MMA Fighting - HOAM | Will Kayla Harrison's UFC Arrival Lead To Amanda Nunes Comeback?

Episode Date: January 25, 2024

Kayla Harrison is now a UFC fighter, as she prepares to face former UFC champion Holly Holm at UFC 300 on April 13 in Las Vegas. With Harrison now in the picture, and Amanda Nunes teasing a potential comeback following UFC 297, could the stars align to put a Nunes vs. Harrison matchup together? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck reacts to UFC CEO Dana White's stunning announcement from Tuesday night, what it would take to get Nunes out of retirement, and the pros and cons of the signing. Additionally, listener questions include the clip of Jon Anik expressing his frustration with the negative portion of the UFC fanbase, and why he's spot on, the current shape of UFC 300, a potential Francis Ngannou vs. Ryan Bader fight in the PFL, Justin Gaethje vs. Max Holloway, and much more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Defenders and cybersecurity are always there when we need them. They should get a parade every time they block a novel threat and have streets. sandwiches and babies named in their honor. But most of all, they deserve AI cybersecurity that can stop novel threats before they become breaches across email, clouds, networks, and more.

DarkTrace is the cybersecurity defenders deserve and the one they need to defend beyond. Visit darktrace.com forward slash defenders for more information. Listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. 25th, 20. And it is indeed a heck of a morning. We are live on the MA fighting Twitter space. You can hear the show in its entirety shortly thereafter on the MAFutty podcasting network. What's going on, everybody?

I am Mike Keck. I hope you're all having a fantastic week. No UFC to look forward to this weekend, but that's okay. That's okay. So this is why the UFC is very good at what they do in terms of scheduling, because why would they? They're coming off of UFC 297. There's still a lot of discussion regarding that event, especially when it comes to the main event. we got conference championship weekend in the NFL.

UFC's not going to do a card on conference championship weekend. Very, very smart on their part. But there is no UFC. There is a one championship event this weekend, but all in all, for the most part, kind of a weekend off for us. And then we get to buckle up and get back after it. We get to the apex next Saturday. We get back to the apex the Saturday after that.

And then UFC 298. and then we go to Mexico City and then we go back to the apex and then we go to Miami for UFC 299 so things are going to get hot and heavy very very quickly in terms of the UFC we also got PFL's big events

the PFL versus Belvoir champs versus champs card so yeah still a lot of talk about UFC 2997 but big news dropping on Tuesday Dana White pops on social media. We see him announce breaking.

We see UFC 300. We see all sorts of things. And then he drops a bombshell. Kayla Harrison has signed to the UFC. It will fight Holly Holm at UFC 300. This is wild.

I did not see this coming at all, especially after hearing Don Davis on the MMA hour, promise the masses that this summer we were getting Kayla Harrison versus Chris Cyborg. It's the fight that everybody wanted to see. It's the fight everybody's wanted to see for a number of years now. And now it's probably never, ever going to happen. And we did like an immediate emergency reaction to it.

Shaheen and I were kind of like, yeah, this is shocking. We're a little indifferent about it because of the wait. man. Like that scares the shit out of me. That she's cutting to 135. Dana White did an Instagram live yesterday. He said he's going to announce the UFC 300 main event. Maybe sometimes maybe next week. But he also said that Kayla has done a bunch of test cuts and he has no doubt she'll make 135. When and where has she been making these test cuts? So even though Dana says that, I am very concerned in that matter. matter. Her way in at UFC 300 is going to be probably the most watched way in of the day. And while this division, the women's band-inweight division needs a boost, and I mean badly,

I'm a little concerned. I can't lie to you. I understand where Kayla is coming from here. She has done outside of fighting Chris Cyborg. And I got to tell you, even though Don Davis went on the MA hour and said, hey, we're getting it the summer, it just seems like those two, for whatever reason were just, I don't know, there's a part of me that just felt like the fight was never going to happen for one reason or another.

And now we're not getting it. And I guess like my first initial thought outside of the Wade and, yeah, this is interesting for 135. Yes, there's the Amanda Nunes thing is, man, what a massive blow to the PFL. I mean, this is a massive blow. massive blow to them.

Because they have no stars. They have none. They have Francine Ghanu who probably won't be fighting for them anytime soon. It's great to have the attachments to that name, but it doesn't seem like he's going to be fighting a mixed martial arts anytime soon. He's getting ready to box Anthony Joshua. And if Francis wins that fight, he's probably never fighting an M.MA again.

And then their second biggest star is Kayla Harrison. And the fight that, and the number one fight that that promotes, ocean could have put on was Harrison versus Cyborg. And now that is off the table altogether. Gigantic blow to the PFL. Absolutely massive. Can they come back from the shore? Are they buried though?

But considering this is the year where they feel like this is the year they make the big move, not a great start for them. Not a great start. We'll see how they could bounce back. but Kayla Harris and Holly Holie Holm, like, I'll give Kayla a lot of credit here, that she is putting her neck out there to do this, that she's taking the risk that she's taking, moving down to a weight class she's never fought in before, fighting Holly Home, which, look, Kayla's very, very good, but Holly is a wily vet. She has been in there with absolutely everybody at this point, and I know she's getting up there in age, but this is a fight. Holly could win. And if Holly Holme beats Kayla Harrison,

sheesh, like that is, that's tough scenes. That's tough scenes. Which means Holly Holmes probably getting a title fight, which I know most people don't want to see if we're being honest. And then if Kayla wins, she's probably going to get a title fight as well.

Does it mean anything for Amanda possibly coming back? She did tease it after 297. If Kayla wins the belt, I could see it happening. But I don't know. there's a lot going on. That was obviously the big news since we last spoke, but let's hear what you all want to talk about.

Let's get into this thing. Let's rock and roll. Brent, kick us off. I can. I'm going to give just my take on the Kayla situation. I'll start by saying that if this is what Kayla wants to do, then more power to her. And I'm stoked that she's in the UFC.

But in my opinion, this is like borderline grotesque. So like imagine if Dustin Poy, a former 145er said that he was going to go down to 135, we would all be like, what the F? You know, so in my opinion, they should have just done this at 145, and that's all I got. Thank you.

