MMA Fighting - HOAM | Will We Ever Get a Jon Jones vs. Francis Ngannou Fight? Plus, More UFC 285 Fallout

Episode Date: March 7, 2023

Jon Jones made it look easy against Ciryl Gane to become the new UFC heavyweight champion. While some questions were answered, others may still be on the table — questions that may only be answered if somehow the UFC can put a fight together between Jones and former champ Francis Ngannou. On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck discusses the fallout of Jones' quick submission win over Gane in the main event of UFC 285, a likely showdown with Stipe Miocic, and whether or not the UFC would attempt to re-sign Ngannou to fight Jones should the latter move to 2-0 at heavyweight. Additionally, listener questions include Alexa Grasso's championship win against Valentina Shevchenko and if there should be an immediate rematch, or if Grasso's first title defense should be against Erin Blanchfield, Bo Nickal's successful octagon debut, Shavkat Rakhmonov's options after finishing Geoff Neal, 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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Everybody is Tuesday, March 7th, 2023. It is indeed a heck of a morning. We are live on the M.A. Fighting Twitter Spaces. You can hear the show in its entirety shortly thereafter. on the MAA Fighting Podcasting Network. I am Mike Heck. Hope everyone had a great weekend, having a great start to this week.

I don't know if I'm fully caught up on sleep and rest from this past weekend, but we're getting closer, and that's good. Yesterday I was an absolute zombie. Today, feeling a little bit better and ready to do this show with all of you. Obviously, we were coming off of UFC 285,

which went down this past six, Saturday and what an event it was. It lived up to the hype and then some in a lot of ways. We have two brand new champions. Of course, the big one, John Jones, the new heavyweight champion of the world. Submit Cyril Gone in just over two minutes. Made it look easy. John Jones is back, ladies and gentlemen.

And we got all the John Jones stuff, the ways he speaks, the way he conducts himself. if we got all of it. We got Old John, we got Newish John. He reverted back to Old John in some respects where he's humbled and he's grateful and all of that stuff. And then when he was asked about Francis and Gano after the fight, call him a big fat P word. And I was like, there he is.

There's the John Jones we all know and love. So John gets it done, massive moment. He just trucked Cyril gone. this fight was not competitive for a single solitary seconds, and John Jones is the champion. On top of that, Alexa Grasso shut me up and a lot of other people up, goes out and submits Valentina Shvchenko in the fourth round. She is the brand new flyway champion. So now both flyway champions in the UFC, the undisputed flyway champions are Mexican-born, just a cool moment for the sport and I didn't think there was any chance in hell we were going to see that happen,

but this is why we have the fights. This is why the competitors get in there and do the damn thing. And it doesn't matter what me or anybody else has to say about it as far as a breakdown goes. That's why you have the fights. Alexa Grasso was ready. She fought really well. I thought I agreed with the judge's scorecards heading into the four. round. I thought Schifchenko was winning the fourth round, although it was very, very close, until the spin kick happened. Grasso was ready for it. You saw a bunch of videos. She's been preparing for that spin kick to the body. And Alexa Grasso just pounced on it, took the back, and just crushed Valentina Shepchenko's face to the point of Schofchenko just being like,

oh, damn it. Got a tap. I got no choice. Well done Alexa. And she is, the flyway champion of the world. Incredible stuff. Just incredible stuff. And, I mean, how can you not be happy for her? I'm happy to eat crow to watch a moment like that. And I'm sure I'm going to eat some crow in this program. And that's okay.

That's all right. Nice performance for Shafkat Rokmanov. That fight with Jeff Diel. I told you that fight was going to be a little more competitive than a lot of you thought it was. And Jeff Neal came to fight. They beat the hell out of each other. Shafka Rokmanoff. started to cook, got going, and then a rear naked choke, bulldog choke hybrid,

whatever you want to call it. I'm going to call it the Shafcott choke, standing. It was just crazy to watch. It was just out of nowhere. He's like, all right, I'm done with this. Boom. And it was all over. What a performance are Shafcott.

Batush Gamrod, fun fight with Jalen Turner. It's the, it's heading in. We thought we were going to be talking more about that fight heading out, but that was probably like the eighth most interesting thing. that happened on the card. And that just shows you the strength and quality of the card. But Gamrock gets it done. Jalen Turner, I think he lost a lot of buzz from that because he fought really well.

And just came up a little bit short. Gamrock gets it done. He's back on track. Be interesting to see where he goes from here at 155. Bo Nickel. Submits Jamie Pickett at just under three minutes. A little bit of controversy there with the possible knee to the nether regions. And I noticed it on the watch.

party that's something weird kind of happened because you saw the grimace on jamie pickett's face before he got taken down and Bo gets it done obviously he's got some work to do but the foundation is there for for something really special and as far as the prelims go Cody Garbrand gets a win over Trevin Jones not a fight anybody's going to go back and watch again except for maybe Garbrand and his team uh drink his du plusi finishes Derek Brunson uh corner stoppage love that stoppage from Brunson's corner. He was teasing retirement on social media. I don't know if it's official just yet. But we know how this goes in M.A.

So we're going to wait till we get word and he's out of the pool and all that stuff before we start talking about Derek Brunson, the former UFC fighter. Amanda Hebas, I mean, like I said, through most of the bill that I don't bet on MMA, but if there's one bet I would have made on this entire card, it would have been Amanda Hebus by decision. And that's exactly what happened. She gets it done. Mark Andrebeiro finishes Julian Marquez in round two. Ian Machado Gary gets a finish in round three. Scary moment early on for Ian Machado, Gary gets dropped by Kenan Song. But other than that, it was all Ian Gary.

This fight was outside of the first round where Song dropped them. That fight was not really competitive at all. Cameron Simon, man's going to figure out if he's going to cheat, make it less obvious. He gets points taken again, but still gets the majority decision over Mata Martinez. Tabitha Ritchie, nice arm bar submission finishes Jessica Petey, Freed Basharad had to work for it, but gets his first UFC win against Doman Blackshare, and Loik Radov off wins his Octagon debut on short notice against Esteban Rievovich. But a lot to talk about.

Real quick before I go to the calls, a lot of talks about rankings and where people should go after UFC 285. I'll open the curtain a little bit and tell you what I did. I have John Jones, who was not ranked, obviously, in our heavyweight rankings or pound for pound rankings, because he hadn't fought in over three years. John Jones has entered by rankings at number two, number two at heavyweight, behind Francis and Ganoe, because as impressive as John was, he went in there just melted serial gun. This was not a close fight. I still, as impressed as I was, I still have questions.

I still have questions because John went in there and did what he had to do, and it was incredibly impressive. But I don't know if it's more that John was just on one, and he probably was, or if gone was just not ready for this moment. Because that dude looked like he was going to collapse from fear from the second he walked to the octagon. him. He looked petrified. And Jones took advantage of it.

Took him down immediately. God had no answer for it. Tried to get up. Got ripped right back to the ground and got tapped immediately. And so I have Jones a number two. It just sucks, man. It sucks so bad that we're not going to get the Francis fight. I hope, I really hope that we do get it.

I hope that if John Jones fights Steepay and I think he's going to do, I think he's going to run through Stepe Meachich. I hope he gets on the mic and calls for Francis, and I really hope the UFC tries. Even if they just can figure out a way to get him in for a one-off, I have to see that fight. I've wanted to see it for the last couple of years since it became a thing. But after what I just saw this past Saturday,

I have to see it. I have to see it. So I have John Jones at number two in my heavyweight rankings. As far as pound for pound goes, there are a few of us in the rankings panel who have John Jones at number one. I ain't going to argue with you on that. I am not going to argue with you on that. I do not have John as number one. I do not have John as number two.

I do not even have John is number three. I have John Jones at number four. I have John Jones and number four. I have Islam Makachev still at number one. I have Volcanovsky at number two. And I understand the argument. New York, Rick, talked about this, I think, on the watch party at the end. Branson Gano is the best heavyweight, but John Jones is the best fighter.

And I get that. Totally get it. I just couldn't put John above Francis in the palm-for-pound discussion. I just couldn't do it. I just couldn't do it based on that fight. And it was, I mean, he couldn't have done it better. But I will say this. We can talk about this throughout if you want.

If John fights Steepay in July and he just absolutely dump truck Stepe and finishes him in the first couple of rounds, he will be my number one guy. He'll be number one. I'm satisfied as far as John goes. There are people who have John ranked lower than I have him. There's some people who have him at five. There's somebody who has him at seven. I think that's a little crazy. but John being in the top five or above makes sense.

