MMA Fighting - HOAM | Will Conor McGregor Get Winner Of Charles Oliveira vs. Islam Makhachev In Return Fight?

Episode Date: July 22, 2022

With a big vacant lightweight title fight on the books between Charles Oliveira and Islam Makhachev for UFC 280 in October, will Conor McGregor find himself as the next man up when he's set to return to the octagon? On an all-new "Free-For-All Friday" edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck gives his thoughts on the 155-pound title picture and makes the case that McGregor could find himself in a title fight depending on the result of Oliveira vs. Makhachev. In addition, listener questions include Paddy Pimblett's ceiling in the UFC ahead of his UFC London matchup with Jordan Leavitt, how Tom Aspinall stacks up against Francis Ngannou, why Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic hasn't been made, 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: 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 Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?

The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. 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. It is Friday, July 22nd, 2022, and it is indeed a heck of a morning live on the MMA fighting Twitter spaces. Sure thereafter, you will hear the show on the MMA.

fighting podcasting network. I am Mike Heck. Hope you're having a great Friday. This is a free-for-all Friday here on the program so we can talk about whatever the hell you want to talk about. There's been a lot of big news, a lot of big fights this week. We got, we are on the eve of UFC London going down tomorrow, early morning MMA or early day MMA, which is always very exciting.

We got Bellator 283 going down later on tonight. That's a really strong card. and I think Cage Warriors has a card. One, I believe, is in the middle of a card right now. Jed's favorite middleweight Rainier-Duritter is about to defend his title. There's a lot going on. There's a lot going on.

And like I said, this is a free-for-all Friday, so we're just going to take your questions. The whole damn show. But there were a couple people. Let me just explain real quick what's happening. Happening to do that. Okay. So we're starting a little bit earlier today.

I have to hop on a plane. I have to fly to Boston in a few hours. Unfortunately, my uncle passed away a couple of weeks ago. He had cancer. It just lit him up and it just really warmed down and just took him real fast. So they wanted to wait because it happened in Florida. They wanted to wait until they were able to get him back to Massachusetts where he's from, where I'm from. my parents are from, et cetera.

So they're going to do the funeral and the celebration of life tomorrow. So I'm going to fly up for that and attend everything tomorrow. And I'll probably be able to watch the main card of UFC London. I'm not sure how much or what I'll be able to watch. But I will certainly watch it probably on Sunday, the replay, if you will, because I'll be flying right back on Sunday and then getting ready for UFC 277 fight week next week.

So a lot going on. That's why we're rolling a little bit earlier today because I just, I got to hop on a plane. And I didn't want to just not do a show. I didn't want to leave you guys hanging. So that's why we're doing it so early today. But before we get to the calls, I did have an email for someone who did not,

or a DM on Instagram for someone who could not make it today from Boston Rich. It said, hey Mike can't make it to heck of a morning because of work, but I was wondering if you could answer my question. Who do you think has a better title shot chance based off their win if Cheeto Vera or Sean O'Malley wins, or do you think that they should have the second fight

and who wins the fights as the title holder? Thank you for you do, heck of them, morning. So I think the question he's asking is who would sort of get the rub if Cheeto won, if shot O'Malley won. I would say that they're probably going to fight each other, other would be my guess, but it all depends on what happens. It's kind of a wait and see because if Marab beats Josealdo and Al J. J. Stirling beats T.J. Dillashah, those two aren't going to fight each other.

So probably going to have to decipher who the number one contender is going to be. But if Marab wins and T.J. wins, they'll probably do Marab versus T.J. would be my guess. And if Josealdo wins and either Sterling or Dillishaw wins, he's probably getting the next title shot. So at that point, you probably just do a five-round main event. Cheeto versus Shotto Mallee, straight up number one contender fight, winner gets it done. That would be how I think it's going to happen. I saw Aheed in here. I know he wanted to get some things off his chest yesterday. So Aheed, please hop back in when you get a moment and we'll make it happen. So let's start with Dane Knight. Dane's going to kick us off, get us started.

Dane, how are you? Dana, you're there. Hey, Mike, can you hear me? Yes, sir. How are you? Hey, so I was wondering, what do you think about Charles in a winner-lose match against Connor? And what I mean by that is, do you think there's an agreement maybe behind the scenes with Dana that he gets a fight with Connor no matter what happens in that fight against Islam? Thanks for taking my call, man.

Appreciate it. I don't think it's that. I think there's something to that. I do think that Connor is in the discussion right now, which is why this fight's happening at Abu Dhabi, which is why Charles Oliver has agreed for this fight to happen at Abu Dhabi. They probably gave Charles everything he wanted. They probably gave him a couple extra bucks. He's getting the pay-per-view points it appears, and I'm sure the Connor thing is part of this.

If he loses, I don't think he gets the Connor fight, but if he wins, I would be stunned if he didn't get the Connor fight. I think that just has to be part of the discussion right now because like I've said a few times before, the location of this fight doesn't matter. Like it's obviously bigger to do it in Abu Dhabi because of Makhachev and because there's going to be a lot of people there cheering for Makhachev in Abu Dhabi.

But you could have done this fight at MSG and it could have outlined. You could have done this fight in Las Vegas. It could have done it in Salt Lake City anywhere. And this would have been the main event and it would have been a very big deal. And it probably would have done the same on pay-per-view. if we're being honest, but now you have this one

headlining just this mega card. And let's just be clear, the reason that they're getting a mega card is because that portion of the world is paying for it. The UAE has a deal with the UFC. They pay the UFC to bring a card there every year. There's certain contingencies in place for these cards, a la having two title fights, stack the deck. And that's certainly what they're doing here with this card they're putting together, it is absolutely redonculus.

This is a incredible card. No one's even talking about the coal main event between Sterling and Dillusha. Then we have O'Malley versus John, which is a really interesting fight. We have Sean Brady-Ball-Mohamed. We have Matush Gamrott versus

B'Neal D'Aroesh. We have just a whole bunch of fun stuff on this one. We just found out Marina Rodriguez is fighting Amanda Lamos. I mean, the card is just loaded up. But again, I said, I don't know if it was yesterday or Tuesday, let us tamper our expectations. It is a long ways away from October 22nd.

So there's a chance that maybe we don't get all of this. Hopefully we do. And I'm curious to see what they're going to do with UFC 279. Because September 10th, that's going to be a big one. We got Nate Diaz versus Hans-Sat Shamaif in the main event. That's going to just do bonkers on pay-per-view. The card as it stands right now, let me just pull it up real quick, is not spectacular. They just added Johnny Walker versus Iwan Kutalaba to that card, but, I mean, we need some more.

We need some more meat on that bone. Here's the card as it stands right now. So we got that fight. We got Shamiy F. Diaz. We got Shami Abderahima versus Jelton Almeida, Norma Dumas, Daniel Wolfe, Irene Aldana, Macy Chiasan, interesting fight. Jamie Pickett, Dennis Tulian, Chad, and Elliger versus Jalman. Aletang A. Lee, Elise Reed versus Melissa Martinez, Super Melly. Which, I mean, listen, these are fine fights, but this is a fight night card outside of the made event.

Let's just be honest. So hopefully they could add something. I would be stunned if there isn't another pretty interesting marquee welterweight matchup added to this just in case. Shemaya or Diaz can't go on this card. So we're running out of time, though. We're less than two months away from this fight card happening. right now 280 is looking way juicier than this one. But the main event is the reason people are going to buy this thing,

and a lot of people are going to buy it. So let's go to clearest values. Mr. Hess, how we doing? Good, Mr. Values. Great. I have a simple one for you, but I think it's simple at least, just because I think you're kind of in the know.

It seems to me pretty obvious from an outsider perspective. who pays attention to things happening in the UFC that Dana and the press don't really love Aljo. Can you tell me why that is? I don't know. Like Aljo, so I don't know if it was like 2016 or 2015. That's 2016 was probably the most memorable year in the history of the UFC. That's when the sale of the company, UFC 200, the John Jones thing,

Connor Nate, like those are just like some of the things that happened. But one of the other things that happened a lot in 2016 and even like the end of 2015 was the talk of free agency. This is when free agency became a thing. This is when MMA and the UFC in particular were starting to make the rise. They had the deal with Fox. They were in the midst of the big year. The company sells $4.2 billion.

I mean, they are becoming as mainstream as they could possibly be, probably way more beyond their expectations at that time. And a lot of fighters were talking about free agency and contracts coming up and where they could go and things like that. And Al Jemate Sterling was one of the first guys to come out and talk about free agency. And the free agency talk did not make the UFC brass happy. Dana, Lorenzo at the time was not happy about the free agency talk. But at the same token, this is just what sports are, right? This is what sports are.

