MMA Fighting - HOAM | Will Colby Covington Be Able To Bounce Back From Forgettable UFC 296 Performance?

Episode Date: December 19, 2023

Colby Covington had the Las Vegas crowd in the palm of his hands throughout UFC 296 fight week, including the press conference where he took a controversial shot at Leon Edwards, his walk to the octagon for the main event and last minute powwow with Donald Trump — and then the fight began, and he was dominated by the champion and put forth an effort that has left the MMA community scratching their heads. On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck reacts to UFC 296, Edwards' successful title defense, and if Covington will be able to bounce back in the eyes of fans following the worst performance of his career. Additionally, listener questions include whether or not Belal Muhammad should be next for Edwards, where Shavkat Rakhmonov fits in the mix after submitting Stephen Thompson, the incredible battle between Irene Aldana and Karol Rosa, Ariane Lipski's outstanding outing against Casey O'Neill, Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis fighting in the crowd, Dana White announcing a slew of fights for UFC 299 — including the newly signed Michael Page vs. Kevin Holland — and much more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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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.

To the Vox Media Podcast Network. 2023, and it is indeed a heck of a morning. We are live on the MMA Fighting Twitter space. You can hear the show in its entirety. Shortly thereafter, on the M.A. Fighting Podcasting Network. What's going on everybody? I am Mike Heck. Hope everyone's having a wonderful week.

We are a few days removed from the final UFC event of 2023, the final UFC pay-per-view event of the year. UFC 296, which everybody was excited about on paper. We watched the prelims and we're like, damn, this card is going to be incredible. Wait until we get to this main card. We get Josh Emmett's. knockout of the year against

Bryce Mitchell. I don't know if it's going to win, but it's certainly going to be on everybody's list. One of the scariest knockouts we've ever seen. We get Patty Pimbleau beating Tody Ferguson. We get Shafcott Rachmanoff submitting Wonderboy Thompson in round two to become just the first fighter ever to submit Wonderboy Thompson throughout his pro career. Alexander Pantosia defends the flyway title against Brennan Royval. To be fair, I mean, look, I enjoyed the fight.

Was it the full-out sprints, crazy fest that many of us expected? No, but Pantosia, I'll talk about Pantosia in a little bit, because I actually thought he fought a supremely smart and intelligent fight and did a damn good job. So good on him. We'll see what happens with Brandon Royval. And then we get to the main event, ladies and gentlemen, the one everybody was excited for the one that built up so much animosity throughout the week. It's the main event, the final fight of 2023 in the UFC.

It is Leon Edwards defending his title against Colby Covington. And Colby makes the walk to fanfare. Crowds saying, you suck to the Kurt Angle, WWE theme, but as a you know, a side of respect to some degree goes over and talks to good old 45, Donald Trump, who is sitting cage side. Trump gives him some last minute advice. Holby gets into the cage, Leon gets into the cage, and then the fight begins. And ladies and gentlemen, as I said throughout the build to all of this, we were going to know what this fight was going to be in the first seven minutes. We would know in the first seven minutes of this fight, whether Colby had a chance

at all, or if Leon was just going to drum him. And we got the latter, and we knew seven minutes in. We do, I do after the first round. So this is the first round over. I'm like, all right, this is what the next 20 minutes are going to be like. Because Colby just didn't have anything for Leon at all. and it was it was one of the worst performances from a title challenger I've ever seen in this sport it was so bad

he did I don't understand it I don't understand it I was getting flashbacks of the second Kamara Usman fight to some extent but this one felt different at least at the second Kamar Usman fight

you could kind of throw it up like Colby just do something like get cooking, throw some volume, just turn this into a slug fest instead of an MMA fight. And to his credit, that's exactly what he did against Usman, things got real close. And Colby won the last 12 minutes of that fight, in my opinion. Definitely won four and five, undoubtedly. And then definitely got some momentum swinging at the end of round three. But it just took him forever to get going.

this one there was the stance switches like he just didn't look comfortable in there at all and to me my first thought was and i even said it on the watch party and this is not and let me just say this because i saw some people throw this bullshit at me oh here come the the colby excuses no this is just what i saw in the moment colby had all of the aesthetics of a guy who was trying to hide an injury that's what i saw in initially. The stand switches, the guy didn't want to get kicked in, maybe at a knee injury or something. Like, that's what it looked like to me. A guy that's like, okay, I can't get kicked in this leg. He wasn't moving the same way. And then I did something that probably nobody else on planet Earth has done. I did it yesterday. I don't think anybody else did this. I might be the only one. I actually rewatched the fight yesterday. And let me tell you, folks, I'll save you the trouble. Don't do it.

Don't go back and rewatch it. It is just as boring. It's probably more boring the second time around because you know what happens. It's just not good. And to go back on the Colby maybe disguising an injury thing, again, this is not an excuse. You signed the dotted line. You made the choice, even if he was injured, you made the choice to go in there and fight. Same thing why with Volkanovsky.

when he fought Mockachev in October. No excuses. You can't use the short notice thing as an excuse. You signed the dotted line. You talked a bunch of toys. You said you were going to go in there and finish them. You didn't do it. You got knocked out.

You can't use that as an excuse. And you can't use this as an excuse either. You can't. Even if Colby comes out and says, look, man, I went in there with the torn MCL. I don't give a shit. I don't care. This is not an excuse at all.

And I ain't here to listen to it. That's just what I saw in the moment. But the second watch, golly, man. The second watch, maybe some of that, I still saw some of the aesthetics. But again, I don't care. I'm not discrediting Leon at all. Leon went in there and won the fight. And that's it.

The other thing I definitely noticed was that was a guy who was not trying to win the belts. That was a guy who was trying to not get obliterated. That was a guy that was trying not to get finished. And I think he knew after getting kicked in the leg real early on that this fight is not going to go well and he's probably going to get knocked out. And I think he's, I think he'd do it pretty quickly. And again, was it the most fun fight of all time? No, but I compare this fight to some extent to the UFC 276 main event between Israel Adasania and Jared Candidier, where Jared Candidier all throughout the week kept saying, I'm going to go out there and I'm going to knock this

dude's headed to the third row, essentially. And what did Jared Candidier do? He gave Israel Adasanya a spaced out kickboxing match, an at-length kickboxing match. What is Izzy's supposed to do in that situation? And everyone was shitting on Izzy. Oh, he's so boring. I was one of the people who defended Israel Adesanya and said, look, the man just handed him a win on a silver platter. What do you want to do?

Not take it. Dude is the champion of the world. And the guy he's fighting who says he's going to go in there and just be super aggressive and knocked this dude out, is giving him a range kickboxing match. Of course he's going to take that. All right, thanks, dude. And that's exactly what happened here. Like, Leon is at space waiting for Colby to do something, and he's not getting it.

So he's like, all right, bet. I'm just going to take the free win. And that's what he got. This fight was not competitive at all. And I saw some people like, well, Colby won the fifth round. That's all the matters. It's because Leon did, Leon was a little too. cocky in the fifth round, honestly.

He was like, watch this. I'm going to take this dude down a whole bunch of times. And it backfired on him. I was surprised Leon didn't come out and try to just wreck him in round five, because all the pieces were there. I think Leon could have gone out there and finished Colby Cuffington in the fifth round. I think if he went out there and got aggressive, I think he would have done it. I think he would have done it. If you started out, just kept kicking him in the leg and just got real aggressive,

I think he would have finished Colby in the fifth round. I even said on the watch party, I'm like, all right, if I'm his corner and I'm certain, not going to pretend that I am. I'm like, all right, man, you did everything you needed to do here. You're up four rounds. Go have some fun now. Go have some fun. Put this dude away.