I just couldn't pull the trigger on putting him at number one. And I certainly couldn't put him over Francis. I need to see a little bit more before I do that. I need to see a little bit more. Throw him up against Steepay. See how that goes. I think he's going to run over Stepe. And I think Stepe is going to be better prepared for the moment than Cyril Gan was.

I think Steepay will be a little more competitive. But in the end, I think John wins. And if he does, that'll be enough for me to be like, all right, I've seen what I need to see. He's number one. I think if I had a little more time to think about it, I might have had John a little bit higher. I might have talked myself out of it,

but the way we do these is we needed to have the pound for pound rankings and our heavyweight rankings done like before we started the post-fight show. So I literally had like 15 minutes to figure it out, and that's what I landed on. So I know he's number one in the UFC rankings. And again, if you have him above where I have him

or if you have him as number one pound for pound, I'm not going to debate you on it. I'm not going to say you're wrong. Pound for pounds is such a silly discussion anyways. But if you have John at one or you have him at five, I don't think there's a wrong answer here. So let's head into this. Let's hear from you.

I'm sure you have a lot to say and discuss. Tristan was first, so we will start with him. Hey, Mike. Can you hear me? Yep. All right. The card was great. It was amazing.

USC 285, I guess one of the best so far. Very surprised with John Jones how easily he was able to submit gone. I was shocked by that. As far as Grasso and Valentina, Valentina was winning. I felt she was winning in the fight on points, but it looked like Grosso was getting to Valentina with her striking, which was surprising, especially when you look at the replays. that's why I was surprised that Valentin was like trying to was taking Grasso down so many times

so I wonder if she was having issues with Grasso's striking and then obviously we saw what happened she capitalized on that as far as job as far as Shopcott versus Jeff Neal didn't love the amount of hits that he was taken by Jeff Neal but Jeff Neal is such a such a great boxer it's really hard to avoid those shots. So I think Schaq was like, all right, I'm going to take the wrist. I'm going to take some to give back. And

that's what he did. And the whole entire time, he kept pressuring Jeff. The whole entire time, those knees were huge. It was like jab, jab, one, two, knee. And he kept doing that consistently, which got Jeff, Neil are so tired. And then that choke

was just brutal right there. And I was just like, this guy is unbelievable. The thing, I was thinking, about this too, I don't know if you agree with this, for me I think Shafka-Rakmano reminds me of prime Korean zombie. That is my thought process.

This is what he embodies the Korean zombie. This is what the Korean zombie was supposed to be. But due to his military obligations and the injuries, we didn't really get to see that. But this is Pakistan's Korean zombie.

this guy he has nothing just like ken floe said on the broadcast when he broadcast when uh krianzami fought dustin pori at featherway all this guy has is just finishing moves this guy can finish you standing up this guy can finish you on the ground i mean i wouldn't be surprised if i see a twister in one of these fights at some point so i mean this is what made the krianzami so loved and i think this is a why what makes people love Shafcott right now. This guy has nothing but finishing moves.

He's just so exciting, so good, just love it. And the reason why I said that the next fight he should fight RDA is because I just don't think he's going to fight anybody in that top five. We already have the only person, the only person

probably that he may fight is oh my gosh. He just and he just fought Neil Magny. Burns, I'm sorry. Yeah, I think that's the only person with Gilbert Burns. I don't think Below's going to take that fight because he's going to be like,

I just beat an up-and-coming prospect by beating Sean Brady. I think he's going to call for the Kobe fight. So that's what I think Belaw's going to call for the Kobe fight, and he may get it because I think Kobe would be Dustin Poirier. That's the number one fight. He wants that at 170. If he can't get Dustin Poir, then I think he'll take the Belal fight and you'll have Bilal versus Kobe. And, you know, for me, I was thinking about it.

I think Shafcott, it's going to either be Gilbert or it's going to be RDAA. Because RDA is going to fight whoever he doesn't, he doesn't really care. So that's why my pick was RDA at that point. And great, I know it was great yesterday. I have to give you good U and AK. props. The banter going back and forth about Figy versus Cody was great. great. I just love it. I just love the going back and forth. Hopefully we could get more friendly banter like that. You know, just to switch it up a little bit, I thought that was great. So,

you know, Mike, just your thoughts on what I have to say. Thanks for everything. Thanks, man. Yeah, I don't think Bilal is going to, I don't think Bilal Mohammed is in any position to be like, nah, I'm not going to take that fight. That's why I'm telling you, folks, and I talk about this all the time, it is so important to make your minutes count when the spotlight is upon you. When you win a fight and you have an impressive performance, if a microphone is put in front of you, you need to say something compelling and you need to say something that people remember, or you're at a tough spot. Look up in the El Daryush. This guy should have got a title shot like a year ago, and now he's going to have to fight Charles Oliver to

get it. And I think Balal is kind of in the same spot. Some people are saying that he's going to fight, that Balal's going to fight, have to fight Schofcott no matter what. And I don't think that's a wrong answer at all. I think for Balal, he needs, and I don't even know if this is enough, I think he needs Kamar Usman to win next Saturday.

Maybe Usman calls for Bilal and like makes it a little bit easier that path for him. But other than that, boy, oh boy. But Bal's just in a tough spot. He's just in a tough spot. Good fighter on a nice streak. He's just not... Shafcott has way more buzzed than Bilal right now.

I mean, it's not even a conversation. How much more buzz Shafkat Rukh Madov has than Bilal Mohammed right now. And maybe that's fair. Maybe it isn't. But I talked to a couple people who know Shafqqqqat that train with him, that are very close to him since Saturday. And as far as the execution of the fight, that's what he wanted to do. And if you saw the tweet that he sent to Wonderboy, that was pretty much the game plan.

I just wanted to show that I'm not just the dude that's going to take you down and sit on you, that I could just stand on my feet and just crack with everybody. And that's what he did. Maybe that wasn't the best strategy in the world, but he still won and he wanted to show. Because he tweeted out to Wonderboy something to the effect of, yeah, not bad for a grappler, huh, or something like that. But that was sort of the plan. You're just going to go in there and strike with Jeff.

And Jeff's tough as hell. Jeff's takedown defense is really good, and you got to see it a little bit more in that fight. But Shafcott just chipped away and chipped away. And Jeff, to his credit, just kept fighting. But it just became too much. He just took too much damage. And Shafcott's a monster. So to me, I think he's either going to fight Bilal or he's going to fight Leon Edwards if Ustman wins.

I think that's where he's at. Called for Colby, I don't think Colby's going to take that fight. But right now, I'm at the point with Colby where any matchmaking suggestions are just kind of out the door. Because we just, we have no idea. All we have really is Dana saying, oh, yeah, he wants to fight. Dana's been saying that since Jacksonville. Last April, he's been saying that. Colby's been asking for a fight.

He's accepted a bunch. We're going to do him in Hamzot in July on. ABC, there's this, there's this, there's this, this didn't work out, this didn't work out. We've been hearing this for a year and still nothing, nothing. So I don't know what they're going to do. But I can't wait to she's shop-cough fight again. Guy is an absolute problem. With MX Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too.

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Double A, hello. Good, how are you? I'm good. I've got some, like a comment or two, and I've got some questions as well. First of all, props to Brunson's Corner, like you said, for throwing in the towel. I believe that's the second time they've done that because they threw it in the tower just as the referee waved off the Kenoneeer flight. that's something that's obviously like in their system I guess you could say um Alexa Grasso that was I was not expecting that at all to I was someone who said she didn't

stand a chance and I I gladly ate my words um John Jones I was sort of disappointed in a way because the main event ended so quickly but after watching it and this is what my question is, who the heck beat him? Because no one at heavyweight grapples like John Jones does. So who does anyone even stand a chance against John Jones? Like seriously? All right, that's all for me. Have a great day, everyone. Take care of yourself and peace. Yeah, so I'll get to the Jones thing in a second. What impressed me the most about Alexa Grasso on Saturday was that she was, she matched Valentina's physicality. And I didn't think that was,

I didn't think she could do that. And I thought that was the big X factor for me in that entire fight. Was that Valentina is eventually going to like get her hands on her. She's going to take her down. She's going to crucifix her and she's going to beat her into an oblivion. And that didn't happen. There was a moment where Valentina got her in the crucifix. She was landing shots, but Alexa stayed cool.

And then in the moments where Valentina tried to get physical, Alexa just didn't have it. And that was impressive. that was the biggest thing to me. Like I never dogs, I never like said Alexa wasn't a good fight or anything like that because she's very good.