We talk about free agency in the NFL, Major League Baseball, NBA, et cetera. And maybe there's a part of the UFC just hasn't really gotten over it. Alger's a pretty outspoken guy. He's a good fighter. He's the champion right now. But I think in the UFC's eyes, they probably, I don't know, maybe he's just not, doesn't draw enough for them. Maybe he just don't like the way, I don't know. I have no idea.

But I would say that the first strike really was that. was Aljo being open about free agency and testing the market and maybe getting a good offer because at that time like that started then we had Rory talking about it. We had Benson talking about it. We had other fighters begin to talk about it. And Aljo was one of the first ones to really talk about free agency and, you know, maybe I'll go somewhere else talking about fighter pay and things like that. And Aljo's not afraid to go on social media and call the UFC out on stuff. So maybe that rubs the wrong way a little bit.

But it's worked for Aljo. And what Aljo has done so well and what he continues to do so well is, like right now, we're looking at this 280 card and we're looking at the matchups that are on the table right now and are on the card. And the one fight that is probably being talked about the least of the five or six major fights is the Sterling Dillishaw fight. But come fight week, where we're like where we're going to think about and view that fight at that time to how we're going to feel about a come fight night, Aljo is going to sell the

crap out of that fight and build intrigue and build interest. Because he did that very, very well in April on that Jacksonville card. So I think, I don't know, there's just something about Aljo that maybe rubs them the wrong way a little bit. But at the same time, I think the UFC kind of appreciates its approach because Alja did a fantastic job during fight week ahead of that Peotryon rematch of a building interest and intrigue for that fight, made people believe that he could. actually win. When the fight was initially on the books, people were like, there's no chance this guy

could win. Peerner's just going to run him over. We saw the first fight. And Aljo built it up, shut a lot of people up, and did the victory tour afterwards, and people did not like it very much. But yeah, I don't know. I mean, I don't have a straight answer, but if I had a guess, I think the free agency talk was kind of the starting point. And then I don't know if the UFC fully recovered from all that but who knows maybe it's just the division the lighter divisions don't really get a big push unless you have like one guy in particular who who talks about it and like so hoodo did a good job for a while at 25 and 35 until he just kind of screwed the company over and just left them davison figurato didn't really have to talk but he's a super interesting guy but was just

colding people at 125 and just finishing everybody so i don't know i wish i had a straight answer but that would be my guess. Let's go to Brian Gross. What's up, Brian? I can't hear you, sir. Hop back in, Brian. I'll get you back. I'll get you right up there.

Let's go to Tristan. What's up, Tristan? Mike, what's going on? Hello, sir. Yeah, sorry for your loss, man. It's tough to deal with. He's in a better place. Okay, that's good to hear.

I got a couple of takes here. I got a hot take here. I'm saying this right now. Aaron Pico, Aaron Pico right now is 25. He'll be 26 this year. Give him about a year two. He will become Belator champion

and then make the move by 2025 to UFC and become the featherweight champion. I'm saying it right now. 2025, he'll be the UFC featherweight champion. I think he fights for the title right away. It would be 28, 29. I think at that point, Bokanowski, maybe he'll already

moved up or he'll still there maybe have the title, but Bokonovsky will be a little bit older. Again, I think Aaron Pico would be just in his prime and ready to go. Well, round the fighter, I think he's just absolutely phenomenal. And you heard it first.

What is this? 2022? I'm saying it right now. Aaron Pico, 2025. We'll be USC featherweight champion. And let's go. Let's go with that. And then I just need, I don't know if this, you guys haven't confirmed you yet, but it looks like Benoit Santinese will be added to that September 3rd card in Paris. I don't know if you guys confirmed that yet, but it looks like he may be on that card.

I don't know. I don't know if you can, again, I don't know if you can confirm that. And then my last question would be, what's your upcoming thoughts for your, I can't believe it. next week starts Dana White Contenna Series season six. What you're looking for to this? Are you excited about this? About the Dana-Wine Contenten Series for the season six. And, you know, just let me know how you feel about that.

And that's that. Thanks, Mike. Have a heck of a morning. Thank you, sir. The Aaron Pico one is a hot take. Listen, I am very high on Aaron Pico, have been for a long time. This is a guy who, a lot of fighters in his position, where it just kind of folded when he was on that,

losing streak and he just keeps coming and he's taking things very seriously. I know Brandon Gibson has been such a big part of this, this rise of Aaron Pico, just making him such a complete fighter, such a good striker, such a good wrestler. And the guy has, I mean, the guy certainly has the skill. I don't know if I'm ready to say he's going to be beaten the best fighter in the world right now, in my opinion, now is Jennifer Volkovsky. But we'll see. I need to see him tested a little bit more.

he's fought some good dudes. Like Justin Gonzalez is a good win. Let me just pull up like the UFC Featherweight rankings right now. Like would I favor what I favor Aaron Pico to beat Ilya? Would I favor him to beat

Arnold Allen? Would I favor him to beat Bobzar of Loya Bryce Mitchell? Shane Burgos? I mean, I don't know. It's interesting to think about I need to see like the Jeremy Kennedy

matchup would have been a good one before he got Adley Edwards Mads-Bernel is fighting Pedro Carvalio and if Mads-Bernel beats Pedro Carvalio in September I'd love to see Aaron Pico Mads-Bernel. That'd be a great fight that'd be a great test to see where he's at

and if for some reason I don't know what they're going to do with Patricio at this point maybe you do the Aaron Pico Adam Borch rematch I don't know but I think we need to see a little more from Aaron we need to see him against some top-level competition.

So give him either Bernel, if he beats Carvalio, give him Adam Borch, because we don't know what's going to happen with Pitbull. Maybe they do them a key trilogy fight, which they probably should at this point. But I'd like to see Aaron fight one of those two guys and we'll really see where he's at. He's not going to fight AJ. He's already said that a million times. But for some reason, people still keep asking about that. It's not going to happen.

So, yeah, give me one of those two guys and then we'll get a better grasp of where he's at. But the guys that he's fighting, he's treating him the way. that he should and he's looked real good. That Justin Gonzalez win is going to age really well, in my opinion. And, I mean, he dominated that fight. It was a clean sweep. He's good. He's got skills.

And I just liked his approach to everything. He's a little hard on himself. He is confident. And I hope we see him in the UFC at some point. I really do. I really would like to see him tested against some of these top 15, top 20 guys in the UFC. And who knows? I'm not I'm not ready to make that jump just yet that he could fight Volkovsky and and beat him or anything like that.

There's a lot of guys in the UFC's feather. Like the UFC, looking at the UFC featherweight division right now, you could put guys who are in the top 35 and make a case that they should be in the top 10 of the Belator rankings. Like 100%. Like Pat Zabbatini would be like the number five guy in the Belvoir. Alaso rankings. Lorone Murphy would be a top five guy. Like, you know what I mean? So it's, it's just, it's just a different world.

It's just a different world. All right. Let's skip Brian, see if we can get Brian back in here. Yeah, my bad. My bad about it. Oh, good. Freaking out. But a quick question.

I'm a huge Cleveland guy, so I have to ask about Steve. Do you think anything is kind of going to be announced within the next two pay-per-views about MSG? because I really don't know what else they could put there. And I saw he also posted a thing with his team as well. So I feel like it's kind of a little hint, hint, nudge, nudge. But I might be reading too much into things. But thanks, Mike. Have a heck of a morning.

Thanks, buddy. I would love to be confident and say, hey, watch UFC London tomorrow. They're going to announce something or watch UFC 277 next week. They're going to announce something. I've said this before. I said it on BTL yesterday as well, by the way, BTL champ right here. But the longer this goes,

the further we get into the year, the more I feel like the UFC is going to wait on Francis and Gano before making any kind of announcement. Because Francis has come out and said, maybe I can come back in December, maybe I can fight in January. And at this point, it's July.

We got four months left of 2022. And if Francis can fight in December, or fight in January, like the UFC is just going to wait. Like, they're just going to wait for him to fight John Jones. Like, that's what I would do. That's what I would do. And it kind of screws Steepa over a little bit,

but that's just the world that we're living in. Like, the road to all of this, at least to the UFC's eyes for a business perspective, is that we want Francis Aganu versus John Jones. We want that fight to happen. Now, if we have to get to Stepe to make that happen, And like, let's just say Francis can't fight till May or June of next year, that that knee heals a little bit slower than he thinks it's going to. Then, yeah, they'll do the interim title flight.

But at this point, like the fact that we haven't seen this on the books, like both guys have said clearly, we are ready to go in September. Like, let's do it in September. And we got D.S. J. Javier for that September 10th card, which is great. And it's going to do better on pay-per-view than John Jones v. Steepa. There's no doubt about that. But the fact that that is not on that card, it worries me a little bit. And MSG, we got MSG, we have the December card, and MSG you could go a number of different ways. Like you don't have to do John Jones versus Steepie on that card.

