MMA Fighting - HOAM | Will Conor McGregor vs. Michael Chandler Happen in 2023?

Episode Date: May 19, 2023

While Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler are expected to fight following the airing this upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter, the big questions seem to be when will that fight take place, and will it happen before the end of this year? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck discusses his confidence levels as to when the fight could happen, especially since a lot of the year's pay-per-view events have been announced or targeted. Additionally, listener questions include Francis Ngannou's deal with the PFL, why the PFL's next 12-18 months could be the most interesting story in all of MMA, the UFC middleweight and lightweight divisions, what things could look like if the PFL and Bellator were to actually merge, the UFC's return to Boston in August, and more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser 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. A heck of a morning. We are live on the M.A. Fighting Twitter Spaces. You hear the show in its entirety shortly thereafter on the M.A. Fighting Podcasting Network.

Happy Friday to us all. Welcome to the show. I am Mike. Hope everyone's having a great week leading into a very fun weekend. If your weekend includes some mixed martial arts action, you'll get it tomorrow. UFC Vegas 73, headlined by McKenzie Dern versus Angela Hill. If you want to see some fists, two faces, you get BKFC tonight as well. So a little something, something.

We got big boxing match. Katie Taylor's back tomorrow. We got Annie Lomachenko tomorrow. So we got a lot going on in the combat sports world. As you know, since it is Friday, there's two things that are going to be happening. One, because I'm doing a show, the landscapers will be out front,

as they already are. You can probably hear them mowing and weed whacking in the background because why the hell not? They always do that. And two, it's a free-for-all Friday. So we can talk about MMA. We could talk about UFC Vegas 73. We could talk about Francis, John Jones, Tyson, Fierre,

whatever you want. We can talk about other things as well. So that's what we're going to do today. Let's get to you. Fridays are your shows. There's no diatribs. Let's get right after it. I am a man of my word.

James Foster, I said if you hop on in, you will be first. And that is what is happening today. James, hello. Hey, heck of a morning to you, Mike. You too. I know it's been a while since I jumped on here,

but I just want to wish you back. I'm glad to hear you had a good vacation. I know it's probably been a few weeks. You probably feel like you need another one, but we're always happy to have you back, especially in this space. But, yeah, a couple weeks ago when everyone was matchmaking for Parker Porter,

everyone missed the obvious one. It's Roy Nelson. Get Roy Nelson back in there, had her his big knockout in the bare-knuckle MMA, bringing back to USC for one fight. I just have him and Parker Porter's just during lunch, boxes at each other. I think we would all would just love to watch that.

And with the BMF title, is that basically just a number one contenders fight? Whoever wins that fight, do you think we'll get the next title shot? And a shockoff. I love watching shockoff fight. I don't know if you have any

news forum. If the UFC is eyeing a five forum, I know he's kind of in a weird space. Everyone above him is either already Fod and the only one that kind of makes sense is Usman, but Usman ain't going to take that fight. So maybe his only option is to fight down.

And yeah, Mike, just have a heck of a morning. Thank you for what you do. And good luck to your Celtics tonight. I think they could probably use all the luck that they could get at this point. But have a heck of a morning and happy birthday, AK. Look, the Celtics don't need luck. They just need to play basketball. If they just play basketball for four quarters,

they will beat the heat every single game. they just like to take quarters off and when they do the other team just kills them and that's what happened in game one and the other thing they need to do is just feed Robert Williams and if they do, Robert Williams score like 50 points because they can't stop him. They cannot stop the Celtics in the paint

and down low they can't. Southwakes killed them down low. They just don't have the size and the strength to match up but it's the playoffs and the hot team usually comes through and Miami's been incredible. throughout this postseason Shafkar Akmanov, I don't know what the hell he's going to do he's probably going to have to fight

backwards, I don't know who he's going to fight maybe the like if Sean Brady beats Jack Della Madalena, I think that's something they could look at maybe the Kiesa Kevin Holland winner perhaps, I don't know but he's in kind of a weird position right now when it comes to

who he's going to fight next with this division sort of looking like it is looking like right now. The BMF title thing. Look, I've talked about this before. I get why they're doing it, but it doesn't need it. This fight rules. It's a hat on a hat. If you're going to do something, my whole premises, like, while I understand the BMF thing, and this is the kind of fight that personifies that, you said it was going to be a one and done. Let's just do something different. The all violence title or something. Like, you can do whatever you want, just have fun with it. And if you want to make the BMF

title fun, I'm okay with that. But when you come out and say it's a one-time thing and it's never going to be defended again and yada, yada, yada, and then we're just because Mazadol retires, we just put it back out there. I don't know. It's not my thing. This is a fight that didn't need it,

but whatever. Some people like it. I think we could be a little more fun and creative with it. But no, I don't know if it's a number one contender fight. I mean, it could be. But if Binald-Dar-Ewish meets Charles Olivera, they're giving Benile the title shot. And if Benile doesn't win, I don't know what they're going to do. Because between July 29th and October, whenever that's going to happen, that's not a ton of time.

That's two and a half months. And then you're going to ask one of these guys after going to absolute war to turn around and fight Islam-Machachev in Abu Dhabi. It's a tough ask. So if Benil wins, I think he gets it. if Benio loses and Volkanowski just blows the doors off Yahya Rodriguez, it would not surprise me if they went back to that and just do that one again. Because Volcanovsky has said, look, I want to defend the Featherway title, and then maybe at the end of the year we'll do it.

So I just don't know if Porre and Gates, you're going to be able to turn around that quickly to fight for the belts. Now, could they fight for the belt in their next fight? maybe get the winner of whoever is on fights, probably. But I think it's going to be Daryush or probably Volcanovsky if he beats the Ayer. And the Parker Porter, Roy Nelson thing, if Parker Porter Porter is a minus 900 favorite in that fight, because Parker will just take him down and just outwork him. I don't think they'll be throwing lunchboxes at each other.

I think there'll be a couple of lunchboxes throw, and then Parker's going to take him down and kill him. So I think Roy Nelson, if he's got a fight, I think doing the game bread, bare-knuckle thing is probably the best bet for him. I was a little petrified for him against Dylan and Cleckler. I didn't think that was going to go very well for him. And sure enough, seems like that's the kind of thing Roy likes to do. Roy could have been good to be KFC, but he's getting up there in age. So, yeah, I think he's, if he's going to keep fighting, just do the game bird thing.

And do you, bro. Do you. but don't do not go after the future heavyweight champion park reporter that's insane you don't want to do that to yourself uh let's go to chaos what's up chaos you got me i got you sir how are you that's good thanks mike uh heck of a morning first time call a long time listener what do you think the probability of connor returning this year is we're running out of pay-per-view events i think only september november and december are free and polymarkets giving him about 25% chance of returning by mid-November, which I think is really optimistic.

Is even in the pool yet? Have we got any updates? Cheers. As far as I know, the last time I checked, this was a couple of weeks ago, he was not in the pool. But honestly, I don't think that matters. I don't think that matters. Dana's already kind of shrugged it off. Like, I'm not answering these questions.

Go talk to Jeff DeVitsky. The UFC has used exemptions before. Wouldn't shock me if they did it again. And sure, people will be questioning it, but by the time the fight gets there, I don't think anybody will care. They just want to see Connor back in there, especially against Michael Chandler. Like I've said, my prediction pretty much all year and even at the end of last year was December. Because that December pay-per-view last year was bad. That was a bad one.

