MMA Fighting - HOAM | Will Tai Tuivasa's Next Fight Be For UFC Title With Win Over Ciryl Gane At UFC Paris?

Episode Date: September 2, 2022

The stakes are very high in the main event of UFC Paris, but if Tai Tuivasa pulls off the massive betting upset against Ciryl Gane, will his next fight be for a world championship? On an all-new Free-For-All Friday edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck discusses the stakes in Saturday's heavyweight headliner between Gane and Tuivasa, and where both fighters could go with a victory. In addition, listener topics include Kamaru Usman's previous title run in comparison to Tyron Woodley's, Robert Whittaker vs. Marvin Vettori in Saturday's co-main event, ONE Championship questions, the future of the UFC lightweight division following the result of Charles Oliveira vs. Islam Makhachev at UFC 280, 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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I am Mike Heck. Happy Friday to us all. You're on the eve of UFC Paris. The official weigh-ins are already in the books. Our man AK was up at like 3 a.m. To get all those compiled for the website. We had Cyril Gondwaying Unit 247. Taito Ivasa literally hit the limit at 266.

Everything is official. That fight, very high stakes. Homemade event is a lot of fun. Sort of flying under the radar, if we're being honest, between Robert Whitaker and Marvin Vittori, some local flair, some fun scraps mixed throughout. it should be a fun event. It should be a lot of fun.

So we can talk about that because I love Fridays in the show because on Fridays, it's free for all Friday, which means we can talk about MMA. We can talk about whatever the hell you want to talk about. So let's not waste any time. Let's get into this. But real quick, we did drop that feature that I've been sort of teasing earlier this morning about the just nasty, hard to watch,

arm breaking submission from Cage Titans 55. I got everybody together. The fighters involved got to speak to each other for the very first time since the fight. It's been an emotional road for pretty much everybody involved. Even the 18-year-old kid who just freaking graduated from high school dealing with a lot of negativity because of the submission. It was just a really interesting journey to hear the stories and hear each side of it. I spoke with both fighters.

I spoke with the Cage Titans president, Michael Polvere, and Wayne Downer, the guy who got his arm broken, he's got a long road ahead of him. Broken humorous, he's not only a fighter, but he's a truck driver, full-time as well. So this injury is going to hamper him, not just as a fighter, but with his basically day-to-day life for a long time. So the man's going to need some help. And if you feel so inclined, you can go to the podcast where we shared the link in the podcast, the future podcast. It's about 20 or so minutes. I actually thought it came out really great.

And then there's also links in the write-up as well. I can go to gofund me.com slash Wayne Downer. They're trying to raise $10,000 for them. I think we're right around $2,000 right now. But I think we can do a little bit better to help this guy out. There's his first MMA fight. It's actually both their first MMA fights, which is crazy to think about.

Even the kid who won who has a lot of talent. I've talked to a lot of people about him. I mean, that's his first MMA fight. And he's dealing with so much backlash and everything because of it. And it's not really fair. It's not really fair. So if you want to help out,

you want to check out that story. It's on M.AFighting.com. It's on the podcast network and all that good stuff. And I just want to once again thank everybody who took part in a big shout out. And thank you to Michael Pillar there for getting everybody altogether to make this happen to both fighters for having the comfort three days later when we recorded everything to jump on and converse with each other. It's just a crazy story. So there you go. Let's get right into this thing.

Let's go to the peeps. Let's go to you. And let's go to Mikey Bats. Mikey, hello. What's up, buddy? morning, Mikey. Morning, everybody. How's it going?

What's going on? Nothing much, man. It's a big weekend and for both MMA and pro wrestling fans. It's like literally every day is something. I mean, WWs Clash of the Castle and UFC pairs are probably going to go head to head, so I'm going to have my head on a swivel tomorrow morning. You know, that's going to be fucking madness. Like, you know what I mean?

Yeah. So anyways, just to get back at it, man, like, just to touch on what I spoke about the other day, about how I think just for the overall flow of heavyweight that if Ty 2 of us won, that would be better. You know, not better, but you know what I mean? Like, we all know Siragon is going to be a top 5 heavyweight no matter what. He'll be in the title picture no matter what. But if we're looking for, you know, if we don't want heavyweight to be stagnant,

we need some new blood, right? And, you know, Ties win could probably help facilitate that, especially with, again, the, if John Jones is ever going to freaking fight, and it seems like he is going to fight in Ganu, and Inganu seems to be keen on resigning back with the UFC or getting that last fight worked out, whatever it is. It seems like all systems are going towards, you know, Francis is going to be back soon, not just injury-wise,

but like his situation is going to be worked out with the UFC. So hopefully we'll get some movement up at heavyweight real, real soon. And yeah, so just some thoughts on that just for this morning. So thanks, guys. Thanks, buddy. I mean, I was saying after Ty knocked out Derek Lewis that he should just get a title shot. Of course, we didn't really foresee everything going on. I mean, with the injury and we knew Francis was hurt, but, you know, what was going

out of the contract stuff behind the scenes and all that. And then John Jones saying he's going to fight, maybe September. Obviously, that's not happening. And now maybe the end of the year. But, I mean, I've already said it. Like at this point, there's no need to really do an interim title fight unless they can't resign Francis. If they can't resign Francis, then you don't, and you still don't need to do an interim title

fight. You don't need to do an interim title fight at all. It's either Francis resigns all as well. You just go right to Francis versus John Jones. You wait. You just wait for it. What's the point? Just wait two or three months.

I talked to Eric Nixick the other day, the head coach of Francis and Gano and you said, because I know Francis had said a few different times, like maybe I'll be able to fight in December. It doesn't look like that's a possibility. That'd be just ridiculous if you could come back in nine months after all of that. But Eric seems pretty confident beginning of next year, Francis could be back, maybe February or March. So at that point, just wait.

Like if Francis resigns and can fight in February or March, then just go right to the John Jones well. That's what we're building towards anyways. Just go right to it. And I know it kind of sucks for Stepe, but Stepe, by the time March rolls around, it'll be two years since Stepe's fought. So if you have to choose between the two of them,

and if Eric had his druthers, it would be one of those two guys. You wait for John. You wait for John Jones. Because that's the fight that's going to get Francis back. I mean, obviously the Tyson Fury thing, if the UFC can work something out on that end, that would certainly help.

But if Francis resigns and is fighting Steepie, again. Like he'd do it, but the big selling point is getting him in there with John. That's the biggest fight he can get right now. So just wait three months and do it. Two months, three months. February, March, like,

you don't need to rush John in there if you could just wait two or three months to have and fight Francis. And if Francis doesn't resign, you just do John versus Stepe for the actual title. So no interim stuff. You don't need it here. You already put a dumb

interim title fight together last year with gone and Derek Lewis, which made absolutely no sense. Or, yeah, you just, you don't need to do it. You don't need to do it. But with the actual question that you're talking about, boy, I think, and I know Jed disagrees with you. I think all the pressure, everything is on the line here for Cyril gone. Now, I'm not saying that if Cyril loses a tie to Ivasa, he'll never get back to a title shot be in the conversation because he will.

He's just only going to get better and better as he goes. But right now with where this division stands and the craziness of it all, zero's got to win this fight. He's fighting in Paris. They built this whole card around him. He has to win. He can't drop too straight with how everything looks right now. There's so many unknowns and so many questions.

If God wins, I don't think, like, it stinks for tie and it sets him back a little bit, but I don't think it cripples him as much as it works. would Cyril gone losing this fight? Because Ty's a very popular guy. Like, Cyril's a great fighter and people like him. He's a very positive presence in the space. And we love that. But Ty is going to be the guy that is going to sell more tickets.

He's going to be the guy that people gravitate towards social media views, et cetera. People are going to be more excited to see Tai Tuva in a fight. At least right now with what Tai Tuvaas has done over the last five fights, Derek Lewis win, et cetera. If Taito Ivasa beat Cyril Ghan, his next fight has to be for the title. It has to be. He's going to have to wait a little bit.

