MMA Fighting - HOAM | Will Nate Diaz Ever Fight In the UFC Again After UFC 279?

Episode Date: September 6, 2022

Nate Diaz will finish out his current UFC contract this Saturday against Khamzat Chimaev in the main event of UFC 279, but win or lose, will that be the final time Diaz steps inside the octagon? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck answers that question and what could be next for both guys following this weekend's PPV event. Additionally, listener topics include Diaz's new fight promotion, whether Chimaev should go up to 185 after UFC 279, Ciryl Gane's win over Tai Tuivasa and what could be next for him following UFC Paris this past weekend, Gane's back-of-the-head punch during the finishing sequence and the reactions to it, Robert Whittaker's sensational showing against Marvin Vettori in the co-main event, and more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Shop before they're gone. In-store online at Sephora.ca. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. 2020, and it is indeed a heck of a morning live on the MMA fighting Twitter spaces, and you will hear the show shortly thereafter on the MMA fighting podcasting network. Hi, I am Mike Heck. Thank you for joining us. You're coming off of UFC Paris this past Saturday, where a lot of things went down.

Cyril Gan defeats Tai Tui Vasa, gets a finish. in the third round. It's a fight that, let's be, like, at least in my eyes, it's not going to be, it's not going to be in the, it'll be like in the top 10 to 12 range for fight of the year,

but I don't think it's one that's going to be on my short list for top five. It's a great fight, but we have to think about all the ridiculous fights we've had this year already. It's certainly, round two is certainly in the discussion for round of the year.

That was an emotional roller coaster. I screamed at the top of my lungs multiple times. Between Tai Tuivasa landing that big right hand, I thought Cyril Gan was done. But the guy has a chin on him. The man has a chin on him. That is for sure. He overcomes.

He hurts Ty. Ty kept going. He showed his tremendous chin, his tremendous heart. And then gone mercifully put it away in the third. And what a moment in front of the Paris crowd. Their hometown guy closes the show, sends the people home happy. It was a great day for all the local fighters, the Paris natives, the France fighters, went 5 and 0.

It was a good night overall for all the France fighters. And it was just a fun event. The crowd was on fire. There was a lot to like there. there were some interesting things that happened along the way. Robert Whitaker looked absolutely spectacular. Against Marvin Vittori, I've,

Adasanya spent 40 minutes in the Octagon with Marvin Vittori, and I honestly, I've never seen Marvin Vittori kind of looked the way he looked in a fight after the fight. Hell, even after the title fight where it seemed like Adasanya won pretty much the entire fight, Marvatorre's still going out saying that he won. And there was none of that this time around. Rob Wardyker looks just unbelievable. And he gets it done.

It'll be interesting to see where he goes from there, what the middleweight division is going to look like in the next couple of months. But I'm excited to find out. I'm excited to see. another good win for Naser Dean Imov against Joachim Buckley Roman Copilov gets his first UFC win

finishes Alessio to Curico who apparently and I'm trying to get full confirmation on this he released a social media post essentially saying that he's moving on he didn't use the word retired I know some people are saying that he retired so I don't know that for sure

but we will hopefully I will have some more information on that maybe during this program. Good win for William Gomes gets a majority decision. We had a 10-10 round in that fight against Jarno Arons. Nathaniel Wood looked spectacular against Charles Jordane. Abis Magamadoff looked like an absolute murderer at 185 pounds. It was just a fun card.

It was just a fun card. And, of course, we are kicking off UFC 279 fight week. It's going down this Saturday in Las Vegas, T-Mobile Arena. The final fight on the UFC contract of won Nate Diaz. And he will take on the surging Hamzat Shemayev, who apparently has been very busy in Las Vegas. Apparently him and Paul Costa got into some sort of skirmish. You can check out that video at M.AFighting.com.

Some people feel like it's legit. Some people feel like we are being worked, so to speak. But you can judge for yourself. Go to M.A.fighting.com. and you can watch the video of the altercation and decide for yourself. But a lot to talk about, a lot going on. So let's do this thing. We'll start with average avenues 11.

He was first in line. So that's where we'll begin. What's up, buddy? I'm good. Well, that card on the weekend, that was Knox, as you said, probably one of the best cards of the year. my question is in the world of

possibility where Nate actually wins what are the chances that the UFC sits down and actually agrees to re-sign him all right have a heck of a morning mate cheers thank you sir I mean I think the UFC is going to try to re-sign him anyways because why wouldn't you it's just I don't think it's a UFC decision

I think this is a Nate Diaz decision Nate just wants out Nate felt like he got messed around quite a bit throughout this process, hasn't fought since the Leon Edwards fight, and he's been wanting to fight ever since. He had the one fight left in his deal, and there's a part of me that sort of understands it from UFC perspective because they want to keep Nate around. And they did him dirty. They absolutely did him dirty.

I know they wanted him to sort of extend his deal or resign. Then they would have put the Dust of Porre fight together. That didn't happen. So Nate just was like, no, I'm not coming. back. Like, let me do my thing. Let me spread my wings and fly in the UFC, which they typically do. They put him on ice, even though he was asking for fights. And they offered him, at least to my knowledge, they offered him Shemayev on that October card in Abu Dhabi last year. But they knew full well. And I think all of us listening to this right now live or even on the podcast network knew full well,

Nate wasn't going to say yes to that. Because why would he go to Abu Dhabi and fight Ham's that Shemaiah. That makes absolutely no sense. Nate's not going to do that. I think everybody in the world knew that. So that was like their official quote unquote, this is our offer for Nate Diaz to fight, knowing full well, he wasn't going to say yes. And then ever since then, Nate's been saying, fight, let me fight, let me fight, let me fight this guy, let me fight this guy, I'll fight Shama if I'll fight Francis Gano, I'll fight whoever. And it just didn't happen. Finally, the UFC feels like they're putting Nate out to pasture. They're taking him behind the shed, so to speak, and Nate didn't care if it was Shamiyaf or anybody else.

At that point, probably from April on, this is the one that he wanted. He wanted Shamiya's. And I think he knew full well where this is going. And that's it. So I think Nate winning would just be hilarious. It would just be hilarious. And it would be the perfect ending to this saga and this. story and everything about it, it would just be spectacular.

And I'm here for it. I'm so here for it. But we'll see what happens. We'll see what happens. It's going to be a very interesting build to this fight. Of course, it's Tuesday. It feels like a Monday here in the United States. But meeting day tomorrow.

