MMA Fighting - HOAM | Will Alex Pereira Be the Guy To Dethrone Israel Adesanya?

Episode Date: July 7, 2022

With all signs pointing towards a middleweight title fight between Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira, will the history between the two lead to a changing of the guard in the UFC's 185-pound division? On an all-new episode of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck gives his thoughts on what seems to be the next matchup for Adesanya and what factors would be in play. In addition, listener topics include the aftermath of the UFC 276 fight between Pedro Munhoz and Sean O'Malley, Jimmy Flick expected to return to the UFC, how Adesanya's current run compares to Khabib Nurmagomedov, the UFC Vegas 58 main event between Rafael dos Anjos and Rafael Fiziev, the status of welterweight Daniel Rodriguez, Josh Emmett and Urijah Faber's gripe with the UFC, 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 Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever.

Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster, the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now only from Audible. The Vox Media Podcast Network.

Well, hello there, everybody. It is Thursday, July 7th, 2022, and it is indeed a heck of a morning live here on the MMA fighting Twitter spaces. thereafter on the MMA fighting podcasting network. Hope you're all having a lovely Thursday. I am Mike Heck. Thanks for joining us once again. There was a lot to discuss. We are still dealing with the aftermath,

the hangover, if you will, from UFC 276 this past Saturday in Las Vegas. Israel Adasani and Chris Pratt getting after it a little bit. Seems like cooler heads have prevailed there. Darren Till, no longer fighting at UFC London. Chris Curtis stepping in to fight Jack Hermanson. John Jones getting after it with Adisanya, with Inganu.

Connor McGregor's tweeting about everything and everybody. There's just so much going on. We have unretirements. We have UFC Vegas 58 coming up this Saturday. There's just a lot going on. A lot going on. So if you missed it yesterday, I mean, you probably watched the MMA hour, everything going on. You heard from Pedro Munoz.

You heard from a number of the tastemakers from that card. And one thing you may not have found out about last night is Jimmy Flick is coming back. How about that? Just an extremely short retirement. He retired in April of last year. And now it is July, oh, 15 months later. later and Jimmy Flick is coming back. He is coming back.

UFC know that he is returning, that he's reentering the USADA testing pool. The man's coming back to fight. And I'm going to get more information on that in about two hours from right now. I'm going to be speaking to Mr. Jimmy Flick to get his thoughts about everything, what led to the decision to come back.

Just a wild thing. But he's coming back. So the flyweight division gets a little bit of a boost. And you know what? I'm just going to stop yapping. I mean, I'm not going to stop altogether, but I'm going to stop sort of leading the dance. I'm going to let you guys lead the dance. So if you guys have questions, anything you want to talk about, request.

Let's get after this thing and kick things off with Don. Don, how are you doing? Hey, Mike. How you doing, buddy, man? I hope you're doing well. Glad to hear you sound way more rejuvenated than the last time. But it makes sense, though. You had a lot going on.

But so a couple things. Man, I'm gutted that Darren Till is not fighting on the London card. I felt like the stars was aligning perfectly. You're in London. It would have been a tough fight regardless. But I felt like he just needed that win, man. But I'm still excited that, I mean, Chris Curtis, what? What?

Like, how do you feel about that? And, like, are you, did your excitement level go up more because of that? And also, man, just the quick, I don't know how often, you know, how you can cuss on this darn out, but that stuff that Charlotte O'Malley did with Pedro Mewness is goofy, man. It's no different than Kobe dapping up Usman in the octagon. They'd be like, oh, man, he, I'm, what? That man is trash. Like, you know what I mean?

It's like, I get it in terms of, like, selling the fight and stuff. But, like, bro, if you're not, if you're not 100% going to just rematch that guy off of it, then don't talk anymore about, like, like a similar thing. When Leon poked below in the eye, like, granted, you know what I mean? We wanted him to take the rematch some of us, but he was just like, no, I don't want to take a rematch. See, I'd rather you pick a stance. Like, if you're Sean, I know Sean's like kind of on the fence. He's like, oh, I kind of want it back.

But like, oh, this shit about saying you stopped them and, like, being like, oh, you know, you're in the octagon being like, oh, my bad, bro. But then you out in the media being like, nah, man, that dude, he, like, come on, man, that shit is goofy, man. I don't know what your take is on that. And the last thing I wanted to say is Israel, man, before when that stuff happened, I was like a lot of people, I was like, man, only because he hyped it up so much so that he was going to, you know. But then I got to thinking about it like Floyd, you know, a lot of people who don't like Floyd. Floyd sold his fight easy just by saying one thing. I'm not going to lose.

So I felt like if Izzy, granted, don't have to do anything. He can't. He can do whatever he wants. He can say whatever he wants, you know what I mean, per se, when it comes to fights. But I think, what do you think about is he like selling themselves like Floyd being like, look, man, I do what I want. If you can't stop it, you can't stop it. You know what I'm saying? But, hey, man, appreciate you doing this show as always, man.

Too sweet day, heck of a morning, all that, man, for life. You all right now. Thank you, Don. A lot to unpack there. One, I'll start with the first thing. Yes, it definitely stinks that Darren Till is not fighting UFC London. I think he was probably, even though it wasn't the main event. I think he was probably the one that we were the most curious about

to see how he would perform, how it would all play out, if he was sort of rejuvenated. And unfortunately, it looks like if you check out his Twitter page, some sort of a knee injury, trying to get some more information. But that's basically all we have right now is just that quick video of just blood and, or whatever being taken from his knee.

