MMA Fighting - HOAM | Who Will Francis Ngannou Fight Next? Plus, the UFC 288 Co-Main Event Mystery Continues

Episode Date: April 20, 2023

Since Francis Ngannou parted ways with the UFC, everybody has been wondering what his next move will be — will he scratch that itch to box against a big name, or will he immediately continue with his MMA journey? That question remains just as difficult to answer months later. On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck discusses Ngannou's free agency, if he'll box next, and if an eventual return to the UFC is possible. Additionally, listener topics include what the new UFC 288 co-main event could end up being, the UFC Vegas 71 main event between Curtis Blaydes and Sergei Pavlovich, the UFC's flyweight division, Gervonta Davis vs. Ryan Garcia, Muhammad Mokaev's social media misfire calling out Brandon Royval, Cris Cyborg's MMA future, Amanda Nunes vs. Julianna Peña 3, and more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Instacart, groceries that over-deliver. Service fees exclusions in terms apply. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. It is Thursday, April 20th, 20th, 23. It is indeed a heck of a morning. We are live on the MMA fighting Twitter spaces. You can hear the show start to finish in its entirety shortly thereafter on the MMA Fighting Podcasting Network. Hello, I am Mike Heck.

Hope everyone's having a great week so far. We are on the eve of Bellator 294. We're on the eve of the Eve of Bellator 295 and UFC Vegas 71. We're on the eve of the eve of the Eve. of Gervante Davis versus Ryan Garcia, lots of influencer boxing shenanigans. There's a lot going on in the combat sports world this weekend. So we're here to talk about it today.

And we're going to talk about it on BTL as well. Jose Youngs is going to join me. Jet is off. Everyone else is either traveling or on vacation or doing a whole bunch of stuff. So to make life easier, including for our producer E. Casey Liden, who is in Las Vegas for the Davis-Garcia fight week, we're going to do a fan Q&A.

We're going to throw it back to the A-Side live chat days on BTL, and we're just going to answer questions the entire time. So 12.30 p.m. Eastern, you can join us for that, and it should be a lot of fun. Today, we're just going to do what we always do. We're going to turn it over to you guys, and we're going to talk some combat sports. So Tristan, kick us off, my man. I don't hear you, Tristan. Not off to a good start.

Hopefully it's not on my end. We'll try to get Abs Wally in here. How are you doing? Good. I hear you perfectly. Yeah, so I've just got three questions I want to ask. I'll keep an sure and simple. Regarding the co-main event, is there still possibility they want to, you know, do the

Balah Muhammad at Burns fight or they're just going to move on and based on the incentive that the tickets are already settling out. Also, between Prime, Tyrone Woodley and Kobe Covington at their very best, who do you think would have won that fight in 2018? And my final question is, how do you see the fight between Curtis Blade and Pelvovich playing on Saturday? That's all I have. Have a good day, man.

Thanks, man. As far as 288 goes, I guess we're going to probably find out pretty soon, right? I don't know if they're going to save it until the card on Saturday to announce it, but I think they're going to put something on this card. I don't know. Gilbert Burns is teasing a bunch of stuff. Belaw seems to be teasing a bunch of stuff.

Paulo Costa has been teasing some stuff. I heard that there is a little bit of smoke to having Paulo on the card. I heard some names that were being thrown out there. there were talks about you know they were only going to put Paulo on the card if both fighters could make 185 and

it didn't seem feasible for some of the options that were presented to Paulo I'd be stunned if Paul can make 185 at this point despite what he says he called out Janbojovich that would be an interesting one but I just don't know if they have enough

firepower to replace the great of Olivera versus Darius. I just don't know if the intrigue is there. I don't know if the name value is there to at least match Olivera with either of these guys. But I don't know.

I expect the UFC to sort of put something together. But I don't know what it's going to be. We might have to wait until Saturday to find out what it is. As far as the Colby in his prime against Woodley and his prime. Like when Colby won, it's hard to say, when Colby beat RDA and won the interim title, the time to make that fight was then,

and it didn't get done. Seems to be more on, I don't know, depends on who you ask why that fight didn't happen. But I would have picked Colby to win that fight at that time. And, you know, unfortunately, we had to wait a year. year or two too long to actually get that fight and we all saw what happened. Colby dominated him. Got a doc basically an injury stoppage late in the fight. But I probably would have picked Colby if they

fought when they were supposed to fight. And main event on Saturday, it's a tough one. I'm leaning Curtis Blades, but this fight ain't going to the cards. If Curtis does Curtis, I don't know, Sometimes Curtis goes into these fights and he's like, well, everyone's saying this guy can outstrike me. Watch this. And it works sometimes and sometimes it doesn't. Worked against Chris Stochis, did not work against Derek Lewis. And if Curtis Blades goes in there and tries to prove the pundits wrong, then he's going to get slept in this fight. But considering where he's at this division, I don't think he's going to go and approach that fight in this way. So I think if he gets one takedown, he's just going to beat the hell out of Sergei Pavlovich and stop him. So we'll know pretty quickly how this fight's going to go. If Curtis shoots a double and can't get him down, there's probably going to be some uh-ohs for the Curtis Blades betters. But I don't think he's going to have a hard time getting Pavlovich on the mat.

We've seen Pavlovich struggle with his back on the floor. Alistair Overeem is able to do it. And this is not Uberim-Overeem-Overeem. I know it was a while ago. But we just, I haven't seen enough from Pavlovich to feel like he's, he's sharpened those tools. But again, his fights only lasts like 60 seconds. So it's hard to tell. But I am leaning Curtis Blades.

I think he does get the fights to the mat. And I think if he does, the fight's going to be over pretty shortly thereafter. But if you can't get him down, then Pavich is going to knock him out. But I just don't think this fight's going very long. And someone's getting got pretty quickly, in my opinion. let's see if we can get Tristan back in here. Tristan, do we have you? You hear me?

I got you now. All right, thanks. I want to talk about Julia Peña. I read over the article of what she's saying. She's like, I'm carrying this fight between her and Amanda Nunes. And I guess it's just Julia Pena being Julia Pena. And I just, and I get it, she probably is doing. this because if she didn't, she wouldn't get the title fight.