And that's usually like a tent pole type of pay-per-view for them. Brian Campbell on Morning Combat always talks about how they have, the UFC has majors. It's International Fight Week, it's MSG. December is usually one of those. They usually load those up and then either like March or September, like another one is usually what they load up. March is probably the one more often than not. But if it's going to happen this year, it's probably going to happen in December.

MSG, it seems like they want John Jones versus Steepa. I don't know if John Jones is going to want to be. I mean, maybe he would if he gets pay-per-view points be on the undercard of Conner's return. But I think John would probably want that main event spot. I think Steve-A would want that main event spot and that building's going to sell out and that's going to do a lot of pay-per-view buys anyways.

So I think it's kind of pointless to put both those fights on the same card. It would be gigantic, but then what are you going to do in December? So I would say December would be probably what we're looking at if it's going to happen this year. But I don't know. He's going to get back in the pool. Whether that matters or not is the big question for me.

But, yeah, I just think he has to, if he goes in there and, like, passes a couple of tests, they'll be like, all right, dude, you can go fight. Especially with Connor, kind of plays by his own rules. And he's the biggest star in the sport. And he's a guaranteed million pay-per-view by a guy. So if there is an exemption to be had, it will be given to him. Tristan, hello. Hey, Mike. How's everything going?

A couple of questions here. So I might have missed this. It was one of Gilbert Burns post-fight scrums, I believe, or possibly before he fought. I don't know which card. But Mike Bond from MMA junkie had asked him about Kamara Usman, possibly spitting up with Trevor Whitman. I mean, I don't, Gilbert had said that he wanted to ask

Kamara Usman about it. But because the thing about it, he saw Kamara Usman at Cliff, Cliff, F.C., a lot because usually he would split time and go to Colorado to train with Trevor. So did you hear something about that? Because I took me back. I was shocked. I was like, what?

I didn't hear about this. So I don't know what you just heard thoughts on that if that is possible. Second question I have. I just saw, I think on MMA media, MMA mania had posted that now obviously it's not confirmed. If it's not confirmed MAAfighting.com, then. not booked yet, but I'm hearing. Tatanasuador will be fighting Werner-Genna, August 5th.

That's supposed to be a fight-night card. I believe it's supposed to be a Nashville, Tennessee. So if you're hearing that, just let me know. Just want to know about that. And then my last thing is, regards to the Boston Celtics here, the fourth quarter, I mean, I was watching that game, and then I'm like, all right, I was really thinking,

that Boston got this game. This game's over. I come up, awake up at the morning, and they lost. I'm like, how that happened? I mean, they were saying that the fourth quarter, they just, they just didn't play well. Tatum had like, what, two or three turnovers didn't take a shot in that fourth quarter. So, like, what's your gauge on him? Because, like, I'm not going to question Tatum.

I think Tatum is a superstar. But there's sometimes, there's this lack, you know, kind of like the sense of urgency is not there at times with him. It's ebb and flows up and down. So just your thoughts about those things that they'll see, excuse me, those three things. I have to say. Thanks, Mike. So the Ousman thing, like, I don't really know, but even after the Gilbert Burns fight for Ousman, he was still training at Kilcliffe. It's not like he, it's like he lives in Denver.

You know what I mean? He trained, like, when he's training, like, off, I guess offseason, if you will, if he doesn't have a fight, like, he's still, you know, he travels from Florida to Texas and all these different places. So he still does train at Kilcliffe. So even him just being in the gym at Kilcliffe in between fights, it's not new. So I don't know if he's left Trevor. And if he goes and works with Trevor, it means he's getting ready for a fight.

So I guess that kind of remains to be seen. If he books another fight, then I guess we'll kind of get our answer to that. So I don't know how much stock I put into that. The Tatiana Suarez, Vernadjana-Joruba fight, MMA Milato reported this last night. We had heard rumblings. We had been looking into it. What we can tell you, yes, it's not MAAfighting.com,

but I would say expect that fight to happen. It's looking good. It's looking good. That's what I can tell you. It's not on the website yet, but that is a fight the UFC wants. It has been presented to both fighters, and it seems like it's going to happen. So kudos to MMA

Malato for getting that right. As far as Southwax go, yeah, Tatum was pretty awful in the fourth quarter, but they as a team were awful in the third quarter. They just got the doors blown off of them. I mean, if a team scores 50 points against you in the third quarter,

like you're probably not going to win a lot of basketball games. Miami just came out and kicked the living shit out of them in the third quarter and just kind of like took the wind out of their sales. They just stopped doing what was so successful. full in the first quarter in the first half, which is getting the ball down low. Let Marcus Mark do his thing and dump the ball down low and get easy baskets.

But instead they try to get too fancy and shoot a bunch of threes. And I don't know. They have to win tonight, though. I mean, this is, I hate saying a game two is a must win, especially the team as good as the Celtics, but you can't go to Miami down O2. You can't. You got to go in there. And I don't even know if a win is good enough tonight.

You got to go in there and just blow the doors off them because the Celtics are a better basketball team than the heat. I don't care who you can try to paint me a different picture, and it's a bad picture and it ain't true. But if the Celtics play their absolute best game and Miami plays their absolute best game, every game in the series, the Celtics beat them by double digits every single game. It's just the way that it is. They're the better basketball team.

Miami has played great in the playoffs. Their guys have stepped up. And you know what? Here's one of my bigger takeaways from game one. I didn't hate watching Kyle Lowry play basketball. He didn't flop around and dive into the stands every time he drove to the basket. That annoyed the crap out of me last year when they played in the postseason. Kyle Lowry just dove all over the floor.

If you took a breath at him, he flew in the sky complaining to the referees that he got followed, even if a player was within eight feet of him. That dude drives me insane. But he played out of his mind, especially in the first half in game one. He was huge. Without Kyle Lowry, in game one in that first act, the Southwicks would have headed into the third quarter up like 30 points. But Larry was money.

And he wasn't just annoyingly awful to watch. But we'll see it. They got to win tonight, though. God, they have to win tonight. Let's go to J-Stat. What's up, J-Stap? Me too. What is next for Johnny Walker?

Because you got John Blahovic fighting Alex Pereira. So what's the state of the 205 division in your opinion? I think Johnny Walker is going to fight Magamette Ancolaev next. I think that's the fight they're going to do. They're going to give Ankaliath. They're just not, like Ankiyaf might be the best 205 in the world, but he has not left a good taste in the UFC's mouths with his performances. The Tiago Santos fight was really bad.

He won dominantly, but it wasn't the kind of performance that, he was certainly looking for and what the UFC was looking for. Yeah, I beat up Anthony Smith, but Anthony kind of got hurt in that fight and he did what he sort of needed to do. And then the title fight with Janbovich did not. And I'll say this, and I've said this a million times,

I didn't think that fight was as bad as Dana said as it was. I think he probably wanted a little bit more out of Ankelaif in terms of trying to get a finish and get him out of there and make it emphatic. Probably shouldn't have been a draw. I thought Ankeleye probably won that fight, but he's just not in the great graces of the UFC. And this division just has more interesting and more drawable names

within it than Magamette Ankelaif right now. So I think they give Johnny Walker that opportunity, see if Johnny can get a big win. And if not, if Anka-Lyaf can be impressive, then he's going to be back in the good graces. So I kind of think that that's the fight to make. That was my Otno pick, and I think that's what they're going to end up doing. So we'll see how it plays out.