And if he's willing to wait until the summer of next year, he should not be fighting. If Taito Vasa beat Cyril Gahn tomorrow and they book him against Curtis Blades, that would just be a travesty, a absolute travesty. And you kind of feel for Curtis because he's been in this, conversation for a long time. He just keeps getting passed over. He's just been the enemy of timing when it comes to this heavyweight division. But in this situation, he gets passed over again and you give Ty a shot because eventually Ty's going to lose. If Ty beats Sierra Gan, eventually he's going to lose. And maybe he won't. What like the story of Ty to Ivasa becoming the

heavyweight champion of the world would just be unbelievable. So I think the UFC is probably looking at things the same way. And even Eric in a way was looking at it because he understands how hard it can be to deal with John Jones and Steve A at times. And if Ty wins, that's probably the next best option. But because Cyril's not getting a title shot with the win. He just lost. He just got a title shot and he lost. So Cyril has to win. I think the lion's share of pressure is on him. Ty can lose and still bounce back a little bit quicker than Cyril can because he's a fresh matchup for a lot of these guys at the top of the division. And you could do a lot with Ty.

And you can still do a lot with Cyril too. Like I feel like two, three years from now, we're going to be looking at Cyril gone in a whole different way for better. Like he's real good now, but you can tell just going back and watching the Francis fight, he's still a little green, still a little green. So, but he's going to get there.

He's only going to get better. But he's got to win this fight. He's almost a minus 600 favorite here. You got to win. You got to wait at home. You got to make it happen. And you can't lose. You just can't lose if you're, if you're serial gone.

Let's go to Terrans. Hello, Terrans. How you doing, Dre? Happy Friday. What's up, buddy? Thank you. So, I want to talk about the whole, um, losing the situation, not situation, but more or less,

Lozman and his legacy or what have you. So, Woodley had four title retaining fights. I know one of them was the, even won the boy and he does a draw. But Usman had five. I think it's underappreciated as to Woodley in regards to like he has these fights with people that other people didn't want to fight. As that was clearly there were bad matchups, but he went through it where Usman not

taking anything away from him. He fought in his title ring two people four times. So only other person that wasn't in that was in that was. Jorge and Kobe was Burns. And I just wanted to talk about how good and how underappreciated Woodley Rain was, because everybody was talking about Woodley, whenever he was getting ready to fight, losing how he can be nest up as far as being the greatest wealth of weight next to GSP. But once he lost, everybody forgot about him and he got clown because of the fact that he lost four fights in a row

and no longer is in the running for this discussion at all. But if passed prologue, if this happens to Ouzman, will everybody forget about all the good stuff that he has done? And then the last thing I wanted to talk about was grapplers. Everybody talked about grapplers, wanting to fight strikers and strikers and not wanting to fight grapplers, but grapplers usually don't want to fight other grapplers either. So I wanted to know, like,

where to disconnect is with fans. Like, nobody clowns grapplers for not wanting to fight other grapplers, but they'll find, they'll clown strikers when it comes to the adverse. So that's more or less what I want to talk about, and that's all I have for you. Thank you. Thanks, buddy.

Yeah, I mean, we definitely talked about the Wonderboy thing, and I, listen, if I'm Wonderboy at this point, you're far away from the title fight, you don't want to, like, fight Rock Bono for anything like that. You just fought a wall and got taken down, over and over and over again. You fought Gilbert, got wrestled to death, essentially.

The fight wasn't really all that competitive. But I think the Woodley question is actually really interesting. And it's, it's, I agree with you that he was an underrated champion. But it's different because Usman says a lot of, like, things that don't make a lot of sense,

like the whole Canelo thing and even the 205 talk, like you want challenges. you're running out of options. I get it. But I feel like in a lot of ways, like both guys are dealt with a lot of the same things

when it comes to the fans. Neither guy has really gotten over with the people. Now, Usman has had chances for sure. He had two fights with MMA's biggest villain, Colby Covington, finished him in one of those fights. And he just,

everyone thought, I thought, okay, he goes out there and knocks Colby out. He's got to be a star. And it just never happened. He's just never been able to translate over. But what people realized about Usman is that, yeah, he fought a couple of guys in different ways. But he kind of had that boring moniker attached to him, which Woodley had attached to him as well at certain points in his career. But Usman has done a lot to kind of change that because the Colby fight, the first one was an awesome fight.

The second one was a really good fight too Really close really competitive fight And then goes out and finishes Gilbert Burns Overcame some adversity in that fight One of the craziest knocko Cilovacy against Jorge Mazadol And I know that he got a lot of flack After the first Mazadol fight But a lot of what people don't always understand is like

The whole heroics behind it Was on Mazadol side because he stepped up on eight days notice To replace Gilbert Burns and go to Abu Dhabi and fight Usman. At the same token, Usman had to change everything around to fight Mazinol. It wasn't the best fight to watch in the world,

no. But Usman still said, sure, I'll fight him. And it's funny because we just passed the 10-year anniversary of UFC 151 getting canceled because Dan Henderson got hurt, couldn't fight John Jones,

and then the UFC tried to scramble and find an opponent. Very similar situation. So they went with Chil Sunnan, who was a very popular fighter at the time, And John said, and his team said, no, it's too short notice. It's too much of a change. We're not fighting.

And they scrapped the whole event. And the UFC put out that press release. There's actually an episode on the podcast network right now called Damn They Were Crazy. And it's Jed, Michoud, AK, Sean Al-Shadi going back and just reliving that time. But also Jed talks to Greg Jackson about it, two, 10 years later. It's just really good stuff. but Usman, it's weird because Usman's been able to bounce back from a lot of the criticism.

He went out and got finishes. He had some good fights along the way. And yeah, he says things, but Woodley said a lot of things too. Woodley said a lot of things. Woodley came out a lot of times and said, like, I'm not fighting this guy. Like, I'm fighting this guy. I'm fighting Nick Diaz.

I'm fighting George St. Pierre. When like none of these fights are even possible. And I know Ouspin kind of did the same thing with Canello, but that's like a big reach. And the 205 thing, like, while it was a reach, it was still a possibility. And people just viewed Ouspen as just a sensational fighter. And Woodley,

like, Woodley's had some good performances. I remember back in 2015 when he beat Kelvin Gasolum and he waited well over a year. Wouldn't fight anybody unless it was for the belt. Now, it worked out for him because he was supposed to fight Johnny Hendricks. that whole thing didn't play out well because Hendricks missed weight and I guess it was kind of a reward for Woodley to get the title fight with Robbie Lawler, it becomes the champion.

The second fight with Wonderboy was terrible. The fight with Damien Amio was terrible. But the first fight with Stephen Thompson was great. It was one of the fights of the year. I might have won the fight of the year in a lot of people's eyes, but it was a majority draw. No one really remembers that he beats Darant Till and then he loses to Usman.

But again, this is what I think what really hurt Tyrone Woodley in this title run was not fighting Colby. That was the fight everybody wanted to see. Everybody wanted to see the Colby fight. It made so much sense for the belt and it just never got put together.

And good or for bad, I don't really know how it really shaped up, but that was a, that's a big missed fight. Now, he ended up fighting him later and he got absolutely run over. But, like, we kind of have to wait and see how we can compare them. Like, if Ousman goes out to London and fights Leon Edwards and just puts his back against the fence and, like, doesn't throw anything, then we're going to start viewing

him the same way. But what Tyron Woodley did after the Ustman fight, he's like, he just did nothing. Like, he did nothing. Gilbert just took him, he just stood against the fence, Gilbert took him down and beat him up. Woodley wasn't really throwing much back at him. Covington just annihilated him. And then he fought Vicente Lucke, and we saw sort of the old, Tyrant Woodley come back and he just went for it. And then Lucay cracked him a bunch of times and ended up submitting him. And then he went on and boxed Jake Paul twice and got knocked out viciously in December. So, I mean, those losses, those four losses for Woodley have not aged well, especially with, now people are throwing the Jake Paul stuff in there as well. The legacy's hurt a little bit.

