MMA Fighting - HOAM | Win or Lose, What's Next For Colby Covington After UFC 296 Title Fight vs. Leon Edwards?

Episode Date: December 12, 2023

Colby Covington will fight for the UFC welterweight title this Saturday against Leon Edwards in the main event of UFC 296. Should he be victorious, Covington will capture undisputed gold for the first time in his career, if he loses, "Chaos" will fall to 0-3 in undisputed championship bouts. Depending on the result, where will Covington go after UFC 296? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck discusses Covington's future and legacy based on how things play out, and where both he and Edwards could go following the final UFC pay-per-view event of 2023. Additionally, listener topics include Casey O'Neill's ceiling at 125, PFL's season structure, if Conor McGregor could be in play for Covington with a title win on Saturday, Edwards teasing a future move to 185, Alexandre Pantoja vs. Brandon Royval flying way under the radar, and much more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix Colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?

The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original, The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible original blockbuster,

the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now only from Audible. To the Vox Media Podcast Network. Tuesday, December 12th, 2023, and it is indeed a heck of a morning. We are live on the M.A.Fight Twitter space, as you can hear the show, in its entirety,

shorter thereafter on the M.A. Fighting Podcasting Network. What's going on, everybody? I am Mike Keck in a tremendous mood. Why? Because it is finally here. It is finally Jake Paul, Andre August, fight week. I'm just playing. I will be there, but clearly it's all about UFC 296, everybody. It is all about UFC 296. This is what we're excited about. This Saturday, T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. We've been waiting for this card. Seems like forever. It's the final UFC fight card of the year. And it is a doozy, everybody. We've got Leon Edwards versus Colby Covington for the welterweight title. Alexandria Pantosia versus Brandon Royval for the flyweight title. Shafcott Rockmanoff versus Stephen Thompson. Tony Ferguson versus Patty Pimblet. Still kind of mad at AK,

but I feel a little bit better about that one. Vicente Lucay versus Ian Machado Gary. Interesting fight there. Josh Emmett Bryce Mitchell. This card is ridiculous. Arrida Aldana versus Carol Hosa. Cody Garbrandt versus Brian Kelleher. Big fight at 135. Brian Keller, what a comeback.

This would be if he could go in and beat the former champion. Casey O'Neill, Ariani Lipski, Alonzo Medafield, Dustin Jacoby. Tagir Ullumbeck up versus Cody Dirty. These fights are all ridiculous. Andre Feely versus Lucas Almeida, Shamil Gansiav versus Martin Boudai. And the first fight of this card, this is how stacked this lineup is, the first fight of UFC 296, the curtain jerker, if you will, is Randy Brown versus Muslim Salikoff.

Top 20, 25-ish welterweights, that's the first fight. That's the first fight. It's not debutantes. It's not contender series, vets who just got contracts. No. Two longtime veterans, two top 25-ish at worst welterweights. are going to kick off the card. It's ridiculous card.

It's ridiculous. And if you want to get even more fired up when this show is over on the YouTube channel, on the podcast network, my conversation with John Anick previewing mixed card and all the storylines attached to it, it's, it got me fired up,

and it will probably get you fired up as well. All right, let's get to you all. If you have questions, you have thoughts, you have takes. Line on up and we'll bring you all in. So we will begin with Maran. Maran, go ahead.

Hello, Mike. Yes, I got you. How are you? I'm good. Thank you. Okay? Yes. My question is regarding Kobe. What do you think if he loses, does he retire or stays? And does you see one Colby to win this? Do you think is he like the star?

I think he thinks he is. So what do you think? Thank you. Thanks, buddy. If he loses, I'm not really, I don't know. We talked about this last week. It would be devastating. I think he becomes, and I have to look this up for sure, but I could, it might be accurate.

If not, he's in like a very low list, like a very small list of fighters. He will be the first, I think he's the first fighter, at least in the modern era, who has fought. for an undisputed title three times and lost all three times. So there's a lot at stake here for Colby. Annik and I talked about this as well. Like, what does Colby's legacy look like right now? Like I know we look at the short term and we say, well, he hasn't fought this dude.

He hasn't fought any rank guys in forever. RDA's last like quote unquote meaningful win. All of that. Like I get it. Those who are down on him getting the shot who don't want to justify that this is what the UFC is like now, just get the bigger names in there. I get it. I totally understand it.

