MMA Fighting - HOAM | Would Paddy Pimblett vs. Tony Ferguson Make Sense After UFC London?

Episode Date: July 26, 2022

Paddy Pimblett's star power continues to rise following his UFC London submission win over Jordan Leavitt. How does the UFC capitalize on this, and could there be a world where a fight between Pimblett and Tony Ferguson is an option? On an all-new Heck of a Morning, Mike Heck brings up a dialog amongst the MMA Fighting squad in regards to a potential Pimblett vs. Ferguson matchup, and explains why he is not in favor of that idea — which leads to Shaun Al-Shatti giving his thoughts on it as well. In addition, listeners give their thoughts on matchups for "The Baddy," as well as Molly McCann following her finish this past Saturday, the UFC 277 main event between Julianna Pena and Amanda Nunes, and co-main event for the interim flyweight title between Brandon Moreno and Kai Kara-France, options for Dustin Poirier's next opponent, 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: 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 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 reprise 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 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 two, ghosts in the machine, available now, only from Audible.

The Vox Media Podcast Network. Tuesday, July 26, 2020, and it is indeed a heck of a morning, a very busy morning, live on the MA-fighting Twitter spaces. Shortly thereafter, you will find the show in its entirety on the MMA Fighting Podcasting Network. I am Mike Heck.

Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend. Hope everybody enjoyed UFC London. I know it was very hard to match the energy and I guess the overall greatness of the event in March. Almost an impossible feat. But yeah, it was a roller coaster ride. That's for sure.

I didn't get to watch it live. I was in Boston at a funeral for my uncle. It was more of a celebration of life just the way he wanted it. And no suits, no ties. We just dressed casually. Great church.

Just a great, great ceremony there. And then we had a little barbecue outside of a tent at a golf course. And then we went back to my cousin's house and everyone just hung up by the pool and had a couple of drinks. And it was just exactly the way he wanted. So I didn't get to watch the whole event live.

I did get to watch the Patty Pimbleau fight. I did get to watch the main event, which was an unfortunate ending, obviously, with Curtis Blades getting a 15-second injury TKO win over Tommy Aspinall, just a heartbreaking end to that event. But I went back and watched JSP's performance. Went back and watched Nathaniel Wood v. Charles Rosa. That was a great fight. and some of the other notable thing.

Obviously, I saw the highlights of the Molly McCann fight, which is really all I needed to see because that was amazing. The reception that she got was incredible. And her and Patty Pimbled, as a team, are just killing the game right now. You got to say, now, I'm sure you guys will have questions about both of those athletes, which I will be happy to answer. So we could talk about the aftermath of UFC London. We could talk about UFC 277 coming up on Saturday.

Of course, the main events, the rematch for the women's ban and weight title, Juliana Pena, will defend her title against the woman that she defeated in one of the biggest upsets in UFC history. Amanda Nunes, that's an interesting fight. We got Brannar-Morino versus Kaikar, France, going down for the interim title. It's a solid card. I mean, it's not like the most star-studded card of all time, but there's some good fights. like Anthony Smith, Magamette, Enkolaev is a very important fight. Alexander Pantosia, Alex Perez should be a good one.

And it's always fun when Derek Lewis is on the card. He's got a tough one in Sergei Pavlovich. There's some bangers on this card. It's not 276 on paper. It's probably better than 278 on paper right now. It might even be better than 279 on paper right now. I know Shemaya Diaz is just a massive fight. and that event's going to do ginormous numbers on pay-per-view,

but this is a pretty solid card. And we've had a busy morning on an MA fighting, as you may have saw. UFC San Diego looks a little bit different right now. We reported about a half an hour ago that the fight between Alain Nassimento and Malcolm Gordon is no more. Malcolm Gordon suffering an undisclosed injury. and I confirmed like 10 minutes later that O'Day Osborne versus Tyson NAM is going down on that August 13th card in San Diego. So that is a fun-ass fight. And I am excited for it.

And I'm excited to talk to all of you. So let's not waste any time. Let's get into this thing because there's a lot of you. Let's start with VVS. Good morning. How are you? Make sure you on mute. then I can hear you.

Are you there? All right. Try again. Try again, Sean. Let's go to clearest values. Oh, clearest values. What's up, buddy? So this is a little bit of kind of inside baseball question.