It shouldn't hurt it that much because he's the first ballot Hall of Famer, in my opinion. but when you look back on the career of Tyrant Woodley, especially right now for newer fans, he's known as the guy who lost to Jake Paul twice. He's known as the guy who got brutally knocked up by Jake Paul. So it's a very fair question to ask, like why is Usman not getting sort of the lower end of the stick like Tyron did? But I think it's a little too soon to,

a little too soon to compare the two. We'll see how Usman bounces back. Usman bounces back and beats Leon Edwards, we're having a whole different conversation. And maybe that's the moment that gets Uspen over. That's the American way. You fall down, you get back up. You go to enemy territory and you get back a win. It's like a Sylvester Stallone Rocky story in a lot of ways.

So we'll see what happens. It's a little too soon to compare the two, but it's a fair question. It's definitely a fair question. But Woodley just kept falling off the cliff. and Usman is just kind of hanging on right now and we'll see if he can pull himself back up. If he does, we're having a whole different conversation. Unwrap holiday magic at Holt Renfrew with gifts that say I know you.

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What's up, Zeke? Hackablish morning to you, Mike. How are you? Good, how are you? You're doing it right. I got, I mean, I guess I got two things for you. I'll be short and sweet. First thing first, I mean, I think you really knocked into it last episode.

Robert Whitaker. I mean, is he, you know, going to have to do? What he's been mentioning is we can go up after this fight. Do you think he's actually going to be able to take care of Batory? Because I'm not going to tell you a lie. I don't see a way that this fight gets stopped. I think that both those guys are just going to go in there, unleash the gas tank.

I think he's going to be a lot of floppy. I mean, I want to say floppy when I talk about Robert Whitaker striking. But, you know, Marvin Batorre. He's kind of like a, you know, car dealership balloon when he strike it. He just throws his arms out in front of him and runs in front of him. But, you know, what do you think about Robert Whitaker and what's next for him? And I guess really just talking about the main event. I mean, it's going to be pretty, I don't want to say impressive,

but first time we're going to Paris, of course, Zero Gone from France. I think it's going to be interesting, to say the least, how the UFC gets, you know, their pop to say the least, from the country of France. So talking about the main event, and I guess what's next for Robert Whitaker. Thank you, sir.

Whitaker is interesting right now. He's in an interesting place because both of these guys are. Whitaker Amvatory because whoever wins this fight, especially if Whitaker who's talked about moving to 205, if they're going to get a title shot, they need two things to happen. Well,

one thing needs to happen and then another thing is going to happen. One is that they need Alex Pereira to beat Israel Adasania. And two, they have to be willing to wait to get a title shot. Because if Pereira wins, and I know there's history there, and Pereira has two kickboxing wins over Adasana, which

by the way, I've said this before and I'll say it again. I completely agree with Israel Adasania when it comes to how people just break down the kickboxing boats without actually watching them because they're both very competitive fights. I thought Adasani actually won the first fight. Didn't. It was close fight. Could have gone either way. It's not like a robbery or anything. And the second fight was really competitive too. And Adasani was probably winning that second fight until he got knocked out. So there's a story there. And there's a chance that, especially if Adasani loses, they're going to go right back to that well, try to sell some more tickets,

trying to sell some more pay-per-views, build upon that story that they've been building since Pereira signed with the UFC. So they would just have to be willing to wait to get a title shot. But I think this is a potential number one contender fight for one of these guys if Pereira can win twice. So a lot would need to happen.

And then for Whitaker, like if he wants to go to 205, he's going to have to take some time to hit the weights and bulk up and get bigger and get stronger. and do that. That's going to take some time, too. So the fight's flying under the radar, the state, I mean, they're basically battling for the number two position. And Pereira is like an interesting part of this conversation, too,

because Pereira could be the second best middleweight in the world, but he could also be like the ninth best middleweight in the world. And we don't know yet. So we have to see how this fight plays out with Adasadya. But yeah, it's an under-the-radar fight. it's a very relevant fight for the division, but the stakes, at least for the short term, are not all that high.

But it'll be interesting to see the aftermath for both these guys, especially Robert Whitaker, win or lose. And the main event's just going to be, I'm not going to, like, the main event is fun. Those are some supremely high stakes in this fight, especially for Cyril Gong, because he's got to keep winning to stay on track. If Ty Tuivasa wins, the stakes are very high for him.

but on the same token, he's playing with house money, in my opinion. He's playing with house money. If he wins, that's massive. He'll get a title fight more than likely, as he should, and that'll be just a really cool story. And if he loses, like, it's not the end of the world. Look at the betting lines. He's like a plus 500 underdog.

So he's expected to lose this fight. If he wins, it's great. And if he loses, he can still headline fight night cards. He'll be a featured fight on a main card. People just love to see Ty Tuivasa drink beer out of people's shoes and all that fun stuff. Like, Ty is not a superstar, but he's a very popular star for the company right now. So a loss for Ty Stings, but depending on what happens with this division, Thai is still a fresh matchup for Inganu and Jones and Steepay and all these bigger names at the top of this division.

So another winner to get them right back in the conversation because the UFC likes to do fresh matchups as often as possible. So I it's the stakes are interesting. The feeling is interesting. As far as how I break the fight down from an actual view, viewership perspective, I think this fight will be really interesting for about seven minutes. And if it goes beyond that, it's going to be a bad night for Ty to Uvasso.

Tye's got to get done quick. If this gets extended at all, if we go into the third round, Ty's just going to go, Ty's just going to have a field day and probably win a decision, maybe get a late finish, but the first round and a half of that fight, we're going to be on our toes,

that's for sure. Let's go to Rel. Hello, Rel. Good morning. Heck of a morning, Mike. How you doing? I'm good. So I just wanted to ask, so Camero, in his title reign, he has a few rematches, right? So I was wondering,

do you give him more respect in his title reign for being able to beat a few people twice as opposed to just running through new person after new person or do you like what do you is that's I just thought that was interesting to me he has a few rematch

I'm like does that is it easier or harder to beat somebody twice or you know study a new opponent and do it for the first time thank you have a good morning it's

it's probably the same honestly I mean, but we have to, we also have to remember, like, it's not like Usen just came into the UFC, one, three fights and got a title shot, and then just got a bunch of rematches. This guy had one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, nine wins in a row before he got a title shot. And he fought all different guys.

Leon Edwards is one of them. And he fought Sean Strickland. That win has aged very well, if we're being honest. And then, you know, there's some things along the way. I remember the Emil back fight where, he was 30% of himself and people kind of moaned and grown about that goes out and just beats damia easily he beats hafiel de sanjos easily just and he just put a whoopin on tired woodley that fight was not competitive for a single second then he goes and fights colby who in most people's opinion

that is the second best ball to wait on planet earth and has a great fight with colby finishes him in the fifth then he gets the mazadol fight which by the way was a sure short notice fight. Then he fights Gilbert. They run that one. Gilbert's a former teammate. These guys know each other very well. There's a lot of motion involved for both guys. Gets hurt early, comes back, finishes Gilbert Burns. Now, we also have to remember that the Mazadol rematch was not a, this is not a meritocratic decision. This was a, hey, we're finally getting fans back in the building. How can we sell as many tickets as possible to? This is a, decision. They're in Florida. You put the biggest star in the division on that card.

Mazadol built it up really well. It's got pillow hands. You can't hurt me. All of this. I'm ready for the wrestling, all that. And what we got was an incredible moment. Now, I've been saying for a long time, strike the word deserves from your vocabulary. I didn't have a problem with the Mazadol fight being booked there. It was two months after the Gillib Burns fight. So this was like, after dealing with the emotional toll of the buildup to the Gilbert Burns fight, asking all the questions about the team and the coaches and all that, a little over two months later, the UFC calls him up and says,

hey, we need you, dude. We need you to defend your title again. Gets Mazadol, says yes, knocks his ass out in the second round, and then he gets Colby again. Now, the rematch thing is a little different in this case, because again, and Dana White has said it many times,

and so abide so of many other people. In a world without Kamara Uspen, pre-UFC 278, Colby Covington is probably the welterweight champion. Colby is still the best, the second best Walterweight in the world, in my opinion. And there's a lot of people out there who still feel Colby won that fight. I'm not one of them.