Make him pay for everything he said. And Leon just kind of took the round off and Colby won round five and that's it. 4946 across the board. Leon Edwards still the welterweight champion. I don't know how or if Colby can bounce back from this. I really don't. Do I think he's going to retire? No. In fact, I've been saying, you know, someone had asked me on Sunday, how will Colby be remembered after this performance? And my response, and even on the post-fight show, I said this, Colby's going to be an

over, he's going to go in the books as an overachiever, and he's going to go in the books as one of the best prize fighters we've seen. Because the definition of prize, fighting is you take the biggest name, the lowest risk, and you go out and win. And anytime Colby has done that, he has won. And it's led him to three title fights, being the prize fighter that he is. And what does Colby do? The second he shows up to the press conference, gets asked a question about the performance, immediately calls out Wonderboy Thompson, which I knew he was going to do. If someone had said, who's Colby going to call out the press conference, I would have bet a floppy

a trillion dollars. He was going to call out Wonderboy Thompson. And that's exactly what he did. And you know what? I don't blame him one bit for it. The problem is, I just don't know after this performance if people are going to care at all

if they make this fight. Wonderboy will look like a hero. People will be on team Wonderboy throughout the entire build. They'll be cheered for him in the fight. And if Wonderboy beats Colby, that's great for the Wonderboy fans, and it sets up Wonder Boy still being in play to potentially get one last shot at the belt. So that is there. But if Colby wins, which I think many would kind of expect him to if he fights somewhere near the guy we saw fight Mazadol or

Woodley or these guys, other guys who's just putting a pace on these guys, I just don't think people, like, where does he go from there? Like, I just don't know if he can come back from this. I don't know. I think people went in on the shtick. I was blown away, honestly, by how much support Colby was getting into this fight after that press conference. I thought he, for the most part, like, if you're looking at how to use a press conference to sell a fight, even though Colby said some pretty terrible things, he helped this card pass the mom test. He really did. He helped pass the mom test.

I was getting text from dudes I went to high school with that I haven't talked to in like five years about this fight. Just out of nowhere. You think Colby could do it. You think this. You think that. Doesn't happen all that often when Colby fights. And then he goes out and just lays an egg. And now everyone is like, they're just done with him.

Everybody's just done with Colby. And I feel like the schick is kind of up here. I mean, the video of Donald Trump leaving the arena when Colby is trying to put Trump over. after losing the fight. New York Rick's tweet was right on the money. The look of Donald Trump in the crowd after the fight was over. And it was, I don't remember the exact caption, but it was something to the effect of,

yeah, I don't really know that guy. And then Colby doubles down on the Leon comments and that he doubles down that he won the fight. I won three, four, and five. The only reason I lost is because the judges hate Trump, which is absolutely ridiculous. Everybody in Las Vegas hates Trump. Meanwhile, Donald Trump comes out to a rousing standing ovation with Dana White and Kid Rock.

And, you know, maybe the applause was more for Mario Lopez, aka A.C. Slater from Save by the Bell fame. Maybe they were like, holy shit, it's A.C. Slater. Bayside High School State champ right there, baby. Maybe that's what it was. But I don't think so. And Trump just like left the building. He was just like, nah, I'm done with this guy. I don't know if he can come back for this. I don't know if there's really anybody that is going to want to pay money to watch him fight again.

He's gotten so many chances. He's gotten so many chances. You have like legit guys who have done the work. Put in the work to get this opportunity to fight for the belt. And we'll talk about that in a second as well. Blah Muhammad. and I'll definitely go on Bilal in a moment,

but you can't tell me that Leon Edwards versus Bilal Muhammad wouldn't have been a far better fight than what we saw on Saturday night. You can't tell me that. There's no argument that I will listen to that will tell me that Leon versus Bilal would not have been more entertaining than that fight. Hell, Leon versus Nico Price

would have been more entertaining than that fight. Leon versus name like any other welterweight in the world and that would have been a more entertaining fight. I don't know if Colby can bounce back from this. I really don't. And I've been one of the few guys who have not really defended Colby, but I've had a relationship with Colby, but I've got to be real here.

This was awful. This was awful. It was so bad. To just show up like that after you talked all that greasiness, it's bad, man. It's just so bad. And I don't think he can come back. He's certainly not getting a title fight.

I don't know how the UFC really views him right now. Dana White said he looked slow and old. And yeah, maybe it was the time off. Fuck all that noise. You made, you guys made the choice to put him in this fight. This is what people were concerned with. I didn't think we'd see this. I didn't think it would be this bad.

There was a potential we could see a 49-46 from Leon here. But I didn't think it would be so, uncompetitive for 20 minutes. I certainly didn't see that coming. And Leon gets a win, fought within himself, did a great job. Was it the most aesthetically pleasing fight if we ever seen? No, trust me. I went back and watched it a second time. It's not aesthetically pleasing the second time either.

But Leon did what he needed to do. He was handed a win, and he took it. He took it. And now the big question is, where do we go from here? And boy, oh boy, I went back to and listened to some old shows from like three months ago. and this all began with man well Muhammad's never getting a title shot it's never going to happen even if Leon wins he's still going to have a hard time because Gary's coming and Shafcott's coming

he's just not going to get it it's just never going to play out for him it's not going to work and if Colby wins he's certainly he could win 37 more fights in a row and as long as Colby has the belts he's not fighting for the title and then as the build came through we're getting closer and closer to the event

all these dominoes that separated below Muhammad from a title shot all started to drop one by one they all started to drop one by damn one and then Saturday rolls around and even during fight week who had all the headlines on Monday heading into fight week Ian Machado Gary Ian Gary had all the headlines he is now in play because if he goes out there it just dusted up Vicente Lucke in a round or two and then cut a good promo. There is a real world where he would have jumped the line. They would have put that fight in the UK and it would have done fucking gangbusters. It would have.

But Ian gets sick, has pneumonia. Now he's rebooked to fight Jeff Neal in March. There's a domino that falls. Shafka-Rakmana, fighting Wonderboy Thompson. goes in there, has an interesting first round, not, you know, the most exciting first round, wins the round, and then he submits Wonderboy in round two with like five seconds left in the round. First guy to ever do it, didn't even break a sweat. And I saw so many people like, oh, Shafkat's not that good, he's boring, all that.

What the hell are you talking about? The dude, Shafka Rokmanov just had a fight of the year in March. Like, he is going to be, I'll tell you right now. BTF is going to be a revelation of like what we did in terms of our voting for the award show. Shopcott versus Jeff Neal is going to be on my top five. There's no doubt about it. That fight was insane. But now he's boring because he had, and then you find out after the fact that he had a badly injured ankle heading into that fight and almost didn't fight.

nobody knew about it. Nobody knew about it until after the fight. Nobody knew. If that story was never shared, see, that's the difference. Shofcott didn't show like he was hurt at all. It makes a little more sense now, but I didn't look at Shofcott at any point in that fight and say, you know what? That dude's dinged up. He's hurt. Goes out there, just runs over Wonderboy in the second round, taps him. That was another domino. And then we find out up at the, about the ankle injury, and that domino has fallen as well. So now there is nobody else. There is nobody else.

Bilal Muhammad is next. Everything for a guy that only fought once in 2023, this year has been incredible for Bilal Muhammad. It has just worked out so well. And I still see people out there saying, oh, he doesn't deserve it. Who else is there right now? Who else is there? Shafcott's going to be out for a hot minute.

This worked out perfect. this works out great Leon's next fight is going to be probably in the UK he should not fight anywhere else he should not fight at UFC 300 he should not fight in Las Vegas he should not fight anywhere else

he should be fighting in the UK there's more rumor and innuendo June maybe July they're going to go back maybe in Manchester there's a new arena being built maybe they do something there do Leon versus Leon versus anybody would

be fine there the building's going to sell out in five seconds give them below then Leon versus Belal, Tommy Aspinall in the co-main event, defending the interim title against whoever, and sell that place out and let's create something cool. Shafcott's going to be out for a minute. Shafkot is next. He should not have to fight again.