But is he a Hall of Famer? Like, is Colby a UFC Hall of Famer right now? I don't know. If he wins the belts, he probably is now, right? So, I don't know. There's a lot legacy-wise on the line for Colby. I don't, it's close. It's close.

We've seen fighters get into the Hall of Fame for, different reasons. Dana White's like, Dana White's favorite fight in like the last five years is Uspen Colby won. So could Colby find his way in the Hall of Fame for that fight? I think it's possible since there is no like Hall of Fame board.

It's basically like Dana and crew just kind of make the decision. So if Dana wants that fight in the Hall of Fame, they'll just put it in. But a win would probably get him over the line. So, I mean, it's super interesting the aftermath of this fight. Because if Leon wins, what does this all mean? Is it definitely Belal? Is he going to call for the middleweight fight that he's probably not going to get?

I don't know. What if Schofcott just steamrolls Wonderboy? Does he jump the line? I don't know. What if Wonderboy beat Shopcott? Does he jump the line? He's about to turn 41. He may only get one last shot at this.

If I'm B'u'll be absolutely rip shit if that's what happens, if either guy does. But Chofcott running Wonderboy, he's got to get a lot of buzz, probably a lot more buzz than Bala God after beating Gilbert Burns if we're being honest. It's going to be super interesting if Leon wins. And if Colby wins, then it's, boy, it's all bets are off here. All bets are off. Like literally everybody is in play if Colby wins the belt.

and where does this leave Leon? Will he ever fight for the belt again? So you have interesting questions either way. Where does Leon go if he loses? Took him so long to get to a title shot. He got there. He's had one defense. He probably won't merit an immediate rematch.

I don't know what's more interesting. I don't know what the more interesting question is. Where does Colby go with the loss or where does Leon go with the loss? We'll see. That's what makes this fight just so full. freaking fascinating in so many ways. Tristan, go ahead. Tristan, are you there?

Yes. Oh, okay, good, good, good. My question is towards Casey O'Neill. Now, with Casey O'Neill, when she was coming up, we looked at the kind of a four. So that four would be Aaron Blanchfield, Tracy Cortez, and Macy Barbara, and her. And I remember her friends.

mind we were talking about it and this is when it I was like oh Casey O'Neill this girl's going to be the one she's going to be there in a couple of years where she's fighting for the title but then he he um when Aaron Blanchfield started coming in I was like he was telling me like no man I think I think I think everyone's serious because the way how Casey O'Neill looked she looked incredible I was like oh my God but he was telling me I'm telling you Aaron Blanchfield is better is it's going to be the one that's going to shoot to the top. And I'm like, all right, I've watched Ambrose, and I'm like, oh, yeah, he's right, he's right. I'm like, he's right about this.

So then we saw, obviously, and then Macy Barbara, it took her sometime because of the injuries and stuff like that. Now she's starting to get up. Tracy Cortez, we're not even talking about, and she's putting on it together good one. So it looks like out of the four, Casey O'Neill, Casey O'Neill at the time is just, you know, I had that setback. I mean, she was coming up, and then she just changed her style where she was dominating, and then she just decided, well, I'm not going to be grappling anymore.

I'm just going to stand toe to toe where her striking's not that great, but it has to get better. I mean, this is a pivotal. Like, she needs to dominate this fighting and Lipski. There's no if, if, answer, but I need to finish from this girl to see what she is, or she's going to get lag behind out of those top four in the future, in the future in the coming years, if she wants to be the one to be fighting for top. title shot. Mike, just just your thoughts on that. Out of the

floor, those top prospects that we that we're seeing here, where are we at with Casey O'Neill from this standpoint? Thanks, Mike. Thank you, sir. Lots to unpack there. Casey O'Neill has

a lot of potential. She's 26 years old. She kind of got too big of a bump up, if we're being honest, going from Roxanne to Jennifer Maya. It's tough. That's a big jump. But I understand why the UFC did it.

