so I love again last time I was it love Almeida I think he's potentially the best heavy weight in the world there are so many question marks so many question marks Bob Lent, let me bring you in.

You've waited long enough. You've waited long enough. And then I see you guys also waiting in the queue. Of course, I'll bring you guys in. Bob Lent, we are connecting. Come on, let's get Bob in here. Grabbing some connection issues. Could be on my end.

I don't know. Could be on Bob's end. Bob, I might have to postpone your call. I'll give you 10 more seconds. Otherwise, get back in the queue, please. And we will have you. Otherwise, sorry, Bob. We'll bring you back.

Please get back in the queue. We got to bring in. We got to bring in New York, Rick. Eric Jackman. What is going on, New York, Rick? You're currently muted, sir? There he is. Hey, Alex. How are you?

Hello, sir. Let me just say, let me start. As a frequent cynic, I must commend your explanation of its futility earlier. You're not a cynic. Stop it. That was quite cutting. I had to look myself in the mirror a little bit after you did it, but extremely accurate.

I'm going to ask you to plant a flag, right? I'm going to give you a tough assignment, but I think you're up to the task. Based on Francis and Ganu and what we know about the structure of this deal, Bloody Elbow, John Nash kind of reporting some of the ancillary terms, like not just the money,

but the fact that he's getting high seven figures, split of event profits, non-exclusive rights to box, no champions clause minimum salary for his opponents also it was in the press release that he's gotten strategic partnership executive leadership role all the things that that are in francis and ganus deal with the pfl and that he fought for and was asking the u sc for and was not granted with all of those things said and and understood is this signing going to have an impact on MMA free agency forever.

And by that, I mean, if you are now a big-name fighter and coming up on free agency, if you're in the Connor McGregor, John Jones, and other fighters of that ilk, are you going to, are we going to see fighters leverage their power and try to acquire things like this? Is it going to be specific to Francis? Is it going to be specific to PFL? How do you see this all playing out moving forward? and what will Francis and Gano's impact on MMA free agency be following this deal?

Geez, you got to bring the tough. New York, Crick, got to bring the tough. You couldn't just ask me who's going to win between Mahashti and Vashislav Borshev? All right, I got to do some thinking here. Thanks, New York, thank you for the call, as always. Abzwalia, Terrence, I see you guys. Bob, I see you again. Bob, I'll try and get you in first.

Boy, yeah, listen, I talked about this with Jed again this morning. morning, he's, I kind of didn't chime in myself. I kind of just threw the question to him and let him cook. I didn't, I'm optimistic. But yeah, listen, how can this not, how can this not have an effect on how other, let's say specifically UFC stars, this is what we're talking about here. How can this not have an effect on how other UFC stars consider free agency and what they can get in it? Because if you're, again, if you're Connor McGregor, you've always, wanted some sort of imagine you can get equity

in the UFC. That's never going to happen. But if you're Connemer Greger, you're the kind of person, you don't take no for an answer. So suddenly you see Francis and Ghanu, a big star, but someone who is by almost any metric, one-tenth, probably even more, probably not exaggerated enough, like one-tenth the star that you are, as far

as mainstream cachet and box office draw, and they're able to, Francis is able to convince a promotion to to make him, to make him the head of PFL Africa, to, again, make him part of their, their global advisory board to, they do this whole, I was saying to Jed today,

there's a video out there now, guys, on PFL and May on their Twitter. I wonder if they do it on YouTube as well. Sort of a 90-second teaser to commemorate Francis's signing. Once the last time UFC did that for anyone? Like, signed the name and just did like a huge promo for them. it's i get it it's apples and oranges u sd doesn't have to do that it's rare that they that they sign anyone that's like you know bigger than the organization and i'm not saying france is bigger than the pfl but there probably is a section of uh sports fans that know franzigano and don't know what the pfl is

that might change today so when you see him get all these things it has to open up your imagination and if you're a guy like mcgregor has never been short of imagination at least when it comes to ways to build his brand and make money. So I am fascinated to see going forward, again, we talked about a broker a bit earlier, what happens with him after the ultimate fighter. After he's sort of done his, I almost feel like he did a duty to the UFC

by doing the ultimate fighter, by agreeing to the Michael Chandler fight, you know, for a guy who, again, theoretically should have an infinite amount of options in the combat sports and entertainment world, he's still under UFC contract. So after the Chandler fight, it is going to be fascinating to see how he handles his relationship with the promotion.