So I'm really interested in the fact that they have bone nickel fighting in the contender series. I think it's really funny that they're making this world-renowned one of the best college wrestlers of all time. wrestle or fight on the contender series. And I'm a little curious if you think, you know, there was an agreement made kind of behind the scenes saying, you know, as long as you win, you're in, because I'm sure he had huge offers from the PFL, from Bellator from one.

I'm kind of wondering what your thoughts on him going through the contender series route is rather than just getting signed straight out. It's a good question. Of course, the contender series kicks off tonight. I have been a big advocate of the contender series. I do feel like some of the interests in the contender series, I guess the toughness and the difficulty of getting UFC contract coming out the contender series.

That has changed since the first couple of seasons. But alas, we still get to watch fights. We get to watch a four to five fight card every Tuesday that just flies by some of the best prospects in the sport get their opportunity. And one of them is Bo Nickel, who will be fighting on August 9th against Zachary Barago. nickel, of course, a 1-0 pro, had an insane knockout at Icon FC3,

Bray goes 3-0, and listen, this is, obviously, they're two different people, but this is sort of like the Greg Hardy situation. I mean, obviously, two different people, two different stories, come from two different backgrounds, two different sports, but Bo is obviously, has a lot of hype right now. He got a lot of hype even as an amateur fighter, just him and not. announcing that he was going to go to MMA, had a lot of people excited.

He had two amateur fights, two quick finishes. Then he had an insane knockout in his pro debut. This is the UFC just saying, hey, we're going to give you the opportunity, go out there, win a fight. I don't know if like, here's the thing. Like, Bo is probably one of those guys just because he's such a freak athlete

and just his wrestling pedigree and his overall athleticism. I feel like he could do well by just, like if he goes out there just finishes Zachary Barrego quickly or just wins and he's a two and pro like they can match him up with some middle weights that are like the bottom half of the divisional rankings like top 60 guys 50 60 guys and he could probably beat a good chunk of those guys but one thing that i feel like the contender series has been missing is just locking these guys up for those developmental deals like we're not seeing enough of those in my opinion we're

seeing guys get contracts that are just not UFC ready and then they get thrown into the octagon and they get absolutely annihilated like I don't want to see that especially for a guy like bow nickel who has incredible upside this guy has a very bright future ahead of him he's 26 years old he's not even in as like as good of an athlete as he is he's still not even in his athletic prime so yeah i think it's i think it's a win and get in but i don't know if it's like win and you're a UFC fighter. It might be just be a win. You're under contract with us.

We're going to give you that developmental deal, which is a smart move. I remember talking to William Knight after getting a developmental deal after his first contenders series, consender serious, but he loved, loved it. He loved it. He was so excited about it because he could fight literally any time he wanted. He could fight a million times. A lot of times, like, in the UFC, like William Knight's a guy just likes to fight all the time.

So it would just be, he could go fight for CES in June and then go fight for CFFC in July, go back to CES in August. Like this guy could fight as much as he wants. And he got to build a bunch of experience. So by the time he got back to the contender series, he was a much better fighter, much better fighter. And then we saw it in his UFC debut. Of course, he's now a heavyweight apparently or at least he has been his last couple fights.

So, I mean, there's nothing wrong with that. Like, there's nothing wrong with getting a developmental deal. You can go fight for Titan. You go back to ICON. You can just go fight. Just build that experience. And then by the time you're like 5 at 0, 6 and 0, you're off to the races. So I have no problem with that, but something tells me he'll win and they'll just give me a UFC contract and he'll fight before the end of the year.

That would be my guess. But we'll see what happens. Let's go to PETA Snorlax. I hope I got that right. Hello. Just got to unmute. Hello. Okay.

You can try again if you'd like. All right. I see you. Let's go, Ahid. Ahid. How are you? Here where I am. But listen, you know, you mentioned the contender series.

It is the epitome of professionalism. With that dude coming 10 pounds overweight, it is absolutely at the top of how you should be as a professional. These guys are definitely UFC ready. It's amazing. But listen, with the UFC London main event, Mike, I've got some questions for it. And I just want like a yes or no answer because I've got a different viewpoint to everyone else. So did, would you say that Tom Aspinall's knee, and it'll all make sense when the question's finished.

But would you say Tom Asfinals knee had something to do with him falling down? just yes or no? Yes? Yes, yeah. Okay. Did Curtis Blades, after the leg kick that Tom Aspinall landed, did Curtis Blades land a counter that could have, like, that played a part in Tom Aspinall falling down?

