MMA Fighting - HOAM | Will Sean Strickland vs. Dricus Du Plessis Winner Headline UFC 300?

Episode Date: January 16, 2024

While UFC 300 is coming together, currently there isn't an announced main event for the historic fight card. With Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis getting set to battle for the middleweight title this Saturday at UFC 297, could the UFC be looking at the winner of that fight to do a quick turnaround for UFC 300 — possibly against Israel Adesanya? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck discusses the weight the Strickland vs. Du Plessis fight could have on UFC 300, and if the winner truly matters in this conversation. Additionally, listener questions include the reportedly postponed UFC Saudi Arabia event, if Islam Makhachev saying he's fighting in June relates to the possible new date, if the promotion's debut in the area will become a pay-per-view, if Raquel Pennington is being overlooked ahead of her title fight with Mayra Bueno Silva at UFC 297, Francis Ngannou's boxing future, and more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Ghosts in the Machine, available now, only from Audible. To the Vox Media Podcast Network. All right, everybody, it is Tuesday, January 16th, 2024, and it is indeed a heck of the morning. We are live on the MA-fighting Twitter space. You can hear the show

in its entirety, short wither-after on the M.A. Fighting Podcasting Network. I hope you're all doing well. I'm Mike Heck. We are coming off of the first UFC event of 2024. Back at the world's most famous Apex, we saw Makabed and Goliath. Knock out Johnny Walker in round two.

He exercised some demons. Maybe gets himself a title shot. Maybe he does it. We'll see what happens. Jim Miller. just paving the road to UFC 300, dominates, finishes Gabriel Benitez in round three. Big win for Mario Batista.

Big knocko for Bruno Ferreira. Waldor Cortez-Acosta won, but did he win in our hearts? Probably not. Good win for Preston Parsons. Marcus Begui continues to do Marcus Begui things. Freed Basharat. What a performance from him against a really good opponent in Taylor Lapilus. Gian Silva

I don't even know what to say about the day he had but it was a memorable one that's for sure Nicholas Motta big upset win over Tom Nolan and Josh Van looking like one of the best prospects not just at 125 but in the entire

sport right now just goes through and bulldozes Felipe Bunes in round two and that's UFC Vegas 84 but now my friends we are getting ready for UFC 297, the first pay-per-view of the year. Two title fights. We get Sean Strickland

versus Drickus Duplice. You know the heat is going to get turned up to a billion throughout the fight week. We got Raquel Pennington, Meyer, Buenos Silva for the vacant women's band-oite championship. We have Mike Mollott, Canada's own, taking on Neil Magny, Chris Curtis back in action against Canada's own Mark Andre Berriol. And then my favorite fight on the entire card.

and this includes the main event, main card rounds out with Arnold Allen versus Mobbzor of Loyoff. What a freaking fight that is at 145 pounds. And this is going to be a fun watch, my friends. Is it as low to this 298 and 2999?

No, but this is going to be a fun watch. The Toronto crowd is going to be going bananas. And there's just going to be a lot of fun fights here. Brad Coton and Garrett Armfield's going to be a fun fight. Charles Jordain, Sean Woodson, it's going to be a fun fight. It's going to be a lot of fun fights on this card. So I'm looking forward to it.

I'm looking forward to getting back to New York. Looking forward to reuniting with my man, G.C. and crew for the first time in 2024. And since we last spoke, there's some fights announced as well. Davis and Figurato versus Cody Garbrandt for UFC 300. We confirmed before this, but Dana did announce that Rose Domi Unis versus Amanda Hebas, March 23rd. That's the main event at the world's most famous apex. Ty Tuivasa, Marching Tai Bora, got moved to a main event. And what else?

Sean Brady versus Vicente Lucke announced to headline UFC Atlantic City. I told you guys last week there's something being discussed. What I was told even as close to as the day before was the Brady-Luke fight was still being talked about. but it was kind of far away from being done. And then Dana comes out and announces it. So I was like, all right, cool. Looks like we're a go. So that's a good main event.

We still have Aaron Blanchfield versus Amanda Fiore on that card as well. So UFC Atlantic City is shaping up to be nice. And then a lot of other news happened yesterday. Ariel Halwani, you might know that gentleman from a little show called the MMA hour, announces that or he reports that UFC Saudi Arabia, which was scheduled from March 2nd, no longer happening March 2nd, possibly being moved to June.

And as of yesterday, because obviously I saw this, and I had the day off, but I still, when you see something like this, you want to do your due diligence and ask questions, et cetera. I reached out to multiple people who may or may not know,

some managers, et cetera. At the time, Ariel reported this, nobody was told anything. But it doesn't mean that the report is wrong. If Ariel's reporting it, in my eyes, it's as good as, it's as good as gospel. But these things happen sometimes. Sometimes a reporter will make an announcement,

make the report, and the promotion does not even tell anybody what's happening. It happens a lot, whether it's news like this or fight announcements, etc. It happens sometimes. So as of now, I've not been able to officially confirm this, but Ariel obviously has relationships, talks to some high-ranking folk over in Saudi Arabia, and he's being told that the card is not good enough, so they're not going to do it March 2nd. And honestly, it makes a lot of sense. It makes a lot of sense because we still didn't have a main event yet.

We're running out of options here. And for what Saudi Arabia and what they're trying to do in the combat sports landscape, they're just not going to be like, yeah, we'll just take this card you want to put together. No, they want big fights. They want loaded cards. Everybody else that has gone there has brought a loaded card. has brought something big to the table. I don't know if the UFC just kind of like overbooked themselves in some respect.

Maybe they didn't just plan it out. And that happens. Look, when you have to put on 42, 43 fight cards a year, including pay-per-views, and you're going back to Mexico City and you're doing all these big events, it's tough. It's tough to even it all out. But Saudi Arabia is a place where you have to put forth you through your best effort. especially when they're paying you $20 million to host a card.

So we'll see what happens. We'll see if we can confirm this. And we'll see if they end up back in June, which honestly, with everything else going on over there, I don't think it's the worst idea in the world. Now, does that mean we're going to go back to the world's most famous apex, possibly? But more on that to come. So I just laid out a lot there.