So it's unfortunate. However, Chris Curtis steps in, and I spoke with Chris last week on Radio Row, and the man was fired up. And it makes a little bit more sense because I wanted the Chris Curtis Nassardine-imov fight, and they matched up Imovov with Joaquin Buckley for that Paris card. And I was like, this, I was like, okay, sure, but like this is Chris Curtis's fight.

That's a Chris Curtis fight all day. And now it makes more sense because now Chris Curtis gets, It's Jack Hermanson, and it's actually a little bit of a bigger deal. It's in London. It's a top 10 guy. And I love the fight. And a lot of people, if you check out social media, a lot of people from, I guess, an entertainment perspective, from a stylistic perspective,

they actually prefer this fight over the Darren Till fight. I don't know from like an intrigue perspective. I don't necessarily agree with that. But Chris Curtis absolutely deserves that opportunity. the man's going to get it, so good on him. With the Sean O'Malley thing, I don't know. You have to kind of ask him about it.

I'd love to get his thoughts. I know we basically just got the sort of immediate aftermath of everything when he did his post-fight scrum. And I think he was just a little bit down in the dumps about it. I don't know. I think he hasn't handled it all that great, but he's kind of planned. planting seeds for whatever could be next.

I'm curious what the UFC is going to do with this. Are they just going to rebook it or are they going to move on from it? I don't know. I don't know what they're going to do. There's a part of me that just like for for Pedro's sake, yeah, rebook it, give him the opportunity. It's not really his fault, right? But on the same token, I'm kind of intrigued about a Sean O'Malley Henry Sehudo fight. just because I want to see Henry fight somebody

before he gets a title shot. So I don't know, Sean, it's an unfortunate way to end the night, but at the same token, Sean's got options, and it just sucks. It just sucks. But the main thing about this all is that Pedro Munoz deserves apologies for pretty much everybody. He's getting chastised for essentially something that wasn't his fault.

It's dumb. The reaction to the whole thing has been dumb, and hopefully after hitting Pedro, because Pedro took the high road on the amazing, hour yesterday. He could have sat there and just blasted Sean O'Malley and called him a cheater and called him all this other stuff. Yeah, he was asked

about Sean's reaction to everything and he wasn't overly pleased with that, but at the same token, he still took the high road after all this. Pedro Munoius is one of the nicest guys in the entire sport, one of the best guys in the entire sport, and he could have definitely taken this in a whole different direction, but he chose the Pedro Munoz

way and just kept it classy, took the high road the whole way, and we'll see what happens if they rebook this or if they go a different direction. But either way, I just hope at some point, Pedro Monius will get the opportunity to fight Sean O'Malley again. And I think he deserves it. Whether it's next or down the road, at some point, you got to throw those two guys together.

And then with the whole Adasania thing, it's, it's, again, that's a guy who got too much flack. And I understand he's trying to sell a fight. I get it. but at the same token, sort of going with the Floyd comparison. If you're fighting Floyd Mayweather,

you're not just going to like go in there and box Floyd. Like you have to try to, you have to try to make him uncomfortable. You have to try to take the title off of him. You have to try. Like you have to try to do something that makes him uncomfortable. Jared Canaaner did not do that.

He didn't do it at all. All he did was basically just give Israel the fight he is most comfortable with. I'm sure after Israel, he would have been prepared for that, 100%. And I think that's what Israel was kind of hoping for, was that candidate would make it, he heard all the narratives.

He's a smart guy. Got to make it dirty. You got to turn it into a brawl. That's your best chance. You got to do what Kelvin Gasolam tried to do. Because Calvin gave Israel really his toughest test because he went after him and tried to make it a dog fight. It almost beat him.

Gave him hell. That fifth round from Adasadia is, just a championship heart round to win it. And Cannonair didn't do that. He turned it into a mid-range point kickboxing fight. Yeah, at certain times you try to take Adasadi down. Yeah, at certain times you try to put him up against the fence. But he didn't make the fight dirty.

He just turned into a kickboxing match. And we're blaming Adasadio for that? Come on, man. That's just a bad take. I don't think Atazondi deserves the blame whatsoever. Yeah, he's trying to sell a fight. You're spending 75 bucks. I get it.

You're a little bit disappointed. and you have a right to be disappointed. But to sit there and blame Adasani for that is just not right. Again, I made this comparison before. It's like if Steph Curry is a wide open three, but Steph promised, you know what, they're going to be double teaming me at the three point line,

so I'm probably not going to take any threes. I'm just going to take the ball to the hole. I'm going to challenge the center. But if you're giving Steph a wide open three, what's he going to do? Not take it? And that's exactly what Adasania had. He had an opportunity to just win.

And he also understood that what lies ahead is much bigger than this cannonear fight. Yeah, some people at the arena left early, but at the same time, he knows that this fight with Alex Paheda is way bigger. It's a way bigger fight. And it will be massive, and I'm super curious how that will play out. Super curious see how Paheda handles himself in the championship spotlight. because what I've seen from Alex Beheada so far, super impressive. Nothing rattles this guy.

The lights don't seem too bright. We'll see how he handles it with the belt and the line. More obligations, the lights even brighter upon him. So I can't wait for that fight whenever it happens. Let's go to Zach. Zach, how are you? Awesome. I'm a heck of a morning.