I would pick Magamette Anka-Lyaf to win that fight, but maybe Magamad just feels the pressure of I have to go out there and perform and tries to have a big striking battle with Angolaev and with Johnny Walker and maybe Johnny knocks him out. And I don't think the UFC would be too upset about that if we're being honest. But at the same token, I didn't think Johnny's performance against Anthony Smith was all that great either. I mean, he won, and that's great. But even Dana said after the fact, not the kind of performance that's going to get you into a title fight.

And had he gone out there and just killed Anthony Smith, if he got to finish in the third round, the way that fight was going and he probably should have might be having a different conversation right now. But now I think they're just going to throw those two guys in there together. and one of them is going to be out of the title picture for quite some time. Let's go to Four Corner Sports. What's up? Mike, good morning. So I see, I don't know if it's official on MMA fighting.

I just saw it right now, but I see that there's reports of Tatiana Suarez versus Verna Janderoba. I'm assuming this is a strawway. And if that's the case, is it that the U.S. is trying to fast track Tatiana into a title for? fight because if all goes well, then Jean-Wei Lee retains her title against Amanda Lemos. And it looks like the same time frame, maybe about a week apart of anything. Amanda Lemos, Jean-Wei Lee and Taziano Sawyer versus Vernon Janderova, you think they might try

to set that up as the next possible fight for both ladies if Tantiana wins and Jean-Wea Lee wins. and I've been seeing all over Twitter Tyson Fury, you know, going off on Joe Roken because Joe Roken said that John Jones would be able to destroy Tyson Fury. I mean, I see a lot of people saying that Fury would be able to knock out Jones, which is possible, but, you know, people have this misconception

that, you know, fighting is only just requiring, just throwing fists and stuff like that. And I think if you were to lock up John Jones and Tyson Fury in a room, I'm pretty well confident that Jones walks out there as the winner just because he has more tools to the table as opposed to Tyson Fury. And I did listen to McKenzie's Dern's, what's called, Media Day Scrum. It seems like she has a lot of demons, you know, fighting in the main event.

I mean, that's something that's a little bit concerning. I know she has a lot on her plate. Is this, you know, something that is on the table for Angela Hill to just, you know, be as a favorite to win for tomorrow's night's main event. I mean, it just doesn't seem like McKenzie Durant's head is not all there. Everything that's happening in her personal life, coach, not being there for part of her training camp. And the fact that she keeps on talking about that she's O and Sue as a main event, fighter. I don't know.

I just want to hear your thoughts and opinions. All right, thanks, Mike. So we touched on a couple of these things already. The Sawyer-Jenjerobo fight, probably. going to happen. We haven't like fully confirmed it, but I would say that's probably going to happen.

Do I think they're fast-tracking Tatiana Swars? No, I don't. If she wins, I don't think they're going to give her a title fight. I think the UFC is well aware of the potential. Like, I think he was just getting Zhang back in there because she hasn't fought.

That'll be 10 months between fights. I think we're just trying to get Zhang in there. I think they like probably the stylistic matchup for her just to get her in front of the peeps and maybe try to build it. If Janjonan does not get the next shot, then what are we doing here? Like if Zhang Wei Li beats Amanda Lemo, she and I expect her to do so, if they don't do Zhang Wei Li versus Jan Jan Janan, that is promotional malpractice. Like how do you, how can you not do that?

Try to find a way to go to China and do it. That's the fight to make. Like, that is absolutely the fight to make. I just don't know what else you can do. A.O. I mean, I'm shocked that they even made this fight. I thought they were just going to go right to that route, but that's the fight you make.

And Tatiana is probably in no rush right now. I don't know if you can go from Verna Jandrova to a title fight. That's a good, I mean, that's good. I think this is really good matchmaking. I think this is really good matchmaking. John Jirobe is on a tear right now. We got basically wrestler versus Brazilian jiu-jitsu, technique versus strength. I love this.

I like the match-up. But no, I don't think if Tatiana wins, she's getting a title shot. Now, if Amanda Lemosh wins and Tatiana wins, maybe, maybe. But if Zhang wins, they got to do the Janjong on fight. They have to. They got to do it. Boating for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. What?

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Conditions apply. Let's go to Cole. Then we'll go to Toke and then we'll go to Jackson. Cole, it's up. Heck of a morning, Mike. I just got a question. I'm wondering if you saw any of that hockey game last night. The game winner was scored with 12 seconds left in the fourth overtime.

They played over two games worth. so that's pretty crazy but i got one question if if you had to pick and you had money on it who would you say they end up scheduling to fight first the winner of whittaker versus duplice against ad asanaia or connor versus chandler all right i'll hang up and listen who fights first the winner of whittaker duplice versus adasania or connor her fighting Chandler. It's a good question because I'm not

I'm not fully convinced that Whittaker DDP is going to happen. I feel like they're going to have to switch some things up. And I was thinking about this today. I was driving to the gym and I was like, how the hell are they going to pull this off?

Like if Whitaker at DDP goes, they go like a three round fight and then you have, you try to get Whitaker back in two months. I just don't know that happens. And I just don't know if DDP will, like unless he gets a quick finish, which I don't think he will, how's he going to turn back around two months? I don't know.

It's kind of asking a lot. And then some of the other big fights coming up at 185, we got Vittori Canineer. Is he's already beat both of those guys, convincingly, Vittori twice. No one's going to want to see Cannon Air fight Adasanya again. We got Strickland's Abis Magamadoff July 1st, and I think if Strickland wins that fight, he seems to be the kind of guy that can turn around if they need him, but I don't know if they would just chuck Strickland and do a title fight

with a win over Abis Magamadav. And then we have the Ikram Alaskaroff, Paul Costa fight. But that's later in July. So that's like a month and a half turnaround. I think they're going to have to move some things around. I think they're going to have to move some things around. Unless both these guys agreed and they're confident they can turn back around. But if you go to Sydney, September 10th or September 9th as it's going to be here,

and Izzy's not fighting, then what are we doing? So I kind of feel like they might be in a position where they're just going to have to move some things around, maybe shuffle up some fights, maybe pull DDP and just throw them right in there with Adasania. and throw Whitaker in there with Strickland or I don't know what they're going to do

but it just feels like they're asking a lot from those two guys having said that I just don't know when Connor's going to come back so I guess I will I will be optimistic

that everything works out great that Whitaker and DDP have a fun fight nobody gets hurt the winner comes out relatively unscathed and they could turn back around so I will go

with the middle title fight, winner of that fighting out of Sanya first, then Connor fighting Chandler. But I'm not, I can't say I'm overly confident in either at this at this moment. So I'm curious to see if they're going to switch some things around. It's up, Toc. Belator being up for sale, perhaps maybe, you know, rumor thing. And then I went to my business part of my brain. And I thought, wait a second. A thing that usually happens in industries is that they go and try and consolidate. So what I'm considering here, I watch Succession a lot, sorry I use all that jing, mumbo-jumbo from that show. But what I will say is this. What happened if there was a merger of equals, let's say,

with PFL and Bellator? Which parts of Bellator would you keep? Because there's other than the fighters, of course, but in the sense of, would you keep the PFL season, or would you keep the Grand Prix from Belator? How would you do the whole merger? What parts of each would you keep? And, of course, we have to celebrate the new consolidation in this fictional scenario. So the match-up that I'm looking at as the main event is, of course, Kayla versus cyborg. But other than that, which are kind of, let's show what this new entity is. What are the matchups that you're going for? Is it Brendan Lachnay versus Patricia Pitbull? I just play with me a little here on Free Fall Friday. And have a heck of a day, Mike. So honestly, I actually think

the merge would be super fascinating. if Bellator and PFL merged. I mean, that's going to give Bellator some big headlines. The good news of all of this would be that Bellator would still be sort of a thing, but it just wouldn't be called Bellator anymore. I just think that's, I just think it's such a bad name for an MMA promotion. I've just never, I've never liked the name. The talent is incredible.