And let's hear what you all have to say. So let's get into this. CV. Go ahead. What's up, Mike? It's been a while. I just came back from Vacay. Feeling re-energized for this new year.

So regarding Saturday's main event, if you're like the UFC, since obviously this is like the first pay-per-view of the year, kind of sets the tone for everything. Do you, like, if you're the UFC, do you have like an ideal, like, winner for this fight just to like set up like the rest of the fights in the middleweight division?

and also like this has big implications for 300 right like if one of the fighters like doesn't get too hurt like you know if they can make a quick turnaround so um just want to know your thoughts on that thank you sir glad you had a good vacay glad you're feeling re-energize yeah i think this one is going to set the table for the middleweight division i think this is a huge fight not just for the middleweight division before the entire ufc because i i do agree with you i do think that think this fight will probably set up what we're going to see in the main event of UFC 300. It would not shock me if Israel Adasanya was in Toronto this week. It wouldn't shock me at all. And honestly, if I'm Israel Adasania and I want to fight for the middleweight title sooner rather than later, considering what this division looks like right now and some of these contenders that are on their way up, including the Hamzaat Shamaevs of the world, you best put yourself in the headlines.

You get in there and you get in somebody's face and you set up the next fight. Now, obviously, this is fighting. This is not ballet. Injuries happen. We're asking a fighter to turn around in less than three months and headline UFC 300 potentially against one of the best to ever do it in this weight class, which is what I think is going to happen. I don't think the UFC really has a side here.

I think it kind of lands pretty well either way. Now, I think possibly only because of what this guy is made of, and I'm not taking shots at the other side at all. There may be like a part, just a little bit more looking at Sean Strickland because if anybody is going to turn around in two weeks or two months or two and a half months, Sean Strickland is going to be the guy. Sean will do it in a heartbeat. He will not hesitate.

He will say, yeah, let's go. Remember what I told you guys before everything was all shaken up in Abu Dhabi? Once everything was announced, we figured out what was going on. I told you the story. Sean Strickland was ready to fight Hamzat Shamaif on that card in Abu Dhabi. He was ready to defend his title against Hamzat Shamaif. In fact, Sean Strickland was the first phone call they made. Sean said yes.

And then his team was like, no, dude, what the frig are you doing? No, no, no, no, no. You're the champion now. You don't, you get to call the shots now. You get to dictate where we go. You don't just take fights. You're the champion in the world. So probably a smart decision.

all in all, especially on short notice after just winning the belt. But I think Sean is more likely to turn around quick. DDP, is he? Obviously, there's a little more heat there. So I don't think you can really go wrong either way, especially if the plan is UFC 300. Now, could Sean Strickland and Drick's Duplice just beat the ever-living shit out of each other for 25 minutes?

Very possible. But again, Sean would probably turn around if he physically could and didn't break a bone. DDP, we'll see. But I think this all kind of lands in the UFC's favor either way, unless both guys are just really dinged up, like real bad. But it's got to be interesting. It's a great first main event. This fight's going to be, the fight's going to be bananas.

It's going to be absolute bananas. And if you want some insights into the Sean Strickland side of things, two things you could do. One, go to M.A.fighting.com. tremendous website damon martin uh did a really in-depth piece about sean strickland interviewing his teammates coaches etc and there's an interview with eric nixick that i did uh that is on the youtube channel as well so check that out let's go to lee hello lee what's going on my pick of a morning to you you too i just had um a couple of things uh with um with the saudi arabia

being pushed back. Do you think it makes more sense to what Islam was talking about was fighting Justin in June now? And then two, with Sean Strickland saying that, you know, he would stab Drickus if he brung up his childhood again. How do you think the UFC is going to handle, like, you know, security protocols with that, you know what I mean? Because it seems like Sean, you might actually do it. But anyway, have a heck of a more. Mike. You know what? You made a super good point because I didn't even think about that. Islam saying, I'm going to fight Justin Gaiti, what, June 8th, I think is what he said?

Huh. Maybe. Maybe he knew something that we didn't. Very interesting. Perhaps that fight nights becomes a pay-per-view, which probably should have happened in the first place, if we're being honest, for all the reasons that I just mentioned before. You can't just walk into Abu Dhabi with a fight night card, or not Abu Dhabi. You can't walk into Saudi Arabia with a fight night card.

You've got to bring the goods. And if you bring an event headlined by Islam Makachev versus Justin Gachi, it's pretty good. It's pretty damn good. So you might be absolutely right there. And I didn't even think about that with all the craziness yesterday. but I think part of this because we didn't officially confirm it. But again, if Ariel reports it, to me it's as good as gold.

With the StricklandDD. There's going to be, here's a couple of things that need to be made clear. One is the UFC is quite thrilled with what happened at UFC 296. They are quite thrilled that Jerker's Duplacy and Sean Strickland got into a fight in the crowd. You can spin it however you want, but they are thrilled that that happened. Because wait until you see all the promo videos. It's going to be nothing but that. And guess what? I'm not knocking them for it.

They absolutely should be doing that, just like they should have been doing the Dolly incident with Connor and Hobie. That's how it's pro wrestling. The roots of MMA is in professional wrestling. And the reason that the UFC is so successful is because they have taken that and they have run with it, which is brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. It's what they should be doing.

Having said that, I don't think they want to see Sean Strickland, their middleweight champion of the world threatening or potentially stabbing his challenge before they get into a fist fight in the main event of UFC 2997. So I think there will be a lot of security. I think the UFC is going to be prepared for this. While they loved what happened in the crowd at 296, nobody got hurt. Sean Strickland handled himself great, asking the children to move out of the way. So nobody in the crowd got hurt.

It's about as good as you can ask for from a promotional stance, but you can't go too much further than that. So I think Dreykis has done some, some interviews as well and has basically said, I don't need to bring it up anymore. Just look at them. I got into his head already. I'm already under his skin. But we'll see what happens when they do the press conference and we get to Media Day and things

of that nature. I think the press conference is where things could get real ugly. Let's say hello. Jotok. Hi, Toke. Oh, geez. This is about to be dumb, but I'm going to do it anyway. So, yeah, how do I start this even?