Yeah, but the problem is, unless you're just bringing her in for like two or three fights, then you can't really do that because there is no division. And I think the UFC is, them making this fight at Bannonweight I think we knew the featherweight division was done anyways but now the last bit of dirt has been poured on top of it and we don't need this division at all

the only reason this division even existed was because I mean they had Chris Cyborg they tried to do the thing with Cyborg and she could barely make 140 they're going to try to gradually get her down to 135 she's too big for it but the only reason they kept this division alive is because

Amanda Nunes like had two belts and it was just a barren wasteland she was basically just fighting phantom weights who moved up to featherweight and it was just a bad division they didn't even have like official rankings because there weren't enough people fighting in that division

so honestly like this is probably the only way Kayla was going to come in this is the only way the UFC was going to sign her And I think when she was a free agent, essentially, not really a free agent because the PFL had matching rights. This is probably what was put before Kayla. Like, yeah, we'll sign you. We'll pay pretty decent money, but you're not fighting at 45. You're fighting at 35.

And I think she saw the grass was still pretty green over with PFL. They gave her the matching rights. And she made a bunch of money to go fight Aspen Ladd. So it worked out for her. but yeah it's it's very very risky and if she goes out and makes weight like that's great but can she do it again because if she beats holly holm when they do the rakel pennington julietta painia fight Kayla's got to get the winner can she make 135 136 is fine for holly home can she make 135

for the title fight. That's a concern. What effect will it have on her to consistently do this? Because if you want to bring Kayla Harrison, you probably want her at her best, right? And if she continuously is making this big cut to 35, are we really getting her best? What if she misses weight?

Like, what if she ends up missing weight for the Holly home fight? Does Holly just say, all right, fine, I'll fight her. Or does she say, no, I'm not fighting her. I'm not putting her over. I'm not even going to give her the chance to get one over on me. These are the questions I have. But look, considering where this friggin division is right now, and it is rotten.

Adding Kayla to the mix, at least makes things somewhat interesting on paper. And we'll see if it works out. It's got to be an interesting story for the next couple of months. That's for sure, getting to UFC 300. We'll see if she can make the wait and perform. form to the capabilities of which we think she can. We're going to try to get Henry in, but we're getting the wheel of doom, so I don't know if it's going to work.

So we'll bring Riley in. Riley, go ahead. Just to piggyback off the Kayla situation, I know you're not much of a gambling man. You really only do it for the watch parties, but I saw Kayla was minus 500 versus Polly. and that's just insane to me. Like I feel like stylistically, totally get it. I think Kayla should win and will win. But her cutting to 135, like I feel like she could get knocked out by like a fucking blow of the wind.

Like it reminds me of when Gilbert Burns got knocked out by Dan Hooker. I think her chin just might not be there even if she makes the weight. So maybe you'll have a little sprinkle on Holly home at the UFC 300 party. but second thing real quick since we're having all these crazy weight cuts now I know Poetan kind of called out DDP a little bit after he won the belt

fuck UFC 300 maybe are we going to see one more crazy weight cut Poetan come back to 185 to be a double champ simultaneously thanks for my heck of the morning Are you trying to get me mad rally Is this what you're trying to do? Are you trying to fire me up

with this champ versus champ shit No. No. I have no interest in this. None. I don't think, I don't think Pereira is fighting at 300. I don't think so. And I certainly don't want to see him go down to 185. So no. At this point, I mean, look, Prerer has got guys to fight. He's got Ancolaev. Jamal Hill is moving around a little bit. I'm told April-ish May he could kind of like get back to full bore training. And at that point, unless, like, they do end up, there's a rumored pay-per-view in Rio in May,

maybe Pereira fights in that card. Maybe they could draw something with him. But it would probably be Ankolaev. And at that point, don't, would you just rather wait two months and just two or three months and just wait for the Jamal Hill fight? Because that's the fight I want to see. I want to see him in Jamal Hill.

that's the one. But if they do go to Rio, then maybe you could slot ankle life in there. And we'll see what happens. I have no interest in him fighting Jerk his duplicy right now. Now, if DDP goes out and like beats Izzy and beats Hamzot and beats like two or three more guys and he runs off like five title defenses and Pereira is still the champion and DDP wants to move up, fine. I'm okay with that. But no, no, no, no, no, no. I did see the betting lines.

I saw Kayla open as like a minus 360 favorite on one of the sites. She ballooned up to a minus 500 real quick. Draft Kings right now has Kayla as minus 410, but comeback on Hollyholm is plus 320. Will I sprinkle on Hollyholm? I don't know. The line's going to have to be juicy. We get up to like plus 360, closer to plus 400.

I might. I might, and it's something that I have to take before Kayla steps on the scale, because if Kayla looks rough up there, that line's going to close real quick. So, yeah, I don't know. I'm surprised it's this wide. When I got to minus 500, I was like, that's a little too crazy. And I think most of the community was like, nah, I agree. Let's close it down a little bit.

So we'll see what happens, and we'll see where the line is. Come watch party. So I'm not going to announce anything right now. This is a stay tuned kind of a thing. But if you guys enjoy the watch party, G.C. and I are cooking up some stuff for the next few months that I think you guys are going to like. So stay tuned for that.

We might even have something like really big going on for 300. March is going to be exciting. So just stay tuned. Stay tuned. We have some cool shit in the works. for the watch party. Saving and investing well is an art and a science. It requires high-level math, an intimate knowledge of economic history and theory,

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Investing involves risk, performance not guaranteed. Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Roscoe 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 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 two ghosts in the machine, available now, only from Audible. Let's go to Mr. Senior Man. Are you there?

You're muted. You're just kind of muting back and forth. Unmute, and then you're good. You're muted, Mr. Senior Man, and you're gone. Let's give Henry one last shot here. Here we go. Hey, Mike. Thanks, good morning.

What's that, buddy? Yeah, man. I just want to start on a little clip that I saw just literally the last hour. And it was John Anick speaking on his podcast with Kenny Florian. And I can kind of relate to his sentiment. He was basically saying that he's suffering time with fatigue from the negativity in the comments. And he's seriously thinking, not, I don't know if I'm putting words in his mouth from what he said. But he was saying that he's thinking about walking away and just going into football

because he wouldn't experience this kind of toxicity. And, like, I can definitely relate to what Anik's saying. It's obviously, it's no secret that the MMA fan base, it has, I don't know, there is a certain amount of toxicity, but it's just gone to a new level. I'd say the last year or so, like some of the stuff I was seeing, people were talking about a man. Rocky Pennington's children and stuff like that.