And I just wanted to say, great job in Vegas last week. It seemed like a lot of fun. A few points and one question is. the question first question um drak's dupley see very impressed by him especially because he looked like pretty gassed about the whole fight but put out a ton of output and you talked about embole already those two guys seem like at 13 14 right now out of those two kind of up-and-comers close to title contention which two guys you think could actually get to the which out of those two guys can get to the title you think um who has the best shot there um and then the two points i have

first one, you end of the show with the whole Uriah favor of Josh Emma thing. I do think Yerai has put a little more blame on himself. I feel like a guy who always gets put on camera during those pay-per-views always sits up close. He probably could have helped out his buddy there. I know he was coaching, but he probably could have, you know, secured him a seat closer if he really wanted to. So I thought that there. And then the last one actually goes back to Otno. And, you know, we like calling, you know, you guys hold people accountable with their picks calling them Doodoo.

And one pick that I did not hear that was held accountable was the, Ian Gary, Andre Fiala picked that AK kind of, like, strongly agreed on. And I believe those guys do train at Stanford MMA together, Stanford MMA together. So, you know, had to give that one a quick shout up. But thanks, Mike, and we'll be having a great morning. Thanks, Zach. Yeah, I mean, it's hard. Like, we try, like, we try to be cool with the doo-do, especially with the training partners one. I mean, if it's obvious, what was the one?

Tiago Moises and Grant Dawson Like if you pick Tiago Moises versus Grant Dawson coming out of Moises's last win That's kind of do-do Because Moises was literally I want to thank my coaches, my team Grant Dawson This guy's standing right over here

15 feet away from me See this guy? See this guy Grant Dawson? The guy got me ready for this fight That guy. Thank you Grant Dawson The guy standing right next me that's kind of do the other stuff we bring it up here we bring it up once if you bring it up again then it becomes kind of do-do on that sense yeah the favor the the the josh emma thing is is crazy because i kind i like i kind of get where they're coming from like favor is

favor's doing what favor's supposed to do as a manager and a coach and uh in some ways a cheerleader but never what like has it once been said by anybody outside of Josh Emmett that Josh is the next guy Has it been said by anybody from an official capacity? No.

No. So like when people are saying that Josh Emmett's going to be here, like even John Edick was like Josh Emmons is going to be there. Maybe he sits cage side. No one has, no one said he's the guy.

Most people felt he didn't even beat Calvin Cater. So while I understand like what he wants and feels like he deserves. It's not like the Alex Paheda situation. Like Alex Paheda, when he knocked out Sean Strickland, we knew where this was going. We knew he was fighting out of the winner of that fight. Batasagna won. We knew that's the fight.

So they sat him Caged side. There he is. There's Alex Paheda. You have to put him on camera. Josh Emmett being there does nothing because he's not the guy yet. Now, Brian Ortega goes out there and beats Yaya Rodriguez. on July 16th and Alexander Volcanovsky is not planning on going to 155 for his next fight, sure, there you go.

But this is not an open and shut case. It's not. And Faber's doing what he should be doing. But at no point has anybody, has Dana White, anybody from an official capacity said, Josh Emmett, good win, your next fights for the belt. No one has said that. So for him to assume that he's just going to get a cage side seat and get put on camera for that fight. It's crazy. It's crazy. Faber's doing it right, but I'm not blaming the UFC

for this at all. I mean, who knows? There's only a few people that really know. Maybe Josh has text messages or something that says, yeah, man, you're going to sit Cajside. We'll make sure it happens. We'll make sure we get you on camera from somebody high up in the UFC. But I haven't seen that yet. I haven't seen that yet. And if I do see it, then I'll be happy to come on here and say that I was wrong, but no one has said that Josh Emmett is the guy. No one has said it. And I don't believe he is the guy, especially if Yairair wins on July 16th. Yayaer wins.

They're doing Volkadovsky Yaiyre. If Volkinovsky stays. Like, Yair is the guy. Emmett will be on deck. Something happens. Or if Volkanowski does go to 155, you could do Emmett versus Yaya for an interim title or something, just to kind of keep the seat warm for Volkanowski. But other than that, I don't know.

I just good on favor. You're doing what you're supposed to do, but I don't blame the UFC for this whatsoever. Unless there's something that I don't know. If there's something I don't know, then I'll be happy to say them wrong. But just outside looking in, this is what I see. Terms of the middleweight division,

Duplice and Imov, hmm, I'm high on both guys. I think both guys could be title contenders for sure. from a stylistic perspective, I would say Emovoff is probably a little bit ahead of Dupli, but in terms of who the UFC

would be likely to promote stronger, probably Duplice. One speaks perfect English, he's got a personality, he's a delightful human being, the dude ain't tiny, looks good coming off the bus,

imovov I'm just very high on from a, just a fight style. Guys, real good. He's real good. This fight with Chris Curtis is interesting. I think Yimovov just getting hurt before his last scheduled outing really stung a little bit, halted a little bit of momentum.

But, you know, now he's back against Joaquin Buckley, and it's a big deal. I think I say Chris Curtis. I didn't mean to say Chris Chris Chris. Chris Curtis is fighting Jackerbanson. But you know what I mean. But I'm high on both guys. I think from a X's at O standpoint, I think I'mov probably has the higher seal. but in terms of star power, I got to go with DDP on that one.

Let's go to REL. Heck, good morning, Mike, how are you doing? I'm good. So, just a few things I want to touch on. So I know you've probably heard Tamaya have caught out Pereira. I wonder what that's all about. Maybe it's like a spotlight thing, you know, get the spotlight on me. Even though Tamaya have already had spotlight, I think that might be that.

have you heard anything about the Ferguson-Kabre Ultimate Fighter coaching thing? Because I watched the Shmo yesterday with Tony Ferguson, and he mentioned it. So I just wanted to ask if you knew a little bit more about that. And then I'm kind of, I'm kind of big on Raphael Fizziv. I know he's fighting this week. I really think, like, at 155, that's somebody I think we need to pay a lot more attention to, especially with the way his stand-up is. I think he has some of the best stand-up in the whole division and the whole division.