So what I'm going to do is rob the entire Aud No Bank with this. Okay? So the thing is, U.S. C-300. Dana has over a month back, he said something about a super fight he didn't think was possible to get made and all that stuff. and we all knew that he was very reluctant to let Khabib go

he kept saying hey I'm having meetings with him we'll get him we'll get him I think I know what set me off was the Slassin Ibrahimovitch thing on Instagram which is

nothing probably nothing but my conspiracy is that it might be something and I think Habib would come back in a fight at 170 for 300. Problem is, I mean, the conspiracy here is also, the UFC has not said anything about Connor and Chandler at all.

They've ignored it, which I find very interesting because they want to promote those things. So Kavib Khonner might be possible, but what I think could actually happen, and this is where the Othnoe, point come in. I think they don't like to have Leon Edwards as a champion. And therefore, I am saying, UFC 300 is main evented by Leon Edwards versus Kabid and Mark and Madoff. This is, sorry, I'm just having fun, but I'm just going to say it anyway. See you, Mike.

I hope you're not driving a vehicle right now. Because if you get pulled over, you might have to walk the plank, my friend. You might have knocked back a couple of Tokwisers this morning. That ain't ever going to happen. Come on, man. That ain't going to happen. Habib has no interest in fighting again.

None. There's nothing that would bring him back. Nothing. Javier Mendez even did a video about it too because there were these reports that they were training together. And Haber was like, yeah, we did train. But we didn't train like any MMA, which did like some party you together because you just happen to be in the same place.

Why would Habib come back to fight Leon Edwards? I would rather see, like, I have no interest in that whatsoever. Absolutely none. It's not going to happen. It would be hilarious if it did, though, because Balaul Mohamed, based on his interviews, is going over to train with Habib, and it would be kind of funny if Bala was going over to get Habib ready for the title shot. Oh, man, that'd be kind of funny.

But no, that's not going to happen. We're going to get Leon Belal more than likely at 300. And as Jed likes to call it, it's the leafy green fight of the title fights. And he's not wrong. So, no, that's not going to happen. I'm with you with the Connor Chandler thing, because the UFC has not even acknowledged that fight exists. But it doesn't.

It doesn't matter. Look, the UFC is on fire. They're printing money. Everything they do hits. It doesn't matter. So they can wait. And they, again, they could still, maybe, like we said, Sean Strickled, DDP just beat the holy hell out of each other. It's a bloody battle.

It's Glover, Yuri-esque. And they just hammer each other for 23, 24, 25 minutes. Neither of them can turn around. And then the UFC's like, all right, shit, we got to do Connor Chandler. We have to do it because we can't do Leon Belal, so maybe they go that route. I don't know. But like I said, I wouldn't rule out Connor in Chandler at this point because who knows. But again, just some advice.

Manage your expectations for 300. Just manage them. And I think we'll all be happy. You won't stress yourself out too much. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here. Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus, powered by Peloton IQ. built for breakthroughs with personalized workout plans, real-time insights, and endless ways to move.

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Four corner sports, try again. You're not connecting. Evz Wallia, do we have you? Yeah. Hope you having a great day today. I just have two questions. My first question is with Mawah and Alan, let's say a Mawksa's part, if he beats Alan convincing his fashion,

do you think he is next in line for a tire shop possibly, or would he have to go through Max Holloway to earn that title shot? And my second question is, to bring up an earlier convo you have a CV, I just want to add on to this. You know, in case, let's say the winner of DDP and Sean is either injured or, you know, they don't want to do a quick turnaround. Could you see a possibility where Hamza Chimayef and Adisania fight for the interim middleweight belt at USC 300?

And to be honest, in my opinion, I think that's a good fight to make, especially if there is an interim tile on the line because the fans desperately do want that star power to carry the card, and I could see that happening if push comes to shovel. What are your thoughts on that? Have a great day, by the way. no not going to happen and if they honestly if they put an interim title on that if they do do that and then they put an interim title on it it's so ridiculous like that is there are times

where i'm like okay fine like you want to do it it makes sense like give these guys extra money fine like i'm okay with it but this after two guys just fought two and a half months prior No. I have no, no. There's certain times where the interim title is okay. This would not be one of them. And it doesn't appear that Hamzaa Chamaif is going to be back for 300. Who the hell knows? When you saw like the photos of him and the health issues and everything he was going through, I'd be kind of shocked if 300 is a thing. But yeah, I don't know. Probably not. Arnold Allen Moves are of lawyers. If Mavzar of Lovov goes and beats Arnold down, which I'm going to predict him to do, because I think he's really, really good. He is absolutely getting an excelsion. Now, there could be something standing in his way.

If Ilya Tuporia goes out there, it just beats the breaks off of Alexander Volcanowski and becomes the featherweight champion. Volk is probably going to get an immediate rematch. He will probably get it very quickly. And then Mavzar is going to have to wait. but if Volcanowski goes and just beats Iliot Toporia like he has done it featherweight

to pretty much everybody at 1.45 that he has fought, then Mobsar is absolutely next in line. Absolutely. There is no other thing to do. You do not make Mobsar of Loyal fight Max Holloway. You screwed the pooch with Arnold Allen putting him in there with Max Holloway, which good. It was a good fight. Competitive battle. Max wins.

But now you knocked off a contender, a guy from a place that you are looking to frequent. multiple times. You can't just throw guys in there with Max every single time. Now, once Volkanowski loses the belt or retires or moves on, then that's fine because then if Max wins, you can throw them in there for a title fight, at least if it's fresh. But nobody wants to see Holloway Volcanowski four. We saw everything we've needed to see. Volkadovsky won. The first fight convincingly in my eyes. Second fight was super close

and super competitive, but I think Volcanovsky won. And then Volcanovsky just out, just styled on Holloway in the third fight. And I have no reason to believe that that wouldn't happen a fourth. Again. So, no, we do not give Mazur of Life to Max Holloway. We don't do that.