Because I just think the women's band-in-weight division is not great, and no one has really set themselves apart. I mean, even Nunes was thinking that she was going to fight Iriana Adana, but she's going to be fighting Raquel Pennington. So, and this also, I've got to put Mahama Mokai into this too as well, is you have to be a. impressive. Like, you can't just be like, well, I'm going to go after the top five or I'm going to demand the title shot, which I understand you should be doing that. You know, you should try to get,

you know, a title shot any way you can. But, you know, Payne didn't look. Payne didn't lost Amanda Nunes and she got dominated. Mohameda Mikhail didn't look great in his last fight. He almost got submitted. and, you know, he's going out there calling Brandon Roy Val. Vett. I was just like, come on. Come on, we're not doing this. You know, and it's all about how impressive you look in that octagon.

Then you could talk, whatever talk you want. Like, he's really good. And he's beating the best of the best. If he could say whatever he wants and talk the way he wants. Unfortunately, we lost it, Tristan. You were breaking up like crazy. But I think I know where you're getting at here. first thing I'll touch on is the Juliana Pena thing.

Yeah, I mean, technically she is carrying it, but when has Amanda Nunes ever carried herself as like the A-side in a promotion outside of her skill set? Amanda's not a big trash talker. Yeah, I guess Juliana kind of carried it because no one really wanted to see this fight to begin with. I think we've got all our answers in the second fight, but unfortunately, this is kind of on the UFC

if we're being honest because they stack the deck on some of these cards and unfortunately some of these cards have to suffer this one being one of them i know june is okay we got the title fight which is not great if we're being honest amanda's probably going to be like a minus 600 favorite in that fight we have wonder boy michel pehara which again is not done yet um it has been agreed to but it is not done uh there are some eyes to be dotted and some T's to be crossed. I am told before that fight is official, but it is not official yet.

It's not official. We haven't even put it on the web. Even though we know it's been agreed to, we haven't even put it on the website yet. And there's reasons why. It's not done. It's just not. We got Chris Curtis Nassardini Mavov,

which is a fine fight. potentially, let me pull up this, this 289 card and just see what it kind of looks like right now. I know there's rumblings and rumor and innuendo about Charles Olivera, Benile Darius, being on that card. That is not done either. Danny Gainte, Nate Landwehr's good fight. And then the rest of it, we get Jazz DeVizius, Marin, Maverick, that's fun. A lot of Canadian representation as there should be. Eric Anders, Mark Andre Barrio.

We got Deanna Belbeda versus Maria Olivera, Blake Bielder versus Kyle Nelson, Matt Chanel, David DeVorek, Hakeem Dawadu, Lucas Almeida, Amon Zahabi, Horici Lang. So that's 12 fights, 11 and a half, more like 11, because again, Wonderboy, Pereira isn't done yet. Oliver Dariush is further away from being done than that fight. So that car needs help.

And Payne is sort of carrying the load, but Amanda's not a big trash talker. She doesn't do it. The only fight that Amanda Nunes really ever carried was the Rhonda Rousey fight because Rhonda didn't talk to anybody. And Amanda was sort of the focal point of all the media because Rhonda didn't talk to anybody.

She didn't show up to media day. She didn't do anything. So Amanda sort of had a, to carry that, but she didn't even really need to because Rhonda was the A side anyways. All the questions are about Rhonda, how will she bounce back from the Holly loss? You know, could she beat a man, Anurna's? And a lot of people weren't giving her a great chance to win that fight. I know I didn't.

And then the Makaya thing, man, he is, I like Muhammad a lot. I'm very high on him. I still feel he has the potential to be a two-division champion. I really do feel that way. He is super young. He is very experienced. But man, he just, that killer instincts that we saw in his debut, it's just kind of gone away.

And I know it's in there somewhere, but he needs to find that. And he also needs to be smart about his callouts. I get the Roy Val callout, like, after his debut. But now, like, that makes no sense. And then Roy Val just kind of dusted him on social media. Ruined his damn day with the retorts. Mahayev just needs to get a fight, get a rank guy, go in there and see what he can do.

But even his last fight was a tough matchup stylistically for him. So I don't know. If I'm him, I'm just taking my time at this point. I know he wants to fight in July. I'm sure the UFC will try to get him on the London cart, maybe international fight week. but if I'm the matchmakers, man, I'm just like, chill out a minute. Get as close to 100% as possible.

We'll throw you on the Abu Dhabi car or something. Give him a rest and see if he could heal up. Because the worst thing he could do is take another tough fight where he's a minus 800 favorite and not look great. I know he got to show some adversity with that horrific arm bar and all of that, and he was able to come through and get the win, got him over a little bit, but before that, but he wasn't all that impressive.

He's got to be smart of these calls. No way Brandon Roy Ball's got to take that fight. And I love, I actually love the last line. Stop pretending like you don't see Hadley's tweets. Go fight Jake Hadley. Go fight Jake Hadley. That's, that is a tough, that's a tough fight for him right now. Go fight Jake.

There's beef there. There's heat. You want a tough fight. Go fight Jake. I think that's the fight. And that might even be too soon right now from a high act after what I've seen from both guys over these last couple performances. But yeah, the Royvall is just, that's like Balal calling out Usman after he'd be Wonderboy. Makes no sense.

Four Corner Sports hello. Hey, so I did see that tweet and I'm like, $30,000 is nothing for Brandon Royvo. Like he said, he's in a fight for six figures and he 10-7ed him with that sweet. You know, like, there's no way and there's no reason Roy Wals should ever even consider fighting Muhammad Mahayev. I mean, I think Mahamahev needs to, you know, like you said, slow build him. I think Jake Hadley will be the excellent, you know, litmus test for him. But I wanted to ask you, so as so you ended up saying that it's targeted,

Nash's a Dean Imama versus Chris Curtis. nothing has changed since you posted that, correct? Well, the UFC, the UFC announced the fight like 30 minutes later, but when we reported it, I was told by three different people on both sides of the table that the fight's been agreed to, but the contracts weren't sent out yet. Okay, all right, fair enough. It's going to happen. It's going to happen.