Let Leon and Bilal fight. If Leon loses, they ain't given him an immediate rematch. I think we know this by now, unless it's like a ridiculous decision, and he gets absolutely hosed. And then Shofkont gets the winner. Spoiler alert for the prediction show coming up in a couple of weeks. 2024 is going to end with Shafkat Rachmanoff as the Welterweight champion. He is going to win the belt. It is going to happen.

He's going to have to wait to see what happens with Leon and Belaw first. Because we don't know the severity of the injury. I'm sure he's going to take time off. But that man should not have to fight again. The only fight that would make any sense for Shofcott is Colby. Throw him in there with Colby, let him dust Colby up, puts it over the top. But at the same token, why risk it? And will the UFC actually risk it?

I see a lot of people saying that's the only fight to make. Then you could potentially run into a problem. Because what if Colby somehow wins? Would have Colby somehow beat Shofcott? Something weird happens, a banana peel. Shavcott gets hurt in the fight. Who knows? Maybe Colby has the best fight of his life.

And then what? You just knocked off a contender for a guy who's never got a fight for the belt again. So if I'm the UFC, if I'm Shafkot and his team, and he has a damn good one behind him, he ain't fighting again. Just wait it out. By the time Leon versus Bilal happens, which I think will be end of the first half of 2024, maybe the beginning of the second half, Shafkot could just heal up, get ready to go. At end of the year, he fights for the title.

And he will win it, more than likely, in my opinion. So we'll see what happens. Belal should be next. You can say whatever you want. Is he the most popular fighter in the world? No. Is it the most interesting fight for Leon right now? No, it isn't.

Because Shofkat versus Leon is way more, I'm way more intrigued by that fight than I am Belal. But Belal deserves it. He deserves his fucking day in court at this point. Everything that needed to break for him is broken. Give the man his opportunity. And guess what? I think Leon's probably going to win that.

that fight. Would it shock me at Bilal won? No, but I would pick Leon to win that fight. Leon looked incredible against Bilal before the iPok happened. But Bilal has earned his opportunity. Give it to him. Let's see what happens. And even if Bilal wins and the UFC doesn't want him to win, you got to throw him in there at Shafcott next. And you got to feel pretty good about Schofcott's odds in that fight too. I would pick Shofcott against anybody right now, anybody at 170. So there you go. We can talk more about this card, some of the storylines, the aftermath, et cetera.

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Uh, four on sniper. Go ahead. Can you hear me, Mike? Yep, I got you. Okay, hey, good morning. I just wanted to say basically everything you laid out at the beginning of the show about the Leon and Colby fight, I 100% agree with. I was rooting for Leon heavily, and I felt like it was pretty clear that Colby's might have been dealing with something. And then also what you said about him fighting the same way

in the Oosman fight, but also not getting started until even later in this fight, I agreed with. I don't understand it. I feel like it has something to do with as an activity, but also maybe an injury. Who knows? But I just wanted to ask you, the Carol Hosa and Irene Adana fight, that was a war. And I always wondered, when you get fights like that, such a war where both ladies or men go through such damage and it's a great fight like that why don't we give them 75,000 as a bonus instead of 50,000 because I see other fights on regular fight nights that don't really match up and don't compare I can see that being you know in contention for five of the year so what are your thoughts on that thank you sir uh man that fight was awesome holy smokes what a tremendous battle and that just shows

you uh how chaotic 2023 is because outside of maybe AK and even Cape to some extent talked about this. Was there anybody on planet Earth expecting an all-out slugfest, a bloody brawl between anybody at 135? No. I just, I mean, I didn't see this coming. Out of all the fights you could have picked for fight of the night, nobody was picking this one. Nobody. And boy, oh boy, not only was a fight of the night, it's one of the fights of the year. It's going to be on my list. I can tell you that right now. I don't know. where I'm going to put it. I'm not going to put it at number one, but it will be in my top five somewhere. I could guarantee that that is going to be in the top five. What a, what a performance,

what a war. The hospital photo is incredible. Do you give him 75K? No, but I mean, look, at the end of the day, all these bonuses should be 75K or higher. I think we're past the 50K. We've been doing 50K for like a decade now. Inflation, baby. Let's bump that up a little bit. But that five is incredible. Unbelievable stuff. Unbelievable heart. Unbelievable grit from both women. Rainie Aldada. Jeez, the poker face that woman has. Her leg looked like a candy cane. It was like rings of red looping. It was like a barbershop pole. It was crazy. Seeing the rings of welts around her leg. It was like perfect circles. It was insane. What a fight. What a freaking fight. So glad we got that one.

Cole, go ahead. Working. Cole, bounce out. We'll try again. Bounce out, bounce back in. Barbarusa, do we have you? I just want to ask you about the Walter Waite title fight. Do you think it's good that it was so boring that Leon cannot call for a middleweight champ champ.

stats up to that performance. Thank you, Mike. I mean, I don't think he's going to call for it anyways, for being honest. I think he sort of dialed that back a tad, and I think he was just basically got to look at it as this is something I want to attempt in the future. But I think the way it essentially came out was like,

I think initially he said he's going to call it Strickland or DDP, but yeah, I think he realized when he saw the reaction to it, He was like, hmm, probably not good. So I don't think he was going anywhere. I don't think he was actually going to call it the middleweight champion, even if he dusted up Colby in a round. But yeah, I mean, look, it doesn't hurt Blal either way. Blal, like, if Leon did call for the middleweight title and let's just say they moved him up,

Blah is going to get an interim title fight with the chance to fight for the belt anyways down the line. If Leon decides he wants to stay at 170. So, yeah, I don't think that was really a concern at all, honestly. And I'm glad he didn't do it. Boy, can you imagine the talk afterwards if Leon after that fight was like, yeah, man. Not only am I the best welterweight in the world, but I'm the best middleweight in the world. That would have been not good. Would have been not good.

So I've got it all kind of evened itself out there. And we'll see what happens next, probably Bilal. let's give the man is due uh cole do we have you now got me mike good morning yes good morning so saturday morning before the fights i was kind of excited because i have a colby covington signed card with a piece of his glove wrap in it from the damien maya fight and i was like all right it's time to increase this thing's value today and little did i know that that that thing would become worthless. That thing is worthless right now. But I'm wondering if you saw what I saw with like, even like Kobe's last few fights, like the Usman rematch, like the dude can't throw a punch

without slipping his feet. Like he can't get a grip on that damn canvas. But yeah, I don't know. The speed difference in that first round, I think Kobe noticed it and he was totally content with doing the Icarly fighting stance and just going to go five rounds with it but that's all I got thanks Mike yeah I think I think he realized early he was at such a disadvantage on the feed and I think he realized it like even in the second Ustman fight like Usman was lighten him up on the feet dropped him at one point looked like maybe Usma was going to get him out of there quick but Colby did his credit recovered and it was like pretty clear even for like the cat casual MMA fan what Colby needed to do to get back.

You just got to chuck them. Like you can't be a technical striker against a guy like that. You just got to go in there and chuck them. It's got to get grimy and filthy and nasty. And that's what Colby did against Usman. He got after it. He got after it. He just started chucking him.

Lots of them. And he was hitting Usman. He was winning. He turned all the momentum. It was one of those fights of you for like, oh, if you gave him an extra two rounds, like Colby's winning that fight. He's going to win.

But he just took him forever to get going. And we knew that he couldn't do that here. You couldn't let Leon pull away quick. And that's exactly what he did. And Colby had nothing for him. Nothing. Yeah, that card is going to be a, that's going to be tough. Or that glove is, it's going to be a tough sell.