And it's just like, I'm... All right, we lost Henry. I'm glad you brought this up. I was hoping somebody would bring this up because literally right before we went live, I was watching the clip of John Anick, and he was talking about the negative fan base that he said basically,

in essence, I don't know how much time I have left in this space. He has to really think about it. Now, John, let me just look this up. Just for context. I want to make sure I have everything correct. What? Okay, so John Anick re-signed in 2022. You signed like a multi-year extension with the UFC.

I have no clue how long that extension is for. So, but look, here's the thing. I have a great relationship with John Attic. I actually I would say I would say I would consider John a friend at this point

I think we've gotten to that point have we like hung out and like drank beers together no but if I text him something would he text me right back sure have we talked about stuff

outside of fighting yes truth be told when I was I told the story about how I went all in on this MMA thing. I was working in radio and I was doing MMA on the side. We tried to relocate

with the job within radio but I wasn't on the air and I absolutely hated it. And once I realized I hated it, I asked my wife to give me a year to see if I could get a full-time job or at least make comparable money to what I was making

with all my responsibilities on the radio. And she, God bless her, let me do it. And so I just free, for as many websites as I could. I took the James Lynch approach, had a conversation with Lynch. He led me in the right direction because he had worked. I think he was working with the score at the time and put in like some good words for me. So I was doing interviews essentially for a number of sites.

I was doing a lot of like YouTube and video content. And I wasn't doing great. Wasn't making like a ton of money. I did some odd jobs on the side. Like I was still DJing weddings. That really helped. I did some PA. work for

like a minor league baseball team a couple nights a week. I was doing like different things. And then all of a sudden I get a message from you guys probably know Ian Parker now. He's on ESPN doing a lot of doing a lot of their gambling content. But at the time,

Ian was working on Anakin Florian. And he had reached out to me and said, hey, our video guy is no longer going to be with us. Do you, would you be interested in like helping out. Like, we don't need anything crazy, but just somebody who knows how to at least basically edit video and get it on YouTube and can cut clips and stuff. And I was like, yeah, sure. And then from there, like, I got on a group call with Ian and Anick and I believe

Kenny was there as well. And then from there, like, Anik and I just kind of like got along. We had a good relationship. Annick appreciated the fact that any time I said I was going to do something, I did it. If I said I was going to have something done by 2 p.m. Eastern, I would have it done by 1.30 p.m. Eastern. And Anick always respected that. And from there, we built like a good relationship. When I had the first edition of What the Heck, who was the first guest ever on what the heck when I got to M.A. fighting? There's a reason it was John Annick. I wanted John to be the first guy on the show. And he was, he couldn't, he was so happy about

that. He was like, oh, why me? But I just knew, like, just the rapport we had. And John's a great dude, man. He's a great dude. And I could tell you what, if John, like, left the UFC tomorrow, he had 18,000 companies reaching out to him acquiring, trying to acquire his services. I can also tell you, and I think John has shared this publicly as well, and even said it in the clip, John's dream is to call NFL football games. That is, like, that's the brass ring for him. He can get on and you play by play

for the NFL on like Fox or some big network. That's the dream for John. And I honestly think at this point the dream is as close as as he's about as close as you can get to it.

And he's right when he says, hey, listen, if I call the NFL or call the football game or call college football or something, I'm not going to get

the shit that I get now. And I'm here to tell you as well. When I got to M.A. fighting, this is a lesson I had to learn real quick to deal with negativity. Now, luckily, I feel like, for the most part, the community that takes in our content and watches our shows and listens to our podcasts and reads our website, we are all like a big, huge team here. Like we're all on the same page. You guys understand what we're trying to do. We get what you want. We're trying to give it to you.

You guys have suggestions about things we could do. We listen to that shit. We try to figure out a way to make it work. The people's pre-fight show exists because of you. Someone hit me up. It was like, you guys should do a show like, if you watch like the Royal Rumble or watch WrestleMania, they have like the desk and they take questions

and they do all these things. And sometimes they go to Twitter. And like, that is a great. freaking idea. Let's try that. And we've been doing it for like three years now. This show in particular was a part of the reason why we're doing it's because you guys suggested it. But there is a small community, a very

boisterous part of this community that are fucking assholes. Like they just are. There's nothing positive that ever comes out of their mouths, ever. Nothing that they type up is positive. Nothing. And it's fucking. and exhausting.

And it's something I had to learn real quick. The first thing I ever did for M.A. Fighting in terms of video content, the world was shut down. The UFC had canceled events. John Jones got arrested. So I had to do video phone. John Jones getting arrested.

And that was the first time that I saw, like, just who the fuck is this guy and all this stuff? And like, I understood that that was coming. But then there was like a whole bunch of other things. and then like it progressed into like more where I'm just like I got to stop looking at the comments and then I got to the point where I was like I guess like not only because I still will kind dabble in there just because I'm curious but I've like officially gotten to the point where I can pick and choose which comment section that I think is going to be not that any comment

section is positive but at least to the point where like maybe I can take something away from it So, like, I can tell you right now, the Laura Sanko interview I did on YouTube, I haven't looked at the comments once. Because I, even though, like, I see that a lot of people have watched it and I see, like, the likes to dislikes is, like, at a pretty good number. I know that there's going to be a lot of people who are shitting on me and shitting on Laura for scoring the fight for Drinkist Duplice over Sean Strickland. and not even giving the fact or the credence that I have said into a live microphone, not just then, but on multiple occasions, that if you scored the fight for Sean Strickland, you're not a moron. I don't think any less of you.

And I can understand where you're coming from. If you want to score the fight for Sean Strickland, like, I am willing to listen to you. Absolutely. And I also have said, into a live microphone many times. That might be, DDP versus Sean Strickland might be the closest fight I've ever watched.

This is reminiscent. It reminds me a lot of Volcanovsky Holloway 2. And guess what? The same reaction is happening here. Because I scored it for Volk, continue to score for Volk. It's one of the most fascinating fights of all time.

And it's one of the most closely contested fights I've ever seen. And the reaction for anybody who scored that fight for Alexander Volcanovsky just got buried. Buried. The most hate I've ever gotten on Twitter was me just simply tweeting out the night of that fight. Guys, this wasn't a robbery. The amount of hate I got just for that take. If you go back and watch that fight right now, I will guarantee you, you will agree with me that it is one of the closest fights you could possibly score.

