MMA Fighting - HOAM | Who Should Max Holloway Fight Next After Spectacular UFC 300 Knockout?

Episode Date: April 23, 2024

After delivering one of the craziest moments in UFC history against Justin Gaethje at UFC 300, Max Holloway has a lot of options in front of him — whether it be Ilia Topuria and the featherweight title, a shot at the lightweight belt, or even a huge rematch with Conor McGregor depending on what happens at UFC 303. But what is the best option for Holloway following the performance of a lifetime? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck discusses the options ahead for Holloway, and why the fight with Topuria is the way to go over all other options. Additionally, listener topics include the futures for fellow UFC 300 winners Bo Nickal and Diego Lopes, Deiveson Figueiredo's callout of Dominick Cruz, where Charles Oliveira goes from his loss to Arman Tsarukyan, Dustin Poirier's chances against Islam Makhachev at UFC 301, Jose Aldo vs. Jonathan Martinez at UFC 301, 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 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 2. Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Does it ever feel like you're a marketing professional just... Speaking into the void. But with LinkedIn ads, you can know you're reaching. the right decision makers, a network of 130 million of them, in fact. You can even target buyers by job title, industry, company, seniority, skills, and did I say job title?

See how you can avoid the void and reach the right buyers with LinkedIn ads. Spend $250 on your first campaign and get a free $250 credit for the next one. Get started at LinkedIn.com slash campaign. Terms and conditions apply. The Vox Media Podcast Network. It is Tuesday, April 23rd, 2024. And it is indeed a heck of a morning. We are live once again on the M-A Fighting Twitter space.

You hear the show in its entirety shortly thereafter. On the M-A Fighting Podcasting Network, what's going on, everybody? I am Mike Tech. Great to be back. First show we have done here in, I think, exactly two weeks. We did one the Tuesday before UFC 300. There's just so much going on that we couldn't do one. the Thursday. I was traveling to Vegas on Friday.

And then we had obviously UFC 300 on Saturday. Flew home did on to the next one Sunday night. And then we did BTL on Tuesday. Smack dab in the middle of my time off. It was my kid's birthday. He was off from school. So wanted to have some family time for the week. But now we're back. And we haven't really reacted to anything since you UFC 300, but one of the vendin was unbelievable. The watch party was incredible.

And, I mean, what can we say? It was so good. The UFC had an off week this past weekend, which was great. Give us some time to digest everything that happened at UFC 300. Dana White took a little bit of a victory lap, call it out media members. And if you told me that Dana White was going to take media members out of context for his own good. I would have been like, come on. What are you talking about? He would never do such a thing. But that's pretty much what he did. And take that victory lap. What can I say? Go ahead and take

that victory lap. But the UFC is back this weekend. I think this is Vegas 91. Maybe it's 92. I don't even know. I think it's Vegas 91. But we got an apexe apex card. There's some decent fights on here. Mateus Nicolae Alex Perez, the main event. We got Ryan Spann versus Bogdan Gouskoff. Creed A. Siva, Ariani Lipski. It's a really good fight at 125. Janata Dinez versus Austin Lane.

JSP, Jonathan Pierce versus David Onama, Tim Means versus Euros Medich. Hadiaya versus Victor Henry. It's not bad. It's not great, but it's not bad. Austin Hubbard versus Michael Fieglach. Dantel Mays versus Kaiya Machado. that was going to be a heavyweight over if there ever was one.

Ketland Soza versus Mardik Mann. James Lontop versus Chris Padilla, Ivana Petrovich versus Naliyang and Mahashata Hayasar versus Gabriel Benitez. So that is UFC Vegas-90. We got Knucklemania this weekend, which I'm super excited about. Mike Perry versus Tiago Alves, the main event for that card. hopefully the NBA fighting brass can hear me when I say please put me on BKFC duty

because that card's going to be great. All right, let's get to this. There's a lot of people waiting, so let's rapid fire these bad boys. We can talk about whatever you want because we got a couple weeks to catch up upon. So, eerie-meany, four-ounce sniper. Hey, Mike, can hear me?

Yes, sir. Hey, good morning. How you been? Good, man. Pretty good. I'm at work driving around right now. I'm glad you went live. I don't know, maybe the last live. I think you announced that you might be taking a little bit of a break, but I missed that one.

So I thought you just disappeared on us, Mike. I'm like, what was going on? But, yeah, like I said, I'm glad you're back. I just wanted to say, happy Liangna Fight Week, one of my favorite female MMA fighters. She refuses to go to a decision. I think in the past, like, six years or so. So anybody looking to gamble or make some money on that,

that fight's not going the distance. She's kill or be killed. But outside from that, I wanted to ask you, Al Jermaine Sterling, do you think the UFC is going to do him any favors as far as pushing closer to the title? Or do you think that performance against Calvin Cater is going to sort of hold him back? Because it wasn't the most fan-friendly, I guess, performance, but honestly, it was a smart performance. I was rooting for Calvin, but I can't hate on it.

