MMA Fighting - HOAM | Would a Conor McGregor vs. Artem Lobov Fight Be Big Business For the UFC?

Episode Date: December 1, 2022

Although there are alleged legal ramifications surrounding their current relationship, but hypothetically speaking, if the UFC could somehow put together a fight between seemingly former friends Conor McGregor and Artem Lobov, could that be a massive drawing fight for the promotion? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck takes listener questions, which includes the potential box office appeal for a McGregor vs. Lobov matchup if it could somehow get made in 2023. Additionally, topics include Jorge Masvidal's recent interview with MMA Fighting, Glover Teixeira's spot in the light heavyweight title picture, the UFC Orlando main event between Stephen Thompson and Kevin Holland, Tracy Cortez vs. Amanda Ribas matchup on Saturday's card, 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

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, 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 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. The Vox Media Podcast Network. It is Thursday, December 1st. We have made it to December, everybody, 2022.

It is indeed a heck of a morning live on the MMA fighting Twitter spaces. you can hear the show in its entirety shortly thereafter on the MMA Fighting Podcasting Network. Hope everyone's having a great week so far, having a great Thursday. I am Mike Heck. We are here a little bit later than normal. My schedule not what it usually is this week, filling in some roles, filling in some slots. So we push things back an hour today. On top of that, I wanted to take advantage of the extra time.

So the last couple days, I tried CrossFit. Never done CrossFit before. My workouts have been super boring lately. I've just been doing the same sorts of things for the last few years. And I just wanted to mix some things up. Try some things out. It's a place locally that was like, come try it out. We'll give you two weeks.

And I said, all right. So I went yesterday and it kicked the living shit out of it. me and I was like, I'll go today, and it kicked the living shit out of me even more. So I like it. It's fun. It's tough as hell. But two days in, we'll keep on going and see how we like it. Maybe I'll hop along because it's tough.

It's definitely a mix-up for the workouts I was looking for. So I took advantage of that, came home, grabbed my iced coffee, took a shower, and now I'm here with all of you. So, and we're going to talk some MMA. This is a morning radio type of show. So if you're new to the platform, I don't want to talk the entire time. I mean, I'm going to talk a bunch because I'm going to answer your questions, but I want you all to lead the discussion. What are we going to talk about? We're going to talk about UFC Orlando. We're going to talk about Kevin Holland versus Wonderboy, some of the other great fights that are on the card. We're going to talk about Alex Pereira, challenging Hamzat Shimon.

throwing out bets to Brendan Schaub. Are you going to talk about Kayla Harrison's reaction to her loss on the MAA? Or you talk about whatever the hell you want. MMA related. Let's get into this thing. And we'll start with AA. Because AA is just quick on the trigger finger these days.

What's up, AA? What's up? I'm good, man. Just, just one quick one. I've just, what is the, what's the truth to the rumors of, excuse me, Jack Della, Madelena and the Leach in Perth? That's all I've got.

Everyone, have a heck of a morning. You're awesome. Have a good day, Mark. Peace. Thanks, man. I don't know. I know Jack Della, Madelana did an interview, I believe, with the All-Star Sports. and said that that was a targeted bout.

I honestly have no idea. I honestly have no idea. I haven't reached out to the Leach's side yet. I don't really see a ton of upside, honestly, if you're Lee Jingleong to take that fight. It'd be cool. It'd be a great step up in competition for JDM, but I just don't see a lot of upside there for the Leach to take that fight.

It'd be kind of a rough go for him, right? supposed to fight freaking Tony Ferguson ends him fighting D-Rod who weighs in eight pounds heavier than him or whatever it ended up being because he was getting ready to fight Kevin Holland at 180 or whatever it was. There's definitely a weight discrepancy for UFC 279,

totally different opponent, totally different style, loses a fight that a lot of people thought he won and then to come back from all that after doing the UFC a favor to have to travel to Australia and fight one of their hometown heroes who's not ranked. It's tough, man.

That's tough. Not a ton of upside for the leech. I'm not saying he won't take it, but just not a... To me, there's just not a ton of upside to that. But we'll see. I'll reach out. Maybe we'll have an update on that

a little bit later on. They might even be both managed by the same group. group. It could be wrong about that, but yeah, that would be an interesting fight. Let me see what that card actually looks like right now. I know he, JDM's going to fight on that card either way. Will he get the leech? I'm not really sure. So this is what 284 looks like right now. We got Mokachev, Volcanovsky, fight friggin rules. I'm really interested in it. I do think Mokachev could win, but Volkinovsky is the best fighter in the freaking world right now. Then we have the

Interim title fight, Yaya Rodriguez versus Josh Emmett for the interim featherweight title. Robert Whitaker, Paul Al Costa. It's supposed to be happening. It depends on who you ask, I guess. Tyson Pedro versus Ming Yang Zhang, Kai Kar, France, versus Alex Perez, Jack Jenkins versus Don Channis, Justin Taffa versus Paco Porter, Joshua Kulaba versus Melsik Bagdasarian, Jimmy Crute, Alonzo Menafield, Clayton Rodriguez, Shannon Ross.

Card definitely needs some help. JDM will fight on it, but who's he going to fight? Maybe we'll have an update a little bit later. We'll see. Shout out to my man, ally Quinta. Good to see him back in the room. Balta Ruzello. I don't know if I gave enough emphasis to the syllables.

Hello, are you there? You just got to unmute yourself. Baltaro, are you there? All right? You can try again if you'd love. like, let's go to Barbarusa. Barbaruso, hello. I can't hear you.

You're muted, Barbaruso. We are off to one hell of a start today, everybody. Maybe Austin can save the day. Austin, hello. Thank God. I was hoping this wasn't on my end and it ain't. So great. How are you, how are you?

Good. Yeah, I just want to, I know Stephen Wonderboy Thompson said he's not going to retire if he loses, however, he's getting up there. Do we think that this might be the end for him? If he loses to Kevin Holland, no, I don't. Kevin, like, Wonderboy has always been a guy. He doesn't need to do this. He doesn't need to fight.

It's not like he's hurting for money or anything. He runs a very successful karate school with his dad, does pretty well with that. And for all the years that I've spoken with him, fighting is just something he likes to do. of course if you are going to fight you want to try to succeed and accomplish goals and for him he'd love to get back to a title but he's not a guy that's taken a ton of damage in his career and he just likes fighting he just likes it so i don't think he retires i mean if he gets brutalized over like if kevin holland just pieces him up and then knocks him dead in the fifth round will a conversation need to be had perhaps, but Wonderboy's not that dude. He doesn't need to fight.

