MMA Fighting - HOAM | Will Francis Ngannou vs. Renan Ferreira Actually Happen Following PFL vs. Bellator?

Episode Date: February 27, 2024

The PFL vs. Bellator event and UFC Mexico City fight card both took place on Saturday outside the U.S., and both delivered some exciting action — both in and out of the cage. But which card won the weekend overall, and what will be talked about more throughout the year? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck gives his reaction to both cards, the pros and cons from the PFL's return to pay-per-view, how Francis Ngannou fits into things and if he'll actually compete in an MMA bout against main event winner Renan Ferreira, and more. Additionally, listener questions include where Brian Ortega goes from his comeback win against Yair Rodriguez, who Alexandre Pantoja could fight at UFC 301, Alexander Volkanovski's future and if it could include a lightweight move, Ilia Topuria's first title defense, Nate Diaz teasing he wants UFC return at The Sphere, 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 to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprise his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?

The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster,

the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now only from Audible. To the Vox Media Podcast Network. To the week, we had a busy weekend in the world of combat sports. We had PFL versus Bellator.

That went down Saturday afternoon in Saudi Arabia. We'll obviously talk about that. Ended with Henan Faheda, knocking out Ryan Bader in 21 seconds. Johnny Eblen gets tested for the first time in his career, but Wednesday split decision against Infika Sang and I, Jason Jackson, dismantles Ray Cooper in basically around in 20 seconds.

Vadim Nemcoff, steamrolls, Bruno Capulosa, Y'all Romero, and, Tiago Santos had a fight that we knew exactly what that fight would look like. It was won by you all Romero. A.J. McKee destroys Clay Collard in 70 seconds. Aaron Pico destroys Henry Corallis in the first round. Gets a little bit of revenge. But to be fair, Henry Corallis literally took that fight on, what, four days notice,

had a fly to Saudi Arabia to do it. Baja Ali Walsh got his first pro win. Clarissa Shields hangs on by a thread to defeat Kelsey DeSantis. And then we had a couple of fights with people that we had an amateur fight and we had an early pro fight. All in all, pretty good. Not bad from PFL. Not bad at all. Not too shabby.

The pacing was great. We didn't have the stupid smart cage stats over and over and over again, which I was very happy about. I guess the mic quality is not good. Son of a bitch. Let's figure this out. Trying to use different headphones and they're not working. So maybe this is better. I had headphones.

I had an adapter. And I don't know where the freaking adapter is. I'm trying something a little different, but I guess that didn't work. So hopefully this is better. I mean, I literally talking into the phone right now. So I really don't know what else to do. Apparently that's much better.

Let's see what the people are saying. Way better. Okay. So those headphones are not going to work for this particular program. But we talked about PFL. UFC was in Mexico City. That went down on Saturday night. Brandon Royval gets a split decision win over Brandon Moreno, where he goes.

Anybody's guess. But I would assume he will not be fighting at UFC 301 because he is saying that. he suffered an MCL injury, possibly Tours MCL in the first round of that fight, which is pretty wild, if we're being honest. So it looks like he will not be fighting at UFC 301 unless a miracle happens. Brian Ortega comeback win over Yaiyere Rodriguez. Craziness, absolute craziness. We'll see if he gets the title shot.

I don't think he's going to. I think it's going to end up going to Volcanowski. But we'll see what happens there. All and all, fun times in Mexico City. It's pretty crazy. We had a whole bunch of fights happen. We had a whole bunch of craziness happen. And the most talked-about fight of the weekend took place in the crowd in Mexico City.

That is the most talked-about fight of all. So that was a crazy fight. Daniel Zell Hooper, nice win. Yasmin Hadeghie. Good win. Good bounce back. Manwell Torres, another first-round finish. Guys is an absolute savage.

Hione Barcellos. Old dogs still got some tricks. Submits Christian Cignones. Jesus Aguilar gets split decision win. Edgar Chires. Submits Daniel Lacerda, I would assume. That would be the end of Daniel Lacerda in the UFC. But I don't know.

He's get her get God. He's fun. Fares E.M. gets split decision win. Rinaldo Rodriguez gets a second round rear naked choke. submission over Dennis Bondar, Felipe dos Santos, with a pretty controversial split decision win. A lot of people thought Victor Alta Marano got that fight. And Mohamed Naimov gets another finish.

This one due to injury, 44 seconds of round one. That was UFC Mexico City. So we could react to that. We could react to other news and notes going on. It's been a busy weekend, a lot of craziness. This is going to be a crazy week as well. BTL actually going down today, A rare Tuesday edition of the program, 12.30 p.m. Eastern, it's going to be a Q&A.

The reason I'm scheduled to move on Thursday, selling this house, closing on a new one, a whole bunch of craziness, and we got to move all our shit. And we got like a day to do it. So there probably won't be a heck of a morning on Thursday unless someone wants to tag in and do it. But the plan is to be back on Friday, and we'll do it again before. UFC Vegas 87. Wow, what a card that is. So let's get into it. Let's see what you all have to say. And we will begin with Fabruza. Fabruza, go ahead. Henry Suu, he called out Brandon Marino. I hate it, what you think about it, because

is he going down another weight class and he's going to fight another number one contender fight. and it's everything recycled. He should fight new newcomers. Maybe Omar if he wins or else, anything like that. The second thing I want to ask you about

who do you think is going to headline the June fight card and who would you like to see headline it? Thank you, Mark. June, I assume the pay-per-view in June, not the 29th, not International Fight Week.

Because I think we know we're, as of now, I think we have an idea. But I think there's going to be another pay-per-view in June as well. I hear Newark is being targeted for that one, whether that happens or not. I'm not really sure. My guess would be for Newark, I think that's a good spot for. for Leon versus Ballal. I mean, I know New York's kind of a weird place for it, but it is what it is.