Let's go to to Al. Or at least we'll try. Nope, didn't go through. We'll see if Four Cornour Sports can get back. here. Do we have you now? So I was really intrigued when Ariel under breaking the news about Saudi Arabia because everybody

was clamoring about USC 300 but I remember when Dana ended up saying that he's this fight night car is going to be, you know, not like any ordinary fight night card. And when I was looking at it, I know you had like people like Jarzino there. There was a matchup of Muhammad Mahaya versus Alex Perez

and it wasn't screaming like this is going to be like one of the best fight night cards. and something that's worth watching. Pretty much, if it's all true, it pretty much, Saudi Arabia pretty much sold Dana White that you're carding shit

and come back with a better one. And if that's the case, and if it's going to be Islam versus Justin Gaiji, then sign me up, that's already a great main event that you can put there for a pay-per-view. I wonder if June 8th is the correct

timeline, what would be the what would be like a layout that you think that Saudi Arabia would want for their first UFC event over there. And then I saw that the UFC announced that I guess they're going to be going to India or are they going to be partnering up over there. Did you, are you hearing anything of them going this year or is there they just officially made like a partnership over there? And then lastly, Myra Buena Silva. I'm interested to see how she fights, Raquel Pennington. I feel like the fight's not going to last more than three rounds. What do you feel like, what do you feel that Mara Buena Silva has to do to get Rocky out of there quickly?

Because I just feel that Rocky Pengson has been on a good streak. but I think Buenoslova has all the momentum since the Holly home fight. All right, thanks, Mike. I mean, it's tough to say with the momentum. I'll get there in a second. The India thing I saw in the post, I don't really know what it means. Looks like they want to get over there, and it wouldn't be a bad idea to get over there. I've had a lot of people from that area call into the show and say, look, we have this many people.

They have to come here, and none of them are wrong. So I do think they'll get there at some point, and that will be good. I don't know if they do kind of like a road to the UFC over there. That wouldn't be a bad idea to introduce us to some of the up-and-coming fighters over there, maybe bolster the roster a little bit with talent from that area. I don't think that would be a bad idea at all. But as far as specifics, no clue. No clue as of right now.

Meyer Buena Silva, she is a killer, man. And look, there is momentum there from a winning perspective. in a performance perspective, but the whole positive drug test and all that, she's going to have to live with that for a hot minute, even though it's not steroids, it's not anything like that. She has ADD.

She's had her whole life. She's been dealing with it forever and all that. So I'm curious to see how she has handled herself in that aspect. She has also talked a lot about Julie. She's a part of her that is overlooking Raquel Pennington in order to get to Giuliana Pena who you would expect would be next to fight the winner of that fight. But, dude, she's a bad. Meyer-Brona-Silva is really good.

She's a killer. She's got a killer instinct. She's super good. And Pennington's really good, too. We'll see. Pennington, to me, Pennington needs us more. She needs it way more than Meyer Boyna Silva does. Because after that fight against Amanda Nunes for Pennington,

I was like, there's no way she's ever getting a title fight again. Because she got, she got massacred in that fight. Like that was a one-sided, almost uncomfortable to watch beat down. And it was one of those things where, it was one of those situations where we were blaming the ref, almost blaming Raquel's corner and her coaches for like, why are you not stopping this fight? Like throw the towel in, like live to fight another day. It was one of those situations. But she's obviously been able to bounce back and she's looked good ever since.

So, but Raquel is probably, this is it. She doesn't win on Saturday. She's never getting a title shot ever again. Meyer Boyne of Silva, if she loses, I don't rule her out of the title conversation. So I think Pennington needs us more. and we'll see if she can comes through. We talk about fighters who, especially, you know, when, in the guys, when they become new dads, they become like new fighters, Cal Pennington's a new mom, and we'll see how that translates

to her motivations and the way she approaches this fight. I think it's going to be pretty competitive. I do. I do think Silva's going to win, but if you're, if you're my brain of Silva, you want this fight, like Four Corner Sports said, three rounds or less, because I think the longer it goes, the more it favors Raquel Pennington. Let's go to Cole.

What's up, Cole? Good morning, Mike. Let's talk about Jim fucking Miller, all right? We are in, I mean, people's talking about this Hall of Fame debate. We are not in the same spot that we were last year with this debate, even. This guy's won five of six or something like that.

He's ahead of, like, Olivera. fights and wins and up there with the submission wins it's like dude like i was one of these sticklers who's like no you got to be a champion or something like that to be in the hall of fame but man like i don't know he's done it for me like he's like the company that he's with like with some of these numbers that he's putting up my god and also speaking of the mire bernas silver rakel pettington fight uh this weekend that no one's talking about i don't know if you heard but on the m m m mhm a hour she's, Ariel said she's coming in or calling in on Wednesday to give her a pick. And I think that, like, any fighter who gives a damn, like, Giuliana Pena, God, I'm a fan of her.

She gives a damn. She's going on the show. She's going to make her pitch. She's going to talk shit. She's going to make sure she gets the winner of that next one or the winner of this fight. So I don't know. God, I just didn't think I would be this much of a big of a fan of Giuliana Pena, like, in the last two years. But I don't know.

Like, she knows how to run this fight game and make the women's fights mean something. I don't know. Just talk about that. Talk about Jim fucking Miller. 8-10, well, vulgar. I mean, I don't know if you're going to get a lot of people agree with you on the Giuliana Payne thing. But yeah, I mean, look, she's got to feel pretty confident that she's getting the next title shot. I mean, literally who else is there?

There's literally nobody else. Unless Rhonda comes back. And then if that happens, then Giuliana ain't getting a title fight. I don't think Ron's coming back. So, yeah, she's got to feel pretty good about her getting the title fight. And if I'm her, and she's already kind of talked about this, when Ariel did the live show before 295, Juliana was a part of it, and said she kind of wants MBS to win because MBS will talk a little shit with her

and help promote the fight. Although Rquel Pennington has not had kind things to say about Julieta Pena over the years as well. So, yeah, it'll be interesting. Jim Miller is, I mean, look. Jim Miller should be in the Hall of Fame for a number of reasons. But the biggest reason to me, and we talked about this in the build to last weekend's card, what he has done and what he continues to do will never, ever, ever, ever, ever be done again. Ever. You'll never see this again.