He just fights because he likes doing it. It's kind of a, it's not necessarily a hobby for him, but maybe it's like a professional hobby. We'll take it another step higher. So I don't think he retires. He's a very popular fighter. People would love to see him get back to a title shot. I think he's kind of far away right now,

but at least like with Usman still as champ, I think the chances would be a little bit better because this would just run out of guys to fight. So even when he entered the Gilbert Burns fight, a lot of people thought if he won, he's getting the title shot. But there's still fun fights for him. There's still some names he can fight.

And this recent stretch of losses, he's just getting taken down. It's getting taken down. He's being controlled on the ground. This fight with Kevin Holland is really interesting because I just don't know if Kevin's going to fight. that way.

I don't, like, Wonderboy, Wonderboy is a pretty good defensive grappler. I know you don't see, you didn't get to see a ton of that because he was fighting Gilbert Burns and fighting Belaw Muhammad who could just string them together.

But for the most part, when he fights, like when he fought Royer McDonald's takedown defense is real good in that fight. He's got really good takedown defense. And Kevin Holland's on a tremendous offensive wrestler. So there's a good chance.

this fight stays on the feet. And looking at it from a betting perspective, I think Stephen Thompson has a ton of value at plus 140 in a fight that I don't think, I don't think Colin's going to be trying to string takedowns together in this fight. I think he's going to, I think they're going to have a striking battle. Will Kevin land a takedown at some point? Yeah, it's possible.

But I don't think he's going to just try to chain 20, 30 takedowns like Belaw Muhammad would over a five-round fight. So I think there's value at Stephen. especially a plus money. But I do agree the cause for pause, if you're going to put your hard-earned dollars on Wonderboy is, he's going to be 40 in February. He turns 40 a day before I do.

So, I mean, that doesn't cause pause for me because we're right around the same age. He's born a day before I was. But I like the matchup. I like the matchup. But we'll see. I think Thompson has a good chance. chance to win this fight.

Could Kevin just land a big shot and knock him out? Yeah, it's possible, but I think this fight gets extended. Two durable dudes, like Thompson's only been knocked out once. And it was that Superman from Anthony Pettis, but if you go back and watch that fight, Stephen Thompson had a great

first round until that strike landed. So, I don't know. But I don't think he retires. No. I think there's still some big fights for him. will he fight the Shafkat Rakhban Ups of the world? Probably not, but give him some legend fights. Brett, hello. Hello, good morning, Mike.

Good morning. I just haven't heard you talk about the latest Ali Abdullahiz situation, so I just kind of wanted to tee you up for that. You think he'll actually get in trouble just a slap on the wrist. That's all I got. Thank you. I assume you're talking about the video that has gone around of Ali, basically, jumping into a neutral corner during the PFL fights and coaching Kayla Harrison seemingly through a triangle choke that Larissa Pacheco had on her six days ago.

And will he get in trouble? I don't know. How do you define trouble? Will he get some sort of warning, some like written warning? Maybe. Could he be like suspended? from attending a New York event the next time it comes around, perhaps. But I don't think he's going to be, like, suspended for life.

I don't think it's going to be anything major. But listen, he snuck over there. No one stopped him for a while until Alex Davis went over and noticed that he was in there just screaming out instructions. And then we saw commission officials come over. And eventually he was removed from the spot. But feel how you feel about Ali. The dude is loyal as shit.

and his fighters freaking love him. And these are the types of things he'll do for his fighters. It was wrong and it was clearly not what he was supposed to be doing, but he did it.

He did it for as long as he possibly could. And listen, I talk about we talk about cheating all the time. We talk about cheating all the time. If nobody stops you from cheating, it's not cheating. Like if Tim Elliott says he's going to grab gloves because he hasn't fought in 18 months

and needs money and he needs that win bonus because he hasn't fought in a while to take care of his family, he's going to grab a damn glove. You want to know why? Because no one's going to stop him from doing it. It's the same reason why people grab the fence. It's the same reason why people kick you in the balls. It's the same reason why these files happen because no one will stop you from doing it. Now, at least in this sense, and it took a while, someone actually came over and said something to

Ali, but had Alex Davis not noticed what had happened, I don't know how long you would have been allowed to be there because no one noticed it. No one noticed it. But at least in this case, somebody said something. Alex went and got an official, got him out of there. But you know how I feel about, quote unquote, cheating in MMA. It ain't cheating if no one says anything.

Referee can give you 1,000 warnings. It doesn't matter. They ain't taking a point. They're not, there's no penalty. for grabbing the fence or doing any of that stuff. So just freaking do it. Jed and I have been talking about, like there should be 10 minutes at the end of practice

about just adequate cheating. I mean, because no one's stopping you. Like literally no one is stopping you from cheating. Like there have been blatant fence grabs this year. There have been just blatant fouls left and right. And there ain't one person that's stopping them. No one is saying a word about it. So just keep doing it.

Keep doing it because no one's going to say a word. Curious to get your guys' thoughts on this Orlando card. It's going to be a long night, my friends. Prelim started 7 p.m. Eastern. We go to the main card at 10 p.m. Eastern. A lot of prelim fights. Six main card fights. Some interesting names in the bunch.

Tracy Cortez, Amanda Hebas probably deserves a little bit better than the spot that they're in. That fight's great to pick them from a betting perspective. Darren Elkins, JSP will be fun. Michael Johnson, Marche Casey, interesting matchup. We'll see what happens if this one stays in the feature. Casey has become a wrestling savant as of late. And we'll see if he continues that trend or if him and Michael Johnson just have a stand-up battle.

Because if that's what happens, that fight's going to be a lot of fun. Clay Guida, Scott Holtzman, supposed to be, it's perceived as Holtzman's final fight. So you know those two are going to get in there in scrap. Angela Hill, Emily Decodey is going to be a lot of fun. Big opportunity for Emily to get a pretty sizable name on her resume. And Angela Hill is a dog, man. She is tough as hell.

So that fight's going to be great. Nico Price is back. That dude has gone through a lot injury-wise since the last time we saw him. Knee surgeries, tons of injuries. Fighting Phil Roe, who's been on a nice run. Big opportunity for Roman DeLieze, fighting Jack Hermanson, stepping in on short notice for Derek Brunson. Eric Anders, fresh off of his appearance on Cobra Kai,

getting back in the octagon against Kyle Dachis. Of course, Taita Tui Vasa versus Sergei Pavlovich. You know that fight ain't lasted more than 10 minutes. Mateus Nicola and Matt Schnell is just going to be wild because that's what Matt Chanel does. Co-main event, Hoffield Osangio's massive favorite against Brian Barberina and then, of course, the main event, Kevin Holland, the minus 165. favorite against the underdog wonderboy stephen thompson comes back a plus

140 according to our friends of draft kings and you guys may have heard the uh the tough news because wonder boy was on chris wideman's show on serious xm and he said that jack black was going to walk him out to the kick to the octagon and then at media day yesterday turns out that is not the case jack black can't make it anymore and that have been so freaking cool especially if you'd let him, he doesn't even have to sing the damn song. If Jack Black had a microphone and did the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Paray style and just lip sync the whole time, that would have been cool as hell. But apparently that's not happening.