Like the talent on the Bellator roster far exceeds the PFLs. I mean, it's not even, it's not even close. It's not even close. I'm trying to think, like, what would be great fight? Because, like, most of the compelling matchups would be the Bellator fighters fighting each other. So, because they just have the better roster. But if that merger does happen, it's going to create a lot of new avenues for fighters. Because that's just, that's going to be a power play.

I think they would keep the season format. I think they would do some more pay-per-views. And I think the bigger names than the current champions would be sort of the pay-per-view fighters. And you would use the million-dollar tournaments to build new talents. And I think that's like a really good proposition because that's the one thing that really hinders the PFL is that you can't build a profitable pay-per-view with the roster that they have.

Sure, you're going to have Francis in 2024. that's going to create some interesting things, but you need people for him to fight. So that's one thing you have to deal with. Like if Francis fighting anti-Delijah, no disrespect to anti-Delijah, but no one's going to spend $50 on that. Some will because it's the first fight,

but it's not one of those overwhelming draws that you're like, ooh, I have to spend $50 to watch Francis fight this guy that he's a minus-200 favorite against. Harrison Cyborg would probably something they would do, but it's kind of tough to fantasy matchmake here because we just don't know what these rosters would actually look like

and how they would actually do it. So I would use, I would probably say that the Grand Prix would be on like a special occasion type deal. It would just be cool just to do one. Like if there's a division that's just thriving and it's just to get a bunch of great fighters, just do a Grand Prix.

It doesn't have to be for, we could just do it for a million dollars I don't know we can have fun with this is what I'm trying to say and then it just creates more opportunities for for fighter it would just be such an interesting move if they did that now especially with this Francis deal but it'd be kind of throwing Francis in there with some big hand chucking heavy weights and

like I think Johnny Ebblin would beat pretty much any guy he would fight whether it be Bellator or PFL but again you bring in some other names to the organization that makes things interesting. But plus you get some fun fights, like throwing Brennan Ward in there with some hitters at 170. Like Lockham, Pitbull would be, I guess, interesting on paper, but it's not, I don't know, I would pick Pitbull to win that fight, like without hesitation.

Not saying Brendan Lockney's a bad fighter, he's a good fighter, but he's just not quite what Pitbull is right now. So, boy. It's much more interesting now that merger because when we first saw those reports, like obviously we dug into it and Ariel's talked about this as well, so I'm not like breaking any fourth wall here. But were there ever discussions about this? Sure.

Are they like currently ongoing as far as I know? No. But there were like preliminary talks about possibly doing this, but it doesn't seem like they're really in play right now. Apparently there's some heavy hitters who have interest in Bellator, but I wonder if PFL would come back to the table. It's something a little more interesting with the business model and all these different investors that they have.

So, boy, would that be a fascinating move now? Much more fascinating that it was when these reports first started coming out. I would be surprised if it happened, but I like to live in a world where things are fun and interesting and new. And that would be all of those things. if they're able to pull that off and merge those two brands together. Because I honestly think this would be very helpful to Bellator right now

to be able to merge those organizations together, have the pay of remodel be on ESPN, which would be huge for their fighters. And it would help a lot of their stars or stars of their building get some notoriety. Because that's like the one thing that really hurts Bellator is that we know when PFL fights are happening. We just, most people don't know when Bellator fights are happening.

And they, they try on their social channels and stuff, but showtime has like decent shows, but not a lot of people are going to be like, yeah, let's watch Showtime today. Or let's purchase Showtime on our cable package. Or let's get the Showtime app so we can watch Bellator. Like, not a lot of people are going to do that. But throw those fighters on ESPN Plus and ESPN and ESPN 2 for some of their events, a lot of those fighters are going to get notice a little. little bit more. So boy, would that be super fun. Jackson, hello. Hey, good morning, Mike. How you doing? Good, are you? To be honest with you, Mike, I'm a little bit depressed. I was initially real happy for Francis when this news all came out about the deal and everything. And I've completely

changed my mind over this past week because I have a lot of friends that I've worked real hard to get into MMA and into watching the UFC and everything. But they're definitely kind of more casual fans and that's sort of how I gauge how hype people are for certain events. Not a single one of them has texted me anything about, man, big news for Francis, big deal for Francis. And I'm kind of thinking maybe it was just doomed from the start anywhere he was going to go. Because really besides maybe one or two guys, there's not really a lot of options for him to fight that people are going to be excited about outside of boxers.

And I think we're kind of just left here with like, that's great for him. but like am I ever going to be as excited for a Francis fight unless he drops, you know, hey, I'm fighting Tyson Fury somehow. It just seems like it was maybe kind of just doomed to as great as it is for him. Unless some promotion can get a whole stack of guys at once or really build up more names than their own promotion, no big name is going to bring them even close, anywhere close ever, to get into what the UFC is doing, or even some big number of. or two that is, you know, a household kind of name.

I mean, they were texting me all week talking about the Gajuporri fight, how that was going to be the best fight. That card was so stacked. And, I mean, it seems like the Francis News, like, the UFC almost won by putting that news out to the casuals. Like, I think the hardcore fans know, like, that the Francis News was the bigger deal. But to most people, they're seeing, hey, two exciting fighters we love are fighting for a BMF belt.

I'd rather watch that than Francis beat the shit out of something nobody, you know, that I've never heard of before. So I'm just depressed. I'm hoping maybe change my mood, Mike, but that's what it is. So have a good morning. So let me just say I get where you're coming from. And if there's, I guess, one negative that I saw about this Francis thing is that people are like, well, who is he going to fight? So let me make this attempt to kind of turn you around a little bit. This whole thing, France is signing with the PFL.

A lot of people have this mentality that it's like this is the end of the story. Like Francis is in the PFL. He's going to fight Matea Sheffel and anti-Jelijah and that's it. To me, this is the beginning of the story. This is the beginning. The next year to 18 months. months for the PFL are going, this is to me the most fascinating story in MMA right now. Like I want to know how this is all going to play out.

If you are a heavyweight that is having any kind of success, whether it's in the UFC or Bellator or Eagle FC doesn't matter. If you are, or one championship, who cares? if you are anybody with any kind of a name and of having any kind of success and your contract is coming up, you are calling your manager right now and you are saying, get me to the PFL because of what Francis has in his deal. If you fight Francis and Gano, right, if you fight Francis and Gano in the PFL, you're going to get at minimum $2 million to fight him. and I don't want to turn this into a whole fight or pay thing, whatever. There is, like, Jen, Jen mentions it on BTL. Let's just say Tai Tui Vasa has three fights left in his UFC deal.

All three of those fights combined, Taitoibasa is not going to make $2 million. He's not going to. He's probably not even going to come close to that. You don't think Taito Ivasa is like, hey, I got two fights left. Let's go out there, let's do work, and then send me the people. PFL, we could do Francis versus Taito Yvasa. Who would complain about that? Two dudes chucking them.

Even like a Derek Lewis. Like I know those two fought and it was one of the worst fights, if not the worst fight in history. But Derek Lewis is a name. And if they try to do that again and it builds it up right, they could get people excited. Are we going to see John Jones fight Francis? No.