The more wins he gets to add to that record, the more unbreakable becomes. we're never going to see this again. We're never going to see a run like this. We're never going to see a guy compete in the octagon this many times. This is it. Like, enjoy this for what it is. And here's the thing about Jim Miller. The dude is get or get got right now.

He is fun. And there was a long stretch of Jim Miller's career where he was not the most aesthetically pleasing guy to watch. But man, over the last five, six years, Dude's been super fun and maybe even like a little before that. If you guys haven't watched this fight, I would highly recommend it. I saw somebody tweet this fight out and maybe did a threat about it. And I was like, oh yeah, this is really good. First UFC pay-per-view I ever got credential to cover was one of the all-time worst paper views of all time.

UFC 208 was fucking awful. It was terrible. Really, really bad. Main event was awful. everything about it was bad except for one fight and that one fight was Jim Miller versus Dustin Porier and those two just beat the shit out of each other

and it is one of the more underrated fights of all time because it's on one of the shittiest cards that the UFC ever put on it was so awful but that fight ruled so if you're bored and you want to see Jim Miller almost like a turning the corner kind of a fight and kind of seeing

getting more of an appreciation for Dustin Porreier, go watch that fight. It's awesome. It's so good. They just batter each other. Dustin Porre is just fighting on all guts and grit on one leg because Jim Miller's just chewing his leg up.

It's just such a good fight. It's so good. And yes, Jim Miller should be in the Hall of Fame. He's the Cal Ripkin of MMA. It's the Cal Ripkin of the UFC. Unbreakable record. It's never going to be broken. And these records that are never going to be broken are starting to pile up.

Because I don't think anybody's beat DJ's record. I don't even know if we're going to see a champion defend the title double-digit times in one rain. I don't think we're ever going to see that again either. So enjoy Jim Miller while you have them because he is fun as hell. And if you give me Paul Felder, it doesn't seem like that's the direction they're going. At least that's what Paul's saying. Jim Miller versus Matt Brown sounds like a good time.

I'm good for that. But Jim Miller versus anybody at UFC 300 is the way to go. If he is not on that card, I am going to lose my goddamn mind. I can tell you that right now. That'll be promotional malfeasance if Jim Miller is on the 300 card.

It's been so built up perfectly. Left lane, MMA, go ahead. Hello, Mike. Can I be heard? That's good. I just wanted to ask you a bit of a question. regarding the flyweight division and roughly kind of where you would rank it amongst I guess the more underrated divisions and divisions that have a kind of pool of these up-and-coming guys that I think is going under the radar because in my opinion if you look at like when people

are talking about how good is the unranked guys in this division you see like middle-weight's got a great bunch of up-and-comers like Icrombon-nickel all of them lightweights got a bunch of good guys, you know, Brenner, Rebecca, all of those guys. But I think flyweight is actually probably a third place to those two right now because if you look at the guys we had Josh Ban just fight. Felipe Daytona just fought against Manel Cap. He looked great. I think he'll be ranked. Tegiel Olin Bekhov is ranked, but he's coming up. He looked great in his last fight. Steve Erseg's coming up. Alessandro Costa, even though he lost to Erseg, I think he's still another good guy. I just think the Flyweight Division, obviously, Mikhail,

Tyra as well, they're already in the rankings. But like, I think they've just got a bunch of new guys. And I think right now it just seems a bit, like, not stale, but I think right now people are just thinking it's rematch city. Like we got Moreno, Royval so far. Whoever wins that, if I doubt Royval would get another shot. But even if Moreno does, that's another fight. Albaz is really the only guy in the top five, I guess, Kaikara France too, that hasn't got a title shot. So right now, I actually think the unranked, or not unranked, but like the bottom seven part of the top 15 and beyond is actually more, I don't want to say more interesting because obviously the top guys are still going to have amazing fights. But in terms of new guys coming up, I'm intrigued to see all of those guys. Because I saw someone say the other day about Josh Van, he's like 22, he's seven, he's got 17 months.

I don't call me crazy. I know he's not going to do it. but 17 months to get the John Jones thing, if it happens, it won't. But I think if they actually realistically did want to push the guy, I don't think he would get in that time. But I could see him if he does continue to improve the way he is, because he looks phenomenal beyond the first round. I think he's got to sort that kind of thing out.

Gives me Petey Yarn vibe, sort of, with that slow starter. But I think you'll do great in five-rounders, and I think Josh Vann, if they push him correctly, if they give him, I matched up David Devorak, his next fight. I know that's not the most eye-candy kind of appealing fight, but it's a top 15 guy coming off a couple losses.

So I think you make that fight. I think then you give him like a Perez after he loses to Makayev, maybe. And then from there, there's only a couple fights away. So I think Josh Van, if they push him right, he's actually maybe two years away from a title shot. So I'm excited to see him and all the

other guys. I just wanted to know your thoughts on that. Thanks, Mike. Flywood's great division. Remember, they were going to get rid of that division. Do you remember that? Insanity. Insanity. Insanity. Think about this. I mean, light weight's number one with a bullet. Bannon weight's number two. I will put flyweight, I will put flyweight at number five. Because middle weight is there. Featherweight, I think, is above flyweight. I think featherweight is actually,

I think featherweight is actually the most underrated division. I don't think people give enough credit to the depth of featherweight. It's so good, and it's only going to get better. Flyweight is very good. I like what we're seeing from some of the young guns. It's a really good division. They're in a great spot. They're in a great spot.

They just don't have a ton of star power right now. And I feel like Pantosia could be a guy that kind of carries this division for a while. but this also has hot potatoy vibes to it where we're not going to have like an established champion that's going to run a muck and be the oh my god who the hell is going to beat that guy until maybe machiaf and or Tyra get to that spot. So I love Flyweight.

I love it. I like the Moreno Royval fight. Here's the thing that Flyweight, flyweight's in a tough week. Amira Obazi, look, you can't dog a guy for getting hurt. But I can tell you what, Amir al-Bazi is out of the title picture right now. He's going to have to win at least two fights. Medal Cop.