Yes or no? He landed a counter, right? He did land something. Yeah, it was a grazing, if anything. But, yeah, I guess I'll go yes on that one. but so then technically cut is like even though people are begrudgingly trying to you know

say out people are saying this should be no contest which is crazy like no caris landed whatever it was like curtis did land so as far as I'm concerned he's like he's responsible for tom not being able to continue that's a win for carth is he just needs to go forward and fight the win of Tai Tai Tai Vass and Cyril Garne

people are people are genuinely thinking this should be a no contest and that's crazy. Like, Curtis won. Curis even said afterwards, I think he didn't want to say in the post-fight interview because he was scared of the backlash.

He said it afterwards, though. Backstage, he felt his bones were strong. He said something like that. I'm with him. Like, he won, legitimately won. It's like with Gallia Rodriguez and Brian Ortega. Galli targeted Brian's arm. It's not, yeah, it's the last man standing.

That's what fighting is. And on to the other two, Paddy and Molly. Paddy, I want to, I'm putting forward an idea, Mike. Mohammed Makayev has been talking smack to Paddy. They have some history. And Makaiev's saying he'll fight Paddy at an upper weight class. Let's just do because Paddy's not fighting ranked guys.

Let's just do Makayev and Paddy open weight. Since Makaiv is talking so much, he's ready to put it on the line. If he was Paddy calling out Mackayev, that would be a problem. That's a bully like mentality. But since it's Makayev saying he wants to fight him, I say just do it. because Paddy's not going to fight these top guys anyway. And Molly, I want to see her and Casey O'Neill because Molly was stuffing the takedowns of Hannah Goldie.

I'm not that high on Casey O'Neill. I think opponents, people get too crazy over an undefeated record. I think she needs to be tested in mind. I think Molly's a good test, and I think that's all I've got for today. And Jimmy Manuel is a sucker-punching idiot. That's all I've got for today. Thank you ahead.

Always bring in the smoke. Yeah, I mean, listen, it is a win for Curtis Blades. Like, either way, it's, it was a checked leg kick. It appeared. There's a lot that happened there. Like, I'm not taking anything away from Curtis Blades. It sucks. It's just unfortunate that we built up that card.

The prelims are terrible. We had some great moments with Patty and Molly, and now Tommy Aspenall is coming out, and everyone's singing and dancing and having a good time. And then all of a sudden, 15 seconds in, the fight is over. It's just like, damn. Curtis Blades, man. I mean, Curtis Blades, just the man just can't catch a break.

Like, the guy goes on winning streets and, like, could, he could win like four or five fights in a row and still nobody will give him a title fight or even offer it to him or even suggest that he should get it. It's just crazy. I don't know why. Like, he still sort of has that moniker that he's a boring fighter. When in reality, like,

he's just really good at what he does. And he's shown that he could knock dudes out and finish them viciously. but again, with the current pay structure in MMA, like your job is to go win fights. There is no flat fee. Your job is to go out and get that second paycheck. And if you're Curtis Blades, you want to get that second paycheck,

even if it means like you might have to wait a little longer to fight for the title, but he's so used to at this point. Like, what doesn't really matter? You know what I mean? So Curtis will probably go fight the winner of Cyril Gan Tai Tuivasa, and then the winner will probably go on to fight for the time.

title. So we have like a little mini heavyweight tournament going on. The Jimmy Mano thing is crazy. Just dumb move on his part. And the Patty, Molly thing, I mean, the Casey O'Neill, I like the Casey O'Neal matchup.

I actually would favor Casey to win that fight. I actually am very high in Casey O'Neill. I'm much higher on her than a lot of other people. But she's hurt. Tori, C.S. She's got a knee injury. She's going to be out for a little while. So we're going to have to wait on that. If you're going to try to get Molly back by the end of the year.

Yeah, I mean, we'll see. I like the J.J. Aldrich idea. I think that's like a good test. But either way, just her and Patty need to be on the same card. I suggested the Jamie Mularky idea on onto the next one for Patty Pimbled. We have this internal, we have this internal debate at an NBA fighting. Because on onto the next one, one of our listeners suggested that Patty Pimblech should fight Tony Ferguson and AK loves that idea.

I hate that idea. I hate it. I hate it because why risk it? Why risk it? At this point for Patty, little baby steps up, get him on a card that will appreciate him. Let the fans erupts. Let the fans travel to him.

