MMA Fighting - HOAM | Will Conor McGregor, Michael Chandler Get You To Watch The Ultimate Fighter?
Episode Date: February 7, 2023Conor McGregor is set to return to competition later on this year against Michael Chandler. While that will be a huge matchup for the UFC, will McGregor and Chandler opposing one another on the upcomi...ng season of The Ultimate Fighter be enough for you to watch the season? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck discusses the McGregor vs. Chandler matchup, betting odds, and why he believes it will be massive for the show — even if the ratings aren't spectacular. Additionally, listener questions include Islam Makhachev vs. Alexander Volkanovski, the return of Jon Jones at UFC 285 against Ciryl Gane for the vacant heavyweight title, Jack Della Maddalena vs. Randy Brown at UFC 284 this Saturday, Kevin Lee re-signing with the UFC, Chris Weidman on the comeback trail, 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
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Podcast Network.
It is Tuesday, February 7th, 2023, and it is indeed a heck of a morning.
We are live on the MMA fighting Twitter spaces.
You can hear the show in its entirety, short of thereafter, on the MMA Fighting Podcasting Network.
and Mike Heck. Hope everyone's having a great start to their week. Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend.
We have a lot to talk about. It is UFC 284 Fight Week. The big fight, the big main event for the
UFC lightweight title, the featherweight champion, Alexander Volkovsky, will challenge
a man that Dana White doesn't even know, but we all do. It's Islam Makachev, the lightweight
champion of the world, number one versus number two, pound for pound. That fight, freaking
rules. And I said this on Twitter. I don't need the UFC to pump me up for this. I don't
need Dana White to pump me up for this fight. I'm going to pump myself up for this fight because
it absolutely friggin rules and I cannot wait to see it. I cannot wait to see how this fight plays
out. So I don't need anybody trying to hype me up for it. I'm just going to get more hyped
as the week progresses. Whether I watch a second of embedded,
a second of the press conference, a second of media day.
I'm still going to be just as fired up as I think I'm going to be Saturday,
which I will be in New York City to do the UFC 284 watch party with my man, G.C.
And some special guests along the way, which I'm glad I said that out loud
because I need to figure out who those special guests are going to be.
So let me write that down on the old to do list, and we'll figure that part out.
Not only is that going on, we're coming on.
We are coming off a very busy weekend in the world of Mixed Martial Arts.
We had Bellator 290, the promotions debut on CBS, and I thought it was a pretty damn good card.
I thought it was a pretty good showing.
It was, I thought it was like a B-B-plus, which is really good.
And that great is just nothing bad happened.
Nothing bad happened.
I know we were a little sad that Fador got finished quickly, but I don't think that was really a surprise.
the legends send off at the end.
I kind of was icky about it heading in,
but it actually didn't turn out too bad
because, you know, Fader got stopped and he got beat up,
but he didn't get knocked unconscious or anything like that.
So it was still a very cool moment,
seeing the photos even today of Fador
and all the legends that were there.
Very, very cool.
I thought the broadcast team did a great job.
I thought Johnny Ebblin did a great job.
He is just continuing to surge
up the ranks as far as the best middleweights in the world.
I would feel pretty confident picking Johnny Eblen in a fight against Alex Pereira right now.
I think he's that good.
I know Scott Coker said he became a star tonight.
I don't know if I'll go that far,
but I think his stock rose tremendously in the minds of people who already knew who he was,
people who expect big things from him, hardcore fans.
I don't know if he really translated with the casual audience.
I think you needed to go out and just blister,
toke off, get a big finish,
cut a nice promo at the end,
and that would have probably made him that star
that Scott Koch was talking about.
But this is just a nitpicky thing.
He killed it.
He's the real deal.
And the scary thing about Johnny Ebelin is that
that man is just going to get better.
He's just going to get better.
And that should scare the shits out of any 185 pounder
in Bellator.
in Bellator, out of Bellator, potential free agents.
This guy is tremendous.
And then great win for Brennan Ward, his story.
If anybody stock rose as far as becoming a star on that card, it was probably him.
Not only just for the finish and the fight being awesome and just being a wild slug fest like we all expected it to be.
But on top of that, just his story, getting a little more play.
My man Nolan King wrote a tremendous article last year, my fellow Bostonites.
I'm glad to see that's getting a little bit more of a roto.
He was on the MMA hour yesterday,
and it was talked about a little bit more sharing his story.
And, you know, I hope Brennan Ward just continues to climb the ranks.
Because what a story he has become.
What a story he has become.
I thought the prelims are pretty good.
I didn't watch any of the post limbs.
What can you do?
And then the UFC had a card.
They had a card on Saturday.
UFC Vegas 68.
The road to UFC fights are a lot of fun.
Tetsuro Tira looked really good in his fight.
Got a quick finish.
First round submission.
This kid's going to be a problem for a lot of people.
Big win for Devin Clark.
Not a lot of people saw that coming.
And I think most people are talking about the main event.
Derek Lewis just didn't really have much of a chance at all to get going.
Sergey Spivak just dragged him to the mat.
And then did it again.
And then did it again and again and again.
And again and again until he just beat up Derek Lewis until the fight was over.
Got the submission, got the tap, got the nasty arm triangle, and gets it done.
So a lot of questions about where Derek Lewis goes from here.
Dana White said he ain't going anywhere.
I think right at this point, Derek Lewis is kind of in that, just to go back to Bellator,
he's kind of in that Sabahamasi Brennan Ward role right now.
Just give him fun fights.
Like don't chuck them in there with the Sergei Speedbacks of the world.
do not chuck him in there with the
Alexander Romanoffs of the world
get him in there with the Jarzinos
of the world. I know I already fought Tai Tui Vasa,
but guys like that.
These are the guys that Derek Lewis should be fighting
moving forward because people still care about Derek Lewis.
They want him to do well.
He's taking it seriously.
It's just a horrific stylistic matcher for him.
That first round was going pretty much the way I thought it would,
but I thought at some point Derek could be able to get back to his feet,
take a little momentum,
maybe get a finish in the second round.
but that just did not happen.
Great performance.
Sergei Spivak did exactly what he needed to do,
and we will see where he goes from here.
On top of that, Dana White, very strategically, I might add,
I thought it was brilliant on his part.
Saturday, right around 10 a.m.,
he goes on all the social channels,
he goes on YouTube, and makes some announcements,
announces that Sean O'Malley signed a new eight-fight deal,
announced that UFC 287 was going to take place in Miami.
If you listen to the show,
I'm kind of telling you that for a while now.
And the big news, we found out that Connor McGregor is back.
He will be coaching the ultimate fighter.