It was a competitive fight. I think it could have been fair to throw a 10-8 into one of those rounds where Ousman got a couple of knockdowns. But clearly, Covington won the second half of that fight. Usman won the first half and Covington had the second half. That was like a seven rounder

Colby's going to win. So it's just the way the division is kind of shaped right now. This is before Shemayev really went on his role and we were kind of unsure what Shemaiah's future was going to be at this point because he had the really bad bout with COVID and he was out for a while and

he ended up fighting Li Jing Liang like a week before that. So then we got to see like Shami's back and everything. So now you got Leon and everything and in the aftermath of all that. So it's just kind of the weirdness of the division. But it's not like Oosman has only had like eight fights in the UFC and he's had a couple of rematches. Now he's been in the UFC for a while and he's fought pretty much everybody's needed to to get to where he's at.

So it's, I see where you're coming from. But I also like New York Rick says this all the time. if it was up to him, the two best guys would fight a million times that they have to. And Oosman and Covington are the two best guys. And the Mazadol thing, we know what that was about. It wasn't a meritocratic decision. It was a, how can we sell pay-per-views and how can we sell out this arena? Well, we're bringing fans back after this thing called the pandemic.

And you bring in the biggest star in the division. And that's exactly what they did. So now we'll see what Ousman's really made of. For anybody who kind of questioned the road And his title reign in general Now we're going to see Now he has another rematch But this one he's trying to get back a victory

In a tough one A fight he was winning The first round was tough But a fight he won the next 19 minutes in change And then gets knocked out With under a minute Losing the title So I'm really interested in that fight

I'm really interested in Mokachev versus Olivera and number two on my list of upcoming fights in terms of intrigue and questions, it's that third fight. 100%. Let's go to Danan or Danan. Are you there? Sorry, can you hear me? Yep, I got you.

First off, I just want to say, Mike, you've been absolutely crushing it. In the last year, I listened to a lot of different podcasts on MMA, and you have been unbelievable, just asserting yourself. and becoming a real superstar in the area. So well done, sir. Thank you. Appreciate that. My main point is yesterday I watched the One Championship show on Amazon,

and I have to say that I was actually blown away by it. I thought that the production values were amazing. Yes, over the top a little bit, but still pretty incredible. I thought the fight, the quality of the fighting was exceptional, watching heavyweights who were able to do jiu-jitsu like that. Their striking was amazing. All the Maitai with the four-inch gloves was super exciting. I thought that it was an unbelievable card.

And I'm kind of shocked that the MMA community, while they're giving, you know, some flowers are not, they don't seem as excited about it. And they don't feel, like, I feel like one now is positioned to be the, you know, the number two and really start growing in the American audience. So I guess my question to you is, why is the MMA media not as excited about one as maybe they should be? Interesting question. We talked about this a little bit earlier this week, but we'll definitely get back into it. I will say this.

I watched many won championship cards. I think, first of all, this deal with Amazon Prime is brilliant because everybody has freaking Amazon Prime. So it's very easy to locate. It's very easy to watch. Yes, the production levels are great. Yes, there's some weirdness to it. It gets a little hokey at times.

But all in all, this was a fantastic debut on the platform. 100%. It was one of the best shows they've ever put on if we're being honest. Everybody delivered. We got Buccecha. We got the moitia. We got the kickbox at the four outs cup. We had everything.

We had DJ with the big moments, one of the knockouts of the year. It's been a great week for DJ. And I think Leon Edwards knocking on Kamara Usman gave DJ a little bit extra shine heading into that fight. And then he delivers in the fight such a cool moment. And DJ's kind of getting some of that buzz back that he should have been having all along. To answer your question, it's because we just have so many questions about one.

Bloody elbows at a fantastic job of digging into sort of the financial side of things, some of the inaccuracies in a lot of things that they have portrayed in terms of finances and numbers and different sort of investments and things like that. In addition, they say some things that are just not true and really dumb. Like this whole thing of

billions and billions of people watch our cards every single event. That is absolutely not true. It's just stupid. I don't know why they say those things and it just makes them look bad. But the main reason that we have

questions is the safety of the fighters. Now, they have come out many, many times and said well, we have changed weight cutting forever. It It's safe to fight here. You're essentially fighting at your natural weight. We have hydration tests throughout the week, and we do weigh-ins,

and it's all about the health and safety of the fighters. That's great, but you do it behind lock and key, and nobody knows what's happening. Nobody knows what's happening. This Adrian Moriah's situation has to be baffled, because Marias has the issue with the scale. He has his hydration numbers that are weight. too high and then all of a sudden just later that day he's able to make the weight and his hydration

levels are exactly where they're supposed to be but yet nobody sees him doing anything and all of a sudden like first of all the first of all the time the hydration level numbers unless he is just a mutant it's not physically possible like maybe i'm wrong and maybe adriana marius is a freak of nature but it's to me it's just not physically humanly possible for his hydration numbers to be where they were at, at first glance, to where it was before they fought. Secondly, you cannot convince me that Adriana Marius is abandonment. DJ woke up, fought, and, like, didn't need to cut a pound. Like, he walked in, walks around at like 140, probably cut a couple pounds, just run laps,

made the weight. And Adrian Amarias on Fight Night looked like a freaking lightweight. he looked like a friggin lightweight he looked two weight classes above DJ but again we have so many questions about one like what's true what isn't why are they not

putting these weigh-ins and hydration tests out publicly why are they not streaming this on YouTube why can't media members go in and watch like come on now it's just so dumb it's just so dumb and then you don't have the questions anymore but the fact that they continuously get asked about it and they

still haven't changed anything. It's concerning. It's concerning. And it makes us, what I think of one, like, I think the fighters are great. I love the Roberto Soldez signing.

I'm excited he's fighting there. DJ's there. They got some good names. But where are some of the fight? Like, there are certain fighters who haven't fought a long time, and there's no reason why. The guy who knocked out,

his name's slipping me at the time, because he hasn't fought so frigging long. The dude who brutally knocked out Sage Northcutt. Where has he been? He hasn't fought since then. Why? Why? He's not hurt.

He could fight. Why is he not fighting? So I'd love to talk to them about it, but there's just too many questions. There's too many questions. And while one can put on fun cards, when I think of them, and I'm not alone on this, part of me wants to roll my eyes just because there's just, there's no details. There's no, nothing's public. Everything's behind closed doors.

It's a little shady. It's a little shady. And until that's fixed, my feelings about one are not going to change. I don't think they're the number two promotion. I don't think they reach as many homes and viewers as even close to what they're saying they're putting out there. They have good fighters. They put on fun events. One X is a great card.

There's certain things they've done well. But there's a lot they don't do well. And until they fix that, I just can't take them that seriously. I can't. and I'm not going to. There you go. And listen, to add to this, I have issues with Bellator. I think Bellator does a lot of things wrong too.

They should be in a much better spot than they're in right now. But just certain things they do in terms of building fight cards, putting things together, they just, every time they get momentum, they shoot themselves in the foot. One issue in particular is we are October of November, We are three months away from this Bannamweight Grand Prix semifinals. And the big one that they're selling, and rightfully so as they should, because one half of this, because both guys have done a tremendous job building their stock throughout all of this,

Danny Sabatelo and Rafion Stats. It's a great fight. And the build to it, we were all excited for it. They go on the MMA hour and they do a face-to-face interview, which is great. that's what you're supposed to do. That's what you're supposed to do. But that same week, you do like three or four more face-to-faces? Like, why? Why?

Why would you do that? You have three more months to set up these face-to-faces. But you're just going to knock them all out one by one, one day, the next day, and then the next day on all these different platforms. Come on. Spread it out. Like, you've emptied the chamber three months before. and the fight's supposed to happen.

It just drives me nuts. And then PFL too. PFL makes a lot of mistakes. I'm still not over this. Hey, you know what's a great idea? Let's do the playoffs. Overseas were 25% of our fighters, including guys who are favored to win the whole damn thing,

can't travel to. Why would you do that? What is the point? Like, I understand you're trying to go a little more international and you're tapping into different markets. you got PFL Europe and all that. You want to have a presence. That's cool.