Very, very good. It was getting better and better and better. I just felt like the timing of it and just the physical tools that Valentina typically brings to her fights, especially coming off of a fight where people question where she's at, I just felt like it was just horrible timing

and I thought stylistically it was a tough matchup. Now, stylistically, I think in the, the rematch, some of those problems could come to fruition, but it didn't happen on Saturday. Alexa was ready for it all. And damn it, man, she did it. It was just, what a cool moment. You just can't help but feel for her, but be happy for her, pull it off this upset. Just incredible stuff from Alexa Grosso.

As far as John Jones goes, I think Curtis Blades is a really tough fight for him. I would probably pick John to win. but Curtis is a tough matcher for him. He's probably of the active UFC fighters on the heavy rate roster, I would say Curtis Blades is probably the toughest fight for him. That's my opinion.

And I think Francis matches up really well against Sean. But it sucks again because we're not going to probably not going to see that fight. And it just hurts my heart. It hurts my heart. And the problem with Curtis Blades

is Curtis can do pretty much anything. and it always just feels like he's a winner two away, no matter what he does. Like if he goes out and just truck Sergei Pavlovich, even then that's not like a guarantee that he's going to get a title shot. So, but I think Curtis does match up well against John. I just don't know if John is going to be like,

yay, I get to fight Curtis Blades now. I don't know. John's in a great position right now because of all the buzz heading in and coming out of UFC 285. Let's go to my buddy, New York, Rick. What's up, New York? A heck of a morning, Mike. How are you?

I'm good. How are you? I'm doing great. I'm fantastic. It was a wonderful weekend. It was. The word deserves is kind of on my mind this morning. And it's been thrown around a lot in MMA in general, but it seems to be being thrown around a lot. in the aftermath of UFC 285.

And I'll give you two examples and then I have two questions. Valentina Shavchenko, quote, unquote, deserves a rematch with Alexa Grasso. That's something I'm hearing. I'm dubious, but I'm going to ask you at the end of this. And also, Stipei Miochich deserves the John Jones fight, right? This is the fight that needs to be made.

Or even John Jones deserves the Stipe A. Miotich fight. I'm wondering the Valich. of the word deserves and if that's a real thing in MMA and if they truly do deserve. So I guess my question to you is number one, does Valentina Shavchenko deserve a rematch with Alexa Grasso? Do you need to see this? Or could there be a path where Alexa Grasso fights a number one contender and Valentina Shavchenko fights somebody else?

And then maybe they rematch sometime later this year or next year. And then secondarily, does Stipe Miochich, who has shown no enthusiasm for the idea that coming off a brutal knockout at the hands of Francis and Ganu and sitting out for two years deserves a fight with John Jones other than the fact that John Jones wants it. Are we sure that Steve Bay deserves this fight, quote unquote? Do you need to see the Steve Bay-Myotich versus John Jones fight

or would you be just as happy to watch the winner of Curtis Blades and Sergei Pavlovich fight John Jones? Those are my two questions. Yeah. So we talk about deserves a lot. It creates a lot of debate on this program more than anything. And we, perfect example is the lightweight divisional chatter right now, where you have

Benile Dary Eush and he's right there. And if he beat Charles Olivera, and he's deserved, quote, unquote, a title shot for a while. And if he beat Charles Olivera, he deserves it even more. The problem is, there are bigger names that are in play than Benile Daryush. One of them is, Dustin Porre, who's coming off a win against Michael Chandler. So, because of what we have learned over the past six or seven years, the word deserves means nothing. This isn't Bellator. Belator is a meritocratic promotion where they have their rankings,

and they abide by those rankings. So if someone's like number one or number two, the number one guy will get a call. If he can't go, they'll go to number two and they'll go to number three and so forth and so on. The UFC doesn't really do that unless it is just undeniable and there's nobody else there. So to answer your questions, one, does Valentina deserve an immediate rematch? Yes, because she defended her title seven times. I thought she was winning the fight.

I thought I was with the judges. She was up two rounds to one. She was probably winning the fourth until the spin kick. She got taken out and finished. Does she deserve a rematch? Absolutely she does. Would it be the first thing I would go to? That's another question.

Now, if they go to Mexico City, maybe in September, and Valentina is ready to go, then do it. I'm fine with it. But if Valentina is not ready to go, she's like, nah, I don't want to do that, or I want to wait a few more months, or I'm going to take a little more time off, you don't wait for Valentina. you move forward and Valentina can fight the winner. Then you do Alexa Grousso versus Aaron Blanchfield. Good to go. I would like to see Aaron Blanchville get the title shot. I would like to see it right now.

But I don't think that's going to happen. So deserves is a weird word. And does Steeping deserve a title shot against John Jones right now? No, he does not. But he's going to get it because, again, it ain't about deserves. It ain't about anything else. It ain't about the rankings. It's about what fight will do the most money.

What fight will quickly sell out an arena because they're going to do that international fight week. The ticket prices will be shot up a little bit higher. It will sell out. It'll be a massive deal. And the pay-per-view buys will be massive. It will be bigger. And John will probably run through Stepe.

And John's legacy gets a bit of an extra boost, so to speak. my biggest question is what does john do after that if he goes out there and just destroy steepa which i think he's got a really good chance to do that i think it's i think it's a really tough matchup for him what do you do now does he just leave does he just say yeah i'm done does he call off francis in hopes the ufc can find a way to get that fight done because other than that i don't think there's going to be a lot that's going to keep him cooking I don't think Curtis Blades will get him excited. I don't think Sergey Pavlovich will get him excited.

I don't think really anybody right now will get him excited. I don't think Tommy Aspinall. I don't know. Maybe he'd have some fun with Tai Tui Vasa, but he certainly is far away. Maybe Jailton Almeida will impress him if he goes out and beats Jarzino. I don't know. I don't know.

But my old pal, Damon Martin from M.AFighting.com, told me seven years ago, after Tyron Woodley won the Welterweight title against Robbie Lawler, and Wonderboy Thompson talked to him in the studio and said, all right, let's go. And Tyrone Woodley's like, nah, I'd rather fight GSP or Nick Diaz. I thought that was, I thought, I was like, what? Wonderboy deserves the title shot. And Damon told me a lesson.

I never forget. when it comes to the UFC, strike the word deserves from your vocabulary because this is a different place. It's a different promotion. It's a different way of doing business. So there you go.

Let's go to Four Corner Sports. You're right. Deserers should be taken out of the vocabulary when it comes to the UFC. Yeah, CEP doesn't deserve a title shot. I do believe John Jones was going to be very active this year. I'm predicting maybe just, you know,

three appearances. I'm still set on the fact that he might fight Sergey Pavlovich just because of the... I really do believe he's not to defeat Curtis Blades, but I feel like he'll fight the winner of Blaze versus Pavlovich. Maybe in December, because that's usually

like a major hate review, if not maybe at MSG. That's just my prediction. I feel like there is a very low chance that he completes an eight-fight deal. I mean, it's very unrealistic for him. to fight eight more times at this stage of his career. But I really wanted to talk about, what's it called,

the fact that Alexa Grasso did win. I think the UFC needs to strike while the iron is hot. You know, I tagged Jed Mishu and Connor Birx, and I said that so far in 2023, in the Colmen event, we have had a Mexican fighter fight in the Colmen event slot for a title and they have all now have won.

Marino has one. Yair has one and now Alexa Grasso has one. All right? Now I asked them if that trend will continue not, I mean, this next co-main event for paper abuse law will be Gajun Fisina. I know Gai Chi is Mexican descent. Now

he wasn't born in Mexico but wonder if that's in a continue where a Mexican fighter of Mexican fighter descent will continue that trend. But I do believe that the U.S.C. should try to get something booking for an event in Mexico City.

Do I believe it's going to happen as far as September? I don't think so, but I mean, the U.S.C. can add an extra pay-per-view. I don't know how that works with ESPN. Maybe in July. Put something there, you know, it really would depend if Volk wants to wait, you know,

that long, deep into July, to fight Yaira Year, and Vogue wants to be active. But you definitely put Marino on that card. The other question would be, will Valentina be ready to fight Alexa Gross in that rematch or do they go to Aaron Blanchfield? And if you don't mind,

I would definitely add Raul Roses Jr. onto there. You could add in Brian Ortega, who he hasn't fought since July of 2022. You could put Michael Morales there. He trains from Mexico. I know he's not a Mexican-born fighter, but you can put a whole bunch of Mexican-born fighters

on that Mexico City card, put it on pay-per-view. It's in a sell-out. It's going to bring a lot of attraction. Only main reason why I really wouldn't put it so much in September. I understand Mexican independence. They lands in September, and it's in a really rival,

Canello, because usually Conno likes to fight in May and in September. And I know Dana White has a great relationship with Eddie Earn, and I know he wouldn't do that to Eddie Earn. All right, Mike, let me know what you think. Thanks. I just think July's too short, too short a time frame. I just, I understand you want to strike all the iron's hot, but going international to different locations is tough, man.