We're not going to see that. We're not going to see it. But if you are any kind of a heavyweight right now, you are looking at the PFL. You are looking at the PFL much more than you were before because it's $2 million. You're going to get at least two mill to fight this guy. Plus, the pay-per-view model,

you get 50% of the pay-per-view buys on top of the $2 million. You're making ridiculous money. You're making more money to fight Francis than you ever will over like a four or five fight stretch in any... other promotion.

So every heavyweight on the planet right now, except for probably John Jones, is eyeballing this. They're looking at this through a whole different lens. Who knows, like, look, Steve Mietich is about to fight John Jones. No one knows what his contract looks like. A lot of people are saying he's going to retire. But if SEPA has one fight left when he fights John Jones,

and then he loses, and is competitive with John, you don't think he's going to go look at the PFL and be like, dude, I'm going to get two mill to fight this guy, plus pay-per-view buys. 50% of it. You don't think Steve A would do one more fight to go over there and fight France a gun?

Of course he would. So don't look at the roster now. Look at the roster when Francis fights. Fabrice would be an interesting fight. not a blockbuster, but that's an interesting fight. There are, he's a former heavyweight champion too. They can make this work. It's just, my biggest question about it isn't like who Francis is going to fight,

because I'm fascinated. He's going to fight. Trust me, with that kind of price tag, hang him, they're going to fight. They're going to get people for him to fight. They will be interesting names for him to fight because who would not want to go over there and make $2 million to fight Francis and Gano? At least two mill.

And if you're a bigger name, remember, at least two mill. If you're a bigger name, you're probably going to get more to fight Francis. So I think the line to fight Francis in Ghana is going to be a long one over the next year or so. And more, because he's going to get two, three fights for them, all of which the opponent's going to make at least two mil. I don't think that's going to be an issue. I don't think France is going to fight Delijah or Matea Sheffle right off the bat. I think he's going to fight a bigger name. Honestly, I think it's going to be fine.

Not to mention other fighters and other names who see the kind of deal that France and God who just got who are going to be like, huh, well, if Francis got this deal, I might not get exactly the same. But they're going to treat me pretty damn good. And apparently they got money to spend. Maybe I should explore this avenue of the PFL. Like I said, after this deal was done and seeing everything into it, the PFL over the next year to two years is going to be the most interesting story in the sport. The UFC wins every day.

They ain't going to do much different if we're being honest, and they don't need to. I'm not shitting on the UFC. They're winning. They are winning. They are firing on all cylinders. They got cities all over the world calling them up saying, hey, we will pay you millions of dollars to bring an event to our city. They're winning.

They're winning. They got money hand over fist. Too much of it. So much. They have won. They don't need to change the bottle. But this is why PFL is going to be so interesting. This is why they're going to be so interesting.

Can they be the number two promotion? I think they got a damn good shot. I don't think they're there yet. They get a damn good shot. I hope that fired you up a little bit. Viking, hello. Good. Right.

First of all, let me tell you that I just thanks a lot for the awesome BTL the other day. Serious take from the both sides. Absolutely, absolutely great. great, great show, the BTL was the other day. I just wanted to kiss your head at that time for producing such kind of great episode of the show. And the other thing, I just wanted to know about the American community. You know, the people wears black three-fourth and black shirt

and some sort of white T-shirt inside. So what kind of community is that where men wears the clothes I mentioned? Thanks a lot. If you, if you, if you're not getting me, then have you ever watched the show that storage war show? Storage wars. Hello? Yeah, I have not.

I have not. Can you, what was the other question about the T-shirts? No, I just wanted to know about the American community in which men, I mean, men wears black three, four, then black shirt, not t-shirt, the shirt, and black three-four-than-shirt, right? Which community is? What kind of community is that? Black t-shirt. Oh, sorry, I lost you. I'm not really sure.

I'm not really sure. I just wear like golf shirts and V-necks. So, yeah, I'm not really sure. I mean, I don't know if I fully understand the question, but, but I appreciate the kind of words with BTL. That was a fun show. I enjoyed it very much. I saw somebody like,

somebody sent me something on, on Instagram yesterday. And he's like, he goes, want to know what I love so much about the show? shows is that you all genuinely, like you all seem like you genuinely like you're all friends. Like you can have, you can bicker every once in a while, you can disagree, but it's like you all just seem like to like each other.

There's nothing fake about it. And it's a great point. I love doing those shows because it's just, yeah, you want to keep a professional and stuff. But for the most part, this is us. Like if we're sitting at a bar, like these are, the show is going to, like, it would sound exactly the same. It would sound exactly the same. Maybe a little more choice language, but for the most part, that's what it would sound like. So yeah, that BTL is fun. Enjoy that very

much. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get a nice rank on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice? Yes, we deliver those. Goaltenders, no, but chicken tenders, yes. Because those are groceries, and we deliver those too. Along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly.

Product availability varies by region. See app for details. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here. Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus, powered by Peloton IQ. Built for breakthroughs with personalized workout plans, real-time insights, and endless ways to move. Live with Com. confidence while Peloton IQ counts reps, corrects form, and tracks your progress.

Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. Explore the new Peloton Cross-training Treadplus at OnePeloton.ca. Let's go to Absolalia, then we'll go to Daniel, and then we'll go to my man, Brett. We'll try to get to everybody. How are you doing? So I have two questions. One is NBA related. since it's free-for-all.

So I'm just wondering, could you see Joel Embed leaving the Sixth as if James Harden leaves, you know, seeing as how he's quite interesting going back to Houston Rockets? And if Embed were to leave, what possible trade do you reckon the NBA could make based on contract and I guess, you know, first round picks and vice versa?

And my second question is, do you think we'll be hearing any news soon about Hamzaa Chimares next fight, possibly with Usman. That's all I have. Thanks for having a good day. So Hamzaa thing, I don't know. You just never know with him at this point.

So I'll just kind of wait and see what happens. They seem to kind of be circling each other, but with Hamzat, that doesn't mean anything. So I'm just going to kind of wait and see what happens because he can tweet out whatever he wants and people will get riled up about it and people respond to it. As far as the NBA goes, if MB leaves,

all I say is for the love of God. please, please keep him in the Eastern Conference because the Celtics just own him. They own him. And he's just not a big moment guy. He's just not. Like when it counts, he's the A rod of the NBA, in my opinion, where the statistics are really good.

And once in a while he'll come through in a big way, but when it's all on the line, watching game seven i wanted mb to have the ball as many times as possible feed him the basketball because when the going gets tough he doesn't get going and i love it i loved every second of it every time he touched the ball i'm like please shoot please please do something hold the ball as much as possible and it worked out great because he was horrible in game seven awful. And James Hardin, he shouldn't get a pass either because he sucked in game seven, two. But he was more of the Celtics to shut his ass down. Joel M.B. just had nothing.

And I loved it. And I tried to tell you, what did I say after game one when the Sixers beat the Celtics? What did I say? Go back and check the archives. The Sixers have a better chance to beat the Boston Celtics without Joel Embed. And some people thought I was crazy. I wasn't crazy. I've seen that guy play in these big spots too many times and watched him choke. And I knew that was going to happen in game seven. And that's what did happen in game seven. Daniel, hello.

Daniel, are you there? You guys can hear me? Aloha. How's there? Yes, sir. How are you, man? I'm doing great. I'm headed down to Big Island to collaborate with BJ Penn at the UFC gym down in heel that he acquired.