Reminds you when I was collecting baseball cards, I went all in on Barry Bonds early. Like in the early 90s, I was collecting every bonds card, everything and for a while it seemed like a tremendous investment but now you know tied to steroids and all that stuff and not getting in the hall of fame those cards are worth like nothing now it's insane uh tristan hey mike can you hear me yep hey um i want to talk about uh like you had in the open you were talking about shop car rochmanov and uh yeah that you know i got to hear the interview later with Laura Sanko that he was dealing with a serious ankle injury, but he didn't want to pull

out. The opportunity was so great and still was able to go in there and finish Wonderboy, which is incredible. Mike, it just, what keeps coming back to me, as far as a flashback is concerned, is what when Kenny Florian used to work for the UFC with John Anick in that fight against the Korean zombie versus Dustin Porier, and at the end of that broadcast, he was like, Like, I don't think the Korean zombie has anything but finishing moves. And it's the same thing I feel with Korean zombie, I mean, with Shafka, like, that dude is the welterweight. And I said it before, this guy is the Welts Away prime Korean zombie.

Because the fact that Shopka has nothing but finishing moves, this guy can finish you anywhere. And that's what makes him the most dangerous fighter on this weight class. Maybe in the whole UFC is just, if you have your neck. out you have your neck out and he gets like 18 choking he's submitting you we saw that we saw that he did that to Neil Magny and then and then the Jeff Neil fight I didn't you know nobody that thought that the round was gonna end he was like nope bulldog you have submitted him with five seconds left and he did and it was just incredible and I'm just like with this guy I mean it he gives you something to think about

like if you're not careful I mean you got to be so careful But if you're not careful, he can finish you at any point. So with Shafkat, he's just amazing. And Mike also wants to know if you have the same feeling with Shafkat that you have with Armitzakhan, at some point, this guy's going to be championed. I mean, at some point. So, I mean, that's the feeling I have. You know, I've been with him day one.

I mean, I was concerned after that Neil Magnify that man, he got cracked. I don't know if he could handle that, but he showed he has a chin. That guy's a warrior, man. He has a warrior spirit just like Benoit Santini. He has a warrior spirit, so you could kind of like, all right, you know, this guy could eat a punch and he's just going to keep coming after you and not. He's just not going to let you breathe. He's just going to keep coming at you over and over again, which makes him so dangerous.

So, you know, just your thoughts on that. And then as far as the Patty Pineland and Tony Ferguson fight, obviously Tony Ferguson is washed. you know, it's hard to say he's not durable anymore and he's slow and that's the problem. You know, this is not like going back, that 12 fight win streak. I mean, he was just incredible.

He was quick. He was just doing incredible stuff and he just, I don't know if he's come to realization. It's like, I can't do that anymore, man. He just, the mind might be sharp, but he just, he can't move fast and he's just not durable anymore. So

and as far as Patty Pimman, it's concern. I don't know if he could, I don't know if he could face a top 15 guy right now. I just, if he fought Jalen Turner, he might get smoked because he didn't look great either. So, just your tooth awesome, what I had to say, thanks, Mike.

Thank you, sir. Yeah, dude, Jeff God's winning the belt. Like, he's, as soon as he fights for the bell, he's winning it. I think we've, he's, I'm not, I didn't rank him number one at Walter Waite. I think I ranked him number two. He is, He is going to win the belt.

It's going to happen. So I'm just preparing for to live in a world where Shafka wins the belt. Did I have the same sense on him as I had with Surukia? No, because I had that sense of Sauru Kian even before the Islamakachat fight. I'm like, damn, this dude's like 20, and he's just dusted up really good guys on the scene. And you can just see it. You can just see the talents at him. Shavka is just like, he's just a freak dude.

Just a freak. And it's kind of weird to think about because, like, just I can't get over people being like, oh, Shafcott's boring. He's not that fun, overrated after that first. I'm like, what the fuck are you talking about? And I got to think, I'm like, why are people thinking this way? And then I kind of realized, I'm like, do you remember when he came in, it was all about Hamzad? All the comparisons were to Hamzat Shemayev.

And Hamzat is a wrecking ball. second that fight starts he is a wrecking ball and it to his advantage and sometimes as we saw in the oussman fight and even the gilbert burns fight to his detriment and if shopcott who we compared to this guy the entire time isn't going out there trying to dust out dudes from second one oh he's a boring fighter oh he's not that good what are you talking about what are you talking about it's insanity insanity

the Ferguson Pimbo fight. I disagree with you on one count. To say that Tony Ferguson is not durable is just not true. He's incredibly durable. Are you kidding me? The fact that he survived that first round tells you that he's durable. The guy is still really durable. He got punched with, I mean, Patty hit him with literally everything he had on that combination.

And then he flushed jumping kneeed him. And Tony went down in a heap. and Patty was lighting him up, and Tony still survived the round. The guy's durability, it ain't the same. He's a little chinny now, but he's certainly durable. There aren't a lot of guys who are 155 who would have survived that onslaught. It just wouldn't have happened. Patty cracked him.

And because of Tony's durability, Patty slowed down the rest of the way. It made things real interesting. Patty was tired. Patty was breathing real heavy heading into round two because he didn't finish him. But you're right. He is a little bit slower. Reflects aren't there. Patty was taking him down with ease.

I mean, with ease. Didn't even really have to use a lot of effort to get takedowns. And as far as Patty, it was a, look, it was, did he dance over his quote-unquote unconscious body? No, he didn't. But this is a good performance. This is a solid showing. This is a solid showing. We saw some improvements in this game.

You know, he's still susceptible to getting absolutely cracked with his striking defense. But he fought a really smart fight. Dude looks like he's manning up a little bit. Looks like you put on a little muscle. He's got the cornrows now. He was feeling himself. He looked good. He looked in really good shape.

So, yeah, like, is this a fight where we're going to go back and watch again? No, probably not. But it's a good win. Dude needed to win. He lost that fight. He was dung. So he went in there, do we, yeah, do and what? As far as what's next, I'm going to say what I said on Ottenham.

I'm going to say what I said leading into the fight. You got to give him a rank guy. Give him somebody with a name. Give him somebody he could possibly beat. That's how the UFC is going to look at this. Dan Hooker is the correct answer. Now, am I saying this because I think I'm picking Patty to beat him?

No, I'm not saying this. But he could beat Dan Hooker. He could. And of all the guys in the top 15 right now that I would match him up with, probably that. Like, you gain the most from that. And if Dan Hooker beats him,

it's not like, oh, this guy sucks. It's like, dude, Dan Hooker is a dog. And like, I just think stylistically, it's a really interesting matchup. And if Patty wins, then the UFC can just bump him up even more, like to another fight. But yeah, do you throw him in there with Jalen Turner?

Hell no. Do you throw him in there with Benoit Suntanee? Absolutely not. Zero chance you do that. Please don't do that. Even Patty was like, yeah, I reached out to Benoit so we could train together. Smart.

Smart. Patty has wised up a little bit over this year layoff. And I honestly thought he did a really good job all fight week, too. He did a really good job. Put Tony over as a legend. Talked about the injuries.

And he didn't really start going in on Tony until Tony started going in on him. And then even the way he celebrated the win, put Tony over in a big way. Had the crowd applaud for him. Honestly, I thought Patty had a really good week. I thought he had a really good week. And we'll see what they do. Now, do Dan Hooker in the UK? works for me. Hooker's going to be out like a three or four months,

at least with the hand injury or the arm injury. Patty says he can't do UFC 300 because he's about to be a dad. Understandable. Let's push it back two, three months. UK, whenever they put that card together, Patty versus Dan Hooker, let's do it. That's the one I like. Let's go to Boston.

Brett. Yeah, Mike, actually. How are you, my friend? How's everything going? How are you, brother? Good, man. Good, good. Hey, I'm listening to some of the previous callers and a couple names come up and I hear,

your boy, I'm on Sirukian. So my question to you when it comes to him, I have so many questions for him. But my question to you about him is, are we going to see Sirukian versus Makachov, like the end of 2024? That's my first question for you. Second, no matter, not a question, but not so much a question, but Drick has to succeed, man, ever since his first UFC fight night with the interview, how he handled himself as a professional, I've been a little over that bandwagon, and I looked all of his previous fights before.