I'm waiting to see how he reacts. I don't think he has tweeted about the Francis Steele. He might not. He might not. He might not. Maybe he has just say it's none of my business. But I don't see how a guy of his influence and fame cannot comment on the situation. When we talk about other stars, you know, John Jones, again, put upper tier.

I'm trying to think of the second tier of stars. Let's say in Israel, Adisania. I'm saying Israel at disignia decides, ends up for free agent. is he going to ask for the same sorts of things i want to say yes i want to say yes um but you know not not everyone has the same goals as francis right francis goals have been very clear for a long time even before he was a free agent he was always talked he was talking about boxing right not everyone has his personality his disposition his patience uh the last factor being a big one right you got to be willing to take your licks you got to you got to have a really really really

thick skin and some guys don't have that i don't have that i don't have that i don't don't know if initial edisonia would have that as um as self-sure as he always seems at times i do think he's also very reactionary so i wonder would he be able to sit out 16 months to wait for the right deal i don't know i don't know so again uh sorry just to wrap it up and kind of bring a full circle i'm very optimistic this will have an effect on future reagency yes am i bold enough to say this has changed the landscape of mm. free agency forever am i bold enough to say that i can't quite go that far. I've seen too many

sort of fighters' butt heads with the UFC and then the business just sort of return to status quo other than the UFC somehow finding more ways to make money and sort of get the better of fighters. But I'm optimistic this won't be the last time we see a big UFC star leave and

find a promotion that's willing to make these kind of concessions even if it doesn't become commonplace. Bob, can we get you in here, Bob? Bob, can we get you in here, please? I don't want to give up on this. Oh, I see you're in there. You're just on mute.

Here we go. Hey, sorry about that earlier. What's going on? Not much. So, yeah, I think the signing overall sounds great. The only thing that kind of throws me off is that they said he's not fighting this year. And there's no opponent. So when I, like, compare it to the Nate Diaz fight announcement, that sounds a little bit bigger.

when it absolutely shouldn't, if that makes any sense. But, I mean, I get all the stuff he gets on the back end, which sounds terrific. My only question is, like, does the PFL go out of business because of that? They really sound like they're giving him a lot. Thanks, Bob. Good question. Anything else? No, that pretty much covers it because New York Rick jumped in and, you know, covered a lot of the stuff I was going to ask. Listen, he does.

He asks the hard questions. All right, thanks, Bob. Yeah, the first is the PLF are going to go out of business? Listen, I don't know the ins and outs of their, you know, dollars and cents. Their models seemed unsustainable from the beginning. If you'll remember when PFL first started, they were on NBC sports, which is fine. Not the same as being on NBC, but they were on some sort of NBC related network. But we were like, okay, how many people are watching this?

And then they're paying out $7, $1 million. I think the first is it was seven tournaments. seven one billion dollar one million dollar prizes in addition of course to paying the fighters whatever they pay them for flight plus operating costs which is really the majority of it and then again i remember the viewership of the initial pfl events wasn't like super high so i think they're definitely i want to say and if i'm wrong on this i'm wrong they're still sort of running on you know investors uh money from investors and things like that as opposed to like making money hand over fist via ad revenue uh also i've i've

Obviously, being on ESPN is huge for them, too. So I don't know how strong the viewership is, but they seem to be smart about how they're handling their business as far as controlling revenue streams, not letting their expenses get out of hand. I mean, the smart cage, Lord knows, must cost, you know, $500 million in maintenance fees every year, but it's worth it.

I think pays for itself. So I don't think they're going to go out of business. I don't think this is... It's when you're... We're past the days of affliction. Let me put it that way. We're out of the wild west. of MMA, which is not to say that any promotion that has some sort of, you know, national

television presence or global presence is bulletproof. It only takes one or two bad decisions, really, for things to go, haywire. But I don't think this kind of signing is going to bankrupt them. And again, I don't think it's a traditional signing in the way we think. Again, he's not getting this lump. They're not giving Francis this lump sum of like, here's $25 million to sign with us. You know, there's, he has to have this, he has this relationship with them. Like they said, it's a partnership and hopefully as he makes more money that's supposed to mean the business is making more money again we will find out down the road i'm sure so uh no i don't i don't think uh i don't think they're going to go out of business but um yeah as far as who he's going to fight yeah listen

they have to bring someone in i've said it earlier they have to bring someone in i don't think someone that's on the current roster makes a lot of sense so uh if there's another part of the question i apologize if i missed it i do want to get to more calls here terence i know you've been waiting terence turn turn hey aka how you doing today going on terence nothing much, so I had a question in regards to Carlos Arborberg and his amazing win this past weekend.