It's tough to do. And once we get to next Saturday, that's three pay-per-views out of four that are international right now. It's cool. Like, it's great to go to different places, but you can't do, you can't have that high of a percentage of international pay-per-views. Like, we're at 75% right now by the time we get to 286. It's a lot.

That's a lot. And there's a lot of U.S. markets that haven't had a card in a minute. Like, I get so many questions about Boston. Like, why are they going to Boston? Where are they going to Boston? I have no idea. I would assume they will go there sometime this year, but I have no clue. So I think September would probably be the time frame, because they probably

probably have a lot of that other stuff figured out. I don't know if we're going to get two in July. Maybe we will. I'm not sure. But even there's like, there's other international markets. They're probably going to want to hit again. Paris is one of them. They'll probably want to go back there because that one did really well.

I think they will end up in Mexico City, but July, I just think it's too soon. I hope I'm wrong. I'd love to see them strike while the iron's hot, but I think it will be probably around if they do it. If they can get it put together, probably really. probably around September would be my guess. And I would assume Dana and Eddie would have a conversation and maybe they don't do it like the exact same weekend or something or they figure it out some way somehow.

But I just think July is too soon. But they have to go this year. They drop the ball in the UFC Africa thing. They got to go to Mexico City this year for sure. Cairo's. What's up, man? I don't hear you. All right.

Try again, Kairos. I'll get you back in here. Yeah, I just was. I was getting nothing. Let's go to Mikey. Mikey. Mikey, you're there. Yep, there you go.

What's that, man? Yeah, I'm here. Okay, well, all right. What's going to everybody. Just about what New York, Rick said, listen, man, about the deserved thing, can we please start being so absolute with it? Like, I understand we can have our pick

and disagreements at who deserves what, but they all do. They all deserve. It's just that there's only one person that gets to get the shot, you know? Pretending only one person deserves the next crack at the title, always feel disinjames. Like, Stipe, right? Does he, quote, quote, deserve the immediate?

Probably not. To pretend that he doesn't have a claim, the guy only has one loss in the last couple of years, and it's two in Ghana who just left. Other than that, he had beaten Daniel Kormier twice. Yeah, I know, I get it. He just retired. And again, I mean, you heard me speak on these spaces all the time.

about the backtop between M.M.A fans. They want merit to be rewarded. I'm like, okay, what's better merit than the only heavyweight champion in recent memory to have defended the belt more than two times? Why are we going to ask Stipei to do all the legwork they spent 10 years doing for what, just to cosmetically please some people? Oh, he should fight Sergei Pavlovich. Great.

That's great for Pavlovich. What does it do for Stipe? You know what I mean? Like, why do we pretend? And why do people act so goddamn obtuse about these things? Now, I'm not saying I don't agree. I would love for that things. But sometimes there's certain situations that's called for like, yeah, man.

I, you know, you and I are both, we're on opposite sides of the defense. Not necessarily disagreeing with your take that the Neil Dyer deserves a title shot. But when I said Duss-A-Poyer deserves a title shot, people pretending like I'm wrong or I'm stupid for saying it is like, are you kidding? So you want Dustin Poyier to win six in a row again just to get a title shot against the guy he hasn't fought? yet, you know, like, if Benile gets a tile shot, cool. If doesn't get a tile shot, cool. If Stepe gets a title shot, cool.

But do you know it always makes me laugh? People's like, Stipe doesn't deserve a tile shot. Okay, then who does? Crickets. Like, don't say he doesn't deserve a title shot and then not have a name. You know, what, Curtis Blades? Okay, cool. He's about to fight Pallovich.

If he beats him, then he gets one. Even he admits, so I met Curtis Blades on Friday, for his meeting greet. He gets it. He's like, sure, I get it. He even said so at that heavyweight panel. He's like, he gets it. Because guess what?

If C-Pade me, if Curse Blades ever gets any kind of accolade, like X UFC Heavyweight champion, you bet your ass he's going to play that card. He'd be like, hey, I'm an ex-champ. I should get first dibs over some no-name contender. No one's ever heard of. You know what I mean? And one quick note on Valentina and Alexa,

that was bittersweet for me because I'm a fan of the boat, so I was kind of, you know, sucks to Valentia loss, but Alexa won, so that was nice, too. but the only answer I needed was could she meet the physicality and you guys just addressed that. But other than that, her skills were there. We all saw it.

Everybody who saw Alexa Sinsenvicton knew that she had championship talent. And by the way, a lot of people owe Lars Sanko, the apology, because they tried to drag her for saying that Alexa has one of the best, is one of the best boxers in the UFC and she was kind of right.

You know, anyways, good seeing you guys. Be kind of one another. Talk to you later. Yeah, no one, no one should ever smirch Lorisanko. Undeserving. Whatever she says, just agree with her because she's the best. Yeah, I mean, the problem with, the thing with Steppe is, and this is kind of different than most other people, is that he just doesn't seem, he just hasn't even seemed interested in doing anything when it comes to fight.

Nothing. It's been over two years. If John didn't go back to heavyweight, I don't think he'd ever fight again. So I think some people are just like, oh, well, the only reason you're trying to come back is to get the big payday to fight John. I'm not saying he hasn't earned that up, that right? Because he has.

But over the last two years, this division looks way different than it did when Stepe was the champion. Way different. Just look at some of the names that have, gone up. Like Cyril Gone is one of them. Sergei Pavlovich come out of nowhere. Like Blades has been kind of a mainstay, but

he's just not that interesting, I guess, in a lot of people's eyes. Tommy Aspinall. Taito Ivasa became like a top five heavyweight Wals-Sipe has been gone. Jailton Almeida is going up the ranks. We've seen guys like Alexander Romanov look like they could be

a big problem. the division is much more interesting now than it was when he left and you and that's why him and DC had to keep fighting because there's nothing else now you have options you have more options in heavyweight than we've had in a long time but a lot of these names just aren't that interesting really so seepe's going to get the fight and there you go and i don't have a problem with it John wants it and John has such favor with the UFC right now that if John was just like, nah, I don't want to fight steep anymore.

I'll fight Curtis Blades. They're going to try to make Curtis Blades fight. That's where John is at right now. John has a ton of momentum. He has a shitload of leverage right now, more than ever after that performance and how well that event did in the buzz that it still has.

John is in their not good graces, they're great graces. So whatever John wants, he is going to get right now. That is for sure. And he's going to get Stepe. It's going to get Stepe. The guy with most title defenses in the UFC's heavyweight division, it'll be, John will promote it as the best fighter of all time against the greatest heavyweight of all time.

That's how it'll present it. And I certainly don't agree that Steepa is the greatest heavy weight of all time. But that's how he will present it. And that's how the UFC will present it. there you go it's just a different division than it was a couple years ago so there is pause

there's a little more pause and plus stepe like legitimately I didn't think he'd ever fight again I was I was I had moved on from stepe being a fighter and not because he couldn't do it it just didn't seem like he wanted to he was happy being dad and husband

and firefighter and I was happy for him to be happy but now that john's back he wants one more crack at it. Why not? And I think the UFC is going to try to put it together because I think they're very confident that John is going to win this fight

and get one last big payday for Stepey and it's worth it because John will probably win that fight and the UFC can present him as now he's the greatest heavyweight of all time. It's wild. And Francis is just

forgotten in all of this which kisses me off. Just buried, buried, buried. Tyros, do we have you? Yeah, sorry about that. First time it just failed me, I guess. I don't know. It's too hot for me to speak.

I'm good, man. I heard someone mention Aaron Blanchold fighting for a title. Mind you, her beating Jessica Andrage definitely opened my eyes and letting me see that she can definitely compete

at that championship level. But I think that she should fight like Amanda Limos or Manon Faro before she gets a crack at the title, to be honest. Because I think they're going to do Valentina next, like a few of you guys said, because, you know, I don't know.

I'm not going to say a deserved word, but, you know. So in the meantime, I think she should do that too because it should, it would give a clear indication on if she could go five rounds with an elite opponent. Because it's like, great, you finish Jessica inside the distance. But what would have happened if you had to fight someone elite for 25 minutes? Because it's a huge difference, massive difference in like a fight that takes place over two, three rounds. But that's just what I'm thinking. Yeah, I mean, if they go to Valencia, like they're going to try to go to Valenciana first. There's no doubt about it.