He's like not the greatest at one thing, but that guy, he can fight. And I think he's going to get down and dirty with Strickland. And I think he beats him. And I think he's going to be the next champion in that weight division. I see it. I don't know. But I think Bilal is 100% your next contender to fight in England with Leon Edwards. You can, like you said, with Aspinall, you can put a patty on that.

You can make a bomb, bomb card there. And I just want to shout out for the extra fights they put on UFC 299. I mean, some phenomenal fights with Gary and Neil. And my favorite one's going to be Peter Yan and your dong song, man. Those are going to be brawlers, man. And Mike, it's always good to hear your opinions on everything. And congratulations where you are. And I'll talk to you soon, brother.

Thanks, man. Yeah, don't forget, Dana White casually threw out that Michael Venom Page has signed with the UFC. He's going to fight Kevin Holland on that card as well. So, yeah, that Miami card's looking real good. $2.99's got that one. 99 feel heading into the historic next event with the two rounded numbers. So I mean, we're seeing some of these really fun fights getting put together. Like, what does 300 get to look like?

That was like my first, my first thought of those like, man, $2.99 is real good. But what's like, what do they have planned for $300 if they're putting all these crazy-ass fights together? So let's see. Yeah, Leon Bala has to be the fight at this point. I'm trying to like unpack everything here. The DDP thing. So let's talk about that a little bit because that honestly, DDP was one half of the biggest story of the entire weekend.

He was one half of the biggest story. The biggest takeaway from UFC 296 had nothing to do with UFC 296. It was that Sean Strickland and Drickus DuPasie were about to fight in the main event of UFC 290s. coming off of just a pretty awful press conference, if we're being honest, with the going back and forth. And, you know, DDP saying some pretty heinous shit too.

Strickland saying some pretty heinous shit back. Not good. And then fucking Dana White, man. How could you put these guys so close to each other? It was so funny, like going back and rewatching moments of the watch party on Saturday, because like when the watch parties end, I have to go back through

and like put the timestamps in so that, you know, look, that was a long main card. It was like almost four hours long. At the end of it, it was a long one. It's like three hours, three and a half, three, 45, whatever. And I remember like, they're doing everything. And I'm like, they show Strickland,

they show DDP two rows behind them. I'm like, what are they doing? I'm like, they really sat these guys so close together. I'm like, these guys are about to start punching each other. And G.C's like, nah, man, they're too professional for that. And then like a minute and a half later, everyone's, I got text, people hit me up on social media. Dude, DDP and Strickland just got into a fight. I'm like, oh, my God.

Unbelievable. Unbelievable. First of all, you can't be doing that shit. You just can't. Like, you're not, you are fighters as a profession. But when you are in the crowd attending an event, you're not fighters. anymore. You are just members of the public. Your fans to some degree. Now, credit to Strickland to some extent for at least telling Gilbert Burns' kids to get out of the way while he

supermaned and Sonic the Hedgehogs over two rows of chairs to start punching during his Duplice. And I'll tell you what the most interesting thing about that is. There's about 30 different angles of that fight that I've seen, and all of them look different. All of them look different. Some angles looks like Sean Strickland's getting the best of them. There's angles that look like GDP like obliterated Sean and maybe like knocked them out. Like there's, depending on which angle you watch, you can get almost a different interpretation of the fight. But yeah, we knew that fight was going to be insane.

Now it's going to be like ridiculous. The build to this one's going to be pretty awful. It's just going to get worse between those two guys. and I even said it. And despite some of the things he said that I didn't like, I'm not going to sit there and be like, oh, if you're wrong, if you don't like it and all that bullshit. But here's the thing.

Sean Strickland was the biggest winner of UFC 296. Hands down, he was the biggest winner because he is going to get pay-per-view points for UFC 297 and that fight is going to do a lot better on pay-per-view now that it was going to do come Thursday, this past Thursday. And the UFC, you bet you're bippy. They're going to use that footage on every promotional video. In fact, they Ryan Seacrested their own footage of it. John Aethorot, we're going to show you all the footage of this fight that happened in the crowd between two of our professional athletes coming up later on tonight.

So stay tuned, everybody. I was like, what the fuck? Really? Oh, we, this is abhorrents. We do not support this. You can't have this happening. People think we love this shit. But then we have to deal with the commission and all that.

And then like five minutes later, don't go anywhere, everybody. We're going to show you this HD 4K footage of Strickland, Trickusupilse fighting in the crowd. Oh, it's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. And no one's going to get punished. Whatever.

I mean, I've come to accept all of this at this point. And John Strickland's going to make a whole bunch more money now. It's insane. But yeah, that fight's going to be freaking bananas. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo? Great idea.

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Hello. As usual, I don't want to take too much time away from the... from the real people, from the actual listeners of on to the next one. So, but I have to comment on the Strickland DDP brawl if it's coming up. I will be at UFC 297. Of course, it's in Toronto. It's been in my backyard, in my hood, as I were, so I'll be there. So I have a lot of thoughts on it.

And I was looking forward to this fight already and the Co-Maine that might have Buenos Silva and Raquel Pennington fights. I think the card looks good. I'm very excited about the card. But I do think the main event got some extra juice for sure. And my best friend, do you think? I rarely have ever called anything in combat sports, like completely staged. We could maybe say this was arranged, but it felt very pro-wrestlingy once you break everything down.

So I don't want to say everyone was in on it. Maybe DDP was in on it. Maybe some of the security was in on it. But it felt so, it felt like a segment from like early, late 90s, early 2000s, Monday Night Raw or something. Because let me just break it down real quick. So you are explaining. It's in between the prelims and the main card. So perfect timing for these kind of shenanigans.

Ariel was talking about this in the M.A.R. as well. How convenient. You know, we have that lull. And then that moment happens. The way they showed it was they were like, oh, here's Sean Strickland. Here's DDP. They're drawing at each other. They had them on camera for like maybe, I don't know, whatever, 30, 45 seconds.

And then they cut away. But it just when it starts getting interesting, you can see kind of shot stricken react. They cut away. And I'm like, okay, that's weird. Like, you think they'd let that cook a little bit more. And within moments, Joe Rogan is suddenly on the broadcast saying, whoa, something just went down. It looks like DDP and Strickland just fought. And then we're all very intrigued.

It's like, ooh, this is the mystery of the unknown now. It's like, wow, what happened? Very quickly, it goes viral. Like you said, people messaging you, all these videos popping on Twitter from the bleachers, from people who are vaguely in the area. You're getting fighter reactions. You're getting all this stuff. So it went viral in a very organic way, better than if they had tried to make it go viral themselves. So that was really smart.

I do think that was in purpose. Strickland is very quickly ejected, which again felt a little too convenient for me at the time. And then later, yes, they do the Ryan Seacrest, the stay tuned. They show the footage. They put it out in social media. They put out their own HD clips.

So they were there the whole time. Obviously, the cameraman right there recording the whole thing. So you got all the grainy footage earlier in the evening. And then later, we get that perfect crisp footage, plus an interview with Megan Alevie. I don't think they did it on the U.S. account, but on the UFC Canada account, It was a longer clip.

They showed the brawl and then right away go into a video with DDP talking to Megan Olivie. So it was all very, very well put together. And again, it's a credit to the UFC production team that they can do this stuff so quickly. But I also feel like there's some planning there. Dana White taking the bullet for it after I'm the, you know, on the Ahole, put them next to each other. Yeah, I don't think that's an accident. I think you can just say, like, and you have to say you didn't do it on purpose, but you did. And like the punches

You got a good look at the video, right? I did. The punches were very pro wrestling brawl punches. Didn't you see that you pull the guys head into your chest and you're throwing these kind of like very showy like you're punching the back and shoulder. And I get it. That's how a real fight goes sometimes too.