It will be opposed by Michael Chandler, not just on the show,
but they're going to fight later on this year.
Maybe it'll definitely be the second half of the year.
maybe September, I don't know, but Connor's obviously not back in the Usada pool,
so he's going to be in there for six months. So September, October, November,
doesn't really matter. That fight is really just going to be a brawl. It's got to be fun.
I heard a lot of different opinions on the fight. Chandler was on the MA hour yesterday talking about it.
Had some things to say, his mystic Mike predictions, which Connor McGregor kind of scoffed at.
But this is a great move. I thought the timing of the announcement was brilliant,
because it took a little bit of focus off of the Bellator card
because Dana White's not an idiot.
He understood that most of the eyes of the MMA watching world
were upon the Bellator card over the UFC card,
mostly because the Belator card was a thousand times better on paper.
And on top of that, the Bellator card,
the main card didn't start at 1 a.m. Eastern.
Again, it is what it is.
It doesn't seem like they're going to go back to that well again,
unless they do a card in South Korea in the future.
But McGregor versus Chandler, great fight.
Great fight.
We'll see what happens.
Looks like it's going to take place at 170,
which is fine by me.
I don't really care at all.
What weight class that fight happens?
Tough will be interesting.
I will probably watch an episode or two.
I will get sick of it by the second episode.
I can assure you.
But the beauty of having Connor on
and having Chandler on,
Ron is that I don't need to watch a show. I can just watch social media. You can watch all the
clips, all the highlights right there and then. And that's why this move is brilliant on a lot
of fronts. It's going to pump up the fight, pump up the season. The social media numbers will be
through the roof. Great call. Great call. And we'll see how that all plays out, how the season
plays out. Lots to get to. So let's go to you guys. I'm done with my rant. Let's go. And I got to
start off on a good front, I got to bring him my best friend. I haven't talked to him since
Sunday. We had a, you know, we talked for a second or two in the meeting we had yesterday, but I just
missed the band. So I have to start with him. My best friend, AK, how are you? My best friend, Michael
Heck, I'm perfect calling to be the first caller on Heck of a morning today. I, since Saturday.
And by the way, thank you for ending your opening with McGregor Chandler, Ultimate Fighter Talk,
because that is a perfect segue
into my calling in,
my existence, really.
I figured.
Yes, I said,
I don't think,
I've tweeted about the announcement at all.
I don't think I've spoken publicly.
I have any, you know,
sites out there would like to do a,
Alexander Cayley break silence
on Ultimate Fighter 31 announcement.
Get your quote,
get your transcribing hands ready.
I will now speak upon it.
And I will add to the question, Mike.
but it's great news.
New York Rick on the M.
They kind of brought me up for like a second.
And they're like,
oh,
I wonder if he's either all in and super excited that,
you know,
Ultimate Fighter has gotten this juice back,
you know,
like this,
they really went in with the,
they got McGregor back and sounds like people that are talking about it again.
Or if I'm more of like a hipster and kind of being like,
oh, no,
now they've tainted it by making it too mainstream by bringing McGregor back
and throwing him Michael Chandler and trying to get all these new viewers
as opposed to keeping it the sort of,
what's become kind of a niche product
over the past, I don't know, what, 10, 12 seasons.
So I will say I'm really excited about it.
I did have a moment of like, oh, is this really like,
oh, I guess they got what they wanted.
Probably because I didn't believe the McGregor thing was real
when he brought it up on Instagram.
I thought, like, yeah, of course they talked to him about it.
I didn't think it was like a serious offer.
I thought it's like, oh, an ultimate fighter season is coming up.
They've had conversations to McGregory.
It was one of like 12 things they might have brought up with him.
I didn't know how serious it was.
Glad it worked out.
He is a huge star.
His first season he did was really fun and oddly, like, memorable as far as, like, what spun
off out of it, the T.J. Dillishaw, you know, break from Alpha Mail, Artem Lobov happening,
watch her underwear's man.
Like, there was, like, three classic moments in that season.
So that was a good one.
And for him to be back is great.
Michael Chandler, perfect.
He was great on the M.A.R. as well, if you watched his interview there, like,
his passion for being an ultimate fighter,
it dwarfs my passion for watching it,
if you can believe it.
And again, I have never missed the season
of the ultimate fighter.
I am obsessed with the show.
So yeah, and I don't even mind, Mike,
you know, you've heard me complain before
about, oh, they shouldn't put big matchups on the show
because it makes us have to wait,
and these fights often never happen.
One of the guys gets injured.
I think they've had a decent track record
recently of the fights actually happening.
And in this case, the weight doesn't matter
because we know McGregor has been off
with an injury and manipulating his physique, he may need extra months, you know, more than usual
when you book a fight to, let's say, become suitable to step into the cage again and address,
you know, his old pals at Usada, maybe one of your while before he says hi to them
officially in an official capacity.
So it's fine.
So I have no problem.
Again, if the fight gets derailed, that's not the UFC's fault.
That's not anybody's fault.
this fight was not going to happen in the next three months.
You could book it, and it's not going to happen in the next three months anyway.
You need this break however long it's going to be when the fight is actually booked.
So it's fine.
This works out perfectly.
So, yeah, I'm excited.
It has the official A.K. Lee seal of approval.
I hope people know, Mike, on our co-workers that I am covering Ultimate Fighters.
So, you know, I've been jumping on that grenade for the last little while.
And now I'm sure we're going to have all.
Shaheen Al-Sridey's going to come out of the woodwork.
Oh, can I cover tough this year?
Because Conner's on it?
I'm like, no, man.
I've been doing this for a while.
Now, this is my dessert.
I get to cover what will be the most watch season in.
I don't know how long.
To go back to New York, Rick again, he said, you know,
it'll probably only provide, like, a short-term boost
and maybe not, like, revitalized Ultimate Fighter.
I'm like, that's true.
I think that's true.
And that's good.
That's good.
Whatever happens.
If they get on ABC, that's another story.
That'd be freaking incredible.
But Mike, I'll leave with a couple of questions.
One for you.
what is the last season of Ultimate Fighter that you watched?
I don't necessarily all the way through,
but we're involved in, watched most of the episodes,
and, you know, really felt like,
oh, I'm enjoying watching the Olden Fighter.
I can't wait to watch it.
So how long ago was that?
What season was it?
And for anyone listening now,
let us know what other Ultimate Fighter coverage you want,
because we're hoping to do some sort of,
if not like a live watch party.
I don't know if that would be a bit much.
If you want that, let us know.
But like a watch party,
maybe instant recap after something quick hit on social media.
because again, I think people are definitely more interesting than usual.