Like, his more he tired, his strike, his, it's precise, it's quick. His, his, his, it seemed like he moves at angles and counters people really good. Like, somehow like both, you know. And then the last thing, the whole Izzy and Jared thing, I don't, I don't like how people was trying to blame either. I don't blame either or. I think it was, I don't have to, I don't need. them to go in there and be like Don Fry and Yoshiro talking y'all. I don't need that. Like I don't, that was in 2000. Like we don't need them to go in there, just grab each other

and just get to punch them. I like the technical aspect. Figure out your opponent, try to get in. Could it have been more action, yes, but I'm not asking for them to go in there and just punch each other out. That's not how you find a champion. There's levels to it. And I think that that's what happens when you're at the top. You got a fine way to win instead of just going in there and punch them like a robot. Thank you. Have a good morning. Thanks, man. So, there's a lot to impact here. The Shamiya thing is probably just, listen,

Connor does it all the time. When something's gaining traction, Connor jumps in, Nate jumps in, creates headlines, keeps your relevance. That's probably what that was all about. Shamiah's probably not getting that fight.

Shamiah's got other things to worry about, especially at 170. So it's probably just what it was. Please talk about me. No one's talked about me in a while, you know what I mean? That's where I'm going. Fiziv is real good, man. But this is exactly, this is, this is the fight needs to happen.

Not just because they have similar names and we can, the loser has to change their name to something else, which I love that stipulation, by the way. But this is a great test for Raphael Fiziv. Can he go five rounds? What's going to happen when he faces RDA who can shoot takedowns? and can really make things uncomfortable for him, take him out of his elements a little bit. He's a tremendous striker.

Fiziv's got great power, tons of energy. The dude's fun to watch. But when you throw guys who are fun to watch in there with guys like RDA, RDA can stifle people. He's made a career on stifling guys like that. So I'm curious to see what happens, especially if this fight gets extended, rounds four, round five. How is Fiziv going to handle it?

Can the gas tank hold up? especially against the former champion. It's a big opportunity. Now, Fiziv passes this test. Boy, oh, boy, we got something big here. We got something cooking with Fiziv. I will sort of disagree with you on your Adisani-Canonair take. No one is asking for a cannonear to throw,

to jump off the top of the cage and do a double axe handle and just do something out of the ordinary. No one's really, no one's asking for. asking for that. But at the same token, you playing right into the champion's hands is just not a good strategy. And then at the end of the fight, to have all the onus placed on Adasania is just silly, in my opinion. You have to go in there and try to take the butt. You have to take the belt off the champion. I was asked about this a lot on the post fight show. What is what needs to happen? What needs to change to make Adasania more exciting? He needs a guy who's going to try to

fight him. He's going to try to take the title off of him. And I think Alex Paheda could be that guy. I think Alex presents different challenges. And I think I'm just, it's just super curious in my eyes how Adasania is going to approach a fight with a guy who has two wins over him. And I know both of those fights are, we're somewhat competitive. And I know most people look to the knockout in the second fight as, oh, he got bolted by Pahed. And there's a little bit of truth that. But before that I was competitive and the first fight was super close. But still, there's something a little mentally taxing about getting in there with a guy who holds two wins over you. And Pahana is not rattled by the situation at all.

Like, I've said this before about Cannoneer, and I truly mean this. I think Candidear was, I think Candidare was beat on Wednesday at the media day. I think the spotlight upon him was a lot. I think he was a little uncomfortable at the press conference. I just think all of it was just a little much for him. Everybody wants to be the champion. Everybody says they want to be the champion. And then you kind of realize what comes with that,

the responsibility, the weight that being a UFC champion holds. Like how much that all weighs. And I think by Wednesday being at the media day for 15 minutes and then sitting at a press conference with Izzy and getting fair questions in a lot of ways and just refusing to answer them and refusing to sort of open up a little bit about what you feel.

Like, I get that works for some people, but you have to be comfortable in there. You have to deal with it. And I felt like, I felt like at the end of the Media Day Wednesday, I was like, oh boy, I felt like this fight was going to be really competitive, but after the press conference,

I was like, oh boy, this is probably not going to go very well for Canada. He's a little overcome by the moment. I'm not blaming him for that. There are many fighters who have been in that same situation that get in there, they go through the media day, they go through all the obligations and everything that comes with being one half of the main event. And it just becomes a lot. And you're just like, oh, this is not what I thought it was going to be. I'm not saying it took away, but sometimes that gets in your head a little bit. And I felt like from a mental standpoint, Canada was kind of rattled before the fight even started.

and we kind of saw that in the performance. It's not easy being a main inventor. It's not easy being a champion. It really is the toughest thing. It's so hard. Seeing Usman and Adasania and Volcanowski and all these guys have to defend their titles over and over and over and over again and try to get everybody's best.

It's so hard to do. It's so hard to do. But once in a while, you get a Yuri Perashka who comes along, who's just such a wild man and can deal with all that and find a way to deal with the adversity that being a champion brings and being a challenger brings. Some people just don't care about it

and can fight through it. Others can't. That's it. That's the way I look at it. Let's go to Viking MMA. They'll go to Chris. They'll go to Vinny. And round and round we go.

Viking, hello. Hey, buddy. My brother, Alexander Lee, my brother, Jad Mishu, my brother. I just want to know about Hamzat Chimaio's wrestling and do you think that he has that kind of wrestling, I mean, a Dagestani kind of wrestling and how good is he in that area of wrestling

and the other thing I want to know could you please spread a light on the terms loki-banger and gatekeeper for me thank you loki-banger for Saturday I just don't know anything about the term

loki-wanger oh loki-banger okay okay and gatekeeper thank you Viking Gimabba oh sorry yeah I'll yeah and gatekeeper okay So Shemayev, yes, his wrestling is tremendous. It's ridiculous.