And this is so reminiscent of that. So reminiscent. If you score the fight for DDP, you're a fucking piece of shit. You don't know what you're talking about. Retire. Stop covering this sport. Even though you could say I hear, I can see an argument for Sean Strickland.

Like if you want to score for Sean, it was that close. I have no problem with that whatsoever. And then on my end, like, if you score for Sean, I'm not going to be like, oh, you're a fucking idiot. DDP won that fight. Go fuck yourself. Like, I'm not going to do that.

I'm not going to do that. But there is just such hate and negativity in the space. It's brutal. I totally understand when John's coming from. And guess what? John understands the fucking scoring criteria. He understands the scoring criteria. More than Dominic Cruz does.

More than Daniel Cormier does. More than most of the fighters who are in the, the seat next to him. John has studied and taken part in courses. He has been part of meetings to learn more about the fucking scoring and about the rules and all of that. Like John puts forth the effort to learn about that stuff. More so than Domda Cruz. If you listen to Domda Cruz on the broadcast, you're like, how do you even have this spot right now? Laura Sanko the same way. In fact, we did our interview, I think it was Monday night, Wednesday, I think it was last night, She was in a rules meeting on Zoom with referees and judges,

learning more about the scoring, learning more about the structure. That man is putting forth the effort. And if he wants to go on his show or go anywhere and say he thought he was duplicacy won, so what? So what? Two of the judges agreed with them. I agree with them. I watched the fight twice.

I scored it for DDP both times. wasn't a blowout by any stretch of the imagination the Strickland rounds were much more clear than the DDP rounds outside of round four Strickland won the first, Strickland won the fifth, DDP won the fourth, two and three were very, very close. Very close. But both watching live on the watch party

and on the rewatch, I edged it by a nose to DDP. Does that make me a bad person? No. Does that make me a fucking idiot? No. just like if you scored it for Sean Strickland, it doesn't make you a bad person or an idiot. I said this, I think it was Friday,

maybe it was Tuesday, I don't know. Everybody needs to relax. Jesus Christ, just relax. It ain't the end of the world. When the Patriots lost the Super Bowl to the Giants, I didn't even have this reaction. That was one of the worst days of my life watching sports. When Aaron Boone hit a fucking home run,

in extra innings against the Red Sox to win game seven of the ALCS, knocking the Red Sox, keeping the curse alive. I didn't act like this. I was pissed, but I kept it to myself. Everybody's just got to relax, man.

I understand if you gamble and you lost some money, yeah, it sucks ass. I get it. But everyone's just got to chill out. It's just sports. It's not the end of the world. Sean Strickland is already over it, guys. He's already over it. He thinks he wants.

He should think he won. What do you think he's going to say? Nah, you know what? I rewatch the fight. DDP got it. I was wrong. I shouldn't be champion anymore. DDP, you got me.

Congratulations, sir. Of course he's not going to say it because he wants to fucking fight the guy again. If Sean's over it, if he's okay with it, you should be okay with it too. I mean, come on now. Jesus Christ. And leave John Attic alone.

The man is a global treasure for crying out loud. Give the man a break. Relax. Let's enjoy the sport a little bit. Let's invoke a little positivity in the space, shall we? Christ's sake. Ethan, hello.

Yes. So I got two quick ones for you this morning. So first up, of course, Polly Holm versus Kayla Harrison. That's the main topic of discussion. I just want to say put some positivity on it. I'm actually really excited to have Kayla in the UFC. I know it's at 35. It's not necessarily ideal.

But I think it introduces some really cool things to the equation. So I'm excited about that. And fan reaction has been kind of middling, but I think it should actually be really cool. And then the other thing, just a quick one, does the BMF count as one of our three title fights on 300? Or are we getting three plus BMF? Those are my questions and have a heck of a morning.

I think we will end up including the BMF with three. I would assume that they are going to try to do DDP Izzy for 300. I don't think that's stepping far on the take line. all. I think this is probably what they want to do. This is a, that is a UFC 300-e headline, headliner in my opinion. And coming out of UFC 297, this is what my UFC 297 main card would look like. Armand Sarukin versus Charles Olivera would open things up. The second fight on the main card would be Sean Strickland versus Hamzat Shemayas and a three-rounder. third fight would be

Zhang Wei Li versus Janjohnan that we do the BMF title fight that we do DDP versus Izzy that is a fucking main card of all main cards right there you throw Kayla in the ESPN head prelim with Holly and we're off to the races

now we were talking about this on Slack as well just kind of talking about the ordering of the fight card I would not be at all surprised if they did Janjonan versus Zhang Wei Li as the featured prelim. I mean, that would just be pretty damn cool, right?

What better way to sort of set the table for a pay-per-view than giving them a title fight for free? Hey, you think that was good? Wait till you see Max Holloway and Justin Gage get in there and beat six shades of shit out of each other. You might want to pay $79.99 for that. So, I mean, this could go a number of different ways. $300 is looking pretty spicy right now,

and we still have like five more fights to be announced. So I do think we'll end up with three, including the BMF title fight. Kayla's a good, I mean, look, I don't know what to think about Kayla yet. When I woke up and I saw the news, I was like,

whoa, didn't see that one coming. I was shocked. And then I listened more, and I was like, ooh, it's happening at Banimite. Now I have more questions.

And then it turned into, okay, she's fighting Holly Holm, like, how is this going to go? This might not be the most aesthetically pleasing fight of all time. And then it was just like, okay, what could happen?

Does this mean Amanda will come back if all goes well here? What if Kayla loses? And then it was just like all those different stuff. So it's hard to say, it's hard to really gauge the excitement levels for this until we get to April 12th when she steps on the scale and she looks ready to go. Makes 136. She doesn't look like she's falling, she's going to fall down. And if she goes on there and beats Holly, okay, now we got something.

now we're moving a little bit. Now we can create a little bit of intrigue here. And just the worst division of all time, as we talked about on the ranking show. Right now, this iteration of women's band-em weight is the worst division in the history of the UFC. It's so bad. It's so bad. It's just not enough. There's just not enough fighters.

And you can't even pluck them up at this point because it's just, it's not a weight class that is just filled with prospects right now. So this division needs it. Needs it badly. And for the division's sake, and probably for the UFC's sake, Kayla going in there, making weight, being healthy, and winning is a very good thing. It's a very good thing. And we shall see how it plays out as the weeks and months go on. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes.