So for Mike, last season you watched,
and for anyone's listening, if they want to chime in,
what do you want to see from MMA fighting
with Ultimate Fighter 31 coverage?
Thank you, Mike.
I mean, just the best.
Just the best right there.
The last season I watched, man, it's been a long time.
Like, honestly, like the only,
the only season that I was like,
I have to be home to watch it was the first one.
Once I saw Diego Sanchez just being Diego Sanchez, I was hooked.
I just wanted to see what else this dude would do.
It was like watching like a bizarreo Frank Dukes from Bloodsport just get ready for his day.
It was just very intriguing.
I don't know.
That dude in his weird dish just kind of hooked me.
and I had to watch every week to see what kind of shenanigans he was going to do.
I will say like the last one that I just watched start to finish was probably,
is probably the rousey Tate season, maybe.
I think it was that one.
I think I watched that one kind of all the way through.
Yeah, I think that's the one.
But it's been a long time.
It has been a long time since I have been into it.
There were times where, like, I was sick and I would go through, like, Fight Pass and watch some episodes from old seasons.
But, yeah, it's, it's been a minute.
It's definitely been a minute.
But I'm intrigued.
I don't know if we're going to do, like, a watch party, but I think maybe, like, a Twitter space would be fun during the ultimate fighter season.
I think that could be interesting in some ways.
Maybe a quick recap on here or a quick recap podcast.
I don't know.
What do you guys want to see?
All right.
Thank you, A.K.
You are the man.
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Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap.
You're almost at the finish line.
But first, there, the last one.
Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes.
Tristan, hello.
Yes, sir.
My question is in regards of the resigning of Kevin Lee
and then Chris Wyman, both of them talking about making their return
to UFC competition.
My question is to you, especially reading the piece on Chris Wyman on NMA Hour,
I'm not going to say he's delusioned.
I'm not going to say that.
You know, I feel that's very disrespectful.
But what do you think in his mind?
Do you feel that he's trying to trick himself
to feel that I'm going to be the middleweight champion again?
He talked about he doesn't want to be eased in.
He wants a top 15 in the middleweight division.
He says he's going to beat that person.
And then he's going to be that person.
And then he wants the top five.
Because if he beats the top 15, he'll get a title shot.
Now, he may be right because of the relationship that he has with Dana White.
But I just don't really see it.
And he's just, his last win was, what, I don't know, three years ago maybe?
And that was by unanimous decision against the fighter.
I think he's in the PFL now.
And other than that, he's been knocking.
out. He's been by just any of the middle weights that he's fought. So, you know, I want your thoughts on
that of what maybe his mindset is and do you actually believe it? And he even said that his leg is still
hurting him. He's going to compete in a grappling match and then from there he's going to know he's
going to call the UFC to get a fight book. As far as Kevin Lee, Kevin Lee's making his return,
he won't be returning to lightweight. He'll be fighting a well-tile. He'll be fighting a well-trial.
way to 170.
I mean, that's going to be rough because the Wells
to Wade division is so deep.
I mean, my, I would like to see him
probably maybe RDA8 for the second time
see how that goes.
Maybe he has a good shot there, but that's going to be
rough for him.
I mean, but I'm more kind of like in tune with
Kevin Lee that, you know, maybe he has a shot
in the Weltsweight.
We'll see.
I mean, he didn't look great either in his ego
FC fight.
So just your thoughts about those two guys
and what do you see for them?
in the future back in the UFC.
Thanks, Mike.
Yeah, I mean, the Wyman one's interesting
because, I mean, I got to spend some time with him
in July during International Flight Week,
did an interview with him,
but got to talk to him off camera for a little while.
And I mean, the dude's mindset is just unbelievable.
There are very few people like Chris Wyatman
who just is positive.
He's just positive all of it.
the time. Like, it's just a delight to be around that guy. Like, you can't help but become motivated
yourself after spending five minutes with that guy. He's just good people. And there are, I mean,
there are some very good people in this sport, but for the most part, there are probably more
not so good people in the sport. And Chris Wyatman is like first team good people in this sport.
So you want to rue for the guy. You definitely want to rue for the guy. And he's got it in.
I mean, you've shown it.
Like, one of the biggest what-ifs in the history of this sport, for me,
is what if Chris Wybin didn't throw that spinning back kick against Luke Rockhold?
Like, he was winning that fight, and then he just got melted.
And from there, everything just kind of crashed and burned on him,
like different injuries, just different decision-making.
And, you know, the losses were just tough, man.
Man. Like the Rockhold one was tough.
Rockhold, you know, we felt like after he beat Chris Wyman, he was going to be the middleweight champion for a long, long time.
Turned out he never defended that belt before Michael Bisbing beat him.
And then Wyndham was beating you all Romero and gets just deaded with a flying knee.
The Musassi fight was kind of a weird one.
Beats Gastilum. That was a cool moment.
Then he fights Jaceret, close fight.
gets finished in the third round again.
Then he moves up to 205 and gets docked up by Dominic Reyes.
I feel like the Omariq Medoff win was a good, like at the time is a really good win.
Like that was a really good win.
Not a lot of people were picking wide me to win that fight.
And he went in there and just won.
He dug deep in the third round and got the job done.
Like I thought that was a great performance.
And then the Uriah Hall fight just ended in such heartbreak.
Like we never, that fight just never got going.
So we just don't know.
But yeah, he's been going through a lot.
He didn't want to get into specifics because there's going to be sort of a doc coming out about him once he actually books a fight.
But listen, if he wants to go in there and make a run, go in there and make a run.
I ain't going to stop him.
It'll be interesting to see how they sort of match them up.
I think you have to be, I think you have to be pretty smart about it.
like you can't chuck them in there with drink his two plus C
I think that's just like a terrible idea
but there are like there are certain guys
that I think he'd do okay with
but again
it might be too soon to even talk about that
because you're going to do this grappling match
and see how his leg feels after that
and we'll go but if Chris Wyman can come back and get a win
like we're going to be talking about that
the entire week after
that'll be the
that'll be like the headline of whatever post-fight show we do.
Chris Wyman's triumphant return.
And at that point, the buzz he's going to generate from all that
because I'm sure the story about the recovery is going to come out before he fights
and we're going to be like, holy shit, this guy's not a human being.
Like, what a, like what an insane road that this man had to take.
So go get it, man.
Go get it.
But Kevin Lee won kind of a head.
head scratcher for being honest.
It kind of, I mean, look, Kevin is a, I like Kevin Lee a lot.
Great personality.
He's always been very nice to me.
Doesn't appear like I'll be speaking with the man anytime soon because he signed with Ali,
which by the way, my decision not to speak with those,
not to work with Ali's side, not theirs.