I feel like that would be a big ass fight for that card 100%. And if Francis isn't going to be ready by January, yeah, pull the trigger out one of those. Do it in December, do it in November. That'd be a huge main event for MSG. But something tells me they're going to do. I mean, I have no insight into this whatsoever. So I'm just throwing this out there. I think they're going to do Adasani Pereira on that card.

And then maybe they do Yeri versus Glover 2 on that card as well. Like, that'd be fine. And then they just load it. And then December maybe you do steep John. Like, I just don't know. Like, the more time that passes this year, the less I feel like they're going to do Stepe John Jones and they're just going to wait for Francis. We're just, we're running out of time here.

Like, we're running out of time. So if they are going to do John versus Steepa, they got to do it quick, and they got to put out of the books quick, and they got to get both guys to sign the contracts pretty quickly. And both those guys are men of principal, or they're just really tough to deal with. And it wouldn't stun me if we don't see that fight at all. Now, I hope I'm wrong because I'd love to get two for the price of one if it's possible. But again, John's still going to beat Steep A. that's actually a pretty tough matchup for him. And what if Steve A wins?

And it kind of just kills everything. So maybe the UFC looks at it in that sense. Like if we're going to do Francis versus John Jones, maybe we just wait. Maybe we just wait five or six months and just do it. But I don't know. I wish I had an answer for you. But I have a feeling we're probably looking more towards Adasadio Pereira headlining that card. But I could be wrong.

Maybe the UFC's already got both those guys to sign. but if I had to take a guess, that's the guess I'm given. Let's go to Ezekiel Shamias. What's up, Zeke? Good morning, heck of a morning, heck of a week. I don't know how to go about this, but you're the man, Mike. All right, I'm going to double down on what I said yesterday. I haven't changed my Avi because, again,

I'm on Shemaiah versus Nate Diaz is a funeral. There's nothing. The only thing that Nate is getting out of the disease is going to like, He is finally going to a luxurously get released from the UFC. He is not going to be contracted by Dana White anymore. And maybe he'll get that Jake Paul boxing match or whatever the hell of Nante as he is trying to do after this UFC contract is over. Now, for you, I have a question. Talk to me about Patty Pimlet and Jordan Levitt.

It's such a funky fight. Like, Jordan Levitt really can't hurt a fly striking. Like, I'm not going to tell you lie. I mean, obviously, I can't hurt a fly. Who the hell am I? but Jordan LeVett striking is definitely not up to par with Patty Pimlet's. I think Jordan's advantage is going to come in the clinch and maybe even, you know, try and string together takedowns if that's possible.

You think he's going to be able to out athletic Patty Pimlet at any time? In my opinion, it would probably come in the second and third round. I think Patty's going to be shot out like a, you know, a bull out of a cannon in the first round, especially with that O2 arena, all those cards, all those flights, all those Englishmen or whatever the hell is going on over there for Patty and he's going to be sued for. So what do you think about Patty and Levet? And yeah, I'm just backing down, doubling down on my Humzot take.

I just, I see first or second round ragdolling. There's no way we go to the cards. There's no way we even see a third, fourth, and fifth round in my eyes. I don't know, Mike. Maybe I'm just crazy. I don't think that's crazy because he's minus 1100, but Amzotamaya is a real deal. Rory McDonald's. ragged old Nate Diaz

like I don't know man I just I think comes out to that different beast and I don't I don't like what's in Nate future in September so have a heck of a weekend and let's enjoy these fights Mike thank you for having me thanks buddy so the double dad like

I mean to hear there's no way I just don't agree with you like there is a way at this fight like there's a very real chance that you're right that Shamaic just goes out in trucks Nate in the first like two or three minutes which is the worst case scenario for Nate Diaz.

Nate just surviving five minutes, like if he weathers a storm and just stands up and flips, comes up the birds heading into the second round, even if he had stopped in the second round, no one's going to care. No one's going to care. Because all they're going to remember is that Nate's so tough and that he stood up and still said FU to Samsat Shamaa

after delivering what he did in the first round. And Nate's stock still rises. The worst thing that could happen is that he gets picked up, slammed, and just trucked and got out of there in the first three minutes of the fight. That'd be horrible. Anything else that happens is probably going to be a win for Nate. It probably is going to be a win for date. So, and again, Nate is a super durable guy. And to compare fighting Shemai after the Roy McDonald fight or some of his other fights against wrestlers, like Nate didn't care about those fights. Like Nate's, Nate gets up for

the real fights. Like the ones where the light shines the brightest on him, he gets up for those. The ones where no one thinks he can win. Michael Johnson fight. That was one of the best performances of his career. Then he goes and fights Connor. And not a lot of people gave Nate a chance to beat Connor and Nate went out there and weathered a storm and finished Connor McGregor in the second round.

A lot of people felt Nate won the second fight against Connor McGregor. That was a crazy just a bloody ass fight. And then he was out for a while, beat Pettis up real bad. I mean, he just put a whooping on him. The Mazel fight was

I don't know. I mean, the Mazenol fight was a tough one. That was like the best Mazadol we've ever seen. And Nate, it's a, Nate got beat pretty badly in that fight. And then the Leon fight, no one cares. Like, no one cared what happened in the first 24 men to that fight. All they care about is that Nate heard him at the end. That was the talking point. Nate made people believe that he won.

Like, it's just, it's, what this guy does is just amazing. His stock rises almost every single time. It's nuts. It's frigging nuts. Patty versus Jordan Levin Come tomorrow By the time we wake up And we're getting ready to watch these fights

This is the one everybody's gonna be talking about Patty Pimlet does such a great job Of getting interest going Like he shows up at the Wayans this morning And he makes Wade And then anyone who said he was Like that quote unquote fat shamed him You mooned everybody

Like Patty does a great job At building interests He's a great interest builder He's not a great fighter in my opinion. Now, maybe I'm completely wrong about this. Maybe something will click in the next couple of years. And maybe he will go on this run. And like I've said before, I will come on the show and I will dedicate an entire hour to Patty Pimbled in his rise and me being wrong about him. I do think he's going to win this fight. I don't think he's going to finish Jordan Levitt.

I don't think anything about this rattles Jordan Levitt at all. I don't think London rattles Jordan Levitt. I don't think Patty rattles Jordan Levin. I don't think there's any pressure on him whatsoever. And I think he's going to walk into that cage tomorrow like he's fighting at the apex. Like I honestly believe that. This dude doesn't care. None of that stuff, the glitz, the glamour, the attention. None of that stuff bothers him.

He is who he is. He's a self-admitted weirdo who reads a thousand books a year. And none of this bothers him. He literally thinks this fight is not interesting at all. From a stylistic perspective, he thinks this fight is boring and uninteresting, and he's going to go and win and just go home. Like, that's the way he really feels about it. I made a prediction on BTL off the top of the dome,

and I'm going to say, I'm going to say it again right here. What's going to happen is these two guys are going to scrap. Patty's going to have a great start. Might hurt Jordan or at least force Jordan to be a little bit uncomfortable. Jordan will survive the storm. Jordan, I think Patty will be a little thrown off at the toughness of Jordan. I think he'll realize that, okay, maybe this guy isn't as easy of a win as I thought he was going to be. And Jordan's going to take him down in round two, maybe take him down in round three,

and we're going to jump on Twitter and we're going to say, all right, because we all love to give our scores. We're all judges, right? 29, 28, Leavitt, not the fight we expected. Patty's going to win a decision. People are going to complain about it. London's going to go bananas. Dave Port, no, he's going to lose his mind looking like a wearing the three-piece suit, dressed like he's going to a big race in London.

And people are going to be pissed about it. And Patty's going to eat up. As he should. And we're going to learn nothing about either guy. Like, honestly, like, that's the most MMA thing that's going to happen in a fight like this. So it's going to be fine. I don't think it's going to be a great fight. Like, I think Patty has the advantage on the feet for sure.

But not by much. Jordan can strike a little bit. I know he hasn't shown a lot in the UFC, but Jordan can strike. Like Jordan's been trading at Syndicate with high-level guys for a decade now. Like, he's struck with guys who were as good, if not better, than Patty Pimplin. He's smart. Like, he legit, like, he live spars. He goes out there and just gets after it.

Like, this is going to be. be a closer fight that people think it's going to be. If I'm betting on this fight, it's dogger pass all day. But I think I'm, I think Patty's going to win. I think Patty's going to win. And it ain't going to be pretty. And I actually think it's going to be the perfect thing for Patty Pimbley. Because the London, you're trying to make this guy a star in London. He should be only fighting in London. This is where she should be. He should just be fighting and featured or co-mains on these London cards and getting wins. Like, this is, the whole atmosphere of all this is the crowd.