We got a press conference on Thursday with the six big names on the card. Way-in's Friday, ceremonial's Friday. and then it's all up to the competitors on Saturday. So this should be a very fun week. As we welcome in a special guest, my best friend, you know it's important if he is jumping on in here. So, okay, hello. Good morning, everyone.

It is a beautiful day today. I'm just up early. You know, because why not? Why not? We have only so many summer days left, Michael. My best friend, I'm just excited to be here. I want, may I ask a question? Yes.

I want to, people always ask questions on this show. I'd like to ask one. Mike, you know, us in the so-called M-A media have been pretty critical of this card. I think you and I have been a bit gentler, I've been a bit kinder to it. We kind of started talking ourselves into it as we kind of have looked into it

and done some more analysis and looked at some of the names. So I will ask, but I'll ask you this. Not what will be the best fight outside of sort of the top three. You know, we'll talk about the low-key banger and all that. what fight outside of Shmaya Diaz, Lee Ferguson, and Holland, D-Rod could potentially produce, like, the best story or, like, you know, so the attention-grabbing headline.

I mean, like, whether it means, like, potential for chaos or some sort of shake-up in the rankings, what do you think? Because we know the top three, those are those the fights we're going to be talking about before, probably talking about a lot after. But outside of that, what do you think, like, could surprise us and, like, have us,

we're talking about, I don't know, Dennis Tallulin on Monday morning. I don't know, for example. What do you think, Mike? Thank you, my best friend. Great question. It depends. This is one of those ones where it just sort of depends on what you're looking for

and what you are hoping for from a headline perspective. Because if we're looking at a potential star, someone who shines brightly that comes through it a big way, that we're like, oh, damn, can't wait to see this guy fight again. And it has to be Jelton Almeida, although Anton Turc College is a, is a good fighter. I just think Jelton Almeida is on a whole different atmosphere right now. The guy is super legit. Him fighting Shemiel Durahimov obviously would have meant more in the rankings, because I think Jelta would have just trucked him and he would have been a ranked fighter come Tuesday.

But I think that one, but I just, I'm going to go to Chris Barnett. You get Chris Barnett in Chris Barnett in front of people. He gets to dance. He gets to have some fun. He'll do some crazy stuff in the cage, maybe a backflip or two. And him and Jake Collier are just going to get in there

and do the damn thing. And it'll be a fun fight. Those two are going to get after it. And if Barnett wins, considering everything that this man has gone through over the last year, that would be a great story. That would be the feel-good story of this card.

So I'll go with that. In terms of just great fights, like what fight could steal the show in terms of the fight of the night conversation or anything like that? I think Hakeem Dawadu and Julian Arosa are just going to beat the brakes off of each other. That's going to be a lot of fun. Chad and Aliger Aletang A. Lee will be fun. I mean, there's fun fights in the car. Like Super Malie's making her UFC debut, which I'm very intrigued by against Elise Reid who's looked pretty damn good as of late. There are things to like here.

this is just the top three fights are really good although the Ferguson Li Jing Liang is a little strange but it's still it's Tony Freakin Ferguson so that's a big deal Iwan Kutalaba Johnny Walker it's a 50 it could go either way it could be just a horribly boring fight or it could just be an absolute firestorm

but the one on this card that really has to be scratching my head is the Norma Dumont Danielle Woolfite. But who knows? Maybe since the contender series, when Danielle got signed, she's been working tediously and who knows? Maybe she'll go in there and knock Norbert Dumont out

and fight Amanda for the featherweight title in her third pro fight. But there are things to like here. There's positives to be found, but there's a lot of head scratchers as well. Let me just, I'm curious

what the ticket map looks like because the last time I checked it was there was a lot of color there was a lot of color and that's not really a good thing for the UFC especially when they're trying to play this streak of sellouts that they're trying to pull but I saw a lot of blue the other day when I was looking at the map and I'm pulling it up right now and there still is a lot of blue There's a lot of blue up there. So as of right now, we ain't looking at a sellout by any stretch. But who knows? Like I said, the build to this fight, this week in particular, these next 72 hours is going to be gigantic for this card.

And it's all going to be due to Nate. It's all going to be due to Shemaiah. Any kind of shenanigans. You know, Tony Ferguson's going to say some things because he ain't afraid to say anything. And then Kevin Holland's fun. And D-Rod is just going to be D-Rod and be as real as can be. And who knows? We'll see what happens.

I don't know. I don't know how this sells out. We're two months after International Fight Week. You were just at Team Mobile two months ago. And that was a very big deal. And now, right now, like the cheapest seed is $120. And if you want to sit down by the celebs, you're spending as much as I would spend on a used car right now.

13,500 bucks to sit with the peeps. You can buy a 2018 Subaru Forrester for that right now. And actually, probably not true. It's probably way more for a forester at this point because everyone wants to use car, but you know where I'm getting that. I just don't know if this thing sells out. They might portray it that way. I just, I don't believe it.

I don't. But maybe the next 72 hours will change things. Who knows? All right. We'll go to Don. Don, hello. Mike. Hope all's good. I hope you're sipping on some Dunkin' Donuts, ice coffee and all that. I am right now, right? What's in this? This is this. Duncan, delicious.

We need it a sack. But now on to this question. So, so I was watching the Imovov fight, and I was like, okay, Emuvalv, you're looking sweet, man. I like it. I got a little carried away towards the end there. I think he was letting, like, the hype of him fighting in his hometown get to him, And that can cause you to slip up. I was hoping Joaquin hit him with some craziness and, you know, probably giving him a little piece of humble pie. I wanted to know what for you is like the worst hometown guy getting starched in his hometown.

For me, it will always forever be there until because of how his hype was at the time and what it, like, would have meant for his career if he had kept pushing forward and beat Masford off. But I also wanted to know, too, is, what's your opinion on The Real Fight, Inc.? I heard people thinking that saying that Nate's not going to be able to make money off of that.

It's not going to sell. I'm like, it's Nate Diaz. Even without the UFC backing, he's still going to be able to make money. But, yeah, we'll love to know your opinion, man. Let me know and keep doing what you're doing. Too sweet and all that stuff, man. I haven't had it over the morning. Thank you, sir.