But I know he can be tough to deal with and his team can be tough to deal with.
but man
it was kind of a head scratcher
loses to iaquinta
gets stopped by rda
yeah the great gregor lesby woman
was awesome that was one of the coolest knockouts
ever
gets beat by olivera gets beat by drod
who was kind of
banged up in that fight to begin with
and then he fought Diego sanchise
and a fight that just
wasn't great
I know he got hurt early in the fight
but it's not we didn't walk away from that one being like oh man can't wait to see him fight again
I don't know we'll see what happens I I'll reserve judgment until he actually gets in there but
as far as matchups go like man I don't want really want to see the RDA fight again I think we've seen
it I don't think it goes any better I think you kind of use
Because Kevin Lee is still a pretty big name.
You kind of use him to catapult other talent.
And if Kevin Lee wins, then cool.
But I don't know, like maybe if Jack Dalai, Madalena just rips through Randy Brown,
that could be a good, that could be a good one to get JDM over a little bit more.
And they have guys with some buzz right now, like Phil Rose got a little bit of buzz.
That'd be an interesting one.
Guys like Michael Morales who are on the come-up.
Guys like Jeremiah Wells who are on the come-up.
Like guys you want to get over the hump, throw them in there with Kevin Lee and see what happens.
But yeah, I was a little surprised by that.
I think it has a lot to do with the relationship between Ali and the UFC.
But having a guy like Kevin Lee on the roster, a guy who is great.
great on the mic, can have flashes of greatness.
And with Kevin Lee, it's just, it's a potential thing.
If this guy can actually reach his potential that everybody knows he has,
he's going to be a problem.
But it's just, it's always been a mindset thing with him.
And let's just see if he can get over the hump.
It was a head scratcher.
I was a little surprised to see that.
When we confirmed it, I was like, wow, this is, this is happening.
And like I said, I like Kevin, I wish him the best.
And the matchmaking is going to be interesting.
I honestly don't know what they're going to do.
And he's coming off of a tough injury too.
So, yeah, we'll see what happens.
Good question, though.
Both those guys.
Toke.
Hi, Tocke.
How are you?
Ways, because I'm going to ask about something you didn't mention off the top.
because I am very curious about the stupidest man in the sport
and how,
because I want to get a look into the MMA fighting Slack channel
when Dylan Dennis was duped, let's say,
into promoting a scam in which he signed a contract,
sorry, agreed to a contract that actually said,
verbatim, the same thing as the Crypto Zoo, Logan Paul scam.
And then he said, I agree to that.
And then pumped or tweeted about a thing that was never a thing.
And getting, yeah, getting completely exposed by Coffee Silla after going hard on Logan Paul
being a scam artist, while himself having been part of multiple pump and dumps.
I just want to get a quick look into the MMA fighting Slack channel.
I was writing about with Alex K Lee yesterday about it.
So I just want to hear how, yeah, how you reacted to all of that.
And what comments you have to further elaborate on it.
Thanks, Mike.
I mean, I really don't have a lot to say about it because he's just an idiot.
I mean, he's like a five-year-old.
He's like a five-year-old.
And it pretty much was like, it was a while, like after, you know, multiple events and everything that has transpired since those tweets came out.
It was basically just like, oh, Dylan, no.
Oh, no, Dylan.
What are you doing?
And then just more like, yeah, he's kind of screwed because he's going to get exposed for being a five-year-old.
Oh, this guy.
I mean
the size of the shovel
this man has
that he just keeps using
in his own backyard
to just dig himself deeper and deeper
I mean this has to be
this shovel he has must weigh
175 pounds
and it must be like 30 feet wide
because that's
I mean I just it's unbelievable
it truly is
unbelievable
how naive and how just
Just dumb he is.
What else can you say?
Godly.
I didn't watch the video.
I think I saw that it was released and I saw like some clips perhaps.
I don't know if the video actually came out itself,
but I like browse through some of the clips.
But Jesus Christ, man.
Get it together.
What is his management team doing?
Come on now.
How could you just let this?
happen? Viking,
hello, Viking.
Hello, CEO
of MFFiting.com.
What's up, man? I'm good. How are you?
I'm good.
Do you remember when I
said in the space in the past
that if
Volkovsky finds some
elite level grappler is going to fall
and that time he just
became a
bounce upon number one when I said that.
So now he just about to meet an elite level grappler.
And you just compared Volcanozky's skills against Brian Ortega.
You just give me an example of Brando Tegas.
So we'll see that.
And the other thing is Michael Chandler versus Connor McGregor.
I think that fight just for a business is business.
It's good for UFC, but you know, Tony Ferguson
deserve that Connor McGregor fight after everything.
I mean, that fight with Habib.
So, and just I have a question about Michael Chandler,
that you know what Michael Chandler exactly going to teach to the
fighters, I mean, his fighters in the ultimate fighter,
how to cut promos or how to lose position
after you take down your opponent.
And the TUF, the TUF thing, you know,
I don't, just like you said, TUF is not that good,
not that good thing.
And if I have to watch TUF in here, then I have to buy a five pass.
And that's not I'm going to do because, you know, we watch almost, we have to spend
almost 25% of a dollar to watch all the people records and the apex card.
And the reason why I'm not going to buy a fight plus because of the most of the events are in the apex.
So there is no reason for me to buy a fire plus.
Thank you, Mike.
Thanks, man.
Yeah, I mean, I hear you.
And again, you don't need to buy it.
All the best stuff that happens on the show, it's going to be on social media.
It's going to be on Twitter.
It's going to be on Instagram.
be on Facebook.
I'm sure there'll be YouTube highlights.
You're good.
All right.
Shil is pumped for tough.
Good on him.
I don't know why you bark at literally everything,
but all right.
Thank you for coming, Shiloh.
Much appreciated.
So yeah, you're good there.
I mean, he's fought good grapplers and has beaten both.
Like, he fought Chad Mendes and finished him in the second round.
I know Chad's not the same dude he was when he fought Josie Aldo,
but Chad can wrestle his ass off.
And then the Ortega won, like, yeah, outside of the submission,
Volcanovsky beat the hell out of that guy.
I mean, he whooped Brian Ortega outside of, you know,
a 90-second stretch in that fight.
So he won like 23 and a half minutes of that fight.
So I'm curious.