At least that's a Wonderboy set at the Media Day yesterday. But card should be fun, man. And then we lead right into UFC 282. It's hockey season and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get a nice rank on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice? Yes, we deliver those.

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Let's go to Tristan. Tristan, hello. Mike? Can you hear me? Yes, I can. The question I have is, how do you think, the uh was it the match now versus uh um i forgot his opponent's name how that's gonna go because we just saw again we just saw what snow uh did it was just incredible you think it's gonna

that fight's not going to be too exciting as we think it's going to be because because of the fact that um his opponent is not it's mostly of a decision machine and very calculated and everything so like how do you think that fight's going to go like do you feel feel like it may be a snoozer because of how the opponent is going to fight or you think it's going to be another bar burner. Thanks, Mike. It's a good question. I don't, I mean, I think it's going to be fun because Matt Chanel is just not in really

boring fights. Let me just, uh, let me pull up Schnell's recent resume here. That soon Baderge fight was wild. There is a little pause with that because Baderge was hurt. apparently it tore an ACL heading into that fight, which is freaking wild. But here's matchnell's last several fights. Sumadiergy, that fight was insane. Second round submission.

Brandon Royval loses in the first round. Loses to Bonterine at UFC 262. Tyson Nam, close fight, split decision. And then Pentosia loses in the first round. That fight was ridiculous. loses in the first round or beats Jordan Espinosa first round,

beats Louis Smolka first round. The dude is just super exciting. So I don't think it's going to be a snoozer. I think it's going to be a fun-ass fight. Statistically, on paper, I would say Nicolao probably wins a decision, but match now is just full of chaos, man. His fights very rarely go to decisions.

So maybe the no-bets spot hard boys will be able to cash another flyweight under with this one. But yeah, I love the matchup. Should be a lot of fun. I think it will be a barn burner because Matt Schnell just doesn't know how to not get into a barrenner, especially these days. Tyler, hello. Hey, how's it going to be there. What's up, man?

How are you? Good. Thanks. So I'm wondering what you think about Rebos versus Cortez. Because, you know, Cortez is obviously with T-City. I think that, you know, even if they're not training together regularly, which I'm assuming they probably do. T-City's probably given her a lot of good advice on submissions. I love Rebus. I think she's a tough girl. I think she's a fantastic fighter. I'm just kind of wondering what

you think about this one. I think it's a really interesting matchup. I think that they have similar strengths. So I'm just kind of wondering what you think. It's a good question. The gambling community hasn't really made a decision yet because it's a complete pickum right now. Fights real interesting. Tracy Cortez, at least in my opinion, has needed a little bit of a step up in competition. I feel like Amanda Hebas is kind of a perfect foil for her at this point in her career. Let's just pull up her UFC run right now. Vanessa Mello, Stephanie Egger, Justine Kish was a splitie, Melissa Gatto, unanimous decision, fun fight. She just hasn't, I'm not going to say I'm not. I want to,

How do I put this the right way? It's not that I'm not sold on her. It's just I'm not fully convinced of how good she could be yet. But this is the type of matchup where the convincing will happen. Tracy's got talent. She's marketable. She could be a star for this company. No doubt about it.

But this is what? This will be the first time since she's gotten in the UFC where she's fought more than once in a year. I don't know. That's up, yeah. Well, she had the contender series fight that made her debut in the UFC. But as far as UFC fights go, only fought once in 2019, once in 2020, once in 2021. That was out for 13 months for the Godot fight, won that one.

She's coming back to get a second fight in this year. These are the kinds of questions that I have. Will her durability last? Can she get in there two, three times a year? on a consistent basis. And Amanda's a good opponent. Amanda's a real good opponent because Amanda's last fight was against Caitlin Chukagian. And we all know how that works here at M.A. fighting death taxes, Chukagian by decision.

Manon Fioro didn't really have that. She was able to win that fight. But this is a close one. Manda gave Kate and Chukagian everything she can handle. Manda beats Vernagena Janda Roba. That's a really good win. Marina Rodriguez, that was one of Marina's best performances. But prior to that, submits Emily Whitmire, beats McKenzie Dern convincingly,

beats Random Marcos pretty convincingly, submits Paige Van Zant in her final UFC fight. She's good, man. I'm just curious with Amanda, is she going to stay? This is another fight at 25. Is she going to stay here? Is she going to go back to 115? I don't know. I love the matchup.

my gut is telling me that Amanda will win. I think she's a little more well-rounded. I'm curious to see how her get-up game is going to be, because Trace's going to take her down. There's no doubt about it. But how will her get-up game be, especially down the stretch? Because Tracy is going to take her down, or at least try to throughout the fight.

If she can get it, if we're 1-1 going into 3, Tracy gets her down, she's going to be able to get back up. Because I think she has the advantage on the feet for sure. sure. It's a really good fight. It's a good test for Tracy, and we'll see where she's at. Tracy goes out there and beats Amanda Hebas.

You got something here. You got something. And especially in a division where we have a ton of up-and-comers, a ton of prospects, the Aaron Blanchefields of the world. We saw what she did against Molly McCann. When you see these fighters make the come up, adding Tracy Cortez to that list.

ain't going to hurt you at all. So good fight. Stylistic matchup, real good. But it all comes down to, can Tracy get takedowns? And if she does, can she control her? Because of this fight stays standing, a man is going to win. But if Tracy can string some takedowns together, she'll win. So interesting matchup, should be a nice little chess match between the coaches and the staffs.

Rips and picks, hello. Hey, Mike. Can you hear me? Yes, I can. Perfect. Perfect. Top of the morning team, man. heck of morning. Just got a question on the main event this weekend next week. So for this Holland Wonderboy match, just curious if you think we're going to see the judges in this one, it just feels like Wonderboy has never really been outstruck by too many people.