Okay, I can see that happening. ask you, how do you see that fight turning around? Just because Imov ended up fighting Strickland in January on that, the first event of the year. Also with Curtis, I would feel like it's a quick turnaround, in my opinion. And I know you mentioned about Curtis Blades, you know, you're picking him. But my whole thing is Sergey Pavlovich, from the times that we have seen him, you know, build up to like this monster knocking out tie to ovasi knocking out um derrick lewis i just feel like his game plan or whatever his coaches are strategizing is just to blitz these opponents which are

which is allowing everybody to see you know his fights end within a like a 60 second range so i want to know like do you think that's going to be able to um withstand you know until he gets a title shot just because you're not seeing a long, you know, like film of him. You're just seeing that he punches really hard. He can knock anybody out. But maybe what's the quote? If Curtis Blades is able to lock in a double leg, you think we'll be able to find out more answers on Sergei.

And lastly, I wanted to ask you for this boxing fight between Ryan Garcia and Giovanni Davis. and no case he's going to be there but I wanted to know from you what do you think is going to happen in the fight? Do you think Garcia's going to get the knockout? Do you think Davis isn't get the knockout?

And what's your opinion on both these two putting their purses on the line? And lastly, do you think the Celtics go for the sweep and all they're facing, I think, Atlanta on Friday? All right, thanks, Mike. Yeah, I think the Celtics are going to sweep the Hawks. the Bruins were not fun to watch last night

I will say that they have not played well even the game one win they got out played they got out physical and Patrice Bergeron's skill set isn't

where it once was but his presence was missed in both of those games so hopefully he comes back in game three I do think the Bruins will get hot and I mean they've had some stinkers and then they would win 10 in a row. So I'm not really worried about it.

They did not play well at home. They're still able to escape with a win, so I'm okay with that. And it's not like you're just going to beat the brakes off the hawk, so it doesn't really matter. Imovov, the Curtis Emavah, look, Chris Curtis fights like every, I think the stat that Aaron Bronsetter put out was he fights every 83 days. So this is like right in the wheelhouse for Chris Curtis. He is a very active fighter. and I think it's

I think it's a fun fight I think it's a fun fight it's a good attempted bounce back fight for both guys and the UFC matchmakers are just like hey

if this guy fought Sean Strickland in one or lost let's just throw his teammate in there to be the next litmus test I don't know

so I mean Curtis's team and Eric Nixick and crew over at Extreme Coutour they prepared for Nasserdini Move Off already

wasn't like a long training camp, but I feel like Curtis is going to do a lot of the same things. You're just going to just approach Nassadine with volume, volume, volume. I think Nassadine's best trait is trying to get this fight to the ground, and Chris Curtis

is nearly impossible to take down. So I do think Chris Curtis is a very good chance to win this fight. Blades, Pavlovich, look, you're right. Pavlovich just has that death touch, but when he is preparing to fight guys like Derek Lewis and Tai Tituibasa, there is

zero fear of a takedown. None. Those are two guys you're going to go in there and you're just going to swing until somebody falls down. It's not going to happen with Curtis. Curtis has that takedown threat and as much as powerful and as skilled on the feet as Sergey Pavlovich is, it ain't nearly the skill set that Curtis Blades possesses with that wrestling and that grappling. because Pallich is not good off his back and I think if Curtis gets him down once, he's just going to elbow the crap out of him

until the fight ends. So I couldn't be wrong, but I feel pretty good about picking Curtis in this fight. I think Curtis is going to fight smart. This ain't Derek Lewis, this ain't Tai Tuvasa, who are not even to think about trying to take Sergei down. Curtis Blades is going to try to take this man down

as quickly as possible. At least that would be the smart thing to do. We have seen Curtis get God a couple of times, But it's all about Curtis. If he just goes in there and fights the way he's supposed to, he's going to win. But if he goes in there with a point to prove like, hey, I can stand with this dude. That's a terrible idea. That's a terrible idea.

Davis Garcia, I look at, like, it's such a close fight. Like, I think this is a, I think this is closer to a 50-50 fight than the odds indicate. Right now I'm looking at the odds. Jervante Davis is a pretty big favorite. Minus 245, Garcia, plus 190. Garcia is the longer, taller fighter. He uses his range really well, peppers with volume.

And Jervante is kind of a body shot murderer. He's really good at getting inside and getting to the body and landing powerful shots. Both guys have knockout power, but both guys have not even fought even close to the type of fighter they're going to face on Saturday. So there's a lot of questions here. I lean Ryan Garcia because I look at it for a betting perspective.

I'm not going to put a dime on it. But if you're giving me Ryan Garcia at plus 190 in a fight that I think is closer to 50-50, then I think the value's on him. But if Jervante went out there and knocked him out in like the seventh round, it wouldn't shock me. And if Ryan Garcia knocked out,

Javentine Davis, it wouldn't surprise me. Both these guys can frigging crack. It's a great fight. I'm very much looking forward to it. But I think the value is on Garcia here. At Desjardin Insurance, we put the care in taking care of business. your business to be exact.

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Yep, it's the most powerful iPhone ever, plus more peace of mind with your bill over five years. This is big. Get the new iPhone 17 Pro at Telus.com slash iPhone 17 Pro on select plans. Conditions and exclusions apply. Let's go to Sibiram. Hello, Sybaram. Siverram. Hi, Mike.

How are you doing? Hello. Yeah, how you're doing? Good. Yeah. I have three questions for you, Mike. You got any insider info or like a guess which are more like to be featured as a co-manent?

Is Belal versus Burns or Burns versus Dustin? Or is it going to be someone? And the second one is who you got on this weekend? Is it Plowicz or Katis? I mean, who you are going to support? And the problem is that I'm hearing that Volk is going to fight Islam again and in September in Dubai, Abu Dhabi. So what do you think about that?

Because I think Islam didn't really defend his belt on this lightweight division until now. So, and is Volk versus Sari's already agreed to fight, or is it in the talks? Or is it, or is it, or Volk is straight away going to fight Islam in Abu Dhabi in September or October? And what do you think about that? That's it. So I don't think Volk is fighting Islam in October. I don't think it makes any sense. Volker already has a fight. fighting Yaya Rodriguez.

It's all but done. Probably going to be the main event of International Fight Week, so I just don't know. And we don't know what's going on with Benny Daryush, and we don't know if that fight with Charles Olivera's going to happen. What Benil is saying is that he's planning in to fight Oliver June 10th. That's the fight that he was approached with. It's not done.