Like, we want London to win when we watch these fights. We want to see how the crowd reacts to it. And if Jordan Levin goes out there, it just stunts on Patty Pimblit and does the splits and twerks and all that stuff. Like, can you imagine what's going to happen? Like, it could be a freaking riot in that place. But I do think Patty's going to win. I don't think it's going to be a pretty fight at all.

I think Patty's going to win, and I think Patty's going to eat it all up. And that's exactly what he should do. And then Patty will fight on the next London card against another mid-level guy that he should get a win over. And he's going to probably win. And there you go. Like this is what we should be doing with Patty. We should not be building Patty up to be a title contender. Because that's just dumb.

That's just not what you're supposed to do here. Like you don't do that. Put Patty over in London. Like it's okay. It's okay. Belator does, I'm not saying like book him against like Owen. 14 guys, but book him against guys that stylistically he has a lot of advantages over. You know what I mean?

Like, these are the kinds of, like, we want him to win. We want just like from a viewer perspective, like, we want to see the London crowd go crazy and throw cups of beer up in the air. Like that's, that's, as a viewer, that's what made the March card so good. Like, the fights were great. There have been better cards than the London card from like an action standpoint. But the crowd and the reaction of the people made that one. as special as it is.

Like at the end of the year, when we're talking about cards of the year, I think London's probably going to get it, even though there's probably other cards that were better from top to bottom. And that was a great card, by the way. I'm not downgrading. It was a really good card,

but the crowd made that extra special. And that's the thing. Like, we want that. We want that as a viewer. But, yeah, I think Pad is going to win. I don't think this fight's going to be much to write. This is not going to be a fight. We're going to go back and watch again.

At least in my opinion. But we'll see. Maybe I'm wrong. I just runs them over or Jordan pisses everybody off. When I got a great deal on a great gift at winners, I started wondering,

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Buckle your seatbelts. Let's see. Maybe we can get them on. He's been waiting patiently for like two days. I think he's here. Yo. Horrible news about your uncle. I wish you and your family

the best during this hard time. Thanks, man. So let's talk about, thank you. What you said about Paddy is on the ball. You know, like, listen, it's all, it's entertainment. It's just pure entertainment, right? And that's fine. That's fine.

If you set up against these, like, you know, favorable matchups, that's fine. But don't start talking about titles, yeah? Forget the top 10 of the lightweights. 10 to 20 will whoop him. Okay, like, there's the Sarukia. There's no, forget the Sarukians or the Redals. I'm talking about. McKinney, Terence McKinney will smash his head in.

There's other ones as well. There's Grant Dawson. So there's just a couple of people that are just going to whip him and, you know, like Paddy's trying to use the whole yesterday, Brett Okamoto called Jordan Levitt, Justin Levitt. That was pretty bad. I'm not going to like, because he said it twice in the same sentence. That was pretty bad. And Patti was trying to be like, oh, see, no one knows Jordan. that's something bad on Jordan's part. No, it's not. That was bad on Brett's part.

Like, that's not, everyone knows who Jordan is. As in, I don't know why Paddy's getting so angry at what Jordan said. He's right. Jordan's right. Like, the two guys Paddy has fought, they are no longer in the UFC. I don't know why he's so, he's probably too sensitive because he knows it's true. And it's the same thing like Molly McCann, right? Like Adam Catchel from BT Sport was trying to mention.

and a title in the same sentence and Valentina Shofchenka, I was like, hold on a second. What are you talking about? And then with Curtis Blades and Aspinall, I think people are getting a bit too carried away with Aspinall. But Aspinall is good. But to be honest, I think I'm just going to predict Curtis Blades, going to shoot blast doubles, make this a really boring fight. It's just going to be like, you know, he's going to take him down and then just body,

everybody had because Curtis plays doesn't care and I respect that. He's being set up to lose and he just has to get the win. So I respect that if Curtis does that. I think he will try to do that. And also with Nate Diaz and Chimaio, because I didn't get a chance to come on here yesterday to comment on that. I wanted to say, everyone who's offended by this matchup who say,

oh, how horrible Dana is and like that's so bad today, Diaz, like they need to stop acting self-righteous. okay everyone wants to watch this fight you all these people like crying about how bad this matchup is you want to watch this fight and Nate is a grown man ready to take this fight got good cardio good boxing you got good guard so we'll see what happens but um one thing I disagree with you Mike is you said it would be uh it wouldn't it would be a win unless Nate got finished in the first round I disagree if Nate gets like knocked out by Mish like Mesh like Mishat got knocked out, I think that's a good thing

because that would save him from further damage. And Jake Paul doesn't care. Jake Paul goes after Woodley and Ben Ascreen. So it doesn't matter if Nate gets worked. But if Nate is taken to the third or fourth round and taking damage, like serious

brain damage, that's a problem. And lastly, Mike, I just saw the whitest color that I've ever seen. And that was Paddy Pimlet's butt cheeks and I just can't unsee it. That has to be the whitest color that I've ever existed. That's all I've got for today.

Oh, man. Thank you, sir. Yes, that was a good moment. See, this is what Patty does really well. He generates interest, and a lot of people probably saw his ass today. And there you go. Yeah, listen, everything you said is accurate. And Jordan, listen, Jordan is, I actually, like, I kind of agree with Patty as well

because Luigi's not in the UFC anymore and I would favor Levin to beat him. I would favor Levin to beat Rodrigo Vargas as well. And then for Levin, like, Levitt's level, like Levin has probably fought the tougher guy out of everybody, like out of both guys. Like, if you could pair resumes, I don't know, Soren Bach is actually really good.

I'm very high on Soren Bach, but like for UFC competition, like Matt Wyman's retired. He got slammed unconscious. Matt Sales is in the UFC. Trey Ogden's a good fighter, and Leavitt won that fight. But Claudio Pueyes is real good.

And everyone mentions these lightweights, like even the heed right there, mentioned Grant Dawson and Sirukion and some of these other names, but no one is talking about Claudio Paius right now. No one's talking about this guy. And why? Why don't anybody talk about this guy? The Prince Peru, five wins in a row.

I mean, he's looked fantastic. He's kneebar and everybody. He's got three kneebar submissions, in his last five fights. The dude is slick. He's super slick, and he's not being mentioned in any of these conversations. And Jordan went to distance with this guy. Like, that has to factor into this in some way.

So I don't think this is going to be that exciting about fire. I really don't. Like, Patty's striking is, Patty's the better striker here, but his striking is not great. It's not. And the ground game, the wrestling, it's all going to be basically a stalemate. I think Levitt's slicker than Patty on the ground, but Patty's a little more technical, a little more explosive.

So I just think, I don't know, unless Patty just rolls him and just cracks him quick. But Levitt's got a chin on him, man. So it is going to be interesting in that sense, but I honestly don't think this is going to be that exciting. And Jordan Levin doesn't think it's going to be that exciting.

So there you go. Curtis Blades Asadol. When this fight versus book does like, Curtis Blades is going to just do Curtis Blades things the whole time. And then the more I've watched of both guys, the more I'm leaning Tommy Aspinall to get it done. And this isn't like a vibes thing. This is like a real technical thing.

Like Aspidol could wrestle his ass off. Aspedal is a tremendous athlete. Curtis Blades is as well. Aspah can scramble. Aspinall is very quick. He's way quicker than Curtis's, especially on the feet. I think a club. and sub is very possible, but I will say this.

The longer this fight goes, the more it favors Curtis Blades. There's just no doubt about it. Aspedal has not been into the championship rounds in the UFC. Curtis has been in many. And Curtis has only lost to the very best. Bengano twice, got colded by Derek Lewis. There is a real world where Curtis Blades could Ryan Bader, can do like the Ryan Bader type of thing and just take him down and just lay on him.

But I don't think we're going to see that. I don't think Tommy Aspedal is going to allow that to happen. So I'm actually leaning Aspedal to get a finish inside of three rounds, but I could be completely wrong here. The longer this fight goes, if we get to round four, round five, and it's a close fight, I think Curtis Blades will take the last two rounds, and we're going to go to the cards and might have some Tom Foolery. Maybe we don't.

But I think Tommy is, the more I watch, the more I'm leaning towards Tommy. And then just Nate Hamz. Let me just say this about this booking, because I see this so much. I don't like to read comments, but like the BT-Haw. comments. I read a little bit of them. And people just keep saying things that they don't know. For instance, stop telling me that Nate Diaz

asked for this fight because he clearly didn't. This is the UFC trying to do. You don't know shit. You aren't talking to these people. I am. I've talked to these people. I talk to these people on a regular basis. That's my job. My job is to talk to people. So when these things come out and news breaks,

it is my job to go talk to these people and get their thoughts on them. See if it's true. See if it's wrong. See if it's right. Trust me when I tell you that Nate Diaz asked for this fucking fight. He asked for it.