Sure, he's been out grappled by Ballal and Gilbert, but, you know, when you look at Jeff, Neil, you know, Luka, anybody else who really just wants to stand on the feet with them, it usually doesn't look pretty for him and it usually goes the distance. So just curious if you think, you know, we'll see a finish. obviously more probably on the Holland side, but just if you think this is going to go to the judges. And then next week's main card, just a little bit different of a question,

but what do you think the future of the division's going to be? And what do you think the future of Glover and Yuri is going to look like? I mean, do you think Glover gets the winner of these two? Do you think Yuri immediately faces the champion whenever he comes back? I just feel like there's just so many questions now. We took the two guys we wanted to see completely out of the main event. So just kind of curious on your thoughts on that. Thanks, Mike.

Thanks, man. So the main event on Saturday, again, you never know with two people getting in a cage and fists of flying. But I actually do think this fight goes to a decision. If there is a finish, it's probably coming from the Kevin side. But again, both these guys are super durable. Both can take a shot. And I think this will be some high level striking on the feet. I think it's just going to be a fun on the feet kickboxing sort of chess match.

When Kevin says, I'm not going to take him down, it's not that I don't believe him. I think just instinctually he will go and shoot at some point. But I don't think, for the people who think, oh, well, Wonderboy got taken down 12 times or however any times he got taken on the last two fights, I don't think Kevin's going to fight like that. will Kevin show that he might shoot for something? Yeah, maybe to get Wonderboy guessing, but he ain't going to go in there and fight like Colby. It's not going to happen.

So I do think with the durability of both these guys, even though Wonderboy's up there in age a little bit, I can see the cards come in and it's going to be a close fight. As far as the light heavyweight division goes, I don't know what the frig is happening. No idea. I've already made my point about this. I think Glover should have just got the Yon fight.

I think that's just a bigger fight. It's not a massive fight? Is it like a 150,000 pay-per-view buy rate difference doing Yon Glover 2 or Yon and Gala? Probably not. But I think the more compelling fight would have been the rematch between Glover and Yon because you have a story there. Two former champions going after it. The two previous champions outside of Yeri. I just think the storyline was better.

I think Glover's not a, like, he's not a huge draw, but people know who he is. A lot more people know who Glover to share is the Magamette-Ankelyath. And again, I don't say this to knock Magamette-A-Galif because I think Magamette Ankelaif is probably the best 205er in the UFC, probably in the world right now. I think he beat John Boehovic. I think he beats Glover.

I think I would probably pick him to beat Yuri too. Like, I think he's, that good. Just nobody knows who he is. Nobody knows who he is. So I thought doing this fight is the co-main event leading into the title fight would have been a big deal. Now, because not a lot of people know who he is and because of the stylistic issues he presents, he's the more difficult guy to prepare for, which is why when they offered Glover and Goliath on less than two weeks notice, I totally get where Glover is coming from. Like, I'm not doing that.

It doesn't make any sense. Like, that's a terrible stylistic matcher for me when I'm preparing for an absolute maniac. But at least Jan is somewhat in that same vicinity. So I don't blame Glover for not taking the Angola. That's just, that's a tough one, especially on two, two and a half weeks notice. So who's next? I don't know, man.

like I think Angola's going to win I think they'll probably push for Glover to get his shot if Glover has some time to prepare I think he'd be in on it but it all depends on Yuri because if Yuri is ready to come back Yuri says he's going to be out for six months

Dana White says this is the scariest shoulder injury he's never seen it's nasty he could be out for a long long time Yuri's just a madman and thinks he's going to be back in six months I don't know if that's true it's probably somewhere in the middle knowing Yuri and just the type of physical and mental specimen he is,

I feel like we'll see Yuri fight in 2023. It just all depends when. Yuri's ready to come back in freaking August. It all depends on the champion if they're ready to bounce back. So I think what will happen is I think Angolaev will probably either win a decision against John or get a late finish. maybe they fight in May, June, or something like that.

Winner gets Glover, and then maybe at the end of the year, we get, we get Yuri back in there. But the only, the one thing that stinks about all this is we're probably not going to see Yuri versus Glover, too, because that fight was so frigging good. And I just want to see, I just want to see one more time. Like, I don't know who the better man was in that first fight.

I just don't know. Both guys made mistakes. both guys made some big mistakes but it was just such a compelling matchup because there were so many swings everything we thought about that fight we were wrong we were all wrong

if Glover can't get him down on the first round year he's gonna just blast him out of there and I was saying from Jump Street as soon as Glover won the belt I said as soon as he fights Yeri he's gonna take him down on the first he's gonna sub him out that fight ain't getting out of the first

Glover's gonna sub him and he's gonna win and I was close and then he didn't And we thought Yerr was going to come out and blast him in the second round. And he almost did. But he didn't finish him. And the whole fight was like that.

It was just a freaking roller coaster ride. It was amazing. Was it the most technical battle of all time? No. But that was a fucking fight. That was a fight. And I'm so curious to see what would happen if they fought again. But I don't know if we're going to get it now.

Because of Glover. Glover needs to hope that Yombo Hovi which somehow beats Magavette Ankylaiath. And then we might have a chance. But I think if Ankylai beats Yon, and I think he will, I think it Goliath beats Glover, and we'll see Anc Goliath versus Yeri.

But I'd love to see Glover and Yerie get after a one more time. Because who knows how, we don't know how much longer Glover's got left. He's going to keep on going now. But hopefully, hopefully we get to see that fight one more time. because I'm fascinated by a second go. Viking, hello.

Hello, Mike. Hello, sir. My TV's volume. Okay, guide. I was listening to Kevin Holland's interview, a pre-fight interview, and Oscar Willis asked him about his retirement, and in a respond to that, he said that if Hamza Chima gets a tire shot after winning one more match, then I might just retired.

So what's your thought on that? And he also mentioned that UFC made him some promise, and they just did not fulfill their promises. So what are your thoughts on that? Thank you, Mike. And one more question. Tell me if the BTL is happening or not. Okay.

BTL is happening. 1 p.m. Eastern. We'll be live on the YouTube channel. Back to normal. Last week was obviously Thanksgiving week. So Jed and I just recorded a podcast, which was a lot of fun. We recorded on Tuesday. Of course, all this eerie, light heavyweight, UFC 282 chaos happened on

Wednesday, so we didn't even get to friggin react to it. We did react to it on Wednesday, just outside of BTL, but we'll talk more about it today. It's going to be Jed versus New York Rick. So little MMA fighting, infighting, should be a lot of fun. So that's going down at 1 p.m. Eastern. I have to admit, I have not watched the Kevin Holland Media Day interview yet. I did see some headlines about the retirement and how he's basically just trying to make it. so it's like fair for everybody

that he could just do it again. And I actually thought I thought the first Holland retirement was friggin brilliant. God, it was brilliant. Everything about it was great. Then he gets the Wonderboy fight. He had the UFC going crazy.