If it doesn't happen in June, if for some reason Oliver can't get there, the UFC said he was they promised him a title shot Dustin Porre is in play like I've been saying for a while but I don't know I don't think it's going to be Volk I don't think it's going to be Volk

the only way it could be Volk is I mean if that car just isn't great on paper but when they go to Abu Dhabi they usually bring absolute bangers there so I would say highly unlikely that Volk gets that fight unless it's a there's a fight on the books and there's an injury

and Volk steps in on short notice and takes the fight. But it's either going to be Darius Shapurier, in my opinion, and we'll see how it all plays out. So I don't think that's going to happen. I'm picking Curtis Blades to beat Sergey Pavlovich. And as far as 288 goes, I have no idea what they're going to do. Could be Burns Mohammed. Could be Paul Kosti Yanbovovich.

I don't know. I don't know. Everyone, this is kind of like this 288, main event spot, it's like the coaches for this upcoming season of the ultimate fighter. Every fighter on the roster is like, I was approached to be a coach on the ultimate fighter against this guy. And then it turned out it was Connor and Michael Chandler all along. So I kind of feel like this is a different sort of variation of that where everyone's like, I'll be the co-main event, but we don't know what's true and what isn't. So I bet by Saturday we'll know. They'll probably announce on the broadcast, but maybe we'll know sooner. I don't know.

I don't know what they're going to do. We'll see. Average avenues. Hello. Hello. How you doing? Good. What's up, ma'am? I've just got a really quick one for you. What do you think? What does a potential match up for the loser of this upcoming main event? That's all I've got. Everyone, have a good day. Take care of yourselves and peace. It's kind of tough to say, honestly. But my guess would be that the winner of this fight

will win the Jailton Almada sweepstakes after he probably beats Jarzini Rosenzsche. Because John and Steepa are going to fight at MSG. At least that's the plan, according to Dana and according to John Jones. I'm sure Steepa ain't going to complain too much about headlining MSG and potentially his final fight against frigging John Jones.

and honestly, I don't think either of those guys are going to fight Curtis Blades or Sergey Pavlovich. So I don't think either of these guys get the title fight unless John wins and walks away and just says, I'm done for now. And they vacate the belt. And then maybe you do Jailton Almeida versus the winner of this fight for the bacon title.

I don't know. And whoever loses, kind of tough to say, really. Probably taking a big step back. Let's go to Emilio. What's up, Emilio? What's up, Mike? Thanks for having me. How you doing?

Sure. Good. How are you? Great, great, because we've got a good, well, I was going to say good night of, good weekend of fights, but I'm mainly just pumped about the Ryan Garcia against Tank Davis fight. Boxing is truly back. But anyways, that's neither here nor there. My question for you this week would be regarding Daniel Zell Hoover.

from last weekend. I don't know, but I got the feeling that even though you guys talked about him a little bit in the post-fight show and whatnot, I felt like his performance wasn't really getting the credit that it deserves, you know, for a 23-year-old in the lightweight division

against a seasoned veteran like Landovanada. I don't know. I mean, I get it. Lando has had a tough stretch fights, but if you look at his record and especially who he's lost against, I don't know. I think that the sky's the limit for this guy,

for Zell Huber, that is. And yeah, I'm really excited what he can do. Because he looked good physically for a 23-year-old, you know. And lastly, my second question would be regarding Yasmin Khoregi, if you know anything about maybe her next potential fight. Thanks, Mike. Have a heck of a morning.

Yasmin, Yergi? Is that what you talking about? Yes, correct. Okay, okay. Not sure. Nothing that I've been told or have heard of, so we'll wait and see on that. But whoever it is, sign me the hell up. Because I will watch her fly like crazy. Zellieber, look, Zellieuver is a good win. It was a fine win. You can't ignore the fact that he got worked by Trey Ogden. Got worked. And it's tough to get that out of your mind. and he look, Lando's a good fighter, but clearly physically,

Cellhuber was the better fighter, the better athlete, he had all the intangibles, but Lando is just a tough son of a gun. At the end, I actually talked to Eric Nixick the other day because I want to get his thoughts on the Sterling Sehudo fight

since he works and does camps with Aljo. We talked about Daniel for a little bit, and basically Eric Nixick compared him to a Ferrari. He's like, oh, look at this. look at this great Ferrari that I just bought. But you don't want to take that Ferrari out and just drive 200 miles an hour right away. You want to kind of like work into that.

And they're learning that with a guy like Zelluber because he's young. He's super athletic. He's incredibly talented. But what they've learned working with him is that you have to keep things simple with a guy like that. You have to keep things simple. You can't overload him with too much information. And that's sort of what Eric felt happened in the Trey Ogden fight. They just gave him like too much information, throwing all these different scenarios at him,

all these different variations of fighting at him. And it just kind of threw him off a little bit. So this particular camp that kept things a little bit more simple. He said that Selyuber woke up that morning and said that he was going to F this dude up. And that's what led to Eric Nixick going in the corner and be like, hey, what did you tell me this morning? And he said, I said, I'm going to F this dude up. He goes, well, you better go up this guy up now because if you don't do it now,

you're going to lose his fight. And it was the right thing to say. The right thing to say, because Daniel went out and won the third round. So I'm very high on this kid. After talking to Eric Nixon, I'm a little higher on him. And I'm actually really fascinated

to see how he looks in his next fight because it's about harnessing when you have a guy that young and that talented, you just want to push this dude to the moon. Like, how can you not? That's why I liked the Ferrari comparison. You just want to take that thing out and show it off to the world and just drive it everywhere. But it's not an everyday driver.

It's like a Sunday cruiser. You got to slower down. You can't put 150,000 miles on that bad boy. You want to keep the mileage low. Yeah, take care of that thing. And I feel like they have something with this kid and just a matter of harnessing that talent in the right way. So I am fascinated to see where he goes from here. and what his progression is going to look like.

Patrick, hello. Hey, Mike. So we got back-to-back apex cards this weekend next week, and I'm seeing the news about four more apex cards scheduled. Is this just like something we're going to have to get used to as UFC fans, like 5, 10, up to like maybe 20 apex cards a year? Or like, do you think there's any possibility they'll finally get out of the apex in the near future? Thanks, Mike.