His top game is ridiculous. His striking's really good, too. And sometimes when you're a great wrestler and then you realize how good of a striker you are, sometimes you fall in love with that. We've seen fighters fall in love with that before. Shamiab is just a freak and is good at all, pretty much everything. He's a tremendous wrestler. If Shemai just wanted to wrestle his way to wins all the time, he could do it.

He's that good. The terms that we low-key-based. or gaykeeper. So gaykeeper is essentially and I know like oftentimes it's used as like in a negative connotation but I don't like Neil Magny

Neil Magny is like the perfect definition of a gaykeeper and it's not in a disrespectful like Neil Magny's really really good but he's not a guy that is probably going to fight for a world title but it's also a litmus test it's a proving ground like for Shafcott Rahmanov

him fighting Neil Maggi is perfect matchmaking. Because if he beat, if Shafkat Rachmanah beats Neil Magni, then you know you have something. Then you know you have a guy who's a top 10,

top five could be a guy who fights for a title. You beat Neil Magny, that means something. That means a lot. Neil's really good, not a title contender, but Neil is a great test.

And there's lots of fighters like that, like in multiple divisions who are quote-unquote gatekeepers where if you pick up a win over this person, it means a lot. We know we have something here. Low-key-banger.

Love using the term low-key-banger. It just describes a card. So, like, if there's, like, you look at UFC 276, there was Adisade of Canaanier, there was Volcanoi, there was Paheta, Strickland, Tomali Munoz, and some of the other fights.

Those fights are all getting spotlit. These are the fights that everybody was talking about. Low-key-banger is just an awesome, fight that nobody's talking about. A fight that isn't getting enough love, but should be. I love loki bangers. Loki bangers are the best.

These are fights that just fly under the radar that no one talks about. So those are those terms, for sure. Loki bangers, we just try to give, like, we try to be, like, AK knows, we try to be positive about these cards, and sometimes these, especially these fight night cards, you look at them, they're very

top heavy, maybe it's a great main event, or then the rest of the card is kind of from a from a recognition standpoint when it comes to names and star power and stuff, but we try to find the needle in the haystack, we try to find those fights

that deserve more shine that just aren't getting them. So that's why we use those terms. Let's go to Chris Martin. Chris, how are you? Doing well, Mike. I have a couple questions for you. One, I was just thinking,

Is there any possibility that the UFC, when we're coming off these weeks after a big pay-per-view, instead of throwing this card that they've got this weekend, where the main event is great, but everything else is kind of Garbo. No offense to any of the fighters, but the penultimate bout is two guys who have one fight each. Jared Vandera and Chase Sherman are on the main card. And they're even putting Ricky Turquios in his first fight after winning the Ultimate Fighter on the dang prelims. Is there any possibility that they might consider doing something after a big pay-per-view where instead of a actual fight night, it's more like a contender series type thing, like maybe just to highlight lower-level fighters or less experienced fighters.

because it's really hard to get excited for these cards like this. And the other question was, I was thinking about Daniel Rodriguez yesterday, and I'm just wondering if you've heard anything about what his next moves are going to be, because coming off the Kevin Leight, he had all this momentum, and then I know that he's dealt with some injuries and whatnot, but I feel like he's kind of lost his momentum

because he was seeing as a guy kind of on the come up, but he just hasn't been active, and I think that he's kind of gotten passed by by guys like Sean Brady and Chavcott, Rachmanov, and other guys have just kind of taking the shine as the rising guys that are coming into the rankings. Thanks, buddy. Yeah. I'll address the second thing in a moment.

The first thing, no, they're not going to do that because they're getting that ESPN money, which is a lot of money, and they have to fulfill these obligations. So what I would like to see the UFC do a little bit more of is let's just mix it up a little bit. What I loved was around three years ago. And, you know, this is the Boston bias speaking a little bit. But UFC does a card in October of 2019 in Boston. And it was on a Friday night. They did a Friday night card.

It's okay to do that once in a while. It's okay to do a Friday night card. You throw this card on a Friday? No, who's going to complain about that? It's a Friday night of fights. Like, mix it up a little bit. I mean, the card's not, it's fine. Like, Kyle Barallio is now getting back-to-back co-main events

or second-to-last fights. We'll get A.K.'s take on that, on the preview show, probably. But you get some good sidearmatame made up. Douglas Silva-Dandrata is a great fight. The Van dera Sherman is just a UFC main card fight night special where we just throw two random heavyweights on a bank card. Cynthia Calvio Nina Nunes is an interesting fight. Calvia really needs a win.

Michael Johnson, Jamie Malarkey, is going to be super fun. Tertios to make his debut against Amosah. It's a bad. We've seen worse. David Onom is on the car. I know there's a lot of hype around him. He's fighting Garrett Armfield, who I've been high on for a long time. Just they fought before.

Armfield just jumping up to 145 for this fight. I know Armfield typically fights at Bannamweight, especially at short notice. Not great, but Daney probably was a guy that was lined up for that call for quite some time. I mean, it is what it is. Ronnie Lawrence, Sidiukub Hakuramaat is going to be a sick fight. That's the low-key bang-arms, opening fight of the card.

But this deserves better than that. This probably should have been a main card fight. So I get where you're coming from, but they're not going to do that. Funny you mentioned Daniel Rodriguez. I actually spoke to Daniel Rodriguez in Las Vegas right after the Hall of Fame red carpet. He actually drove from his house to meet me outside of the T-Mobile arena. And we did an interview outside T-Mobile. That's probably going to drop sometime this week.