It was great. Everything about it. But you also don't want to, Kevin's a pretty smart dude. His manager is a really smart guy, Oran Hodak. Those two together are a pretty dynamic team.

So I don't think it'll turn into a situation where Kevin Holland becomes the boy who cries wolf or anything like that. But I think if he does do it again, it's going to be perfectly timed, much like the last one. And there'll be purpose for it. There'll be purpose for it.

Now, I don't know, Kevin's made a lot of money fighting mostly because of his activity. But Kevin's also told me, like, even during the pandemic and everything, that this dude just likes to spend money. Like, he hasn't, he's, he's not a guy who likes to buy real estate or anything like that. He doesn't invest really.

I mean, it's probably some things he invest in like cars and shoes. Now he hasn't made a lot of money. But for the most part, he just, he just gets it and buy shit. So, I don't know. I don't know. But I'll go back and watch that scrum. I think the UFC will probably send us a video and maybe we'll put it up on YouTube. But, yeah, I haven't watched it.

I haven't watched it. The only thing I really saw for Media Day was Taito Ivasa, not wanting to fight in Australia, and then Wonderboy breaking the news that Jack Black's not going to walk him to the cage anymore. That's it. That's all I really know. I had the day off yesterday, so I try to get away from the sport. You can't fully get away from it, but that's how it is.

Yes, but BTL is happening. We'll have a lot to discuss. Nate Diaz is officially a free agent now. How about that? That was some big news. And I know we've talked about it on this show. Ariel's talked about it on his show about that whole situation because a lot of people just felt like,

well, it's the last fight on his deal. And Nate's free after he submitted Tony Ferguson. It's not really the case. Nate had a matching period that went until, I believe it was December 9th. ninth but the UFC just is like eh go ahead do your thing so now he's free

interested to see what he does now I think he just I think you just go do that Jake Paul fight make a floppy dillion dollars win or lose and then just come back just come back to the UFC I mean there's there's plenty of options for him do I that Connor fight is lucrative

but again I'm sure the UFC is well aware that of what everybody is saying we've been talking about it for a long time time. If you're Connor, if you're Nate, why do that third fight in the UFC when you can just do it by yourselves? Nate's got his own promotion. Connor's got his own promotion. Connor doesn't have a lot of fights left on his deal either. It just depends. Do you want to just do it now and do it in the octagon or do you want to wait a year or two and try to do it on your own and keep all the money?

that's that's the million dollar question right now probably it's probably the hundred million dollar question right now but i'm curious to see what nate does i don't think he's going to bellator i don't think he's going to fl i don't think he's going to sign with an mama promotion i think he'll box potentially box once or twice and i think if he's going to i think if he's going to fight in a cage and do m m i think it's going to be in the ufc i think it's going to be in the UFC. I think the way that the UFC sort of handled everything, at least

down the stretch. Did they start off correctly by booking him with Hamza? No. That was terrible. But luckily, Hamza did him a big favor. He got the Ferguson fight. He got to go out with the

overhead bicep pose and the triangle and gets the choke and just goes out in Nate style. The universe sort of corrected itself. and it almost forced the UFC to just be like, all right, we'll mission eight, you're the man. But they also realize that just because the contract is expired, it doesn't mean that he'll never fight for them again either.

So you go out, you do your thing, you do business the right way, you don't burn any bridges, and you leave the door open. And I think Nate has sort of forced the UFC to do that. not a lot of guys with that leverage but I think Nate has some even with the UFC right now because I think the UFC would come correct to try to get that

Connor fight under their banner other than that I don't know what else would really compel Nate to come back because I don't think he's going to fight for the belt or anything like that I think it's kind of Connor or nothing at this point and Nate

they can do whatever the hell he wants he's a star people care about what he does He can just go box and make a ton of money. And make a ton of money. I'm looking at UFC 282 right now. It's pretty solid. It's pretty solid.

This is one of those cards where it's just, a lot of times you talk about cards that are really top-heavy and there's not much underneath it. This one is kind of top-light, but very heavy underneath. Behovojeankal life, yeah, we get a title fight. Patty, Jared Gordon, really interesting fight. Really interesting fight.

This is definitely the toughest opponent Patty's ever faced. No doubt about it. Ponziabio, Robbie Lawler. I don't know how I feel about that one. We'll see. Hopefully I'm wrong. I just don't want to see Robbie get blasted out of there. But we'll see.

Darren Till, Drick's Duplice, interesting fight. Bryce Mitchell, Ilya, Teporia, good God. That fight's awesome. Edmund Chabazian getting a big step back. Daltje Lungambula can crack, man. But this is definitely a step back for the opponents that he's been facing lately. Geez, Louise. His last three fights, Nasserdeen-eimov, Jack Kermanson, Derek Brunson.

Then going from those guys to Daltzal Lunga Bula, man, that is definitely a step back. But Daltja's tough. Billy Q. versus Alexander Hernandez in a featherweight fight. Be interesting to see what Hernandez looks like at 45. He's a big lightweight. Eric Silva, T.J. Brown, Jarzanio Rosenstrike, Chris Dachis. Chris Curtis, Joaquin Buckley.

That's going to be fun. Daniel De Silva, Venetius Salvador, J. Perrin versus the 18-year-old Raoul Roses Jr. Ovin St. Prue, fighting Antoine. Antonio Trucoli. And we found out yesterday, a report from my man, Nolan King. We confirmed him multiple sources.

Cameron Simon is now fighting Stephen Coslow, 6-0 newcomer. He's a Florida guy, trains with the likes of Phil Rowe. Stephen Coslow gets his opportunity against Cameron Simon, who's super young guy, 21 years old, teammates with Trichus Duplice, nasty knockout on the contender series. he's got himself a contract.

And they also, some other news, the watch party is back. It's official. Next Saturday, I am flying out to New York once again. And we're going to sit in the MMA hour studio, myself and G.C. And we're going to watch the damn main card together.

And we're going to react and we're going to go crazy just like you did for 281. So that's going down. Get excited. And this is a big one, folks. This is a big one for us. okay because we talked about this before we talked about how 280 went really well and we needed 281 to go really well because there's a difference between flukes and trends we need we didn't want a

fluke we wanted a trend and we got ourselves a trend with 281 you guys watched a hell out of that thing and that was great 282 we need this one to go well okay we need this one to go well because this card is not that stacked especially up the top there's some good undercard fight not a ton of like really compelling storylines overall, just some good matchups. And then we go into 283 and we're kind of looking at a card that is similar. So if we could show that this trend can continue even with not the most stack card of all time, that we tell the peeps, we tell the brass here at Vox,

we got to keep doing these. 2023 is the year of the watch party. But we need this to happen. Okay. So that's going down next Saturday, flying out. and early next Saturday. I'm excited. With Amex Platinum, $400 in annual credits

for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. Unwrap holiday magic at Holt Renfrew with gifts that say I know you. From festive and cozy fashion to Luxe Beauty

and Fragrant Sets, our special selection has something for every style and price point. Visit our Holt's holiday shop and store or online at Holtrenfrew.com. Let's go to Jordan. Hello, Jordan. Mike, heck of a morning. What's up, Jordan?