I think that's fine. The Sehudo Moreno fight, I have no problem with that. I literally have no issue with it whatsoever. In fact, I was not on to the next one this past week because it was my dad's 70th birthday, so we were traveling back home from Florida. So basically, my week,

consisted of lots of travel. Drove to Florida to play golf with Mike Perry, drove home and then drove back to Florida Friday night and then drove back home from Florida on Sunday. So a lot of miles were logged in the car and I couldn't do it on to the next one. But my pick for Brandon Brainer was Henry Sehudo. I like it.

There's heat there. I actually said they should do that fight after Moreno lost the belt. And the biggest reason why is we need some fresh meat at 125 right now. I think Moreno losing two in a row in three of four kind of should knock him out of the title discussion for a little while anyways.

And for Sohudo, he's really nowhere near a title shot. So if you go ahead and just do this fight, I don't care what weight class it happens at. You could do it at 135, so Moreno isn't enough to cut the weight. It doesn't hold up any divisions. Like if Moreno wins, he doesn't get a title shot at 125. And if Sehudo wins, no one's going to be like, oh, he's got to get a title shot because he beat a fly wave. You know what I mean?

So I think it's just a good rivalry fight. And it doesn't hold up either division, in my opinion. So I'm cool with it. Gets us some fresh faces at 125 to get opportunities. So I like that. I'm totally fine with it. I understand why people think it's kind of weird. and you want to see Sehudo fight the Umars and guys like that, guys in the comp, and I get that.

And he can still do that. But right now, let's just milk whatever we can out of Sehudo. And if we got a rivalry fight with Moreno, who's still very popular right now, I have no problem with it. I kind of think that's what the UFC's going to do. Maybe they do it at the sphere. That could be like a main card opener or even like a featured prelim fight. I have no problem with it. No issue with it whatsoever.

But we'll see how it all plays out. What's going, Mike? Can you hear me? Yes. I'm on the road, so I'm, like, dealing with some funny connection. I just wanted your thoughts on Yair Rodriguez. Do you think he has more of a good chance of getting back to that title shot, or do you think his time's pretty much running out? Seems like he's dealing with a clear hole in his game,

being the takedown defense. First got exposed, I believe, by Frankie Edgar way back in 2017. And it doesn't seem like he's fixed that issue. So like I said, just wanted your thoughts on if you think he has a good chance, closer to a good chance or closer to a slim to no chance of getting back to that title shot, Mike. That's all. Man, he lost a lot on Saturday. He really did because he was, he was the only, he was the only way Volk doesn't get the immediate rematch in my opinion. So it was a tough loss for him.

And he was winning the fight until he wasn't. And what a tough way to go down. So I'm not going to say he'll never get a title fight because there is some beef there with him and Ilya. And I guess you could play around with that a bit. But he's lost what? Now he's lost two straight. It's a tough sell.

It's a tough sell right now. So I think where he goes now is, and again, as long as Dilley's the champion, he's got a chance, as long as he can put a couple of wins together. For me, I think you give him the winner of Sterling versus Cater at 300. Winner of that fight gets the I year next. I think that's fine. Because, look, we know what the UFC's relationship is with Al Jermaine Sterling. It isn't a great one. And I hear a lot of people saying, like, well, maybe Al Jermaine Sterling beats Calvin Cater.

they'll throw him in the title fair with Ilya. There's very little chance that happens. Come on now. We all know that the UFC is going to make things very, very difficult for Al Jermaine Sterling to get back to a title shot. There's just no doubt about it. There's just no doubt about it. It ain't going to be easy. So they're going to make him try to win at least one more.

And if Kater beats Sterling, Kater versus Eaer rules. I've been waiting for that fight for a long time. since after the Jeremy Stevens knockout win, when the pandemic just started, like that's, I wanted Cater Yairair from then on, and we haven't gotten yet. So I think that's where Yaiir goes. So, yeah, as long as I'll he's champ, he's still got a shot, but he's got, he's got work to do. He's going to have to win, he's probably going to have to win two fights at this point, because now you've got guys jumping up on him.

I don't think Orteg is going to get the shot. I think they're going to end up going with Vol. I think Volk will get it because Volk just not going to say no to it. Whether we say, oh, we want Volk take time off, yada, yada, yada, yada. He doesn't give a shit what we think. Volk is getting older. His career is winding down. He wants to try to make money.

Him headlining in Spain would be massive. And I don't know if he wants to sit out a year when his career. career is dwindling. So I say, yeah, that's basically going to happen. So I think they're going to do, I think Volk gets the shot. Maybe you can do it on the same card. I don't know, but you do Ortega versus Mobzar of Loeff, clear-cut number one contender fight, winner that fight gets the winner of Ilya versus Volk, unless Volk wins, because you know what's going to happen. They're just going to do it again. So that's how I feel this plays out at 145. Abbasolaya, go ahead.

So, Mike. Good morning. Heck of a morning. Just wanted to ask two questions. Firstly, with the PFO event that happened over the weekend, overall, I know you were just talking about the car briefly, how you like, how they handle certain things. But do you have any raised concerns with the way they're still handling some of the management products and just the way, like, some of the fights are being structured out. Like, if we saw on Saturday, Francis and Ghanu, you know, he didn't

face off with Ferreira, even though, you know, you could say there's alterio motives and reason why he didn't do that. And then there's also the whole notion that the crowd was quite empty, you know, very shockingly, but not surprisingly. It was not filled up. And I

also think, as good as some of the fights were a lot of it just told me that PFO has a very long way to go. Another thing I just want to bring up is, how does Jared Canaanier versus Costa sound as a fight? That's what I've, have a great day. I mean, if they do Canaanier versus Costa, fine.