But I will say this. He's had three hand surgeries because I spoke with him, I think, in December. or maybe it's like the right around like the first week of January and he said that he was recovering from a hand surgery was hoping to be cleared hoping to fight maybe in February but the first surgery didn't take

the second surgery didn't take so he had to get a third hand surgery but he's cleared he could take so if the UFC offered him a fight right now he could take it so he's hoping maybe August back in there and he's with all of you guys he knows he's lost a little bit of momentum

he's seen what um Shavkod and some of these other guys, Sean Brady, he's seen with these guys. But D-Rod's cleared. He's back to training and is hoping to fight late summer, early fall. But more from D-Rod dropping soon. But that was a fun interview.

It's always good. D-Rod in his pit bulldog combination. Got to meet the dog. Great dog. Let's go to Vinny. Speaking of dogs, I see the dog is the image here. Benny, how are you, man? Hey, doing good. I'm doing good.

Good, my head in the morning. How are you? Hey, I just wanted to touch real quick on the main event for this weekend. You think RDA is actually going to lose against Veseev? I mean, I know RDAs. I've been following him for a while. He's a great wrestler. He's a great grappler.

For Steve is also a great grappler, but I don't know. I somehow will give the edge to RDA. What do you think? Yeah, I see where you're coming from, Vinnie. You have to, when you have fights like this, I'm curious what the betting lines are for this one. When you have fights like this, I always tend to lean experience.

And I think this is, I don't know if it's a 50-50 fight. Z's a big favor. Wow, minus 210, come back on RDA plus 180. I didn't think it could be that high. There's value in RDA, in my opinion, for sure. At plus 180. interesting

that's very interesting I think this fight's closer to 50-50 than that so I always try to lean experience RDA's been in five-round fights he's been in title fights he's been a champion he does have the wrestling and the jiu-jitsu advantage against a guy like Fizib but Fizib could strike his ass off

and again I think this fight is going to go into the championship where my questions are. How is Vizib get handled round four? How does he get handled round five? Slow down. We've seen him slow down in fights before. He looked good in his last fight against Brad Riddell.

Looks like he kind of tightened some of that stuff up. But what happens in four and five? That's my... So I lean RDA in that sense, but Fizib, man, he is exciting. He is fun. And this would be a gigantic win on the resume if he can get a done. done. So, yeah, it's a good fight. It's a really good main event. It's exactly what you want. James. Then we'll go to Tristan, that will go to Patrick. James is up.

Heck of a morning to you, Mike. Indeed. I'm fine, thanks. I was looking at the card this weekend. I think there are several loser walks matchups on here. I was wondering if you could maybe, and maybe you're on comfortable doing this, but could you maybe tell me who you think is most likely to be cut from the UFC roster after this weekend? Yeah, I'm not a huge fan. I get where you're coming from. Let's see. I mean, you have to think, I don't know, it's tough because like Vandera and you probably have to look to Vandera and Sherman.

but it's also heavyweight and you have a lot of spots to fill and both those guys are like both those guys will say yes to any fight like Chase Sherman on like days notice was like yeah I'll fight Alexander Romanov like who wants to fight that guy on 12 weeks notice never mind

like four days notice and Chase will always say yes to those opportunities so you kind of have to look at that one I guess Calvio Nunes, maybe. But I think there's some value with Calvio Enchichiku, Roberson, I don't know, there's some, I guess.

I would say Trachon Gore is probably situation. Yeah, I don't know. If there's one that really stands out, it's probably the heavyweight one, but maybe they get released. Like the loser that, maybe they get released, but it wouldn't shock me if they're back.

like six months later, stepping in on short notice against somebody. But I don't know. You're right. Not my favorite question to answer. But I would say if we're just doing a quick peek at the card and thinking about that topic, that's probably the fight I would look at.

But again, I wouldn't say there is never fighting in the UFC again. Maybe they just get released and a very good chance to get brought back. let's go to Tristan Hi Tristan How's everything Good how are you

I'm good I have two questions The first question Probably bringing some clarity It was reported that Jimmy Flick is coming back Out of retirement after a year After year

And I know he's going to re-enter The US out of testing poll But he just comes back to the UFC And they just give him a fight I wanted to know how that works Like, I guess since he won the contract for the Dana White Contenic Series, I guess automatically he just goes back to the UFC with no issue. So I just wanted to know about that, how that works. And then my second question, we have Saeed Nomegameda versus Delsova.

And if, if, if, if, if, um, Sayed has another finish, spectacular finish like he did against Cody Sainman, is at that point, does he get into the rank? Do you think in the Bandsaway Division? or he needs another fight because it's just, it's so deep and there's so many fighters. It's going to be hard to pick and choose who's going to crack that top 15. So just your thoughts on that. All right, Mike. Thanks, man, for everything. Thanks, buddy.

So the second question, maybe. Maybe? I don't know. It's a deep division. Let me look at the, uh, let me look at the UFC rankings. I don't think he'll make it in the rankings that truly matter. fighting such movement. So right now they have

15 fighters ranked right now. Umar and Armaghamagamatoff and Adrian Yannas are tied for 15. I will say no for Saeed. It'll be close. He'll be knocking on the door. But I don't think he jumps Yanez. Certainly doesn't jump Umar. And then you got Jack Shore, Sean O'Malley,

Frankie Edgar, Ricky Simone, who's fighting. Simone and Shore fighting the following week. So maybe not now. I don't think they'll immediately enter, but let's just say, let's just say like Ricky Simone runs over Jack Shore in like two minutes, which I don't think is going to happen. That's going to be a great fight. Let's just say Ricky Simone just destroys Jack Shore.