He went out there, dominated and got it done. So what are your thoughts on that, Mike? Heck of a morning. it's tough to say i mean dana did say nice things about aljo after the victory which isn't something that happens all that often these days but look is if there's one fight at ufc 300 that i will probably never watch again it'll be that one and that's not to say that aljamaan didn't dominate calvin cater i mean outside of i mean outside the you know what max holloway just kind of put the wood to Calvin Cater,

but Calva was able to at least get some offense off in that fight. Calvin wasn't able to do anything in this fight. He literally did nothing. And I think I would say 80% of that is due to what Al Jemade Sterling did. And I think 20% of it was Calvin Cater just did nothing. And I think after that first round, I think he was a little bit frustrated. And as soon as he got taken down a round two,

you could just see the frustration on his face. Kept looking at the referee saying, and when are we going to separate this? When are we going to get stand-ups? Didn't happen all that often. And Al Jermaine dominated. I mean, it was a dominant performance. It was exactly what he needed.

And it was very smart. If he stood there and tried to throw hands with Calvin Cater for 15 minutes, he would have gotten knocked out. And he knows that. So it was a fine performance. Is it going to, is he going to jump the line? Hell no. Is he going to jump over Volcanowski or Max Holley?

Zero chance of that happening. he called out Brian Ortega. I think Ortega is ahead of him in this conversation after the win over Yair. I think Mazur of Lov is the right fight. And I've been saying this since they booked this fight with Calvin Cater. If he wins, they're just going to throw him in there with Mozart. And the way the UFC views this is a contender is going to emerge. And the way they kind of see it is one of the...

and I don't even know why Mobsar gets such flack because I thought the Arnold Allen fight was pretty fun he hurt Arnold Allen on the feet in that fight it was kind of weird how that all played out but to call that one of the most boring fights he's ever seen on a card that was awful outside of the main event was just I still don't think Dana White was talking about the same fight if we're being honest but yeah the Mobsar fight is is perfect

it's perfect bobsar is not going to just accept aljv jane sterling taking him down and just holding him down he's not going to so i think that's the fight to make i like that fight and i think it's what the ufc's going to do makes sense bobsar wants it aljo seems fine with it i don't think he's going to get the brian ortega fight so there you go that's how i feel uh this will all work featherweight's great it's just a deep load division i'll just got have to win like if he beats bobs are he's still going to have to win like another fight or two for he gets title shot that's just what this division looks like right now uh brain go ahead good morning mike uh just wondering what you think about charles olivera fighting

uh max holloway for the bmf bill i think that'd be sick i think you know if i think volk is probably going to end up fighting to for you just because of the fact that he's done so much for the company coming on short notice and giving them good fights. So I think they're probably going to give him to for you. And then I don't want to really see Justin Gichi of Charles Olivera too. Like, I just think Justin Gage's going to get choked out again and or just be, I don't think he's as good as he was when they first fought, especially after that K.O. And yeah, just wondering what your thoughts are on that.

Look, no, I want to see Max Holloway, Charles Olivera. I definitely want to see that fight. I feel like we didn't really get it for real the first time around because it ended in such a strange way. But I would love to see it. It doesn't make any sense right now. Like Charles is over and he's a star and people love him. But from a merit perspective and just kind of where both guys are going right now, Max is like, he's pretty far ahead of Charles. So I just don't think that fight makes a ton of sense unless it's like,

Boy, we need a main event real fast. Max, will you do it for extra X amount of dollars? Sure. But I don't know. If Max had lost to Justin Gaichi, those two guys fighting each other would have made all the sense in the world. I would have been totally down for that fight.

But Charles lost. Max won. He's the talk of the town right now. And really, whatever Max wants right now. Max has the ability to put himself as he's he's legit could his next fight could be for the lightweight title if he wants it you know what I'm saying so but Tepore is a huge fight it's one of the biggest fights the UFC can make right now and as much as Volkovsky deserves a rematch I think the UFC will probably

go forward with that one if that's what both guys want just kind of depends on the timeline at this point because if like Tepore is ready to go in August or something I would still like to see Volk take a little bit of extra time after getting Bruelly KO twice in four months. So, and then Volk can fight the winner of that fight at the end of the year or early next year, which is fine. That's totally fine. Plus, like, Holloway could just, like, if Connor beats Michael Chandler,

like, Connor versus Max for the BMF title is huge. That's a huge fight. So we'll see how it all plays out. It's kind of Max's world right now. I don't think he's going to go for the lightweight title. I would like to see him fight his on Makachchev. I think that would be super interesting. But I honestly would like to see,

we'll see Poria get his go. And then I would like to see Armin Sarukin get his shot. I think he has earned it. And I want to see what Arm and Sarucan on a full camp against his Zam Makachev looks like. Because their first fight was not on a full camp. And Serukian had a tremendous accounting of himself at like 23 years of age. It is UFC debut. So that's, of all the fights like I really want to see right now,

is on versus Armand 2 is absolutely at the top of the list. So, yeah, Max's got a lot of options. I don't think Charles Oliver is, at least right the second one of them. If he goes and fights Ilya and gets knocked out and loses, then cool. Then we can do that. We can do fun fights with Max. I'm fine with that. But right now it doesn't make any sense.