I assume you're in the car right now. I'm heading back from MMA training myself. So I wanted to talk about my biggest thing, the watch party 282. I wanted to talk about if there's ever going to be a different promotion that gets you guys to do a watch party after such a great, granite long night of fights for PFL paperview. Do you think it'll be a Bellator event,

or do you think it'll be a PFL super event that gets you guys out of the woodwork to do it for them? Interesting question. So we have done, I mean, we've done like a couple of watchalongs here on the spaces. Like we watch the Patricia Pitbull, Adam Borge, main card on here. we've done some Eagle FC watchalongs on here. The only other one, like this is different because we're doing it in the studio

and it's like a really professional thing. Because for me, and I'll say this, I love covering events. I love being out there. It's just super fun. It's a whole different thing. And it's not because like, it's not because like, oh, I could go sit and press row

watch fights real close. it was up to me, like if my boss has said, hey Mike, just go out for media day, the press conference and the way in day, and then you can fly home before the actual card, I would do that. The stuff building up to the fight is way more interesting to me. Like, I'll watch the fights anyways.

And even when I am covering these cards, like, I'm in the back. I'm in the back doing the interviews post-fight. It's not about getting a seat. cage side. I don't care about any of that stuff. But I do like the rush you get from just being there. Because it gets kind of monotonous. Like I like sitting,

like I like working in Command Center 4.0 here. It's fun. Built a nice little setup here. But there's just something about being on the road and being outside of your comfort zone that I just love. Especially the watch party stuff. I'm like, a lot of times we have ideas of where they're going to go.

But then the camera turns on and we're just like, oh shit, we're alive. Now we have to be for three and a half hours and be somewhat compelling and entertaining, it's not easy to do. So there's a rush to that that I just love. Will the PFL and Bellatory provide that? I don't know. The only other watch party we've done or watch along we've done

was about a year ago. Remember when Triller did their combo thing, the triad, the triad combat card, whereas like boxing in smaller gloves, but you could do some sort of, and I think there were like clinches you could do, you could punch in the clenches, things you can't do in boxing. Mike Perry was on that card.

We did that. It was me, Casey, and Angela Hill. That was super fun. But would we do it for Bellator, PFL? I don't know. PFL one might have actually done all right, just because I don't think a ton of people bought that card. But those who did were,

I think you got pretty much close to your $50 worth. That was a fun-ass card for the most part, they weren't all it wasn't UFC 199 wasn't 281 but it was fun so I don't know

I would say doubtful they ain't cheap putting these together for you all I can tell you that right now but I don't know if these go well and

we get some people to be like oh this is cool we want to be a part of this and we'll pay you to be a part of it not me but the company could open the door for some other things. But right now,

we're floating this on our own and ain't cheap. So if you own a business, you want to be a part of it, reach out to Vox. You'll get a lot of views. Wow, it is a hit. I feel like I've been talk to you

in a year, bro. What's up? Mike, heck of a morning. How are you? I'm great. How are you? Not too bad, Mike. I'm not too bad.

I've been in hibernation for like, Now I'm joking, but it's just like, Mike, I've been away chilling to a new tune. Do you want to hear it? Yes. It goes to something like this, autumn is a rat, rat, rat, nah, nah, nah, nah, hey. I want to start there because, like, honestly, like, just watching this whole thing unfold to Connor and Arthur, I'm going to be real, like, that is the biggest fight.

Connor versus Art. And you might think I'm joking, Mike, and exaggerate. I am a little bit, but I am serious as well. Like, Connor versus Artem is the biggest fight the UFC can make in 2023. I'm dead serious because honestly, like, the buildup will be hilarious. And more importantly, it's a fight that Connor will, like, 100% obviously win. Obviously, he's a lot bigger. He's, they obviously might be on those steroids, which is a bit sketchy.

The whole, I actually don't care that Connor is on steroids if he had to, like, repair his leg. But we all know, like, he's probably his overall strength, his fitness. Every aspect of his game has probably helped by the fact he was taking steroids. And it's just, I don't understand why is one rule for him and another rule for others regarding this situation. That's what bothers me. And you know, my stance, and I honestly feel like everyone should just take steroids at this point because should be allowed to take steroids at this point because USADA is a joke. Jeff Novitsky is a tool.

I've said this multiple times. times. They waste all this time chasing fighters in America because they want to compensate for the fact they don't go after fighters like abroad and it's a joke. But I do think Conner versus Artem. And it's the UFC have done it before. They've released fighters and then they chuck a contract back in their way and they'll sign them back on again. So I honestly believe they should do Conner versus Artem. And then not like Conner versus Masvidal. And that move that like moves on to Masvedal now. Like, I watched that interview, and I watch clips and my patience is running thin,

you know, with Masvedal who's talking all this smack to Chandler, to, like, and no one's good enough for him. And I went apart from Leon Edwards, and Leon Edwards wasn't good enough for him before. And it's such hypocrisy. It's actually ridiculous. I don't understand, like, how someone on a three-fight losing streak can talk so. I'm actually kind of impressed how well, like, how self-absorbed, he is and how like delusional he is in his own narrative that he can talk so wild like this it's

actually it's actually impressive but i i honestly believe like if masvadao wants to like play this gangster on the like on the internet and just keep talking tough let's just do masvidal versus humzat shemayev let's do it let let's just run it and let for the bmf belt i don't understand how masvidal still has that bmfell he got knocked out by kummph Ouzman got mauled by Colby Covington. But you know what? If Madsvindal gets the key, but let's do Mazfid al-Humsat.

Remember, we were supposed to do Mazfidah Humza up. Mazhvah beat Nate up. So let's do Madsvada versus Hamza. And lastly, one championship, I'm not even going to talk about U.S. I'm not one championship. Hania Deridia, I think,

is fighting, like, soon. It might be this weekend. I don't even know. He's still. This weekend. He's this weekend. Okay, middleweight and heavyweight. and light heavyweight champion.