But we have to put him in a business. Like, listen, the reason why I hate it so much is one, I don't think he'd beat Tony Ferguson, even though Tony, even though Tony hasn't been. like the elite guy that we've seen, the guy that was supposed to fight Halbib a bunch of different times, which in hindsight, I'm kind of glad we didn't see that fight because it wouldn't have been all that competitive, I don't think.

But I think Tony beats Patty. Like, I think Tony beats Patty. And if Patty beats Tony, then what do we do? He's got to fight Syrukeon, Gamron, Gillespie. Like those killers? I don't want to see that for Patty right now.

It's too soon. It's too soon. Patty has gotten bigger than rankings. Patty has gotten bigger than names and opponents. Patty could fight literally anybody right now, and he will be over. Like I've said before, when you're a kid in the 90s and you're watching pro wrestling in the early 90s on network television, WWF superstars,

you always got a main event where you had like two competitive wrestlers and they would have a match. but throughout the whole show you had wrestlers you were trying to get over in quote unquote squash matches and I'm not saying that Patty's getting squash matches because this isn't pro wrestling this is fighting

so you're going to get punched you're going to get kicked and stuff like that but putting Patty in there with like a top 10 guy is insane it's a terrible idea your job is to get this guy over and give him the best chance to win so that people react to it

So you want to do Jamie Malarky, fine. You want to do guys like that fight. Joe Selecky is not a bad idea. But I'm not going to any higher than that if I'm the UFC. That's it. And this is maybe Patty can't get to the rankings. But if we just, he's not ready now. He's just not.

He's getting, he's getting clipped in all these fights. He argued he lost the first round of Jordan Levin. I like Jordan is a, like, Jordan's a nice guy. He's a solid guy. He's a solid hand. But like Jordan's like a top 50 fighter. and Patty's out here like almost losing rounds to him like I'm sorry

this is not a guy should be fighting Tony Ferguson right now he doesn't need to Patty doesn't need to fight Ferguson or anybody with the big name he is the big name he is the big name any win like Patty Patty Patty just winning is all that matters there are certain fighters who are bigger than titles that are bigger than rankings and Patty's just one of them right now love them or hate him you react to him he evokes emotion you care about what he does. You're either going to go crazy if he wins or you're going to go out there root your ass off that he gets knocked out or loses. And that's, that is what constitutes

the star. He evoked. He does. Absolutely does. So there is no need. There's no need to rush this guy. There's no need to rush him. But we'll see what happens. Hopefully we see him at the end of the and probably not in probably not in London. Maybe we'll see him in Vegas. When I got a great deal on a great gift at winters, I started wondering, could I get fabulous gifts for everyone on my list?

Like this designer fragrance for my daughter. It's just $39.99. How could I resist? This luxurious wool throw for my sister. This gold watch for my partner? A wooden puzzle for my niece? Leather gloves for my boss? Ooh, European chocolate for

the crossing guard? At these prices, could I find something for everyone at winners? Stop wondering. Start gifting. Winners find fabulous for less. All right, let's try PETA again. See if we can get it to work here. Are you there, sir? You got on mute.

I can't hear you. Hello? Yo, there you go. What's up, man? Oh, yo. I was curious to ask, no, about the weekend. I feel like everyone discussed that, but like the middle way to visit,

what do you think is going to happen? Because I feel like it's kind of frozen. and I don't know. Pereira is good. It's a good story. And it's the Grudge match with all that, but I'm just curious about like where the leadership goes. You know, we had the romance fighting on the weekend.

Yeah, yeah, it's a good question. I mean, Izzy's getting to the point. And Jed Mishu talked about this on our ranking show because he actually, let me just pull up the rankings real quick. Just pull up a list of fighters. I'm pull up my personal. rankings. Jedhead Adasanias is his number one pound for pound guy. The reason he had him is that

he is essentially beaten pretty much everybody in the top 10 of that division. He's been Whitaker twice, beating Vittori twice, just beat Kenanier. He beat Derek Brunson already. Like, he's beat Calvin Gasolum. He's beat like almost all of these guys already. Like he's, now he's got Pereira. I love that story. Like that is a fantastic story. I just, I don't know, man. Like, Andre, like, Munez is really good, but he's just not, he needs a couple more wins. Duplice is going to be fun. He needs a couple more wins.