I would say if you asked fans, like, what are the top three fights for Paula Costa? I would say Jared Canaaner is probably not in the top three on most people's lists. You could do that. It seems like he's going for Kamara Usman, which I think is very smart. I don't know if he gets that fight.

But yeah, maybe you do Canaanair. Doesn't hurt. It doesn't hurt. Cannoneer just continues to sort of be the forgotten man in all of these conversations. So he needs to fight somebody with a name. I have a feeling he's not going to get a guy like Costa. I have feeling he's not going to get a guy like Shemayev. I don't think he's going to get Strickland or anybody like that again.

I certainly don't think he's getting a rematch with Wittig. I think he's probably going to end up fighting. He's probably going to fight like Brennan Allen if he beats Marvin Vittori or I don't know what you do with him. They might just chuck him to Ickram at this point. Maybe you do Anthony Hernandez and just give him a big test and see what he does. I don't know. But yeah, Canadiere is in such a weird position. Him getting injured and him sort of sitting out in the middle of this middleweight craziness,

the timing just sucked for him. him. It really does. But he needs to get back in there. He needs to fight a lot this year. He needs to fight at least three times. He's got to get people remembering who he is and how good he is. And I think a lot of people still have sort of a bad taste in their mouths from the Adasanya title fight that people aren't in a huge rush to give him another shot. So, and I know some people like to blame Izzy for that. I think the blame is more so on, on Canaan Air, because if you're Izzy and your goal is just to win and keep rattling off title defenses, if a guy's strategy is to hand you a free win, you take the free win.

And that's basically what Cannesier did in that fight. What's he supposed to do? Be like, nah, dude, we're not doing this. Let's have a more fun fight. No, it's about winning and keeping the belt. And so the next fight is you still make him damn good money. So, yeah, Canada is an interesting, interesting story. Definitely an interesting story.

PFL, look, we know how that Saudi thing was going to work. They were talking about like sellouts and stuff like that. I don't, look, sellout in what regard is my question? Because it just seemed like there are a bunch of fighters and celebrities and people there and there's just kind of just there, but it wasn't a lot of excitement, as we knew was going to happen. If you think the Saudi crowd for a PFL Bellator card was going to be more raucous than the UFC's returned to Mexico after. four years. There's just no way. There's just no way that was going to happen. So I think PFL is a good start. I think the event was good. I think they addressed some issues.

Will they stick with this? We will see. But my biggest issue with PFL is the pacing of the cards. Because they don't have, usually their lineups are not very good to begin with. There's maybe like one fight that's intriguing possibly two. And then it just takes forever for these cards to happen. This one was the direct opposite. It just took 50 minutes for the first fight to start once the broadcast started. They're like, all right, hey, welcome. Priam start at noon, Eastern.

And then it was 1250 before the first amateur fighter walked to the cage. And I was like, oh, Jesus Christ, we're going to be watching PFL for seven and a half hours now. But once that fight ended, it was just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. even Casey during the people's pre-fight show heading into Mexico City was like I actually think pacing was too fast it was like too quick and I don't think you can be too quick

if you're the PFL if we're being honest I think it was a very digestible PFL event ever was this past Saturday because there was no weight there was no fluff, there was no bullshit there was just one fight to the next to the next to the next to the next

and it was an enjoyable watching experience. And the fights are pretty good. The fights are pretty good. Now, are they a long way from away? Absolutely, they're a long way away. The whole co-leader thing is going to be something that Don Davis is going to have to deal with forever. That is going to be his meme, the co-leader thing. They're so far away from the UFC, it's not even funny. It's not even funny. And here's one of the issues I have with PFL. And it was something. we talked about on BTL Thursday, and it was something that I continued to think about. It was something that I was like, I told you so on Saturday.

This whole thing where PFL just comes out and announces that Francis and Gano is unequivocally one million percent going to fight the winner of that main event. The way they positioned that was so strange to me because Francis and Gano went on Sports Center. And he never once said, oh, I'm a million percent fighting the winner. of this fight. Mark it down. It's happening. My, when I, I am definitely fighting an MMA and I'm definitely fighting one of these two guys. He never said that. He basically says something to the effect of like, my plan would be if in a perfect world to come back to MMA and I think the winner

of this fight like sounds like a good idea. Like that's basically what it said. Meta press release comes out. Francis is coming back everybody. He's back. Francis is making his debut. our guy, when I don't think we even know if that's happening or not. If Francis is even competitive with Anthony Joshua next week, if he is, like, as competitive as he was against Tyson Fury, getting him back is going to be tough. And if he beats Anthony Joshua, I don't think he's ever fighting an MMA again.

I really don't. So to put that promise out there that the main event has these stakes that Francis is definitely fighting the way. winter is absolutely ridiculous to me. Because it just, that's, and that's my issue. They just throw shit out and they hope it sticks. Every time they promise something big, it doesn't happen. Where's Amanda Serrano? Where's Savannah Marshall? Where's Francis? Where's Jake Paul? Like, none of these things they promised us have happened. What is going on? This is a huge year for PFL. To me, This is a make or break year for them.

They have to make gigantic strides this year. They purchase Bellator. They're trying to do the Bellator thing, which I think is a terrible idea. I've set it from Jump Street. I know they're going to have to make it happen. And I think it's not because they think it's a great business move. I think it's more so that sponsors, advertisers, et cetera, are owed another year's worth of advertising plus. So they're going to just do this for a year.

and then hopefully it's done. And we could just merge it into one and then just do fun things. The other thing they need to figure out is no one, we're never going to know the answer to this question. Nobody bought this pay-per-view on Saturday. Nobody. I bought it because I needed it for work. And I only bought it because I didn't know about a media stream that people got it at a time.