But at least give some freaking notice so that these guys can get visas to travel over there. And now like the whole thing got flubbed up. It's just no one's number two. It's the UFC and then way down the ladder, you have Bellator PFL1 kind of vying it out. I would probably put Bellator's a slight edge.

PFL's building one. is just kind of there until we answer some questions. But I've said this before and I'm going to say it again, if the UFC was off and Bellator, PFL, and one had cards the same day, and BKFC had a card the same day, BKFC, the traffic and interest for their card, especially if there's like somebody of interest on it, is going to double what those three.

organizations do combined in terms of interest in traffic. And I know this because I've seen it multiple times. I know BKFC as an MMA, but people pay attention to them much more than all three other promotions combined. Now, the DJ moment obviously got a lot of attention and a lot of buzz and people made out of watch the card and went back and wanted to watch the highlight of the finish. And it did really well. The reactions to it, spectacular.

It was lightning in a bottle, 100%. But if we're talking about how people watched the card, viewed it for results on Friday, and then compare it to BKFC on Saturday, BKFC blew the doors off of them. And which is even weirder is that the freaking KSI card blew the doors off of everybody. It's just, it's weird.

It's weird. Well, let's keep going. I went off on my tangent long enough. Let's go to William. Hello, William. He's got to unmute. There you go. I don't hear you.

All right, William, get back in. And I'll, I'll bust. I'll get you up there. All right, let's go to Viking MMA. And then we'll go to Eric. Unless William gets back in, then he's next. Viking, are you there? You're muted, Viking.

There we go. Hello, Mike. Hey, buddy. I got you. How are you? I'm good. You am a one of a favorite person on the, even if you don't reply on Instagram.

That's not a problem. Actually, I was watching BETL last night, and let me tell you one thing, Mike, that round three was a draw, absolutely draw. You need to add that rule in the rulebook, man. Because you are the maker of the show, right? And Jedmish Chandler and Newark, Rick, They both had their say and they put out an equal analysis.

I absolutely, that was a draw. I watched that Eric Nixik interview too. That was great. That was another great thing, man. But my question is, why don't you do interviews more actively? The other thing is, I listen to my part on the podcast network of mhmapfiting.com, which is a great website. and every time.

And let me tell you that my background sounds sucks. I don't know why I might, but every time my background voice is so disturbing. So I want to apologize for that. I use very good earphones, but I don't know what's the matter. And I'm really sorry about that. Apart from that, my question is, if Charles Oliver wins, there is no big deal

because I think he's going to get the job done. But if he loses to my cachet, then do you think he deserves a rematch or he's not going to get that rematch? Thank you, brother. Thanks, man. Let me address everything in order. If you hit me up on Instagram

and I didn't respond, don't take it personally. I have said many times on our shows, I suck at Instagram. I keep promising that I'm going to do more on Instagram and then I just don't do it. I'll like add to stories and then like half of my content on Instagram is just MMA fighting tagging me in a graphic and I just say okay except and that's it like that's literally my Instagram prowess and then the only other thing I use Instagram for is for

on to the next one for fight matchup picks that's it I suck at Instagram I'm terrible I keep saying I'm going to learn how to do it better and then I just don't so I don't respond to messages all that often on there I just, there's just a lot with Twitter and everything, and it gets a little overwhelming at times, and that's just how it is. BTL with the draws and all that shit, like, I mean, the show is just,

the points that I give out mean nothing. It means absolutely nothing. It all comes down to the last question, 99% of the time. Actually, every time I've hosted, Jed just gave me the win one time, because apparently I'm still the BTL champion, because I beat Drake that day, which, by the way, I went back and watched that, and I loved Drake to death, but I think I beat him too.

Anyways, so yeah, I will say that. Eric Nixick interview is great. Thank you for the kind words there. But the main question is, what happens if Charles Oliverer loses? Will he get a rematch? I don't think so. I don't think he will. I mean, it depends.

It depends on how it goes. Like, if Mockachev goes out there in like 49-46ism, no. But if it's one of those things where it's a really close fight and you know how Twitter can be. If we're all on Twitter like, man, that was a great fight, but Oliver won it. And everyone feels like Oliver won. But then maybe some home cooking for Islam over there. Not saying that that's exactly the case, but let's just say Islam gets a controversial decision. They'll probably run it back, especially if the fight's exciting.

but if this is a typical patented mockachev performance, I don't think so. I think the weight miss is going to still kind of play a factor. I know the UFC is hopefully going to view Oliver as the champion heading in, even though he's technically not the champion. Lightweight's just a little crazy right now. It's just a little crazy right now with Volcanovsky, we got Benil Darius, Matush Gamrott, even Connor potentially in the mix, some of these other guys, the Fizzives, and everyone else.

on the way up. I think it's, I think it'd be kind of tough to run that one back unless you have to. But we'll see what happens. Actually, William, you're next. Dixon, you are up.

What's up, buddy? Hey, Mike, can you hear me? I got you, man. Hey, Mike. So I'm wondering, what is up with Dustin Poirier and Michael Chandler? Because Pori has said

that he's fighting November 12. We're in September now, and there's still no announcement. So I'm just wondering what's going on there. Thank you, sir. Yeah, pretty much what I've been saying since the fight was first announced as like in the works or close to being finalized

on the MAA hour. It's all about the date. It's all about the date. Pori-Cliuant-Earie wants to fight an MSG. Chandler, it's not like he doesn't want to fight MSG, but he got a little dinged up in that Tony Ferguson fight. hurt his foot, thinks he might need a little more time. So the fight's going to happen.

It's just a matter of the date. We checked into this because obviously Porre has tweeted MSG, been asked multiple times. He's fighting in MSG and keeps saying yes. But from all accounts, we have reached out and it's still not done yet. It's still being talked about whether and it's just all about the date. It's not about the fight. It's not about whether or not they want to fight each other or anything like that. They both want it.

It's just a matter of agreeing to the date. And that's it. Is it going to be a three-rounder or a five-rounder? If it's a five-rounder, if that's what everybody wants, then you might just want to wait. Because we don't even know what's happening in December yet. We don't know anything. I know it seems like Prohashka in Glover is kind of the favorite to headline that car,

but that fight's not done yet either. So I don't know. That one might need some help. But if you can throw that one as a five-rounder, if you can't get a second title fight on there, That'd be a damn good co-main event for December 10th. You got two title fights at MSG already. I don't know.

We'll see what happens. But really, no change. No change as of yet. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first, there, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber E.

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

Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. All right, see if you can get William in here. they'll go to Eric and they will go to Tristan and we're going to try to get everybody. William are there. Unmute. Let's see if we got you.

You're there now? Yes. I got it all figured out. Sorry about that. Okay, so real quick, because you already kind of hit on it. My question is about one championship and you kind of already touched on it but not the specific fighter in regards to Cosmo, Alexander,

knocked out Sears Morris cut, and then who knows what happened to him. What the Bush is going on with Eddie Alvarez. Do you have any insight on him in his situation? I know he's kind of older. He's taking some punishment. But at the end of the day,

can we see the guy fight? Yeah, man. I don't have any insight. Anytime I ask, I get, I don't really get a response about it. I don't know. I think he's just trying to take his time and look for the right fights.

I will say this, though. If they book him against Roberto Soledich, I will lose all faith in humanity. please don't do that for the love of god do not do that i know it's what roberto called for it it's probably the right call out to make if we're being honest because that's like the biggest name he could possibly fight right now but one please if you could hear the sound of my voice don't book that fight don't book that fight please please please but i don't know i don't know now with this deal with Prime, I assume we'll see him fight within the next, I don't know, maybe by like the spring.

But I honestly have no insight at all. Every time I've asked, I've gotten really nothing about it. So I wish I had a better answer for you. Eric, are you there? Eric, try again because I'm not hearing you. All right, let's go to Tristan. What's up, Tristan? Good morning to you, Mike.