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CV, hello. Yo, Mike, can you hear me? Yes. Just two quick things for me. Just your thoughts on Diablo Lopez and Sadiq Yusuf announced for 300. It's going to be a great fight. And yeah, and one more thing, if Anik does eventually, like, leave the UFC, who do you think, like, eventually takes over the pay-per-view duty? And I do have a suggestion for a replacement for play-by-play.

There's a guy at MMA fighting. His name is Mike Heck. I think he'd be a good replacement. Thanks. First of all, I would never try to replace John Inick. Second of all, I'd probably be terrible in that role. I would be more suited for like the Michael Eves role, just sitting at the desk and like letting people who know what they're talking about,

talk about it. Like that's that's the role for me. That's where I would be. Or maybe like the interviewer or, you know, hosting ancillary programming. Like that's where my role would be. But no, absolutely not. I would be horrendous. And I would certainly not do it at a UFC level.

Having said that, I think you probably got to get Brennan Fitzgerald a shot. If that's the case. I mean, the dude's put in the work. He's been doing it for a while. He's very good at it. I think you give him a shot. I mean, I just don't know what else you do. I think you just bump him up from within.

Dan Helly probably bumps up to doing the apex cards and taking over the Fitzgerald rolled. I mean, you could bring John Gooden up. I think John Gooden's great too. Maybe a mix and match. Sometimes Brandon does it. Sometimes John does it. But I don't want to, I know we're going to get to this point and we're going to have to live in this world without John Anick. And that world is not a good one.

it's it's there's still people punching each other and it's fighting and it's all good but john is john's one of the best and not just i mean he's the best at m ms he's one of the best in he's one of the best in all of sports in my opinion so hopefully we don't have to think about that too much but i totally get where he's coming from uh cat hello good morning mike i hope you're doing okay today um I just wanted to come up and say, usually it's me going out of body coming up here, angry. It was so nice to hear you really laid on us and scold us. It was nice to hear that passionate speech come from you.

I agree with everything you said about Anik. He is a treasure that needs to be protected. I think people got to remember that even less negative people, even such as myself, I can be kind of negative. When we agree with things, we're not going to go out of our way to voice them. But when we find something we disagree with, and I feel like people in your position, Enix position, just all these people, they're going to get the shit end of the stick more often than not. And I think that's one of the first few times, like, really people came together to hate on anic. So I don't fault him for feeling, like, overwhelmed by it because that shit does suck.

But I just wanted to ask, I am excited for Gaichi versus Holloway. I don't want anybody to get me wrong. I've been getting cooked for the last freaking week in group chats, different mentions. I know it's going to be an amazing fight, guys, but I don't see the point in why the men. matchmakers did this, and I have to be honest. I feel like there's other contenders that Holloway could have stepped in and fought for his first lightweight bout back. And Gaichi's already lined up for the title shot.

What does the win against over the other do for their legacy? I don't really know. I just wanted your thoughts on that, Mike. You have a wonderful day. I'm actually really still upset about what you just said. I feel like you say stuff about Charles, actually, right before I grab a mic just to get me going, but I'm not taking the bait this time. Have a wonderful date.

I didn't say anything bad about Charles. I don't even ever talk about Charles, unless I just mentioned like the main card. Look, calling Gaichi rules. I mean, what can I say? I mean, that fight rules. I'm all in on it. I'm all in on it.

I understand why there's trepidation. I understand, you know, the people who love sports and merit and meritocracy and rankings, which, by the way, if that's your thing, and I'm not saying that's your thing, Kat. I don't want you to yell at me. You're watching the wrong product because there is no meritocracy in the UFC. There just isn't.

And there hasn't been for a long time. I love this. I love this. I actually think Max is going to be way more competitive in this fight than people are giving him credit for. I understand that he fought Dustin Poria and kind of got dusted up a little bit. He was a little undersized.

But Max has kind of grown into his frame a little bit more. Max is going to bring that volume at Justin. Yeah, he's going to take it. He's going to take a million light kicks. He's going to get punched really, really hard. But Max is a frigging demon, man. He is. That fight's going to be incredible.

And for longtime, listeners have on to the next one, this is the fight. Like, this is the dream fight. This is the one I've been thrown out there forever. Finally, we're going to get it. We're going to get it for the BMF title. Now, I understand it from a Gaichi fan perspective. You're right there. Why risk this?

Two things pop into my mind. One is the UFC offered him a show. shitload of money and probably paper viewpoints. Kind of hard to turn that down at this point in his life and in this point of his career. The second thing is, I kind of feel like maybe Islam is going to not fight as soon as he thinks. Maybe that injury is a little bit worse. I don't know. And if Max wins this fight, the dude is fighting for the lightweight title.

And are you going to complain if we book Islam Makachep versus Max Holloway? I'm certainly not going to. even as a guy who has put out into the public eye that I think Armand Sarukian is going to end the year as the lightweight champion, even I'm not going to complain about that because that fight is super interesting. Just like I thought Max Hawley versus Habib would have been super interesting before that whole thing happened in Brooklyn. So I like it.

This is just a 300-e kind of a weird fight. I think, yeah, for a card of this magnitude, you've got to have it all. You got to have title fights. You've got to have stars. You got to have a gimmick and you got to do some weirdness. And so far, with what this lineup looks like right now is currently constructed, we have that. We don't have the main event yet. I think we know what we're going to get if we can get all the parties involved to agree to it.

But there's more to come. So this is a very 300-y kind of a fight. So I'm cool with it. Couldn't ruin things, sure. but I like Max going up to 55 and just doing fun shit. He doesn't need the belt. And if he goes and fights

Mobsar of Loyap next and wins and Volcanowski beats Ilya like, do we want to live in that world where we just knock off another contender who doesn't get to fight Volcanovsky? And nobody wants to see Volk Max 4. Nobody. We saw it.

Volk won pretty handily in the first fight. second fight like I said it was one of the closest fights of all time made the intrigue for the third fight super high and then Volk just run him just absolutely ran him in that third fight almost perfect game to Max Holloway

who can say that who can say that besides Alexander Bolkanovsky so this is just interesting and fun and as my best friend likes to say uh MMA is supposed to be fun so let's just have some fun with this

and hopefully things will prevail the way they need to. You know what I'm saying? And that's what we're hoping for. There's a lot of you lined up today. I love this. Let's go to O. What's up, O?