They turned the whole bowling alley into the UFC gym out in Hilo. So, you know, BJ put it on the map. I've been training with him for a while on Hawaii. But I came back to bury my father and to take care of the ranch out here. So I got, yeah, I just had a question. So I don't know why they think that Francis Nogano didn't do a good thing for the sport and for everybody. I mean, he's really stepped up and he's going to be on the board for the PFL Africa. And he's going to be giving his.

opponent two million dollars guaranteed that's not counting sponsorships and paper views i mean that's that's business i mean they didn't do that to connor they mean they let connor do whatever the hell he wanted you know what i mean i don't know it's it's you know as a fighter it's it's it's a good thing for him i and i know he's working with great guys he's out there at a string courtur and randy's doing great things we keep in contact randy couture's uh having uh the extreme couture g i foundation and I'm going to be doing a show it's combatants for disabled combat veterans because they're starting to cut veterans

and if there's any veterans out there that you know, please forward them to me because they're starting to cut veterans as benefits and they're letting other people that are from out of country live in the country. And I don't know if you've seen their article they're kicking people out that are combat veterans out of a place to stay in New York

and they're replacing them with migrants. I mean, that makes no damn sense. But anyways, I just want to say that if there's any veterans you know, especially combat veterans, and please follow Randy Couture. And I've been working with Cassius Clay. You know, watch out for that guy. I mean, he's a stud, you know. So the PFL's coming up.

And what the Logan brothers are back going everybody anyways because the Logan brothers got the prime deal. Now UFC's prime. and the UFC acquired the WWE, that tells you something right there. They've been cutting fighters, shitty checks. I know fighters that got CTE and they got permanent brain damage and they got injuries, and they don't get taken care of. They don't get taken care of.

I'm a combat veteran, and I get retired benefits from the hot shot captain fire department that I worked for the DOD. So I sell myself up. Yeah. I don't have, I can't get a hold of Erica. Okay. All right, thank you. All right.

You guys have a good day. Yeah, bro, I'll be following you and watch out for Francis because he's all healed up. He's working with Extreme Couture. And he's got wrestling now and Jiu-Jitsu and his hands. I mean, he can go to a boxing match. The UFC wouldn't cut him that deal. They don't want him to go box anybody. I think it's great that he takes a tune-up fight and boxes somebody, you know.

He doesn't have to be wilder or Fury. But, I mean, if he boxes somebody and goes out there and beats him, we're multiple tour combat athletes. I mean, the Mayweather, the Mayweather, the, the, Weather stick. He likes to cherry pick. And Connor McGregor went and lasted 10 rounds with him, bro. You know what I mean? But if it had been an MMA, Floyd doesn't want any of that.

We seen what Randy did. Who was that fighter? The big guy, the big guy. James Tony. He smoked him in the first round with an ankle pick. But Randy's an Olympic Army boxer. He wasn't going to box with James Tony. He took him down with an ankle pick and choked him out. You know what I mean?

So anyways, guys, yeah, I'll be following you. Look out for me. Look out for Randy. All right. I love you guys, man. Thank you, Daniel. Appreciate it. Yes, support that.

I definitely don't want to see the combat bets, get benefits cut or anything like that. So when that show comes to light, make sure you all check it out. Here's the thing about Francis. The deal is great. Like, everything is great. We should be happy for the man

and what he's trying to do. There should be skepticism, though. There should be some skepticism. It has nothing to do with Francis. Nothing. Because he is trying to do something to change the game. I have many questions, though. I have many questions.

And I add a lot of these same questions about Eagle FC. It's a little bit different with this because we know where some of this money is coming from. Because the whole thing with Eagle FC to me was like, how the fuck are they able to pull off what they're trying to do? how are they able to put on these big events and get all these massive names like how are they funding this how is this possible and we haven't seen them do a u.s show in forever and kind of feel like we know where that's heading i have similar questions about the pfl at least we know where the money's a lot of this money is coming from but it seems like pfl is taking a big risk but they have money coming in and they are prepared to take a lot of loss here because they're going to take a loss and they're going to take losses for a long time. It is going to take a long time for them to profit off of this deal. It's going to take a long time.

What does that mean for the future? Not really sure. But I do have questions about how much and how long they can sustain this over time. And it seems like they're prepared to lose in this battle. They are prepared to take losses. they are prepared for a marathon and not a sprint, and I can respect that. But these are some of the skeptical questions

that I have about this deal, and it has nothing to do with Francis, because Francis, God bless him, A-plus, killed it. And got all these great things in place for other fighters. I call this a potential game changer. I'm not calling it a game changer yet. I think it's too soon to say that. But potential game changer, unequivocally.

potential. If this works, it will be a game changer. But I think it's too soon to say that right now. Because PFL has to come through. They're going to get a lot of eyeballs on their products because of this deal. These cards need to be good and fun to watch. They cannot be 18 hour, just dragathons. Because that's the issue. Watching PFL events. They last forever. We complain about the UFC pacing sometimes. is a thousand times worse. I feel like I'm at the opera watching the PFL.

I'm just like, golly, this is intermission? We still have another two hours of this? Like, just move it along. Fight, story, fight, story, fight. Like, not 45 minutes in between fights. I cannot,

like, they cannot afford to have the Twitter feeds, like every single card with everybody who's watching me. I'm like, dude, it's been 75 minutes since the last fight took place. It is up to them to make these next couple of cards an experience for the viewers. I'm not saying every fight has to be great,

but we have to move the pacing along a little bit. We have to quicken things up, make it palatable to the viewer. But yes, Francis deserves a lot of credit. But I just am not ready to come out and be like, this is change of the game forever because it's a lot of money that's out there. It's going to take a long time to get that money back.

So I have questions. But as far as the risk being taken by the PFL, I commend them. This is a potential game changer. 100%. Brett, what's up? I'm doing well. I got new hours at work. And so sometimes listening in and trying to call up can be a little bit difficult at times.

But I had some free time today. I just wanted to jump in and say what's up. And first thing I wanted to do is wish your mom a happy 70th birthday on the air. I don't know. I know it was a few days back, but she's Mama Heck, and I've known her a long, long time, and happy birthday to that woman to start off. So to get into things, I hear a lot of Cosmott talk, and I know everything, he opens his mouth, everybody wants to fight him.

But the fight that really intrigues me because I like Bala Muhammad, and I would love to see them catch up maybe at that 185, wait, 170. wherever it needs to be. I just think that would be a fantastic matchup due to Bilal's take-down defense with Kazmat, not being able to drill him to the ground. And it could be like one of those kind of brawls that you saw versus Gilbert Burns.

And then I wanted to discuss, I'm a huge, huge, huge fan of Drickis, Duplicie, but I also understand that the gatekeeper in that division is Robert Whitaker, and Robert Whitaker is not going anywhere. So anybody that says that they're looking past Whitaker, that he's automatically going to fight Atosanya. Unless Adla Sanya just wants to beat his face in,

he's not going to get that fight unless he wins Wittica. And I don't think Wittaker is ready to lie down. And I think he's going to beat his face, and to be honest with you, as much as I love, Dereke's Tupresi. And real quick, I want to see Gai Chi over Dustin. I want to see him get that W. And I want to see him rise to the top

because I'm a huge Gachie fan. And I wanted to ask you your opinion on UFC Boston with the main event. I don't know if it's signed, not signed, but staying there, it's signed. But anything that you hear leaking out for potential fights on the undercard. And I absolutely want to meet you there before for some, a bite to eat and a drink, Mike. And have a heck of a morning, my friend. Good to hear from you, Brett. I've known Brett for almost, I mean, almost for a little long-ass time.