I really feel like, like, if you're putting Humza in the Power for Power rankings, like firstly, I think Colby's above him. I think a lot of people above Hamza. But Hennear Derrida is just such an interesting one because like when people talk about other champions from other promotions being better than champions in the UFC,

they get called casuals. But Derrida is as legit as they get. He is just going through everyone like it's nothing. And he tried to do hang with Andre Galvaal. I mean, felt like he didn't do that well, but he didn't get submitted. And it's just like this, and watching Izzy versus Pereira and the level of grappling, and it wasn't, it wasn't that good.

And I'm just thinking someone like Derrida, if he beats the guy who fights next, who in my opinion is the legitimate heavyweight champion, Arjun Bullers hasn't defended that title. I mean, this is ridiculous. Like, this guy is, even at this point, he is one of the best pound fighters in the world. and I'm just wondering, like, if he comes to the UFC, surely he would steamroll, Izzy and Pereira. There's no question at this point.

And Uriyo and Yan, possibly Uncle Lives harder to judge. But Derrida, I don't know, he might be one of those powerful fighters in the world. And yeah, that's why I'm going to end on. Drop the mic, Mike. RDR, we love RDR here at Amnay Fighting, and he might be a freaking three division champion by the time this is all said and done. So, yeah, he's the main event. but here's my here's my issue with everything and it's not anything you said it's not rdi r it's

nothing the fact that you like you're probably someone who's tapped into one more than most you didn't even know that rdr was like you weren't even a hundred percent convinced that rd i was fighting this weekend and that's the problem with one that's the problem with one nobody knows shit you want to know who else is fighting on this amazon prime card the freaking one debut or of Roberto Soldich. Roberto Soldich is fighting tomorrow. He's fighting tomorrow.

And nobody knows about it. No one knows who RDR is. No one knows that Roberto Solich is fighting. Nobody knows anything. It's so frustrating. These are things people need to know because these cards are produced really well. They really are.

doze really well. They look like a big deal. These Amazon cards. They are. They look like they're huge. But nobody, no one knows that they're happening. This is insane.

The only one they heavily promoted was the first one. Was the DJ one. They promoted it. People watched it. People were into it. They're like, oh yeah, this one Amazon Prime thing is happening.

This is a big deal. I have to watch. But even like the biggest one, even people who are like beyond casual one fans don't even know that RDR is fighting this weekend, that he's fighting for a heavyweight championship, interim or not,

that Roberto Soldeach, one of the biggest free agents of the year, signed with one, probably making millions of dollars with them. Nobody knows he's making his promotional debut tomorrow. It's crazy. it's crazy and this is why one will not be the number two promotion

because nobody knows what's happening nobody knows what's happening at least pfel like tells us that things are happening we might moan and groan about pay-per-view price and things like that but at least they let us know things are happening and certain fighters are fighting

like when a card's happening they shove it down your goddamn throat and you can decide whether you want to watch it or not But at least they try. One doesn't try at all. It's so frustrating. And that's why they will not be the number two promotion. I don't care how many social media views they have.

I don't care how many people watch overseas. It doesn't matter. Globally, here, no one knows what's happening tomorrow. Nobody. It's annoying. It's super frustrating. We'll see what happens with Arjun. I know Chhatri has talked with certain media members and said that.

the dude needs to fight sooner. They're stripping to the bell. Maybe they will. Who knows? I have no idea what's happening with that situation. I literally have no idea. So we'll see what happens there. The Mazadol thing,

here's, the most interesting thing about the Mazadol thing is that everybody is just like turned on this dude. It's really wild. Because this guy did the same thing for years, essentially.

and everybody loved it. When 2019 happened, he caught that fire, that lightning in a bottle that a lot of people described it as. I mean, everybody was into this guy. Everybody was into everything. And then he loses three fights. He loses to, at the time,

the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world on like a week's notice after a gigantic weight cut because of the COVID thing with Gilbert Burns, Mazadol stepped in, lost a not compelling decision to Usman. Then he gets the rematch. He gets colded.

But let's not forget why that rematch was made. The rematch was made because they're trying to put butts in seats. This is the first card that fans are back after the pandemic. And Usman Mazadol was a massive fight. putting Mazadol in Florida is going to sell tickets, man. It's going to sell tickets. And he got knocked dead in that fight.

But let's not, like, we have to go back and watch that. Go back and watch the first round of that second Uspin fight. Mazano looked pretty good in that first round. He got caught bad in the second. We looked pretty good in that first round. And then the cold, like, these are the losses. Usman twice and Colby.

Arguably the two best welterweights in the world. world, even though Edwards is the champion. If you put, if Ousman Edwards happens in March or something and someone says, who do you think is going to win? Most people are going to say Ousman's going to win. And if Colby fights Leon, most people are going to say that Colby's going to beat Leon. So Mazinol has lost two best Walter weights in the world. One bad, the Colby fight, we kind of knew how that fight was going to go.

Honestly, this is not a surprise. But again, another big money fight for Mazadol. They had two title fights scheduled for that March card. They got pushed back to April because Max Holloway got injured. And they needed a main event in like a month. So they called Mazdaal and they called Colby and they put the fight together. And the fight went the way most expected it to. And now everyone has turned on Mazda.

It's crazy. It's freaking crazy. And all I do is ask the man questions. I don't know. It's wild, man. I was kind of surprised by the Chandler response, if we're being honest. I actually thought that fight might be a little bit intriguing. It's not like he ruled it out.

He said, look, if I get a Gilbert or somebody else, a ranked dude, and I beat him, and it's going to be like seven or eight months before, like, another ranked guy will be able to fight, then I would entertain a fight with the Chandler or something like that, just to, like, stay active. So it's not like he said F Chandler not happening, but he also was like, if I, this, the way he presented the whole thing was, he understands how people perceive him right now. If he goes and fights Michael Chandler, we're going to be like, ooh, this fight's cool.

But if he goes out there and just melts Chandler, what are people going to say? They're going to say, wow, why is it all melted Michael Chandler? That was awesome. I'm going to say, yeah, he beat a lightweight. He's not wrong. He's not wrong. it's just it's wild the swings in the sport sometimes and i'm not just saying that because like i've gotten the chance to talk to mazadol a few times which i've never gotten to before but this year i've

talked to them i think three times technically four if we talk about the interview that never aired because my microphone broke but it's just it's it's wild and it's just it's just so weird but to me it almost says like mMA especially the ufc in particular has become a pretty major sport. Because now you have fans who have no idea how to do what you do, who couldn't do it on their best day, talking shit about fighting abilities when you can't fight at all. And just like baseball players, oh, this guy sucks, you can't hit a 95-mile-an-hour fastball.