Maybe Saeed jumps in the following week, but I don't think a win here or a quick finish gets him into the top 15 right away. the Jimmy Flick thing Jimmy's under contract with the UFC so it's not like Jimmy can just say hey I'm on retired I'm gonna go fight for Belator I'm gonna go fight for BKFC or I'm gonna go to one

he can't do that he's under contract at the UFC now the UFC has every right to just go ahead and release him he could come back into the pool and they could just be like nah we don't want you to go but then I gotta do that Jimmy had a flying triangle in his first UFC fight

I guess a really tough guy so I think they're probably thrilled It's a nice boost for the 125 pound division. Now, I don't know what is, I kind of know off record why he's coming back, but I'll let him share that when he's ready, which, by the way, I'm talking to him in like an hour and a half. It will be a podcast-only interview, but it's going to drop today. So that interview is going to end.

I'm going to produce it, edit it, and then I'm going to put it right up on the podcast network. So you will hear that interview today on our network. and we'll try to get the actual article written and done today as well. Insight why he's coming back. But he is coming back. He's supposedly entering the pool today. But again, I'll find out more in about an hour and a half when I actually speak with him. But, I mean, this is a good thing, isn't it?

This is a nice boost for the division. He's a guy that a lot of people are very excited about. So we'll see. All right. We are going to go to Patrick. and then we're going to wrap up because I got people coming over to the house to help out with Command Center 4.0, some appointments for some flooring, maybe some air conditioning in the new Command Center. So we got a lot going on in the heck household. Patrick, what's up, buddy?

Mike. Patrick. Good, good job, man. International Fight Week. How was the Vegas experience? Like, just overall? It was very vagusy. It was fun.

I got to basically experience Vegas in one night. So, like, I walked around the strip. Jose kind of showed me around a little bit. And then we went to Fremont, which is just crazy. I was like, where the hell am I? And then we went to Ariel's meet up and met some people that I've talked to from afar, but never actually, like, met in person, met some of the peeps. It was a good time, man.

It was a good time. Nice. Well, I got this little, um, I got this little journey with your career. And it's like you came to MMA fighting. You really started building out the podcast networks. You're just racking up win after win after win. You went on this crazy streak.

Then, you know, you had what the heck. It was a little too similar to Ariel show. Ariel came back. And I think, you know, probably first round submission, you know. So you had a little bit of a step back. But then you started heck of the morning. It's amazing. You're back on that winning streak.

You're on the cusp of the top five, right? You just broke back in the top 10 of the MMA reporters. And then Bam Bam Baklava called you out by name on the street in Vegas and was rocketed you in the top five. You're like top three MMA reporters in my book after that. My second follow-up to that is, what was better? Bam-Ban Baklava calling you out by name on the street in Vegas, or I forgot the event that they used your voice in the official promo. Was it Mazvedal Usman?

Yes. Yes. Dude, when I heard your voice and you're like, enter Jorge Mazvedal. And it was like the beginning of the promo, which one was better? Ooh, it's a good question. That's a good question. I would say, thank you, Patrick. I would say, hmm, personally getting the action bronze and shadow was pretty cool.

But from a, like, people reached out to me and was like, wow kind of a thing. It was definitely the, being the open. Usen Mazadol promo, for sure. What a weird, yeah, not weird, but what a great insight into my MMA fighting. let me just say about what the heck in the MMA hour. No one from M.A fighting was like, what the heck is dead. No one said that to me. I was told that I could keep it if I wanted to.

I actually stopped it on my own because I'm, listen, Ariel coming over was a huge for the website. It was massive. So why would I try to do the same thing he's doing? You know what I mean? It worked out great. because I come over, I just sort of filled the gap. I had no idea that it was coming back.

So when a area comes back, this is great for all of us. This is great for everybody. So I've always found a way to pivot. To evolve. Like I tried, We Got Next, which is some of the low-key fighters that aren't getting enough love. And that was fun. Like, I still got to do interviews and stuff like that. But, again, just became a lot.

And I actually liked this idea better of just talking to you guys. and you gals and just doing sort of a morning show feel because this is something that MMA as a whole is just missing. And I wanted to fill that gap. So, yeah, it is what it is. Again, so I'm thrilled how long he's back. Get the freaking MMA hour. I mean, the M.A. hour helped increase my fanhood.

Like, I really got into the sport. Like, I really got into covering the sport because of that show. It was such an important thing for me as a journalist and just learning different things about the industry because I didn't go to journalism school. Like I didn't do that. I learned a lot about journalism show. I'm talking about different things about journalism.

What's the right way to do things? It's the wrong way to do things. It's just an amazing show, huge. I'm so glad that it's back. And there's room for everybody to do what they want to do. And that was one of the things that, one of the reasons I love working for it being a part of this website is that when this, when this news is told to us, I had people literally reaching out to be saying, oh my God,

what's going to happen? Are they going to fire you? And I'm like, I hope not. I don't think so. But it also led to my bosses, managers, et cetera, saying like, hey, if there's something you've always wanted to do, now's the time. now is the time to do it. And here we are.

I got to produce two of those, you know, audio docs that I did with the fighter that got shot and paralyzed. He's trying to come back, going with Elena Kolesnik. Like, I get to do all these different things. Like, and now I'm going to cover more events. Like, this worked out great for me. This worked out great for me.