Let's see what we got with her. And she came up short. She tried to have a kickboxing match, essentially with Jennifer May, and that didn't really work out. What Casey O'Neill does so well is she just chips away at you, chips away at you with just pressure, and she doesn't let you breathe when she's really on.

and didn't really see that from her in the Jennifer Maya fight. What we saw from her was, I'm outstriker, and that didn't really work out for her. So we will see where she goes on Saturday. I like this matchup with Ariani Lipski, and big spot for her. See if she could bounce back and keep it rolling here. She probably needs this one,

considering where this division is at right now. obviously Aaron Blanchefield's a monster and Tracy Cortez is on a nice little run right now I think the UFC could really do something with her and then you kind of just look at the rest of these fly weights

Macy Barber big fight coming up against Caitlin Chukagian I really like what I've seen from her I sat Cage side for that Amanda Hebus fight she beat the hell out of Amanda Hebus. That was vicious. That was a vicious beating so and don't forget about

Natty Ice guys. Don't forget about Natty Ice. She's going to be somebody who's going to be a problem in this division as well. So 125 has a lot of super fun fighters in the division, a lot of super fun fighters on the come up. It's going to be fun.

It's going to be very, very fun to watch where this division goes. But big fight for Casey O'Neill starts with her and then we'll see what happens. But don't forget about Natty Ice in this conversation because I think they got something. with her too. She's going to be tough to beat. Once she fights like a super duper, I mean,

and she fought, I was going to say, once she fights a super duper grapplercy, but that's kind of what Jasmine Jazz DeVizius is. She beat the hell out of Jasmine in that fight. So yeah, 25 is fun. It's the new staple division, I think, in terms of talent and what's, you know, depth. It's kind of where Bantamweight used to be a long time ago. It's kind of where Straweight was a couple of years ago. Not saying Straweight took a huge step back, but Flyweight's the most interesting division right now for the women in my opinion uh four corner sports go ahead four corner sports okay uh hop out hop back hello adi hi mike um i thought four corner sports was going to talk and explain yeah it didn't go it didn't go through but go ahead oh four corner sports i think you need to

explain yourself uh andre munis versus anthony smith a compelling matchup but you know i think you need to explain yourself. They're sort of, they went on in you, bro. They went on you, AK and Mike Heck. But anyway, it's good to talk to you, Mike. How have you been? Good. What's on your mind?

Yes. So, so I, I know we're all in UFC 296 fight week, but I would like to take you away from UFC 296 fight week, because as we go further into the, week, it's going to be impossible to do that. So I know that you haven't been enjoying AEW. You haven't been enjoying what AEW has been doing. But Mike, what do you think of the Continental Classic, you know, the round-robin tournament? We know that PFL does its tournament thingy.

And one thing about the tournament is they do market that we have all these fighters and all these exciting, what if matches. But basically, a fighter loses a certain match. It's, you know, it's not guaranteed that we'll get all

the dream matches. You know what I mean? Let's say, just for the heck of it, we had AJ McKee and Usma, Norma, the tournament,

but they were not matched up together. They were matched up against other opponents. If either of them loses, the match goes out of the window. for the tournament. But if it was this round-robin tournament,

everyone would compete against each other. Do you think there is a way, you know, this PFL at all, however you'd like to call it, they can pull off something new with this tournament series. It would be really nice if they can do that, you know, because the way PFL and Ballator are right now,

there's absolutely no intrigue whatsoever, right? So it's things like these that can build up intrigue. They can definitely not drum up intrigue from the fighters that they have. Then maybe at least change the format of your matchups. And for fuck's sake, get rid of the smart cage. Just call it a cage. What's the use of calling it a smart cage? I don't understand.

Anyway, so that's there. And one of the submissions that I wanted to give to onto the next one was André Monez versus Hordolfo Vieira. I'm sorry if it's a dude-to-peg, but I think, you know, we need to see this stylistic match-up of, you know, these both grappling styles.

And I also, I think you and I had our little friends forever moment with Anthony Smith and Dominic Reyes, Winol Luce. That's a good thing. And yes, that's more or less it, Mike. Have a nice pre-Christmas. I guess I don't know. I wanted to say something.

Yeah. Awesome. Thank you, sir. Yeah, they could do Vieira versus Moody's down the road. I can't right now because Brunez has a fight booked February 10th against Armand Petrosian. So somewhat some doo-do there. So the round round round. So, the NFL basically does, like, look, it's impossible to do a round robin.

like it's impossible. It take forever. It would take forever. If you had all those fighters, like, go in and just kind of fight each other throughout, like it would take forever. So, like, they're kind of doing that. This is not, their format is not the same as, like, the Bellator Grand Prix. The Belator Grand Prix is, like, a legit tournament. PFL, you get two fights.