Hey, what's up, boss? And good morning to you and the rest of these fine gentlemen and ladies in this beautiful spaces. First and foremost, I got a couple of questions to ask you. And you're extremely intelligent guy. And I appreciate you more than you know. First, the DDP, right? that Sean Strickland, DDP, you're absolutely right. It could have went either way to win blue.

I think also in the minds of the judges and whomever the higher bees, it's the Izzy versus DDP is naturally a bigger fight than the Strickland rematch. I think that Izzy, when he fought Strickland, he didn't take Strickland serious. He thought it was a filler. He just went through the motions and Strickland surprised them, right? You can't take fights lightly at any given Saturday night. You can get your head put through the canvas. But that isy DDP, the whole beef between him calling him non-African and things of that nature,

looks more surprising. It's the big money fight, right? Everybody's going to be tuned in for that one because a trash talk is going to be elite. Two, I think Kat, I agree with Kat with the Gai Chi versus Holloway. And Max Holloway is one of my favorite fighters ever. But what is the incentive other than money, right? warriors necessarily fight for, you know what I mean, the crown versus money. But Gaichi, I did, and I do want to see Gaichi versus Charlie O or Islam for that matter, especially Islam.

Islam is one of my favorite fighters. Kat and Glau can tell you we'll be in the chat and that's my guy. He's suffering an injury. But again, Charles O versus Islam or Charles O versus Gaichy and then versus Gai Chi and then versus versus Islam is more compelling than Gaichi losing to Max, which you can because Max is extremely dangerous. But again, that Charles O, he's generational, right? He's a generational guy.

What do you think about him, again, climbing the rights to fight Islam again? is that in the forefront of you guys' mind of giving Islam a natural challenge? Because I think Charles O is the only person who challenges Islam, as we've seen what he did to vault the second time. I don't care what rest you or wait you on two weeks. It doesn't matter. You fought. You signed the papers. He starched them.

You know what I mean? Islam is also a generation. Do you think that Charles O. will get the rematch. And what do you think about the main card? Who is Connor fighting in 300? I heard that rumor

as well. And who? Is it Michael? What do you think? Thanks, man. A lot to impact there. Could Oliver get back to Islam? Sure. If he beats if he beats Arm and Siruki and he's getting back there, I'll tell you that right now.

I know Katz could be so mad at me for saying this because she feels like this is my fault if this fight's happening. Charles Oliver was lined up to get his rematch. He was lined up. Then he got cut. Volk steps in. Islam Knox-Elv Volk.

I have been very public in saying that I had no interest, at least at that time, in seeing Charles Oliver getting another title shot at that moment. Because we just saw it a year ago, and we saw how bad of a matchup that was for Charles, and Islam just ran them over and won the belt

and barely broke a sweat doing it. And even in the buildup to that first fight at 280, I picked Oliver to win. Even though I even said so many times, I'm like, on paper, this is a friggin' nightmare for Charles Oliver. Like, looking at this, there is just no way Islam doesn't crush him. But I was like, but it's Charles Olivera. The guy is unpredictable.

The guy is on a run that we've just never seen before where you think he's out. You think he's outclassed. You think he's going to lose. You think stylistically it's a bad matchup. And then he finds a way to win. And I was just like, you know what? I can't bet against this man. I can't pick against this man anymore.

And then he went out and lost. Now, he bounced back and beep and nailed there, Eush. And he was just, the timing worked out great for him because Gaichi was getting, was scheduled to fight Porre for the BMF title. So there was really only one guy who could get it. And that was like Oliver's best shot to get back into the title fight. Timing worked out great. He got such a superstar reaction in Canada for knocking up in Neil Daryush.

But there was always a part of me that was like, I just want to see him win one more against one of the young bucks. That's what I wanted to see. Because I wanted one of these guys to get their shot. We saw Gamrock get his opportunity. fought B'Neal and lost. We saw Fazeeb get his opportunity. Fought Gachi,

lost a super close fight. One of the best fights of 2023. And then Armin just, we were just waiting for his shot. He just blew the doors off of B'Neill Darjeet. And now it's time for the new wave. And the timing of that works

out great too. Because now we get Oliver versus Sarukin. I cannot wait for that fight. I can't wait. cannot wait and if Charles Olivera beats Armand Sarukian I will come on this show the following Tuesday and say you know what

if anybody else is fighting for the belt besides Charles Oliver right now it's a travesty that's how highly I regard Armand Sarukian right now and if Charles goes out there and beats him and does so in impressive fashion you ain't getting any argument for me that he should be fighting for the belt

that he has earned his rematch you go and lose and then you knock out Darius and you beat Armin Sauru Kian you're getting the title shot. You deserve it. You absolutely deserve it. So I can see that happening. Will Connor fight at 300?

Probably not. However, if for some reason they cannot get DDP, Izzy done, if for some reason, like, DDP's dinged up and he can't turn around or Izzy's just like, nah, I want to take some more time or whatever, and they have, like, no other options. I can see them trying to make that happen. Him and Chandler, headlining 300.

Because unfortunately for Michael Chandler, he got no say in the matter. If Connor wants to do it and the UFC wants it, Chandler's just going to have to say yes or he doesn't get to fight Connor. So he's just kind of in this position where, okay, whatever you want, guys. So I'm not ruling it out completely, but I do think the UFC is going to do everything in their power to get us DDP easy. That's what I think. And it's going to be fun. It is going to be fun, my friends.

All right. I'm going to try to get to everybody. We do a BTL at 1230, so I probably got about 10, 12 minutes, and then we got to go. Yeah. So, Mark, a heck of a morning. Just two questions. Firstly, I just want to get your thoughts with the lightweight division. If, like, Dustin, Gaeci and Oliver end up bidding all these, like Max, you know, BSD and Amman.

And I would also add to the extension, the younger upcoming lightweights like Jalen Turner, Gamrod, what is it going to take for those guys to actually get back into the title mix? Because if you look at it, Justin Gaichi and Dustin Poria have literally been in the top five for over seven years now. And Oliver has been there consistently since 2020. And Islam has been there for about, you know, relatively two years more or less. But what would it take for those younger guys who are trying to break into the top five? and if they end up failing at that shot, how many Fajibrikan would take them to get to a title shot eventually?