Otherwise, I wouldn't have bought it at all. It's crazy. You're charging $50 for this card? It was a decent card for $50 is insane. They got to figure this thing out. They should not be on pay-per-view at all unless Francis and Gano was fighting. They got to figure that out. This thing probably did $4,000 buys if they're lucky.

And I'm not even just saying that to be a prick. I'm saying that because I think that's the honest to God's truth. Because if you go to ESP, if you went to ESPN Plus on Saturday in the United States, States and you're like, hmm, I wonder what we could watch today. We could watch the UFC in Mexico City for free where the crowd is going to be insane. There's a whole bunch of like really exciting fights. Or we can spend $50 on this card that we might recognize two names on. People are like, nah, I'm just going to enjoy the nice weather and I'm going to go out of the

house and then I'm going to come back and then I'll watch MMA when the UFC comes on. I don't think this does very well in pay-per-view. I think those who bought it were like, okay, this is pretty good. But they, boy, do they have a lot of work to do. But they took strides. They definitely took strides. The card was a digestible card. Cool things happened.

We had the awkward John Jones interview, which was probably worth the $50 alone and just to see how uncomfortable John Jones looked in that whole situation. Shout out to Sean O'Connell for, for, asking real questions. It was just hilarious, all of it, that whole situation. And then, you know, France is not even facing off with Henan Ferreira, to me, was just like,

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That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. Four corner sport. Go ahead. Hey, Mike. I just want to say congratulations on selling the house. A couple things. Do you feel like it was a mistake for Ortega to not call out for Ilya? I know he says, you know, if Vogue doesn't want to fight, you could go to Spain, never mentioned Ilya. I feel like he kind of dropped the ball there. No, Ortega is not somebody to really make some flashy headlines on the mic.

on two for with with roo tearing his MCL. I feel like the timeline, the earliest he might come back with recovery and everything like that. I know it's not an ECO, but I feel like the earliest he might come back is like fourth quarter of the year. Should Pantosha, I mean, I know Mahama

Maheva is fighting this weekend, but what a dark horse pick of like, Mnell Kopp would make sense? I know that he's been the backup fighter. I think, what was it, like, immediately? coming into the UFC, I feel like that would be a very competitive fight. And then also, and then lastly, Zell Huber, I felt like he looked phenomenal, felt like his stock rose.

How high do you see of a ceiling that he, you know, he can grow just because of lightweight, just full of killers. And I just think that the performance that he did, you know, is, you know, one that one can really look back and be like, wow, like, this is the beginning. of the start of someone that can actually, you know, possibly push for a title shot. All right. Thanks. Yeah, Zell Heber is real good.

He's going to get better. Ergonick's been telling me about Sel Huber forever now. He walked into Extreme Coutor and they were just like, oh my God, what do we have here? But it's just a matter of how to harness all that talent in the right way. to keep him hungry and motivated and ready to improve. So, kids are a problem.

He's real, real good. I'm not ready to, like, rush him into a ranked guy, but I want to see him tested. I want to see him against a veteran. So my match makes a suggestion,

chuck him in there with Nazarad Hackperass, and see what happens. I would pick Zell Heuber to win that fight. But let's see what he... And that dude's a grizzled vet. It's been spot a lot of really good guys. So let's see what he can do. If you lose this, so what?

Go back to the drawing board. You feel, you know, you can get back into it, build back up. I got no issue with that. But I want to see him tested. Prado is a good next step. Prado is really good and nasty himself. Let's do, uh, let's do Nazarah Haqvrest. Totally fine with that.

I don't think Minel Cop's getting a title shot. You can't miss weight, man. You just can't. especially like that. I'll tell you what Medell Cop could have done. If Minel Cop that week or two weeks prior had just been like, yeah, man, I'm sick, I can't fight, and pulled out of the Nicolao fight because of an illness, and Nicolao just went and fought somebody else, guarantee you,

Menel Cop would be right there for a title fight. But he didn't do that. He didn't do that. He missed weight by a lot. And then the fight got canceled, which was at the time on that card, like the best fight on the card. And it just fell off. And Mateo Zicole was like, no, I ain't fighting this dude.

He didn't even try to make weight. From what I understand, they're trying to rebook that fight. There was talks about doing it at 298. It didn't come to fruition. I don't know when it's going to happen or even if it's going to happen at this point. But I know they were trying to put that one together. And I know 298 was one of the cards they were looking at. and this is probably like a month ago.

So maybe they have to pivot here. If Menel Cop is like the only dude available, maybe they do that. But I think they're, I think if McAyev goes in there and just busts up Alex Perez on Saturday, I think he's going to get it. I think they're just going to give him the shot

and just, you know what? Go get it. See what you can do. And then the Ortega thing, I think Ortega is like pretty smart here. Because even in my eyes, the performance was good. It was a comeback. It was nice.

But I don't know if you look at that performance as a whole and just are like, yeah, I want to see him fight Elyat Toporia. I came out of that fight thinking, wow, Brian Ortega is a dog. But I also came out of that fight thinking, oh, my God, Ilya would kill him. He would smash Brian Ortega. And it would not be pretty. So I think to go in there and get battered up by a year, come back and win the fight, and then to go to Ilya, in Spain would be a really bad idea for Ryan Ortega, because I think he gets rinsed right now.

I'm not saying he can't get better and take another fight. Like if he goes in there and fights a Mavzarovoyev and beats him and it's clean, then I feel better about it. But I think Brian is smart. I think he's smart. Yeah, I'm sure he wants to fight Ilya And Brian's a pretty popular dude And

That fight would do pretty decent But I don't think Brian's ready for that fight I really don't And I think there's a part of him that's just like, okay I mean look, if Walt doesn't do it And they want me to do it, sure, I'll go And make a bunch of money But at the same token, I think Brian wants to win the belt

He wants to put himself the best position to win the title. And I think he also knows that Volcanovsky was probably second in line in terms of what the UFC wanted. That Ortega, even with the win, it was going to be tough for him to jump over Volcanovsky. And that performance, I think, solidified that.