I'm picking Macha Cheshv to,
win. But the closer we get to Saturday and seeing his preparation and seeing what he looks like
physically, I mean, he's working with Craig Jones for God's sake. I mean, you got to pick
something up from that. I know it's different than actual cage time with Islamakachev,
but Craig Jones is one of the best grapplers on planet Earth, pound for pound. So we'll see.
it's got to be an interesting fight
there's a lot of people confident that
Machachev's just going to steamroll him
I just don't think that happens
I think this one's going to live up to the hype
I really do
I could be wrong
but I think
I think Volk's going to be very competitive
in this fight
hold that one second for course
and then the other thing with Chandler coaching
the beauty of the tough is that
like you're just kind of the face
and some coaches like
really get in there and coach, but they also bring in a staff of guys who really can coach.
Like I'm sure Michael Chandler where I've Henry Hooft and I'm sure Greg Jones will be there
and maybe somebody else from Kilcliffe FC, maybe a teammate or something.
And Mike can just kind of help out.
Like that's basically what you do.
You're just the guy who runs the team, but you bring in your own coaches and they will coach
and Michael just motivate the hell out of them.
Like I'd love to be on Team Chandler.
Like get to work at Greg Jones.
Jones and Henry Oof, holy shit.
And then Mike just spitting motivational one-liners, it's the best.
That'd be a lot of fun.
All right, four quarter sports, what's up?
Hey, can you hear me?
Yes, sir.
All right.
So I wonder to talk about one championship real quick.
I'm just finding about this right now, that one actually has a card.
And I still don't understand how is it that they're not pushing their product, you know, more.
I mean, they keep one talking about how they want to be, what to go.
Their one B, what's to go to the UFC.
And, I mean, I don't know too much about Androge, you know, just talking through, like, you know, what to expect.
Because, I mean, I know who John Linnaker is, but I don't know so much about Androge.
So, I mean, I'm probably going to catch watch one championship on Friday.
But I want to talk about this upcoming fight between Jack Delamattelina versus Randy Brown.
I don't know. I'm looking at the betting lines, and I do feel that what's it cool, a lot of people are doubting Brandy Brown. I mean, Randy Brown, for what it's worth. I believe he's top of team worthy. I think if he gets a victory over Jagged Della Madelena, he's definitely, you know, somebody that people need to pay attention towards. But I think the lines, you know, shouldn't be like this far apart. I mean, what's your thoughts? And I think, and you think Randy Brown has a good chance of pulling off the ups and. I think the lines.
Yeah, he definitely has a chance
to pulling out the upside. He's good.
Where are the lines right now? Wow.
Minus 320 for JDM?
I mean, it's a dogg or pass situation.
Like all the values on Randy Brown.
For sure.
All the values on Randy Brown.
It's funny.
Like, again, I get sucked into
like looking at YouTube comments
and
it's like every video that I'm a part of,
people say never forget that mike heck told that mike heck picked loren murphy to be just gun
drudge it's it's actually hilarious every time i see it um because i think i i explained that
pretty carefully that androge was the better fighter and it was just a value pick
uh i just felt like there was no value on just gun drudge it turned out i was dead wrong because
Jessica Andrade could have been a minus 8,000 in that fight, and there was value on her.
But just looking at Lauren's career and her durability and the way she gets better as fights progress,
I felt like at plus three something, it was worth a dog shot.
And then I picked her for the MA fighting picks because, as I said, strategically, you have to make a move that nobody else is going to make.
And if you're right, then you pretty much win the whole card.
And that was sort of my pick.
It didn't work out.
So for all those people who like keep giving me shit, keep doing it because it's hilarious.
But also listen to what I was trying to say.
Yeah, that's a big line.
It's a big line.
It's good fight.
So it's actually perfect matchmaking, I think.
That's exactly where you'd want to put JDM and he needed to be on this card.
And Randy Brown's always game.
So I love that fight.
I love that fight.
Fabiano Andrade is just is kind of a dude who there are certain fighters who come in like really young and they're they've just an incredible skill set.
And then they kind of get a little naive, a little overconfident, a little bit, you know, I'm better than all these guys.
and I feel like that's how his pro career began.
And then four or five years ago,
the light bulb just turned on for this dude.
And he was kind of humbled up a little bit.
And that humbleness helped his skill set evolve in the right way.
And since then, this dude is just murdering people.
Like none of his fights are really all that competitive.
And even the John Linnaker fight before just,
one of the worst groin strikes
I've ever seen or heard in my life
Androger's putting the boots to John Linnaker.
I mean, John Linnaker was a battered mess.
He was a mess.
And
I don't know if the fight goes much differently, honestly.
I mean, maybe Linnicka made
the veteran-like adjustments,
but man, this kid, this guy, Fabiano,
Excuse me, Fabricio Dan Drogge.
I don't know why I keep calling him Fabiano,
because I think someone was trying to call in who is named Fabiano.
He's 25, world ahead of him.
Tremendous skill set.
He's only going to get better.
And he's just, he gets it right now.
He didn't.
The skills are always there.
The mind wasn't.
And I think the mind has caught up with the skills.
This guy's going to be a problem for a long time.
He probably needs to change his nickname.
According to topologies,
nickname is Wonderboy.
But it's two words, so it's a little different.
But I think people take the Wonderboy nickname and they only look at Stephen Thompson.
But, yeah, Fabricia Dandrage is a monster.
And, yeah, that fight's happening this month.
That fight is happening this month.
But yeah, I'm with you when it comes to the one's promotion.
It's just, it's tough.
It's tough.
Like, it's only, it's like they target certain parts of the globe, but they don't really target the U.S.
I know they have a card coming up in the U.S.
and they'll probably promote the shit out of that here in the U.S.
And everybody will know about it.
But some of these other cards outside of the first Amazon card with DJ and Marias,
I mean, I haven't seen any promotion for these Amazon cards.
None.
Like just none.
Because they just assume like, well, everybody in America has Amazon.
So they'll just click on Amazon Prime on a Friday night and be like,
oh, there's fights on.
I'll just click on that.
It doesn't really work that way.
Doesn't really work that way.
I don't know.
That fight's going to be interesting.
But Dan Drogh, I'm going to pick him to be John Littaker.
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Anthony, hello.
Heck of a morning.
I just want to talk real quick about the 135 pound division.
Over the weekend, we had Nakamura, that guy,
silver medalist, and then he just didn't even want to show us that silver medal.
He just went cracking and got that first round knockout.
this kid is a problem
man i do not know how he stacks up in the division
you know we had henry who just went to triple
double champ status and he was a
Olympic medalist you know obviously he went gold but
it's pretty crazy and uh
lee jingling michael chiesa that's perfect matchmaking
i really like that fight uh that's all i had man
thank you have more yeah man uh i i like that one too
i was very excited to hear kiesa announced that one
It was funny because, you know, Kesea reveals I'm going to announce this fight.
So I, of course, tried to get ahead of it.
Not because I want to out scoop him.