I think a fight with him and Jimmy Krook would be amazing for Australia. I also feel that a lot of the fighters that are from Australia or New Zealand are fighting early enough to they can fill up that card and make a whole bunch of stars by putting them in a position and to look like superstars in their hometown

are next to their home. And then I want to hear your thoughts on that and where they're going to be going in regards to Australia. And then as well, another regional card is

China. So with China coming up, possibly, what do you think they're going to do with that? I know Wali is most likely going to be defending her title. What current stars or not stars, but athletes do you think would benefit from going there, if any at all? And then the last one that I have for you is non-MMA.

So I was thinking about I was just in Denver like two weeks ago, and my lungs were on fire from just walking around. And I remember talking to, not talking to this, excuse me, I was listening to Demetius Johnson. It was like, yeah, I'm in shape, and it took me like two weeks to get used to it. So this goes back to two of our favorite topics of this. One of our three topics discussion, which is basketball. So Lakers will be going and placing their championship that is on the line against Denver. So with that being said, do you think it's fair as an advantage for other athletes?

Like, for example, you have every sport they have like stadiums in Denver. so there's no way they can get acclimated to those climates and stuff like that. Do you think that's an advantage and do you think that's something that they take into account before they go there? Like, do they train differently or anything like that? Do you think it's unfair? That's it. I know that's random, but I just thought of it. Yeah, good question.

Those are all geographical questions. Let's call that. Good geographical set of questions, Terrence. I like it. There's a theme there. There's a theme. Thank you. Abzvalia, Hardcore, Casual, J.D. Felds.

I see you guys should be able to get to you. Please, please hang in there if you can. Carlos Ulberg has to fight in Australia. I've been so wrong about this guy, like, as far as his actual abilities. I think I've just been jealous. He's maybe the most handsome man in MMA, bumping me down to the number two spot, sadly. So there's a little bit of a rivalry there. A rivalry that he doesn't seem to be aware of.

I think people saying, like, oh, he doesn't know you exist. And I'm like, sure, sure he doesn't. Trust me. Carlos knows why I am. But also, I think also, I, I think also, I, did the thing where I bought into the hype after his contender series fight and then I was disappointed in the Kennedy and Zuchu lost and I'm like ah this guy is just like whatever he's a he's a he's a he's a good story he's not a great he comes from a good camp he's not a he's not a great

fighter himself and this was knowing very little about his his background by the way like I knew he was a kickboxer in a kickboxing experience so I thought he was just a hype job which I bought into and then I jumped off of because he lost we now know Kennedy and Zichuku pretty good a pretty good light heavyweight in his own right someone that could climb the ranks uh that is climbing the ranks i should say and who knows might end up in the top 10 sooner rather than later so really not a bad loss in retrospect uh the fabio shrass fight i also remember being just like oh my god just end this i thought it was so horrible so he which he won by decision but it's those first two fights in the first two weeks the same bad impression and then he has just gone on a tear he is living up to

that hype he's up so fun to watch striking very light in his feet very athletic um great power great finishing instincts uh whatever his resume not the strongest but i thought the nico nigo mariano win very legit i was very high in niko so for olberg to steal that thunder i thought potteria could upset him but this is the last time i will underestimate carl's olberg um not to say the last time i'll pick against him like if he's matched up i guess like a top seven guy i'll pick against him but no more i think of the tier that he's in i think he is the class of this sort of second tier of uh of current light heavyweights so he's very good he's very good like i'll think i'll think I'll pick him to beat Dustin Jacoby, you know.

I'll pick him to beat Kalil Roundtree. I'm a believer. I'm a believer. But, yes, wherever he fights, has to be in Australia. And you can, again, if it's not a pay-per-view, you've got, you could make him the co-main, and boy, that crowd is going to go nuts. If he gets a knockout, that's how you create stars, right? Sometimes you put the person on the right card, and you just, you get to create these stars.