Yes. The, yeah, I thought EMAV looked good. And I know that the 3027 got a lot of people sort of puzzled. So I actually, because of, I just was going with the flow of the broadcast on Saturday. There was a, there was a lot of time between fights. There's a lot of going back to the booth and a lot of, not stalling, but a lot of time filling. So I knew that I would have time to go back and watch that third round before the next fight was going to start.

Turns out I was right and still had time to spare. So I went back and watched that third round Because watching it and scoring it live To me I was like, okay, this could go either way This could have been a Buckley round But it also could have been an Imovov rounds Because Evenov was cracking them

That short little uppercut Anytime Buckley was stepping forward Was a thing of beauty. It was like when Cater was landing that step-in elbow on Gigacizakaze, it was like automatic. Anytime Buckley stepped in Emavov landed that short uppercut and it caught him every single time.

And Buckley was coming in throwing some shots. There's no doubt about it. He was landing some. But Imovov was blocking or catching a lot of those shots in his arms because he had his guard up. So to me, if you scored that a 10-9 for Imov, it's not crazy. There are way of worse scorecards on that,

fight card than that one. But that's neither here nor there. That's a good one. the one you mentioned Don, in terms of the Darren Tillman was tough. To me, it's got to be, I don't know, I probably have to go back and do some research, but top of my head,

probably Derek Lewis against Cyril God. Just everything surrounding that. The interim title fight was one of the stupidest interim title fights of the history of the UFC. And normally, like, I'm okay with doing interim title flights if we understand the meaning behind them. This one was just really, really, really dumb when Francis was kind of ready to go.

And they just, oh, no, we need a main event for this card. So let's just do a dumb interim title fight. And that's what they did. And Derek Lewis just got the doors blown off of him in front of his home crowd. He felt a ton of pressure all week. And Cyril beat the hell out of him. And that was tough, that was tough to watch. That was tough to watch.

Because I think we all feel a certain positive way about Derek Lewis and just to see him get absolutely rolled like that in front of his home people. It was tough to watch. So that's the one up the top of my head. The Nate Diaz fight promotion, we'll see. To me, this is not a surprise at all. And to me, this is him having a promotional backing. He's going to have a fight promotion,

but he can also use this as a promotional tool for potentially a co-promotional bout with maybe Jake Paul. maybe Conner McGregor. Because when Conner's UFC contract runs out, guess who's getting a phone call from one Nate Diaz, probably Connor McGregor, because we've been talking about this for a while. Why do the third fight under the UFC banner when we can do the third fight under our own banner

and make all the money? So I think this is very smart. I think the timing is perfect. You could use this to put fighters on a plan. to get them over in other ways, get them some extra shine, because you know people are going to be paying attention to it. So, yeah, I like everything about it. I have questions, obviously, which most of us do, but let's wait until this fight is over and see what he does with it. But this is very smart on his part to just get out in front of this whole thing and have a place

where he can use this as not just a fight promotion, but a promotional entity where they can put on fights or put on fights with other promoters where they can make all the money. And that's a good thing. And that's what we want. We want these people to make all the money. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get a nice rank on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice? Yes, we deliver those. Goaltenders, no, but chicken tenders, yes. Because those are groceries, and we deliver those too, along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly.

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our buyers have got you covered Marshalls we get the deals you gift for good stuff let's go to Abzwalia by the way we're going till the top of the hour and then I have to go at 11 Eastern so my first question I want to ask you

I don't you probably saw that Costa Hamza interaction if Hams up Winston, Nate D.S. I do think that would be a perfect fight to make. And my second question is regarding with Cyril Garn, you know, as I said, he has multiple options. There's a rumor that he could fight Curtis Blade in December or he could fight, you know, John Jones or Stipe. I'm really curious to know what your thoughts are on those potential match-up. Because, you know, I don't think he will be fighting Francis and Garland until at least gets one more win in the top three.

top five range because, you know, he's already had a title shot and it wouldn't make sense for him to fight someone that fast again after losing. Thanks, man. Yeah, I saw, listen, we talked about this earlier about the Costa Shamaa thing. It's 50-50 split. Some people are like, oh, this is so cool. And the other 50% is like, oh, this is so staging and pro wrestling like. And there's only like a handful of people who know the actual answer to that, but it definitely

created some extra buzz for fight week. I don't know if this is the fight to make. I mean, maybe. Apollo's, like, tough to deal with and they just want to use Shamiya as the, hey, let's just send these guys who are tough to negotiate with on the last fights of their deal

out in the toughest way possible. They could just use Shamiah as the cleanup guy, essentially. We have a mess here. Hamzat, go clean it up. I also think that, and if you listen to onto the next one,

I made a very compelling case for Hamzaa Shemaiah. Should he defeat Nate Diaz, which he is heavily favored to do on Saturdays. Now, the best option for him would just be to fight for the Walterway title,

but now we have some things happening up the top because Leon Edwards won the title. The UFC's definitely going to the trilogy fight sometime, maybe in March, maybe April, so that's, what? It's like six, seven months from now that that fight happens.

So now we have, we'll have Shamiyaf on ice maybe for a year if he decides to wait. The other option he could do is he could go up to 185 and fight Israel Adasania. But again, with Israel being the champion, if he beats Alex Pereira, how excited is he going to be for that matchup? I don't know. I don't know. So my other option was if we want to get Shemayev going, if Adasani kind of wants to play the Volkovsky role.

where it's like somebody impressed me, somebody take that spot. How about Hamzaa Shamaa versus Robert Whitaker? How about that fight? I love that idea for two reasons. One, if Robert Whitaker beats Hamzat Shamaia, he's fighting Adasana or whoever the champion is in his next fight. He doesn't have to do anything more.

That's the biggest win he can get outside of fighting for the belt right now. And two, if Shemaiah beats Robert Whitaker, this is so fun. because he's the number one contender in two divisions. He's Mr. Money in the Bank. He can have a press conference to announce like he's a touted high school athlete deciding what college he wants to go to. He could sit there with a 170-pound hat and 185-pound hat.