He asked for the fight. Okay? It may not make sense to you. You may not think he did, but he asked for the fight. And he's been asking for it for months. Now, you want to throw the argument to me that, well, they offered,

Nate Hamzad in October and he said no. No shit because why would he go to October, why would he go to Abu Dhabi and fight this guy? It makes no sense for Nate to do that. It makes no sense. And Nate's like, no. And the UFC knew he was going to say no, which is why they offered it to him in the first place. They didn't offer him Shama if in Vegas or MSG. They offered him to do him in Abu Dhabi. They knew Nate wasn't going to go there. So don't throw that at me. Like they knew everybody knew everybody knew he was going to say no to that. Everybody, literally everybody knew who's going to say no to it, which is why we're in this position. We're in this position.

right now. But Nate, since April, has been asking for this fight, which is why it's been so puzzling that it wasn't made, and which is why it was on the board in the UFC office for July. Remember? Remember the screenshots when he's doing the interview? When Dana White walked into the war room to do that interview with Ryan Clark in the pivot, and the thing went viral because everyone was taking screenshots at the board and seeing some of the fights that were up there. Nate wanted to fight him in July. Nates wanted to fight him since April. Trust me when I tell you this. people aren't just saying these things like this is legit this is legit okay this is the fight he wanted he wanted it and here we are and you can like the matchup all you want but i'm telling you what

don't say date has no chance to win this fight he's a he's a sizable dog and he probably should be but don't say Nate has no chance because he does he does if he could extend this thing we saw what Hamzat did against a guy who could take a shot. Nate could take a punch. Nate could take a punch. Gilbert Burns certainly could take a punch because we saw it. And we saw what happened when Hamzat can't put somebody out of there. And Gilbert gave him a lot of problems in that fight.

And maybe Hamzat made some mistakes too, but this is a different thing. Like, Hamzad is not, Hamzad is super talented, and he's probably way ahead of where he should be, and he's got to be even better. Like, this guy is got to be a champion. There's no doubt of my mind he's going to be a champion. But when you're in these big spots, when you're headlining pay-per-views, and there is all this pressure put on you, it's hard to ignore that sometimes. It takes time.

It takes experience to deal with that pressure. Nate has learned all those lessons, and Nate deals with these experiences very well when he wants to. When Nate shows up, the dude is real good. Go back and watch some of his fights. There are certain fights he just didn't give a shit about. and there are certain fights that were big and that he did care about. And when that happens, Nate performed. I'm not saying Nate's going to win.

But people saying he has no chance to win, I just don't buy that. I think he has a chance to win. And this could be my like, I haven't made an official pick yet. I'm leaning Hamza out right now. But by the time fight night happens, this could be my Giuliana Pena pick of the year. Like Jed Bishu went all in on Giuliana Pena beating Amanda Nunes. And everyone thought Jed was insane. and then Giuliana Payne

went out and did the damn thing and Jed looked like a genius. By the time fight week comes and I'm hoping to be there and if I am, we're gonna do some special shit out there. I can tell you that right now. But yeah,

I think Nate has a better chance that people think. I really do. Again, he's just got to avoid getting trucked. I don't know, and I still don't know why people are complaining about this to begin with. Like, we want a Nate to get a fight, right?

People have been screaming, Nate, get a fight, UFC, book this guy a fight. How dare you not book him, Data White? And then they book this fight. They're like, nah, anyone but this one. Come on. You can't have it both ways.

This is fine. This is going to do a million pay-per-view buys. A million. This will be the biggest pay review of the year for the UFC in terms of buys. 100%. Is it going to be the best card? No. Absolutely not.

But will this do the best on pay-per-view? You damn right, it will. It will. 280 is by far the better car. card on paper, and this will double 280. 280 would probably do like $500,000. This is going to do a million. Whether you like the fight or not, by the time it happens, you get these two guys in

Vegas, you get microphones in front of them, and they sell this shit, you're going to buy it. We're all going to watch, and we're all going to be talking about it. And just a build to this over the next eight weeks, seven, eight weeks, is going to be awesome. All the questions we have. What happens if this happens? What happens if that happens?

it's going to be the best. So I say to you, people, a lot of you here are very positive and understand that MMA is supposed to be fun a lot of times. So let's just have fun with this, okay? Let's not be negative nancy's about it. Let's just have fun for what it is. If you're a Nate Diaz fan, especially a Nate Diaz of the UFC fan, let us enjoy this.

Let's just enjoy this. This could be the last time we ever see this guy fight in the UFC. see let's just enjoy it and embrace it whatever happens happens Nate's going to go on and make a bunch of money and do other things let's just enjoy this like stop complaining about it let's go to now that I hop off the old soapbox here let's go to

combat sports with rhino hey what's up you can you hear me okay I know I got the fan on real loud it's hot it's hot as hot as hot down here and uh we're on that but as long as I'm company. I hear you. Very cool, my dude. So basically, bro, I'm going to look forward to UFC 277 is what my

question is going to be about, sort of. So the interim title fight between Brandon Moreno and Kai Kar-France. I think most of us are leading towards Brandon, but let's just say for hypothetical reasons that Kai Kar-France wins. That would be three UFC titles

simultaneously being fought and represented out of city kickboxing, right? Only a few times in the history of MMA, have we seen a gym that has multiple champions at the same time? You go back to military fighting systems, you go to A.K.A. You know, ATT. But it's very rare.

Should Kai Kar-France get it done? And we consider the interim title an actual title. You know, some people like to go back and forth on that. But let's just say for this argument's sake that it is the actual title. So you'd have three guys on a city kickbox of the UFC titles. Because of the parity and because of the increase in talent that MMA in general, has and the UFC just keeps on growing as we see. Do you think this might be the last time we see three

simultaneous champions out of one gym in the entirety of the promotion? Wow, that's a great question. Maybe like a gym like that, I guess. Like, sitting kickboxing is a good size gym, but it's not ATT. Like ATT is just ridiculous. How many fighters they have there.

These like super gyms, these mega gyms. I mean, it's, it's, there won't be many more, but I mean, again, you look at the ATTs. I don't think A.K.A. is going to really get back to that because it's just not as, I don't know, it's just not as big. You just don't have a lot of fighters. But when you have ATTs and you have the Killcliff FCs and you have some of these Florida gyms and some of these other gyms that just have so many fighters, man. Like, it's just hard. It's just hard. And then if you tack on Bellator, too, like, ATT just has like a ton of champions. It's just crazy. So I would say, I mean, it's, it's, I would say no, but I'm a little reluctant to say that, if I'm being honest.

Because that's like, that's a tough, that's a tough one. Like this is, this won't be like Demetrius defending the title 12 times in a row. Like, I don't know if anybody's going to break that record. Like, that record is going to stand probably forever. So I just don't know if anybody breaks that, maybe out of Sonia, but I think we're just in a world where guys just get bored real quick, where if they win, if they defend the title six or seven times, they want the next challenge,

maybe they try to move up and do these other things. But yeah, that's a great question. They're going to be on a short list at worst. They're going to be in a very short list at worst. But I like the question, and we'll see what happens. Big fight, though. And let me just say, I still don't understand Davis and Figurato's issue with this fight. Like, come on now.

Like, you're hurt, bro. Like, you can't fight. You can't fight right now. You can fight at the end of the year. They're putting this interim title in the line for, essentially for you. For you. The winner of this fight's going to go on and fight you in a much bigger fight, champion versus champion. The stakes are higher.

We're unifying the titles. It's a bigger deal. And this is like the perfect fight because remember what happened after the last fight? We're like, oh, should Brandon Moreno get the fourth fight? Or should we go to Kai Kar-Franos? beat freaking Asker Asker off, and people were torn 50-50. Now, much like we have at Featherweight right now with Josh Emini and Yaya Rodriguez, now we just have a clear-cut number one contender fight.

If there's questions, let's just answer them with face punching. And that's what we're going to get here. So I love the fight. The rest of the card is pretty decent. I like, I mean, Derek Lewis is fighting. That's always fun. He's got a tough one in Pavlovich. Pantosia Alex Perez is a good one.

Ankylaif, Anthony Smith is a really interesting fight. stakes are pretty high for that one. Yeah, a lot of local guys. Alex Barrono is fighting. Matthew Semlesburg, Drew Dobarrafio Alva's is sick. Dontail May is now fighting Hamdi. Abdullah, who is the first Egyptian fighter in the UFC. Three and O making his UFC debut.

Jekar Close. Rafa Garcia. Michael Morales. Adam Fujit? I didn't even know that if it was happening. Well, look at that. Blood Diamond's back. It's a Ryan Kosi.