Good God, man. What a fumble. What a fumble. Talk about it. He would have been better off just not fight, like pulling out of the fight. When he talked about being injured or being sick and everyone's around him was like, don't fight, pull out. And he's like, nah, I'm going to do it. like you just crushed yourself he's an awful spot now now brandem if anybody the the guy who

benefited from this the most is brandon morano brandon brannan brannan brannes brandon roi vall in any way shape or form he's getting a title fight like he's getting another opportunity of pantosia and that may not have been the case if everything stayed the way it was originally sketched out But God, man, Manel Copp just buried himself. Not good. And now he's got a lot of work to do. If he went out there and fought Mateus Nicola and made weight and ran his ass over, Manel probably gets a title shot.

But now, a lot more work to do. Not good. Sometimes you just have to get out of the way of your own self. And Manel didn't do that. He's done that to himself a few times. And now, he's going to have a tough road getting to a title fight. It's so unfortunate. But you've got to make wait.

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Terrence, go ahead. Hey, Mike. Hey, buddy. Just so you know he's in other. one when it comes to do the opinion. I'm a fan of hers as well. She brings fun. And whether you love or a hater, it kind of gives me wrestling vibes. And like most people, that's where I started out as a wrestling fan and got into MMA about 14 years ago. So he's not the only one with that. I wanted to talk about Francis. I don't know if this was asked within like the last like few

episodes. On the MMA hour, he talked about that he wanted these fights and things that nature. And like this, they're the winner of the AJ versus him will fight for the belt nets. But in the interview, he stated that he don't care too much about the actual belt. He doesn't want to fight for the belt because of the fact that the politics and the everything behind it, he was like, I will fight for it if it's like a tricking because I can use it for like decorations or whatever. And I don't think people really caught up on that.

Do you think that, for instance, himself will get people to not care as much about the belt once they have? Because, of course, you need the belt typically to make stars. But once they're stars, they really don't really care about the belt per se. It's just more about the money fights. And then the last question I had, Luma is going to be fighting Bruna in like a month. How do you think that fight's going? I really wish they had an atom weight fight, um,

class so that way they can fight in their natural weights, but how do you think that fight is going to go? That's it. Thank you. It'll be fun. I don't know. It's a little early, but yeah,

it should be a fun fight. I like the, I like the match up. The Francis thing, I don't know, he's probably right. Francis is a star. He already is a star.

And the Tyson's Fury performance put it over the top. You want to know if Francis has done incredibly well. He got into, he got over with Saudi Arabia real fast. The ones with all the money, they love France and Ghana. He's reliable. He will show up, but he will bring it. That's why he's making all this money.

And that's why he's getting these opportunities. And that's why the UFC is probably not doing an event in March because the Saudi Arabia is like, no. Bring us something good. And then we'll pay you this buddy. But until then, no. bring that card to the apex. Don't bring it here. Francis, completely different.

He's probably right. Francis can just box in Saudi Arabia for the rest of his career. He's going to make hundreds of millions of dollars. So no, he doesn't really need the belt. And guess what? Saudi Arabia and in collaboration with the promotions,

they're just going to make their own belts. This is going to create their own titles. And people will buy it. They will love it. So good for Francis. And the guy just, all he does is win. Even when he loses fights, he still wins, and it's the best story ever. I love it so much.

One Toro. Go ahead. Hey, good morning, Mike. How are you? My question is, do you think the UFC is moving too fast in the manner of setting fight cards? Because as you mentioned earlier or previously about the Saudi Arabia card, how it was lackluster in their building of the card. Do you think the U.S.C. is moving too fast, even in terms of, like, the 300 card, how they weren't even able to have a big reveal, how they're just giving each fight sporadically? Like, in my opinion, I don't like the way they're doing it, but do you feel the U.S. is moving too fast in the way they're building these cards where they're having back-to-back events where you're not really seeing the best fights that you want to see?

Thank you. And that's my question for right now. Yeah, but they have to fill 42, 43 fight cards, and they have to fill 12 to 14 pay-per-views. It's too, like, people come at me all the time when I say there's too many fight cards, but there aren't too many fight cards, and this is what happens.

This is what happens where there's too many fights and too many cards that you have to fill, especially when you're embarking in new territories, especially in Saudi, when they're paying you a $20 million site fee. Like, you can't just, as hot as the UFC is, you can't just roll into Saudi Arabia with a flight night card. You have to roll in there with something big.

It's the same thing, like Abu Dhabi. Like, first paper view in Abu Dhabi was Habi versus Dustin Porre. And then they did the Fight Island thing. And now, like, look at every single card they've put on there ever since. There's something good. There's multiple title fights. There's two big fights, guarantee. And then a whole bunch of intrigued match.

Like, that's what Saudi wants. They want that. Something. That or better. You know? So maybe there's a part of that. It's just like moving too fast geographically in terms of like putting these relationships together.

But I mean, there's only so many cards to fill. You got $2.99 the following week. At least that's how it was scheduled. Then you got $300. You had $2.98. And now you're going to have to book all these other cards. You go to Mexico City. you're going to all these different places.

So it's kind of like impossible to go too fast because you have to book so many cards. This TV deal is going to be real interesting. I hope that we shrink this overall card number down a tad. I'm not saying do 26. I'm saying do like 36, 38. Shave four to five cards off of the schedule. And I think you're good.

I think you're good there. There should be a Saturday off every month. You got to make people miss you while you leave. Why do you think there's, why do you think there's so much motivation for people to watch Magabedank Goliath and Johnny Walker? They're like, man, we haven't had UFC in a month.