He could sit there and make the decision, which title am I going for? He's the number one contender in two different divisions. How many people have been able to say that? That would just be a cool story. that's what I would do I love that idea but I'm not the man with the magic pencil

I'm just not but I love that idea who knows if it'll happen that's the idea that I like let's go to Terrence hello hey Mike how you doing today good so I'll make it quick since you gotta leave

I love it so in regards to I know you guys talked about it like at nauseam but with the whole like gun hitting tie at the back of the head situation. Not saying that he did it on purpose, which I know you guys all agree that he didn't do it on purpose,

and if you can cheat, then do it. But if the ref saw it or if the outside rest and they're using instant replay, shouldn't he have been allowed an additional five minutes or have been reviewed as if possible no contest? Because I'm pretty sure, well, you guys have wrote the story on your site with JDS complaining about the whole situation.

People laughed at him. But since everybody loves Thai, everybody's like, oh, like this needs to be rectified or what have you. So wanting that should have been implemented. And then the last thing is like a hypothetical question that I had. So hypothetically speaking, Rob can make 170 again. He's the number one container at 185. If he's like, all right, I'm going to go and take that 170 bill from Leon. And he tried to take it from Leon.

who do you favor in that matchup and why that's it thank you i mean that last question is super hypothetical because there's no chance he goes to 170 i don't think physically he can even think about doing it without hurting himself because i mean he was a 170er and it was a long time ago and then he's worked all this time to get his stature physically ready for 185 so i just don't think that would happen i would wittaker i would favor whittaker to win that fight for sure but you also have to take into account the incredibly difficult task of making welterweight, which I just, he's just not going to do.

The other thing is, there's a difference, there's a big difference. Should, should this have been looked at again, of course. But would it have been, like,

that would have been, that would have been the most stunning revelation of 2022. If the referee in charge was like, oh, stop, stop it. Stop the fight. Let's go to instant replay. to see if this one shot hit him in the back of the head.

They're not going to do it. They're not going to do it. And this is why, ladies and gentlemen, that Jed Mishu and I have been on this high horse of ours for the last year plus. And I talked to Eric Nixik about this as well. If they're not going to call anything, cheat. Just cheat.

Just keep cheating. And it's not like purposely cheating all the time, There are certain cases where fighters are purposely cheating and it's not getting called. Just cheat. Just cheat. Hit him in the back of the head, kick them in the balls, poke them in the eye, grab all the fences. Because they're not going to call it. And if they do, it's not going to be to like the fifth time.

So there's all this talk. And we talked about it at Nausem on this show. And I don't even want to mention the two words back to back. but people just continuously throw out the words open scoring. This is the change that MMA needs, that the sport will evolve, and that we can ride off into the glorious land of martial arts loving because of open scoring.

It's not true. It's not true. The correct answer is we need to have these referees, these judges on the same page. We need to have rules put in place. place when it comes to penalizing these fighters for cheating. And I'm not saying that everything you do should be an automatic point deduction. Like a fence grab should not be a point.

It shouldn't be. But a fence grab should have repercussions. A punch to the back of the head should have repercussions. A kick to the nuts should have repercussions. Because in any other sport, whether it's accidental or on purpose, a foul is a foul. A penalty is a penalty. There is no pass interference at the Super Bowl that the reps are going to, to look at and be like, you know what? He definitely got in this guy's way. It's definitely

illegal by the rules, but he didn't do it on purpose. So we're not going to call that spot foul. We're not going to call that half the distance to the goal. We're not going to call that 10-yard holding penalty because he didn't mean to hold him. It's a sports. You want to be shaken as seriously as the NFL and Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League and the NBA. But yet these things happen and you wonder why you're not getting that same amount of credit. Now, when it comes to ratings and business and money and all of that, the UFC's certainly doing damn well. And they're in that conversation with some of the major sports. There's no doubt about it.

But how are we supposed to take this as seriously as the other sports when penalties are called in these other sports, but they're not called in MMA unless it's blatantly obvious? And if you do do these things, if you do get caught and there is a stop of the action, there's no repercussions. all you're doing is you're giving the other fighter five minutes to recover from something, and then we just continue like nothing happened. Come on now. We've got to get better with this. And until that happens, I'm going to continuously say, whether you like it or not, that you should just cheat your ass off and that coaches in the sport should be finding ways during training to cheat.

And get that extra edge. You want to know why? Because no one's going to stop you from doing it. no one's going to stop you from it. And it sucks to have to say this. And you know what's been crazy? It's most of the people who have been like, oh, listen to you guys talking about cheating in martial arts.

A good chunk of you are on our side now. Because that's how you're going to change things. Start calling shit. Start calling shit. And then people won't do it anymore. But now there's no way to stop them. Because why would they? Why would Oussman not grab the fence?

Why would Oosman not grab the fence? Why would Leon not grab the fence? they're not going to call it. We're in a win-show money type of place right now where it's not just guaranteed money. You get this amount to show and you don't get this amount unless you win the fight.

So grabbing a fence or kicking somebody in the nuts is going to give you that advantage. Take it because no one's going to stop you from doing it. All right. High horseover. We got to keep going here. Daniel, hello. Hey, Mike. Good morning.

I just got to run away from my desk. I'm not sure I 100% agree on that. You know, you have to have some kind of sportsmanship, although definitely. What do you? What do you mean? What do you mean? I agree with you that it's crazy and, you know, also ambiguous.

And they're not consistent with the rules. But actually, what I really wanted to discuss was this. Saturday Chimae versus Nate. I looked at the odds and I see that they've now narrowed

to a small minus 1050 and plus 700. I just wanted to know what you think of how this would compare to GSP versus Sarah. I think one thing is, you know, GSP, he had so many fights.

We knew who he was. He was already a legend. And that just amplified it. In a way, this fight almost seems unsurious because it's like, what the hell are they doing in here together? It just doesn't make sense. But it also really makes me appreciate MMA and how crazy these lines are that in boxing are just standard and average. And so I really appreciate MMA for that. But, yeah, I'd really love to hear how you think this would compare. to GSP versus Sarah.

Thank you so much for taking my question. Thanks, man. I mean, it's a little difference. The Sarah one's just so weird. And when people talk about biggest upsets in MMA history, like that's always going to be the one for me because of how it happened. Matt Sarah was basically done with fighting.

And then he went on a reality show and he won the reality show, which technically if you go back and watch that finale fight that Matt Serra was in, probably lost that fight, but got the judge's decision and went in and fought GSP and knocked the damn man's ass out. And that was a guy who literally had nothing to lose. Like no one thought he was going to win. He was playing with house money for sure.