Like, you get two regular season fights. And then the point system is kind of stupid. PFL just makes a lot of mistakes down the line. down the line. Like just remember last year? Last year, without knowledge in any way for the fighters involved in the season, they moved the playoffs to the UK. So all the fighters who got visas to travel to the U.S. could not go.

So they had to replace half the fights with different opponents because they couldn't get everybody over there. Like that's the ridiculous shit that they keep doing to themselves. and I don't think they're going to change very much. I don't think you really can change much. Maybe you change the point system. Like you can, someone could go, it's just weird that somebody can go 2 and O

and then like still somehow not make the playoffs. It's super weird. It's very, it's super weird how that all works out. As far as the AEW thing goes, look, AW is in a tough spot right now. This thing that they're doing is so, gosh, it's so friggin confusing with the points and this and that, the two divisions and all the shit. Like, people who watch AEW probably like it because they're, they love Japanese-style tournaments of that nature.

They like it. For me, I'm just like, what is this? Like, you just get, you get good matches, but like, so what? There's no spin to it whatsoever. Any of a guy like Mark Briscoe after everything he's gone through just get run. right out of the building every single time he wrestles like it's so stupid a w is just they they have money forever so they're not going anywhere but man that promotion in terms of like intrigue and getting new people to watch it's it's in a tough place it's in a tough place and i'll tell you what

if i'm mj f right now i am looking to get out of dodge right now because they're He's the reason I watch the damn show and I don't even want to watch him anymore because they overbook him. It's terrible. It's terrible. I had too many people waiting, buddy. I'm sorry. I can't bring you back in. But I appreciate that.

We could talk later on the week about it. But yeah, AWD is struggling. They are struggling. WW is killing them right now. Boating for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. What? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo.

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That's the powerful backing of Amme. Conditions apply. Four quarter sports. Sorry about that. I had a phone call that I came in. Then I messed everything up. But I wanted to talk about a couple things. One, I wanted to correct my mistake.

I was half to sleep when I ended up DMing you. And I did mean to put Angie Muniz. I thought I had put in Anthony Smith because I was going to match him up with either Kennedy and Sanjouco because I know he came off of a loss against Dustin Chacobo. and just because I feel like Anthony Smith wasn't going to take the fighter that Kalil Roundtree was originally supposed to face. But I originally had it, Audrey Minis versus Fluffy Hernandez, because I just felt that Icrum would just starch him.

I feel like Icrum is, to me, this top three best middleweight. So that was the whole thing behind it. But I feel like there's a lot of questions. that I have for this week coming up because this is the last card of the year. I feel like we are going to get from the time, from that time gap that we are going to have from December 17th up until the first card of January, we are going to get, I feel like Dana is going to pop up some news as for at least a title fight that is going to happen at USC 300. I think he's just waiting for the outcome of Leon versus Kobe.

I do feel like a lot of the vibes are screaming that Colby Covington is going to win just because if he does come with a loss, you know, he'll be 0 and 3 in title fights. And it's not going to look good for his career just because, you know, Dana has always praised him, especially that first Usman Kobe fight. And also, you know, many people had felt that Kobe was, if there was no Usman in the Baltimore Division, that he would have easily have won. the title. Now, Usman is not in the division as a right now because he can't for that middleweight. But I do feel that, you know, this is his time. If he can't get it done now, then he will never, you know, have gold wrapped around his waist at Saturday interim. But, yeah, I really do feel that, you know, what's it called? If Colby wins, won't be surprised if he has lines the UFC 300, you know. And, you know, he is a prize fighter. I can see something along the line.

of, you know, Colby trying to, you know, fight somebody like of a Hamzaa Shemaya, you know, trying to headline. I know that Hamza, you know, struggles at points of making 170, but, you know, U.S.S. is in the business of, you know, putting asses in seats and making the biggest fights possible. So I can see that happening or I know people are going to, you know, get upset about it, but I could even see something of them scratching the Connor fight between Chandler and then having Kobe versus Connor, you know, and, you know, Connor chasing his story. three, you know, becoming the first person to win three titles in three separate divisions. So I'm very interested on how this fight week is about to go about, because I feel like we're

going to get a lot of questions being answered. All right, thanks, Mike. Thanks, man. Yeah, I don't really have a vibes feel just yet. If we're playing, if I'm playing armchair psychologist, just like listening to their interviews and stuff, Leon looks way more confident than Colby does. And I'm not saying that, you know, I'm not saying like Colby isn't confident, but Leon, it's like the way Leon is talking, it's like he knows something that we don't. It's very weird. It's very strange.