Let's go to 4.4. Corn Sports. Hey, Mike. So I wanted to talk about how the Justin Gishi hallway fight and then the main event that happened at USC 300. I listened to, let's go, Hanato-MyConnell's podcast that he does with Gilbert Burns. And I believe it was the host. And Gilbert Burner said something that they feel like Justin Gage's going to be, you know,

taking at least like the rest of the year off because it takes about like nine months to fully recover from that shattered nose and I felt like that whole fight you know ended up going sideways for Geichi ever since that spinning heel kick towards the bridge of the nose

I don't know dude do you feel like Gechie is going to be taking a full year or else because I would fully recommend that he does especially after getting chaotic in that fashion it almost felt like the way that Juan Manuel Mark has knocked down Manny Pacquiao and Mani Pakiyao

when Manny Pachia wants to sleep phase first. That is sort of the same reaction that I had when Holloway ended up putting Gaiji to sleep. I agree with you. I feel like Holloway has the options. I would like to see Volk take some time off. But for the main event that happened at UFC 300, do you feel like Jamal Hill rushed himself?

And I know that fight announcements had came out a couple days ago that Hill's gonna be fighting Kalillo Roundtree. I don't like that for Hill. I feel like he's rushing too soon. I think that Kalio could really, you know,

put him out, you know, maybe a little more violently than the way that Pereira did. I just feel like Kalil around tree is not the type of person I would try to rush back to after just getting KEDO by Alice Pereira. So I don't know

what's your thoughts? Thanks. Yeah, I didn't really see that one coming, but we'll see. I mean, look, credit to Jamal Hill. He wants to get back on the horse and boy, does he get a tough one ahead of him? Cleo Roundtree has just looked spectacular. So who knows? Maybe Jamal's just going to wrestle him for 15 minutes. I don't know.

Hopefully he has a better game plan against Cleo Roundtree than he did against Alex Pereer because that was something. that was certainly a choice to be made to have a range kickboxing match with probably the best in the world at that exact thing. But hey, credit to Jamal Hill. I thought he was the MVP of Fight Week, building intrigue around that fight, made it more interesting for sure. And now he's getting right back on the horse. I saw a lot of people complaining about it being like, oh, no medical suspension. I mean, it's two and a half months.

So he probably got 30 days for a quick knockout And then he'll be fine So dude wants to get back after it Let him get back after it And then Yeah obviously the the no shattering kick from Max Holloway Was a game changer in the fight Gage couldn't really breathe

He was breathing out of his mouth the rest of the fight But let's not forget Max won that first round anyways Like that was just icing on the cake Max won that round. And it certainly paid dividends the rest of the fight because Max was clearly the fresher guy. And to me, from Jump Street, from the booking of the fight, the amount of people who just thought Max Holloway was going to get run over by Justin Gachie was mesberizing. I was stunned. I was stunned.

If you listen to our reaction podcast, we were like, yes, this is our everything. this fight's super competitive. And I know Shaheen was a little trepidacious because, you know, Max is the beloved guy and he's always in fun fights. And when you fight a guy like Justin Gachi, he ruins careers for the most part. Guys are just never the same.

So I understood it from that, from that point of view, like, man, if Justin has a really good night, are we still going to get the same Max? Or is he just going to be a shell of himself, like most guys who share the octagon with Justin Gae? But the amount of people, people in the media space, they were like, oh, my God, Max Holloway, why would you do such a thing? You're just going to get waxed up by Justin Gaci. I couldn't believe it. Like, do you not watch MMA? What are we talking about here? Max stylistically was a great matchup for Justin Gaci. I wanted to pick him. I couldn't exactly get there because of what I learned in the Poria fight. But people always talk about like that, oh, Dustin Poria killed him. No, he didn't. That fight was really competitive.

You could definitely see Porier's size play a little bit of a factor because when he hit Holloway, like you could see it have just a little bit more effect, but it's not like Holloway didn't land anything back. Go rewatch that fight. It was very competitive. And Max obviously learned a lot from that. It was, what, four years prior?

Dude put on some size. He looked like a freaking lightweight at UFC 300. And he looked damn good. So I cashed a Max Holloway plus money ticket. I didn't pick him to win, but I took the points. It was very smart. It might have been my best bet of the year. Might have been the most confident bed of the year.

I was pretty exposed on that one. So I think Max silence a lot of people there. And yeah, I think if the nose break doesn't happen, it wouldn't have changed my pick at all. I still think Holloway would have been competitive. And yeah, dude fought his ass off. That was an incredible performance. I know it's a lot about the knockup, but it was just the performance in general.

He just, he beat the hell out of Justin Gagey. He made Justin Gagey question himself, which you never see. You never, ever see that. That's a test of it to what Max Holley brought to the table at UFC 300. Race the runners. Raise the sales. Raise the sales. Captain, an unidentified ship is approaching.

Over. Roger. Wait. Is that an enterprise sales solution? Reach sales. Professionals, not professional sailors. With LinkedIn ads, you can target the right people by industry, job title, and more. Start converting your B2B audience today.

Spend $250 on your first campaign and get a free $250 credit for the next one. Get started today at LinkedIn.com slash campaign. Terms and conditions apply. Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer,

but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser 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. Left laying, go ahead. So, Mike, can you hear me? Yes.