They're going to try to get, deserves has been a very big word here. It's like Peewey's Playhouse. When you say deserves, we have to go crazy. But Chichengo deserves a rematch. Like, if anybody deserves an immediate rematch, it's her. And I know we just, the problem is we get them a lot. Like, we just get him so much. And people, it's, it's, it's just been a weird couple of years.

It's like, we didn't see Kamar Usman losing to Leon Edwards the way that he did, but of course he deserves an immediate rematch because he had such a long title reign. Who screwed the whole thing up for all of us, and this is a while ago, was Cody Garbrand. Cody wins the belt, has one of the best performances ever against Dominic Cruz, and then he just gets melted by T.J. Dilleshaw and gets an immediate rematch, and he gets a melted again. And Cody probably shouldn't have gotten an immediate re-exha. didn't even have a title defense. It just gets an immediate rematch.

That kind of like was the beginning of, well, just do a media rematches all the time. But Valentina certainly deserves an immediate rematch. Are you kids? Like, after all of this, that rain, she's the palm-for-pound best women's fighter in the world. She definitely should deserve a rematch. And I would want to see it again. And I don't know if I would pick Alexe Grasso the second time around either. I would feel, I would not feel as confident as I was in Valentina heading into the first one,

but I would probably pick Valentina to win the rematch. And then that really sucks for Aaron Blanchfield because they're going to just do it again. They're just going to do it again after that. But yeah, I don't think Aaron Blanchfield's going to be like, well, if I don't fight for the title, that I'm going to sit out and do nothing. Now, she'll fight somebody else. If you want to chuck her in there with Tyler Santos, cool. You want to chuck her in there with Bannon Fioreau?

I'm fine with that. that's fine. And I would pick Blanchefield to beat both of them. I think she would finish Man and Fioro. Santos would be a really interesting fight. But I would pick Blanchfield to win that one too. So yeah, she might have to fight one more time. And I don't think she'll have a big problem with that.

But they'll go to Valentina first. Valentina is ready. She'll get it. If she can't, Blancheville will get it. And Valentina will get the winner. George, what's up? listeners sure okay two things on the main and on the the co-main first on the main i know the ufc i know dana even john jones himself would like to think okay it's settled i'm now the greatest

heavyweight i'm now the goat of all time but i'm sorry guys i'm sorry ufc dana john that fight john jones's performance against the real gun told me absolutely nothing about what a fight with him versus Francis and Gano would look like. Give me John Jones versus a big heavyweight, a big, powerful heavyweight with takedown defense and an eraser. Surreal Gahn has neither of those two things. He doesn't have the eraser, and we now see he doesn't have to take down defense. So unless until this fight happens,

there will always be a question mark hanging over John Jones, the heavyweight hanging over the heavyweight division. I hope they find a way to get it done. I know Dana said, oh, it's never going to happen. And we know Dana likes to say one thing today. And then three months later, they're announcing, hey, you know, a John Jones, Francis, and Ghanu in Africa to be the main event for the UFC's first card ever in Africa. I hope. I hope.

But until then, I have little interest in John Jones versus Steepa. John Jones versus Curtis Blades. I'll watch. I'll be mildly interested, but the only heavyweight fight needs to be made before John Jones retires because he could retire at any minute. He just won and five minutes later he's already, well, maybe I have one more.

I'm like, John, you just got here. You just spent three years moving up to heavyweight and already you're talking retirement. Let's get this done. Francis still hasn't signed with anyone. Let's find a way to make it happen. That's on the main event. As for the Komen, the word of the day is deserved.

Let's talk about deserved. Who deserved a rematch was Tyler Santos. So I was thrilled. I was through the roof, happy, ecstatic when Alexa Grasso won, got that submission. Because Valentina ducked just out in the open publicly for all the world to see she ducked Tyler Santos rematch. Because Tyler Santos deserved a rematch. Yes, that was a dominant ring. by Valentina. Who gave her her toughest fight outside of Amanda Nunes? Tila Santos. That was a

greasy split decision that could have gone out of the way, and it was a head clash. And Valentina likes to say, oh, I was winning the fight until I lost. Yeah. And Tyler Santos was winning that fight until the head clash. She deserved the rematch. So I was really happy when Valentina lost and Alexa won, because Valentina A, she was ducking Tyler Santos. B, she was overlooking Alexa Grasso, tweeting at girls from Risen, talking about Aaron Blanchfield, just like completely overlooking Alexa. She wasn't alone, by the way. Lots of people.

And that brings me to another point. Can we stop being so quick to dismiss fighters to dismiss these opponents, especially in title fights? Alexa, I must have heard a hundred times. Alexa Grasso has no chance. So don't watch. I was watching because I thought she had a chance. Number one, the narrative was on her side.

Number two, she's still only 29 years old. Number three, she's on the rise. She's making improvements. And Valentina, sorry, she looked slow. Maybe there comes. They are on the other, they reach the other side of the hill. Rematch, I'll take it. But if Valentina gets passed over, she's not ready.

I say we move on immediately without her. I cannot wait for a UFC card in Mexico. I think Brandon Moreno has earned it. all the Mexican fighters have earned it. I know the UFC really wants to make it happen. And if most of these international cards are pay-per-views, I'm okay with that. If Boston doesn't get a pay-per-view within on the immediate horizon,

I can live with that. But again, I'm thrilled for Alexa. As for John Jones, unless until we see that Francis Ngano fight, that question mark will always be there. Thanks, Mike. Yeah, that's why I didn't put John as my number one heavyweight or number one pound for pound fighter, but I just need to see more.

I need to see more before I'm ready to pull that trigger. You saying not interested in Curtis Blades kind of makes me scratch my head a little bit because Curtis has both of those things that you look for. Good wrestling, and he's got the eraser. He's not the most interesting and compelling personality, but skill-wise, Curtis is probably the toughest

for John right now outside of Francis. But look, I think I think they will take a shot at Francis. And it's all on John. This is all up to John. If John Jones fights deep A in July and just wrecks him, which I think he's going to, John Jones needs to get on the microphone

and call out Francis. And he needs to cut a promo and a half. Him calling him a P-word at the Post-Fite press conference is going to create a headline, sure. But that's it. That's it. You get on the mic,

you put your arm around Joe Rogan. If you want to call Francis P. We're in the call, go for it. But you've got to do it then. Do it then. And then Dana's going to get asked about it at the press conference. Dana's always said, well, my goal is to give the fans,

the fights they want to see. And look, I don't blame Dana for how he handled it this week. I don't blame him. As a stubborn bald Boston asshole myself once in a while, when you take a line in the sand, you have to stick to it for a little while, for a little while.

But then, like, you can't just bury Francis in January and say what you said about him and just completely annihilate him on the way out. And then two months later, be like, well, you know, I was wrong about that. No, no. You got to go all in on it for a little while. But if John goes out and beats Stepe, calls him out,

and everyone just starts buzzing about John versus Francis after that fight, you got to take a shot at it. And let's just keep this in mind. Dana can say whatever he wants, but Dana ain't the one getting that job done. Dana will not be the one putting that fight together Dana will not be the one negotiating with France and Gano Will Dana like have dinner with him

Perhaps sure but it's Hunter It's the matchmakers Dana's just kind of there But he doesn't make that decision Dana could say what he wants But it's not up to Dana to make that fight Dana could give a nudge to Hunter and say all right Talk to him again

And then Hunter's going to do everything Dana said it himself self when they let Francis go like don't feel bad for me like it's Hunt I don't regret it Hunter probably does because Hunter's the one trying to put the deals together so I do think they will

take another shot at him will it I don't think the question is can the UFC get a deal done I think the bigger question is will Francis allow a deal to get done that's another question altogether Francis wants to box

give him a boxing match the timing of this works perfectly. Because John will fight Steepay in July. Francis will probably have his boxing match sometime in the summer. There you go. Take a shot at him.

So what's it going to happen? You're in the same position you're in now. Try to find a way to make Francis happy. Obviously, you can't give him everything he wants. Nobody can get that. Meet him somewhere. You don't even have to meet him halfway. Meet him a quarter of the way.

One fight deal. Get him into fight John. and I think John will probably be done after that fight anyway. So what's the point? Who cares? If you sign Francis to one fight, do it. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here.

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Marshals, we get the deals. You gift for good stuff. Vikings. Hello. Why John just got a title shot after being inactive for three years? And then why Hindu Saura got the title shot being inactive for more than two years? Because they have done something in the sport which is remarkable. giving and that's what Valentina should get rematch, immediate rematch. And giving the title shot to Blinchfield is just a favoritism and nothing.