Like, this is good. And then they're going to have 297. Like, it was a perfect appetizer that we go into 297. And you know what is brilliant about the start the schedule. After 2997, guess what's going on the final Saturday? The following Saturday. Nothing. They took a Saturday off, which is brilliant. And then we go back to the apex. At least we get a week off to miss them before we get, I believe, that's the Deleads A card versus Eimovoff, which is very good. And then we go to February 10th, Joe Pfeiffer versus Jackerbanson. Not

tremendous, but at least we're building up some steam. We're giving them a chance to go away so we can miss them a touch, and then they come back. Remember last year they went 17 weeks in a row? That's insane. That's insane. It's tough to keep up those numbers. Stuff to keep those numbers. And when they do have to try to keep them up, why do you think we're getting 35 to 40 contracts on the contender series every year? Because you've got to fill these cards. Now, on paper, I liked the card this past Saturday. L. Cautotatio was a little tough, but there's a lot to like about the rest of the card, but you can't say that about all the apex cards. Not even close. Not even close. All right. We got three people waiting. You will

be the final three. We'll go quickly. You got about 10 minutes. Ani, go ahead. Hello. Yes. you and first things first i'm not the kind of person who sort of celebrates others misfortunes i mean having the abdubabi sorry the Saudi Arabia card postponed i'm pretty sure there are loads of fighters i mean hopefully they get their fights but especially those who have visa restrictions they might be affected by this move but i am so happy that ufc got this reality check that they're going to Saudi Arabia with a fight night. And they can still do well with a fight night. Like imagine if you had, I know I keep coming back to this,

but imagine if you had Max Holloway headlining it, and Edson Barbosa fighting someone like a Nate Landwehr. And then you have Ikramalaskarov, Muhammad Makayev, you know, all these really nice names. You can still stack a fight night and, you know, make it special, right? And they don't do that. So I'm glad that they were given

this reality jack saying, you know, if you're coming up, if you're coming to us with this, fuck right off. And I'm really happy that happened. And maybe it turns out to be a pay-per-view in June. But, and quickly switching gears, I think Juliana Pena, while her gimmick and the way she conducts herself might be a bit irritating sometimes, but you got to give it to her man. every time she fights, like, the fights, they might not be interesting, but like, I, tell me you weren't enjoying the Amanda Nunes, you know, both the Amanda Nunes fights. Like, they were good fights in terms of, they kept you engaged, because while Juliana Pena wasn't doing anything, but there were moments where, you know, you felt like maybe

she might pull it off. Like, she leaves her heart out in the octagon, and I think the band-in-weight division could you know, use someone like that. And I feel, you know, things, UFC does stupid things like, you know, why would Rose, why would you put Rose Namahunus in the apex of all the places? You could have put her as a co-main event on the Saudi Arabia crowd

with Max Holloway headlining it. I just feel like, I think, like, when they are making these decisions, I think they're perfectly aware that they suck and they still do it. I don't understand why. And having that said, like I want to conclude by saying, last Sunday, I ran for 10 kilometers for the first time, and it felt good.

Just thought I'll share that with you. Yes, there are no questions just around. Thank you, Mike. Thanks, man. Well done. Well done on the 10K. Yeah, look, Pena is probably the face of this division right now. Especially without Amanda there, she's probably the face of the division.

I mean, what can you say? You're the like or you don't. She has incredible Vicky Guerrero vibes when she starts talking. And Vicki Guerrero, while she wasn't loved by many, was over like Grover. And I guess that's what Giuliana Pena is doing. The Saudi thing, like they got humbled up a little bit, apparently, if this is all true. But this is what I was trying to say over like the last few weeks. Like you can't bring a Max Holloway main event to Saudi.

You can't. You can't. You have to bring Israel. That's why I kept saying, like, could we see Isl-Maka Chapp versus Justin Gaci headlining that card in March? That was the one I was favoring the entire time. I also didn't know that Islam was dinged up until Dana announced the Sarukin Olivera fight. And then at that point, I was like, oh, what are you going to do now?

Now what? You can't go to Saudi when they're paying you $20 million. and bring a fight night card. You have to bring Sizzle. You have to bring a title fight. You have to probably bring multiple title fights. So I guess for the UFC and I guess for Saudi and I guess for the fighters, the visa issues is interesting.

Do they move some of these fights? And like, do they move March 2nd just to the apex and still do Mahayev and Alex Perez? and Jarazino and Gatsyev. Do you do that at the apex? I don't know. If not, do we just push everything back three months? I don't know.

But you need title fight. You need stars. Max is a star, but you can't... Like Max Holloway fighting, who's Max in a fight? Who would Max fight? Max Holly versus Josh Emmett? Like, that's not a $20 million come to our place,

main event, it's not. You need a title fight. You need a star. That ain't going to do it. So, at least now they're going to get it. And that's good. All right, real quick. Tristan, then Chiefs

fan, that we've got to go. Tristan, go ahead. Okay, I want to talk Can you hear me? You are, yeah, you sound like you're riding a wave of wind. Sorry about that. Can you hear me now? Yeah. Okay. I want to talk about I was a Phaerat on his performance.

He was just, I'm really high on him. I think he's gonna, I think he's gonna go far. A dude is a thinker, because I, I mean, I think you actually mentioned it on the post-like show of how strategic he is. And listen, I expect him to be top 15 by the end of this year, getting into 2025. At some point, that man's gonna be championed. Again, I'm that high on him.

But the thing is, too, I don't think he's gonna be in the band-away division. After he gets in the top 15 or top 10, I think he's gonna move to featherweight because of his brother. Now, they haven't discussed it yet. They will talk about it as they go further in their career. But do you think he's gonna make that move to the featherweight division in the later years?

and because I think if he goes to the Federalweight division, he's beating everybody. I don't, I'm just that high on him. And I think by 28, when he's 28 years old, I think he's going to be champion.

I'm just, just a matter of when, once he gets there. So just your thought about Reed, his performance, because he fought a tough guy. That guy is hard to submit. That guy that he thought was,

his take down defense is Louis. He might be another problem in that Banoe Division, but he almost, choked out that guy, his opponent is. So, again, just your thoughts about Farid? Do you think he'll make the move to Featherweight at some point? And that's all I got.

Thanks, Mike. I don't know. Too soon to tell about Featherway. I don't think he's going to be ranked by the end of the year. I just don't think he's going to get the fights. I don't even know if Javid's going to be ranked by the end of the year, because I don't know if he's going to get the fights. Javid Basharad deserves to fight a top 15 guy.

He's fighting Aeman Sahabee. or at least that was what was scheduled for Saudi, which is probably not happening anymore, unless they move it. Like, he'll probably go and beat him in Sahab. But that's not going to get him ranked. And the problem with both of those guys is that this ain't under the radar stuff. Like, everyone's high on both of these guys.