Like I know I'm stretching here because that's how a real fight goes to those two guys, especially in a brawl. It's just one guy charges the other and another guy's trying to punch them and you can't really get a good shot in. That's also how, how pro wrestling fight would be booked. You see the pull away. Like, oh my gosh, don't call Steve Austin

and Triple H are going at each other. The referee's trying to pull them away, and they can't really hit each other. It just looked very funny. And again, barred being for me to incuse any of the parties involved or the finest job of the UFC of staging such an act. But if anyone is out there crying, conspiracy, crying, and pro wrestling, crying fake, I think they have a case. I think they have a case. And it all worked. It all worked. I'm more interested. I guarantee that. I'm more interested. I guarantee the general populous commercial in the fight and uh and that footage again you said they were going to use it they used it the night of right it's not the connor reggargar dolly thing like oh my gosh you're so ashamed it's like nope here it is yeah that's pretty cool let's show it so i thought it was staged but

that's just that's purely me out in a limb here i get it uh i would love to know what other people think though thank you my best friend yeah i mean look you got a case you got a case do i think like everybody was in on it do i think this was like all them and Dana's office together saying, all right, no, this is how we're going to do it. You think there was like a road agent involved? No. But you're telling me that, and I know how meticulous and how well-oiled a machine the UFC is, right? I've covered enough events. I know so many incredible people who work for the UFC who are part of the organization behind the scenes.

How do you look at the seating chart and think that this, is a good idea. Like, this is, this isn't something you miss, right? This isn't something you miss. And if someone, Dan, his assistant or whatever, is looking at the seating chart, especially after that press conference on Friday, like, how could you say, like, you know, this is a great idea. Let's put these guys within arm's reach of each other.

That's a great idea. Nothing's going to happen. What did you think was going to happen? I knew they were going to fight the second they were shown on television. As soon as Strickland did the whole gun thing. I was like, these dudes are about to start punching each other in the face. And that's what happened. Of course they knew this is going to happen.

And of course, Dana's got to take the thing. Look, Dana's very smart. You went on the Nelfboys. They asked him straight up, who does the seating charts? He said, I knew. Dana put these guys together. It didn't realize after that press conference. Yeah, maybe it's not a good idea.

Maybe we should put DDP on the other side of the building. What are we doing? It's insane. So, yes, to some things. degree, I don't think it's like a choreographed fight. I don't think it's a pro wrestling fight. But there's no way that everybody didn't know that they were going to start fight each other.

That's why they put them in the position they were at. Even if they didn't have that press conference, you're going to put Sean Strickland within two rows of his upcoming opponents? Really? He would have done the same thing if was Izzy. Two rows behind him. He would have done the same thing. Sean is who he is.

It was crazy. No, do I think it was like choreographed stage and fake? No. Do I think the UFC kept the seating where it needed to be for a reason to have a moment? Yes, I do. And look, today's UFC, that shit works. That shit works. Ain't for everybody.

But again, that passed the mom test. I got text from people saying, oh, did you see DDP in Shickland fight in the crowd? Yeah, we all have. It was crazy. But, yeah, of course. Stage, no hope that it happened. Yes. And it worked out perfectly.

No one got hurt. Really? Shricka looked like he was a little wobbly standing back up. I don't know if it was just all that or whatnot. But again, you watch that fight, you watch that little scurbish from a hold-up bunch of of different angles. It looks different in every single one of them. like there's angles where it looks like Sean just hits them a bunch

and there's angles that look like DDP drops them and gets on top of them it's just it's so interesting to watch craziness and that pay-per-view just got a whole bunch more interesting uh j-sad go ahead hello mike heck up a morning um in your opinion since UFC 299 so spec what are your expectations for ufc 300 or any surprises maybe brock lesnar i doubt that maybe Rhonda, well, yeah, that'd be it. I mean, I feel pretty good that it's got to be

Connor versus Chandler. Like, again, this is like no insight because you never know what Connor to begin with, but it just seems like we're probably going to get that now. And the way Connor pay-per-views typically work, like, we'll put some good, some decent stuff on it, but with Connor at the top, you don't need to go absolutely insane with stacking it. What kind of surprises are we going to get? Maybe Rhonda, but I don't think so.

Honestly, I don't know. I have no idea what they're going to do. At this point, like, it's all speculation, and every week that goes by, I keep thinking about it more and more. I think you have to do Misha Tatea Holly Holie Holm on that card. If you can't get Ronda, I don't Misha's been on Instagram stories,

like, you know, reacting to fans, talking about potentially making that fight. but if you can't make that, you've got to do Misha versus Holly. That'd be a really good one. And then let's kind of see how it all plays out. Like, I think once it starts to come together, we'll be like, all right, this is pretty cool.

We get Alex Pereira on the card. Maybe we get John Wei Lee on the card. Maybe they do Jan versus Jan. Apparently, Jan and Alexa Grasso have been going back and forth a little bit, like in a respectful way. But maybe fighting for the flyway title. which honestly I don't want to see. I mean, I'd be a little bit intrigued by it,

but if there's one division that doesn't need anybody moving up, it's 125. It's 125. There's so many fights for Alexa Grasse right now. There's the Chifchenko trilogy. There's Jan Jodan. Not Yon Jahn. Just 125 is just loaded right now.

Man in Fioreau, Aaron Blanchfield, et cetera. Getting the two divisions confused. And then Zhang has Janj, She's got Tatyada Suarez, who's fighting Amanda Lemoche. Like, they both have a line of competitors behind them right now. So I don't know what they're going to do. I'd be stunned if Connor and Chandler is not headlining that card, but I think we're all going to be kind of surprised together.

Jim Miller will certainly be on UFC 300. I know he's got a fight booked, but he will certainly be fighting UFC 300. They just pull him from his fight. just make sure he's definitely there, but I think Jim Miller will still be there. It's going to be a fun little game to try to figure out what they're going to do and then see it all play out.

Carl the Butcher. Hey, man. I'm listening from England. I just want to ask Oriano Lipski, she's a three-five winning streak now. Is it time to hyper up for you know, some big matchup

in the coming year. Thank you. Dude, she looked great. I've said it a few times. The under the radar slash low-key MVP of UFC 296 was Ariani Lipski. She was awesome.

She beat the hell out of Casey O'Neill. I didn't see that coming. Did not see that coming. But boy, she looked, she looked great. She looked great. She's just cracking Casey. She heard her a whole bunch.

She heard her real quick in the fight and Casey never could get going. she's she's found her stride she's found her stride so she's going to be somebody to watch this year for sure for sure i think she's uh officially in the rankings now as she should be a k and i had a friend's forever moment on onto the next one give her do her and tracy cortez that's the fight do it in mexico city if she if uh ariani can turn around in a couple months it wants to fight a top 10 fighter. I think Cortez is ranked in the top 10 in the UFC rankings.

Let me just double check. Nope, she's number 11. And Lipski's number 12. Isn't that a coincidence? Yeah. If Lipski can turn around from Mexico City, do that. Let's go. Her and Cortez and go from there.

Dude, this division's so fun. Grasso's champ, Chichenko, that trilogy fight's going to be interesting. Blanchfield is the uncrown champion. in my opinion. Manon Fioro, super good. Chacon's still there, about to fight Macy Barber. Macy Barber's looked incredible. Just Gondraj looked real good in her last fight.

Lauren Murphy's fighting Karine Silva at UFC 299. Ara Ujou. We got Amanda Hebas. Ara Ushua's fighting Natty Ice. Is she not? Is that the fight they made? I appreciate it's what they made. Yeah, dude, Natty Ice is so fun. She's another one that's on the way up.

Yes, they're fighting February 3rd. Natty Ice versus Viviani R. Ujo. Then you got Cortez, Lipski, Silva, O'Neill, and Andrea Lee. Fund Division. Fund Division. Let's go to Dylan. Hello, Dylan.