Just a couple of thoughts and questions. I thought this was funny. Michelle Piero was complaining on, I saw it on his tweet, he was kind of complaining like, hey, why can't we make the fight with Wonderboy in Brazil? And then, Rachmano retweets, I'm available.

And I'm like, and I'm like laughing. I'm like, we're just talking about this a heck of a morning last week. And I'm just like laughing. I look into the comments. Everybody's like, Raqmano, calm down. But watch it. Sit tight.

You know, I fight there. Come on. Stop. And I thought it was, I cracked me up. I was laughing my butt off when that happened. I was like, oh, man, but I'm like saying to myself, why not? Man, Brazil, right here, let's go. But I know you shot that down quick.

He's not taking that fight, so. He shouldn't. And then I just read the story of Julia Alva, the raging panda, and that was a great article by you, I think. My only thing, my only question was with that, was, I think you asked the question, well, did you ever post the UFC about your ideas and what you think? And then she said, like, I don't want to, I don't want to be like I'm complaining or whatever. But I'm like saying to myself, I was like, employees over there, they can't be that bad.

They can't be all like, oh, she's complaining or whatever. I think, I would think they would take heed to it and be like, oh, that sounds pretty good. You know, like, oh, let's look into this more. So I may be, maybe possibly maybe the approach she could have worked on of like, I want to present this idea. to them. Because I think also too, like maybe speaking to employees at the UFCPI would have been kind of beneficial. I heard

people over there are great and I wouldn't see them shooting her down about the ideas that she had because they have great ideas. So I just want your thoughts about that if you thought about that when you were asking that question. And then the UFC fight Paris card coming off a Saturday

who we all know about the main car, but who do you think like on the pre-wins, people should be looking at as far as here's a fighter to watch or keep your eye on in that sense. And then one thing about one fighter on there on the freelance, Khalid Taha, listen, I don't know if this is a must-win for him, but I think he should win this fight here. But I think I was, I don't know, people I've talked to are like kind of down on Taha. I'm like, yo, listen, this guy lost some good fighters. You know, he didn't get knocked out by them.

This guy fought Barsolos and Sergey. So I'm like, listen, this guy's for some dudes. So just your thoughts about that. Mike, have a heck of a morning. And thanks for everything. Thanks, man. Yeah, I mean, I'm looking at the betting odds to that fight right now. It's a pick-um.

It's even money, essentially, minus 110 on both sides. So it's a coin flip fight. Should be a good one with Christian Canones. I'll dress I mean the one I would say I mean it's pretty easy it's Nassardine Emavov in Joaquin Bukley is probably like

the prelim fight to watch because we haven't seen him off in a little while coming off that big win in his last fight against Shabazzian and then you're supposed to fight Calvin Gassim it didn't happen and Buckley's looked sensational over his last couple of fights he looked amazing in his fight with Abad Giroyev

so that's probably the one it's kind of a cheap way out. I know your boy Benoit Santini is also on that card. Fighting a debuting UFC fighter, Gabriel Miranda. That should be a fun fight, but I would say Santini is another one who, you know, had a tough debut, short notice, up a weight class, referee didn't do him any favors, and came back and got a win in his next fight. So, yeah, I'll go with that.

The Julia Avila won. So you guys didn't get to really hear the audience. or see any video of that conversation. But I did follow up on that. I was just like, well, why? I mean, it's not like you're going to the UFC brass and is being like, hey, you suck at running a business. Let me show you how to do it better.

No, it's just you walking in and being like, hey, you know, I know oftentimes when fighters have any sort of discrepancies about the company or ideas, it's automatically like, well, this fighter's complaining about the pay and this fighter's complaining about this. It's not like, like if you read the article, this is not bad at all. This is a very level-headed thing that Julia is talking about. It's not about fighter pay.

It's not about money or any of that. It's a chance to grow these fighters as people other than fighters. So what Julia has talked about if you haven't read the article is that she would like to see the UFC maybe implement some kind of program where fighters can take online clients. classes for various things that could help the promotion, whether it be public or racial PR, hospitality, or even just physical fitness or physical education. And then once their fighters, the careers are over or if they're between fights, but still want to do something to help the company along the way, they can pay back the company by working it off. And they learn a new skill that they can implement while paying back the company for allowing them to do this and

paying for them to essentially learn a new skill. And they would pay back by working for the UFC in a certain way. So the physical fitness one that you brought up was you have all these UFC gyms around the world. When I'm done fighting or on between fights, now I can be like an assistant manager or somebody runs the business side of the UFC gyms in between fights. and they get paid back for the class by her working there, and then she would be obligated to work at that place for a certain amount of time.

Starbucks does something very similar with new employees, where they can take online classes in order to grow in the business, and they would pay back with, you're basically agreeing to work for them for a longer period of time in order for them to sort of get back what they put in, which I actually thought was a really good way to look at it. And the other thing that I liked that she brought up was, and we talked about this kind of when we stopped recording,

is rather than have fighters come in on a fight week on a Tuesday, make it an option that they can come in on Monday and then go to the PI or then go to UFC headquarters. And if a fighter who has knowledge of this wants to come in and teach a class or if they wanted to take a class on how to invest or how to make your money, make more money, and different things like that. Like, there are fighters that, like,

James Krause is a wizard when it comes to, like, Airbnb's and real estate and things like that. If the UFC just offered James to come out and teach some of the other fighters about what he does and how he's been successful, and I'm not talking about the gambling stuff because I know that's been brought up here. But that kind of stuff, like, that's cool.

And some fight, you don't have to take advantage, of that, but if you want to take advantage of it, you can. And you're just trying to grow and improve as not just an athlete, but as a person, because you know you can't fight forever. This is essentially setting you up for life after fighting. And I think it's a great idea. I think it's a great idea. She also mentioned long-term health insurance, which I think we all agree is the way to go.

And I'm sure she never mentioned pensions, but I think that's another thing. I think they implement that. I think a lot of the fighter pay conversations, they won't stop. stop, obviously, but they'll slow down a little bit. But it was the most level-headed approach to adding new things to be implemented by the UFC for these athletes than I've ever heard. And it was really good stuff. And I applaud her for that.

And I hope that she actually, I hope the UFC actually read that. It didn't just read the headline and think like that she was shitting on the promotion because she absolutely was not. I just thought it was a great idea. I thought she had a lot of great idea. and we'll see if those get implemented or not. Hopefully the UFC can take her seriously. Or at least have that discussion.

All right, Eric, are you there? You're talking to me? Yes, sir. How you doing, Mike? Appreciate all you do. Your great asset to M.A. fighting. I didn't think I'd actually get a chance to speak, so I'll just ask you,

I would love to know your thoughts on the Marvin Vitturian and Robert Whitaker fight. What do you think would be next from Rob if he wins? Could he fight Alex Pereira if he loses? do you think he's done enough to get another title shot? And also we'll love to hear your thoughts on the betting odds for the main event because they seem pretty crazy. Thanks, man.

Yeah, I mean, I talked about this earlier. It's just the stakes aren't really that high there. I mean, they're going to have to hope both these guys are going to have to hope that Pereira beats Adasana, not just once but twice because they're going to run that one back if that does happen. So, I mean, they're basically just vying for the number two spot. And I would like to see Vittori fight out of Sani again. But if I had my choice, it'd be, I'd rather see Wittaker fight him a third time. Because that second fight was competitive.

It was close. A lot of people thought Whitaker actually won that fight. I'm not one of those people, but I thought it was very, very close. And again, these are the two best middleweights in the world. At least right now, Vittori could change that with the victory. I think it's going to be interesting fights. I'm probably not going to see a finish. we're going to see Whitaker probably hit Martin Vittori a bunch of times.