Nick Negamiriano versus. Ihor Pateria and then Gian Kim Jocelyn Edwards I mean it's a fine fight and then we of course we get the main event the rematch between Giuliana Panyan and Amanda Nunes

yeah it should be fun main card's pretty solid let's go to let's go to James hello James I want to congratulate you on your win against Drake yesterday on BTL

if you guys Thanks, man. If you guys have a rematch, I think you should be a bigger favorite than Mollie McCann. But with Nate Diaz and Hamzaa Chimae, what would surprise you more? Nate winning by second round, rear naked choke, or Giuliana Pena upsetting the goat again in another second round submission? And with the London card this week, who do you think? is a bigger steal from a betting perspective.

Chris Curtis, Jordan Levitt, or my man, future light heavyweight champion, Paul Craig. Like always, Mike, man, thank you for what you do. Have a heck of a morning and a heck of a weekend. Thank you, sir. First question will be Nate Diaz for sure, especially if we're talking like second round sum. I just don't know if that happens.

But I think Nate can win, but it's probably not going to be in the second round. it would either be like a late finish or he would eke out some kind of a decision. But again, that's a big if for sure. Biggest deal, what are we looking at? Levin's at plus 225. I mean, that's probably worth a look, honestly. I don't think he's going to end up getting the win

because I think it's going to be a close fight and it's going to go to the cards, and I just don't see a world where a fight as close as I think that one's going to be that Patty doesn't get the nod there. What's the other one? What's Paul Craig at right now? Plus 130.

There's value there for sure. But Paul Craig is just like such a wild card. You just never know. Like, Paul Craig's the kind of guy you could lose 14 minutes and 59 seconds of a fight and then submit Magameneck a lie with one second left. Like that's just nuts. This guy's career is crazy.

To me, it's Chris Curtis. Chris Curtis, like, opened as a decely sized dog, which is insane to me. like Chris Curtis is going to beat Jack Cromance tomorrow. He's got to beat him. He's going to win right now if you're a betting man and you go to Draft Kings and use the promo code the MMA

hour, Chris Curtis is a minus 115 favorite. Jack Cromanson is minus 105. Bad on Chris Curtis, man. Chris Curtis is going to beat Jackerbanson. I just like I like Jack a lot. His backs against the wall here. And Chris Curtis is, I mean,

Jack Cromanson just fought Sean Strickland's in his most recent fight. and Chris Curtis was Sean Strickland's main training partner. Chris Curtis was in his corner. Like, Chris knows everything about Jackermancing right now. Chris Jackson is going to have a hard time taking this fight to the ground. And even if he does, Chris is very durable, very tough to submit. I just don't know.

I just don't see a world where Chris Curtis doesn't beat up Jackermanson. So, yeah, Chris Curtis is the answer. I know you're not getting plus money on this, but yeah, Chris, Chris Curtis is going to be Jacker Manson. And then come Tuesday, he's probably going to be, he might be a, a top 10 middleweight, which is just insane. This guy's story is unbelievable. But yeah, I like Chris Curtis a lot in this fight.

Let's go to Beal, that we'll go to Mikey, then we'll go to Julio, that we'll go to Chris, and then I've got to get out of here, because my Uber's going to be here at about 40 minutes. Beal, what's up? You're muted. Hey, Mike, can you hear me? Yes, sir. Hey, I, a heck of a morning to you. I had kind of a silly question today.

If you were a fighter, what song would you walk out to? Thanks, Mike. Take it easy. Oh, man. That's a great question. Like, so many people, like, I think all of us who are M.A fans,

we picture, like, we're not, like, a lot of us aren't going to fight, right? But a lot of us picture, like, like, we're walking our dogs and stuff and just an absolute banger comes on your Spotify playlist, and you're like, oh, shit. Like, I could walk out to this. I could walk out to that.

I don't know. I would do, I mean, Shipping up to Boston would probably be an easy one, but I feel like a lot of people have done that. I would do something just probably fun and funny and completely out of the box. I don't know what it exactly would be, but for example, I had a friend from the area to live in Massachusetts who was a fighter. He was an amateur fighter. He was actually really good named Matt Banya, and he was undefeated for a while, won the Cage Titans title as an amateur. people wondering when he was going to go pro,

a lot of promise on this kid. And then he found like a different career path, like just buying up property, fixing them up, renting them out, and he's doing really well. Like he ended up buying a bus and like remodeling the bus

and him and his family, they just drive around and travel everywhere and just do these different projects. The kids just kill in life right now. But every time he fought, his opponent would come out to this just like, I've got to kill you, a rip your head off,

kind of a song. And Matt would always come out to, I want to dance with somebody by Whitney Hughes. Houston and just the look on the opponent's face every time was the best. It was just the best because they're like, what the hell? And the whole crowd, like even his fans were all singing the song because they're half in the bag and they're just having a good time.

How can you not dance and sing to that song? No one booed the man. It just threw off his opponents so badly. So I'd probably do something like in that realm, something that I could sing that everybody else would sing. It would just be something fun. Like I always like, this is how we do it. I always thought that was a good one.

Return of the Max, great one. I don't know. But it would be something in that realm. Be like 90s, 90s hip-hop, R&B-ish, something like that, that everybody would have a good time listening to. But would also pop us up to. Let's go to Mikey. And then we'll go to Julio, then we'll go to Chris.

Mikey, how's Vegas, man? It shouldn't be 100 degrees at 7 o'clock, but it is what it is. How's it going, brother? First of all, if you're going to walk out to anything, you should walk out to like some old 90s stuff, like walk out to like new radicals or something. You know what I mean? So maybe, maybe, you know, Meredith Brooks, walk out to a bitch by Meredith Brooks, you know? Oh, God.

Maybe some Alana's ironic. No, no, no, yeah, walk out to ironic because it would be ironic. So anyways, just a couple of thoughts, as usual, just to touch back on the things. Like, anyway, listen, I love an M.A fan. Some of them can be really stupid, but please don't be stupid. you guys realize that the only reason, part of the reason that why Molly McCamp is being considered for a title shot,

as lucrous as is, is because of who is the champion. Valencia Shepchenko is killing everybody. When you're wiping out a division, you make the promoter's job both easier and harder in the sense of, well, okay, we're going to have to, like, drum up people that you can sell to fight her.

And that's what Molly, and Molly is in that perfect position where it's like, she may not be the best contender available, but guess what? Everybody above her is already been beaten by Valentina. So she's just going to get it, you know, next chick up. You know what I mean? And I think there's nothing wrong with that.

That's the point. It's funny how MMA fans always push back against pro wrestling tendencies that MMA does. But at the same time, sometimes that's what you need, you know, promote the most popular person, because that's the whole point. Like, Patty Pimbled, oh, why is he being talked of a title contention? Oh, I don't know. He's kind of popular. He's kind of exciting.

He's young. Is he the best fighter at his way class? absolutely not. I think that many people pointed out. There's like at least five people who would light them up right now. But that's what you want. You want him to become a platform so that way when a better fighter gets a big fight against them,

they can show out. It's simple math, guys. One more thing too. Please, we've been going over this for like 15 years. The interim title is a real title. At least in my opinion, I've come to that opinion. It's no different than if you handed someone that belt off

a tournament. It's a tournament title. the pride tournament title. It's the Bellator championship. They live, Belator literally, I don't know how long somebody, people, some of y'all been watching M.A. But remember when Bellator actually used to have seasons and hold a tournament and then crown a champion off that tournament

and then he would face the actual world champion? Same shit, guys. MMA is not that hard. Anyways, thanks, Mikey. Until next time. Thanks, buddy. Yeah, I mean, the Molly thing, I mean, Molly's probably closer to a title shot than,

than Patty is. But I said this on BTL and I'll say it again. Molly McKin, I like Molly a lot. She's a friend of the site. I know she was on the A side a few times. She likes to give Jose Young shit all the time, which is always fun.

But Molly McCann should not be a minus 410 favorite against anybody. Like, she just shouldn't be. Even Hannah Goldie. And Hannah's not bad. Like, people just think, but Molly's going to run Hannah over. Like, Hannah's a good athlete. She's built like a truck.

Like, she is a, She's good, man. And 125 suits her way better than 115 did. I do think Molly will win. I feel like while the moment won't get Jordan Levitt down, it's not going to affect him. I think it could have an effect on Hannah Goldie. Just the crowd and getting booed out of the building,

the energy there. Like, that's a lot. Like, Jordan doesn't care. Hannah probably will a little bit. should be, I mean, it'd be crazy if she doesn't. I mean, if she goes out there, beats Molly McCann, that'd be just be insane. But, yeah, but Molly is just, to me, from like, America.

But, but again, like, I'm with you on that, like, just why not? Because 125's kind of wide open right now. Like, it's, it's, there are, we are looking forward to this, like, second gen of fighters, right? Like, Taos Santos gave Valentina a tough fight. Lauren Murphy, like, that's probably, they'll probably do that fight. That makes a lot of sense. Do Tyler Sonsis with with Lauren Murphy. Manon Fioro is about to fight Caitlin Chiqui.