All right, well, I was going to ask about this card this weekend, but I'll save that for Friday because I've got more to talk about from 300. First of all, I listened to the, I know you weren't on the panel, but one of the people that was, AK, I see him here, he's here, he was on the panel,

and I messaged him on Instagram, and I said this. I don't really have an issue with anything he said on the Rankings Show, but I guess I wanted to say my piece, because Jed, and I think it was Damon, I think he was on there, I think it was Jed and Damon, both of them and so many other people, I hate the inconsistency that especially those two have, because these guys were talking about Diego Lopez and Jed, quote for quote, said, I don't know why these wins or these, like, beating these opponents is generating this kind of love. And he's obviously talking about first round finish wins against Gavin Tucker, Pat Sabatini, and Sadiq Yusuf.

But then, like, 20 minutes earlier, or like 10 minutes earlier, these guys, I think AK asked, are you confident that Boni, or do you think Bonico will be a future champion? and they're just immediately like yes yes yesing and i'm sorry just because you were an elite ncdbler that is like the only thing that is in my opinion that's the only reason why they are just like yep he's a future champion mark it down it's already happened just we're just waiting for it to happen because what how are you going to say that how are these wins generating love and then Bo Nicol beating Jamie Pickett, Val Woodburn, and Cody

Bundage that's supposed to generate love when he, in my opinion, is doing it less impressively in just the octagon. Now, I know obviously Bo Nicol's got the further pedigree outside of the cage than Diego Lopez did, obviously, coming into the UFC. But like,

either let's just go full steam ahead and just hype up every prospect who's getting round one finishes or just pump the brakes on everyone. Because why are we saying, yeah, Bo Nicol future champion? And then stuff like with, like, Mackayev, I think people are kind of waking up to him now. But he was a minus 600 favourite going into the Tim Elliott fight.

Like, why are we so urgent? And I think it's a thing with these wrestlers, in my opinion. It's the same thing. I think it's very consistent with a lot of these wrestlers. Makayev, Bo Nichol, not saying they shouldn't be big favorites. Obviously, I'm not saying Bo Nichol shouldn't be a minus 2,000 favorite. But, like, Mackay of being a minus 600 against the top 10 fighter was down 2-0 going into the third. Like, who will we pumping the brakes on here?

Because I don't know why it was just so immediate to say, like, no, I don't see it with Lopez. Like, I mean, that's your opinion. That's cool. But personally, I think he's maybe not a future champion. But I think he said not even a future title challenger, which I think is just shutting the door kind of unreasonably. But he was one of my favorite performances on the card. Another one of my favorite performances, even though he didn't win, was Alexander Rackich. Because I think even though he came away with a loss there, Yuri kind of just took over later on.

I think Rackich still made a pretty good account of himself because coming back, I think people don't realize that's almost two years since he fought, because his last fight was I'm pretty sure May of 2022 against Blahover when he did his leg. And he came back and he was absolutely tuning up Yuri. and it might seem like a dumb thing to say, obviously, because one of them won and one of them lost. But it's pretty clear, just using the eye test, cut that fight off before that tide turned for Yuri.

I know it's a dumb thing to do, but just in terms of that first round, Rackage did miles better than Alex Pereira in the first round, in my opinion. And not saying again, not saying he's better than Alex Pereira, of course. But I think we've got to give a bit of credit to Rackage because I think he looks like one of the better strikers

in that division for the first. round until he kind of just couldn't hurt Yuri and realize that it's kind of hard to just continuously throw out put at someone who can't get knocked down. So I think give some credit to Rakich. If people are shitting on him for the loss, I'm not saying anyone here is, but I've heard some people saying he's like was a quitter and stuff and that he couldn't handle adversity. Like, come on, bro, it's Yeri. He's crazy.

But yeah, give some credit to Rakich and Jed, give some more, Jed and Damon, give some more credit to Lopez and let's pump the brakes on bow nickel and not write it into the history books that is already a champion that's my take thank you all right lots of impact there um yeah rackage look good again it's it's hard to beat someone that you can't kill and rackage hit yury with everything he had leg kicks punches everything and he had zero effect on yury like just zero. I mean, we could see Yuri's leg all banged up. He was moving around, but like, he didn't really switch stances at all. Like, he was just like, yeah, keep kicking me in the leg. I like it. And that just messes with your mind when you're landing your best shots and you're

landing at 100% and you cannot affect this person. You cannot slow this person down at all. And Yuri is a psychopath. Sometimes you just got to be a crazy person. Sometimes you just got to be a crazy person and Yuri is that crazy person. So let's talk about the ranking show. I listened to the ranking show. I understand where you're coming from. There are a couple things that we need to put into perspective. One, the bow-nickel thing.

Damon was, from what I recall, Damon was like absolutely unequivocally, he will be champion. Jed, who was kind of on that boat for a while, suddenly was like, yes, I feel like he'll still be champion. but it's not like a matter of fact anymore. So I think like he did sort of pump the brakes on Boe, even though he did eventually land on, yes, he'll be champion,

but he's not really as confident as he may have been before the Cody Branch fighter and before that. The other thing I'll say about the Diego Lopez thing, and this is important because I know this is part of the conversation as well, as much as I have put over the middleweight division as much as I think that as of right this second in terms of intrigue and names and the top of it

and some of the fights you can put together it is one of the top three divisions in the UFC right now in 2024 just because of the names that are there but let's not kid ourselves what division is deeper featherweight or middle weight it is featherweight by a mile

it's not even close. Like you could, Bo Neckle is such an intriguing player right now that if you put him, if the UFC booked Boe Nickel versus Drickus DuPus E right now, if they booked that fight and they said, this is going to be the main event of the July pay-per-view, there are going to be people that are going to believe that Bo Nickle is going to win that fight.