He was good friends with my oldest brother. And yes, he knows Mama Heck very well. Yes, Mama Heck had a great 70th birthday. Bryant, my little brother Brian just celebrated a birthday on Wednesday. So he's 36 now, which is crazy to even say into a live microphone right now. So happy birthday, Brian Hack, belated. A lot to unpack here. Porty's great fight.

Hamzaat Bilal would have been a great fight. But again, I've talked about this a million times. Belal could have gotten that fight, I think. He just kind of hurt himself with his callouts, calling for Colby and calling for title shots after wins over Luke Gay and Wonderboy didn't do him any favors. Had he just gone all in on Hamzat, I think he would have gotten that fight before Gilbert got it.

And then we could be having a different conversation right now. But that would be an interesting matchup if it had. happened. I just don't know if it's going to because I feel like Hamzad is just going to fight 885 and I think that's a good place for him. As far as UFC Boston goes,

I haven't heard much. I don't even know if the Sterling-O'Malley fight is like officially official. I think we're going to have to wait a little bit of time before that becomes officially official. Wouldn't shock me if it got pushed or if Aljo just moves to

another card. It wouldn't stun me. because it's a pretty damn quick turnaround. He's got a lot of things that he's had to deal with injury-wise and recovery-wise, and he just had a five-round battle with Henry Sehudo, and now you're asking him to turn back around three months later. You're asking a lot, especially when a lot of these champions haven't fought at all, like, this year. So, I don't know, I just feel like it's asking a lot. Now, do they, could Aljo get cleared?

and do you have to see throw them a big bag of money? Sure. I can see that happening. But I don't know if I'm, if you are like, this is the one fight I need to see, Al Jermaine Sterling, Sean O'Malley. I would say wait a couple of weeks

before you book those tickets to Boston. I'll just, I mean, that's just kind of the vibe that I'm getting. As far as other fights in the card, I have no idea. I would say Rob Font will probably fight on that card. I'd love to see Rob Font versus Peodor Jan on that card.

That makes a ton of sense to me. Love that idea. I know he's calling out Davis and Vigaredo for a Bannamweight fight. They can, if Viggies healed up and wants to do that, cool. I'm down with that, but Fon should definitely be on that card. We will not see Calvin Cater on that card because Cater is still recovering from the knee. Paca Porter, absolutely you should be on that card. And you know how Dana feels about Boston, so I think we'll have some.

some other compelling fights on that card. I just don't know what they're going to be. Kind of far away. But I'd say in the next two to three weeks, probably get a little more clarity on it. But I would expect Rob Fon to fight on that card. Let's get Joey in here. What's up, Doug?

How you doing, Mike? You, good. But what's your thoughts on the main event for this weekend for Dern and Hill? Ideally, I would say Hill is like the gatekeeper of the division, so we'll see like the true test of Dern, but we know how Dern is this very talented grappler, but it's like one of those grapplers that just doesn't have the pure wrestling to get it to the ground. So ideally could this fight almost be like boring if Hill's just circling out of the cage, using her basic one-two is what her kicks because on the other way I see Dern really winning this fight is maybe

while it's still early between like a round and a half and maybe she either pulls guard or bull rushes and maybe jumps to back a hill. and before I get off, Charles Johnson, you are one tough SOB. I respect how you fight. I respect how you take any opponent. But for the love of God, please let the UFC give you a striker so I can see you knock someone the F out. But besides that, have a going, Mike. Yeah, shout out Charles Johnson.

Shout out Charles Johnson. I'm with you in a lot of those respects when it comes to this fight. I feel like Angela Hill is being kind of overlooked here but I can understand why Dern's the favorite. It's not just the wrestling that concerns me about Dern. Like I'd love to see her become like not a classic wrestler per se, but mix in some takedowns,

mix in some shots. But to me it's about, because she's going to get Angela Hill down. It's going to happen. It doesn't matter how the fight's going to go. She could be, she could get 10-8ed in the first two rounds. She's going to get this fight down at some point. At some point, she's going to trip Angela Hill and she's going to get her down and she's

going to be in a dominant position. But can she put her away? Can she put her away? And what I would like to see from McKenzie Dern is if she gets in these dominant positions and she can't get the rear naked choke or can't get a submission, can she land some ground and pound? That's what we want to, because I think she could have beat Yonaut. if she actually punched her on the ground.

And she threw a couple of small shots, but that's one key piece to her game that's missing is just being violent in those positions, not just looking for the sub, but doing damage down there. Because she has the chance to do it. She just doesn't do it. And that's, if you're a Dern fan,

that's frustrating. That's frustrating, especially watching the Janjonan fight, like seeing the opportunities to drop elbows and land big punches, on the ground and she just doesn't do it. So maybe that part of her game has evolved since the Janjanon fight, but I guess I'm with you. If Dern can't get it down and she can't sub her and she gets frustrated,

yeah, we could see Angela Hill just box her up for a minute. And that could definitely happen. There's a lot of people I see in the MMA betting community that are taking the dog shot on Angela Hill. And I can't say I blame you. there's value there. But it all just kind of depends on which McKenzie Dern shows up. Coach Mark, what's up, Coach Mark?

Hey, Mike, how are you doing? Good, how are you? Very good, man. Thanks for taking my question. I was listening to Francis on the Ariel Hawaii show, and they were talking about one FC, and he made a comment kind of like some promoters are two-faced, and it felt like it was in reference to Chatri.

Do you know anything about one-fc or Chachry that would kind of shed some light on that comment? I mean, look, there's, Bloody Elbow has done a tremendous job at going through the financials of one. So we can kind of see what we're dealing with here. One is a very interesting promotion. But Chachry put out that, remember Chachry put out that tweet, we would drew our office for Francis. We were going to pay him $20 million or whatever. and then the tweet got deleted and Francis asked about that and they're like, well, we never talked about that at all. Like, we never even discussed any kind of an offer.

So I don't know what he's talking about. I think Chachry's putting on a show. He's a performer, I believe was the right way to look at it. Look, I think most of us understand who, like, what Chhatri is trying to do. He just, he's kind of a wrestling promoter, if you will. He just says things. Oh, yeah? Well,

UFC has this many people. We have billions and billions of people watching our show. We're just like, dude, come on. I respect that he just takes the gimmick and sticks with it. I appreciate that. Like, if you're got to, as Jed Mishu likes to say, if we got to be a bear, be a grizzly. And Chhatri is a fucking grizzly bear.

That dude ain't wavering. He is the gimmick. He will always be the gimmick. And I guess I respect that about him. but we kind of know what we're dealing with here. Kind of know what we're dealing with. So I think that's the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the way of the, he's, like, we're asking for too much money. His values dropping by the second.

And then, France, like, we didn't even talk to them. Like, it's not that we didn't get an offer of them. We haven't even talked to them. We didn't talk to anybody from BKFC. And I'm like, oh, God. And that's, like, the beginning of all of this was that Feldman. comment at the presser for the BKFC

41 presser. So, I don't know. Chachry's just Chotry and like one kind of wouldn't be one the way we feel about one

without him being the way that he is. So yeah, Chachry's just he just says shit. CV, hello. Yo, Mike, heck of a Friday. Apologies.

If my questions I've been asked already. I've been in and out of the space this morning. Just two quick questions for me. One MMA, one non-MMA related. First question. The lightweight title picture. I know we got Daryush and Olivera fighting next month,

and I'm favoring Darius to win. But what if Charles gets a W? And also, like, we got the, I know we got the Poria Gaci rematch for the BMF title. but um and on october they're probably they're going on abaddam in october and it's probably safe to assume that Islam will defend its belt um is there a chance that um like the winner of poria gaichi can insert themselves in the title picture for that fight and um like if charles wins against dar yush like the ufc will probably be hesitant to give him another crack at islam right but um i i still feel like dar yush is going to win and he'll eventually get the title shot but I just want to get your thoughts on that. And second question, is Victor Wenbanyama the greatest NBA prospect ever? Thanks.