Because Jessica and Raj fought for money and Molly McCann is just Molly McKinney. So let Blinchfield fight skills for skills and then get her the title contention. Then get her into the title contention. The other thing I want to talk about is on the previous episodes of BTL. When you asked Jed about the Amazon, and he just discredited his whole record by comparing Amazon's competition with taxi drivers. But to be honest, Jed, your guy did the same thing. Then he retired in his prime, never fought stylistic.

and still you thank him on a Thanksgiving for God knows whatever your reasons are. Mike, Jedmishu should not be there if the fighters who is going to fight is his favorite fighter or he is a hater of the fighter who is going to fight. Jet Mishu is just, I don't want to say that and he did not deserve to be there on that episode of BTL. And in the sum cards in future, the same thing you all did with John Jones image and his fight career you all hate John Jones

going up to the fight with Svirigah like Cyril Khan except yourself and your your best friend, a Chinese guy I just forgot his name and John Jones is not a good human human being

all he is doing is just acting I mean who gives winning well to his wife when your birth your birth, your father is just front of you. Thank you for the opportunity

and the platform and that was the pathetic statement did miss you made about the Amazon now you can say fuck off Viking fuck you don't come here again

thank you Mike take care Mike I can say that I can say that we've had some horrific takes on this show I'm not saying that's one of them, but we've, no one's, very few people have been booted out of ear.

I mean, you got to do something fucking wacky to get booted out of this space. I'm probably like the, one of the most patient people on the planet. But no, I'm not going to say that. I have to go back and listen to what Jed said on BTL. I know he ranked Amosoph pretty high in our rankings, as did I. I don't think those have like come out officially, but Jed and I are both ranking him very, very highly. because that was incredible stuff.

Yeah, I mean, look, John is not a good person. He just isn't. And I'd like to think that everybody can change and find their way back. And maybe John can. And I kind of hope that he does. I would like to see that. But I just, I mean, it's going to take, boy, it's got to take a long time for me to cross over that path. And we saw it.

We saw it on Saturday. We saw the old John come right back when he was asked about Francis. Came right back. He was humble. I'm so thankful. All this. And then Francis comes up. And I'm like,

aha, there he is. There's John. There's the real John Jones. But the thing is, when he steps in that cage and actually fights, he's the fucking best. I mean,

what can you say? He's incredible. And that's the thing about sports, man. You can be the biggest piece of shit in the whole world. But if you go out there and you win, it's almost like people forget it happened. Look at Tiger Woods. Look at Tiger Woods. Remember all the things that he did?

Cheating on the wife and all that stuff. That whole story, Tiger was, I mean, people were just killing him. And that's way worse than anything else we've seen in everything. MMA because golf, whether you agree with this or not, it's the truth. Golf is a thousand times bigger than the UFC. The PGA tour is so much bigger and is viewed by so many more people than the MMA is, than the UFC is. It's not even close.

This is not even a conversation to be had. And the whole world was shitting on Tiger and rightfully so. But the second that that man came back and won a tournament, it was like all that other stuff, never happened. Winning changes everything and controversy creates cash. And John has both of those things. That's why he got a title shot after three years. That's why if John sat out for two more years, he would come back and get a title fight. He's a star.

People are invested in him for good or for bad. you can evoke emotion one way or the other you can be a star in the sport and you see it every time John Jones is in Las Vegas John Jones is fighting Daniel goes and fights Daniel Cormier Cormier, the family man never did anything wrong, never been arrested,

always been nice and D.C. booed out of the building. John cheered like he's a hero. Cyril Gun, nice guy, young in the sport, has accomplished a lot, food out of the building. John cheered like he's Hulk Hogan in 1987. It's crazy.

But it is what it is. Winning changes everything. And it solves everything in sports. But we don't forget. We don't forget about that other stuff. Let's go to Jonas. Jonas, what's up? Hi, Mike. How we doing, mate?

Good. How are you? I'm good. Thank you. a heck of an afternoon here in Manchester, England. So I'd just jump on. The first time I've listened live on Twitter spaces, I usually catch you on the pod. But I just wanted to ask a quick question, really,

about John Jones. I'm sure I've possibly jumped on later, so I'm sure it's something you're discussing ad nauseam today. But I just wondered on the Dana-White scale of flexibility, how do you gauge, his resistance to Francis maybe making a reappearance and fighting John Jones because

it's quite clear that that is the that is the one fight that really massively intrigues any MMA fan and if we're looking at Dana's sort of track record with U-turns on particular stances you know you've got on the one end of the

disspection you had like Paul Daley where for whatever reason he just seemed completely incapable of kind of ever entertaining a return for him. But, you know, we've seen probably prime example, John Jones, the amount of indiscretions we've seen with John and he's kind of, you know, Dana's had U-turns on him and he'll never fight here again

or he'll never fight for the belt, etc. He'll never headline an event. And obviously it always comes to pass that he does. So I suppose tying in with that, you kind of touched on it as well, just before the chat before last, you said that you think a lot of it hinges on John and whether he kind of demands the fight with Francis.

Yeah, it was just essentially to gauge how realistic you think it is on Dana's scale of flexibility when it comes to Francis Inganu. Thanks, man. At first, I thought I was talking to John Fury. But I appreciate you hopping on. I think it's more flexible

than people think. I don't think they're going to bend over backwards for Francis. I don't think they're going to. Like Francis was on the MA hour, detailed what he wanted in order to return to the UFC. He's not going to get those things. Maybe they find a way to make it feel like he gets won, but they're just not going to do that.

They're not going to do that for anybody. They're not going to do it for John. They're not going to do for Connor. They're going to do that shit for anybody. But I do think they're going to try. And it's again, it's all up to John. It's all up to John. John melts Steepay.

Rogan puts a mic in his face and he calls out Francis. I think the UFC will take a crack at it. Because what's, I mean, who cares? Who cares? If John goes from Cyril, wins the heavyweight title to beating Steepay to beating Francis and Ganu, he'll never fight like, that's it. You want to guarantee three John Jones fights on this run? That's how you do it.

Other than that, if they're not even going to try, if they're not even going to entertain the idea, then John will just stop fighting after Stepe. I don't think he'd be done forever, but he would sit on the sidelines for a while, and if something compelling and exciting that could make him a lot of money comes along that gets him interested, then he'll come back.

But if they want to get him active, they want three John Jones fights this year, you got to find a way to get Francis back in there because I don't think he fights three times this year if Francis isn't on the table Let's go to Gabe then we'll go to Mike. We'll try to get to get to five people waiting I'll try to get I'll get to all five of you guys Gabe hello Hey what's up Mike how's everybody doing today? So I just wanted to Touch us on things kind of like the word of the day is deserving and I feel like it just has to deal with the situation Like I had a lot of people said it was quite unpopular for example

people. Islamakov versus Charles Olivera. I personally do not think that Charles deserves an immediate rematch, but do I think he totally deserves to be in line? Yes. He totally should have just been straight to the Nio Daru and then the winner of that should have faced Charles. But of course he hasn't Okunovsky thing happened and it's just a whole mess. now in regards to Francis and Ghanu, if I'm Frances in Ghanu, especially with after everything that Dana said, knowing that now John Jones is a champion, I'm going to use that to my leverage. And if negotiations happen, even though I do believe that John, sorry, that Francis won't get everything that you asked, I'm going to ask for a little bit of money. So it really isn't to play up like what the U.S. you offer and what Francis is a conner's with, because that is the fight to make. Anybody. who is an MMA fan or anybody who really loves a sport, truly wants that fight to happen. It just all depends on what happens between the UFC and Francis and Ghana.

And in regards to John Jones, you know, like everybody could say he's like a terrible person. Everybody could say all these things about him. But he's undeniably like the greatest fire of all time. Now, in my humble opinion, if he does something that, causes him to be back in the headlined in a negative way, I think that there should be repercussions, like major repercussions, because this whole

scene of him being humble, praising God and all these things, you know, you put it out there, stick to it, and if you don't, you better receive that slash. But besides that, thank you for the platform. I mean, you're not wrong. But again, here's... I don't want to keep bringing this up

because people give me shit about it, but I don't care. The president of... of this company was caught on video slapping his wife in the face, and there were no repercussions. None. Zero. And I understand, you know, you want to play that game? Well, she hit him first.

Whatever. It doesn't matter. The point is, any other person in any other position, any other sport, would have been punished. Dana was not. I'm not here to retell the tale. We all know what happened. You all know how I feel about it. no one asked for his job, but we deserve some sort of consequence, and we didn't, we didn't get it.