And I think Ortega is just smart. So I have no issue with him not being like, hey, Ilya, you bitch, let's go. Because it just wouldn't seem natural and the performance wouldn't justify it. And if he did that, I think we'd be coming on here being like people would be ripping on Brian Ortega.

So all at all, I think he actually did a pretty decent job here. I think he was realistic. I think he understood what was going on. And I think he played it pretty good. So go fight mobs are of Loewv. You win that fight. You get a title fight.

I got some no issues with that. Cole, go ahead. Good morning, Mike. All right, since you already covered a bunch of stuff, I'll go to this. Another week. Another event announced. It's taking place in the sphere.

UFC, what, 306? And another Nate Diaz tweet. And I get people saying, God, Nate's so good at this, whatever he's doing. Yeah. But Mike, who, like,

I need other callers to come on here and tell me why they want to see Nate Diaz back in the UFC. Why do people, why does Nate even want to come back to the company? He spent months, years trying to get out of he's coming right back to him after he gets smoked by jake paul man like i don't know and i got a question for you mike how would you handicap a fight between patty pimblit and nate dyes at 170 right now and don't tell me you're going to confidently pick nate to

smoke him so i don't know that's all i got i really don't get where all this nateaise appetites coming from like i don't want to see that guy back in the uc that's all I got. Thanks, buddy. Look, Nate's just a popular guy. People just like them. No one's looking at Nate to be like, oh, let's get Nate in the sphere so we could fight Leon Edwards for the

Welterweight title. No, they're just like, let's get Nate in there to fight Dustin Porier, or let's get Nate in there to fight Connor for a third time. Like, if Nate does come back to the UFC, he ain't going on a title run. You know what I mean? Nate's just going to make a huge bag of money, and then he's going to ride off into the sunset. Like, that's what he's going to do.

And the chance to fight at the spear, stop trying to call me, people, at a Noce UFC love letter to Mexican combat sports, I can see Nate being excited about such a thing. But who knows? I think the UFC would take Nate back at a heartbeat. I think it would be more of, can we put something together so Nate would want to come back.

Nate versus Connor at the spear would be pretty damn good. Be a pretty good headliner, would it not? I think you'd probably save that for something else, but again, Nate's just really good at this. He's drumming up interest. He's just seeing how people react to stuff, and people got excited about that.

Again, Nate's very smart. Nate is one of the smartest people in this sport. Most people don't believe that, but he is. He is. he made this Connor thing happen. This is him. Nate made that happen. Nate had the promo after the Michael Johnson win

where he looked incredible. Something falls out. He gets in and fights Connor and beats him. Becomes a star immediately. And he was a star before that. But that just put him over the top. And then he has a war with Connor

loses a majority decision. There are a lot of people who thought Nate won that fight. But Nate was able to take away a win out of that. And every fight since then for Nate Diaz, whether he got rinsed or lost a close fight or Fox Jake Paul, Nate Diaz has found a way to turn it into a victory. He's so good at it.

No one else can do this. But Nate has been able to do it. So people just like Nate. I mean, that's it. And if he fought Patty, I'd probably pick, I'd probably pick Patty. But if Nate beat him, like, it wouldn't shock me. It wouldn't shock me at all. But Patty, I would just pick him because he's younger and he's got way less mileage on him.

But Nate could certainly win that fight. But my pick would probably be Patty. I think the betting lines would be way closer than the Tony fight. So there you have it. Let's go to Chad. What's up, Chad? Chad, it's not connecting. Can you hear me?

Yep, no, I got you. What's up, man? All right. Yeah, no, I kind of wanted to pounce on that one, too. You know, the spirit, I'm interested to see what just the whole spear thing does. UFC does it big. So I do expect something to be big. Nate fighting there, don't, to be honest, I don't like it.

I guess what I understand the fans love for him, but my whole thing is, is, you know, you begged to leave, you left, you got your bag, and you know, you lost to Jake Paul, plain and simple, you lost, you lost against somebody who, you know, doesn't have as much combat experience as you do, even though he has more boxing experience. and you kind of portray this. I'm real. I can kind of beat everyone's ass kind of thing. And to me, I see it as like you're crawling back to daddy. You're crawling back to daddy because you realize how difficult it is to make a big fight outside of the UFC. I don't think real fight, Inc. is a real thing anyways. I don't think it's a real entity.

I don't think it has any real backing. I just think he just went to go get his promoters license to get extra money. And that's fine. God bless him. but if you're supposed to portray this kind of like anti-hero I'm against the corporate boss, why are you crawling back to the boss? And I think you're crawling back to the boss

because you realize how difficult it is to make those big fights outside of the UFC. And I think whether he ever wants to admit it or not, he actually likes being a UFC fighter, even though he'll never publicly say that, definitely would probably pick Patty right now to beat him. And I guess I would ask you how many Ls would he have to take in order to just stop getting fights, period?

Because at some point, I feel like, you know, you take so many Ls, eventually people are going to get disinterested. I'm already disinterested. It doesn't sound like most of the public is disinterested, and that's it. And I'll just kind of hear what you have to say after that. Thanks. Okay. A lot to impact there.

First of all, the last MMA fight made Diaz had, he won. so let's put that out there I know it was against Tony Ferguson but he won and while the relationship between the UFC

and Nate wasn't tremendous the fact that the 279 shit happened kind of changed the relationship like it even changed the way Dana felt about him in a lot of respects and

to say like well I think he's learning that there does not a lot of real money out there. I can assure you, Nate Diaz made more money boxing Jake Paul than any of his UFC fights, like by a lot. Like this isn't even a discussion to be had by millions of dollars. I was in Dallas. I was in that building when he boxed Jake Paul.