I assume it will be a pay-per-view, though. But, hey, he's still been on the main card. This guy's a main card fighter. Okay, he belongs on a pay-view of a main card. card. Make people pay money to see that face and to see that striking. UFC China, I'm trying to think of, so the tricky thing is, I'm guessing it won't be a pay-per-view. I think they would love that. If they could get a preview in China, huge. That's the dream. Is it going to happen? I don't know. And if it doesn't happen, are you going to put,

are you still going to try and put Zhang Wei Li, and what I, who I think is now the number of contender Jan Shaanan on there because that fight should happen and should happen in China but it can't be on a fight night again because again I don't know if a lot of people remember Zhang Wili's first title win was on a fight night it was against jessica andrash not the first time that a strawweight title fight was on quote unquote free tv i'm not sure how it aired over there and it happened in the middle of the morning it happened and and just no one saw it now now I get it if there's a pay-per-view that's not going to solve that problem it's probably still going to be at a weird time for us over in North America.

I would think they have to cater at least, of course, somewhat to a live Chinese audience. So that's always going to be a problem. But putting it on a fight night again, and again, a potentially huge fight with Jan Shanan and Zhang Wei Li, it feels wrong. It feels weird. I'm hoping it doesn't go that way. But it is tricky, boy, to put on a peer view at that time. I don't know how they're going to work that out.

So what I'm saying is if it's not a pay-per-view, in China, I don't think the Yan, Shao Nan, Zhang Wei, Lee fight happens there. I think they would want a pay-for-you, which means you probably get at, like, T-Mobile arena or something instead. Sounds so weird. It feels like it has to happen in China. What a great moment that would be for MMA in that country.

But, man, to put on a fight night again, I just don't know if that's the way to go. I'd love to see Li Jing Liang on there. Some of the guys who competed on the road to the UFC, perfect spot for them. I'm trying to think who was the guy Gosh, who was the guy everyone was super high on Coming out of that show I want to look this up

Not a Chinese guy, I think he's a Korean I think he's a Korean fighter Who was it? Everyone was like this guy's like this guy's for real Was it Li Zhang Yon? No I remember me so bad was it Rinja Nakamura? I remember him thinking of Rinja Nakamura It was Rinja Nakamura or I think it was Rinja Nakamura But yes, sorry Japanese fighter

But yes, if you're going to again, listen, have the fighters in China that appeal to that Asia region. You're going to have a lot of Chinese fighters, but you're going to have some Korean fighters in there as well and have some Japanese fighters. I think I'd love to see Nakamura on there.

And quickly, Lake or's Denver, I don't want to scare everyone away with the basketball talk. Denver for the longest time was a horrible, horrible franchise, and I could never understand why because, yes, I thought, don't they have the ultimate home court advantage? Don't you just get like a, this was before

Steve Nash and the Phoenix Sun's teams. But shouldn't they have invented seven seconds or less? Shouldn't their whole thing have been, yeah, we're just going to run and shoot three. They should have been the one to break the game before the Warriors, before, again,

before Phoenix. Someone should have taken the Denver Nuggets, and I know they were a high-scoring team in the 80s. It's a different thing. Someone should have done it and just sped the game up and just gasped out their opponents. Nick Van Exel would have been perfect. Nick Van Exel was with the Nuggets for some time. He would have perfect. He was a perfect running gun guy.

So, yes, if the Nuggets want to win the series, they should run, run, run, run, run, play as fast as possible. They can do that now because they're actually getting decent minutes out of their non-yokic lineups. He's still the key. He still has to dominate to win this series. But, man, you can run, listen, LeBron's my age, literally. And he only really plays one half of the court now.

He only plays an offense. His defense is horrible. You really want to wear him out? Listen, just attack, attack, attack, attack. So we'll see. I'm fascinated. but absolutely playing at altitude should be an advantage. I don't know why it hasn't been a big one for that franchise forever.

Go Nuggets. Shout-out's Chuck Mendenhall. Aswalia, let's bring you in. Thank you for waiting patiently, sir. I know you got you winning for a while. Absalaya, let's get you in. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything.

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you what's going on good so um i'll just have three questions i need to ask Just don't mind me. There might be a little bit long, but I'll start with the first one. Take your time. Take your time. Yeah, so remember when UFC was meant to go South Korea back in February, is there plans for them to still go back maybe in the third or four quarter later on the year if Korean zombies healthy and all?

Because I do remember Max Holloway has an interest in fighting him, although it was in Australia, but do you think they could do a fight-night cast in South Korea this year? And my second question is, this is not really MMA related, but it's more to do with NBA. You know, we saw Philadelphia just had one of the worst strokes ever in the playoff history in probably the last five years.