And then he went in and had one of the greatest moments in the history of the sport. So good on that, Sarah. Matt Sarah at the time, Matt Serra through a lot of his career was not the biggest. welterweight. He basically was a lightweight. So, I mean, there's probably some similarities there, but as Matt Serra kind of got a little bit older and had this opportunity, he kind of morphed into just a smaller welterweight. This situation is way different because this is like, this would be like Matt Serra fighting,

I'm trying to think of like a two-o-fiver that would kind of make sense here, because that's what Shemayev is to be. Like, to me, this is like a lightweight. fighting a 195 pounder or a light heavyweight. Hamza Shemayev is a giant. I have stood next to this man. He is huge. And if you told me, if I was just walking next to this man,

and I was talking like Jose Young's walking to my left, and I was like, who's this guy? And Jose was like, oh, that's Hamzaa Shemayef. He's a light heavyweight in the UFC. I believe you. That's how big he is.

This is basically like a 205er fighting a 55er. And what Shamiath does, extremely well. Nate does not do extremely well. Shalayaev is the more powerful fighter. He's definitely the better athlete. He's definitely more explosive. He does things very well.

Nate is a sneaky grappler and he's tough as shit and he's a, like the dude is just, the dude can just scrap. But there's only so much that that scrappiness will do for you depending on the opponent and Hamzat is just a monster in all things. Now what makes this fight

interesting to me is not the match of itself, it's what happens if this fight goes deep? What happens if we go to round four and five? If Diaz could somehow will his way into the championship rounds, what will Shamiya's look like? Because Shamiya's not a guy that's going to sit back and conserve his energy. He's going to look to take Nate to school from start to finish. He's going to look to destroy this man. And if for some reason he gets into, which I think there could be multiple times in this fight where he can do this and get Nate in some serious trouble. If Nate can survive it, what Shamiya's gas tank

it'll look like coming in around four and round five? Because Nate is durable as hell. And this guy, that stuff, he doesn't get tired. So, yeah, it's just a weird setup. I don't know. I think we're all in agreement that the line's probably where it should be. You could probably say it could be a little bit more extended and it's not all that shocking, but again, what's bringing money in on Nate, are those questions?

Are those questions about what happens in rounds four and five? What happens when things get extended? What happens if Shamiya's gets tired and blows his gas tank trying to finish Nate and he can't? That's the big question here. Because Shamiah should win this fight, but the fact that it's five rounds piques the interest a little bit more. All right.

We're going to do some rapid fire here. I want to get to everybody. Four-quarters sports. What's going on, Mike? So I do agree with you. I do believe that Hamza is not going to wait around. The way I kind of see this fight going, from the sound of the horn up until like minute 12,

I feel like Hamza is going to be in control with the fight. If it gets past a 12-minute mark, which will be like the third round, then I do believe this is Nathias's ballpark, and anything goes just because I don't think Hamza is going to have the cardio to keep up with, I'm sorry, I don't think Hamza Shamaa is going to be able to keep up with the cardio with Nathias. Now, I don't know if you agree with me on that or not. I also wanted to ask you about a fighter who's on this card called Melissa Martinez. Yeah, I don't know so much about her, but

Like, what's this girl stealing? I have a friend of mine who follows, like, anything like Latin America, MMA. And, like, I understand that she's on the early prelims. Like, is she somebody that could be a player at 115? And if you had your way of changing the bout placement of the card for this Saturday, how would you place it? And I don't know if you agree with the belt placement that's currently instructed right now. All right, thanks, Mike.

Have a good one. Thanks, man. Yeah, I think a lot of people would agree with you. Even Eric Nixick, who is very familiar with Hamzaa Chamaa, kind of agrees with the same thing. Like, if he was going to tell Chamaif, give him any advice, it's just go out there, do what you do. Don't let the fans impact your game plan.

Because I think that was kind of the problem in the Gilbert Burns fight, is that that fight just got so chaotic and crazy, and the fans are going nuts, that he probably just, he was enjoying himself and kind of feeling himself a little bit. and that ended up kind of being to his detriment. So all in all, that could have been a tremendous learning experience for Shemayah, and maybe he doesn't make that mistake again.

But if he does, then Nate's got a chance here. But if Shemayev just takes him down and smushes him, it just uses that incredibly strong top control. It just tries to submit Nate. Like, this is a very good chance you can do that. But if he wants to sit there and have a striking match with Nate Diaz and have a kickboxing match and just try to knock this dude out on the feet.

It's just a bad game plan. Like, he's going to have success for sure, but that's not the way you do it. You take the man down. You don't let Nate get into any sort of advantageous spots on the ground, especially Nate can be tricky off of his back, but Hamzach is such a tank, man.

He's so good down there. Don't play a Nate's guard. Just stick to, like, half or go to side control and just win those grappling exchanges and just get in that dominant position. You do that and you focus on that, then it's your world. But if you're like, oh, I got to make the fans happy and just have a slug fest with date, it's probably not the way to go. Probably not the way to go.

Super Malie is good, man. Like, this is a good debut fight for her. Elise Reid has looked good. She's made some changes. Fortis MMA. She's done really well. A couple wins. Supermellie's good.

She finishes fights. And she is a striking machine. She can absolutely crack. Her last fight wasn't the prettiest. And it's been a while since she has fought because she fought Desiree Yanez. That was actually a win that probably ages pretty well. Because at the time, Desiree Yanez was real good. Now, she's gone on and lost a couple of fights at Bellator since because Belator obviously saw the value in her.

But Desirees had some tough fights since then. Some tough matchups. So I like Supermally. She can absolutely strike. Elise Reed is a gamer, though, man. Like, I think this is a really good fight for her. Card placement, it's perfect. Because as you said, and you watch MMA all the time,

you didn't really know a lot about her. But this is the type of scenario where it's a big fight card. Homsat Nate in the main event. People are going to be watching start to finish. Just throw her on there. Let her see what she can do. If she goes out there and has a highlight reel, then everyone's going to see it.

and everybody will want more. But Super Malay is like a really good prospect. A lot of people, like the hardcores know who she is. But the UFC audience, there are certain people who just watch the UFC. The casual M.A fan has no idea what this girl is. But you put her on there. You match her up with someone who's going to scrap with her. He's not going to take a back step.