Hey, what's up, Mike? Can you hear me? Yes. Hey, man. I was just curious. I heard you the last part of the diet tribe this morning, so I don't want to piss you off anything, but with Dana White's like timidness to commit to the ball

at the press conference do you think like the biggest loser this weekend was Ian Gaye? Because I think if he could have got out there and just got a finish on Luke Gay, they would have made something in like London with him and Leon. And that would have been like gangbusters.

But also another quick question is the UFC in its attitude error right now? That's all. Thanks. I mean, that's an interesting way to look at it. I mean, they're really leaning into this, say whatever you want with no repercussions, fighting in the crowd stuff. And they're like embracing it behind the scenes, I think.

Like, it's just what it seems like to me. Yeah, this is very attitude era-ish. As, you know, AK kind of pointed that out as well. Yeah. I don't know. Because they don't need to do any of this, by the way. Like, none of this needs to happen. Right?

Like for most of us, Colby saying what he said to Leon at the press conference, like, did nothing for us, and it did nothing to really enhance the fight. Like, we just wanted to see the fight. It certainly helped to pay yourselves, but let's be honest, too. Colby did nothing for himself with that.

He just gave Leon a whole bunch more money. because Leon's getting the paper view points because he's the champion in the main event. You know what I mean? I don't think Colby got any pay-per-view points. I'd be shocked if he did. So he didn't really even help himself in any way. And it just didn't need to happen.

So, yeah, it's kind of attitude error edge. You do make a good point about Ian Gary because if he just went out, again, if he went out there dusted up for Sente-Luke, they might have just given him the title shot. Like they could have just given it to him. If he had gone to Media Day, it went to the press conference

and dealt with all of that because he would have been the talking point of the entire press conference. Everybody would have taken a shot at him. Both champion and challenger would have went in on him. Ian would have fired back at both of them. He would have been the talk of the press conference. But he got sick and now, again,

that's another domino that needed to fall. Ian Gary was 100% a domino that was in Ballal's way. And then it fell once he was sick. So yeah, was he the biggest loser the weekend? No. I don't think so. But, I mean, look, Ian's said the same thing for a while. He wants, he's got a plan mapped out.

I want to win X amount of fights, then fight for the belts. So I think it just kind of keeps him on track. And now he's going to fight Jeff Neal. we'll see how he does. I'm more intrigued by the Neal fight for some reason than I was the Luque fight. I like the Leuke fight too, but there's something about Jeff and Jeff's real good at stepping up when it counts. When those moments matter and he needs to win, Jeff's really good at that. He's really good at that.

So it's an interesting fight. it's an interesting fight it slows Gary's title run down slightly but I think he's okay with that so yeah I think he'll be okay so all right we got YMVZ then we'll take Ani that we'll take Nicholas

and then we got to go YMVZ go ahead Hey Mike heck of morning just a quick question I'm not sure if you touched on this or not where does Josh Emmett go from here he had a pretty you know solid went over rice I just wanted to get your thoughts on who should get matched up with him next.

Would it be like an Arnold Allen or a Brian Ortega? I wanted to get your thoughts on that. That's all. Thanks so much. Thanks, buddy. No and no. Arnold Allen is booked against Bobzar of Loyov, so that's not going to happen. Brian Ortega, it appears he's going to fight Yeya-Rodriguez.

It's just a matter of when. Could it headline Mexico City, possibly? But there's talks about maybe doing it on the February paperview as well, since the Featherweight title is going to be on the line. So maybe you can do it there. I don't know, but I kind of feel like that bite's going to happen. This one was easy. I think this is a friend's formal for A.K. and I.

But it's five syllables. Edson Barbosa. That is the fight. Josh Edmund versus Edson Barbosa. Sign me up. Let's party. fights hit me a banger. Ani, go ahead.

Wonderful. So a few things. So leading up into Leon Edwards versus Coldie Covington, I'm not a very big analyst, you see, as in terms of the technical details of a fight, but there was one thing based on my observations in both of their previous fights that I concluded that whoever moves forward

wins the fight. That's how the fight is going to go. There's no chance in hell that it does not go to a decision. And I think that's how the fight played out, don't you think? So when

Colby shot for takedowns, when he really committed to those shots, he was successful and he was moving forward then. And another thing that another reason why I feel Bilal's

Bilal could be an intriguing matchup is I think he is improved in terms of pressuring his opponents and Leon tends to get outward quite easily I think that's why Bilal might be

intriguing but I just can't see that being the main event of a pay-per-view mic I just can't I can't so if they were to do a card in the UK or not just London, maybe Manchester or I'll be lucky if they do it in Cardiff, because I'm in Cardiff.

And they have a Prince and they have Principality Stadium over here, which is an indoor stadium. Like, so you can cover it up. There won't be any rain. I don't understand. I remember ranting about this the last time. Like, why didn't Dana White look at Principality Stadium? We had WWE clash at the castle over here. So I think it would be nice to have Tom Aspinall versus Cyril Garn as the main event,

Leon Edwards versus Bilal Muhammad as the co-main, Arnold Lallen versus Josh Ahmed, Patrick Pembleau versus Bobby Green. And then you can also have Molly McCann versus Michelle Waterson Gomez. I know like most of them are do-dos, but I'm just coming up with a hypothetical card. Just let me give me your thoughts. And of course, the feature to... prelim, you're going to like this one. The featured prelim on ESPN Plus will be

Davy Grant versus Brian Keller. How about that? That's a good one, isn't it? And I also wanted to just quickly mention the flyweight division. You know, like, there was a time when the flyweight division was, like they were thinking of getting rid of the division. and we were there for the, you know, rejuvenation of this division.

We saw those Davison Figuero versus Brandon Moreno, those matchups. So I think Davidson Figuero needs a lot of credit for this. So does Brandon Moreno. It's just nice that the division is getting the shine. That's all I have, Mike. Give me your thoughts on those cards,

like seeing that AK is over here. Maybe he can react as well. I know he doesn't want to chime in. Thanks, buddy. I don't know. I don't know if I agree with a few things that you said there. I didn't necessarily agree with the moving forward thing because I think Leon was ready for Colby to move forward

and I think he was just going to counter him. So it was just kind of a standstill for a lot. And like I said, like Leon got a fight gifted to him by Colby. He saw what Colby was going to do and he was just like, you're going to do this, okay. I'll stand there and just kick you in the leg and counter any random punch you throw.

And that's what it is. To say Leon versus Belal is not the main event in Manchester is just wrong. They're not going to... Leon is a bigger star than Tom Aspen all over there. It just is what it is. Leon is the face of MMA right now over there.

Whether you like his style of fighting or not. Not saying that Tom can't get to where Leon is at right now, but Leon's the guy. Leon is the dude over there. And that's why a lot of this broke well. And that's why a lot of this, as we were getting closer to the fight, I'm like, if Leon wins, I do think the law is going to get it, because they are going to have Leon's next fight,

at least in my estimation, in the UK somewhere. And Leon, it doesn't matter who he fights. It really doesn't. Guys, you have to understand that at this point, and the UFC's run, that pay-per-view can do a hundred buys or a billion buys. And it's just all cherry on top of the Sunday.

Because the UFC is getting a whole bunch, they're getting millions and millions of dollars from ESPN just to have their cards on their network. Like, doesn't matter what it does on pay-per-view? What matters more, I think, at least right now, is let's sell the damn tickets. That's why the tickets are so freaking expensive. They're making so much money, and that is going to sell out.

Leon being a main event against anybody is going to sell that building out. It is what it is. And I throw Tom Aspinall interim title, co-main events, that thing's going to sell all like crazy. So Patty being on the card would make a lot of sense. Molly maybe. The one that I kind of was like a little shocked at was, what did Brian Kelleher ever do to you? You want to throw, after getting iced by Garbrandt, you want to throw them in there with Davy Grant? Come on, man.