So the risk-reward factor in fighting either of them, it's just not in the favor of a ranked guy right now. So I think they're going to have a really tough time getting fights. I think their road, even though we all see their talent, I think their road up the rankings is going to take a while. I think it's going to take some time. So I liked what I saw from Farid. This is a good showing.

I love the fight with Lapples. I had questions. Eventually, especially at 35, you're going to get to a point. Here's the fight I kind of want to see. I think Farid Basharab versus Ricky Simone is the fight to make next. I want to see what he can do with his fight IQ against a guy who is a super athlete. And I know Ricky kind of got out gritted by Mario Batista, but Ricky Simone, in terms of like athletic prowess,

is probably top three in that entire division. He just is. He's a freak. And while Farid is up there in the fight IQ game, and his in-fight decision-making is up there. with, I mean, almost anybody right now from what I've seen, him and his brother. The athleticism, he's a good athlete, but he's not like a spectacular athlete. And I want to see what he looks like against the guy who is a spectacular athlete.

A guy like Ricky Simone. Like, I think that's a great next step. Simone's lost two in a row, just got boxed up by Mara Batista in the last three minutes of that fight. This is kind of the position Ricky's in now. Javid's got a fight booked. Ricky wants to bounce back in the next three months. Throw him in there with Farid. Let's see what he can do. Like, that's what I want to see.

I want to see how he measures up against a really stud athletic fighter. And if he can sit there and still have a performance like that against a guy like Ricky Simone, then it's like, all right, we got something here. I might say we don't have anything here, but I want to see what is. That's like the next thing I need to see. when I look at a prospect, I'm like, yep, that's the guy. Because I saw that with Armand Sarukin from moment one. When I saw that guy fight when he was like 20, 21 years old, I was like, holy shit.

This guy has the skills, he's got fight IQ, and he's a fucking super athlete. He's the five tool. Like, Arm and Suruket, to me, is like, when you're a baseball scout, you have the tools. Like, Arm and Sarukin, the first time I saw him fight, he was a five tool player. I knew it. Second I saw him. Like, this guy is going to be a UFC chair. He's going to fight for the belt. He's going to win the belt. Even at 55, he's going to be a champion.

And I'm not quite there with Fareed, but throw him in there with Ricky and maybe we'll check off another box. Who knows? But yeah, I was super impressed. Guys are really good. Fight IQ is through the roof. Chiefs fan. Take us home. You get on meet yourself and then you can take us home. Chiefs fan. All right, here we go. Yeah. Heck of morning to you. Hey, I got a real quick one for you. Is Raquel Pennington being overlooked here?

Because I kind of think that, you know, she's a much more physically stronger fighter. And in the clinch, I think that she could drag, you know, Silva to the cage and beat her up there. I really do. I think she's physically stronger. And as long as she doesn't want to get into a kickboxing match with Silva, I think she's got one hell of a chance to win this fight. that's all I got. I mean, I think she's being somewhat overlooked by, like, the fan base. From a betting perspective, I think the lines are pretty spot on right now.

Meyer-Borinda-Silva is minus 162, the comeback in Raquel Bennington's plus 136. It's a spot-on. I think it's a spot-on line. I'll tell you what, the Raquel Pennington style of things, the grimy push-up against the fence and make you work style. Honestly, it's probably her best bet. It's probably her best path to victory. And boy, is that not going to be fun to watch.

Raquel has been gotten more fun, but honestly, like, this is probably her best path to victory, and it's not going to be compelling, unfortunately. But who knows? Maybe Mom Raquel is just an absolute beast and she's getting ready to go hammer and tongs with Meyer Buenos Silva. This reminds me a little bit of Giuliana Pena versus the man to Nunes, where everyone's like, all right, man, Newden is going to kill her.

She's just going to run her ass over. And then Julianna Pena survived the first round and then just beat that ass and won the belt. And then they fought again and we saw what happened. But yeah, I think the betting lines are where they need to be. I think the betting population is looking at Pennington as somebody who's potentially live. I kind of feel like this line's going to close a little bit tighter by the time we get to fight week. And I think there's a concern, at least for me, like if I'm betting on Meyer Buena, Silva and I have to, it's watch party

week, so I have to place bets this week. There's a part of me that it's almost shying away from MBS because I think she might be overlooking Rakel Pennington. I think she's looking at Juliana Pena. I think she's, there's a part of me that feels like she's looking past her

and are looking to the next thing. So there is a concern there. I'm just looking at the lines right now seeing what's kind of interesting here. There's some big favorites on this card. Jasmine Jazz DeVizius minus 360 over Priscilla Cacchua.

Gillian Robertson minus 245. That's kind of interesting. It's kind of interesting. Seems a little hefty. Yeah, I mean, that's a line I would... I might take a little stabby at right there. What else we got? Chris Curtis

almost a minus 200 Mike Malap minus 345 against Neil Magny it's a big that's a big number right there and Sean Strickland minus 142 against Stooklesey

it's going to be fun watch guys it's going to be a fun watch so but yeah I think that there is a little bit of truth to people overlooking Raquel Pennington

I feel like people have been overlooking Raquel Pennington in most of her career, and especially since the Amanda Nunes fight, when she just got battered all over that octagon. I think people have been overlooking her ever since. But she's doing the thing. She got back to the title fight.

Good for her. Good on her. All right. We are done. Thank you all very much. Appreciate you. We'll be back on Thursday. We might even do a live show this week.

We might even do a live show maybe Thursday, maybe Friday. I don't know. I'll talk to the powers that be, but it is a pay-per-view week, which means we're going to have a lot of fun. We'll have a preview show Friday. We'll have People's Pre-Fight Show Saturday. Way-in show.

Friday as well, we'll have multiple sets of boots on the ground in Toronto. My best friend, A.K. Lee, will be boots on the ground. Jose Young's, I believe, is traveling to Toronto as we speak. So we'll have multiple sets of boots on the ground, watch party, et cetera. It's going to be a good time. The pay-per-view season is back, my friends. The paper-view calendar year, and it all starts at UFC 297 this Saturday in Toronto, Canada. So thank you all very much.

See you back here on Thursday. Have a great rest of your Tuesday. And I have a heck of a more. To the Vox Media Podcast Network.