Elise is one of those fighters. She could be a really good showcase for her. Or it could be just a tough knife for her. I don't know. I think card place is perfect. I think card placement overall here is, perfect. Because I mean, what else are you going to do? We're just mixing and matching these these prelim fights at this point. With Amex Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining

means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. Unwrap holiday magic at Holt Renfrew with gifts that say I know you. From festive and cozy fashion to Lux Beauty and Fragrine sets, our special selection. has something for every style and price point. Visit our Holtz holiday shop and store or online at Holtrenfrew.com. All right. Mikey Bats, hello. Mikey.

What's going on? I'm going to get straight to it. First of all, just to back you up with what Homeboy asked for. Yeah, Super Melly's legit. Got to check out that fight. Her and Elise Reed might steal the show. If it turns out the way, I think it might turn out. You beat me to Robert Whitaker versus Hamzat.

So damn you. Just kidding. Great minds think of like. Man, this week has been freaking wild, man, because for all my interest, like the most intriguing fight might even be in MMA. It's what happened in wrestling this past Sunday, but we'll not get to that.

But I think, what I'm curious, though, is regardless of what happens this Saturday, do you shelve, like, you kind of touched on it, too, but do you shelve Hamzat for whatever title shot regardless? Like, even with middleweight, like, can you just, do you risk him losing if he were to go to middleweight? Or do you just like, you keep him bottled up and just give him whichever title shot he wants? You know what I mean? And two, as for that hammer fist from gone, I think people have to equate the fact that I don't think he was trying to smash Tye's head in.

I think it was just one of those things where he threw a hammer fist and Tye's head was moving out of the way. know what I mean? So you got to be careful not to label people dirty when they're really not trying to be dirty. You know what I'm saying? So anyways, that'll be all for it. See you guys later. Have a good morning. Thanks, man.

Yeah, the Whitaker thing's interesting or the Shamaa thing's interesting. But if he's got to go to 85, I'd like to see him get a win under his belt. I mean, the UFC could certainly just throw him into a title fight. But yeah, I don't know. I'd like to see him fight Whitaker. And that's, that's, again, is the beauty of that entire scenario. because if Rob goes in there and wins, then it's like, okay, listen,

Shamiyaf has been fighting at Welterway for so long, he's a better welterweight. Maybe he's just not, he's a better top-level welterweight than he has a top-level middle-way. We'll get some questions there. It's not an excuse, but it's kind of like a built-in excuse, if you will.

So it just checks off all the boxes. Everybody wins. Whitaker wins, it's huge. Shemayev wins, it's just super fun. I love all of those things. things. And I like, I like to have fun. I like to have fun. Let's go to Siveram. He's been waiting for a while. Civerram, hello. And we'll go to crypto and then we'll go to Viking and we'll try to get to everybody. So I get to be gone. What's up, buddy? First of all, Mike,

I'm excited about 279, UFC 279 because I'm more excited about UFC 280. there is a 40 days difference between this event and UFC 280. So this weekend has to be a spectacular event, especially the main event in the UFC 279. So then we can talk about all these things that happened in this weekend between these 40 days. So I hope it's going to be a spectacular match between Nate and Hamjad Shibya, I wonder Tony versus Leasing. So, and who you got on this weekend, Mike? What's your predictions?

I want to see, as a Tony fan, I want to see Tony getting some points on winning column. So if Tony does win on this weekend, who will he face on coming days? And if Ned really does beat Chimamara. have. He's he going to go for the title match versus Edwards before Osmond versus Edwards. That's it, Mike.

Thanks, man. Predictions, you're going to have to wait because I'm torn between whether I just want to go with my head or go with my heart on the main event. Because I have been invoking the chaos clause all year. And it's just a matter of whether I want to keep playing that card. Even though I believe Shamiya should win easily, I've seen enough this year to know that the chaos card could be used and it's not a horrible thing. If Nate beats Shemayev, he's leaving.

He's leaving. There will be no title fight. He's not fighting Leon Edwards. He's leaving. He's leaving the UFC. Now, is this to say he will never come back? It's just like in pro wrestling. Never say never.

So you're saying there's a chance. But Nate's next fight is not going to be in the UFC. Nate is going to leave the UFC with all the momentum in the world. And he's going to go box Jake Paul and make like $30 million. Because that fight becomes bigger than ever if he somehow wins this fight. And then who knows? And then he's got this promotion. There's plenty Nate can do outside of the UFC and make way more money.

Way more money. So no, he's not fighting. Unless the UFC just says, hey, Nate, I'll give you. you $40 million to go fight Leon Edwards. Then maybe he thinks about it. But you know that's not going to happen. So, yeah, he's gone no matter what. Win or lose, he's done.

He's done. He moves on to other things. Cryptocurrency. Then we'll go to Viking. Then we'll go to a hid. And we'll get to everybody that's waiting. Crypto, hello. Yes.

Different question, but I just need to comment on Terence's question and cheating. What annoys me is actually that people don't appreciate the blood, sweat, and tears that goes into becoming a professional cheater. I mean, you don't just wake up one day and have a black belt in fence grabbing. It takes years and years, Mike, of hard mental and physical practice to conquer that noble art of cheating and becoming the world-renowned fence grabber. And I'm going to give you just an example of this. I mean, first of all, you need to decide. I'm going to grab the fence down low and use the good old. push myself upwards methodology or am I more prone to the high risk approach, for example,

where I grab above shoulder level and pull myself up. You need to decide, am I going to use my entire fist, all five fingers, to grab the fence? Or do I want to use a more refined approach where you kind of use one or two fingers while extending your palm in order to go all David Copperfield inside octagon to create the illusion of levitating or something? You also need to know your geometry, Mike, in order to initiate the fence. grab at the right moment. And then there are, of course, a bunch of other intangibles. I mean, you need to have access to the medical records of the referees to know if they have a spine. So cheating is actually, I mean, it is a bit like poker, right? I mean, it takes the day to learn

and a lifetime to master. So, Mike, last week I asked you not to say the name of the fighter, we do not speak up. So I actually have a proposition for you. Let's just remove the word cheating until there are consequences. Let's just call it something else, something like the noble art of, I don't know, creative strategies or something like that. Let's just not use the word cheating because it's not cheating. It is the optimal strategy.

It is your obligation. It is a moral obligation for you as a fighter to use these strategies. If you do not use them, you're either stupid or you're dishonest. You're at least dishonest with yourself. So, Mike, yeah, let's remove the word cheating because it sounds so bad. but it's so incredibly good. Let's rename it. Noble art of creative strategies.