And there's already rumors that James Hardin wants to leave and go to Phoenix Sons. Does this mean we could probably see the end of Embed in the Philadelphia Sixes? And, you know, what team do you reckon he could go to? And my final question is, this is just regarding

the recent Francis and garden news we just got today. Being that he just probably broke boundaries and set a new barrier for the whole fighting industry we're giving when a fighters being able to take advance in chance of their own what we call opportunities their own hand, could we see more fighters in the future really fluctuate deals to their benefit? Because we know the UFC has you know a very big network as a company. I think they're 21 billion now with a WTOE deal and And obviously, I think this would be a good time for fighters to, if they truly want to get paid well, they should take a union stance. Could you see fighters really maybe doing more for Francis and Gundu, whether in the UFC or in other organizations like Bellator 1?

That's all I have to ask, man. I hope you don't mind the long questions. Thank you. That's great. Great questions. U.S.C. South Korea, I have no idea. I have not heard anything. I will say this, though.

I was going to say they have a lot of their 2023 schedule set. So I'm like, I wouldn't hold my breath. However, they've gone to South Korea two times, Busan and Seoul. And both times were later of the year cards. So the last time they were there, Edgar versus Korean zombie. This was December 21st, 2019. And then before that, Benson Henderson and Horamazvedal, wow, that's a throwback. November 28, 2015, and that was in November.

So, again, it's a very small sample size. I don't know if it has anything to do with the, you know, if it's just easier to schedule an event there later in the year for weather, logistical purposes, any number of reasons. But historically, they have, it has been in the last two months of the year. So, and the UFC only has mapped out, the farthest I'm seeing is we know UFC 294 in October, Abu Dhabi. So November, December is still clear. Really, much of October is still clear.

And like we said, that's probably a fight night, not a paper for you. So, yeah, it could land in October. I don't see anything for September. Could land in September. So I will change my initial thought. I will say I do think they'll go to South Korea before the years through, very dependent on Chan Sung-jong being healthy to Korean zombie. If he's not, again, there's other fighters you can put there.

But that's really the appeal, right? That's the final Korean zombie fight. But yeah, I think it's a good chance it happens. Philly, listen, I don't want to get started on this. I could laugh at Philly all day. Nothing against the city personally. But listen, anyone that's in the same division as Toronto Raptors, I'm going to poop on. They beat the Raptors last year.

I just, I can't stand Philly, the team. I can't stand Joel and Bede. I take no pleasure in his failure. I assure you, I take no pleasure in it. But, you know, good for Boston. Let me put it that way. Who I also can't stand. I can't believe I said that.

And how can you say this is the worst choke job in the last seven? years we just in the last five we just saw phoenix get annihilated by in the game seven by luca last year sorry sorry shahani please don't listen to this uh but it was bad it was bad and they were up three two right didn't they they blow game six as well so that's that's tough that's tough up two games and you've got the MVP you've got one of the strongest teams probably one of the best offenses this team has ever had they've always had a strong defense in the embit era this is the first time since uh i want say Jimmy, they had Jimmy Butler and J.J. Redick and more shooters that the offense was up to snuff with the defense. And then to drop that stink bomb to allow a 51 point game, boy, that's not good.

But zero chance that's the end of Embed in Philly. No, he's the MVP. He's a great player. I don't like him personally. I hate all the falling. I know he falls because it's supposed to prevent injury, but I think it's so dangerous. I think when you're that big and you're falling around, you're going to hurt people like he did to pour Danny Green last year, friggin' infuriating. But I don't think they trade them. I think you can build around this guy. I think you can build around this guy and have another run at it. But yeah, very frustrating for the Philly fans, I'm sure.

It's 30 years old. This era has never made it past the second round. The whole trust of process, tanking. Tanking doesn't work, people. Tanking doesn't work. I'll just tell you right now. It's never worked. You get stars.

You don't win titles by tanking. This is a fact. I have historical day to prove it. I won't go into it now. In God who breaking barriers, we touched upon a little bit. I think other fighters will follow suit. Other stars will see, and if they go to other promotions, we'll certainly ask for more than just,

hey, please give me a nice contract. Are they going to do anything with the UFC? No. No. And there's not me being cynical. This is just me being realistic, because I want to see fighters come together. I want to see, you know,

the fruits of, like, Leslie Smith's labor, you know, bear prosperity for the fighters. But it's been a long battle, and I don't think you see anything. resembling a union or collective bargaining team come forward anytime soon. It's not in my lifetime. I plan to live a long, long, long time, and I still don't think I'm going to see it. So fighters will be making demands with other promotions when they're free agents.