What did Brian Keller ever do to you? I'm just playing, but you know what I'm trying to say. But yeah, Leon's going to headline. We won't be asked at all. And that's that. And it's going to sell out. UFC's going to make a shitload of money. And that's it.

Ball's going to get his day in court. And we'll see if he can play spoiler. We try to get Nicholas in. Usually has a tough time getting through. So we'll give it the old college try I got two other people waiting This needs to be The rapidest of rapid fire

Yep didn't go through All right four-course sports like real quick And I'll get to Clay also real quick Go ahead Hey hey Mike so the Coney event I felt like The way that Brandon Royval ended up fighting

You know he should have fought What got him all the way to the dance and I looked at a stamp Mark Montoya in the last two weeks. He has gone 0 and 4 while his fighters have been inside the octagon. Obviously, he started with Anthony Smith to figure out who was the other person there. But anyways, yeah, he was 0 and 2 in the previous week, 0 and 2 in this week. I don't know what it is Why having him contain so much against

Alexander Panthosia He was clearly winning the fifth round Do you feel that What's it called in his next fight? He's going to go back to being the chaotic Brandon Royval And with that performance, How far back did he push himself

To getting up another title shot? Not too far. I think he's just going to be fine. Pantosia is a really tough fight for him stylistically does not favor him because even if he was reckless and chaotic which I do agree with you to some extent he probably could have done

and probably had some more success he's probably still going to lose that fight Pantoja just was ready for everything this dude through and Pantosia was able to get it to the ground and that's how you slow Royval done because even if he just got a little bananas in there Royval would just would have done the same thing so maybe it was a little bit to his detriment

but I honestly feel that fight goes the same way regardless, it's just not a good fight for him. And I think, you know, now we do, for me, it's pretty clear what's next for Pantosia. They'll do Moreno Albazzi, winner of that fight gets the title shot, and you do Roybal versus Biddle Cop next. That's the one. That's the fight.

I know cop's booked against Nicolao. Win or lose. Do cop versus Roybal. There's no way that fight isn't the B's knees, my friends. I want a Minnell Cop tight I wanted a I think I wanted I wanted a Minel cop Tyson Nam at one point

like when Minel just got into the UFC that's the one and now we're beyond that obviously so now we need to do cop versus Royval and if cop wins and he gets his title shot there you go easy peasy all right Clay you have the final word

hello Mike good morning to you I'm not sure if you have talked about this topic earlier in this in this space but I'm a little bit critical called Leon Edwards performance. And he could have done much better, man. I mean, we all know that Leon Lever is much better than this. We saw what happened in the second Uzman fight and the third Uzman fight.

So he clearly can be more better than what he did last night. And I don't think he did the thing, as you guys say. And he was post-post-price conference. It was like bad. He kind of dismissed Bilal Mohammed. He had a chance to shut him up once and for all because, you know, beloved. Blal is not the most beloved guy in the sport, and he can gain

popularity by beating him. I don't know, man. I mean, I think he kind of didn't do what he was supposed to do, and he was, like, coasting. He did basically, like Israel, Alessania was doing in his last previous fights. Like, Israel, what Israel did against Jared Kennanier, what Israel did against Marvin Vittori, or Yuel Romero, that was the kind of performance that I saw from Leon Leic the other night.

Thank you. Yeah, look, I get it. I get why people feel that way. But again, as I did when Izzy fought Cannotier, I will defend Leon Edwards in the situation, just like I defended Israel Adasani in the situation. It is not up to the champion to dictate the pacing of the fight. It is up to the challenger to dictate the pacing of the fight,

and then the champion reacts. Jerry Cannoneer all week long, and any pundit who broke that fight down said all Bill Long, that Canada's best chance to win, win was to be super aggressive and try to go for a quick knockup. That was his best chance of beating Israel Adasania. Otherwise, he's just going to get kicked a whole bunch and punched a whole bunch. It's not going to be that great.

Izzy is also expecting Jared Kanader to be much more aggressive. And then what does Kananer do? He comes out and does a, his strategy is to have a range kickboxing match with Israel Adasania. And Izzy is like, this can't be real. But if you're just going to hand me a win, then I'm going to take it. And that's what happened here. I think Leon expected Colby to be much more aggressive.

Colby said a lot of things. We knew Colby's best chance to win was pressure and pace and to get off to a good start. And Colby didn't do that. Leon was just like, you're going to make, this is the fight I'm getting? Sure. Because you have to put yourself in Leon's shoes. If Leon loses that title, he's probably not getting another shot. Like, I think we can all agree on that.

The UFC is obviously UK value in Leon, but they don't look at Leon like he's a massive superstar for their company as a whole. So if Leon loses that title, he's probably not getting another shot. So, or it's going to take him, he's going to have a road back. He ain't just going to have to win one and get a shot back. He's going to have to win like two or three. So if you're Leon, you take what they give you. If Colby's just going to hand him a win on a silver platter with, I mean, Leon didn't break a sweat. He had the easiest fight of his life in a title fight.

It was one of the easiest fights of his career. Now, to one thing, and I even said this on the watch party, and I mentioned this earlier, I kind of felt Leon probably should have came out in the fifth round and tried to finish Colby, and I think he would have had he had that aggressive style to him. Like if I was just like the hype man in the corner, I'd been like, dude, you're at four rounds,

you haven't even broken a sweat. Colby's got nothing for you, just go kill this guy now. Go have some fun. Go have fun with him. But his version of fun was, watch we out-wrestle Colby. I'm just going to take him down three or four times,

and then Colby got on top, and Leon just kind of laid on his back and just let Colby lay on him. Took the round off and won the fight. So I don't really blame him for that. I don't really blame him for that. I mean, literally, he was handed a championship win. on a silver platter.

Take it, bro. You take it. Blah will be interesting. I think that's the fight. And then we get Shafcott. I am with you on the... Not doing the thing. But at the same token,

Leon doesn't really need to do the thing. I just don't know. I get both sides of it. I would like to see him just be more interesting in general. But that's just not who he is. he's just not that that dude so I don't know

he knows old no sold bala no sold chafcott and Leon doesn't really give a shit like whoever they ask him to fight he'll just fight he's not gonna

if they offer him he'll not gonna say well let's see what happens no I don't know maybe he waits for Ian Gary to see him

what he does against Jeff Neal maybe he waits for that I don't know but that would be friggin insane can you badge of Ian Gary after everything he just went through, fights three months later,

and then gets the title shot over Balal. Oh, my God. Twitter will be on another planet at that point. So, yeah. We'll see what happens. We'll see what happens. All right, we are done. Thank you very much.

I appreciate all of you. Busy week ahead. We will, I believe, a ranking... The ranking show is out on the podcast network for the updated ranking cycle. I assume we will have an airing of grievances episode coming up at some point, which I'm very excited about. And there's a lot of other stuff going on.

BTL will be an award show pre, like an M.A. Fighting Awards preview to some extent because those awards are going to stop popping out. I think next Monday, I think on Christmas is when the first one is going to drop. So stay tuned for that. We'll have an award show. We'll have all sorts of craziness, all the prediction stuff. On to the next one is going to be a blast heading into 2024. As far as this show goes, I'm not really sure what's going to happen.

Maybe if my best friend wants to host for a little bit, no problem there. After Friday, I'm actually off for the rest of the year and into like a few days of 2024. Like there's certain things I'm going to do. Jed and I will still do our promotional airing of grievances, BTL edition. So stay tuned for that. The content is going to be coming fast and furious, is what I'm trying to say.

So stick with us at MAAfighting.com. It's a tremendous website. And you're all tremendous people. So we'll be back here on Thursday. We'll have some fun right around 10 a.m. Eastern. But until that, everybody, have a great Tuesday. And have a heck of a morning, everyone.

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