That at least, and even if you don't, there are people who are going to think, you know what, if he gets takedowns, like, he might win the belt. If they book Diego Lopez versus Iliate to pourier right now, I don't think you get that same reaction is what I'm trying to say. For other way, it's just a murderer's row. Look at what they did with Alex Pereira. Look at how Alex Pereira bounced his way up to Israel Adasana. Andreas Michelaitis, who was maybe the lowest rank. middleweight in the last five years to Bruno Silva, which was a tough fight, but you kind of needed

that one. Then he gets Sean Strickland, obviously a win that has aged very, very well, and then he got the Izzy fight. Four fights already in there. You could do that at middleweight. I don't think you could do that at Featherweight. We just talked about Al Jermaine Sterling. Former Bannamweight champion, and a lot of people's eyes, the greatest Bannumweight of all time because of the title runs, the wind streak before the shot on Mallet lost, et cetera. A lot of people felt that way. He goes out and pitches a shot out against Calvin Cater. Calvin did nothing against this guy.

And we're not talking about him just getting a title shot. When if this is like the PFL or Bellatory, probably would get one. He's not going to get one in the UFC. We're talking about he's going to have to fight Mobzar and then maybe one other guy before he gets a title shot. I think that's a big part of this conversation. Like, Diego is good.

Like, I've been higher, I've been super high on Diego Lopez. I've been trying to get, remember when before Josh Emmett stepped in and fought Bryce Mitchell? I was like, dude, let's get Diego in there. Or when Josh Emmett lost his opponent before Bryce Mitchell stepped in. I was like, let's get Diego with that. Let's get Diego that fight. Let's get Diego that fight. I think he's a character.

I think he's very good. And who knows? He's 29. But I, if you're asking me if I'm more confident in Bo Nichols, getting a title shot over Diego Lopez? The answer is yes, because Bo is a guy, the UFC is going to build him appropriately. And I think there's doing it with Diego Lopez, too. But like if you match Diego, my on to the next one's suggestion for Diego Lopez was

Josh Emmett. Like, let's just go back to that well. Are you confident Diego Lopez beats Josh Emmett? I don't know. I mean, if he goes out there and rinses Josh Emmett, that shuts everybody up. like, okay, now we got something here. But then, like, look at the guys he's going to have to fight after that. Yair, Ortega, Aljo, Mavzar, Volk, Holloway, Ilya,

like, that is just, that's a lot, man. That's a lot. And Diego's got mileage on him. He's got 30 pro fights. He's got 30 pro fights. So, I don't know, like, I get where you're saying. but also like going back and listening to the ranking show, I think a lot of it had to do with just the depth of featherweight.

And now if the UFC wants to push Diego super quick to a title shot, they can certainly do that. They've done it before with other fighters. But even a guy like Iliate Tuporia who we knew, we knew with Iliate Teporia from like minute one, even like those who were watching Iliate Tepore before we got the UFC, we knew how good this guy was. was. We knew immediately what this guy was capable of. We knew this guy was probably fighting

for a title sooner rather than later. And it took him six fights to get a title shot. Could Diego be that way too? Sure. But look at what's in front of Ilya right now. Holloway and or Volk, Volk and or Holloway. Mobsar, I mean, it's just a tough division to get there, especially when you have a guy like Ilya who is just a freak and is only going to get better at the top of that division right now, who's only 27. So I think that that was more of, and Damon will tell you right away. He's a big wrestling guy. He's a big wrestling guy.

But I get where you're coming from. I have to defend my boys a little bit. But I think a lot of, I know a chunk of that had to do with the divisions that they are both in more so than the talent. Diego is Diego is doing a lot, man. He's doing a lot. But let's see how they book him moving forward.

I know he wants the Mabzar rematch. I don't want to see that right now. Thomas, go ahead. Mike and Mr. there for a week. A couple of questions, really. First one being, where do you think the winner of the main event at the weekend goes?

Do you think it pushes them up towards top five title shot, that kind of hurry of the flyweight division? And secondly, personally I was quite disappointed Paul Hughes went to PFL and didn't go to the UFC I don't think the UFC table a good offer to bring them over

and what's your opinion they weren't going to I mean we all knew that we all knew that if you listen to Pete Caryl kind of tell the story about how Paul Hughes was offered fights for the UFC

I think he was offered a fight somebody on one of the UK cards, but he was hurt and he couldn't take it. Then they offered him, I think, a contender series spot, like maybe a month later, but he was too hurt and couldn't take it. And they just kind of, like, I don't think they gave up on him, but I think it kind of hurt Paul when it came to the negotiations, et cetera. So, PFL was the, to me, if someone had asked me, Mike, put $100 on who Paul Hughes signs with, I would have put it on the PFL.

in a second. PFL is bad at most things, but what they are good at is spending money. They have money to spend, and they will overpay people. Look, I mean, they are, they are AW right now. The UFC's WWE. They think they're a competitor, but they are nowhere close to them. The product on screen is not as good, and it shows. The booking is awful. I mean, just look at what they just announced the bohegan sun card.