Well, they suddenly, you know, they're going to wake up a week from now and be like, let's get some stuff from the UFC. They've got, they're publicly reporting the billions or upon hundreds of millions of dollars are making every year. And we are still seeing only incremental increases in pay. They know it. They're aware of it, but some of them just don't want to consider the alternatives. And that's fine.

I'm not in their situation. I can't judge the value of fighting the UFC versus fighting to put food on your table. So yes to other promotions, no, you won't see anyone demanding anything in the OSC, even Connor. Hardcore casual. Hang in there. Hang in there. JD's been waiting a long time. JD felt, let's bring you in.

I think those are our last two callers. JD, what can I do for you? How are you? A Lee of a morning to you as well. All right. So, I was actually at UFC Charlotte and BKFC in Greenville. And the first thing I'll say, obviously, everyone in this community excluded. But MMA fans, MMA live fans, they may be the worst.

I don't know if there's a single thing in this world that they will not boo. Um, I mean, there were hometown people from Greenville that, that were, that were getting booed, like 30 seconds into the fight. So that's one thing I wanted to, I wanted to mention. But anyway, so I frequently hear the argument that UFC is not a sport, but sports entertainment, correct? Uh, that is my stance on it. Yes, I rarely call MMA a sport. If you hear me say it, yeah, I assure you it is a misspeaking. Okay.

So this would and watching Matt Brown kind of got this question into my head For people like Matt Brown who never held a UFC title I don't know if Matt Brown ever competed in a UFC title match I can't remember I'm not Jose Young's but for them to have an argument to get into just the UFC Hall of Fame. Seeing the UFC is sports entertainment, would there be criteria

for fighters who are legends in the eyes of the fans? Just in the eyes of fans, your Jim Millers, maybe you're Tony Ferguson's, your Matt Browns, your, what have you,

for legends in the eyes of the MMA fans to have an argument to get into the UFC Hall of Fame outside of ever competing for a championship. Anyway, just good thoughts on that, but thanks. Yep, thanks, J.D. Yeah, we talked about this a little bit post-fight.

Matt Brown, potential Hall of Fameer for sure. I think, like most sports Hall of Fame, you are going to see the barriers become a bit thinner as time goes on. They still have a pretty strong well of champions to draw from. I think Seroni, I don't think Seroni is the first one to make, I'm talking about just the, what's the wing called? The modern wing, the modern wing. Everyone until Soroni, who's getting inducted this July, along with the Josealdo,

has won a USC title. I'll read the list real quick. It's Forrest Griffin, BJPen, J.J. Pen, Uriah Favre, Ronda, Rousey, Michael Bisping, Rashad, Rashad, St. Pierre, Habib, Daniel Cormier, Joseo Aldo, again, and now Cabo. Calvo. Calvo, the group, has not won a title. He did compete for it. He fought Hafeld Dosanos, did not go very well, but he did.

compete for it he is a one-time uh like uc lightweight championship challenger uh he also holds records uh post-fight bonuses and uh what was that going doesn't he have finishes or did jim miller already already beat him for that one anyway he's he's up there in the record books one or two uh in a lot of those categories so that helps too he's got records matt brown has records as we know he just tied the most knockouts in ufc history he has the most finishes in welterweight history uh ufc welterweight history 15 pretty good and most appearances at welterweight 30

he has not competed for a title so he falls short of that criteria which soroni has cleared he did kind of do a number one contenders bout with robbie loller one he missed weight two he lost also there's no real number one contenders official number one contenders

bouts in the UFC so I don't know how much weight you want to put on that but like I said I do think the barrier is going to become a bit easier to break as we go forward again you see that in any Hall of Fame the longer it goes there's there's top top top guys

you're like oh yeah no doubters and then there's like guys who you barely remember who have like great stats and they're like oh okay like I don't really remember this guy but sure he's a hall of fame he was voted in so I think there is a place for Matt Brown again the records helps a lot of memorable moments like

does he pass the eye test like do people have a lot of of things they remember about Matt Brown's career sure great finishes great fights that elbow of Diego Sanchez just chilling one of the probably 20 best knockouts in UFC history and most importantly, I think the company loves them. I think the company loves them. So one thing we mentioned on the show is like, well, they introduced a violence wing.