I just like to be prepared.
So, and to Kiesa's credit, he held that close to the vest.
He told his team not to tell anybody.
Because, like, I would never spoil that anyways.
like I would never spoil that.
I would never spoil that.
Like when there's a big announcement to be had,
like I'm not going to spoil it.
It's just not who I am.
Like you want to, of course,
part of the job is like you want to be first
and you want to like break a big story
and stuff like that.
And that's cool.
But you also don't want to like screw up any relationships.
And I feel like I have great relationships
with pretty much everybody across the board
in the sport outside of like three or four people.
And you don't want to do that.
So, like, for example, I knew before Dana White went on and announced the UFC 287 lineup, I knew that Mazadol was fighting Gilbert Burns.
I knew it.
I was told by someone who 100% knows, but they're like, just don't say anything because there's going to be an announcement for it.
So I was like, okay.
So I didn't say anything.
And I also knew that Pereira Adasania was going to be on that card.
And it happened fast.
And it was basically like extra confirmation Miami was probably going to be the destination.
There was just some postseason stuff.
Mazdaal talked about in the MAA hour.
I also was made aware of the boxing thing that he announced yesterday and some of the names that were on it.
Like Jose Aldo, like Anthony Pettis.
There are other names that I had heard that weren't revealed in the actual lineup,
but that card's being put together.
But I knew about that.
I knew it was happening April 1st and I knew there were three locations in play.
one of them was Orlando.
One of them was Milwaukee,
which ended up being,
and there was another location.
I forget what it was,
maybe Chicago.
Oh, no, it was Phoenix.
Phoenix was the third location that was in play,
which would have been cool.
But I knew all that.
But, I mean, I wasn't going to say anything
because it's not my place to say something.
When there's ways that you want to announce things,
and I'm aware of them,
I'm never going to, like, out-scoop somebody
when people want to make an announcement that way.
So I reached out for the cast,
announcement.
Just like, we'll pre-write it.
And when he announces it, we'll just fire it.
But they're like, nope.
He just wants to announce it himself.
And I obviously understood that.
But that's great matchmaking.
Great matchmaking.
Perfect fight for both guys.
I love it.
Nakamura is a beast.
That dude is a freaking problem.
That fight was awesome.
Just like pretty much every road to UFC final fight was great.
Those dudes brought it.
as far as how I would match Nakamura up, like, right away,
I don't want to get too crazy with him.
Like, I think he's, I think this guy's going to be real good.
But this division is just a murderer's row of talent.
I would say maybe like a Ronnie Lawrence, somebody like that,
because like the scrambles between those two guys could be a lot of fun.
And in the off chance that the wrestling negates itself,
those two are just going to throw hammers at each other.
That's a fun fight.
That's what I'm going with.
That's my on to the next one matchmaking pick for Mr. Nakamura,
because that fight was great.
Great performance.
Very excited.
So I had some IG messages for Hack of a morning for people who couldn't be here.
Let me check these out real quick.
A lot of the same here.
Wow, there's like, holy smokes.
One, two, three.
Wow.
All right, so I'll address these real quick.
Let me see what the chat here has to say.
Who does the extra time benefit Cheeto or Sanhagen?
Yes, that fight's happening in San Antonio.
I don't know.
I think it kind of affects both guys the same, honestly,
because they were peaking, getting ready for next Saturday.
And then it was like,
eight days ago they're told that they're moving to San Antonio.
So I don't know if it really helps anybody.
Honestly.
I don't know if it really helps anybody.
I don't know.
So I got a lot of,
I got like five DMs about the Dana White not saying Islam Makachev's name
or not remembering the name.
It's just,
I mean,
so many people have just been asking about the lack of promotion for the card.
And then that moment in particular,
just kind of put it over the top.
It was like a volcano was building and building and building.
And then Dana not actually remembering Islam's name, put it over the top.
Yeah, it was really bad.
That's just really, really bad.
Like, I don't care how tired you are.
To me, like, for me, it was like 4 a.m.
For him, it was like 1 a.m.
Dana's out playing blackjack far later than that
and probably could remember people's names and,
and faces and things like that.
So not good, really bad.
And that kind of led to like my tweet on Sunday.
Like, don't worry about the promotion.
Like, don't worry about it.
Don't worry about it.
This is not new.
This is not new.
If you go back through Twitter and all that, look, do I understand there was no slap
fighting league and all this shit that they're trying to promote and get over?
Yes, I obviously understand that.
But this is different.
Most of the time, the promotion for these cards is just not good.
Because it doesn't need to be.
The UFC has won.
They have already won the game.
Just putting a card on that's going to air on Saturday is going to net them a lot of money.
They're probably promoting the shit out of that card in Perth,
which is why the ticket sales are where they're at right now.
They're probably going to do a gigantic gate.
And they're going to make that extra income.
off of that gigantic gate.
Paperview buys do not matter anymore.
None of that matters.
They're getting the same amount of money,
no matter what.
And if they get a whole bunch of payperview buys, great.
That's like good promotion.
You'd be like, yeah, we did 1.2 million paper buys.
But there's a reason why those numbers aren't told to us anymore
because they don't matter.
They don't matter.
None of that matters.
All of us in this room right now,
are aware of this fight.
We all know what's happening.
We're all excited for it.
We're all intrigued about it in our own ways.
Whether or not we feel like Volk can pull off the big upset,
win the belt, become a two-division champion,
where that would place him in the all-time great list.
Some people are saying he'd be the greatest fighter ever
if he beats his al-Machachev.
I don't know if I'm ready to go that far,
but he's in the conversation.
That's for damn sure if he wins this fight on Saturday.
Will Mokachev just truck Volkanowski?
The intrigue is there.
The questions are there.
We have them all.
Like we have them.
So you don't need to tell us about it.
The UFC has, for years, understood that the hardcore fans are in.
We're going to watch no matter what.
The media is going to watch no matter what.
We're going to hype it up better than they will in a lot of respects.
But we're also going to be honest about the cards that aren't great either.
But if there's good storylines and there's compelling things,
and there's things to talk about and there's questions that can be answered,
we're going to talk about them and we're going to put the fight over.
They know that.
They're not stupid.
What they're trying to do is get, for a lot of these cards, like when they over-promote stuff,
they're trying to get the casual audience involved.
And as awesome and as spectacular as this fight is, on paper,
it has no casual appeal whatsoever.
It just doesn't.
even if you say like number one, number two in the world, that does not matter.
And it's not the first time this has happened.
It's the second time it's happened because we had it with John Jones versus Daniel Cormier.
And at least in that sense, you could get casual appeal because people knew who John Jones was.