Vittory's going to keep coming forward. I think Wittaker's going to win a 29-28 decision. If I'm betting on this fight, I'm betting on Vittory. I just think this line should be. Whitaker's a minus 2.15 favorite. I think this fight is closer than that. I think it's closer. I think Whitaker should be the favorite,

but I think he should be like a... This one implies like... This one should be like a 6040, 55, 45, 45, type of situation because Vittory's a dog and Whitaker's just not going to be able to get him out of there. I mean, Whitaker could strike, Whitaker's got great wrestling great wrestling defense, so I don't think Votory's

going to really be able to score all that. Many takedowns in this fight. It might be able to get him down, but Whitaker could probably get right back up. But Votory's just it's got to be just really tough to fight this guy because you could hit him with everything and it doesn't stop him. He'll just keep coming forward.

So I think there's a ton of value on Marvin at plus 1 I think that lines just a little too juice. Main event lines, I mean, I think it's about right, honestly. It's about right. Minus 580, come back on two ofasa plus 440.

And this is not a disrespectful take. This is just, it's fighting. This is, I think we can all agree on this. Taito Yvesa could win this fight. And I know it's kind of cliche to say a fighter has a puncher's chance, but this is probably a puncher's chance type of scenario here. Like if Ty lands, if Cyril Ghan rests on his laurels and doesn't mind his peas and cues throughout this fight,

it gets a little sloppy, he could very well lose. But if Cyril Gahn fights a Cereal Gond fight, that may not be all that aesthetically beautiful to watch, Cyril should win. Cereal should win. He's the better striker by far. It's the better athlete by far. He probably won't wrestle.

too much, but he has that in his back pocket if he needs it. He has power, obviously not as much as Ty. I mean, Gond just has everything going for him here, but Ty just has that sort of equalizer, that power. But again, this is one of those things that Searles is going to have to get through the first eight minutes of this fight, and once this fight hits round three, I think he can, not cruise, but I think he can kind of have his way with Ty. but

jet if you listen to btl jedd will say that this line should be way higher for gone should be minus close to minus a thousand I don't know if I necessarily agree with that but I think the line's about right considering skill for skill with these guys

I think gone is way more it's just the more complete guy but tie does have that equalizer that could change things up let's go to cry and belly got on mute I'm not hearing you Try again

Crying Belly Let's go to Abzwalia I'm going to try to get to everybody before we get out of here Abzaliyah Yeah, it's up man Good man, you Doing good

Yeah so I just actually want to talk first about Specifically the Buckley fight Because he's fighting a ranked fighter I think If I think I could actually see him winning because, you know, he has a lot of tools on his side, and he's a very good puncher, and, you know, he's been doing very well his last few fights.

And let's say if he wins, I think he should be, you know, possibly looking to fight some of like in the top 10 next, you know, because I think he could be the next gatekeeper of the division or possibly have a chance to get a tire shot down the line, you know. And I also actually want to speak briefly on 280, the Olivera card. I actually think it'll be interesting to see how that card plays out with him in Islam because and anyone else who find that whole

card in the main events because whatever's happening there is going to shape up the future of the UFC and particularly the bantamweight and lightweight division and I can see you know Charles actually beating Islam because he has a lot of tools on his side

and he seems very calm and composed and if he wins that fight presumably I would you know If I had my dream choice, I would like to see him fight Kabib to see who's the best lightweight up there, you know, ever. Or if not, maybe I could see him fighting, you know, Connor McGregor next or possibly, you know, the winner of Justin Gae versus Fizzav, you know. But otherwise, for now, you know, that's still a while way, but that's just my early predictions. Thanks, man. Yeah, I love the Imobabukukukukuk.

should be real interesting. I'm favoring Imabov. I think he's the real deal. But Buckley's looked real good as of late. He's getting better and better. He's not just a guy that's going to go out and look for the highlight real knockout anymore. He's learning to fine-tune his game a little bit.

So I think that's one of the more interesting fights on the entire card. But I think Imovov is just better in a lot of ways where Buckley falls. And then, yeah, I mean, listen, lightweight's really interesting. If Charles wins, I think he's going to wait for the Conner. fight and he probably should at this point. He's been asked for it for a while. I think with the road he's had, some of the names he's had to beat along the way. I think if the UFC will allow him to do that, which I think him taking the fight in Abu Dhabi, that's got to be part of the plan, if you will. Yeah, I can see that happening. I mean, Oliver is a dog. If you're going to give me

Oliver a dog money ever again, I would take it from a betting perspective. I know a lot of people are saying the gate chief of Zee fight is happening. It's not happening December 10th. at least unless something drastic changes. It was being discussed. I know some social media platforms said it was close to being finalized. It's just not true. It's just not true. Maybe it happens.

Maybe something happens at the 11th hour and plans change. But as soon as I saw those posts, I reached out and was told that that is not the case. It was being discussed for that date. Doesn't appear like that date's a possibility. Maybe they try to push it back to another card. And who knows? Maybe Gates is just like, nah, man, I want Connor. And I wouldn't blame him for that, if we're being honest.

So, yeah, lightweight's fun, super fun. Always is. Let's go to Ellie Ram, and then we'll go to Brian Cashman. Ellie Ram, hello. You got on mute. Hey, hey, how are you? There we go. What's up, buddy?

Everything is great. I just wanted to talk about the Whitaker and Marvin Vitory fight. Yeah, I think even though Vittori has a lot of steam going into this fight and he's got the pressure, as he stated, I think the difference will be Robert Whitaker's fight IQ and this is not a knock on Vittori but most of his fights what he does is bringing that pressure and eventually taking you down and scoring points I think as you stated Wittaker has a great great defense on that part but his fight IQ is very high he's only second to Israel ad sanya and it's kind of the situation for Kobe Covington being second to Usman I think we are

witnessing we're going to witness a master class of Whittaker and and I'm just wondering what's next for Whitaker after that is it a third fight against Israel at the Sanya. I know they asked Dana about it and he said it's probably something to consider. I personally wouldn't want to watch it but there's also rumors that Whittaker is going to jump up at division so I wonder what's going to happen with that. Yeah man it's it's got to be interesting. It probably is all going to depend on how the fight plays out and probably there won't be any especially on the whittaker side there probably won't be any like official decisions made until after november 12th when out of sani fights perera because the perera wins that fight they're going to probably run it back and a perura wins

a second time whittaker with a win over tory probably jumps to the front of the line and gets a title fight so but if izzie wins and wittaker wins maybe he fights paul costa i think that's a pretty big fight for him. And a fight he could probably win. So he might just stick around for that and try to get another win, maybe get back to Izzy. But yeah, 205 is an option too.

So yeah, he's going to be real interesting to watch over the next few months, especially if he wins this fight. All right, there's four people wait. I'm going to get to you all very quickly because we've got a preview show coming up at noon Eastern. Brian, hello. What's up, Mike? Been a while. Thanks, buddy. First off, I mean, I know I tweeted at you,

but that Cage Titan scene was just the most crazy thing I've ever seen. It was wild. I was there when Andre Munis snapped Jacari's arm, and this one blew that out of the door. I was like, what the hell just happened? This kid's 18. This kid's crazy.

So I can't wait to listen to your podcast about that. But what I was wondering, if Ty Tuvasa wins, I mean, it's going to be in spectacular fashion. That's the way he's going to win. He's going to knock Zero gone out, maybe do a shooey with a bottle of wine, something like that. But, I mean, with the whole John Jones, Steve Bay, Francis stuff,

I don't think they're going to throw them into a title show, which I think they should because jump, like, strike while the iron's hot. But, I mean, you have Curtis Blades there, who could be the best heavyweight in the world. Yeah, he lost the Francis twice. Yeah, he got colded by Derek Lewis. But, I mean, that guy is going to be there. and they're going to have to throw them up there at some point.

So do you think they just maybe use Ty to build Curtis Blase's name more? I don't know. I just don't want to see it, but I was just wondering what you had to think about that. I don't think so. I don't think that's what happens, honestly, if Ty loses. I think they'll just try to, I think Doc is fighting Jarzino, maybe gets the winner of that main event of a fight night or something. I don't think they would, I think they'd just keep putting tie in fun fights. Honestly.