And it's the same issue that I went back to after the first round of the whole thing when it came to the women's flywades. You got Liz Karmouche, who is, you can make a case that she's like the third best flyweight on planet Earth in that division. And she has to fight Giuliana Velasquez. and now she has to fight Kanawanata in her second regular season fight, while on the flip side, Dakota Dichiva, who is going to be a star for them, they just basically line her up with the two easiest fighters in the tournament.

So, like, Liz Karmouche could go and win both fights and not make the playoffs because of how the matchups are made. And then just go and look and see what, like, Daniel James has been saying, go look at what some of the other fighters have been. say. It's clear what PFL's doing. And it's a problem and people are starting to realize it now. And Paul Hughes is going to go in there that PFL is going to treat Paul Hughes the same way. They're going to push him like a star. They're going to give him more favorable matchups than other people in his division just to get him there, mostly so they could say, look,

this is the set. And they already did this. I knew as soon as he signed, Don Davis is going to come out the tweet. The best free agent in the world, the most regarded free agent in the world, chose the PFL over the UFC. There's a reason for that. And that's exactly what Don Davis tweeted. It's exactly what he tweeted. Money, money solves a lot of problems. PFL's got a ton of problems. I mean, a ton. But they have money to fling around and they can sign these people. They can sign the Paul Hughes of the world. The UFC, wasn't going to offer him like 100 and 100 out the gate. There's no chance. There's no chance. But let's see how Paul Hughes does with this first contract. He'll go through the first season.

And let's see if he still feels the same way. PFL's still willing to pay him that kind of money. We saw Kayla Harris in the face of their company. She sprinted out of there. Sprinted to the UFC. So, yeah, good signing, but not surprised by it. And Paul Hughes, considering where PFL and were Bellator, kind of plants their flags in Europe, it's a no-brainer. It's an absolute no-brainer. They do their best business in Europe. The UFC does their best business everywhere. So, yeah, good for him.

Good for Paul. Sacks Fifth Avenue makes it easy to holiday your way, whether it's finding the right gift or the right outfit. Sacks is where you can find everything. From the perfect Chloe bag for your hard-to-shop-for-sister to a prodig jacket for a fancy holiday dinner. And if you don't know where to start, sacks.com is customized to your personal style

so you can save time shopping. Make shopping fun and easy this season and find gifts and inspiration to suit your holiday style. At Sacks Fifth Avenue. and cybersecurity are always there when we need them. They should get a parade every time they block a novel threat and have streets, sandwiches, and babies named in their honor. But most of all, they deserve AI cybersecurity that can stop novel threats before they become breaches across email, clouds, networks, and more. DarkTrace is the cybersecurity defenders deserve and the one

they need to defend beyond. Visit darktrace.com forward slash defenders for more information. CV, go ahead. Hey, Mike, Keckle. Good morning. Glad to have you back. So now that we got McGregor, you know, they have a date now set for June against Chandler, I think, like, the next, like, big fighter we anticipate to come back is hopefully

John Jones. Do you have any, like, predictions on when you think we'll see him? Maybe at MSG. I certainly don't think they'll run back this deep edge fight. fight. But yeah, who do you think John will fight if he does fight at the end of the year? He's going to fight Steepa at the end of the year. That's the fight. They're going to make it. They've gone this far. I mean, you have to push it over the finish line now. Could be the final fight for both of them. So, yeah. John's not going to fight Tom Aspedal.

Like, he's so far into the Steepay thing, he's just got to do it. And the UFC, is so far into it that they just kind of have to pull the trigger on it. But I think we're at the point where it's like, this is your last chance. So, yeah, I think John Jones, they'll try to go back to MSG with that fight. It's a big-ass fight. It's a big-ass fight. Hardcores won't give a shit because I think we all kind of know how that's going to go. It'll be the final fight of C-Base career, more than likely.

And then we go from there. But John's also dealing with some of the ship behind the scenes, too. We'll see how far that all plays out. But yeah, he's got to fight stepey guys. Like, just as I told you last year, let's just all live in this world. We just have to accept it. This is what we're getting. John Jones, Tom Aspinall ain't happening.

Tommy Aspinall is going to do his own thing. There's going to be two heavyweight titles. Tom will defend his. John will defend his, and then hopefully these two, their paths align. But John is fighting Steepay, I'm sure. That would be my guess, and I would put good money on it. Absolalia, go ahead. So, Mark Hecker, morning.

It's been a while. I hope you've had a great long break, my friend. How are you doing? We're doing good, my friend. So firstly, I enjoy U.S.E.C. 300. I really, really loved the fact they went back to some of the old school, tail-de-tape music, the way they introduced with the Gladiator that took, you know, that really took me back to memories from, you know,

watching this from very young age. You know, overall, amazing event, I will say it's a 10 out of 10. I really wish the UFC did more of this. I think it makes the event kind of really unique in its own way. You know, this was just for this particular special event. So, all right, now my questions. Firstly, regarding Davidson Figueredo, he says he wants to fight Dominic Cruz. Look, I think that's a great fight, but I don't really want to see him fight Cruz for obvious reasons.

I think he should be fighting up. I would love to see him get tested with, you know, Marlon Vera or, you know, Piorayan. I think that really can throw his waters, maybe even a song your dong. You know, like we, I really want to see him prove himself that he actually belongs in this division, and he then just get wins over guys who have had multiple losses over the last three, four years of their career. You know, like, Rob Fon win is fine. It's a decent win, but it's not a good win, in my opinion.

Same with Cody Garber, and, you know, even though he looked a little bit sharp in that fight, he's definitely not the guy he wants with, and at best Cody's a gatekeeper. Another question I have is, what's next for Charles Oliver's career? Because I feel he's now in the limbo. He probably could still fight for the title one last time

if he beats maybe say Gamrod, maybe one other guy, you know, maybe a rematch with Amman or I don't know whoever he matches up with, but then he's kind of kind of been like, in my opinion, I think it would be the same situation that Dustin Porre is in right now where he can get a title shot off a lucky chance that right time, right availability.

For me, as a fan, I would love to see him move up to Walterway. Fight Kamara Usman or someone in that top three. I know he might not win or do well, I would love to actually see how well he fares in that division. He weighs quite a lot for a lightweight, and I think he could make Walter Waite. He could be a good bill for Walter, in my opinion. Yeah, that's really all that. Have a good day.

No, I don't want to see Charles Oliver at Walter Waite. No. No, he's getting chucked around by Islam at 155. Like, he's got to have a tough time with those guys. He's going to be, it's got to be tough. No. Like, wonder,

like even guys like Wonderboy. Wonderboy's like 200 pounds. Cutting on a 170. Like, he's, no. There's fights for him at 155.

Let's keep him there. You know, if Holloway loses a fight, you can always go back to that one. It's just, I mean, this is what we need to do. What can we do?

I mean, I think the Gaichi rematch is there. You could do Gamrod. That's fine. Charles Olvera versus Raphael Fiziv would be frigging incredible. There's just lots of fun things we could do. Boycano at down the line.

Bedouacantini. I mean, there's just lots of options. Lots of options for Charles Olivera. Figgi, I think Figgi beats Chito. Like, I really do. I think he beats him. And to say that, Rob Fon win wasn't a good one. I don't necessarily

agree with that, so. But Cheetah's fine. He's not going to fight Song-Yidong. Song's coming off of a loss. Yeah, it's kind of where he's at right now. It's kind of where he's at. Okay, I think we're done here. I don't know what just has happened. Wait a minute. There we go.

All right, we'll get, we'll get Barbarus in here and that we'll wrap up. I don't know what just happened. I don't know if I lost connection or what. I don't know. All right, people are getting back in. I don't know what the hell just happened. Someone tried to call me,

and I just X'd him out. All right, now people are coming back in. Ani, you're not even requested, so I don't know why you're waving. I'm trying to get you in Barbarusa. I don't know what's going on. I'm getting the Wheel of Doom. Yeah. Fingy Rob Fon, not Rob Fon,

Fingy Peter Yon would be the fight, but Jan is hurt. Yon's going to be out for a hundred. hot minute. So it's kind of like unfair to even book him right now. Fosie. Fingy Cruz is fine. Former champion. Why not?

David, go ahead. Yeah, try again. Connection did not go through for some reason. Let's try again. Please, for the love of God, work. All right, do we have you now? You got me, Mike?

Yes, we got you. All right, hell. We made it, buddy. What's up, Bubba? All right, all right. What's your take on Aldo Martinez at 301? Legging battle, I think it's going to be intriguing. We love Albo to look good in Brazil,

but just got this weird feeling that silence behind the violence will get a decision, win, and kind of style on him in Rio. So, Mythical Fighter of the Week, the version of Coroner O'Franes that took out Anthony Hamilton via Power Camorra. That man was a motherfucker. in the May Mailman, out. Oops, didn't mean to do that. I actually was, that was the first event I ever covered,

was Francine Ghanu submitting Anthony Hamilton in good old Albany, New York, a Derek Lewis headline fight night card. How about that? Against Shamil Dura Himov. Yes, we even had those main events back then. In 2016, what a time. What a time indeed?

Let me think here. God, I forgot. David, get back in here. Get back in here. I'm a moron. And I forgot your entire question. Like an idiot. Dave, we're knocking the rust off.

Or leaving in the comments. Or somebody. It's got to hit me in like two minutes anyways. All right. My bad. Go ahead. Oh, no. I got it.

I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. Joseo Aldo versus Jonathan Martina. See, I knew it would hit me. I knew it would hit me. I think Jose Aldo's got to beat him.

Jonathan Martinez is a fine fighter. He's good. He is the silence behind the violence. I'm glad to see the nickname is growing. The moniker is growing. He's Josefucking Aldo, man. He's Josefucking Aldo. What does Joseo do to leg kickers?

He kicks them harder and better. Ask Pedro Munoz What fighting Josealdo was like It was not a fun time for him It was a tough time And I like Jonathan Martinez This is

This would be a gigantic win for him I just I don't know I don't see it happening I don't see it happening Jose in Brazil It's a free agent fight for him

Like it's basically a contract fight I don't think he's got to stick with the UFC unless the UFC comes back with a floppy trillion dollars for him. But I mean, I think this is more of like a Jose Aldo fight that a John de Martinez fight. I just think they wanted to have Jose on the card

because they knew they need to spice it up. Jonathan was available, ready to go to Brazil, so here we go. But I'm picking Joseo Alto to win that fight. I think he will out leg kick Jonathan Martinez and I think he will win a decision. But Jonathan beats him. Good on him, man.

Good on them. Man, 3.01's coming quick. And it is certainly a pay-per-view card that is going to happen in Brazil. Let's take a gander at this. Pantosia versus Stevie Vincenzo Erseg, Vinnie Siggs, Jonathan Martinez versus Jose Alda. Paul Craig versus Kyle Barolio, Anthony Smith versus Vitor Petrino, Michelle Pereira versus Ehor Potiaria.

Did you guys see when they announced the Ehor thing that the plan is to have him fight, this fight, and the one he was already booked with Sharra Bullitt, a month and a half later in Saudi Arabia? That's pretty fun. Joachim Silva versus Dracchar Close. Man, no disrespect to Joaquin. Silva, but what does

your car close got to do to, like, get a fight with, like, a relevant guy at 155. Again, I'm not trying to, like, shit on Joaquin Silva, but, like, can we get your car close to guy, like, in the top 20?

What else does this man have to do? Joe Anderson, Brito versus Jackshaw. Elves Brutter versus Mick Debeck Oralby fucking rules. That fight's incredible. This is going to be a fun watch,

guys. I think it's going to be a fun card. but there's just no names really like there's names like people you know but they're not like big draws not a ton of storyline outside of like the top two or three fights we're going to watch it we're going to do a watch party for it but uh yeah i think we're going to be looking to move on quickly to uh 302 and 303 uh collude city take us home I know we all love Dustin. I just don't see.

Break down, what is his path to victory? Does he have anything more than a puncher's chance against Islam? I think Islam's the best in the world. Well, both of them, I would love to see Dustin cap off the career, man. It'd be cool. But I'm just trying to chop up a way this fight goes down. And I do not see a path to victory for him. I just want to get your thoughts.

Thanks, dude. I don't know, man. It's a horrible matchup for Dustin. It's a horrible fight. for him. He does not have great take-down defense, and he's fighting the best grappler in the division, the best wrestler in the division, a guy that will take him down a million times if he wants to. I think it's just a matter of, like, destiny, and, you know, I think Dustin's the better boxer, probably the better striker overall, although Islam, I think, is incredibly underrated

in that aspect, and he's shown that in his last couple of fights. we'll see. There weren't a lot of people out there confident that Dustin was going to beat Benoit Santadie and boy did he. Jesus. I mean, what, can you think of a better story in MMA than Dustin Porre

winning the lightweight title against Islam Makachev? Like, that would be insane. That would be insane. I don't think it's going to go very well for him, but it's a big-ass fight. It's going to do well on pay-per-view. Islam's a star. Dustin's a star

Sean Strickland's a star Paul Cost is a star That is going to do Pretty damn well on pay-per-view So Yeah big opportunity It'll be the last chance Fordorio to get a title shot

And let's see if he can I mean it'd be very pro wrestling If Dustin Porier can Get it done And win the undisputed title Be pretty wild But then he's got to fight Armand Saruki And a little teammate versus

his teammate action. So, yeah. But, yeah, I don't love his chances. Do not love his chances in that fight. All right. I think we are done here. Thank you all very much. Appreciate you all.

It's good to be back. We're going to be recording something later on today that I'm very excited about. I know a lot of people who have been longtime listeners to the podcast network, if you think of the time of year that we are currently in right now, what is going on in the world of major sports. Something big is happening in the NFL, which means something big is going to happen over the NBA Fighting Podcasting Network. And we've done a couple of these.

We're going to do another one. I'll leave it that vague for now. But we're going to record that later today. I am excited. I know the crew is excited. We look forward to this every year, and we're going to record it later on today. So thank you all very much.

We appreciate you. We'll be back on Thursday. We'll do it again. Have a great Tuesday. And have a heck of the morning, everybody. The Vox Media Podcast Network. Support for this show comes from Volkswagen. As the U.S. gets ready to host soccer's biggest moment on a worldwide stage,

Volkswagen is helping people discover new turfs and new ways to play the beautiful game right here in the U.S. From deaf and power wheelchair soccer to beach and futsal, Volkswagen is actively support. all the communities and teams within the U.S. soccer ecosystem. They're supporting talent from across the U.S. soccer extended national teams and are focused on helping to give these less widely known forms of soccer a platform moving forward. From the pitch to the sand and everything in between, welcome to our turf. Support for this show comes from Chase. If you're a fan of women's sports, you're always looking for ways to get closer to the action.

And your Chase card can get you exactly that. With a Chase card, you can experience more. That means access to pre-sales, preferred seating, and more savings. For more information about how to step into a world of more with Chase experiences, visit chase.com slash experiences. Benefits available only to eligible Chase card holders. Deposit in credit card products provided by JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., member FDIC. Terms, conditions, restrictions, and limitations apply.