He had a man and win. She's probably going to fight for the belt next. Viviani Arujo is fighting Alexa Grasso. That's a big one for this division. Two different opponents that Valentina hasn't fought. And then we're looking at this next gen of 25ers, Casey O'Neill, who I'm extremely high on, if you've been following me since I got to M.A. fighting.

Since before Casey O'Neill was in the UFC, I've been telling you how good this girl is and she's not even close to being how good she's going to be. Macy Barber has seemed to have found herself now that she's over at Team Athamil. Tracy Cortez has looked good. Aaron Blanchefield's a problem.

Like even Miranda Maverick who had a couple of tough losses. Like she's real good. Marina Morose. Like there's a lot of 25ers. But if you wanted to, like, if you wanted to sneak Molly into a title fight and do it in London,

like, why the family? Who cares? cares. Just do it. You know what I mean? But you have to do it now. It's not something you can wait like a year for because if you're going to build Molly up and have her fight, Erin Blanchfield and some of these other gals, like, it's just not going to go well for her. It's just not. So that'd be something you have to pull the trigger out quick. Patty, Patty, you don't throw in title fights. Again, as I said earlier, you don't throw Patty in title fights. You book him on London cards against guys he should beat. And guys, I'm not saying like, like, listen,

I used to be a pro wrestling fan. I watch from time to time now. I think pro wrestling stinks now. But back in like the 80s, 90s, like I used to watch like WWF superstars. And there would be like one match at the end. Like the main event was always like a competitive match, two guys you knew.

But the rest of the show was big stars fighting guys that they just ran over. And they got over that way. Like the crowd loved it because they got wins and they beat guys they were supposed to beat. Like, Patty could just be that guy. He could still be a star. He could still make money. He doesn't need to be the champion. He doesn't need the build to the title.

He doesn't. Just let him fight in London and just let him get wins. Like, let London go crazy. Let the crowd go nuts for him. Let him do his dance. Let him and Molly have their moment together. Like, that's awesome. Like, you can make a great career doing that.

There's nothing wrong with that. Not everybody who is a star in the UFC has to be a champion. Like Max Holloway does. doesn't need to be a champion. Nate Diaz doesn't need a title. Connor doesn't need a title. There's a lot of guys who don't need titles. You don't need to fight for belts all the time.

There are some fighters, like Armand Sarukian would do great with the title. Brandon Moreno did great with the title. Like sometimes the belt puts a guy over a little more, and there are certain fighters who are just beyond the belt who don't need it. It could still be stars. And I kind of put Patty in that same place right now. Patty's not, why book Patty against Armaged? on Saruky on when he's just going to get dump trucked.

Like, why would you do that? What's the point in that? Put Patty against the guys he's fighting. Like, this is exactly what you should be doing with Patty. Get him over. Let him win. Let the crowd go crazy. Let him talk a bunch of shit.

Like, this is what, let him moon the media. Like, we're not going to, like, don't put him in there with Bobby Green. Like, put him in there with, I mean, like, the highest I would get, like, if he beats your level, like throw him in there with Jamie Malarkey. Like, Jamie's a good fighter, but Patty might be able to beat him. Like, that's as high as I'd go with him. You know what I mean?

Like, we don't, we don't need to go crazy with him. We don't need to put him on a title pass. We don't. Julio. Hey, good morning. You, you. Good, how are you? Good.

So, on paper, Nate is supposed to have his execution with Hamzart, right? On paper. But do you do you remember or can you think of any exiting fights that were as challenging as Nates, meaning their last fight on their contract? And then second question, if Islam goes through

Charles and somehow Connor finds his way into a title shot, do you think the animosity that Connor and Habib had will directly roll over with Islam. So would Connor direct his animosity to Islam directly? Or do you think he'll use the Habib, you know, history to poke jabs at him? And do you also think the pay-per-view sales and the hype will roll over between a fight with Islam and Connor? Thanks, man. I'm trying to think of your first question.

I would say probably not, but I also don't think like a last fight on the contract for anybody is this public and this big. You know what I mean? No one, normally when we find out about last fights on deals, it's like once in a while, like we'll hear it on a media day,

like this is the last fight on my deal. I didn't resign. Sometimes like you'd hear them go on the MA hour. We don't, and like we're talking about earlier, Aljameen Sterling, Roy McDonald, Benson, this is the last five my deal right never has really been this public and so big with such a big

star that this is it i'm riding out francis ganu another example i would say that would probably be up there because that was the last fight on francis's deal and me still get the champions clause so it's a little bit different but those are probably the two these are the two most public and biggest stories of the year and it's not even about the in cage product it's about the contracts and how they perceive the UFC's treating them. So these are the two biggest ones by far. And when Connor comes back, we could be in the, we could be getting ready for another

because from all accounts, he's got two fights left. We could be dealing with the same thing here when Connor comes back. As far as the other question with Connor, if Islam Mockachev beats Charles Oliver, he's not fighting Connor. The UFC's not going to do that fight.

Connor's not going to take it. Because why would he? That's just dumb. He's just got to get picked up and slammed and smushed. At least with Olivera, like, Oliver has been hurt in his last few fights. Like, there's at least a chance Connor could catch him with something, and maybe he pounces and the killer instinct jumps in and maybe. But he would be, Connor would be a pretty sizable dog against Olivera.

He would be like a plus 800 dog against his Lomachachev. Like, I just don't see anywhere where Connor wins that fight. and I think Connor wouldn't take that fight anyways. Like there's other fights for him. If Islam wins, Connor's veering to a different path. He's got to fight. He's going to look for Chandler or Justin Gaichy or somebody like that.

And I feel like Connor can win either of those fights. Like he'd be underdogs in both, but I feel like he could win either of those fights stylistically, unless Michael Chandler just wrestles him for five rounds, which I don't think Michael Chandler would do in a type of fight like that. And then Connor versus Justin Gates, it would just be the most ridiculous fight ever. It would just be insane.

Two guys who are just absolute get-or-get-got dudes. That'd be probably the most exciting fight that UFC could ever make, honestly, is those two guys, because love them or hate them, however you feel about either guy, those two guys go in there to try to finish fights as quickly as possible, and that would just be a lot of fun.

So if Oliver wins, I think Connor will fight for the title. If Islam wins, I think they'll go somewhere else with Connor. and if Islam wins, that's where things get real interesting because will they do the Volcanovsky fight? The guy I actually feel the worst for in this whole situation is Benil Darius, because you can make a compelling argument that he is the guy, that he should be fighting for the title, not Islam Makachov.

You can make that argument. 100%. Benil's resume is better. He's had more top 10 wins. he's got, it is what it is, right? And now Benial, who is supposed to fight Islam, gets hurt, and now he's going to fight Matush Garmrott. And honestly, even if he beats Mituch Garmorat,

I still don't think he's going to get a title shot. I still don't think he's going to get one, which is insane. Because he should get one beating Matush Garmor. But I don't think he will. If all of Air wins, it's got to be Connor. And then he, like, if all of error wins, he might be third in line. because I really think the UFC wants Volcanowski to get that shot.

So I just feel so bad for the guy. I feel so bad for him. And Gamrod, I mean, this is a big opportunity for Gamrod. It just puts him in the discussion. But I know Darius is looking at this is a number one get tender fight. I don't think that's the case at all. It should be, but I don't think it is. And it kind of sucks.

All right, we'll take two more. Chris, I promise you. and I'm going to iny-me-ni the last one because I've got to get ready to hop in this Uber. Chris, what's up? We're on, Mike. Sorry for your loss. I'll be quick.

Bellator 283 tonight, outside of Uspan, Nirmagamade of. Who is the best or the biggest prospect on the card? Good question. There's a few. Let me just pull him up real quick. Roman Ferralo, I'm very high on. I do like him a lot.

He's very good. He's actually, I really want to see him get a step up in competition. but at this point, like, I mean, he's a minus 1,200 favorite against Luis Inigues. He's just going to highlight real dude. And yeah, it's just not going to be pretty. And we're going to be seeing social. We're going to see a viral knockout on this card more than likely.

Archie Colgan's fun. Jalen Bates is fun. These are both tailor-made matchups for both guys, classic Bellator booking. And I really like the Dalton roster of Maricopa. and fight. Both those guys are really good prospects. And there's a lot of them on this card. There's a lot of them on this card. Davian Franklin,

fighting Marcelo Goln. Davian Franklin could find himself in a number one contender fight with six wins in his career. If he goes out there and just squashes Marcelo Gullm, it's in a very good spot right now. So yeah, there's a lot of good prospects on this card. There's a lot of good prospects on this card.