I probably can't either. I played college baseball, but I probably can't hit a 95-mile-an-hour fastball right now. I could when I was 19. Probably can't now. can't dunk over LeBron. I can't score a goal in the NHL. I can't sack Tom Brady. I mean, maybe I could.

He's not that fast anymore. But you know what I mean. I ain't getting through a 350-pound lineman to sack Tom Brady. But I ain't got to go out there and just say like, oh, this guy sucks because he can't sack Tom Brady. Because I can't do it either. So it's just weird to me. But this is what Massela does.

He's always been this way. It's always been the same dude. We loved it three years ago. Hate it now. I don't know who the hell he fights at this point. I honestly have no idea. The Burns one makes sense. Connor makes sense.

The UFC has done weirder things than doing Edwards Mossadol. I don't think they'll do that now. Obviously, with Oosman fighting. But Mazel gets a win, man, against anybody with a number next to their name. It would not shock me to see him get a title shot. Sorry. If you don't like hearing that, the UFC has set precedents in order to do that. And they've done it multiple times.

Whether you like Mazda or not, evokes interest, man. Vokes emotion. People respond to him either positively or negatively. Dude's still a star. He's still a star. All right, we'll take two more. Now I've got to go because we got BT out of top of the hour. Terrence, hello.

Hey, Mike. Yeah. Sorry, I have been on in a minute. I was calling, well, I was just responding to what you were saying about, like, everybody, like, turned on, like, Mosswood and stuff like that. I kind of think it's, like, he turned on, like, the fans. Like, he completely used to, like, talk crap about Kobe and, like, the whole, like, Trump thing. And then he became, like, the person that he said that Kobe was trying to be,

which is supposed to chop for him. And then, like, with the, like, cringy stuff that he's done lately, like, you can't look past that stuff. Like, you can't. Turn on, like, your initial fans. And it's like, oh, this guy's, like, wearing a MAGA hat and doing this and doing that. And then you become an even more extreme version of that. So I think losing doesn't help because winning, like, cures all in this sport.

But the fact that he's been losing on top of taking the L's in the media and stuff like that doesn't help him at all. So that's one thing that I wanted to, like, address. The other thing was I wanted to talk about the whole Christian Lee. and I know this like weeks ago but with Christian Lee like that fight should have been called in like the first round and we as a sport

like we love like the comeback story like somebody like pretty much should have been finished and then they come back to like finish their opponent I think that's where like we get like these things talking about like early stoppages and things that of that nature because like a week before that was like the Izzy fight and

I felt like Kristen Lee was way more in trouble than Izzy was, but like everybody says that Izzy, that was a good stoppage, but nobody like saying nothing about the Christian Lee thing. Like, I should have been stopped, and if it would have been stopped, nobody would have anything. So I think that blurred line is the reason as to why we

have that, and then the inconsistency is when it comes to, like, rest, some of this between the same reps and different reps as well. Like, one minute they'll make a call, and then the next fight they'll make the exact opposite. And, like, there's no, accountability on their end. So I just want to know what your thoughts are

about like the combat stories. It should be not glorify them like we do or what needs to change. That's all. Thank you. Your Mazdaal point. I mean, there's probably some truth to that, but I don't know. When I think about that stuff,

the political stuff, it just brings me back to that press conference where the most asked question was how does the bill become a law? and I just don't want to go to the Red Bull right now. I mean, sometimes people care. Sometimes people don't. But, I mean, there's so many examples of that

where fighters do things that are probably not politically the right thing to do that causes people to scratch their heads and creams of Don's writing about it. But we still cheer for those guys, even though they're losing. So it's just, I don't know. It's just, I guess I get it, but I don't think that's the reason why.

I mean, it's like so many people have turned on this guy, and it's not because of that. But there might be some people who feel that way. So I'm not going to like jump on that at all, like that narrative by any stretch of imagination. Will we ever not glorify the comeback win? No. People are going to glorify that. People are going to keep glorifying it. Remember the Benoit-Sant-Di fight?

When he made his debut at 170, he just got the absolute shrew. shit beat out of him. And the referee is just watching this dude take a hundred unanswered strikes. Just hurt bad, getting his ass beat. Remember that? And then he finishes the fight and we're like, wow, this guy's tough.

This referee is a piece of shit. But if Benoit Sentaddy had come back and won that fight, we'd be like, oh my God, this guy's the toughest guy in the world, this referee, maybe he wasn't as bad as he thought. I don't know. It's kind of in the eye of the beholder. as much as I say maybe this reaction to some fights and fighters

makes it a little more mainstream the sport's still a baby and I think there's just so many new fans now that no one really knows the difference at this point some do and some don't but that Santany fight should have been stopped a lot of people thought the Calvin Cater Max Holloway fight should have been stopped

maybe the ref maybe Herb Dean should have stopped it but nobody did. And Calvin seemed fine. Even after the beating he took, it's just tough, man. Being a referee is tough. There are certain things referees do with, like, again, I'm not going to harp on the cheating

and the fence grabs and stuff like that. Like, those things should be called. I don't give a shit. What you think. I don't care. Well, we don't want to, we don't want to take a win out of a fighter's hands

because they grab the fence. why you know what will happen they'll stop grabbing the damn fence or when it comes to like making those calls man it's your damned if you do it you're damned if you tell them because christian there will be because if christian they'd stop that fight and christian lee like protested it we'd be on this show the next week and we'll be like oh they stopped that fight too soon they wouldn't so yeah i don't think the comeback story will ever be

not become a popular thing, not become the thing that's glorified. I just, that's just where we're at right now. Maybe 10 years from now that's that all change. We'll be looking at the sport through a different lens. There'll be different rules, different guidelines, so forth and so on.

But I guess the antithesis to your argument is that had they stopped it then, and Christian Lee was pissed about it, we'd be talking about how it's a bad stoppage. You can't win in these types of situations. You just can't. but all right we are done i'm gonna get out of here btl going down in 50 minutes on the youtube channel we're gonna go for about an hour on that because we have a big company meeting we got to go to

it too so we're gonna fly through btel uh we'll be back tomorrow not sure what time it'll probably be around 1130 because the ufc orlando wayans are happening at 9 a m eastern Jose Young's in Orlando right now. We'll be streaming those way-ins. We'll do the way-in show. It'll be a little bit different. Casey's not going to be on. So it'll be more of a radio-style broadcast with the way-ins happening.

A.K. will be on that. I will jump on there probably around 9.30, maybe a little after that. And then probably around 11.30, we'll jump on here and react to everything that happened and do the free-for-all-Fri-Riday thing. So thank you very much. Appreciate it. Have a great rest of the day. And as always,

have a heck of a morning, everybody. 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.