And that's all. Thank you, Mike. See, you get it. You get it. That's hilarious, though. Always cheat an M.MA, because no one's going to call it. So you're right. It's technically not cheating if it's not called.

I like rear-heads-ad. Good stuff right there. And I hate to be talking about this, but this is the world we live in. This is being an M-A fan. Hello, Viking M-M-M-A. Thank you, sir. How are you? I'm good. Actually, I'm at work site, so I'm really sorry for the background noise.

All good. Okay. What's on your mind? I was just watching Wayne podcast the other day and the Dagestani Boothicker. Josh Thompson was saying that I watch every main event, I mean, every pay-per-view event, free for the you know the links and all the stuff I never paid for anything and then Dana was saying that

this is illegal and we are working on the situation and we almost got it done so do you think it's just for say that we have got it done and still there are so many other things like illegal streaming and all that stuff so what you take on that and the other thing what is a loki wanger for you on this main card?

For me, it's Irene Aldana because I love that fighter, and I was waiting, I've been waiting so long for her to get in the octagon. So what is your loki vanger? And what's your take on that George Thompson was saying on the Wayne podcast? Thank you, Michael. Mike, sorry. All good, man. All good.

Yeah, only call me Michael if I do something wrong. That's what my wife does. Listen, I'll die of Chess. It's a good fight. There's stakes there. I like it. It's just weird for a pay-per-view main card, if we're being honest. I love the Dawad-Doo, Juliana Rosa fight.

But to me, Loki Bangor is going to be Chris Barnett, J. Collier, because just two huge dudes who just get after it, that's just going to be a ton of fun. So the Josh Thompson thing, listen, if you have listened to this program long enough, you know my feelings about Josh Thompson and John McCarthy. and their broadcasting skills and things that come out of their mouth. So what I will say is you're,

you live with the text, Eddie bootlicker, I do you think is pretty funny. He's also a, he's pro-Belot- like he's team Bellator. He's Team Bellator. And I don't believe him for a second.

I don't believe him. I don't believe him. I think he's full of crap. I think he pays for him all. I think he pays for them all. because he's a fighter. And why would you not do that? Why did you?

Oh, I'm going to illegally stream it because I work for Bellator? Bullshit. I don't believe him. I don't believe him. That's it. I don't believe half the things that come out of his mouth anyways. And there's enough evidence to show why. But, yeah, I don't believe.

I bet he pays every cent, just like everybody else is supposed to do. I don't think he's illegally streaming anything. and I'd love for someone to bring that up to Dana White and I guarantee you if Dana did his homework, he would realize that Josh pays for all of them. That's what I think. I think he's just saying something just to say it. So, yeah.

But don't illegally and nefariously stream things by them. Because why not? But I understand if you need to do that. I'm just not promoting it. All right, I head. wake us up my man let's do this yo yes heck of a morning okay firstly what the hell of all of you been talking about cheating just like how did this how did it come to this listen um i get it cheating not trying but where does it end like is it steroids because we all know usada is garbage we all

know jeff novitsky is a tool an absolute moron like we all know this right we all know the usada follows American fighters and people over in Thailand and Brazil are cheating so do we just go, oh, if you're not cheating, you're not trying and just take steroids now? Where does it end? Like, we know Usman is the CEO

of EPO anyway, so that story about the lumps on his stomach is a lot of garbage. He got offended because he got exposed on the Joe Rogan podcast. So where would that precedent end? And like the hitting at the back of the head that leaves

I get it if you're not cheating you're not trying like fence grabs and stuff but if you hit someone at the back of the head on purpose as far as I'm concerned

you are the lowest of the low in terms of human beings because anyone with any sense knows that leaves someone paralyzed or dead

but I want to talk about two points here Cyril Garne shut down talks of Curtis Blaze he didn't want to fight Curtis Blades he said oh title or interim title

because we all know why He got out wrestled by Engarnu on one leg. Engarnu was on one leg and you got out wrestled. What do you think is going to happen against Curtis Blades? Yeah, he's a good striker, but this isn't kickboxing. It's MMA. He had the chance to go into kickboxing glory, go to go fight Rico Verhoeven, the heavyweight champ. He didn't.

He came to MMA. This is what you deal with in MMA. If someone like Curtis takes you down and Cyril's not going to get back up, Yeah, that's your fault. That's Cyril's fault. That's not Curtis's fault. And with Hamza and the whole Paolo thing, I just want to say, have you ever seen like these Russian dudes, these like, oh, I smash you, brother. Have you ever seen them on their own, like apart from inside the cage, on their own, outside, talk all this stuff and live up to it?

No, they're always in a group. It's this type of gang terror-like mentality, you know? in a group like, Hums up was with 10 people. Paolo was on his own, you know, and he's like, Hamza was like, hold me back, hold me back. It's ridiculous. Like, it's just like that gang type mentality. It's absolutely pathetic.

Like, as in, if Hamsup really wanted to do something, he would go into the cage. He had all the people with him. He chose not to do that. He chose to just make a see. If he just wanted to chirp at Paulo, he could have done that as well, but he tried to threaten him.

And it's like, lastly, with these, like, Russians, they talk about respect, Habib, Markachev, Hamza. They talk about respect. They're like, oh, these fighters don't show respect, brother. But they never dish out respect. They want to receive respect, but they don't want to give out respect. It's so poor.

Hamza likes to talk about smashing people. But the second Paolo says something about Hamza. Hamza loses it. And the same thing goes with Habib and Markachev, man. We see it all the time. It's all I've got, drop the mic, Mike. There you go. Yeah.

I mean, you can view that video however you want. If you haven't seen it, go to M-Afighting.com. You can check it out. The Cyril gone, he's fighting, he's fighting Curtis Blades. He's fighting Curtis Blades. That's it. That's the fight. Now, I'm not ruling out anything else, but if Francis comes back, he's fighting John Jones,

and Steve A will probably get the winner. That's just the way that it sets up. But if for some reason Francis doesn't really, resign. They can't get Jones steepe together and they could do Jones gone. They would do that over Jones Blades. They would. 100%.

But that's a lot of dominoes that have to fall in that favor and I just don't see it happening. So he's fighting Curtis Blades. And if I'm zero gone, I'm trying to veer away from that fight too, just for the same reasons that I had just said. But that's who he's fighting. He's fighting Curtis Blades. That's it.