The last time I felt this way in a fight week, and I was dead wrong about this, and I certainly didn't pick this guy to win. But when I was covering, what is it, 273? is whatever the Volkanowski zombie Gilbert Burns Homsap fight with I think it was 273 in Jacksonville and the way that

Korean zombie's team was talking to me like all week when I saw them like just the confidence in them I was just like am I missing something like I must be missing something because there's always like you know you talk to coaches

and you talk to teammates and stuff about certain things and you talk to managers that you talk to to, like usually in emails or text or whatever. And you see them in person, you catch up and you start asking questions. And just, that was like the first time that I saw that, where it's just like, wait till you see what happens.

And they, like, everybody across the board said that. And I was just like, I must be missing something. And of course, the fight played out, the way that it played out and Volk pitched a perfect game, essentially. And Leon, it's just, that's what I kind of gauge from Leon here. Like Leon sees something that we don't. So we'll see what happens. Colby Connor, like you basically said like, well, people aren't going to like this.

I'm telling you right now, that's what Colby's going to call for. That's what he's going to call for. He's going to call for Connor. And he should. He should. Colby's a prize fighter. Colby is not a meritocratic fighter. Never has it been that way in a long time.

Colby wants big fights. Colby's getting up there in age. I don't think he has a lot of years left in the sport. I mean, he can go as long as he wants, but at the end of the day, he wants big fights. Bala Muhammad does not interest him at all, I'm sure. Shavkat doesn't interest him at all, I'm sure. He wants big names.

He would go for Connor. He would go for Porier, because there's a story there. Hell, he could call for Mazzadol to come out of retirement. You're telling me that that's not a gigantic fight box office. I, as a fan, as someone who watches the sport, am not interested in watching that fight at all, but from a storyline in a casual audience perspective, that fight would do bonkers numbers.

It would. It would do huge numbers. So, yeah, Colby winning is far more weird than Leon winning, and I still don't know what's going to happen if Leon wins either. So the fallout of that fight is going to be super interesting. Clay, go ahead. Hello, Mike. Good morning. to you.

I'm not a huge as Leon fan out there, but I really like his chances against Colby this weekend. And I think he's going to pull of one of those greatest knockouts that we're going to see this weekend. And he can get in a lot of being stinging 170. I didn't like what he had to say about going to 185 and being a devil chap. No one is interested in that, like literally no one.

And there is a lot he can do. There is Ballol out there. There is E.N. Ag out there. So what do you say with this? You're right. No one wants to see this. Here's the thing.

185, especially with Sean Strickland as the champion, and everything that has happened, some of the contenders that are coming up right now, they don't need it. They don't need it at all. But they also didn't need Volt going up to 55. It just turned out that the timing was absolutely perfect for it. There's just no shortage of guys who are ready to go to fight. for that belt right now. Strickland's fighting DDP.

You got Izzy ready to come back. You got Costa. You got Shemayef. You got, you got Whitaker who's in play right now as well, even though, you know,

he's had his opportunities. Whitaker's back in play. He's still very popular. Ousman's at 185 now. Deleide's A's real good. If he gets a big win, Canaaner has a case right now. And then you've got

like the Icramal Scariffs of the world, the Kyle Barlios of the world. Brennan's on a tear. There's no shortage of guys that could fight for belts right now. So there's no interest in this. None. Maybe he's just saying it to make headlines. I think Leon also talked to our own Damon Martin.

And I think he clarified things a little bit in that conversation, based saying like, hey, I'm not saying that it's going to be next, but it's something that I'm going to do. And if that's the case, fine. You go in there, if Leon beats Colby and then he beats, I assume they would go with Bilal Muhammad if Leon wins. But they could go with Shafkat if he just annihilates Wonderboy. Like that would not shock me at this point.

It would be kind of ridiculous, considering what Bilal is done. But if he goes in there and he beats Bilal and then he beats Shafkot, then go for it. Like, I'm cool with that. It's four title defenses. Cool. Go for it. I mean, Gary could be there as well.