Oh, man, it's tough to say with Victor. He's up there. He's up there. He's one of the best that, yeah, that's a tough question. That's something I have to sit down and think about. To answer your first question, no, they're not going to give Charles Oliver the shot of Islam again. I don't think if he wins, He's probably, I don't know, he needs to do a lot of spectacular things to get back in there

because I just don't see that fight going any differently for Charles. I just don't. I think Islam just kind of had his number and we'll probably always have his number. Maybe Charles goes out and beats Darius and wins a couple more. Maybe we can go back to that well, but the UFC certainly is going to go back to that well immediately. So if Darius wins, he gets it. could there be a whirl where the Porre Gece winner gets it if Olivera wins? Sure, but that's a quick turnaround.

It's two and a half months. And those two are going to beat the brakes off of each other. So I would, I'd be stunned if one of those guys will be able to turn around two and a half months. So my guess is, Darius wins. We don't have to worry about it. But if Valvera wins, my other guess would be, If Volkanowski just runs Yair on July 8th, I could see them going back to that well. If Darius loses and Volk wins, I could see them going back to that.

Because I just don't know what else, I don't know what other fight you can do. You can do all there, but I just don't think the interest is going to be there. Maybe we get the Islam-Armin Sarukian rematch. But yeah, that would be my guess. but we'll see what happens. Maybe Poria Gajianzen a minute. What's up for on Sniper? A heck of a morning.

So I heard him get mentioned earlier, so I thought I'd ask a question about him. I'm under the impression that Magamette, Anka Laya, is actually the best light heavyweight in the world. I think I probably stand alone with that opinion. I just wanted your thoughts on who he's probably going to fight next, who he needs to beat in order to get to that title shot.

And let's say Jamal Hill is still the champion. How would you see that fight going between, him and Magamage. Thanks, Mike. There we go. I don't think you're alone with that take of yours, that Maga Medekelai might be the best late heavyweight in the world. I literally just said that about an hour ago, that he might be the best light heavyweight in the world.

The problem is this is the UFC, and it's not always about merit, especially if there's other names at the top that are more interesting to the potential, pay-per-view buying audience. Imagamate Ankelyev just ain't that. He's just not. They've given him chances to be that,

and he hasn't really, at least in his last two of his last three, hasn't really been that guy, at least to them. So I think Ankelyev will fight Johnny Walker next. I don't think Dana was overly thrilled with Johnny's performance against Anthony Smith.

I think they'll just kind of throw those two guys in there and one guy's going to be out of the picture for a minute and one guy's going to be further up the ladder, I guess. But I kind of see those two guys getting put together. And I don't think you're alone. I think most people, I would say most people probably agree with you. That skill set-wise,

Magamette Ankelaif might be the best light heavy way in the world. But is he the kind of guy that's going to draw you a bunch of money? Not really sure. Doesn't seem like the UFC is that confident in that. And at the end of the day, it's about getting eyeballs on the product and people spending money on you. And I just don't know if Magamad's that guy. Now, if he goes out and fights Johnny Walker and just runs him and finishes him fast in an impressive fashion, winning and winning impressively changes the narrative.

But he's got to go out there and do it. And kind of the same with Johnny Walker right now. And if he fought Jamal Hill, I'd probably big ankle I have to win that fight. Why VMZ? Hello. Hi, Mike. Heck of morning. I just want to make a quick comment.

I think Benil, and this may be a hot take, I think Benil Darius and Bilal are just uninteresting fighters. I think if either one actually gets in the belt, I think either division is just going to be held up for a while. I just don't think they're very interesting people, so that's just a hot take. Just a quick question, though. Do you think this fight in Salt Lake City between Justin and Corier may favor

Justin a little bit more, especially because he trains in Denver. I think the altitude is definitely going to be a huge advantage for him. So I wanted to get your thoughts on that. And I also wanted to get your thoughts on Adasanya's comments on Blaovich and Alex about how Blahovic is just going to take him down and ragdoll him. Do you think that's true? I just wanted to get your thoughts on that. Thank you.

I don't know if it's going to be true. not really sure. Is there a world where that could happen, possibly, but I think Janbovich, I think Janbovich is going to have to get there, and it's not going to be easy. He's going to have to go through some pain to get to those positions.

And luckily, Alex Pereira works with a guy who ran over Janbovich in short order in Glover-Teshero. So I'm sure they're preparing for that. I'm sure Pereira's take down defense is getting better. and evolving and those two are going to stand at some point Pereira is going to hit him. It's just a matter of Kenyon withstand the power of Pereira, especially now that he doesn't have to cut a million pounds to get to 205.

So look, Izzy's fought both guys, so he knows a lot better than I do. And then with your take, I don't know. There's similarities there for sure. We talk about the callouts and planting seeds for your future in terms of getting big fights. They're neck and neck because both of them have not done each other any favor, done themselves any favors in that respect. But I feel like the community as a whole has embraced Ballol a little bit more than they did probably at this time a year ago.

I think the just going into the Sean Brady fight I mean there were very few people picking Bilal Muhammad to beat Sean Brady and then Bilal went in there and just kind of blew the doors off of him and he goes and gets short notice

when it gets Gilbert Burns the whole thing with John Anna Colby situation did him a lot of favor so I think people are starting to buy into Bilal a little bit more I just I think I don't know

I don't know Balal needs, Balmahman needs Connor McGregor and Michael Chandler to not fight for as long as possible. For as long as possible. That's what he needs. And Benil wins, like, Benil's getting the next shot. Like, whether it's interesting or not, it doesn't really matter. They're going to Abu Dhabi. They're going to throw Islam on that card.

Islam can fight anybody. And that arena is going to sell out. People be excited. But I'm actually, like, in terms of. Of all the fights as La Maka Chaff can have right now, I'm probably most intrigued by the Darayush fight.

Should he beat Charles Oliver? So, yeah, if Daryush wins is getting the title shot, and if he doesn't, this is unbelievable to me. But all I'm not as confident in, mostly because Connor's coming back. And with who Connor is fighting.

Zeke. Zeke, take us home. Zeke! Zeke! All right. We lost Ezekiel. We tried. All right.

Wow. I went for an hour and 20 minutes today. All right, we're done. Thank you very much. You are all the best. Excited to be back this week. Do a couple of shows for you. We'll be back again on Tuesday.

We'll do it again. We will react to whatever happens this weekend in the world of combat. there will be no UFC event next weekend the long holiday weekend Memorial Day weekend here in the United States so there will be no UFC card so it's going to be kind of like a free for all week

I think with whatever's going on hopefully we'll have some news to discuss but it's MMA so there usually is we will have a UFC Vegas 73 preview show live on the YouTube channel MMAfighting.com's

YouTube channel. Check it out. Subscribe. Turn the notifications on. Then you know exactly when we're going live. 3 p.m. Eastern. Myself, my best friend, A.K. Lee, and my fellow born and raised New England, Jose Youngs, and we will break down Dern versus Hill, some of the other intriguing matchups, take some questions, et cetera. Three p.m. Eastern. Join us for that. But until then, everybody, have a great rest of your Friday. And as always, have a heck of a morning. network.