How could we expect the UFC to punish John again? How can we? We can't. He can't do it. And John even, and John very smartly referenced that at the post-fight press conference because he was asked about it. He was asked about exactly that. And what did John say?

Hey, Dana knows more than anybody. we all make mistakes. And I was like, there you go. There you go. So, no, I don't think there'll be any like repercussions if John does anything crazy. I think the UFC will address it. They will talk about it. They'll bury him a little bit.

And then when John's ready to fight, he'll come back. And it'll just be part of the story. But yeah, I don't expect, like, no, John, after the whole thing with Dana, John can do whatever he wants right now. And if John isn't like in prison or anything, he ain't fighting he ain't sitting out he ain't getting in trouble you can't you can't you've already set the precedent that if you're important to the company and you make us money you won't be punished and that's it and that's it the other thing i'll say is you can't the undeniable

the greatest of all time i don't think that's true it just depends on how you look at it now if you don't care about the other stuff and it's just what did you do in the cage pease Ds, all that stuff. If you're okay with the asterix and he's still the guy, cool. But if you're against that and there is an asterisk there, then there's a conversation. There's a conversation to be had. Then it's GSP, undeniably.

But if you don't care about that stuff, I don't think I really do. There's a part of me that understands why some people would. But to me, like, I don't know. I'm like in the middle. I'm on the fence when it comes to that stuff. To me, John's number one. But if some people want the asterisk there, then I totally get it.

Completely get it. Mike. Hey, Mike, what's going on? I hope everything's going good. What a card that we just had on Saturday. Pretty much, my question is more on long-reigning champions in this immediate title shot talk that we always get that it frustrates me. I'm in the lane of when you lose a title shot champion or number one contender,

you should automatically go to number five, not like off of your skill set, but just to like kind of freshen up the division. And you can give a long-reaning champion an immediate rematch on their end. Like I'm saying, like Valentina can, her next fight can be for a title, but allow Alexa to create some type of rain for herself. It's like when you look back at 115 and, And, you know, that division looks so great because we have so many multiple champions. But then what are we going to do?

Let Valentina have this long reign, get a rematch with Alexa and just get it right back for her. So in my opinion, I want to see Alexa versus Aaron. You know, Aaron can win that. Like, regardless of what Valentina wants is her belt back? So is it, does it, is it an ego thing to try to get it back from Alexa or, you know, you can get it back either way. So that's that opinion on that. And when it comes to John Jones and pound-per-pound and goat talk, I think those two things are separated. I think people sometimes blend them into one and kind of say like, oh, yeah, they're the pound-per-pound goat.

Like, I think it's two different things. In my opinion, greatest of all time, if you just show people highlights of John Jones and you show people highlights at GSP, yeah, what GSP did was impressive. But, you know, there was some, you know, tactical performances. You show John Jones highlights and the Machita choke and Rampage, you know, just getting squeezed out. And the Shogun fight, you have to give him greatest of all time. And then pound for a brown, you know, just like he said, clean and dirty, depending on what you're looking at, it's John and GSP. So appreciate you for the question. Can't wait for the next one.

Thank you. Yeah, I mean, the problem with that argument is that John had a bunch of stinkers. OSP was horrible. That was an awful fight. Really awful fight. The Anthony Smith win was not great. It was not great. The Tiago Santos win?

Not great. There are a lot of people who felt Tiago Santos won that fight on one leg. Basically no legs, if we're being honest. He basically squeaked by a no-legged man. And then the Dominic Reyes fight, most people felt he lost that fight. fight too. So I mean, both of them have stinkers. John has the most recent stinkers and a bunch of them. But it was because of those stinkers why people thought this fight with Cyril Gond was going to be competitive and compelling and close. And a lot of people were picking Sierra

Sierlegan to win that fight because of those stinkers. Because John laid it out. Well, it just wasn't excited to fight these guys. They weren't big stars. You know, these guys just kind of had to fight. And we were wondering if that was going to be true or not. And maybe it was. I don't know. Because he certainly was up for that one. And then, look, I get it. The media rematch thing is just kind of bogged down.

But Valentina has defended that title seven times. She can get an immediate rematch. She wants one. Aaron Blanchfield's only 24. She will get her shot. She will get multiple shots. And like I said, if they go to Mexico City, they pinpointed time.

Alexa's going to want to fight on that card. If Valentin's ready, Valentin will get the fight. If she's not, they'll move on. They'll give it to Blanchefield. We don't need to... I want to see Aaron fight for the belt because I think she would beat Alexa. I actually would have picked her to be Valentina,

if we're being honest, because she could match Valentina with the physicality. I didn't think Alex could. She proved me wrong. I kind of want to see if she could beat her again. But yeah, I know what you're saying. All right, so we're going to do Tobbs, YMVZ, and Barbarusa. They've been waiting for a minute, and then I've got to go.

Tobs, it's up. Dobbs. Hey, Mike, how you don't? Good. What's that man? I don't know why. For all my sports players out there that just got into MMA and don't understand what just happened,

let me put it to you this way. John Jones just hitched out. with the Michael Jordan come back We're in the 45 Those of y'all understand Yeah, I get it The rest of y'all

The rest of y'all, it's a good thing You wouldn't understand So, yeah So my thing is I'm not a big fan of the What is that And what is this So, okay,

the Francis Inganu fight Didn't happen We should just let it go Down the future They would revisit it, I'm sure, I'm pretty sure that, but let's not forget that John Jones' number one

options was Francis. He calls for Francis. That's the fact that he wanted straight from the start. Let's not forget that. Okay? And that didn't happen. He went next, he wanted Steepi. Steeper didn't happen. And he fought the guy that they gave him. John John didn't ask for Syria. They gave him Syria and he beat Syria.

and that's it that's the only thing that people should get and that question what if this what if that the what is it doesn't matter

at this point John John did what it was supposed to do the next thing that I wanted to address is Aaron Blancher people keep saying that Grancher should fight

another fighter and all that but I think we should just let the girl be like she's ready to fight the tough container out there and I think just like you I think that she would beat Valentina and Schenko. She's ready to do that.

You should just let the kid do a thing. That's it. Thank you for your... Thank you for giving me your opportunity to speak. Thanks, man. Yeah, you're not wrong about Ciro being the third choice. They couldn't get Stipe done. Sipa was dealing with some stuff.

Ciro got the shot. Couldn't keep Francis locked down. Yeah, I mean, no one should... I mean, no one should, like, blame it. That's just the fight that he ended up getting. At that point, John was just like, all right, I've waited long enough. Let's go. He wanted the France fight.

Francis wanted the John fight. And if there's one thing that has annoyed me about this whole thing, it's that fans have taken the narrative that Dana put out that, well, Francis didn't want the John fight. He wanted to make more money and take lesser competition. That is the biggest bunch of bullshit I have ever heard. my entire life. And most of you in this room would probably agree with that. You think Francis and Ghanu was afraid to fight John Jones? That's

insane. Like if you have that opinion, I just, it's just so wrong. It's not even funny. I would pick Francis to beat John. I would still pick Francis to beat John. Even after what we saw on Saturday, I would still pick Francis and Gano to win that fight.

So to say that he's scared to fight John Jones. Anybody saying that is absolutely incorrect. I mean, it's one of the most wrong statements ever. Yeah, I don't think I can move on from it, though. I don't think the door is completely shut. I don't think it's completely locked. I think Dana just, he's already buried Francis so badly that you can't go back on it now. You look foolish if you go back on it now. Like Tristan was on earlier, he mentioned on to the next one how my pick for Cody Garbrandt

for matchmaking was the Davis of Figurato fight. you booked it before Figgie's moving to 135 135 is a loaded division with a ton of talents you can't just chuck figgy into a number one contender fight with all these guys up there right now

let's get him in there against a name and see how he does so throw him in there with Cody and people are like oh you're gonna kill we're trying to get Cody killed all this stuff

Cody's sitting in a neck injury that's why he was so you think Cody would say no to that fight I think Figgie would say no to that fight and people were staunchly against that pick and actually got me to think a little bit that it was a terrible pick

but at that point like I've already dug my feet into the sand I can't move now like I've already made my point I got passionate about it I can't be like well you know what I'm wrong you're right no because I'm stubborn and I'm not going to get knocked off the mountain

that easily I still I'm thinking about it deep down, but I still feel like I'm right. Why, VMZ? Hello. Hi, good morning, Mike. I just had two questions for you. What did you think of Cyril Ghan's performance? Kind of just seemed like he dropped the ball, wasn't really prepared for the John Jones fight.