All right. I'm e-nie-meaning this. I'm looking out my window right now. And, all right. Octagon blog, you get the final word. Maybe. You got on mute. Octagon blog, last call.

We tried. Let's see. Jota, you're in. Who we got? What do we got? Let's see if we can get him in. The wheel is spitting. Here he is.

I hear him. Here we go. Yes. Unfortunately. for Octagon blog You do my chef shot How are you my friend I am absolutely buzzing

for UFC London right And as a Scottish person For you, what do you got? What do you got? I am telling you right Jordan Leavitt It's going to get fucking teabagged yeah

If you don't know what Teabag means You have to go with Paddy's after telling you I was speaking with him last night on a chap In his face He told me he's like

Lad If I thought I'd take my bollocks out I'd put him on his fokin face. But quick one for you, right, see the whole twerking thing. I'm going to come in, win, and twerk. He genuinely, I think this is going to be either Paddy's best or worst decision in UFC. He's going to kill this guy. I genuinely think he's going to murder him.

Like, meddle him, fucking, and then put his bullocks on his eyeball away. Genuinely. What's your thoughts on that? because he is the show, right? Tom Aspinall right and Cut the Slades. Would you be surprised if Cutt the Blades got smashed within 30 seconds? Tom Aspinall is the future UFC heavyweight champion for three reasons. Genuinely, purely because he is the most talented heavyweight at that age.

He's got more potential than anyone else you ever seen. But Tychoibati Bass is class, right? He's really, really good. He's really good, but he stands and bangs. I think Tom Aspernel takes him down and just abuses his life at him because he's more talented. He's actually a Brazilian Jesuitary Black Belt, which a lot of people don't realize,

and he also moves like a middle way. So I'm going to leave and let you speak right, but I think in terms of the heavyweight division, right, Tom Aspinall will be a few of what they put, maybe not right now, but if you put him in front of Francis and Gano in the next six months to take 12 months, I think he absolutely killed Francis in Garner. Now, I know he can punch a hole in a car,

but you can't hit. The eyes can't hit with the hands can't see. And Tom is fucking far too fast for me. So I will leave you on that note, right? Thank you for a little, mate. Speak. Thanks, ma'am. You're welcome, my friend.

Love the passion. Love the passion. Will it shock me if Aspinol bolts, Curtis Blades in 30 seconds? Yeah, if he bolts him in 30 seconds, I'd be shocked. But like I said earlier, when this fight was first announced, I was like, oh, man, this is,

this is tailor-made for Curtis Blades. And then the more I've watched, the more I've gone back and looked at their past fights, the more I feel like even if Curtis Blades does Curtis Blades things, like he could still win, but I think Aspenall can hang with him. I just think he's such a great. athlete. And what makes Curtis Blades so successful is that he, like, he's just the far superior

athlete to almost everybody he fights. But now he's got Tommy Aspedal, who is a really strong athlete. Like Joe does said, he's super fast. He's really quick. And he's got Pop Man. This, this could be a club and sub inside of two rounds. Like, the more I look at it, if I have to make a pick, it's a club and sub for Tommy Aspinol in two rounds. But if he does, he does, he does. He's a doesn't get there if this gets to midway through round three, four, five, et cetera, I think Curtis starts to style

a little bit. I don't know if Curtis gets a finish but I think Curtis can win this thing late and then it's going to go down to the card. So I think if a finish happens in this fight, it's going to happen from Tom Aspinall. It's going to happen before the third round. The Patty thing, I'm just not convinced yet, man. I'm just not convinced. I just

Patty's fired up. He seems really angry and I don't really understand why because, I mean, both guys have said kind of weird shit about the other. But Jordan, like, all Jordan's really said was this fight's not interesting.

Like, on paper, it's not an interesting fight. That's really, like, the worst thing he said. Like, he's just not putting over Patty as a big star. He's just not lost in the moment. Like I did, I mean, unless I'm missing something, like you talked about the twerking stuff, but like, he's asked these things. And he's just like, okay, I mean, if you're going to ask me, I'm just going to answer. Like, he's admitted, he's just who he is. And I think Patty's trying to rattle him. And I think the fact that Jordan's not rattled at all is kind of, I'm not saying it's getting in Patty's head, but it's making Patty work a little harder. Like Patty doesn't need Jordan to really sell this thing. But he's trying to. get Jordan to sell it and Jordan's just like, eh, it's a fight. Like, I like Pat. Like, Jordan said, like, I like Pat.

Like, maybe he's questioned the competition, but he's just answering it honestly. Like, he's not wrong. He's not wrong. Like, Patty hasn't beat world beaters. He's beat Luigi Benjamini who's no longer in the UFC. I like Luigi. He beat Rodrigo Vargas. He got, he got clipped in both of those fights.

And, like, the really strong guys, he's fought, he's lost to. Sword, Bach, Nade Narimani. I thought he lost the Julian Arosa fight. I've gone back to watch that a few times. Not one watch did I think

Julian Arosa lost that fight. And my prediction is that we're going to get a similar type of fight to that where we're going to leave it thinking that Jordan Levitt won and then Patty's going to get a decision that we're going to be like, oh my God, really.

And that is just going to be the funniest thing ever. It's going to be hilarious because he's going to eat it up as you should and it's going to be hilarious. But I mean, and again, like if we're looking at if we're looking at who these guys have fought in the UFC

thus far, I'm leaning towards Levitt having the tougher competition. Matt Wyman, not so much. Matt Sales, I would probably compare him to like a Ventremini or something. Like they're on the same level, neither in the UFC.

Trey, did, man. Like, he doesn't get enough credit. Trey is a grinder. He's been busted his ass for a long time to get to the UFC. He's beat some real good guys in the regional scene. It's good, man. And that's a tough fight.

Like, that's the kind of, like, Trey can have those kinds of fights with, like, a lot of guys at 55. Maybe not in the top 20, but Trey can do that. Trey can frustrate a lot of guys. But the Claudio Plius one stands out to me. Like, by far, Claudio Plias is the best guy that either of these two have fought,

especially in the UFC, especially in the last few years. Claudio Pace, by far, is the tougher fight out of any of these. And Jordan fought him and went to the distance, he lost a decision. I'm trying to, let me just look at this real quick. I want to see what the scorecards were. I don't know if he won a round. I don't know. I don't remember that fight off the top of my head,

but I'm incredibly high on Claudio Plius as a 50s. 55er. Yeah, Leavitt won a round against Claudio Plas. He lost the last two, but he won the first round. 29, 28, pretty clear. I mean, that's, for a guy to win a round against a guy that Claudio Plas, what he's been doing lately, it's pretty impressive. He didn't win the fight, but he won a round.

I just don't, like, I don't think that Paddy's just going to destroy Levin. I just don't. Levitt's good, man. Like, he's just very solid. He's very solid. I'm trying to, like, trying to compare him to somebody. I don't know. I can't really compare him, but it's going to be fun.

The build's going to be fun. The build is going to be way better than the fight, in my opinion. And I think we're going to take a strange journey to split decision city in that fight, and we're never going to watch it again. Like, honestly, I think, I just don't, I, Patty's the better striker, but he's not a great striker. And the ground stuff is just going to be, the ground stuff's just going to be a stalemate.

Like, honestly, it's just going to be a stalemate. Pimlet is the more explosive grappler, probably the more explosive guy on the ground, but Levitt's the slicker guy. Like, Leavitt, like, I just don't know if Patty, like Patty's not going to submit Jordan Levitt. He's not. And I don't know if Leavitt submits Patty, honestly.

I think we're going to see a 15-minute fight. It's going to be a grind. I think Patty might have some moments in the opening round, but I think Leavitt takes over late. Third round is going to be real interesting because Leavitt kinds of fate has been known to fade a little bit down the stretch. We'll see.

But I think it's going to be one of those fights or we're just like, wow, this was not what I expected. But I do think Patty's going to sneak away with the decision here. All right, I got to get out of here. Uber's coming in like 20 minutes, and I still have to get the show on the podcast arc. But you guys are the best. Sorry we had to roll so early,

but I got to catch a flight, but I didn't want to leave you guys hanging. So thank you all very much. I will not be on the preview show. I won't be on anything. I think I'm going to do on to the next with AK on Sunday. I'm going to try to squeeze it in before my flight home Sunday morning. We'll figure it out.

But enjoy UFC London, everybody. Enjoy Belator 283. Enjoy all the great MMA this week. I hope you guys, I mean, this is weeks like this are why we love the sport so much. Because just so much happened, so much to digest. Let's just stay positive about everything. Let's just have fun with everything. Stop complaining.

No complaining. Let's just enjoy. being a fan of the greatest sport in the world. And with that, have a great weekend. Have a great Friday. And as always, have a heck of a morning. You're the best. You're a podcast network.