I think that might not be good that maybe they won't use the word violence, but something like that, like just for super exciting fighters, right? And then you could maybe shift Sorony over there. You throw it Justin Gates'ian there, though he won an interim title. Well, they can make a new wing. Fanfaves wing, there you go. You want to go corny and you want to be as corporate friendly as possible. The fan faves.

wing of the UFC Hall of Fame. I let fans vote on it. Every year you create a ballot the fanfaves wing. You put five names on there and then they pick them those five names and you let the fans decide. So a lot of options for the UFC to get him in there. I do think Matt Brown is a UFC Hall of Famer. Again, not based on the criteria

that has been set so far, but based on how I think the criteria will change over the next few years. So I hope he gets in there. I like Matt Brown. Hardcore, casual. Let's bring you in. I see you, Noah. I'll try and get you in. And then hopefully, hopefully we can all get out of here and enjoy the rest of our day.

But hardcore casual, please. What do you got? Oh, no one left. Okay. I was going to take one more. But okay, hardcore casual. What's up? Hey, you hear me, Lee?

I hear you. Yes. Leave a morning to you, pal. Leave a morning to you. Hey, real quick, I was going to do on free for all Friday. I didn't get the time to make it in and get my question. But I guess I'll ask you as well. So me and a couple of buddies.

were sitting around the other night. We were talking about taking a fighter who is currently not in their prime and, you know, seeing them in their prime versus a current fighter who is in their prime. I didn't know if you guys had cool suggestions. I know one that my buddy had told me. He said, Prime John Jones, the one that fought, you know, Gustafson. If he were to take on Yuri Prahasa, I feel like that would be a banger of a fight. And then the one that I had come up with was Prime Conner, taken on Yaddeo Rodriguez. I think that would be a really cool fight.

I don't know. Just a free-for-all question that I'm throwing on a Tuesday. Sorry, hard-course. So taking a fighter in their prime and fighting a fighter today who's in their prime. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Okay, cool. All right, let me take a moment to think of this.

Thanks for the question. Yeah. Oh, that's good stuff. I'm usually terrible, these hypotheticals. I usually come up with an answer that I think is pretty good, and then it just goes out the window. I think I want to go, I mean, this fight could still happen. I guess he's in his prime.

God, I'd love to see, like, just Demetius Johnson against the current crop of flyweight. Like, it sucks. It doesn't suck. It's good. I'm happy Demetre Johnson is in one, making money, being happy. Again, arguably still in his prime. But I would love to see how just a few years,

younger version would fare against Brandon Reno, Davis and Figurato. Again, it's a division I think is super strong. So I'm definitely into that. I'm trying to think what other, I mean, Sehudo, Sehudo and Sterling. I wonder if a younger Sehudo would have handled Sterling a little bit better. That was, because this is a close fight. Pretty easy to say that, Sehudo, you know, in rhythm, three years younger. might be the

UFC Pantom HVie right now so that's an interesting one Connor versus so many people is interesting because I agree I don't think he's in his prime anymore he's not even old he's what he's like 32 33

he's got a fair about a amount of fight mileage on him but just like it's 34 you know you're not getting the best version of him anymore you're not getting that version that knocked out Aldo that Pete Chad Mendez that knocked out Eddie Alvarez like that was a one son a lifetime thing and that's he's not i really don't think he can say it all he wants he's not that

guy anymore um so i would love to have seen that uh connor versus like again i don't know uh who's a lightweight right now islam i don't want to see that even even prime connor gets smoked there and the other thing i want to look at prime bj i don't know where prime bj pin fits in today's m a landscape i would love to see him at volk at one 155 I think that'd be fascinating. I don't want to go any lower than that. I think maybe he fought a welterweight, but it's a very different era. I wouldn't want to see him against like Leon or Kamar or any of these top Welterweight.