That's just the way this all... It's the way this all shapes up. All right. There were a few people who are waiting. I have to get to them because I have to go. So it's going to be Joe, James, Ani, and then maybe Daryan if I have time. Joe, you're up. Like, what's up, buddy?

Man, you know, I just want to say international fight week, the very first meet and greet of the whole deal was me, meet, Mike, heck. So I like you, Mike. But this myth that the later the Tremaya, Diaz fight goes, the better Nate can do is driving me crazy. Nate Diaz has never won a five-round fight. He has never won a fourth round. He has never won a fifth round.

If a fight goes to the third round, he's a six and 11, fights that goes the distance. He's four and ten. His most famous, prolific finish ever came in the second round. If this fight leaves the second round, Nate Diaz dies in that octagon. And I don't know why people think that he has any type of. a chance after the first 10 minutes. I don't mean to go hard at you, Mike, but I've heard you give it the opposite, the contradicting thing two or three times.

So just some comments on those numbers would be great. Thank you. You are incorrect, by the way. Nate Diaz has won a fifth round. He won the fifth round on all three judges' scorecards in the Connor McGregor fight. So that is incorrect. Connor won the fourth, but it was close. They got a 10-8-and-the-third in the Connor fight.

There is truth to that. There is true to that. And I'm not the only one that's saying that. All the fighters are saying it. Eric Nixick, who is a head coach who knows Hamzat very well, says the same thing. If I was coaching Nate Diaz, my main objective would be to try to drag Shamiyaf into deep waters. And he won the fifth round against Leon Edwards, too. Come on.

He has one. He's won late. He almost finished Leon Edwards in his last fight in the fifth round. Of course he can win it late. it's not a myth we just watch shemayev gas out in a three-round fight with gilbert burns he won it

but there are still many people out there Mazadol is one of them who thought that gilbert burns beat him and it's because shemaiah got tired there's evidence to be shown that shemaiah can slow down he's a huge guy

he probably has to cut 40 pounds to get to 170 the guy gets tired it's not a i mean it's a knock in some ways but in other ways like it's just human nature nate's a freak he's got cardio forever so does colby but colby colby uses that cardio in different ways nate's durability is what makes him who he is so that's there is evidence against what you just said mate has won fifth rounds Nate has done okay down the stretch.

And the other thing is, it all depends on Nate's mentality, too. Because there are certain cases where Nate just like, all right, I'm just going to go in there and fight this guy. And then there are certain cases where he's like, all right, I am all in on this fight. And I don't know where Nate's at right now. Because when they fought Michael Johnson,

that dude was on fire. When he fought Connor, Connor lit his ass up. and then came back and put him away in the second. Then the second fight. Connor lit his ass up again, dropped him multiple times. And Nate just kept coming and won the fifth round.

One judge scored it a complete draw. scored it for Connor. I mean, just the way that it is. That is, I mean, that is true. Like, I'm not the only one who says that. Like, all the experts are saying the same thing. Nate's best chance is to drag this fight out. So and I agree with that

It's gonna be hard to do She might have's gonna put the boots to him But can Nate weather it That's the big question All right James real quick I'll go to Ani and I have to go Because I get some interviews to do James hello

Hey good morning Mike If this is truly Nate Diaz Last fight in the UFC Outside of the McGregor fights What is going to be your memory of Nate Diaz in the UFC in the octagon or out. And what is the better chance to happen this weekend on the broadcast on Saturday that we get a Jones fight announcement or the Patriots upsetting the dolphins in Miami? Thanks, Mike.

Have a heck of a morning. The correct answer is the Patriots. So, I mean, that's just 100% the correct answer. I don't know, man. Like, his whole run is good. I would say the triangle where he did the overhead bicep pose will always stick out. The promo after the incredible showing against Michael Johnson. The beating he gave to Donald Soroni.

I mean, that was, boy, that was one of the all-time best ass-wopens in UFC history, in my opinion. I mean, the Connor fights, obviously. I mean, there's just, there's so many. Nate's whole thing is just one big story. And I'd love to see like a 30 for 30 on Nate someday, just for his UFC run. All right, Ani, close this out because I have to go. Hello. Yes.

He just had one question, but after you spoke about fouls, in an inadvertent or otherwise, I just have a few more comments. So my question is, or maybe I missed it, since Jared Cannonier and Sean Strickland fell off. What are the possible replacements? And the comments are, you know, a headbut. I mean, I don't think it's a foul, but it is differentiating or an impactful factor that keeps happening in fights. And it's not as clearly visible or we can't really catch headbutts as frequently as we catch a cup check or an I poke. So what I think is the UFC must start, and MMA in general must start implementing, you know,

the five-minute allowance for headbutts as well because, you know, look how it affected in the Valentina Shepchenko and Tyler Santos fight. And also, since you also mentioned, you know, the win bonus and, you know, the show of money, I think whenever there is a fight of the night. I mean, we need to get it of the fight of the night bonus. And whenever there is a fight of the night, the fighters must be given their full purse, both of them. I think that will be better than, you know,

that will be a better motivation for fighters than actually the 50,000 check. These are my thoughts. So I would love to get your comments. And even if possible, if you have any, you know, speculations on a couple of juicy matches, it will be great. Thanks, ma'am. Sorry. No replacement for Canada.

That fight's just off the table altogether. It's not happening. From what I understand, plans just to reschedule that one. Hopefully they can get it in somewhere before the end of the year. All depends on Strickland's nasty finger. The cheating thing, I mean, the headbud one's top because most of the time, you can blame both fighters for just accidentally clashing of heads. So it's kind of hard to gauge.

That might be a difficult one. Yeah, I don't really have. have any juicy matchups, really. I don't. There's nothing that really jumps off the page to me that's being discussed or worked on. There are certain ones that, you know, people have asked me about that I can get some insight on. But until I have, like, specifics, it's kind of hard to jump in there. So, all right, but I have to go.

I have, like, a million interviews to do today. And then my kid's school says they need to call me in five minutes. So that's awesome too. So I have to go at the AM. Jump on Thursday. I will get you right to the front. But I have to go. Thank you very much.

Back on Thursday, 10 a.m. Eastern. We'll do the damn thing again. Have a great rest of the day. And as always, have a heck of a morning, everybody. Media podcast network. Okay. Only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line.

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