That would be an interesting story, depending on where he's at. So maybe Gary then go to 185. Like, then I'm fine with it. Then I'm okay with it. But if he does just say like, hey, Sean, DDP, my next fight's going to be against one of you guys for the middleweight title. It's going to go over like flatulence in church. That's just what it's going to be.

So hopefully that doesn't happen. And we'll see. I'll tell you what, man. if Leon just goes out and just runs Colby, like just runs him out of the building, that will be really impressive. Because it's so hard to do that to Colby. Who's done it?

Like even when Oosman finished him in round five, like that fight was super close. And the second fight, super close. I scored it for Ousman, but it was super close. So there's, just like, nobody runs Colby.

It's really hard to, I know he got submitted early. I think Worley Alvas is the one who stopped Colby early on his UFC run. He goes out there and just like knocks Colby out in the second round. That's going to be incredibly impressive to me. Incredibly impressive. But he's got a lot on the line too. If he loses, boy, a lot of this goes away. A lot of this goes away.

It's a really interesting fight. I can't wait for it. I can't wait to join my band GC in the MAA Hour studio to watch live on the watch party. It's going to be super fun. We're going to try to get Viking in here. Viking, go ahead. How are you? Binil Darius is sort of old story, but, you know, there was, Benil Darious, there was a delay from Tesla for the delivery of his car and then he called out Elon Musk after his fight and sort of cut the promo. So as we are saying that title shot, we are blaming Binel Darius for not calling out for title shot, that's not right because he never, he was not interested.

in that if you if you if you're taking an example of that call out when he when he asked Elon must to deliver its car so that's it and the other thing I want to tell everyone all the listeners and speakers that know if you are dealing with mental illness please go to the doctor as early as you can because it's too dangerous do not fight it alone do not do not try to fight it alone just seek a doctor or else it's gonna grow and it's going to grow faster than you think so please if you're dealing with any sort of mental illness you should go to the doctor as fast as you can or else it's gonna it's gonna because I'm I was

dealing with one disorder and now I'm dealing with multiple disorders because I was late. So please go to the doctor and seek the doctor, tell him everything. Do not try to fight it alone. Thanks a lot, brother. Well said, my man. Well said. The B'Neal thing. Look, I'm not, I'm not blaming Baneal. Like, the things I say about Baneal's issues on the microphone, honestly, it's nothing to do with the Elon thing. of all the post-fight in cage interviews he has ever had, that was the most intriguing one he's ever had. By far, it made headlines.

It was funny. People were talking about it. I think Elon even responded to it in some way, shape, or form. Like, that was good. Like, it was topical. It was funny. Because look, like, if we shout out Raphael Fizzis for calling out, you know, different kinds of people out of fun, then how can we shit on B'Neil for it?

Like it was, I thought it was good. The problem was Benile just continued to not call for it. He would do interviews and say, look, if I win, I should definitely get the title fight, which he was absolutely right about. But then he beats Matush Gamrod on the same card that the vacant lightweight title is going to be put on the line. Someone is going to win. And your answer was, I don't care.

I'll fight 10 more guys. eyes. Like that, he was done after that. He was done after that. I remember reacting on the, because that was the first watch party we had ever done. And I was like, what? What are you doing? That's where do the thing was born. Do the thing? That's where it was born right then and there. Because Balal kind of did the thing, but didn't really do the thing because he was supposed to call it Homzat and he didn't say his name. And then Benil just said, I don't care. I'll fight 10 more guys. The UFC's like, yeah, you will. now you're going to and then as soon as that happened

Islam was like ooh this is great and as soon as he beat Charles what did Habib do? He called out Alexander Volcanovsky's in the crowd and Badeal's title hopes were gone. He had to go fight Charles Oliver now. It is so imperative that you make that those moments

count. I'm not saying as like a 35th ranked guy like you need to do that but in those situations when you're like you probably have done enough to get a title fight, like you have to be interesting. You have to make people want to talk about you. You can't be like, okay, here it comes, here it comes, here it comes.

Ah, man, you can't be that. You can't do that. Then it's just like, oh, B'Neal, you screwed yourself. His interview with Submission Radio that just popped out was really, really fascinating. So I highly recommend you go and check those, check that out. Shout out to Submission Radio, love those guys. But yeah, that interview is super interesting. So go check that out.