People, D.C. wasn't quite there just yet.
But people knew who John Jones was.
They knew who he was.
They knew his story, his ups, his downs.
They knew everything.
they also had plenty of footage of DC and John Jones almost getting in a fight and poor Dave Schallers trying to separate it.
There's obviously that backstage thing between John and DC, which went viral.
Like that could, you could spin that towards a casual audience by just playing those clips over and over again.
This one doesn't, neither guy really crosses over that line where the casual people know,
who any of these guys are.
Like I said, I could go to the grocery store right now and be like,
hey, you excited to watch John Jones fight?
Don't know who I'm talking about.
Like, not a ton of them, but if I asked like 20 random people,
I'm sure like six or seven of them would know who John Jones is.
But if I went into the grocery store right now and asked who Alexander Volcanowski
or is on Machachev was, maybe one would be like, oh, yeah,
those guys are fighting on Saturday.
That's just how it is.
that's just how it is
but Dana not knowing Islam's name is
bad is bad and I've had
brain farts on this show where I forget things
and I have to look things up but
not forgetting Islam Makachap's name
for God's sakes
definitely not
forgetting that man's name
so again
we can fire ourselves up for it
I don't think we need the UFC
to tell us about this fight
that's what these shows are for
we're going to talk about them we're going to put them
over and I'm telling
you right now by the time we get to friday we're not even going to be talking about this anymore
we're not even going to be talking about it that's how the ufc does it now focus on what's here
by the time we get to fight week then we're just going to unload content on you and you'll get ready to
go like i said 2016 we had the same conversation about mcgregor versus ds2 for ufc202
where's the promotion?
I feel like there's not enough hype behind this one.
And then once we got to fight week
and they had their face-to-face
and they had their press conference
and the bottle started flying,
that's it.
Everything just took off from there.
So this isn't new.
This isn't new.
I understand this fight deserves a lot more respect
from the promotion, but this isn't new.
It really isn't.
I'll get to the other IG thing.
It's don't really want to do it,
but I've gotten like, I mean, I literally had 6 DMs about it, so I'll get to it.
Kurt, what's up, buddy?
Oh, hey, Mike.
Good morning.
Good to hear from you.
I hope you can hear me.
Mm-hmm.
Awesome.
I just wanted to ask something.
You saw the heck and said McGregor and Chan.
I'm a little confused with this whole, with Connor fighting again, and then the, and even the John Jones thing, because, like, a year ago, weren't John Jones, like, beat the crap out.
out of his fiance and was arrested for it.
And I think that like that kind of, like I hear like a lot of people talking about the data thing and
flat fighting thing, not wanting that to go away.
But I'm just a little confused.
Connor's like being sued by two women that he's allegedly assaulted.
We don't know the details, but I'm just kind of, I'm not excited to see Connor return.
And honestly, I'm not excited to see John Jones back.
I don't really care just because of what happened about a year ago.
And so I'm just kind of confused.
If you can bring clarity why none of this stuff is being brought up or talked about.
Thanks.
No, you make a really good point.
You definitely do.
And I've seen this a lot.
Here's the difference between, look, the John thing is really bad.
The police audio.
and the transcripts from it all are just really bad.
Like, he's not a great human being.
He's just not.
The charges were apparently dropped.
There were no, like, nothing, he wasn't punished.
I think he, maybe there was like a probation thing.
I don't know.
I know he wrote about it.
Maybe I'll go look it up, but the thing is the difference here,
and it's not a big one because I get where you're saying.
And, you know, John is not a guy that I'd be like,
Oh, I want to hang out with John Jones.
Absolutely not with you on that.
But at least the UFC addressed John Jones.
You know what I mean?
Like, they at least addressed what happened.
And they didn't do that with Dana.
They didn't do anything.
They just put them on TMZ and said,
here's our response, which is dumb.
So that's a little bit of a different thing.
Connor, again, the dude's in trouble all the time.
some is on video.
I mean,
no one,
Connor's a star
in a different way.
I don't know.
There's a lot of,
I get what you're saying.
I get what you're saying.
But the OCS least
responded to all of these things.
And they didn't do it with the Dana thing.
And that kind of rub people the wrong way.
And like I said earlier,
there are a lot,
there are a lot of really good people in the sport.
And there's a lot of awful people in the sport.
and I think you named two of the kind of awful people on the sport, if we're being honest.
And we, believe me, during those times, we hammered on both those guys.
But you can only do so much with the Connor stuff because they're just allegations.
And then you reach out to his team and his team denies everything.
And you just kind of wait and see how it all plays out.
And that's the difference between that situation and the Dana situation.
because the Dana situation, there is no,
well, we need to see how this plays out.
It's, we just saw it with our own eyes.
So we don't need to see anything play out.
Let's just see how the promotion and the parent company responds,
and they did nothing.
So they kind of got what they wanted.
The story just kind of went away,
much like these other stories have kind of gone away.
So, yeah, I guess they kind of got what they wanted.
but it is what it is
but I appreciate that question
let's see if we get anything else
in the chat here
I reckon when Connor fights
Chandler is the possibility of losing
he's been out for so long
without any fighting but he is quite skilled
we'll see what happens
what's the odds currently
and what could they be later on
let's see
let's check what the odds are
I'm sure there's a future line out there
let's check it out
It's a pick-em right now.
Minus 110, minus 110, according to draftings.
Which I think's about right.
I think it's kind of a 50-50 fight.
Let's go to Doge 999.
What up?
Doge, you there.
Yo, can you hear you hear me?
Yep.
Yep, I got you.
What's your thoughts on John Jones returning for heavyweight?
I'm still in that...
I'm kind of still in that I'll believe when I see it stage
because we've just been kind of burnt so many times.
And for a lot of reasons, Kurt just brought up until he actually walks into that octagon,
I'm not fully sold on it yet.
I mean, I'm intrigued by it, but I don't know.
It's just one of those things.
Like at this point after three years, I got to see it.
Like, I got to see him make the walk and get into the octagon.
I feel I'm intrigued by the fight
because if John Jones has learned how to
offensively wrestle in space,
then he is going to beat the breaks off of Cyril Gaon.
He is going to beat the breaks off of that man.
But if there's one thing in John's game that has been sort of missing,
it's that.
Now, John can wrestle.
Most of his wrestling is clinch-based against the fence, trips, take-downs in that sense.
And he's very effective.
And Cyril Gahn is great in the clinch.
And he is violence in the clinch.
He knows that position very well.
So if they clinch or if they strike,
John is a sort of a mysterious striker.
He has a bag of tricks that he goes.
into.
But if we're talking
like a straight
kickboxing match,
Cyril Gahn's going to win that fight
nine out of ten times.