No, I don't think they're going to get out of the apex. I don't. They're varying away from it a little bit, but the problem is, if you go to these arenas, you have to bring something to the table. And let's be honest, the hardcore fans love a lot of these main events.

Some of them we don't love all that much. But even the main events we love, are they enough to fill an arena? Are there enough to sell tickets? And as Ariel has pointed out many times, there are certain areas of the country and of the world that will pay the UFC to come to their town

and the hope is you get paid back with ticket sales and all of that stuff. Is Curtis Blade Sergey Pavlovich going to fill an arena? Probably not. Is... What is this? Like, are some of the... These fights are going to fill big arenas?

I don't know. Like there's even talks about doing the Josh Emmett, Iliot-Teporia fight in Jacksonville pushing it back a week. But is that going to sell that place out? I don't know. Like, it's a great fight. Like, I'm into it. But are there enough people in Jacksonville, Florida?

They're like, ooh, I have to spend $100 to sit in the nosebleeds to watch Iliott-Tip fight Josh Emmett. I don't know. And that's a problem. That's tough. that's tough. So no, I think there are certain cards that are in certain main events that are going to be Apex cards. And as soon as they announced Blades v. Pavlovich, you knew right away it was going to be an Apex card.

You knew. I loved Armin Surukian versus Anato Maekano. Love that fight. But you can't take that fight on the road because you need to sell 15,000 tickets and that ain't going to do it. So it's tough. There is value to the Apex. The problem is there's just too many freaking cards and not enough star power to fill said cards. What does that say?

There's some fight rumors coming in. So, yeah, I don't think they're going anywhere. I don't think they're going anywhere. Let's go to Tom. Hey, Tom. Is me much. Payne seems adamant that she can prepare for the Southport style. if Nunes or let's the go of that again.

How can you realistically see this fight panning out in the rubber match? Probably the same as the second fight. The only hope that Giuliana Pena has, I think, in this fight, and look, she's a dog and she can take punishment. I've said this a million times. Her losing to Amanda Nunes, even though it was one-way traffic from start to finish, it was a compelling ass beating. It was about as entertaining

of a one-sided affair as you will ever see. Because Nunes just put the boots to her. And she was tough and she had moments. But in the end, I mean, this was one-way traffic. The hope is that Amanda Nunes is just like, fine, I'll fight her. And just is like not all that motivated. Because you could sort of see it in the timing of the first fight. It was perfect.

She got Nunes at the right time, which is kind of what led to Jedmishu to picking Giuliana Pena because if Nunes is going to lose, Pena sort of has the style that can cause problems. Just get right in her face, you take her best shots, you frustrate her a little bit

by not being able to get Pena out of there and then you go back and you do your thing. I don't think Pena's going to fall for that again, but maybe she just is like not interested in the fight and doesn't take it seriously, but at this point, I think she took so much away from losing to Pena that she's just not going to let that happen again.

So I just don't see a road where Pena wins this fight unless Nunez just doesn't care. And I don't think that's the case here. I don't think this is one of those things where lightning is going to strike twice. I think, honestly, I'm not saying it's a fluke. It wasn't a fluke,

but Pena caught Nunes at the right time, and I just don't know if that's going to happen again. There's a great win. Never take that away from Giuliana Pena, but I just don't think it happens again. I think we saw sort of the real fight play out the second time around. YVMZ, hello. YVMZ, are you there?

Okay. Let's go to Kovash. Kovash, are you there? You're muted, Kovash. Kovash. Hi, can you hear me? Yeah, I got you, man. How are you?

Good morning. Good morning, Mike. I add three questions for you, one boxing to MMA. The first one is regarding Haney versus Loma and Ryan versus Tink. I feel like boxing enthusiasts are definitely looking at Haney and Loma as the more impactful fight out of the two. But casual viewers are definitely more excited about Tank versus Garcia. I'm curious about how a guy like Haney, who kind of looks to be the future of boxing,

can bridge that gap and, like, get over to a casual fan, especially from an MMA viewer's perspective. And then regarding MMA stuff, Blades versus Pavlovich, Blades is so dang good. And in his recent outings, we've seen him box at a much higher level than we've seen him do in the past.

do you think his only route to victory is dragging Pavlovich to the ground and smashing elbows in his face? Or do you think that he can like functionally stand with him? And finally, Nate Landware, I think Nate is a train bringing the pain. But I don't think he's good enough to be a champion. Do you think that Landware can, you know, use his awesome ability on the mic and his really entertaining style to transition into like a chale sunning type career where he might never hit that top top mark but he'll be super popular and last for a long time or do you think that he's going to end up being a flash in a pan who's kind of exposed as not as good as his mic skills are thanks i appreciate

it thanks man so the boxing question's interesting i think you have a little bit of a point with the the Haney Loma fight getting a little bit more of the attention. I guess like, obviously not right now because you know, it's fight week for for Garcia and Davis and everyone's talking about it. I mean, we're there too. That's how great this fight is. But I guess for Haney, it's just going out there and put on a performance. And I think it's kind of on Loma too

to just go in there and they just beat the hell out of each other. And it's one of those things where you call a friend. Oh, you watch this boxing fight? Oh, go order it right now. They're just beating the hell out of each other. This Devin Haney kid's incredible. Loma is Loma. I think it's just one of those things where this is one of those fights that can sort of bridge that gap.

It just depends on how he performs. Now, if he goes out and just gets got by Loma, it's going to be tough to bridge that gap. But if he goes out there just has a fun fight and wins, I think he gets more attention. And I think this fight's going to get a lot of attention with the Garcia-Davis one because everybody's talking about it. People are intrigued by it. People are looking into these boxes a little bit more and looking into their resumes and watching film and watching old fights. And I think it's just sort of the build to everything helps too, the promotional tools that they can use to get this fight on people's radars.

Because this Davis Garcia fight, I mean, this is one that's been teased for so long. We didn't think we'd ever get it. And then finally we get it. And the build to it has been tremendous. And I think Haney Loma sort of needs to be the same way. but I think it's a little different because we were hankering for Tank Garcia for so long

and we almost gave up on it and now finally we're getting it. So yeah, I think it's just the whole build, the fight needs to deliver, all of that. As far as the Blades Pavich go fight goes, I'm more on the yes side that Blades needs to get this fight to the ground.