You know, dealing with the guys. who was so close to a title fight, strategic move here, an interesting call out there, he probably gets it, but he never got it, now he's probably never going to get it. Sport just, the swings of it is just freaking wild, man.

Even, I believe he even said in that conversation that he'd be down to fight Ben Wausantanine next, which signed me the hell up for that. I'm down for that. Like Kyle Barallio calling out DDP, made no sense. Like that call makes no sense. You know what I mean?

You gotta be better. It got to be better. Realistic, yet interesting at the same time. That's the combination. That's what you need. Jacob, go ahead. Hey, Mike. I just went on a couple of the sports betting sites,

and I was under the impression that Leon was going to be the underdog for his fight. But I just saw Colby sitting at a plus 120 odds right now. I think there's value on putting any money on Colby. for the fight. Thank you and have a heck of a morning. So let me just, let me take a gander real quick. Let me see what we're looking at. Because obviously with the watch party,

I'm going to place some wagers. Right now I'm looking at Colby. I'm trying to see like, so Colby at one point was a minus 190 favorite. I don't know if it, this was, this was eight in April. when the line first opened in April

after Dana was like I don't give a shit what happens he's fighting Colby next it opened at minus 190 for Colby then it just kind of slowly went up got to minus 104 by May and then it just kind of flatlined from there and then in October

Leon became the slight favorite and then it kind of went down got close to even money and now Colby's a plus 124 dog according to draft Kings. If you're going to bet Colby, I kind of feel like you might as well just get all the juice you can out of it.

Because let's be honest, like, I don't think Colby can, I don't think Colby's, if Colby wins, I'd be pretty surprised if he finishes Leon. I mean, it'd be pretty freaking wild if he does.

So I know that the props haven't dropped on draft Kings yet, but some are live. The ones that I'm looking at right now, Colby by decision is plus 250. So you're basically getting double your juice. And if Colby wins, probably going to win by decision. So, yeah, plus 250,

might as well get the extra juice out of it, I think. And then Leon, what's Leon by decision? Leon by decision is plus 150. If you think Leon's going to, for the person who called earlier, I think for Clay saying he's going to land a Vichistakow,

plus 380 for Edwards by K.O. or TKO, at least on those lines. So, yeah, I think there's value on Colby. But if you're going to bet him and you think he's going to win a decision, which I, if I'm going to bet him, that's probably the pick I'm doing is Colby by decision, plus 250. But maybe I'll wait and see if the line gets juiced up a little bit. Maybe the press conference happens and Leon just does better than Colby.

And, you know, sometimes the line moves after those types of things. So we'll see. We'll see. But I think there's value on Colby. I think this fights closer than people think. A lot of people are just like, oh, Leon's going to kill him. I don't think so. I don't think so.

The big question I have is can Colby get going quickly? Can he get takedowns? Can he win round one? If he get established that base and get takedowns early and turn this into a, not a slog, but a Colby-esque kind of a fight, he's got a real good chance. But if he waits till round three

like he did in the Oosven rematch to get cooking, it could be a long night for him. So I'm real interested to see what the first 10 minutes of this fight looks like if it gets that far. But if Colby goes out and wins the first round, this fight gets real interesting. Really, really interesting. All right, we'll keep going.

I see three people who I haven't heard from yet, So I'm going to try to get to all of you. Let's try to do some rapid fire here. We'll start with Nicholas. Maybe he gets connected. He's had a tough time. We'll see if today is the day. Thus far, it's the Wheel of Doom.

And it looks like the Wheel of Doom will be continuing on. Eric, go ahead. I think it's time to him and retire. And I think Kobe and Leon is going to be a good fight. Antentersia, and I think Orvo is going to, be Pantosia, but I think Pantorja is going to win by decision. Thanks, guys.

Yeah, dude, Pantosia Royval is ridiculous. Nobody is talking about that fight. Nobody. The answer to the low-key-banger is that fight. And it doesn't make any sense because it's the co-main event. But out of all the main card fights, Pantosia Royval 2 is being talked about the least by a mile.

By a mile. No one talking about that fight. Nobody. And it's insane. that fight's going to be incredible. That's going to be the best fight on the card, I think. It doesn't have like the storyline, casual appeal to it, like some of these other fights,

but that fight is going to deliver. No matter how, if it goes three minutes or it goes 25 minutes, that fight is going to deliver. It is going to deliver. If we get to a third round, and even with Royval fights, it may not even have to go that long. If we get to a third round on that way,

one, that might get a fight of the year nomination, but no one's talking about it. It's got to be super fun. I'm very, very excited. Very excited. Crypto, rapid fire. What you got? Okay, so good. How are you?