All right. We'll take two more real quick. James. Hello. Hey, good morning, Mike. Hey, buddy. I wondered if you had anything on Roberto Silvick if he's staying with KSW

or if he's finally making the jump over to UFC and if he does what first fight would you love to see him in? I mean obviously if Presente Luca and him that would be a banger for sure and um but the whole Sean O'Malley Pedro Muno's thing I mean I know there's no shame in the UFC game

but if they decide to do the rematch, can you see them doing that as a fight night? Or do you think they're going to make us pay $75 again to see that? And I don't know what that kind of fight told me of what ceiling Sean O'Malley has. Like I know striking is great. Yeah, we lost you, James. We lost you, buddy.

But I think I kind of got the gist of what we're trying to do here. Um, Soldich is still a mystery. I have no idea. I have reached out and asked about it. Uh, I don't really know. I don't really know.

I think he's got offers from pretty much everybody. Uh, I don't think his contract with KSW is up yet. So either way, he, I think he's got like another 10 days or so before his contract expires. From what I understand,

KSW offered him a lot of money. like crazy money. And he told me in the past that if he was going to walk into his KSW renegotiation meeting with his management, and he was going to throw out a number, and if they matched the number, he was going to stay. And who knows? I would have thought by, but he's a coveted free agent right now.

He's a highly coveted free agent. So if I'm him, I'm milking this to the very end myself. I would be stunned. I'd actually be I'd be pretty surprised if he left KSW because he's been I spoke with him, you can go back to the archives

and the podcast network and check it out. I spoke with him about it. What means more to him? Money means quite a bit because he wants to have he wants to have a life outside of fighting and he wants to have money to do that.

So KSW from my I understand is offering ridiculous money. How much legacy factors in? I'm not really sure, but I would actually be shocked if he doesn't stay with KSW. But if it goes to the UFC, I love the Vicente-Luke fight. Yeah, and I agree with you.

One of the worst parts about this O'Malley-Munoz thing is we didn't learn anything. We learned very little. So if they do run it back, we'll definitely be on pay-per-view. I'm sure they'll throw it on a pay-per-view, but if they want to do a fight-night-made event, sure. but it will not be a fight night main event at the apex.

It'll be something in front of a crowd. Maybe they go back to Arizona. Maybe do like a fight night in Phoenix or something. Somewhere near where O'Malley lives. Make him kind of the hometown guy. Maybe they do that. But I would, my guess, if forced to choose, probably be a pay-per-view. All right, Ahmad, take us home, buddy, because I've got to get out of here.

Amad, do we have you? Three, two. One. All right. It's not working. Ahmad, call tomorrow. We'll get you in. So we'll get Derricko in here to close the show.

Perhaps. If we can get Ammon. See, there. Hey, Mike. Heck of a morning. How you doing today? Good. How are you? I'm good.

So me and my friends were talking after Saturday, and I was trying to make an argument how Izzy could potentially be considered more dominant than Khabib. I know that sounds kind of crazy, but I just feel like Izzy won on Saturday without giving Max effort. And when Khabib is winning five rounds,

you know, he's putting out max effort. I was just wondering if you think you can make an argument for Izzy being more dominant than Kibb. Hmm. No. Because, I mean, I get where you're coming from. Like, we're looking at it. from two different styles,

but two rounds, like his entire UFC run. He lost a round to Connor, maybe three rounds. He lost a round. And then towards the end of his career, he lost a round to Connor, and then he lost a round to Justin G.

And two of the judge's scorecards. But in a lot of people would feel like, in a lot of people feel like, Habib won that first round. So, I mean, I think it's a little bit of a stretch, but I'm not going to blame me for that for that take.

Like, it's things we ponder in this sport. There's always comparisons. There's always pondering. I just think, like, Habib, like, like, Adasani, like, lost, at least on two of the judges' cards. He lost a round. It was very rare that Habib lost any rounds. And Adasani has been in some close fights.

Like, the Whitaker fight, especially was real close. There are a lot of people who I still talk to today still feel like Whitaker won that fight. Yo, Romero, close fight. Calvin Gastilum, close fight. Habib didn't have close fights. He just, he had won, like, kind of close fight early in his career, but the last 10 fights or so, I mean, this dude is just running people over.

This is dominance, like, just incredible dominance. So I like, I like rear heads at, but kind of a reach of my eyes. It just, Habib was just utterly dominant. He didn't lose rounds. Fights weren't even close. it was just pure domination is either a miserable experience for the opponent or he just finished them quick

so I can't say it's the same or you can say out of sunny is just as if not more but yeah Habib's definitely more dominant but I like rear heads out. We're thinking outside of the box and I can never shame anybody for that. All right, I gotta get out of here. A lot going on at the heck close hold.

BTL going down later today. It's just going to be a round table show myself, Jed Mishu. These are my favorite types of shows. We did do a show last week, so me and Jed are basically just going to hit record and go and just talk. And usually that's when the most fun happened.

So 3 p.m. Easter, you can watch Alive in the M.A. Fighting YouTube channel. I will be talking to Jimmy Flick in about an hour and a half. Once that is done, I will edit it. I will post it on the podcast network so you guys can hear that as soon as possible. And then I'll also be working on some of the Radio Row interviews

that haven't seen the light of day yet. For example, Kevin Holland, Anthony Smith, Yawani and Jacek, Jamal Hill. There's a whole bunch of others. There's a whole bunch. The Daniel Rodriguez interview from outside, T-Mobile, lots of stuff we'll be working on. So content for days. We'll be back here again tomorrow. 10 a.m. Eastern, right here on the NBA fighting Twitter spaces.

Thank you very much for listening. Have a great rest of the day. And as always, have a heck of a morning.