And another question I have, this is about Jared Cannonier, does he have more of a likely chance to face? Drieker deplesses down the line, you know, with everything that's going on? Or is he just kind of in a limbo where he may never get a title shot again, no matter how much he does, whether he, you know, even if he wins. That's all I have, have a great day. I mean, Gamron's fighting RDA, so that's like a good name to have on the resume,

if he could beat RDA. He's still going to have more work to do. He's probably going to win three to get there, which is kind of weird to say about the guy who's the backup fighter for the title in October, but between the up-and-comers, the guy's fans have really rallied behind, like the Benoit Santinese of the world.

like Benoit Santini is getting ready to fight Dustin Porier. Like Gamrod are, like I said, Gamrod got his opportunity to fight a top five guy and fell short. Gamrod's fun, but he's not like a violent fun, and that's kind of what people want at 155. But Gamart's a very, very good fighter. Super good. Turner is sort of that guy, but he's one and two in his last three. So I think he's got a little bit of work to do. I think that went over Bobby Green

kind of got people back a little bit. I mean, they both have pretty long roads to get to a title fight. And a BSD beats Dussuporier, then that road just gets a little bit longer. So I guess you kind of hope and pray that some of these bigger stars, some of these bigger names, just lose.

They're scheduled fights, and that sort of leaves them to fighting this next crop of guys. But, yeah, I mean, the title picture could get really, really weird with all of this. Because I think with the announcement of Justin Gaghi versus Max Holloway for the BMF title and not really knowing where Islam is right now, all of those marquee lightweight fights are now way more significant. The stakes are way higher, especially for Ben-Wasantini versus Dustin Porey.

If Dustin Porey goes out there beats Ben-Wasantini, UFC 299, and Islam wants to fight in Saudi Arabia, and Dustin's the only guy ready to go. Guess who's getting the title fight? It's going to be Dustin Poreen. So, yeah, it's going to be a really interesting stretch for 155. But yes, for Gamrod and the turners of the world, it's going to be a little bit of a weight. It's going to be a little bit of a weight.

Let's go to left lane MMA. We have four people in line, so we're going to do rapid fire here. Go ahead, left lane. So I was listening to the ranking show the other day, And I got to say, I agree completely with Shaheen's take about middleweight being a top, like, in my opinion, top two, three division right now. And I know AK, the man himself is in this sort of space right now. But I got to say I disagree with the man because for him to say that middleweight is middle of the road, I know middle of middleweight, like funny joke, but you can't say it's worse than like women. women's straw weight or women's flyweight.

I feel like that's just disingenuous. If you look at the top guys in middleweight, number one, we've got an interesting title pitcher. You cannot say the same for like half the divisions in the sport. Also, up-and-comers. You guys talk about lightweight and bantamweight as such good divisions because of the up-and-comers. I guarantee you for every lightweight up-and-comer

that you guys think would actually be a viable contender, like you can name a bunch of fun fighters. There's a heap of fun fighters of 55, but in terms of guys that actually look like promising, I can name a bunch of a middleweight. Like, you got Pfey, you got Iqrum, you got Bonickle, Copp, Bluffie, Barallio, you got a bunch of other guys coming up,

like Rodriguez, Ferreira, Ruzaboep. Like, you've got so many guys in middleweight. Add on top of that, the great title picture, I severely disagree with AK saying that it is not a super good division. I know the bar, for some of the fights is low. Like, there are some really sloggy fights, but I feel like that's just going to be the thing with the heavier weight loss is you're just going to get some of those unranked fights

where you just don't, you're just not looking at it as the highest level of martial arts. But I think if you're looking at it as the guys that are looking promising and not the ones that are just, you know, fighting on apex prelims, I think middleweight's top three divisions in the sport. I'm going to hold off from top two for now, but I'm saying it's vying for top two in the near future if we get some things go right.

So that's my opinion. completely with you Shaheen had it in number four I had it at number three I think it's above featherweight because I look it's it's roster but it's also intrigue

like there's many things you have to factor into this thing and I even said someone asked me this before like before 297 because some of the comments I know Jed said this oh I think it's Risi Bias I said the same thing before Sean Strickland versus Drickus duplissy

that I think middleweight is a top three division, that it is overtaken featherweight. Been there. I've already bet on this, I already bet on this road. And the fall of 297 just just makes it even easier. I will defend AK for a moment here because while AK was like, yeah, it's kind of in the middle of the pack. AK also did say something that Shaheen and Jed both disagreed with was that he feels that middleweight is in the best position now than it has ever been in.

and that includes the Anderson Silva run. So he's high on the division, but he just has it at six. And I think Jed kind of nailed it too. Like, we had to convince Jed to get to this take, but Jed is happy lumping middleweight into the conversation with featherweight

and welterweight and like women's flyweight, and then you can kind of just rank them however you want to rank them. And I think that's kind of where AK sort of ended up sitting as well. but to me it's number three. This year in 2024, middleweight will be the most interesting division in the UFC. It will be, even more than lightweight. Middleweight will be the most intriguing division.

This will be the money division for the UFC in 2024, without a doubt. So, yeah, middleweight's number three for me and probably will be number three for a little while now, considering what's there and what's coming. Four-core sports. All right, so a couple things. One, if they do make DDP versus Izzy,

honestly, I see that it's a very favorable matchup for Izzy. It's going to, the way if DDP fights the way that he ended up fighting Strickland on this past Saturday, I think Izzy starches him. I believe it could be something of the nature of when Izzy fought Robert Whitaker, just catching him with a right hook, staggering the DDP, just because if DDP is going to be the more aggressive fighter, We've seen how that that story goes with Adasania being the great counterpuncher. So I can see, you know, Adasani being a very favorable matchup in his favor.

One of the thing I would like to, you know, ask, and I don't know if this is something that you may have asked, you know, the powers of Vox Media. Would you guys, for UFC 300, would you guys entertain the idea of having, instead of people through Zoom as guests, right, actually have them, in studio with you and gc i think that would be really good for something of a historic card at u s c 300 instead of having like jed meshu on zoom or a k lee in zoom have them um in the city with you guys and actually do like an actual you know you know like a like i guess like a live watch party with them in studio and um i agree with you i think i agree with the idea that you you mentioned earlier in the space about Jean-Weyli versus Yangt-Jonan as the featured prelim.