Do you think the hype really got to him? Then what should be next? And two, what did you think of Boe Nichols' performance? He seemed a little bit sloppy on his striking, and so I kind of kind of, I think he has a long way to go before trying to fight like a Hamza or someone in that in that range. That's all. Thank you.

So Bo Nickel, I mean, he did what we all thought he was going to do. But like I talked about heading in, you never know what can happen. Like, Bo can say all he wants. Well, I've, I competed at MSG. I competed in stadiums of 35,000 people in wrestling. That's great. Like, you're ready for certain moments, but I don't care who you are. if you

like you find on the contender series and all that stuff but when you make that I've talked to fighters for years about this and some fighters are just like they're in the moment it's fine walk to the octagon

fans all that stuff Bruce Buffer does his thing some people just get so nervous like all the emotions just fly through you and some people handle it well and some don't I'm not saying Bo didn't

it well. But to say like he wasn't going to get affected by that for his first fight, this is third or fourth pro fight. Of course you're going to get some nerves. And I think he felt them. I think he felt him. He wanted to go in there and do something spectacular. Didn't, he won.

And he dominated. He did what he was supposed to do. But B plus, A minus. Easy. Easy. Yeah. And to me, it was like, we're not rushing. him. We're not going to chuck him into a top 20 matchup right now. Give him a step up. Give him somebody like in the top 45s. I picked Punez Soriano. I think that's a good test. Poon is tough as hell. Pune is going

to go right after him and try to fight him. Bo probably beat him. And that's a good win. That we could progress from there. As far as Cyril goes, I don't think he wasn't, like I'm not going to say he wasn't ready to fight John. I don't think he was ready for what fighting John. is like. I don't think he was ready for the whole fight week and the press conferences and just all the pressure that came with fighting John.

I just don't think he was ready for that. You saw it on his face right when he walked out. Second he walked out, you saw it. He looked just nervous. He just go watch his walkout when he fought Derek Lewis. Because it wasn't the booze

and being hated and all that stuff. stuff because when he fought Derek Lewis, he ate all that up. And then he trolled the crowd and walked out, just had a great time. This was different. This is a guy who was like, uh-oh, I don't think I'm ready for this. I don't think I'm ready for this moment and everything that it means. And he's still very, he's still new to the sport too. Go look at this guy's resume.

Go look at the guys he's fought in his UFC career. This run is unbelievable. It's just unbelievable the names he's faced so early in his career. And he's like just started. Where does he go? I picked Tommy Aspinall. That was my pick. You do it in Paris or if they go back to London for a fight night card later this year,

there's your main event. Zero Gone versus Tommy Aspinall. Barbarusa. You too. Thank you. I just want to talk about the Lightfoot Division. I saw a picture of Islam, Dana, Hunter, and Ali. It seems like they had a meeting.

I don't think it's a renewal of the contract because I think Islam had won lately. I think it could be a fight, could be a Dustin-Polyte fight. Can you enlighten me? Why does Dustin want that fight? I know he might have seen some things in Islam's game, but it's not the most favorable fight he could have.

And then if he loses, he lost to three different champions. And I think it's going to be that's it. And there's a lot of guys who could be champions in the future, and he could have better chance against him. And everybody's saying, I know right now Islam wants to be active and Binal is not in the picture. But I think there is a guy who could be a perfect matchup who just said a year ago that he doesn't think about the title. He thinks only about Islam macha shab. And this is really a great mentality.

And he saw it before everybody else. And if he wins, he's going to be on a same. seven-white, seven-fight winning streak, his name is Rafael Fizif, and his last two wins are going to be against Dosanos and Justin Gagyi. Why don't we entertain that fight? I can't see why Islam want that fight. They think differently. They might say he's going to be the only fighter who beat three fighters on the top 15 pound for pound. I can see him same. that but for dustin i don't think it's a lot

makes a lot of sense and for the fight sake i think raphael physique is really really great fight thank you mike i'm with you i would love to see physique fight machochev's um

yeah look porre's porre is poor is almost done what's he got like two or three fights left and then he's riding off into the sunset like Bori doesn't have to fight anymore. He's made a ton of money.

So all that's really left for him is to try to become the champion. That's literally all he needs to do. Like what else could he do? So if he gets a chance to fight for the belt one more time, he's going to take it, whether the matchup isn't favorable or not. And with how popular he is, like I've said before, I would not be stunned if he gets it because he's a draw.

and as much as we want to see B'Neil fight for the belt the biggest fight in that division right now as far as like Cape Review buys goes is Mokachev versus Porier I mean Connor maybe but nobody wants to see that because we all know

what's going to happen but Porre is at least somewhat interesting I would pick Machachev to win that fight but Porre is popular man he does better significantly more pay-per-view buys than Darius would.

Bulk would be close because of the rematch, but I still think Porye would do bigger numbers, but it would be close. And Porey's probably got one last crack at it. And if he doesn't do it now, it's not going to happen. Because of Fazeve and Camrod and Sirukion and Dawson and Turner, those guys are coming. Like, they're all coming.

And Porea sees the ready gun on the wall. So we'll see. If he's, like, Fiziv's going to get his shot. Like even if he loses to Gagee, he's got to fight for the title at some point. And I think he'll be the first of those names that I just mentioned on the come-up

who will get that shot. But if it happens after he beats Gaci or not, I'm willing to wait for that. It seems like Fizzis looking at it realistically as well. Like, yeah, I feel like I want to fight for the belt, but I wouldn't want to jump in front of Darius or whoever. So we'll see how it all plays out.

But, yeah, just Pory is in the mix. I can assure you of that. All right. Daniel will take you and then I got to go. I really got to go. What's up, Daniel? Hey, what's up, Mike? I'll close it out quick here for you.

Just got two quick questions. First one just on Cody Garbrand. Just how successful do you think his new, you know, like decision wrestling style is going to be against some of those top rank 135ers. And, man, I asked you, I think, in January, because I told you that my birthday was on March 4th, and I said, hey, it looks like John Jones might be fighting or possibly Francis or I didn't.

Can you hear me? Yep, I got you. Okay, okay. I was going to say, you told me, hey, I'm pretty sure John Jones is fighting. I don't know who's fighting. So you got that spot on. So I'm going to ask you for your Mystic Mike prediction.

question. When does Chandler and McGregor go down? It's September, August, just any prediction you got for that. Thanks, Mike. Oh, man. I mean, at least you're the Jones thing, like I had a little bit of insight because I talked to a lot of people about him and Francis. And I kind of, I mean, I pretty much updated you all along the way until the billboard flashed. and we kind of figured that Francis didn't resign. I would guess, I mean, McGregor's not even back in the pool yet. So let's just say he goes back in today. That's six months.

That's September. My guess will be November or December. That's what I'm thinking. Maybe October. I don't think it's going to be August. I don't think it's maybe September, but he's got, McGregor's going to get back in the pool like right now. But McGregor's comeback fight at MSG would be pretty friggin massive.

That would be huge. World's most famous arena. Him versus Michael Chandler. Good God. Yeah, I don't know. I really don't know. Because I don't know if they're going to give him an exemption or anything. Like, I just, I don't know.

But he's still not back in the pool yet. So that's at least September now. So I'm going to say November, but I mean, I had more insight in the Jones and Gano talks than I do in this one. But I'm just, the longer Connor's not in the side of testing pool, the longer this one gets pushed out unless the UFC just calls an audible and throws out that exemption. But I think they're baby crazy to do that. So my guess would be November, but that is all that is. It is a guess. But it could be sooner, could be later.

Who knows? Connor's a wild card. You never know. All right, we're done. Wow, hour and 35 minutes. I'm going to get in trouble probably, but I don't care. We're done. So thank you very much.

We'll be back on Thursday. We'll do it again. I'm sure we'll have lots to talk about. We'll be on the road to Bellator 2992, which is actually a pretty damn good card. I'm pretty excited for that. That is the kickoff of the lightweight Grand Prix, Usman Amagamatov, Benson Henderson.

We've got Tofeek Mosayev. versus Alexander Shobli. Michael Venom Page comes back to fight Gochi Yamachi. That's a good card. That's going to be a fun one on Friday. And then Saturday, the UFC is back in Las Vegas

and not at the apex, which makes you very happy. The main event, Peodor Jan versus Marab de Walsh Willey. Not a bad card. I'm glad they're not at the apex. So there's already... And I like the fact that it's an early start time.

I think the main card, It starts at 6 p.m. Eastern, and I mean, that just scratches me right where I it's right there. So we'll talk more about that on Thursday. Have a great rest of the day, everybody. And as always, have a heck of a morning. The Vox Media Podcast Network. 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.