I don't think he's going to be, he's the Cinderella story. He's not really a guy that you build a name off of. He's the guy that you hope wins. He's not Robbie Lawler. He's freaking tied to Ivasi. He's kind of in a place all of his own in a lot of regard. So, yeah, I don't know if they go that route. I think if Cyril Gahn wins, I think that.

that's the fight they'll do. They'll just do Cyril Ghan versus Curtis Blades to kind of keep his Grand Prix going. And if Tye 2 Ibasa wins, then his next fight should be for the belt. His next fight should be for the belt. At least that's what I think. But we shall see what happens.

The UFC does some pretty weird things. I freaking hated this fight when it was first announced. I'm like, well, how can you do tie so dirty like this? But we'll see what happens. All right, let's go to Cleve. And then we'll go to Average Avenues, then Jay, then Crypto, and then we've got to go. Cleave, hello. Hey, how you doing, Mike?

What's up, buddy? Hey, I got a question. Who do you think in the lightweight division from the prospects has the highest chance of being a lightweight champion, you know, from Gamrods, the Zazzoz, Trees, Mattie? Who do you think has the highest, you know, champ is of being a champion? That's a great question. I love that question. I think Fazeve, we've talked about this before. I think we talked about it on one of the last, a couple of ranking shows ago.

I think Viziv will be the first to fight for the belt of the crop of prospects. I think that's not like a huge reach on my end. I mean, I also didn't think Gamrod was going to get to fight Binal Daryush after the Sauru. I favor B'Neal to win that fight, but it's a great fight. fight. But I'm going to stick with my guns. I'm going to stick with what I've been saying. I know he's coming off of a, and I'm putting air quotes up, he's coming off of a loss to Matush Gamrod, which I still don't think Armand Sarukian lost that fight. I've watched that fight more than any other fight this year. And I'm just trying to find, like, I'm just

trying to figure it out. I'm trying to figure it out. Like, what did I miss? What did I miss that says that Sarukyon lost that fight and I haven't been able to find it yet I haven't been able to find it so I think and Sarukyon's super green still

like he's 25 years old he's only going to get better he's got like seven good years ahead of him and he's just only going to improve that loss quote unquote to Gamron he is going to grow so much from that he really is so to me

my faith if I'm putting out betting lines prospects who I feel most confident will be a UFC champion it's Armand Serukia that's the correct answer maybe McKinney can get there I just don't know Patty's definitely not getting there unless something crazy happens like I've talked about Patty many times

you just have to book him wins at this point it's not about building him to a title shot It's just about getting him wins and making the London fans happy. That's how you book Patty. That's what you do. You throw Patty in there with Armant Sarukhan right now. He's going to get trucked. I mean annihilated by Armant Sarukia.

That fight is not even close for one second. There's not one second of that fight that is competitive. But that's okay. That's okay. You can make a great career making people happy and being in fights and winning. and sending the crowd home happy. You can have a great career doing that. All right.

Average avenues, you are up. Yes. What's up? Then I've got a comment. My question, first of all, is with 279 comment up and the main event not having a title fight attached to it, just your thoughts on paper views that don't have their main event having a title attached to them.

And my comment, I just want to give you, it praises, man. You know, I appreciate you doing this show, have taken your time out of your day to talk to us. You know, I'm just, me, myself, I'm just like a nobody with, like, less than 10, for all. So it's pretty cool that you do this. Have a heck of a morning,

man, cheers. Thank you, sir. Much appreciated. Yeah. That's, uh, I appreciate the kind words. I'm trying to do like 87 things at once, so I actually forgot your question, so I'm sorry. Jay, are you there?

Hey, Mike, can hear me? Yes. All right, so I have two quick things. One is, from listening to all Syragone's interviews and everything on social media, he seems very calm and very collective for this fight coming up. But do you just think that maybe finding in his hometown might get some a bit? Like, maybe he's behind all his calm attitude, like, he may be nervous inside. I don't know.

I just feel like maybe once he steps into the octagon is going to be a little different. I just want to get your thoughts on that. And then also, I'm pretty sure. you're aware, but like Patty recently came out and he thinks that he has like some type of eating disorder. And so I don't know if that's serious or not, but I just wanted to get your opinion on that too as well. And have a heck of a morning, man. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I did, I assume that's from the Thessivo interview. I don't know. I mean, I don't know. I don't know. I don't really want to comment on that because I haven't heard the clip or seen any quotes or

anything like that. But it's clear. I mean, anybody that's really talked about it, it understands what he's doing is not really smart as a professional fighter to cut all that weight and then put it all back on

and then cut it all again. It's just, it's got to be taxing on the body. I mean, he's young enough for now where it's probably going to suck for him, but eventually it's got to get to a point where it's just,

it's just brutal. It's just real brutal. So, Yeah, I don't know if I want to comment on the eating disorder thing because I just, I don't know enough about it and I haven't watched it or seen anything. So, all right, crypto, take us home, my man, because I am running up against it. Hope you're doing well. Okay, as it is a free-for-all Friday, I'm going to ask you a different question. So, Mike, I'm going to give you three different potential rematch fights that may seem a bit absurd, but can still occur.

And I want you to tell me which one is the most likely and the least likely. to occur. So fight number one is Ben Ascrow coming out of retirement to fight Masvidal, which he actually said this week and was fairly surprised about that. Fight number two is Mike Perry granting MVP a rematch, but under the unified rules of MMA. Also stated during the MMA hour in a great interview by Ariel there, but that is actually something that could happen. And fight number three is Dominic Cruz against Mr. Worst Retirement Ever. And yeah, I don't even want to, we don't say his name, Mike.

We don't say his name. Because if there is a slim possibility that there's even one listener here that doesn't know who I'm talking about, we want to keep it that way, basically. So, in essence, those are the three potential rematches, which are a bit strange, but at the time could be a bit fun which one is the most likely and the least likely of those three thank you mike was okay now i got it i got it i got uh all right least likely is ben askran fighting horre mazadol because i mean mazal i mean what's the point what like what point like what's the point of mazal even entertaining the thought of that fight you can never do it any better i just

don't think the ascran buzz is there any longer like i know people care of o't ssa a certain times but is anybody going to take that seriously? No. So that's number three. Number one, I think I think the Perry MVP fight can happen at Bellator. I definitely think it could happen. It makes sense.

I mean, Belator lent MVP to BKFC. BKFC could certainly lend Mike Perry back to them. Little scratch your back. I'll scratch my back, scratch yours type of situation. I think there's a strong chance that has. I mean, what else is there for MVP in MMA right now? There's not much. He just fought for the belt or he fought for the interim title against Storley and lost.

Kind of got robbed going back and remembering that fight. And I actually feel like he got robbed in the Mike Perry fight, if we're being honest. Because that was a freaking knockdown. He didn't get credit for it. And if they gave him credit for that damn knockdown, he wins the fight. There is no, there is no draw. There is no split sudden victory round, and that's how you could build the story. I think that's very possible.

Cruise against the former two-division champion that shall not be named, in the real... It could happen. It could happen, but it's now gotten to the point for me that until this person that shall not be named actually steps inside of an octagon with another fighter, to actually fist fight, I don't believe that this person is actually going to come back and fight at all.

Because this person wants a title fight, he's not going to get it. At 35, he wants it at 45. It's definitely not getting that. He's poking and prodding Connor. He's certainly not getting that. So, yeah.

I'll go, yeah, so I'll go MVP, Perry, 2, MMA, number one, Cruz, versus person that shall not be named, number two. But it's almost a tie with Ben Asker and Mazadol, too, if we're being honest. So great question, great way to end things.

I'm going to get out of here. You can head to MAAfighting.com in like five minutes. You can watch the UFC Paris ceremonial weigh-ins, which is going down. And then at the top of the hour, myself, the Prince of Positivity, A.K. Lee, and Jed Bichu will be going live for the UFC Paris, preview show on the M-A Fighting YouTube channel. So we have a lot left to do. I have a lot more to say.

So join us. Thank you very much. Always fun. Always enjoy these free for all Fridays. And if you are in the United States, enjoy the fights tomorrow. Enjoy the long weekend ahead of us, Labor Day weekend.

And enjoy the rest of your Friday, everybody. And always remember, have a heck of a morning. Thank you all. Thank you.