This was not PFL versus Bellator. That place was packed. They sold like 18,000 tickets to that event. and they were there to see Nate Diaz fight. Nate is as popular as ever. That Nate made a whole shit ton of money. So there is still appeal for Nate Diaz. No doubt about it.

He's about to probably make another big bag money, boxing Jorge Mazadol. So there is still an appetite for Nate Diaz. Again, nobody wants to see Nate Diaz go on a title run. We're not going to see, we don't want to see Nate fight Hamzad. We don't want to see Nate fight Balah Muhammad. We don't want to see Nate fight Lee. Leon Edwards again.

We don't need to see it. And by the way, even the Ls he's taken, he ain't getting rinsed by anybody. He went in there with the welterweight champion of the world and almost stopped him late. Almost stopped him. Yeah, Jake beat him up. Jake's also like 20 pounds bigger than him

and like 18 years younger than him and has boxing experience. And it's not like Nate got dropped, but he was competitive in that fight. He's not a walk. Like, he's not him. He's not the Nate from UFC 197, but he's still super freaking popular.

The only fight, like the only fight of this like super popular Nate Diaz run that he looked, like he kind of kind of got bagged up a little bit was the Mazadol fight. Mazadol beat his ass. But Nate still, even though he kind of got run over and I don't think that fight would have gotten any better for him. doctor stops the fight. Nate's like, yeah, man, it was about to come on. And people are like, yeah, you were.

That's just what Nate does. It's incredible. And him going back to the UFC, look, he made a ton of money boxing Jake, a ton of it. But Nate also hated that fight week for a number of reasons, mostly because of how everything was structured. I talked about this a couple, like a few days after that, after that Jake Paul fight happened. We had a cool moment with Nate Diaz after the press conference for the Jake fight. And things got real weird.

And Nate was talking shit to the security guys. A skirmish almost breaks out on the stage, gets broken up, all that. And we were going to do a scrum with Nate Diaz after that. And then Nate was just like, nah, dude, we're not going to do it. And then we're still going to try to do it maybe at his hotel. So we're just all sitting there. There's like seven or eight of us. I'm sitting with New York, Rick, and some other media members at Nate's hotel, waiting for Nate to arrive to maybe do a scrum. Scrum doesn't happen. But Nate comes over and just sits with us and talks to us about everything he was

feeling. It was almost like a, like, it's like a therapy session, if you will, for Nate Dia. And this was like, this was like raw and real Nate. You got like, you got a real, like if you're sitting in that room, you got to really get to understand who Nate Diaz is in this conversation. Like, with what happened. And to me, I don't think Nate misses the money. I don't think he misses being how he was treated by the UFC. what I think he does miss or what he missed most of all is the structure of a fight week because that Derek from Better dude was asking questions at the press conference

and asking fucking disrespectful questions. And I know that's his role and all that stuff. But Nate was like, this is fucking stupid. I hate this. Nate just wants to go in there and like drum up interest for a fight and then just get in there and fight. but then it just got real weird and Nate was just like, dude, if that dude ever showed up to a UFC press conference

and asked a question like that, they would boot his ass out and he'd never be allowed back. And I think Nate kind of realized like, okay, like I'm making more money here, but this sucks. Like all this sucks. And I don't, like the relationship between him and the UFC like ended in a good way.

No bridges were burned or anything like that. So, There were so many questions about it. A lot of people are like, oh, yeah, he's fighting at 300. And I'm just like, no, he's not. But could he fight? Could he return to the UFC sometime down the line? Sure.

I think it could happen. Will it happen at the Spear. Maybe for the right fight. If they somehow do Nate Diaz, Connor McGregor 3 at the Spear as the main event, you think people are going to be like, oh, this is fucking stupid. People are going to be like, yes, this is awesome. and it's going to do 2 million pay-per-view buys. I'm sorry, it's just going to.

It will hit everybody in the casual combat sports sphere. It'll hit anybody who's ever even heard of the UFC, and people are going to buy it. No doubt about it. So, again, Nate just a fun commodity. He's just a fun guy to have around. I mean, that's really it. He ain't crawling back to Daddy,

and Nate's got to be just fine. And Real Fight Inc. is the thing. they're going to do events. They co-promoted the Jake Paul fight. They're going to do events. And guess what? The UFC is, I guarantee you, they are fucking terrified right now

about Connem Regger, possibly leaving the UFC after two fights and going to do the trilogy and Nick Diaz outside of the UFC. They're going to do everything in their power to get that trilogy done in their octagon. They're going to do it. Can people watch?

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Yeah, what's up, man? I appreciate the space. I think this is great. There's not many MMA spaces going on on Twitter, so I appreciate you talking about that. We host one on Fridays every week. I'm not trying to plug my own thing. I just think more people should talk about M.M.A. on Twitter.

But, yeah, I think people underestimate how much Nate actually made in the Jake Paul fight. And I think it's pretty obvious, to me, at least, that he couldn't have made that much. in the USC at the time. So considering his age, considering where he was, you know, when he left, even though he did beat Tony, as you mentioned. He wasn't contending for a title. He certainly didn't belong in title contention.

And I think we should actually kind of praise and appreciate what Nate was able to do, right? He broke down some barriers that outside of some other fighters who kind of did it as a side show, he was the most competitive MMA boxer to kind of watch him fight Jake Paul, right? Everybody else kind of got smoked and really

I mean, if you look at it, none of the other guys were really kind of guys who you thought like this this could go okay. I think, you know, I think we got to stop feeding old MMA fighters to Jake Paul just for the bag which is probably looking more at the UFC

than anything. But yeah, I really appreciate you doing this man. I think it's it's an exciting time for for not just Nate, but just the UFC in general. Let's see what happens. The UFC has a lot to think about, but I think the UFC needs people like Nate. They grew off of names, right? If you look at the growth of the sport, it's based off of superstars.