Yeah, so three quick questions, Mike. For the main card, which fighter will have the fastest finish? That's question number one. The second question is which fighter will have the most amount of significant strikes? Question number two. And the third and final question is which fighter will get the most amount of takedowns? So what I need for me, Mike, is to guess the fighter, but also give me the specifics. So the number of significant strikes, number of takedowns.

And for the fastest finish, I need a round and time for that round. And please know, Mike, there are stakes attached to this. I won't disclose exactly what the stakes are. I will tell you on Friday. It might even spice up the watch party. But for now, know that there are stakes attached in a positive way, of course. And I will keep you updated. You'll get to know on Friday why I asked these free specific questions.

Thank you, Mike. Oh, my God. Geez, and I got to actually like throw out numbers here. Let's see. Let me pull up the card real quick. Let me pull up the card real quick. So fastest finish, fastest finish. Most significant strikes, most takedowns.

Man, this is tough. That's really tough. Fastest finish. God, I don't, like, it's like, none of these fights scream like ether. You know what I mean? like there are some wide line fights but none of them scream out like yeah first round finish

boy that's tough I will say I will say fastest finish goes to Shafcott Rukmanoff round two three minutes 45 seconds in round two I don't know how he does it but I think Wonderboy's competitive

I think Rockmanoff's like all right F this I'm taking him down in town and tapping him. I don't know if he submits him or he just ground to pounds, but that's my guess. But, God, it's so hard. Most significant strikes,

I will say Colby Covington lands the most significant strikes. Now, that may not be, that may not mean he wins. But Colby puts up numbers in the striking department. And even if Leah, he out, even if he has, quote, unquote,

more significant strikes on UFC stats than Leon does, it doesn't mean that his shots are going to be more effective. You know, damage, damage, damage. So I will say Colby, because he has five rounds, I think it will go to the cards. I think Leon could probably have more impact with his striking, but I do think Colby's going to have to take this fight to the ground. And he's going to land significant strikes while it's on the ground as well. most takedowns landed on the card will be

Bryce Mitchell with six against Josh Evan he will be credited with six state downs now he may not do much with them but he will be credited with six takedowns top of my head that's that's what I got and I have zero confidence in either of these picks None. Zero. Any, I'll bring you in real quick. You got like 15 seconds because we got to go.

Do we have you? Are you there? Didn't connect. All right. Well, there you have it. Another edition of heck of a morning in the books. Get excited, everybody. I believe our guy, Jose, is off to Las Vegas later on today.

He will be there all week long. Media day tomorrow. There'll be multiple press conferences. There will be the 296. presser on Thursday, which is going to be super weird, probably uncomfortable at times, but maybe that's your jam. There's going to be a presser on Friday as well. The seasonal press conference.

So you're going to have like Strickland and DDP and O'Malley and Cheeto, probably Vulcan Toporia. I think Raquel Pennington, Myra Bonasilla, maybe there as well. I don't know. But it's going to be fun. That'll happen. Friday's Way-in Day, you know what that means. A.K. We'll be hosting the Way-In Show

with Casey and Jose. We'll have the M.A. Awards on Thursday. There's just a karate combat on Friday. I'm actually off to Orlando first thing tomorrow morning for the Jake Paul fight. Look, I know I see you. I hear you. I hear you. But I'm going. I'm in driving

distance. I'm going. So I'm going to go check that out. Press conference for that is tomorrow. Wayans on Thursday. Fight on Friday. And then I'm off to New York. First thing Saturday morning for the watch party. And then we'll have tons of fun on Saturday.

And then AK, my best friend and I, one more matchmaking edition of On to the next one on Sunday for 2023. And we'll be live for that one on the YouTube channel. Not sure what time, but it's going to happen. So we appreciate you all very much. much back here sometime on Thursday, not sure when, but we will make sure we get enough shows. BTL will let you know what's happening with that as well with so much going on this week, but we will do that show in some way, shape, or form this week as well. So thank you all very much.

Have a great rest of your Thursday. And have a heck of a morning, everybody.