I mean, I think you just have to take the path of least resistance. If he gets Pavich to the ground, he's going to beat the hell. of him. Padavich is not good off of his back. And I don't think we're going to see the same Sergey in this fight. I don't think we're going to see the same guy who just

busts out the door and tries to kill Curtis Blades. This ain't Derek Lewis, St. Tai Tui Vasa, where there's zero threat of a takedown. He's got to worry about that now, and I'm sure his team is prepared for that. So I don't know if he's going to get shot like a rocket ship and try to get Curtis out of there in less than

a minute, because if he goes in there and just starts throwing bulls at Curtis, Curtis ain't going to really trade back with him. Maybe he'll throw a couple shots, but he's only going to use that to set up takedowns. So I think Curtis's best weapon, path of least resistance, take him down, and then just beat his ass on the ground.

I think that's the best way to do it. As far as Nate goes, I don't know, man. He's fighting Dan Igay. I think we're going to get a lot of questions answered. Dan's a great litmus test to see where you're at. David Onama's a good fighter. but it doesn't have a ton of UFC experience.

Took that fight on relatively short notice. If memory serves to correctly, it could be wrong about that, but that was a war. And then he got the Austin Lingo fight and just beat up Austin Lingo. Ege is going to be a good test. Ege is going to be a real good test.

And we'll see. If he goes out there and beats Dan Ege and gets on the mic on paper, that's probably going to be a main card fight, or it's going to be in a very good spot. where a lot of people are going to watch him, and he just says fun things, he's starting to get over.

So I think the UFC's giving him this fight for a reason. I signed him to a new four-fight deal, get him on this big pay-per-view fight with a guy who can go, who just loves getting bonuses. We'll see. If he wins, I think the UFC will probably push him a little bit. And if the UFC puts a spotlight on a certain guy that they want to push, they know how to matchmake for him for the most part.

So I guess we'll get the answer to that question more so on June 10th. But even if he loses Danige, I think they have something with Landware. And anytime his face and his name shows up on a fight poster, he would be like, yes, Nate Landware is fighting no matter what happened. So I think he's going to have a good career and be a fan favor for a long time, even if he loses fights. But as far as where he could be as a featherweight contender, It's a very deep division. There's a ton of talent here.

And if he can go out there and beat Danny Gay, certainly a big step in the right direction. Ontario, the weight is over. The gold standard of online casinos has arrived. Golden Nugget online casino is live. Bringing Vegas-style excitement and a world-class gaming experience right to your fingertips. Whether you're a seasoned player or just starting,

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Gambling problem call connects Ontario 1866-531-260-19 and over physically present in Ontario. Eligibility restrictions apply. See golden nuggettcasino.com for details. Please play responsibly. There we go, YvMZ. Hey, Mike. How's it going? I'm doing well.

Thanks for having me. Two questions here for you. I had a question on who do you got for Jared Gordon versus Bobby Green. I think Jared Gordon definitely has a lot to prove since his last fight with Patty. So I think that's going to be an interesting one. And my second question is, it seems like the Saudis are trying to make a big heavyweight boxing match out there. Who do you think in Ghana should fight? So he's not sidelined until 2024.

I'm seeing. Thanks so much. Well, I mean, I talked to Eric Nixick. He wants the Deonté Wilder fight. He wants the Deonté Wilder fight. So it seems like both sides are in on it. But now they're talking about maybe doing Wilder v. Joshua. I don't really have a lot of interest in that fight, honestly,

because I think I was not impressed with Anthony Joshua's last performance. I don't know. maybe. And then if that fight doesn't happen, if that fight ends up happening, Francis just needs to fight somebody. Like, just get on, like, does it really matter? Just get on a card.

There's so many of these, like, weird, wacky promotions out there that people seem to be really into. Just get in there and box. Just scratch that itch. Because you might not get these names that you're trying to get right now. Just get in there and scratch. catch that it, you can see, sort of see where you're at.

Go fight another, I don't know. I think he just needs to get in there and box. Just go box somebody. But we know how this boxing stuff works, man. We know how this boxing stuff works. Headlines come out and people get all excited and then like the complete opposite thing happens. It could be like a tool to negotiate with. other sides and I don't know.

But if they booked this fight for like the end of the year of this Wilder Joshua fight, then I think France just needs to go box somebody. Anybody. I don't care who it is. Just go box. Get on a misfits boxing card for Christ's sake. Who cares? People are going to watch it. People are going to cover it. People are going to be interested in it. And apparently they must have some money.

So go do that. Scratch that itch and then figure out the MMA thing. figure out the MMA thing. Because I think that's going to be the really interesting topic here, where he signs for MMA. Because it seems like, I don't know. I, maybe I'm crazy, but I truly think, I think France is going to come back to the UFC.

Now, we need John Jones to beat Steepay. But honestly, that is the only thing that's going to keep John active is if he gets the Francis fight. Because if he beats Steepay, he ain't fighting Curtis or Pavlov. He's probably not fighting Jailton Almeida or any of those guys. He's probably should be like, all right, peace, I'm done, until somebody really interesting comes along that gets to be fired up.

So if I'm John, I'm just, if I go out there and melt steep at MSG with the world watching, you get on that microphone and you call out Franciscan. And you make that fight happen. You say, Dana White, you want to keep me active? You want me to sell these pay-per-views for you? you go get Francis. I'll fight him. I'll give you one more.

I'll fight that guy. And even when I talked to Eric Nixick, I said, let's just play this scenario out. Let's say John Beech C. Be calls out Francis. He says, I'm not fighting anybody else. I'm only fighting Francis or I'm done. Do you think there's any chance

Francis would come back if the UFC came correct? I know some of the things that Francis wants. Francis already knew he wasn't going to be able to get all those things, but if for some way, reason, they can meet halfway on certain things, do you see a world where Francis comes back? And Eric is like myself, a forever optimist. He doesn't like to slam the door and lock up behind him. But he feels like if the UFC met him halfway and came with the right deal and it's the John fight, never say never. But if you want a box, just go box. doesn't seem like you're getting Tyson Fury or Joshua or Wilder at this moment, but who knows?

Maybe the Saudi thing falls through and one of these guys need to fight. I'm France. I'm trying to fight freaking Anthony Joshua. But we'll see. Stevie, hello. You know, Mike. Can you hear me? Yep.