It's not based off of quality fights that, you know, the hardcores like myself or doctor advice or yourself watch, right? That's not how it grows. So a lot I agree with. One thing I will disagree with you with is they, is you say the UFC doesn't need anybody they don't need Nate Diaz they don't need Connor they don't need anybody they are the star they are the brand those three letters are are money they are money right now they could sell out they could book an event right now in your city for a month from now without even announcing a main event and they will sell it out

they're on fire they don't need Nate Nate doesn't need them either like let's make that perfectly clear they don't need each other at all Nate is doing just fine he is doing just fine he made so much money boxing Jake and he's going to make a whole bunch money boxing

Hory Mosul because he ain't gonna do it for free like if he's not gonna make a big bag of money he ain't gonna do it and that's just it and he ain't going back to the for a big bag money either. The UFC is like, yeah, we'll pay you what we paid you before. They ain't going to be like, Nate's not going to be like, oh, okay, sure.

He's going to be like, no, what the hell are you talking about? Like, I'll go do something else. But Nate's going to be justified. Naked just appear at, like, naked just appear at a bar somewhere and probably make like 50 grand for two hours of just sitting there. You know what I mean? Like, Nate is a superstar. Dude is a freaking superstar.

So we'll see if he comes back. if he does grade, if it doesn't give us shit. Like, he'll be just fine. He will be just fine. Doctor advice. Nobody wants to see Nate at a bar right now, though. I mean, but yeah, I had a question. It wasn't a Nate question.

I mean, Nate's biggest challenge is scar tissue, facially. But I had a question about Ilya and the featherweight going forward and whether you thought Holloway will get a title shot before Volk gets a rematch. if bulk gets a rematch. I mean, I would love to watch Max Holley versus Liot-Tuporia.

The problem is DFC does what they do sometimes is they just overbook themselves and they overthink things. And that's what they did with Max Halle. Now he's fighting Justin Gaitchewich. By the way, is my fight. This is it. If you've been listening on to the next one

for the last three and a half years, this is the one that I have been calling for. Every time Holloway loses or any time Gaichi loses, like this is the one. This is the fight, him and Max Holloway. I'm going to see it at UFC 300, and it's going to be the best. But it means nothing.

It truly means nothing. I don't know how it's all going to play out. I just don't see a war war. Or if Max Holloway, either way, Max Holloway is going to get thumped up in that fight. he's going to be battered. He's going to get his legs kicked real hard. He's going to get punched in the face real hard.

And it's not like, I don't know if this is going to be a fight where Max is going to be fighting four months later. You know what I mean? Win or lose. Win or lose. Now, if him and Gaitie go in there and they just have like a fight and it's not fun, but there's no way that happens. And sure. Timing is everything. Availability is your best friend right now.

And let you say Volk isn't ready for September. Mavzarv. Mavsar of Lov could step in. Like, who knows? At this point, if you've seen what's going on in Spain, Iliate Tupori can literally fight anybody, and they're going to sell whatever arena or stadium, regardless, they're going to sell it out. Ilya is a megastar over there right now.

And that's it. Like, does Iliate Tepoia, Mavzar of Lovov, sell a million papers? God no. But I want to see that fight. I want to see it. at this point it doesn't matter for you fights. It's going to be Volk though.

UFC's going to do that. They're going to milk whatever they can left out of Volk. Volk's not going to be like, well, I should probably take some time off. I'm 36. No, he's not going to do that. He's just going to say yes and take it. And I kind of want to see it again

if we're being honest. Like, I wish we could see it like a year from now. But Volk was winning that fight until he lost. People, like, the amount of people who have told me like, oh, Ilya Deppori just dusted Volk. Wasn't even competitive.

I'm like, what fucking fight were you watching? Volk won the first round. He was winning the second. And then he got starched. He put his backup against the fence and he lost. Like, he knew he couldn't put his back up against the fence.

And he did. And he got knocked out. But he was winning until that happened. He was about to go up two rounds, more than likely. The fight was playing out exactly the way I thought it was going to play out. And then you got knocked out. But look, I'm not a huge fan of immediate rematches.

But if you give Kamar Usen an immediate rematch, if you give Izzyra Adasani an immediate rematch, you got to give Volcanowski an immediate rematch. And if Max Holloway beats Justin Gaici, he ain't fighting Ily in Teporia. He's going to go fight Islamakach probably. So there you go. I would love to see Holloway,

but it's too, it's not saying he could never. happen, but I don't think Holly's going to be the guy in Spain. He's fighting Justin Gagey. No one's the same after fighting Justin Gagy. Nobody is the same after fighting that man. Ruins careers. Dylan, go ahead. Hey, Mike.

Long time no speak. I don't get to listen live very much anymore. But I still always listen to the podcast. Just a couple of things this morning. one, just to show you how much Nate Diaz is relevant, people will have an appetite for him. We've talked about him for over like 30 minutes this morning when he had all off a tweet.

So I think people still have an appetite, but I don't really care to see him fight that much anymore. I mean, I like Nate as a personality, but I don't, he's by far not elite anymore. But my big question is, I didn't, I watched PFL Saturday. I was a little confused with the Vadim Nemcov fight. Like, one, why was that title less significant than the, for, I don't want to butcher his last name, the Bader Ferreira fight? I think Nimcov would be a way more interesting fight against Francis Inganu, and he has more name value.

But I didn't really understand why that, why the Bader title fight was more weighted than the, Nemkov win, but that's about it, Mike. Thanks, man. I mean, a couple of reasons. One, it was the main event, two, people know who Ryan Bader is because he was in the UFC. And that's really it. And that's really it.