I'll say, I'll say BJ and Volk. I would love to see Prime BJ and Volk at 155 or 150 pound catch weight, not featherweight. I just think that would be so cool. I don't know. Maybe it would resemble the Islam fight. I don't think so. I think it would have a totally different dynamic to it. But, man, I just want to remind people to, don't forget Prime BJ.

please so good all right smack daniel i'm going to bring you in here let's uh let's see let's uh let's see what you got i keep saying last caller but listen people keep chabbing in i got time all right smack daniel you are on you are muted oh i can you hear me oh i got you yeah okay my question is about chimayev why why are we not seeing chimay f fighting why don't we have why do you think dan is saying he won't be back at 170 I mean, the man saw the 170 before. I don't know why he don't let him run to get that 170 strap, then take him to 185, let him get that strap,

and then maybe we can see him in 205 to be the first triple champ. What are your thoughts on what you might have right now? Thanks, McDaniel. Yeah, let's talk. Let's talk some Hamza. That's not a bad way to close the show. Yeah, Hamza, I'll say I've been a little harsh on Hamzat. I hated how his whole last pay-per-view,

was handled, the weight miss, and then sort of not really being super apologetic about it. A lot of finger pointing, a lot of, well, I could have made it, but the doctor said I couldn't because my body was locking up. Sounds to me like the doctor was doing his job, but Hamza seems convinced, like I can still make 170. And then they had to reshuffle the card for him. Great performance against Kevin Holland, but I mean, such a weird thing to celebrate given that fight wasn't even supposed to happen.

I'm so high in this guy. I have him top 20 in my pound for pound rankings. I think he could be a world champion at 170 and make the weight. I'll pick him pretty much over anyone from 170 to 205. I think he's that good. But again, the lack of contrition over the missing the weight and having them reshuffle the card was really frustrating to see. I do see a lot of finger-pointing.

I'm sure it's on the UFC's end as well. Hamza just recently tweeted, how come I don't get fights? I'm willing to fight at either weight class. Just give me opponents. He tagged a bunch of big names saying, I want to fight Kamar or Colby or Balal, any of these guys or Israel Adisina. He's like, just give me any of them.

And it's cool he's saying it, and I believe it. I believe he wants to. But I also think that there's some, as much as, you know, we just talked about not always siding with the UFC. I feel like he needs to play balls somewhat. I think he needs to pick a division. I think he needs to take a fight at 185, first of all, just show he can make a weight. If he can make 170, great. I wouldn't even risk it with his next fight.

I'd like to see him a middleweight. And I hope, and maybe he already is, that he's telling the UFC, give me a middleweight opponent. Give me a top 10 middleweight, top five middleweight. Let me just get back in there. Because what was so thrilling about this guy at first was the three fights in three months, three incredible wins. And we were so hyped.

And now he's become one of the most inactive fighters, just like a true enigma. Every show, I feel like you're asking, whereas comes up. whereas Hamzad. So his side of the story is the UFC isn't offering him fights. And he might be telling the truth. I don't know.

And if that's the case, then, hey, UFC, get it together. Off this guy some fights. But I do feel like he's put them in a bit of a strange position. Being a man without a weight class, being a man who kind of screwed up that last pay-per-view, I think they did want him to send Nate Diaz out in a loss. Didn't work out that way. So I'm optimistic. He fights before the end of the year.

Again, listen, the year is still young. where just in May, plenty of time for him to get in there, but I haven't heard anything. I hear people calling him out, I hear him calling people out. But for whatever reason, fights just aren't getting,

not even, I was going to say not putting, put the paper, they're not even like, we're not even hearing rumblings of targeting verbal agreements. So something's going on with him in the U.S.

I do think the relationship was sour because of 279 would happen. And I think both parties have to have some amends to make. They need to give him fights he needs to tell him what fights are even possible. So apologies to all the comes out stands out there. Again, he might be telling the truth that they're just not giving him fights,

but I do feel it's a little more complicated than that. But whatever, hope we see the guys soon, amazing fighter, and I still think we'll be UFC champion at Welterweight, middleweight, or possibly light heavyweight or as was suggested by us McDaniels, maybe all three because that would be pretty sick. All right, guys, I will tune out now. Now you've listened to me enough. Fingers crossed, Mike Heck will be back.

He does not have to do jury duty. Not there's anything wrong with, you know, serving the community. But at the same time, I think we'd all like to see him serve the MMA community, first and foremost, with his brilliant work on a heck of a morning. But yes, Francis and Ghana is with the PFL, guys. It is a new day. Enjoy it. Enjoy your lives. And I'm sure I'll sub in for Mike sometime again soon.

But thank you for everyone who called in. And thank you everyone who listened. a lee of a morning to you. To the Vox Media Podcast Network.