Yo, man. Just two quick questions. I'm not sure if somebody asked you this already, but how do you see the Songya Dong and Ricky Simone fight playing out next week? who you got in that fight. And one more thing. Not really a question, but more of an observation. Yeah, I don't know.

I saw your tweet about, I forgot their name, but basically the ex-WU guy and knocking out the guy from Epic Mealtime. Yeah, that was kind of sad, to be honest. Because I remember watching that guy's videos back in high school. So, yeah, that's pretty much it for me.

Yes, John Morrison and John Hennigan. Going out there and just melting dudes in the boxing ring, influencer boxing, doing influencer boxing things. But he beat the hell out of that dude. He was on the MMA hour yesterday, pretty good interview, kind of tricked into fighting the epic mealtime guy. They're actually friends.

And Hennigan was saying that when they approached him with this fight, he said no, because he wants to fight somebody he doesn't know. And then the promotion was like, but he said he'd fight you. and he was like, he did? All right, fine, I'll fight him. And it turned out Harley never said that. And the promoters, like, tricked them into fighting each other, which is pretty funny.

But he beat his ass. He knocked him through the ropes. I thought the fight might have been done there, but then we got the brutal knockout in round two. And he called out KSI and Jake Paul, and he's probably not going to get either of those fights. But do you, bro. Do you?

Simone Songuedong is a great fight. Man, I'm so glad it's the main event. I favor Ricky Simone right now. I just think he's on one. And, yeah, I'll go Ricky Simone, but I ain't confident. I ain't fully confident in that fight. I think Ricky's just a freak athlete. He's just been in there with, I mean,

Song's been in there with some really good dudes too. Man, it's close. Right now, I'm looking at the best. betting lines. Ricky Simone minus 135, comeback on Song-Yadong plus 115. I think the value, at least right now, is probably on Song-e-dong,

because I think this, I mean, this is probably a pick-um. It's a good fight. I lean Ricky-Simome, but I'm not fully confident in that. I'm looking at some of these lines. It's pretty crazy. Sterling Sehudo,

full pick-em right now. Minus 110 on both sides. Mandatinez minus 625 against Juliana. Panemarano, Moreno, almost a two to one favorite against

Pantosia, which is pretty interesting. Volk minus 450 against Yayae Rodriguez. That fight rules. I can't wait for that fight. But yesterday I spoke with I spoke with Eric Nixon

about Sterling's side of the thing and some other things on Tuesday. Yesterday, I was scheduled to speak to Eddie Cha, one of the head coaches for Henry Sehudo, and I got a duo.

I ended up getting Eddie Cha and Captain Eric at the same time and even got a little cameo from Triple C himself. Triple C walked in, had a quick quip, and then he was out. I wish I had more time with Mr. Sehudo, but they set it up beautifully. So there's some really interesting. fights on the table right now. Brandon, hello. Brandon, are you there? Just got to unmute. Hey, Mikey.

Here you go. It's up, dude. How you done? Yeah, I got you. Good. I want to ask you about a cyborg. She recently posted on her Instagram. She was at a PFL event and then she posted saying big fight news coming soon. Is it possible she could be going to PFL and maybe fighting Kayla Harrison? Excuse me on the pay-per-view event. And is it the right time for the fight considering that Kayla?

just lost and to get into a check with a big question. Can you see maybe that fight happening at the end of the year? Thank you.

I don't know, man. Chris Cyborg has been blocked on Twitter for some reason. I have no idea why. I literally have never said a disparaging thing

about her. I certainly never tweeted a disparaging thing about her, but I think she's mad that we didn't like cover her last boxing fight

like to a full level but like you couldn't find the boxing fight like how you couldn't even really watch the friggin thing. So I don't know. I don't know what she's going to do. I mean, I don't really want to see your fight Kayla right now especially coming off the loss.

But if I'm the PFL, you only got Kayla through this year. And if you don't, if Kayla doesn't fight at all, the contract's still done. There's a, there's a time stamp on this contract. So if you're going to get Kayla in there

and you have this paper remodel, you have to milk that for what it's worth. So I kind of get it from a PFL perspective. If you can get Cyborg and put that fight together, sure. And then Kayla's going to be a free agent. Does she go back to Bellator? I don't know.

I don't know what she's going to do. I think those are two best options. I'd love to see the UFC be a wild card in all of this, but I would be kind of shocked. if that happened. Yeah, it could happen. I don't know. I don't really follow Chris a lot on social media

because I can't. She blocked me for whatever reason. But yeah, I could see it from the PFL's predictive. Let's try to squeeze any more juice out of the Kayla Harrison tree. And that's probably the biggest fight they could do right now. I know Pacheco would be interesting, but, I mean, Harrison Cyborg is going to do better for sure. I don't know.

I should just go back to Bellator. She's just easy money everywhere. No offense to the fighters, but she'd be heavily favored against literally everybody she fights. Toke. Hi, Mike. First time doing this from the car, so I hope you hear me okay. So earlier this year, I talked about going on a, let's say, a retirement or, you know,

toning down in time. And I just figured out, hey, I don't really have the cachet to do that. it was a very Henry Sehudo thing to do, and I want to apologize. But other than that, I want to talk a bit about, you've mentioned all the boxers, because we have had Joe Joyce fall through, we've had Anthony Joshua and talks, we've had all that. Listen, there's only, and I know this is an MMA podcast, but I'll just matchmake for the boxers, and then that's done, because we're going to do the,

De Montere-Wilder versus Engano. I think that's the right fight, both for Wilder and for Engano, because for Wilder, he needs to actually get a win that could get him to the fight that we know he wants. And Inganu has a puncher's chance against the puncher, which is Deonté Wilder. And then we put the two disappointing,

really bad heavyweight fighters who are just apparently at the top of the leaderboard, so to speak, we put Anthony Joshua against Joe Joyce, just end it. Like, I just don't get it. It's just, you know, just let them fight. It's none of them deserve to fight Tyson Fury at this point. Just let them fight and they can figure out who can actually stay and fight fights that go on paper views.

But that's it, Mike. Have a heck of a Thursday. I complete, you get my stamp of approval. You get my stamp approval. Like, why would, like, I just don't understand why Deonté Wilder would entertain any other idea, but fighting Francis and God, like, seriously. Why would you, like, that should be, like, your main focus. You're going to get a big bag of money to fight a guy with very little boxing experience. and if it promoted correctly,

much like McGregor versus Bayweather, if promoted correctly, you will give the casual audience a reason in some way to at least think that Francis Ghani could win this fight. Even though Deonté is probably going to just rinse him and he makes a big bag of money and he gets a win that people are going to be talking about.

I just don't understand why this is, This just seems so simple. It just seems so simple to me. And Francis wants it. I don't get it. It just seems so easy. But we say this about a lot of boxing fights or potential matchups, but I don't really care to see Wilder Joshua right now. I'm with you.

Joshua goes and beats Joyce and looks good doing it because Joshua did not look good in his last fight. He did not look good. He won, but he didn't look good. Yeah, do that. and then let Deante fight Francis and get a bag of money and probably an easy win. And Francis gets paid and then he can go back and return to MMA. I like where your head's at, Tocke. You may get some Otno points for this.

We will close up with Daniel. Daniel, hello. Hey, Mike. Happy Friday. I'm a good morning, too, man. I'll keep it quick. Happy Friday. Come on now.

It's Thursday. Thursday. I hope. Friday, Thursday. Man, it's 420 today. It feels like a Friday to me. Fair enough. Fair enough. I'll keep it quick for you. Give me the next just 12 months rundown of the flyweight division. I know we got a title fight coming up. Feels like Brandon Roy Val just kind of shot himself up there. We got Manel cop floating around. Just kind of curious who you think wins the title fight. What do you think is going to be the next one?

Just give me the rundown of what you think the next 12 months. The champ's going to look like. Thanks, Mike. Brandon Moreno is going to fight Pantosia. I will pick Brandon Moreno to exercise the demons, get the win. He'll probably fight Brandon Royval. Maybe at the end of the year, if not early next year. I would pick Brandon Moreno to win that fight again. And maybe Minal Cop comes along.

But my answer is, in 12 months, Brandon Moreno will still be the flyweight champion. I just like he's not he's just scratching the surface of his prime and I just feel like I mean it is going to be a tall order to beat this version of Brandon Moreno it's going to be a very tall order to beat this guy I think Pantosia stylistically could do it but I don't think he's going to I just think Moreno's on one right now I just think he's on one right now I just think he's on one And I think you can make a compelling case that Brandon Moreno is at worst, top seven, eight fighters on planet Earth right now. I am that high on him. I hope in the next 12 months the UFC turns him into a star. Like they really push him.

Really push him. I feel like they're trying. And I think Brandon's kind of gotten himself over in a lot of ways. But I think the UFC could do more with him. obviously getting to Mexico City and getting a car to Mexico would be huge but Brandon Moreno should be fighting

in Texas he should be fighting in Anaheim you've got to get him over like a star you got to keep doing what you're doing the Phoenix when he won the belts in Phoenix like that was a friggin moment there aren't many moments where I'm like man I wish I was there for that fight

because I'm happy like doing them doing obviously we're doing the watch parties now, but golly, when Brandon won the belt, and he tapped Figgy and that crowd just went ballistic for him. I was just like, damn, what a cool moment. Because I feel like in a lot of ways, like I'd been on this ride with Moreno. Because I was doing interviews with him, you know, during his first stint in the UFC, and then I was doing interviews with him when he was released from the UFC, and when he came back and when he had the draw with Figgy, like, I was doing interviews with Moreno, like, all the time.

I haven't talked to him in a minute. It hurts my heart a little bit. But Ariel gets that rub, and I approve of that. But I do miss the Brandon Moreno interviews. He's still my favorite in the sport. You give me one guy to talk to. It's him. He's just so delightful.

And he's a damn good fighter. But yeah, I think Brandon Moreno is going to be the champ in 12 months. regardless of who he fights. So that's it. So quick few announcements. One, BTL 12.30 p.m. Eastern, a little under 90 minutes from right now if you're in the Twitter space. It's going to be pretty much like this.

We're just going to do a Q&A or a little throwback to the A-side Live chat with Jose, former host of the show. And we'll have some fun. We'll answer your questions and just keep it nice and loose. It'll be a lot of fun. Tomorrow we back, we'll do this again. We'll have a preview show for the weekend festivities. 1 p.m. Eastern tomorrow, so you can join us for that.

There will be a Davis Garcia preview show as well. Not sure when that's going to launch, but I think it's being recorded later on this afternoon. Saturday, which is going to be insanity. AK and I will be back for the next one on Sunday, and then I'm going on vacay. going on vacay for about a week and a half so we'll try to figure out if we're going to do some spaces here maybe AK is going to step in and host them so we can get your questions

we'll figure it out I will show him the ropes I don't know if we're going to get podcasts out of it but we'll at least get something going and one more little piece of breaking news all of you I know I had fun last year right around this time

we did the MMA fighting 2022 MMA draft where we drafted rosters representing different organizations

I still I feel like I won the draft last year the people did not vote for me on paper but I feel like the way the year

played out I think I won the draft or as A.K. eloquently put it I lost the least in the draft. And like overall, by draft, I thought was pretty damn good.

Including Brandon Moreno, who I got like as a steal in round four. But what I'm trying to say is we're doing it again, baby. We're doing it again. Another draft. We already recorded it. So you're going to get a podcast. One promotion has been replaced.

If you can remember the 2022 draft. I think you can figure out which promotion is no longer part of the draft. Write up all that and I believe everything's going to drop on Sunday. So get excited for that. We have some new organization, same group of people, but now we're all repping different promotions. And this is a lot of fun.

This is a lot of fun. And I can't wait for you guys to check it out and hear it. And make sure you vote for me for having the best draft because I feel like I got some steals and some absolute savage value for my draft picks. And we extended it to seven draft picks per person this time. So it's going to be a lot of fun. AK with a thumbs down, AKA I won.

Even if I will say this, spoiler alert, I'm not going to tell you who it is, but AK had the draft, had the pick of the draft. He had the pick of the draft and he upset a lot of people with one of his draft picks. And I loved it so much. So stay tuned for that on Sunday. But back here tomorrow, 10 a.m. Easter,

we'll do it again. Have a great rest of your Thursday. Have a heck of a morning, everybody.