And you have Henan Ferreira, who is a friggin monster. That guy is so big. He's huge. And, like, let's be clear. Like, we know which fight would be more interesting. And maybe, you know what? I don't know how interesting it would be. I think Vadim Nemcoff, I would pick Vadim Nemcoff to beat Francis Ingano.

I'd pick Vadimov to be pretty much anybody he fights right now. He's real good and everything translated very well to heavyweight. But the more exciting fight is definitely Francis versus Ferreira. I mean, you get this big huge 6'8 monster heavyweight. It looks good to get off the bus and hits like a truck. It gets another monster dude who hits like a truck who's jacked in gigantic himself. I mean, which one looks better on a poster? You know what I mean?

Which face-off's going to look cooler? And, like, this is a good fight for Francis. It's a winnable fight for Francis. I'm not saying he couldn't beat Vadim Nemcoff, but I wouldn't pick him to beat Vadim Nemcoff. This is a fight he could win, but it's also a fight he could lose. But again, I don't know if Francis is fighting in M.MA. We won't know really the answer to that question until March 8th.

and if the only way the only way I'm confident he fights Henan Ferreira is if Anthony Joshua blows the doors off of him next Friday in Saudi if he is even competitive or he wins this fight

he ain't fighting Henan Ferreira he's not fighting anybody in M.A. He's not. He's just not. So yeah. The team's really, really good, though. It's going to be real interesting to see.

I don't think a lot of guys are beating that guy. But I'm interested to see what his heavyweight progression continues look like. All right, we'll wrap things up with Ani, and then I've got to go. Remember, BTL today at 1230. Go ahead, Anni. Hello, Mike. Hello. Can you hear me?

Yes, I can. It's good to speak to you, Mike. How are you doing? I'm good. What's on your mind? So I was just thinking about Alex Wolkenovsky. I mean, considering where he's at in his career, his age. And I also look at the lightweight division.

And I look at Dustin Porier. Of course, he has Benoit Santany coming up next. Let's say, for argument's sake, he beats him. Or even if he loses to Sandini, I think, I think Volkovsky is in the Porriere, Gigi, Olivera. You know what I mean? I think he's in that stage now where you can make fun fights with him. I mean, who doesn't want to see Dasen Porier versus Alexander Volkanowski?

I mean, Volkinovsky has done everything in featherweight. He's beaten everyone. And I don't think he'd gain much by fighting people like Josh Emmet or Evlo Vawana Lal, although they'd be good fights, but I don't think there'd be a lot of interest. But you could headline a pay the view with Dustin Poria and Wolkenowski, or Volkanowski and Geji or Volkanowski and Orovera. You know, I think if he commits to lightweight and fight someone like a Dustin Porrier or, you know, or someone like a Gage,

Or Poria, let's talk about Poria because I don't think he'll get a title shot if he beats Sandini. And I'm only saying this because there's Olivera and Geichi waiting in the wings. I think it'll be nice if Volkanowski can time his move to lightweight, and maybe he can get a title shot if Arman Sarukin beats Makachev. You know, I think that's a good move. move. I think at this point in his career, he'll just make a lot of money if he goes to lightweight. What do you think about that? And also, do you think the apex shows have actually helped Erin Blanchefield? Because I feel like the apex was where she was able to,

you know, sort of show out. And then you obviously were like, hmm, she's actually pretty good. Let's put her in front of an audience, but I'm pretty sure UFC couldn't find any other main event, which is why they put Blanchefield and Monon Fiore. But I really like Alan Blanchfield. I think she is one of the few fighters who benefited from the apex. That's it, Mike. Let me know what you think. Have a nice evening.

Thank you. I think Vulcan Lightwave would be cool. I think if you beat Tuporia, I think that was. a pretty strong possibility. At least that's how I thought it would be. But we shall see how that plays out. But, I mean, maybe it's still there. But look, you can make money.

He can make money at lightweight. I mean, there's no doubt about it. But you make the most money when you're a champion. That's when you make your money when you're the champion. You win the bell. That's when you like accomplish the dream. That's when the real thing starts. and then you make all your money as champion.

That's when you get your pay-per-view points, you get a piece of the gate, all that stuff. So you can go lightweight and fight Dustin Bore and make good money. I'm sure his new contract after taking the Mokachev fight on short notice is a really good one. But all your money is, you make the most money as champion. And that's just it. When you're defending your title, that's when you make the most money. So there you have it there.

The Blanchefield thing, yeah, I guess to some extent. But I think the big Blanchefield moment for a lot of people was MSG. When she dusted up Molly McCam, that was the one. She killed her on a huge card. Like that was, that was it. Yeah, she got the Androge fight and did it the apex, got a main event, and that's great. And, you know, then her next fight was in front. of a crowd in Singapore.

And now she'll be in a crowd again. So, yeah, there's, she got, like, sort of a main event rub. But I don't know if it's kind of incomplete on whether or not, like, the apex put her over the top, especially with the McCann fight. I think the McCann one was the, even though, like, most people thought,

even though most people thought, um, Blancheville win that fight, I think, that was a big moment for her. It was a big moment because Molly was over. And a lot of people are talking about Molly actually getting a title shot

if she beat Aaron Blanchfield. But Aaron Blanchfield ran her over. So yeah, I guess to some extent, but not particularly. All right, we're done. Thank you all very much. We'll be back here on Friday. No show Thursday.

We'll do a show on Friday. BTL is happening today, not Thursday. So 12.30 p.m. Eastern time. Jed and I, Casey, It's going to be a Q&A, Q&A edition. We'll talk about big stories. We can answer a lot of the questions we had here.

And we just have some fun. So we'll see you at 12.30 p.m. Eastern time. And we'll be back here on Friday. Until then, everybody. Thank you very much. Have a great rest of your Tuesday. And have a heck of a morning, everybody.