So if this is like a space
kickboxing match,
Cyril Gahn is going to win that fight
all day long.
But if John can like shoot a double
and like in space,
take him down and get on top
of him, boy, it could be a really
rough knife for Cyril Gond.
But it's just a matter of
whether or not
John has picked up that aspect of his game,
how much his actual kickboxing prowess has evolved over the last three years.
Like we know he's put on a bunch of size.
He's been focusing on the diet and nutrition and trying to add that extra mass without
and he talked about this on a Twitter space yesterday that I just listened to this morning.
One of his main focuses was putting on that size but not losing
the gas tank
losing the durability
because he saw it before the OSP fight
before the OSP fight
he put out a bunch of muscle
bunch of size
and he just wasn't the same dude
he wasn't the same guy in there
he won and won easily
but it wasn't like
whoa John Jones is back
it was just a very
ick kind of win
in a fight that was designed
for him to shine in.
And it didn't happen that night.
And that's one of the questions I have too.
How much of that extra muscle impacts the guy that was so dominant?
I don't know.
So I'm intrigued by the matchup,
but I'm still not fully sold on it until he walks to the cage.
You know, and it's kind of sucky to talk about a fighter in that way,
but he's proven to us that he's not very reliable.
And he's going to have to spend a week in Vegas.
and Vegas has not treated him very well.
So, yeah, can't get too, too excited yet.
All right, YVMZ, what you got?
And then I got to go.
Hello, you're muted.
You're muted.
Oh, sorry.
There we go.
What's up, man?
Hey, man.
Not sure if this was asked earlier, but any thoughts on Derek Lewis?
It seemed like he just totally gave up on that last fight.
Thanks.
Yes.
kind of tough to watch.
You know, that was one of the questions we had,
and they're always tough.
Like, these are always tough questions.
You have to ask yourselves in this space
because you want to sit there
and you want to be positive
and say good things about everything,
but you can't sometimes.
Like, in this case,
is like, is Derek Lewis just cooked?
Is he just done?
And he kind of is?
Like, I think we realized
that his days of being like a title
contender are over, but could he still be like a top 10 heavyweight? I don't think so.
But that's okay. That's okay. You can make a very good living being a fun fighter.
But now with Derek, like he could still do Derek Lewis things, but we just got to matchmake him in fun fights.
Like Derek doesn't need titles. He doesn't need rankings. He's one of the, like there are a few guys in the sport who don't need any of that stuff.
Conner's won.
He's at, I mean, he's at a whole different level
and everybody else, but
like Max Holloway's another guy.
And Derek Lewis is kind of in that position too
where people just like him.
And they don't care who he fights.
Nobody cares who Derek Lewis fights.
They could chuck Derek Lewis in there with me
and people will care
because he'll beat the brakes off of me
and get a big knockout
and he'll say funny things on the microphone.
Like that's the Derek Lewis.
we love. Derek Lewis fighting Sergei Smevac.
Nobody wanted to see that. Nobody wanted to see that fight.
You chuck them in there with the Jarzini Rosen Strikes of the world, guys who aren't going to
shoot doubles on them, guys who aren't going to try to drag him to the mat over and over again,
you throw them in there with dudes who are going to stand there in that octagon, the center
of it, and chuck hands and feet with them. That's what you do.
That's what you do. And that's how you match make him going forward.
just throw them in there with dudes
who are just going to stand and bang with them
until somebody falls down.
That's how you match Rick Lewis,
and that's how you get people to care
and want to watch him fight.
Keep them away from Romanov,
all those guys.
You want to throw them in there?
Like, I don't know.
Someone on the Otno suggested
like Marcos Ruggiero delima.
I'm in for that. That's fine.
Like they're going to stand there
and just punch each other in the face
really, really hard.
that fight's not getting out of the first round
more than likely
I'm cool with that
but these are the kind of fights
that we have to do
yeah it was tough to watch
tough to watch
I'll try to get Adam in one more time
fresh voice
and then we will continue on with our days
I don't know if we're going to get them
nope we're not
all right we are done
we'll be back on Thursday
we'll do the damn thing again
right here at 10 a.m. Eastern
and we'll do it again on Friday.
I'm very excited
for Thursday as well
because it's going to be a very busy day.
We got this show, then we got BTL.
But Thursday afternoon,
I'm going to be talking to
Amanda Giera, who is
if you watch the Bellator card,
she absolutely
clobbered it on the desk
like she always does.
she has been a great addition to the Bellator broadcast team,
and I am a broadcast geek,
and any time I get the chance to talk to people in broadcasting,
I get very excited.
So Amanda is actually in Phoenix getting ready for the Super Bowl.
She's down there with CBS Sports,
and she's going to give us a little bit of time on Thursday.
So what I think I'm going to do is take that audio
and put it on this show's podcast,
on Friday.
So we'll do our show here
and then we'll follow it up
with that conversation.
Very excited to talk to her
for the very first time
about just getting into MMA
and just randomly
I mean, she just randomly showed up
on a card and I want to know
how that happened, how she felt about it,
how the MMA community
has treated her because this is a very tough
space to be in and I think
she's killed it.
So very excited to
talk to her on Thursday.
I'm also working on this feature.
I've done, I think, three or four of these,
but it's like a big write-up, big feature piece.
And then there's a, like a news feature audio podcast
that's going to go along with it.
And this one is, this one was, this one's been tough.
This one's been tough for a lot of ways.
It's been a very emotional one in a lot of ways.
And I'm excited for you guys to hear this,
because you're probably aware of what the subject is going to be
and what we're going to talk about.
But there's just, when I saw this,
this is a topic and a thing that needs a lot more contextualizing.
It needs a lot more layers because I feel like what people have seen is just not enough.
And it doesn't paint the entire picture.
So I wanted to paint that picture.
And that's what we're doing.
That's what I'm going to be working on pretty much all this week in every free second I have.
But the write-up is almost ready to go.
The podcast production is underway.
That is the biggest undertaking of all.
But I think you're all going to dig this when it's done.
I think the plan is that it's going to drop a week from today.
that's kind of what we're shooting for
because we could drop it this week
but then it's just going to get buried
with all the UFC 284 stuff
and we don't want that to happen
because this is a very important story
that we're going to try to tell here
so I appreciate your patience on that
and I appreciate you guys jumping on here
with the great questions as always
and I appreciate all your enthusiasm
and excitement for UFC 284
sharing it in the same way that I am
so thank you very much everybody
appreciate you. We'll see you Thursday. Have a heck of a morning and a great rest of your day.
I screwed that up, but it is what it is. Have a good one, everybody.