China is about 12 to 13 hours ahead of the Easter standard time. That would actually correlate perfectly, and plus, you're going to have so many more eyeballs on the product, especially if that's a title fight, and it can break massive numbers. I know Dana White loves numbers,

and I think at one point they ended up saying, I think in the last, John Way Lee fight, she ended up bringing like one billion impressions. I think that's what one reporter told Dana. So I feel like that's something that Dana might entertain. All right. Thanks, Mike. Yeah, I don't hate the idea at all.

I don't hate the idea at all. At 200, even after they lost John Jones versus D.C., the second fight of the main card, I believe, was a title fight. There's the Frankie Edgar Josiealdo interim title fight. So there you go. The watch party idea, look, I would love to do that. It's just almost impossible to do that.

If you haven't actually covered and, like, grind it out, like, a UFC pay-per-view fight night working for, like, a site, it ain't easy. You need bodies. And there's lots of roles that need to be covered. So you're already pulling me away from it for the entire night, essentially, outside of, like, the content. part of it. And then to pull like an AK or a Jed out for an entire night would be almost impossible. We'd love to live in that world.

But like we did for 297, like we didn't have any guests. We didn't zoom in anybody. We just did the heck and GC show the entire time. And that was fun. I enjoyed it. We'll probably continue to do some zooms and stuff like that. But for 300, I don't know what we're going to do. We have some irons in the fire for some cool shit.

There's one thing we absolutely want to do. Don't know if that will happen, but if that doesn't happen, there's one thing we are like 1,000% definitely going to do, but we'll keep you posted. I can't really reveal anything right now. But next few months of watchfires are going to be very, very fun. Very, very fun. I'll try to get Nicholas in.

Usually it's, we have a very hard time doing it. But we shall try. It doesn't look at green and get them. We'll try Mr. Mystery here. Do we have you, Mr. Mystery? Mr. Mystery, hello. You're muted. Hello, you hear me now.

Yes. OK, so I know there's going to be an incredible watch party for UC 300. I was wondering what about BTL. I love between the links and this may be a bit crazy but can you do it in front of a live audience like having maybe teams instead of one contestant against the other and it can be like MMA fighting versus the washed old ads from morning combat probably I mean maybe it will be more logical for international fight week because there's a lot of fans already

there so it will be easier to like get the place filled but what do you think about that just speak in my language as long as i get the bob barker skinny mic sign me up i'm in i love that idea um i would love to do like all the shows lives at one point um i would love love to do that. That's a great idea. Or even if we just brought back like the original iteration of BTL that I don't think we've even done it on an MA fighting. We did like sort of a version of it. But before I came to MA fighting, BTL was a show. Like we did a show. Every week we did it. I think we did it on like Monday nights. It was like a recorded show that it went live. AK was actually a guest on that old iteration in the show as well. We did four people.

It was always four people. It was very, it was around the hornish where you know we'd go through two rounds after the third round we'd eliminate one person after the fourth round we'd eliminate another person and then it would be a knockup we would still do the knockout round but it would just be with the two remaining people so yeah that'd be that'd be incredible would love to do that uh octagon blog real quick and then it gets to go go ahead sir how are you doing um

I have a question about Ryan Bader. He keeps saying that he wants to fight Francis Engano. Will Francis Engano ever come back to MMA, or is this just a publicity stunt for PFL, and he will only stay at boxing after the Joshua fight. He can go anywhere, especially if he wins against Joshua. I like to hear your take. Thank you and good luck.

I mean, if he wins, no. I don't know. Does anybody really have any interest in watching Francine Gano versus Ryan Bader? Like for real, for real. Because I don't. I don't. I don't, like,

I get, like, I respect what PFL's trying to do. I don't think it's going to work, guys. Like, Henan-Ferere versus Ryan Bader. That's a main event for a pay-per-view. Impicus Saginaid, Johnny Ebblin, cool fight. Penato versus Petricio Pitbull Yeah, I like it

Jason Jackson versus Magamad Magamad Karamoff I really liked that fight That to me was like Of all the champ versus champ fights That was the one I was like All right, this is going to be pretty cool It's going to be super competitive

And I'm a lot intrigued about what could happen And now it's not happening So just a big blow And then you get Capulosa versus Nemcoff at heavyweight I'll tell you what, Vadim Nemcoff could be a very interesting one for Francis. I like that idea. We'll see how he translate to heavyweight.

Tiago Santos-O. Romero, I know there's so many people are excited for that fight, but this has the potential to be one of the worst fights of all time. It could be really good. But Tiago Santos used to be really, really fun, and now he's not that fun anymore. And Y'all-Romeros is fun for five minutes, and that's the last. five minutes of a fight or the third round. There could just be a bunch of standing around in that fight. Clay Card, AJ McKee is going to be a banger.

I still don't know if Gabriel Braga, Aaron Pico is going to happen. But if it does, cool fight, but I kind of think Aaron Pico is going to just run them. Clarissa Shields is fighting. They're going to give her a win. And then you're just going to have, you know, Biaggio Ali Walsh, making his pro debut and then a bunch of local fighters. I think it's going to be a tough night for PFL. I really do.

I don't think this is going to generate a whole bunch on pay-per-view. I think it's going to do pretty bad. And I think by the time we get to that event and we get to February 24th, I don't think anybody's even going to be talking about it. I think everyone's going to be like, all right, I'm going to go hang out with my friends and family. Maybe I'll go play some golf.

And then I'm going to come home at 7 p.m. and watch UFC Mexico City because that's going to be the talk of the weekend. So very interested to see how this all plays out, very interested to see when we will never know how it does on pay-view but I think we can have an idea of how it's going to do on pay-per-view and I don't think it's going to do well at all. We're still waiting for a price point for that card.

But, man, Ryan Bader versus Franson Gano just doesn't do it for me. Could the BFL do it just because it's two recognizable names, two former UFC fighters, sure. But yeah, don't love it. All right, what I do love is all of you. So thank you all very much. Thank you for jumping in. Thank you for listening to my rant. Shout out to John Anick.

The freaking man. We'll be back. BTL, 12.30 p.m. Eastern. Jed will be there. And our road warrior, Jose Young, is back on BTL this week. fresh off of his trip to Toronto and he will join us to give his takes as well so we'll see you at 1230.

Appreciate you all. We will be back tomorrow. Same time in place right here on the Twitter spaces free for all Friday. We'll take the gloves off all together. We'll have some fun. We'll talk about anything and everything. So until then, everybody,

have a great rest of your Thursday and have a heck of a morning. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first? There, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes.