MMA Fighting - HOAM | Who Will Jon Jones Fight Next — Francis Ngannou Or Stipe Miocic?

Episode Date: August 5, 2022

Jon Jones has yet to book his UFC heavyweight debut, and while rumors continue to swirl that the promotion could book an interim title fight between Jones and Stipe Miocic, is the clock running out on putting that potential matchup together? On an all-new episode of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck gives his thoughts on the heavyweight division and if he sees Jones fighting Miocic next, or if the UFC will just wait and have Jones challenge Francis Ngannou for the undisputed title. In addition, topics include the crazy story of how MMA Fighting's interview with Jorge Masvidal came to be, what could headline the UFC's return to MSG in November, Bo Nickal competing on the Contender Series next week, if the UFC would do the Dustin Poirier vs. Michael Chandler showdown at welterweight, 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

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprise his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking,

What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original, The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer,

but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster, The Downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking,

what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now, only from Audible. The Vox Media Podcast Network. All right, everybody, it is Friday, August 5th, 2022, and it is indeed a heck of a morning

live on the Army Fighting Twitter Spaces. You'll hear the show in its entirety shortly thereafter. the M.A. Fulandcasting Network. Hope you're all having a great Friday. I am Mike Heck. I am having an interesting Friday. I had a very interesting Thursday. And you may have seen that on the M.A.

Fighting YouTube channel and on M.A.Fighting.com, a brand new interview with one Jorge Gamebred Mazvidal has dropped. I got to speak with him yesterday. In fact, I got to speak with him multiple times yesterday. and yesterday was just a whirlwind of a day. We, I'll talk about this later. I want to get to the peeps because this is a free for all Friday. We're just going to go to you guys.

I will do story time with Uncle Mike in a little bit. If someone in the next 15 or 20 minutes like, yeah, just tell the damn story, then I'll just tell the damn story. But if not, and you want to talk about other things, I'll tell it later. Because this is your show. It's the people show. This is the MMA equivalent of. your hometown sports talk radio show so let's go let's do the damn thing and then we'll save story time for a minute down the road let's go to Zach left to kick us off to get us started

what's up man what's up Mike how you doing this Friday of all as well um so I got a few quick ones for you um first contender series on Tuesday was fantastic and before the contender was started I was thinking about this in general is uh one of your favorites uh Danny Sabatelo a the one fighter that Dana White will regret signing over the first four or five seasons there was in the contender just his fight wasn't the most interesting on the show but he's proven definitely to be an interesting guy moving forward with Bellator a couple other quick ones I saw Mattis Nicolao has a fight against Matt Chanel potentially that guy was a resume since coming back the U.S. He's very underrated. He seems to be the least talked about

potential contender in that flywood division. I know his fights haven't been the most exciting but a guy that maybe we've got to watch out for if he picks up another win here. And then lastly, we have Charles Oliva, Islamakachev at U.S. 280. And my question is, we've been talking a lot about, you know, if Charles wins, he's probably a counterfight and everything like that. And that's probably a reason why he decided to go to Abu Dhabi. Is there also a chance, though, that maybe, you know, he's on this great winning streak and everything that if he does lose to Islam, that because of this great winning streak and

everything that, he maybe can get an immediate rematch, you know, in comparison, some other guys in title fights that maybe. we don't have the resume that he has that have gotten immediate rematches in the past uh thanks mike and i hope you have a great day thanks man so i'll address the contender series question yeah sabatello was interesting i mean the guy went out there in like 3024 his opponent on i i know one judge scored at 3024 i'm not sure of multiple judges scored at 3024 but dan he just went out there and danny sapatel at a guy on the contender series and it was as dominant of a win as you'll see on that show, that goes the distance.

And then Danny had a good promo after, and we've seen what he's become. So I don't know if, like, Dana regrets it right now. But I would say at some point, Dana's going to be like, ah, Dan, like he would have been a lot of fun to have, especially in this Banimate Division. Seeing Sabatella matched up with a lot of these guys

would just be really interesting to watch. I am super stoked to watch him fight Rafi on Stotz, though. I think that's a really interesting fight. I think a lot of people just feel like Sabatelos no chance to win that fight. I think he's got a great chance. I'm not taking anything away from Stats. But Sabatello, Sabatello's striking is a little bit better. It's improving.

It's not great. Stats is clearly the better striker. But Sabatelo's wrestling his top control. It's just unbelievable. And I don't think Leandro Higo is ready for that. And most people feel like, hey, he's, a one-trick pony and I could just prepare to not be taken

down. It's a whole different thing to prepare to not be taken down, but this guy can shoot from across the cage and find a way to get you on the mat. He just needs to grab a whole, like a knee an ankle, a hair on your leg. He will grab it, yank it, and get you to the ground. It's

just wild. And then once he gets you down, you're there for the rest of the round unless he makes a mistake, which he made in the ego fight, but other than that, he was just able to control a guy like ego was really good on the ground for 25 minutes, probably like 23 minutes, but I don't think Dana regrets it, but I think he's one of those guys in a couple of years, especially if he wins this Grand Prix, and he's got a good chance to do it with that style he has. It may not be

the most crowd-pleasing, but he's got a chance to do it. And if he wins the title, I think Bellator is going to be like, eh, I mean, Dana White's going to be like, oh, he would have been kind of a cool guy to have, but I don't think there's going to be any regerts or regrets or anything like that. Nikolaos Goodman. I think A.K., who's in there, here will agree with me. He's a dark horse.

He is the literal definition of a dark horse in this division. So he's definitely one to watch out for. The match in all fights should be a lot of fun. All flyaway fights are fun. I would be stunned if that fight goes to the distance. Probably will not. It should be a good one.

And then if Islam beats Olivera, I think Olivera would have to be the biggest Batush Gamrot fan on the face of the earth because I think if Gamrot won, I don't know, it's going to be tough. It's going to be tough. I think if Gamrot won and the fight between Oliver and Makachev is close, like if it goes in the distance, it's a close decision, especially if it's a split decision, if it's something

we're talking about, that it was a robbery or potential robbery. I think they'll go back to that. But if Islam wins, I think the frontrunner is going to be Volkovsky. I don't think Connor will be even in the discussion. if Mokachev wins. And then if Darius beats Gamrott, he kind of jumps ahead. So it's really murky. But if Oliver wins, I think we get the Conner fight.

If Islam wins, my money would be on the Volcanovsky fight. But we'll see what happens. This is a weird business. And that's how it works. Let's go to Stephen Ramirez. Stephen, are you there? Hey, how you doing, Mike? What's up, buddy?

So I got a couple of things It's between the lightweight and also the welterweight. So number one, we have obviously Oliver and Ra, Michael Chaff, they're going to, now Uncle Chale said, Wakanoski needs to be more vocal and I agree with Chelle

where he says that he should step in and be the backup fighter for that fallout so he could fight for the 155 belt. I think that would be a great option and just want to get your thoughts on that. Another thing, now you have Chandler versus Porreier officially announced. They never announced the weight class.

They both discussed going to Weltsway, 170. So is this officially going to be in the lightweight, or it will be very interesting if they bump it up to 170? Just want to check your thoughts. It's a good question. I would assume they're going to do it a 55, but, I mean, if they do it a 170, who cares, honestly. I would rather them do it at 170 because then we're going to get two guys at their best that didn't have to cut a ridiculous amount of weight. I'd be fine if they did it at 170.

Like, what's the difference? Brian Kelleher made a pandemic out of fighting a 145, just fighting Bannam weights at 145. Like he was sort of the flag bearer for doing that. And no one complained. No one was like, oh, we're going to take away Kelleher's win because it was at Featherweight. he beat Hunter Azure at Featherweight. So that doesn't count. It's a Bannam weight win. No. A lot of it was like,

we all considered it to be a freaking Bannumweight win. So I have no issue if they do it at 170. I would actually prefer it at 170. That would be pretty cool. Yeah, I would rather than do that. Who the hell cares? But that's how I would do it.

And then the Volcanowski thing, I just don't know if he can be the backup because he's hurt. He's got broken hands, his hands all jacked up. He said he's going to be out for 12 weeks. I assume he's going to be going to. to be like on the sidelines for 12 weeks. I don't think that means he's like out of fighting for 12 weeks.

Like he can come back and fight in 12 weeks. I doubt it. So maybe we see Volcanovsky at the end of the year. I don't think he will be the backup unless he is just a miracle healer. And if anybody could be a miracle healer, it's probably that guy. So I'm probably, and something tells me Darius is probably are kind of slotted it as the backup. Like if he's taking this fight with Matush Gamrod, I'm sure part of, the negotiations, I'm sure part of

Darryu saying, yeah, I'm in, is that he's the backup if something were to happen. So that'd be my guess. I don't think maybe Volcanowski will just be there in attendance, like, sitting in the crowd, but I don't think he's going to be focusing on cutting weight and preparing to fight either of those guys because he's hurt. Let's go to Toke. Hi, Toke.

My great guy tweeting. So this deal that you think was set in place. I know this was a theory of yours more than anything else. But that deal that Charles Oliver took for going to Abu Dhabi and defending against Dissamakchev might, if we are to believe Conner's tweets, which we are not. But, you know, if we believe him, then that deal falls off. So that leaves a quite odd situation where there's no, the most obvious one, if Charles Alvar wins, if the Vindioz Darius wins. But other than that, it's actually quite barren at the top.

So that leaves, kind of leaves Lokenowski open to get in there. I just wanted to hear if that's what you think will happen early 2023. And then the Dustin Porrier versus Jambl matchup, is that another MSG non-title main event? Or are we actually getting a title on the top of that card, do you think? Thanks, man. Yeah. Connor is saying he's retired.

It's like me saying I'm going to go get coffee at Dunkin' Donuts. It happens every day. It happens all the time. And it's something to be expected when we wake up in the morning. That's basically how it should be. And then he unretired like an hour later. M.M.A. was fun. And then he became Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Terminator like an hour.

later. So I don't think he's out of play at all. I just think this is Connor being Connor. This is sort of, I mean, he's made a career off of this and a whole bunch of money of why isn't anybody talking about me right now. So I'll give him something to talk about. I'll say I'm retiring. And then I'll unretire after they talk about me. So maybe they talk about me some more. Like they probably saw, he probably saw the video of John Jones, like training bare knuckle with Brennan Gibson, I believe it, was and saw the reaction I was getting. He was like, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, no, no, no, no. Do you know who I am? And here we are talking about it right now. So I don't

think it changes anything. We'll see. The only thing that the only thing that could hold it up in some way is if Connor doesn't fight again. Let's just say like that leg is not healing as as quickly as we think. And he can't fight to like May or June. That will probably get Volcanowski to the top of the list, if we're being honest, but I still think of Oliver wins, Connor's going to get the fight. I think it's just kind of the scratch your back, you scratch ours kind of thing.

And I don't think Chandler or Porre will headline MSG. And we don't even, by the way, we don't even know if it's happening in MSG yet. There's, you've seen the reports. I know we have talked about this as well. I talked about this on the show on Tuesday or yesterday. I think it was yesterday.

The fight has been agreed. agreed upon. We don't know if it's three rounds yet. We don't know if it's five rounds yet. I know Porier wants five rounds. We haven't really heard from Chandler in that aspect. I would doubt Chandler's going to say no to five rounds. We don't know if this is happening at MSG.

I know the UFC wants it at MSG. It's just a matter of do both fighters want it in November. I know one fighter wants it in December. One fighter wants it in November. I think they'll find a way to make it work either way, but it will not be the main event if it's at MSG. I don't know. There will be probably two title fights on that card.

And like I've been saying for a while, I think Izzy Pereiro will probably be the main event. We'll do maybe Yuri Glover 2 is the co-main event. They're Chandler, Porre in there, five-rounder is the featured bout. And just we'll have some fun. Let's have some fun fights. There are Shane Burgos on that card.

And just make sure Shane Burgos fights before Michael Chandler. because he kind of got the big fat hose job. Back in November, when him and Billy Que just get like no, they're like the Rodney Dangerfields of that card, like getting no damn respect because they had to follow Justin Gagie Michael Chandler, which is just not,

it's like an impossible position to be in. And they go back and watch that fight on its own. If you're bored at all over the next few days, go back and watch Shane Burgos Billy Q from UFC 28. Go watch it. Just by itself. Not after watching Gachi

Chandler, just watch it by itself. And you're like, damn, this fight was way better than I thought it was. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo? Great idea.

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comics ontario.ca. Unwrap holiday magic at Holt Renfrew with gifts that say I know you. From festive and cozy fashion to Lux Beauty and Fragrantz sets, our special selection has something for every style and price point. Visit our Holtz holiday shop and store or online at Holtrenfrew.com. Let's go to Justin. Justin, how are you there? Hey, good morning, Mike.

How are you doing? I'm doing great. I'm doing great. I just paid $4.80 for a gallon of gas in San Diego, and that is a very happy day for me because that's the lowest I've seen in a long time. And that brings me to the next point. Next week's card in San Diego is so weak. What is up with that? I feel like this is probably the weakest card since home, Caitlin Vienna. It might even be weaker than that. So that's kind of disappointing, so I'm not even going to eat pizza and hang out on my couch. spend whatever money and parking. So that's point one.

Point two, I got to call out you and the MMA fighting staff a little bit. Because I've been thinking about your pound-for-pound rankings, and it reminded me of a video that I'm sure most of us saw of Francis Munganu and Charles Olivera, and Francis Nganoo says, Imagine me with his jujitsu. And that just really got me thinking. I'm thinking that there's no way, a heavyweight should be in the top 10 of the pound for pound.

because everyone below them is so much more skilled. And if Charles could put on 100 pounds of muscle and height, he would kill Francis. So how can you justify having two heavy weights in the pound-for-pound top ten? All right. Yeah, I mean, look, pound for pound is stupid.

I think we can all agree on this. Pound for pound is dumb. It's all due to interpretation. It's all due to different things and factors and skill sets. And I will say this. Like, one of the things I don't think about is like if Volcanowski put on 100 pounds, would he beat Francis Agano? Because, yeah, I think he would.

But we don't think about that. And let's just think about Francis for a second. Just to play your game a little bit. Just to play the game, okay? Francis Ngano fought a guy who everyone thought was way more skilled. Not just on the feet, but if the fight went to the ground, the guy, everyone thought Zero Gone was just got a kind of style on Francis. Like the only chance Francis had to beat Cyril Ghan,

who is highly skilled, super well-rounded, a little green, but very well-rounded, pretty solid skill set top to bottom, terrible matchup for Ngano. A guy who knew Inganu, trained with Ingunu, that was the whole story. We're setting Francis up to be slayed by the dragon slayer named Cyril Ghan.

And what happened? France and Gano on one damn leg. dug deep and wrestled and beat that guy. So maybe Francis is better than we all think he is. And he was able to do that on one freaking knee, which is pretty freaking incredible. So, yeah, pound for pound is just dumb. It's a game of inches.

I think, like, you look at the top five, top six, you sort of mix and match any of those fighters. I'm trying to, like, I'll pull mine up real quick because I have to, I always have to go back or by myself. Like Volcanovsky to me, I just think skill for skill, what he does, the last couple of performances this guy has put on. To me, what Volcanovsky has done this year is clear that he's the best guy in the world. Those two title defenses were outstanding. Perfect games.

I mean, just perfect games. So I have Volcanovsky, Usman, Adasanya, Francis, Charles Oliver. That's who I have right now. Now, again, if Oliver goes on and beats Islam, by the way, if Oliver goes out and beats Islam, he might be number one. He might be number one. Who the hell knows? This thing changes so quickly. Most of us have either Volkovsky or Usman.

Jed has already talked about it. He's got Adisania. We have one of the panelists who has Adasania. And Jed's reasoning for Adasani makes a lot of sense, too. He's like the one guy who has people talk about cleaning out divisions. Adasania is like the one guy who outside of fighting Pereira because he's sort of new, Adasani's like beat almost everybody in the top ten at some point. I think the only two he has is Pereira and Sean Strickland.

Other than that, he's beating everybody, some twice. So he like legit is cleaned out his divisions. So I get that. I get that. To me, I can't put him number one because he, I can't ignore the Yamblohovich fight. I just can't. because for a while, like, pound probably was like,

well, what if this guy fought up at a different weight class, how would he do? And Adasani, he went up to 205, and he lost. Like, we can't reward him

because if he had beat Yon, he's everybody's number one because he's the two division champion. He went up to 205 and got to win. Like, people would, he would be the unanimous number one. So we would reward him for going up to 205 and winning,

but we would not reward, but we don't decline him at all because he lost. So to me, happy to put him number three, happy to put him out of sunny in my top five, but I'm not, I can't ignore the Jan Blahovic loss. I just can't.

And Ingano should be in the top five. The dudes have been bolting people. It's not just because he's a big, huge guy. Dude, what a run this guy has been on. He's just knocking everybody out. This run is incredible. Look at what he's done since the Derek Lewis fight. He deserves to be in that top five.

Let's go to Beal. He's been waiting for. for a minute. We'll get to everybody. Don't you worry. Bill, how are you? Oh, hey, Mike. What's up? So talking about the featherweight division a little bit. So Yair came out and said that he does not want to fight Emmett for the number one contenders, you know, thing.

So that kind of throws everything off, I feel like, at featherweight. And there's a lot of good fighters there. like we got uh Arnold Allen and Calvin Cater I think Calvin Cater called out Arnold Island and I think that would be a great matchup and then the the winner of that I think should fight Max um and then also we got Eveolev and Bryce Mitchell and I think that would be a good matchup because Eveolev has called out both Arnold Allen and Bryce Mitchell and uh yeah there's just a lot of good talent there at featherweight and I love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks, Mike. Have a heck of a morning. Thanks, man. I love the featherweight division. It is a great division. It is like low-key, very, very deep. I like a lot of your suggestions. And I've said many times, like, if you listen to on to the next one,

AKA, you know I've mentioned this a million times. Arnold Allen, or Calvin Cater versus Arnold Allen has been a fight that the UFC has been targeting for a long time. After Cater lost to Holloway, Cater is ready to come back. like in the fall, like September, October, November, December. And that was the fed that everybody wanted.

The UFC offered that fight to both guys. Cater obviously accepted it. And there were many fight night cards from October to maybe December where Calvin Cater versus Arnold Allen was the main event the UFC wanted. And it was offered to both guys. However, Cater was ready to go. Allen had the hand injury, so it just didn't happen. They got to the point where, because this is a big thing too, because Kater got the

Giga-Chiccaze fight. And it was initially reported. I forget who initially reported it, but it was one of those things where it was like way too premature because there was still hope that Arnold Allen would be the guy to fight Calvacator. That's the fight everybody wanted. That's the direction to everybody wanted to go. So when it was reported that Giga was going to fight Cater,

I reached out to multiple people and they were like, no, that's not true at all. That's not what's happening here. We have plans to maybe fight this guy. So it's an option, but it's not what's happening, if that makes sense. And then they found out as time went on, Alan was going to be able to fight in January. This was kind of the best thing up. Cater loved the matchup with Giga. he went in there and did what he had to do.

So it's been Arnold Allen for Team Cater for well over a year now. That fight makes perfect sense. I think Allen would take that fight in a heartbeat. I love that matchup. I think I would be stunned if that's not the direction we go. And if the UFC does go to Boston at some point, especially if it happens in the first quarter of 2023, if it's a fight night, that's a great main event.

Calvin Cater versus Arnold Allen. you put Rob Font in the co-main event against one of these up-and-coming Bannamweight studs. Sick. Super sick. I love it, Vloyaf, great fighter. He's going to be a problem. That guy's a bad dude. Bryce Mitchell's good, too.

I don't know if they pair those guys up just yet because you get two solid guys, two solid hands. Maybe they do. And then we got, you can't forget about Iliate to Poria, everybody. That guy is a monster as well. Of course, he's slotted into fight Edson Barbosa. October, which I think Toporia could do very well in that fight. And it's just a good banger of a

matchup anyway. So, yeah, featherweight's a lot of fun right now. It's a lot of fun. All right. Tristan, that will go to William, and then we'll go to FAB, they'll go to James. We're going to get to everybody today. Don't you worry. Maybe we'll get to Tristan. Because that wheel is spinning.

I don't know why. Are you there, Tristan? Yeah, yeah. Do we have you? There we go. I got you. I got you. Hey, I want to talk about yesterday's episode of, um, damn, um, the episode, Damn, they were good on Rhonda Rousey. Um, you know, and I heard everybody's opinion. And, you know, I really think New York Rick said it correctly.

The thing about Ronda was the humanility part. That was the tough part to take that she wasn't able to have that humanity throughout her career. You know, there was, I remember. I remember leading up to the Holly Home fight where she was calling Holly Home fake and all this other stuff where everybody knew. I remember everybody in the media and everybody was looking at each other like, no, no, Hull Home is a really nice person. Like, you know, where is this coming from? And I think I guess she was just feeding the ego and things of that nature. And I'm just like, that was the tough part. I think, and then that's why I think a lot of people just really dumped on Rhonda. And that, but from hindsight, doing the reflection. We do, I do,

you know, have to give a little bit slack for her, but I think she does have to take some accountability at some point.

And we really, she hasn't really been transparent from the interviews I've read, really, really transparent, really, really reflective and really let people know, hey, you know, maybe I should have been this

or a little bit much better with this and better with that. And I think, I think people appreciate when you, when you, like people love the bravado and people, People love, you know, rallying a fight up and very confident and prodacious, things of that nature.

That's all going to go to the sell the fight. But at the same time, show some of me a little bit of humility because I think that really goes a long way with people. It resonates with people a lot that everybody has their highs and everybody has their lows, but it's all about how you come back from that. And then like George St. Pierre, you know, after losing the match, sir, the first time, one of the things he had said that you learned from that, he learned humility. And then not only that, he said, never put anybody on the pedestal and underestimate no one. And even we're looking, even I'm looking here with Hamzaa Shemai versus Neh Diaz.

Like, Hamzat needs to be careful here because you're underestimating Nate Dias, man. Do not underestimate that man. That man almost knocked out Leon Edwards and he was getting beat the whole entire fight and he comes about and comes back. He could have, like, Nate J.S. could have won that fight. If he would have not pointed at Leon, and just came and just followed with a couple of shots, the fight would have been over, Nadea, and this is a different story.

So, you know, that's the thing about Ronda is I do have some sympathy because, as well, you know, what was surrounding her, the people, like, I think Nick also said that, I think New Yorkerick was saying that, I think her mom never really sat down with Ronda and say, what if you lose? You know, how are you going to handle that? And she just couldn't handle that,

where I think she was really on, like, I'm invincible. I'm going to leave the sport undefeated and nothing's never going to lose and not realizing like, no, you can't lose. You can't lose. It's possible. You know, but no one was sitting there telling that. And when she did lose to Holly only, it was like

the end of the world. And like, no one was saying like, Rhonda, it's okay. It's okay to lose. Yes, you've lost in the biggest stage. We understand that. But it's okay. You could come back from this. And obviously, fighting Amanda Nunes didn't do her new favors. If I was, I would have took two years off,

really, you know, build myself back up. Try to also like, with the media, I didn't like how she treated the media at that point of time, too, of, let me be better with them. Let me, you know, have my mind clear and maybe not fight Amanda Nunes, but fight somebody else just to build my confidence back up. And she could have came back from this,

and the story would have been even great because you came back from a devastating loss. So these were certain things. that I thought about reflecting around this career. Like, she was great. It was unbelievable. It was exciting how she was beating these people. But at some point, you know, I just, I guess the eagle was too much.

And listen, I'm not saying it was all over for, obviously, there was, you know, the pressures and, you know, having the mental health of trying to deal with that, you know, it's a lot. I'm not going to say, it's a lot. If I was in that position, I don't know if I would handle that well either. But I just, the humility part, that resonated. with me what New York Rick was saying throughout the whole episode. You know, and, you know, that's my thoughts about Rhonda. I think Rhonda obviously impacted the sport, and I give us so much credit.

I just wish the humility was there and not underestimating no one, you know, like GSP said, man. And I think she would have been better for it, you know, so. Thanks, Mike. Thanks, buddy. Yeah, it was a, it was a good little journey we got to take going back in watching the career of Rhonda Rousey. And she just doesn't.

doesn't get enough credit. Just the way that it ended and, you know, sort of the ego and how she handled everything and how, you know, she's kind of a sore loser. Let's be honest. She was kind of a tough loser. Just kind of a sort of loser. And that's okay. Like I, there's a lot of, like, I hate to lose too.

If I lose a softball game, I am an angry son of a bitch. I'm pissed. So I get it. Like, I don't have the world on my shoulder. We have like seven people who come to our softball games. You know what I mean? So, yeah, man. it just doesn't get enough credit

and without Ronda Rousey we're not like we're not watching the UFC on ESPN we're not we're not we weren't watching them on Fox I mean well let me have them for Fox but we weren't the UFC isn't where they are today without Rhonda that's 100%

the truth and just going through her run just amazing there were certain things we didn't get to see we didn't get to see the Chris Cyborg fight we didn't get to see a lot of other things and I just it's just a fun episode I'm not going to go through all of it but go listen to it it's fun it's a good uh if you get like an hour drive it's a good like back and forth kind of

a show to listen to it's me jed New York Rick AK um we just talked about my rushmore fights and the ups the downs the good the bad and just the importance of who she was and how much of like a legit pioneer she was uh for the company and for the sports and and for women in general in sports. Let's go to James. Hey, morning, Mike. What's up, buddy? Morning.

Hey, I think we did get the Chris Seibord and Rhonda Rousey fight. It was just Amanda Nunes instead of Chris Seibord. I think that's how that fight would have went. But I saw something yesterday, and I know you guys didn't report on it, so if you guys didn't report on it, it's probably not true. And I probably got fooled by the Internet again, but I saw that they're targeting Jorge and Gilbert Burns to headline UFC 281 and then have Chandler and Porre as the co-min event.

And also, are you a hard taco kind of guy or a soft taco kind of guy? Like always, Mike, thank you for what you do. Have a heck of a morning and a heck of a weekend. Thank you. Thanks, Mike. So I like both. I think I'm probably more of it. I'm getting old.

Soft tacos is probably the way to go. I like both. We eat tacos once a week in the heck household. My kid loves them. He's a very picky eater. And if we can find something filling with some protein that he likes to eat, we're going to eat the damn thing. And he likes both.

I like both. Let's go. Big taco fan. Big taco fan. Yes. What you said was true. There's no truth to this whole Mazadol Guba Burns. thing. In fact, you can hear it for yourself because I talked to Jorge Mazadol yesterday in person

in Savannah, Georgia. And I'll tell you the story right now because we mentioned Mazdaal. So Mazadol in his team, they are out here in Savannah, Georgia. I'm in South Carolina. It's like a 25 to 30 minute drive to where I'm at to Savannah. And Savannah friggin rules. It is a cool-ass city. It's a little hipster. It's cool. It's cool. stuff everywhere. The downtown is just amazing. You can walk around all the time. It's very, very cool. So they did, so obviously Icon FC is Mazadal's MMA promotion. They're doing an event in Savannah tonight. And I'm going to go to that and check it out. And I'm excited for it. But they had their way-ins yesterday. And they had it at the Army Airfield in Savannah, which is really

cool. Right on base, soldiers are all in there for the way-ins. It was just super cool. And Mazdaal super appreciative of it. And at the end of the whole thing, like, I mean, it was probably 100 to 150 soldiers all lined up to take pictures with Mazadal. Mazadol took pictures. Everybody shook all their hands, thanked them all, signed pictures, gave tickets. Like, it was just super cool to watch. So in between the way-ins and that moment when all the soldiers lined up, I was able to get about eight minutes with Maas. at all. And we did a good interview. It was cool. We reacted to the wayans, previewed the card a little bit, and, you know, talked about Gilbert. We talked about Connor. We talked about Hamzada and Nate. We talked about a bunch of stuff. So I was pumped. I was like, I'm so glad I came out here. We were doing like virtual high fives in the NBA Fighting Slack channel. I'm like, I got some time at Mazadol. They were all pumped. I was pumped. And it was good interview. So I go and I go to import settings.

interview and I pull it up. I'm listening to it for 60 seconds or so. I mean, we're just, we're going. We're getting after it. And then all of a sudden they hear and I was like, what the frig is that? And then I look at the interview and I look at the audio levels. My XLR cable from my microphone just shit the bed. Burnt out, gone. So basically, of the nine or so in an interview I got Moss I got 60 seconds of audio because my XLR decided, you know, it wouldn't be a great time to die is when you're interviewing one of the biggest stars on the sport, face to face in person. I wanted to throw up. I was furious. It was like I got punched in the stomach.

And I'm looking around and I'm like, shit, what do I do? So Mazadol's long gone. His team's long gone. Icon people are long gone. And I'm freaking out. So I shoot a message over to Mazadal's manager, the wonderful Abe Kawa, and I tell him what happened. His response is, wow. And I'm like, any chance they can get a do-over.

And he's like, we're staying here. Like, no promises, but, you know, this is where we're staying. So I'm like, okay. So at this time, it's like 640. And there's a best buy that's like 10, that's like 12 minutes away from. where I'm at. So I rush over to Best Buy, get there at like 6.54. And I run in, I'm like, do you have any XLRs or microphones? Like, do you have anything? And they're like, no. I'm like, shit. Is there any place around here that has them? They're like, there's a music store

that's like a half a mile away, but they close at seven. And I'm like, what's it called? And they tell me what it's called. And I get on the phone and I call them up. And I'm like, can you please not close because I'm coming over there. I'm like a half mile away. And they're like, well, get here as fast you can. So I map it out. and I have to go down a very busy street and make a U-turn to go back. So basically I had to drive like a mile out of the way, then bang a U-turn to go back. And I get to the music store. I pull into the parking lot at $6.59.

By the time I open my car door to sprint to the front door, they have the key in the lock on the other side, getting ready to lock it. I'm like, no! And I sprint there. I'm like, please don't close, please. And they let me in. The guy was very helpful. I believe the store is called Patterson's. And I walk in, they test out the microphone.

They're like, is it the microphone? Isn't the cable? We find out it's the cable. I buy a new cable for like $16 or $17. And I get out of there. So then I'm texting back and forth with Basdala's manager. They're like, we're going to try to go to dinner or something. We'll try to get it in at some point today.

And I'm like, in my mind, I'm like, I am not going home without this interview because I won't be able to sleep. I'll be pissed. So I go over to the hotel. And I see Mazadol and Abe and some of the team for ICON, they're playing Cornhole, they're hanging out, all the stuff. And I'm like, I'm not going to bother them right now. So I just went in the lobby. There's like a little tiny like cafe in there. So I went in, grabbed a cup of coffee.

It grabbed like a small little salad. And I'm just sitting there just waiting for this to happen. So then I get a text from Abe and he's like, we're going to go to this Thai restaurant. You should come meet us. I was like, okay, so I hop in my car, I go, sit down, eat a little bit of food. We go to the place. I order a meal. And it's hilarious that, like, nobody at our table.

Because we had, like, there's like 19 people there. So it was like two full tables. The table I was sitting at, none of us got our meals, but the other table all got their meals. So we had appetizers. It was cool. And I'm just sitting there. I'm like, I don't even know if this interview is going to happen. Mazadol, like, walked in probably like 15 minutes before the place is about to close.

And then all of a sudden, I got a tap on the shoulder. And it's like, okay, let's do the interview now. I'm like, sweet. So I run sprint down to the parking garage, and I grab my tripod, and I run back to the restaurant. And by the time I walked back into the restaurant, they have kicked us all out. We were closing out with you, be gone. And I'm like, son of a bitch, now what do I do? And truth be told, the whole group was going on a ghost, like a ghost tour in Savannah.

which started at like 11 p.m. So right at this point, it's like 10.46. It's like probably a four to five minute walk. And I'm like, please just give me some time. They're like, where do you want to do it? I'm like, I don't care. It looks like there's some light over there. So I run across the street where there's like a little bit of light

in the middle of downtown Savannah on a sidewalk, bunch of people looking at us. It's hockey season and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get a nice rank on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice? Yes, we deliver those. Goaltenders, no.

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Explore the new Peloton Cross-Training tread plus at OnePeloton.ca. Like, we're just an idiot. Like, I f*** the street at like 11 o'clock at night. And people are just like, what the hell is going on here? but we got through it. Mazadol was a pro. I mean, I have, I've always had a lot of respect for those guys, but the fact that he was willing to give me that opportunity for a do-over,

and I thought that this interview actually turned out better. This is just fun and funny at certain points, and I just thought that was really cool. That was the first time I'd ever, I've ever had the chance to interview Mazadal, first time I've ever met him face-to-face. and it was a long-ass day and it made it worth it and it was just cool to I mean literally like that's all I had so like there's certain points of the video interview that pissed me off because it like we moved around a little bit Mazadol took some steps forward and like got a little blurry at times I'm sorry for that but I literally was like you have to set this thing up now and hit record and go like right now right the second or else you're not going to get this so that's what happened we got it done kudos to those guys and um I'll never forget that.

So there's my crazy story. There's my crazy day. I got to do two interviews with Mazadol, and one you got to see. And the second one took place about seven hours after the first one. In the middle of the damn street, in the middle of Savannah, Georgia,

in the downtown area, with random people walking back and forth. It was wild. So there's my Mazadol story. Go check out that interview right now, M.A Fighting YouTube channel, or you could read some of the stuff at MAFighting.com.

Good stuff. And make sure, by the way, way, before we get to you, William, make sure you check out the icon FC card tonight on FightPass. It's actually going to be a really good one. There's a lot of good prospects on the card, so it should be fun. William, how are you? Good, Mr. Mike. How are you? I'm good. All right. So first and foremost, before I ask you these questions, or question, I noticed your best friend, AK Lewis in the chat, so I don't want to be rude. Happy birthday, AK. second of all the questions I have for you are more

MMA fighting on SBN related than MMA fighting in general Okay First and foremost, the content you guys put out amazing There's not a whole lot that I do miss Obviously people get busy sometimes you miss a show here or there But the one thing I noticed What happened to timeline? What happened to timeline? That was one of my favorite series that you guys did leading into the paper views

clearly there's a lot of work that goes into it but I did notice that that was no longer being produced so first and foremost what happened to timeline and then the second question I have is E. Casey Leiden is he as cool in person as he is on the internet thanks man I love to have an answer I asked that question myself I just think there's just a lot of time like Esther obviously the iconic voice of Esther Lynn voices those over. And she's very busy right now. She's back on the grind. She's doing a lot of voiceover work.

She's done some very big things. She's back on the camera, on the photo grind as well, doing a lot of boxing events, doing a lot of pro wrestling events. So she's busy. She's got a lot going on. And those things take a lot of time

to put together and voice properly. So I think there's something to do with that, perhaps. I don't know. I miss it too. It's just a lot of work. And I get it. I don't know. I love it.

It was great stuff. One other thing, and I'll get back to the other part in a second. But one other thing, because I mentioned the Mazadol thing, the whole thing with him and Burns, this is not true. And Mazadol even says in the interview, like, I don't know when I'm coming back. I get to deal with this legal stuff. I got felonies from this Colby Covington thing. So he honestly has no idea when he's going to be able to fight. So anything involving a Mazadol fight right now?

that is being reported or rumored or dates or anything like that, ignore them, there's no true to it whatsoever. None. None. It's wrong. And as I say, no matter what you see, where you hear, where you hear it or whatever, if you don't see it on MAAfighting.com, then it's not 100%. It's just not.

Like, we're not going to report anything unless we have multiple sources, both sides, all that stuff. Now, I'm not saying anybody is wrong. but we are not going to write it or put it on our website until we confirm it 100%. Is Casey as cool in person as he is online? Yes. Another fun story involving, I mean, it doesn't really directly involve Mazadal, but Mazadol was the main event of this card.

I went, before I covered the Jacksonville pay-per-view in April, the most recent card that I covered was, was UFC 244, free MMA fighting at MSG in New York. And I got out there Friday, because I drove out there from Massachusetts, left my house at 3.30 in the morning to drive out to make it to Wayans, made it in time, went to Wayans, we went to the ceremonial stuff, which also had the freaking rock there, which I geeked out so freaking hard for. Rock's music hits, comes out onto the stage before the way-ins,

and tells the world that they're going to do a picture, they're going to do a movie about Mark Kerr in the smashing machine. So the freaking rock came out. I was like, oh, my God, this is crazy. So, you know, 14, 15-year-old Mike was just losing his mind right there. So got that. Then we had a press conference between Usman and Covington, which was just insane.

And then we had the, the ceremonial way-ins for Diaz and Mazadol and the rocks there and all that stuff. So as that's happening, right after that, this is the time when Darren Till was fighting Calvin Gasolam. And throughout the week, there was talks about, I don't even know if Darren Till can make it to New York in time. So there was all this stuff about, will Darren make it, will he be able to fight Kelvin? Because he missed the media day. He missed, I think there was a press conference on Thursday. He missed all of that.

But he showed up Friday, I think like late Thursday night, weighed in Friday, and then he did, without us. We found out at the end, he did like a Q&A with the media, like in the middle of the Hulu theater. It was just us and Darren Till. So I had my camera. I had a tripod and I set it all up. And one of the security guards from MSG just walks over my camera and knocks my tripod to the ground. Now, luckily, I caught the camera, but he knocked the tripod over. and it like snapped a leg and I was pissed

and I was like what the frig dude I didn't say that I said something more and he was like oh I'm sorry but you know sorry it was an accident didn't give a shit so now I'm like now what the hell am I gonna do so I go to the card on Saturday like I think I talked to Jose yeah I went to lunch with Jose on Saturday before the card and Jose reached out to Casey and was like do you have an extra tripod and Casey actually like showed up to MSG

we waited in line and he just handed me a tripod. I'd never like met him in person. The only time I ever, the only time I ever, like, ran into him or ever spoke with him was at UFC 220 in Boston. I was backstage. It was the first time I was covering like a pay-per-view for like a major website and was like backstage asking questions.

And before one of the scrums started, I like just jumped out and asked a question in case he like yelled at me for, he's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Yeah, wait until everybody like is ready. to go here. Relax. And I'm like, you're right? I apologize. But yes, Casey is actually cooler. He's actually cooler in person that he is

online. He's super cool online. Casey's the man, incredible teammate, and it's just a phenomenal phenomenal talents. He's the best in the game with the video stuff, with the production stuff. He's the best. Let's go to Brian. We got deep into story time here.

Brian, how are you? Mike, how you doing? Two questions here. One, I wanted to touch on Dana White's Contender Series, of course, because last week's was insane. However, I think this is like my favorite Dana White Contender series coming up ever, because Bo Nichols in the main event coming up Tuesday, best wrestler and maybe college history.

So do you think he's a type of guy that's really ready for that step or do you think they're going to try to slow play him? Not in the same situation, but how they kind of put Hardy on there twice and some like new guys that are newer to MMA, they kind of get on there twice. And then my second question was, do you think they're going to do anything to 279? I mean,

I know Connor cards have been bad, like Cowboys in the past, but you at least had Holly Holm and Anthony Pettus on the main card. This 279 card is awful. I love Jolten Almeda, but that's not going to be enough for a casual. So thanks, Mike.

Hope you have a good weekend. Thanks, buddy. Yeah, I don't know, man. I think, like I've been saying, they should probably throw another welterweight fight, in there. It would have been a great spot for Poria Chandler, but I mean, I get it. Chandler, Chandler's still a little banged up from the Ferguson fight and all the kicks he through and stuff like that. So that would have been a little too soon for him, it appears. But just like, honestly,

just do Wonderboy versus, throw Wonderboy Kevin Holland on that card. That should be the, throw those two guys in a co-main event, let those two guys have that spot. That's a fun fight. That's a fun an ass fight. They're just going to stand there and they get kick each other. And it's going to be fun. Like the stylistic matchup is really interesting. Now, if Holland gets it to the ground, things might get a little hairy, but I just don't know if that's what happens here. So I think that'd be like a fine spot because let's just say, let's just say one of those guys can't show. Like you can throw Holland in there. Wonderboys is beloved by most. You have something there. If you have to do Diaz versus Holland's main event,

like people are still going to watch it. Shemaya versus Holland or Shemaya versus I don't want to see Shemaya versus Wonderboy. That's probably the one fight I don't want to see. But still, like at least you have something in place, some sort of backup, some sort of incentive if something falls apart. Because if you lose that main event, you are effed and you're screwed. If you lose both those guys, you probably cancel the whole card. Or it's going to become like just a ESPN fight night.

card of some kind. You probably need something else. I would go that route. It's safe. You got two guys who are very popular. And if one of those others fall out, you can slide one of them in. Not ideal,

but at least it's something. I would go that route, but I honestly have no clue what they're going to do. I don't know what they're going to do. We'll see. Let's go to Torino. Trino, what's up?

Hey, what's up? How you doing? Good, my man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the question I have on my mind today is about my Nigerian brother, you know, and I want to ask this very pointedly. So, you know, the fight is coming up between Camaro Osman and Edwards. I know Camaro has been extremely dominant, and it's really hard to look past him, you know, in a lot of fights. And I also see that even going into the Edward fight, the conversation is really about,

How is he going to beat him? Not really what Edwards is going to do. So I think my question really is, do you see a threat there? Because I go into every fight with Camaro thinking that, you know, this is going to be, he's going to win this. I think the only one that I was a bit worried about was probably Coventing to, but I don't know why, but it's just a bit worried about that. But into the Edwards fight, I just have a weird feeling about this. I don't know what's, I don't know the feeling, but it's just weird. So I just wanted to get your take on it

And also do you think this What do you think happens after? Like I was also just thinking about it today Like if Camaro beats Edward and it's super dominant What happens after? Like literally has gone He's done the division twice Like what really happens with him?

Does he really do 205? Do you think that's really going to happen The whole 205 talk? I know he definitely doesn't want to do the middleweight and of course My brother Israel is busy right now with Pereira So yeah That world's a weight top

It's just a bit blurry right now. So what do you think? Thanks, man. Yeah, I mean, it would be such an MMA thing to happen if Leon beat Kamaro after all of this. It would just be a slap in the face to everybody who doubted Leon. It'd be pretty cool.

It'd be pretty interesting to see. Having said that, I think Kamar is going to win. I don't think he's going to finish Leon Edwards. I think he's going to go out and just kind of do what Kamar does. it's going to look somewhat similar to the first fight. I can see Usman winning like a 49-46 decision, a lot of wrestling, a lot of ground stuff. I just think he's, I just think Usman's better than him pretty much everywhere.

So I just think Leon's a good fighter, but I think Usman's going to go out there and just win a decision. And on to the next. And that next person, should he be successful September 10th, is Hamasat Shamaev. Like, that is the biggest fight that Uspin could get right now. Like, Ousband versus Shabaiap is bigger than Uspin going to 205 and fighting anybody. That is a huge fight.

That's one of the big money fights the UFC can make right now, which is why, and it could have been even bigger, which is why I was the man, the advocate, the man waving the flag of, what are we doing here? Let's just do Shemaiah versus Edwards for the interim title. everybody wins, and then the fight with Usman becomes even bigger. Like, we could be looking forward to Shamiyav versus Edwards, or versus Usman on this Salt Lake City card.

Or we could be looking at Edwards versus Usen, but Edwards coming off a win over Shemayev, it just would have been way bigger. But now we just have to take some more steps to get there. So, yeah, I think Usen beats Edwards, and if he does, and Shemaya does what many people feel he's going to do against Nate, there's your fight and it's a big ass fight let's go to milo are you there oh yes i am hey mike it's a heck of a morning are you it is good man yeah you know i think in terms of

the bonico you know they they will probably you know slow roll him you know his obvious talent i'm not sure how he's uh wrestling actually is going to translate at the higher level um you know on the UFC scene, you know, but maybe they will give him easier, like, you know, they will try to build him slowly. Maybe I think in this case, like somebody like Huiazong could be good, maybe if he does 185, obviously he has three-fight losing skit,

but you need to, you know, obviously give him a winnable opponent. I'm actually more curious to see if possible just a grappling match between him and Mahachev. You know, I've been actually advocating for that for a while and I have a sneaky suspicion that I think Machachev is going to submit him because I don't think he's maybe a better

wrestler than Bonniko but I think just in a pure grappling match, you know, inside the cage, I think Machachev is going to submit him easily. That's kind of my take on that. I think in terms of Camaro, what's going to happen with Kamaro

once he, if he beats Edwards, I think he's going to vacate the title because I think I don't think he actually wants to fight. What's his name? Kamzachimaev at this point. So I think he's going to vacate the title and try to move up. So that's my prediction there. Thanks for letting me speak and have a heck of a morning.

Take care. Thanks, man. Yeah, my apologies. But not reacting to the Boeh-Nichol thing. Of course, Boe is fighting on the Contender Series next one. week. Bo is just a super talented dude. He's ridiculous. This guy has this guy has grappled Gordon Ryan in like his first ever grappling match. Like that's insane. 26 not even near his athletic prime. All of his fights have been finished really quickly. I was at the actual like during fight week because I had a red eye that left Sunday night into Monday morning after fight week. So I went to the grappling event on Sunday and Bo Nicol was part of Mazel squad. and he grappled Oliver Taza,

who has got a ton of experience, and it's really good. And you could tell Bo was like a little green in some ways, but Bo was like with him. They went to a draw. So like even in the grappling department, like, Bo was obviously the better wrestler,

but in terms of just like submission grappling, going the distance with Oliver Taza like that was super impressive. Like he got in some trouble, got out of positions, had some offensive. of his own. Like, I think this guy's going to be a problem. And his striking is really good for a guy who only has, like, three, three fights,

like three actual MMA fights, two AMI and one pro. So I hope they slow roll him again, and I've talked about this before. I kind of wish, like, they would do more developmental deals. Like, they did it with Hardy. They did it with William Knight. I mean, Bo could just go out there. Bo could just be just a natural killer and he might just be like the best fighter ever.

I mean, I'm not saying that's what I think is going to happen, but maybe it is. Maybe he's just the most naturally gifted fighter we've ever seen. That's the case, like sign him to a UFC contract and do the damn thing. But I would not hurt my feelings at all. Bo goes out there, gets a win, and they're just like, we're going to keep him on the developmental deal.

Let him fight for ICON, let him fight for Mazadol's promotion, let him go and fight some of these other guys in other promotions, just get a little more seasoning, a little more experience. And then like when he's 5 and 0, 6 and 0, you can just bring him right into the UFC. I mean, if you want to throw him back on another contender series card

to get some viewership, sure, go ahead. But, you know, I'd like to see him 5 and 0, 6 and 0 before he makes his UFC debut. Like, this is a guy you got to, not handle with kid gloves, but this is a guy like you don't want to rush too fast. Because I mean, I really think you'd really think going to be the real deal.

But you just don't be crazy. Don't be crazy. And if Usman doesn't invite Shamiya, I'm like, what are we doing here? What are we doing here? It's funny sometimes. And I'm not blaming Usen. Like, Ousman's got to be a little bit bored right now at 170.

He's just lapping everybody and fighting everybody multiple times. And now Shamiov's on this way up. But you can't have it both ways. You can't say, It's a legacy thing. I'm bored. I want to go to 205. But then also say, I want to go box Canelo.

Like, what the hell are you talking about? What? You can't say that because it's a big payday. The biggest money fight he can get right now is with Hamzaa Shamiyev. That is the fight. If Shemayev goes out there and puts the boots in Nate Diaz and Ousman beats Edwards, like that is far and away the biggest fight you can make. buy a lot.

Like I'm talking like by 300,000 pay-per-view buys probably. What are we doing here? You can't have a bold, like you can't just be like, oh, my legacy's important. But I want to go box Canelo for a floppy billion dollars. You can't have both. You could beat Shamiya and then go to 205. Or if you lose to Shemayev, guess what?

You get an immediate rematch. And that's going to be even bigger. So the most amount of money he can make right now fighting in the UFC is fighting. Shemayev. So there you go. I mean, 205,

like that's just, the whole thing's just wild to me. But then you actually see him face to face with like Janboovic and you're like, damn,

this is big. He's almost as big as Jani Blako is. So I think Shamiya, I think he'll end up taking the Shemai if he goes out there and beats him, like after beating Gilwood Burns,

like you can't say, well, you're going to go beat somebody in the top five because you did. You did. and wasn't the prettiest thing and he didn't go run him over

but he won. He won and I mean he got to throw him in a title fight at this point just makes too much sense. All right emperor. How are you, sir? Howdy, good morning, Mike. Thank you so much again for having me on. Just put it a, so I had a question,

but I did want to tail off you there with the potential of Usman either, you know, going up in a weight class or going to boxing. You know, Ouzman was training, you know, with Gilbert Burns before the Tremaya fight. right, you know, trying to prepare him for that, that individual fight. And it's one of those feelings, right? Like, if, if Usman does, you know, go up a wake class or does go to boxing, it's

almost that feeling that he's simply just ducking Chimayev, right? I mean, like you said, that is the money fight. That's what all the people want to see. And I think everyone in this chat can agree that that's probably the toughest test for Usman, you know, with his throne. But the question I had for you, Mike, you know, obviously with the Porier-Chandler fight just announced for UFC 281, still a lot of, like, I'm a lot of, like, I'm a lot of, I don't know if speculation is the word, but, you know, a curiousness of what really is going to be that main event.

Of course, you have like the year Pajaska fight with Glover on the table, obviously John Jones, but who knows if he'll be ready for that fight. And, you know, I was curious to ask, or even the Izzy Paheda fight. You know, I was curious to ask you maybe what your thoughts are and what you think would be a good slot for that for that main card there at MSG in November. Thanks, Ed. Yeah, I think they're going to go Izzy Pereira to main events. Jan versus Gover to co-main event. Or not Yon, Yuri versus Glover to co-main event. Like, that makes perfect sense.

Cool story. Pereira and Glover fighting on the same card together, fighting for titles. Like, that's a cool little story. Is he headlining in MSG? Yeri fighting at MSG. I mean, that's super cool. And then, you know, if Porre Chandler is for that card, that's a big deal. like those two fights, Porre Channler, especially if it's a five-rounder, you don't need a whole lot to add to that.

But if you want to throw Patty and Molly on there too, you can do that. I mean, I thought Ariel actually laid it out pretty solid on the MMA hour. But I understand where Patty and Molly are coming from as well. There's a lot of taxes. It ain't cheap to fight New York. It's cool to fight at the Mecca and say you fought a Master's Square Guard in the world's most famous arena, the rich lineage and the history that building provides. But history don't pay bills.

And history sometimes affects your bank accounts. And there's a lot of taxes, a lot of extra fees to fight in New York when Patty and Molly can go to Vegas and get on that December card. So we'll see. We'll see what they do. But if you do Izzy Pereira,

if you do Yuri Glover 2, if you do Porre Chandler, you don't need a whole hell of a lot after that you don't they'll build it they'll put some some fun guys on there and we'll see but those three i mean those three fights by themselves do great you have to expect burgos is going to fight somebody on that card and who doesn't want to watch shame burgos fight so there's a lot you could do but those three if you put those three fights on there and just throw a couple other you know interesting matchups 1.85 maybe throw Sean Strickland in there against somebody or who knows.

I mean, Strickland is he on the same press conference. I'm sure the UFC would go back to that well in a heartbeat. And then the John Jones thing, like, again, like, and I could be wrong. I have no insights this whatsoever, but this is what I'm feeling. So I'm feeling deep down on my stomach. We're not going to see John Jones versus Depe. I don't think we're going to see it. If we were going to see it, I think we would have heard about it by now.

I know people have been talking about it. I think this thing would have been on the books already. I could be totally wrong. But I also understand where the UFC is coming from here because both of these guys have said, we want to fight in September. September works, let's do it. And it wasn't booked.

Now we're getting D.S. Shamiya as the main event, which is fine. It's totally fine to be the main event. Now, yes? Hold on. Rowan's here. Rowan's here? Okay, give me a minute. Thanks, buddy.

live radio folks the youngster cut comes in um anyways yeah the longer this takes the more i feel like the ufc is going to wait for francis because the goal of all of this the ultimate goal is to get to francis versus john jones now if we needed to wait extra time because francis didn't heal up the contract thing so forth and so on then you could pull the trigger on jones steepa it's a very big deal. But I think the fact that we're still waiting, it seems like conversation between Francis's team and the UFC are going pretty well. I feel like they're going to find a happy medium somewhere. I think Francis will end up resigning. And if Francis can come back December or January, then why risk it on Joan Steepa when you could just wait another couple of months and just get

the fight you want in the freaking first place? Sucks for Stepe, but we all know what the goal is. We know what the top rung of the latter is. Francis and Ghanu, John Jones. And I think they'll just wait for it because, I mean, it's August already. But that would suck for Stepe, but

I think that's what we're looking at right now. Rips and picks, and then we'll go to Todd and then we're going to get out of here. Rips, how are you? What's up? Mike, doing well. Thanks, thanks having me on. I'll keep it short just like I always do. I know that we just brought up Dustin and Porreier going up against each other. Man, I'm not a big person to bring Connor McGregor into the conversation,

but I was actually at the Arizona card when Michael Chandler had that great knockout over Tony Ferguson, called out McGregor and everything. I mean, probably the call out of the year. I mean, where do you think McGregor falls in this line now that we got Diaz, Chimae, probably, you know, Diaz's last fight on the card. Now it's looking like we're going to have Chandler, Porier. I mean, do you even see McGregor fighting soon at all? It's a good question.

I don't know. Because we just don't know when, like, he's physically getting able to fight again. You know what I mean? We just don't know. Like, we don't know when the leg's going to heal up. And with Connor, you never know. He'll be like, oh, I'm going to fight in April. I'll be back in six months.

I'll be back in eight months. I'll be back in a year. I'll definitely be fighting in 2022. And that's looking super unlikely right now. From all accounts, like, people I've talked to over the last few months, like, maybe March or April is, like, positive. like maybe first, early second quarter of 2022. I mean, that was a gnarly injury.

That man suffered. So, I mean, obviously he's been hitting the weights a little bit. It's been putting a little muscle. So he's just trying to get stronger while he waits this comeback. So, I mean, I don't know. He's got options, though. He's freaking Connor McGregor. So to me, if he is going to come back to first quarter, 2022,

if Charles Olivera beats Islamakachev in October, I really think that's what the UFC's going to do. They're going to book that fight. Makes no sense, but they're going to go ahead and do it anyways and try to get a box office out of it. Nate will be gone, but who knows? Maybe cooler heads will prevail and they bring him back. And then Chandler and Poria, like, either,

no matter what happens there, Chandler wins or loses, Porier wins or loses, you can go back to either. You can go to that. There's Justin Gaichie who might be fighting Fiziv. next. At least that's what I would like to see. Gagey can fight you. I mean, there's so many ways you can go with this. Mazadol is very interested in that fight as well. I don't know. He's got plenty of options. There's many big fights that he could have.

But I think honestly, if Charles Oliver beats his on O'Akechoff, that's going to be the first choice for the UFC. Give Connor that fight. Give Charles that rub. He deserves it. But he's got lots of options and lots of potential big fights. Todd, send us home, my man. Just make sure you unmute. I apologize. I don't know if I'm talking about it or not. I just joined from a meeting.

But do you actually think Sean O'Malley has a chance when it comes to, you know, competing with Peter Yan? I like the question. We have not talked about this. This is a free for all Friday. We talk about everything here. And if we're really honest with ourselves, all the shows are like this. We just talk about everything anyways.

I think Sean O'Malley does have a chance to win this fight. There's a couple of different factors for that. One, the dog wants to get involved in the show. One, the range of Sean O'Malley is a very dangerous thing. Two, Sean is a, or Piotr is kind of a slow starter, but not in like the Donald Soroti sense. He's a slower start. Pioter's a slower starter in terms of,

all right, I need to take this first round to complete, pile information, land shots of my own, but I'm still trying to, like, figure out movements, what you're trying to do, maybe figure out your game plan, and all that. And when Piarihan fights somebody who stays at range and tries to kickbox with him, he either, like, he either hangs in there for like a really close round or you might lose the first round. So to me, like, for Sean O'Malley just being in this position right now, and I know from a stylistic perspective because of the range and how tall he is and how long he can be and how

range he can be and like i know that there is a path to victory there however at least the way i look at this shana malley's best chance to win is just to do what pantosia did on saturday like we're not going to wait around we're not going to circle around each other and have a kickboxing match no shot um mali needs to get shot out of a friggin cannon and get right in peyoteurion's face and hit this man with everything he has. Just unload the tank in that first round. Make Piotar super uncomfortable. Keep him guessing. And one of the two things is going to happen. One, you're going to win the round or two, you're going to win the fight. You're just going to overwhelm him. Now, I'm not saying this strategy is going to lead to guaranteed victory, but what it will lead to is that his stock

rises either way. If he goes out there and lights Peyodor Yan up in that first round, makes him really uncomfortable and then hangs with Yan for the next 10 minutes and it's a close decision loss, his stock rises 100%. It rises. And if he beats Piotr, holy shit. Like, that's gigantic. Gigantic. The sky's the limit. Bank account's going to get fatter. Like, he's good to go. But if he goes out there, like, if he's just competitive in this fight. Now, if he goes out there and just tries to play kickboxing and have a range striking match with Peyote Young. Like, Piota's going to figure that out eventually. He's going to take him down. He's going to smush him.

And that's not good. Like, that's not good. And that doesn't do much for Sean Stock. So just go out there and make this a fun-ass fight. Just make it a fun fight. Win or lose, your stock's going to rise. That's the way I look at it. But I think, John, in multiple ways, is a chance. I'm leaning Piotr-Yan. But if we see Sean O'Malley come out and panted, with the Pantosia game plan that I'm not going to let you get going at all. I'm not going to make you comfortable.

Jump Street. It'll get real interesting. And that would be a fun ass fight. And this has been a fun show, everybody. Thank you very much. I appreciate you listening to the stories. I appreciate all the questions about MMA and beyond. Again, go check up my chat with Gamebred Jorge Mazda.

Apparently, Hamzaa Shamiyaf has chimed in about some of Mazdaal's thoughts about Mr. Shabaya. So yeah, go check that stuff out. Thank you for listening. We're going to have a preview show for UFC Vegas 59. I almost forgot that card's happening because it's a card. Because, oh, I meant to say someone was like, the UFC San Diego card is one of the worst cards.

This one, this one tomorrow's not. I'm going to watch it. I'm going to watch it. But it's not spectacular. Let's just be honest. The co-main event rules. And the main event has potential to be not terrible. But Tiago Santos has just not been all that exciting to watch as of late.

And he's just got this inane ability to not be in fun fights with really exciting guys. And maybe that's a credit to him. But you give me a whole bunch of Vicente Lucay versus Jeff Neal. I'm all excited about that. So we will have a preview show talking about that. I believe it's a 2.30 Eastern on the YouTube

channel, so stay tuned. We'll have people's pre-fight show tomorrow. We'll have all your post-fight stuff as well. We'll have on to the next one on Sunday. So, and I'm going to be heading out to check out some MMA today. I'm going to go to the ICON FC4 card. I'm very excited to just,

you know, cover and just watch and take in more of a regional feeling kind of an MMA event. It's been a long time since I've been able to do that. And I'm very excited for it. So have a great Friday. Have a great weekend. And as always, everybody, have a heck of a morning.

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