IMAVov is a really good prospect, but he still needs a couple more wins. Like, we're getting to the point where Adasani is not, like, right? And I feel like Sean Strickland is still in this discussion. Like, yeah, he got, he got bolted by Alex Pereira and just a horrific. game plan, but the man is still like, he's still, again, kind of like Patty, he evokes emotion. People care about Sean Strickland. It was amazing being in Las Vegas and seeing all the star power on that stage, and Sean Strickland got the biggest pop out of everybody at the UFC 276 press conference.

People cared. When it came to all the top three fights of UFC 276 throughout fight week, from the beginning of fight week on, it was it was the Sean Strickland Alex Pereira show. All the interest came from those guys. It can't explain it. Sean went bananas at the press conference and that put it over the top. But even before that,

anything Sean Strickland did, people cared about. Anything Alex Pereira did, people cared about. And I feel like Sean I feel like Sean is two wins away from getting back to a title fight. Like the UFC could book that fight and the build to it will be bananas. But now, like, we're getting to that point where Izzy's just kind of running out of people to fight. I mean, Hermanson's, Hermanson does a nice win, but we have to remember, Chris Curtis has finally got to the UFC's been fighting at middleweight. But this guy had, like, all his success at Welterweight.

And you could see it immediately in that fight that Curtis was just undersized. He just was, Pramance was so much bigger than him. So much ranger than him. Just there's a perfect game plan. And I was stunned by that. I was stunned by the performance. And I didn't even like take that into like complete accounts until I actually watch like the first 30 seconds of the fight. I was like, oh, damn.

I'm like, I didn't see that coming. I thought there was this tailor-made matcher for Chris Curtis. And then 30 seconds into that fight on Saturday when I went back to rewatch it on Sunday morning at the airport. I was like, whoa. I read that one completely wrong, as did a lot of other people. So we'll see what happens in middleweight. Middleweight is interesting, but after Pereira, I don't know. I mean, probably like business-wise, the best thing that could happen is a Pereira wins

so you can just run that back, but we'll see what happens. But that is an interesting fight. Maybe MSG for that one? We'll see. I'm going to try to get to everybody here. There's a lot of you. Tadjic Bay, what's up, man? Oh, hello, Mike.

Hello, Mike. Hello, sir. How are you? Good, good. It's a heck of a morning. How are you? It is indeed a heck of a morning, my man. Yeah, yeah, a little bit of a matchmaking, you know, for me.

You know, I won't take it long. But, you know, Curtis, obviously, is going to fight the winner of the gun versus what's this guy's name? Tai Tivasa. Tai Taituva. Yeah, I think it's probably going to be Gunn versus Blades for the interim title. I think for Paddy Pimblitz. the best course of action, you need to start giving him more like a named opponent, but somebody who are beatable, so you still want to build him a little bit.

So my suggestion was actually Clay Guida. I think Clay Guida is a good matchup for him just in general, and a good test for him going forward. Who else? For Mollum, I can't, to be honest with you, I thought if she wants to shoot for the title and she wants to do it in the safest way, she also needs a named opponent, but it's probably going to be somebody like Jennifer Maya.

I think that's matchup is pretty interesting. Yeah, so these are the thoughts. I think for Mohamed Mokai, I also had an opponent. You know, frankly, I don't think, I know he mentioned Jeff Malina, but I don't think Jeff Malina will take this fight, to be honest with you. But I know the guy who will take this fight,

he will take any fight. and I think it's Matt Danjour Schnell And I think it's a terrific matchup Both came in You know, they barely took any damage in their respective fights The timeline is right Mokai wants to move pretty quick And make an impact and become the youngest champion

So I think Matt Schnell is a great test for him Yeah and I think that's all I have to say I hopefully the news about Ilya Tupuria versus Claudio Puellius will get confirmed but outside of that, that's all I have to say. Thanks again, Mike. Take care. Thanks, buddy.

To address the last thing, it is not Players v. Tuporia that I've been hearing. There's no date. It will be a featherway fight for Tuporia, the name you will recognize, and it will be sort of a fight that you will react to very positively. There's just not enough for me to confidently report this just yet because there's still

it's not even like officially agreed to yet but I know the direction the UFC is working on with Tuporia and it is a good one and it's got to be a 145 and I think you all like it. Yeah listen Patty whatever you want that if you want to if you want to give him

the rub and push him up and try to push him to a title fight quick that's fine I don't think you need to do that but we'll see what happens. I'm curious to see how they book him. Molly closer to a title shot, like way closer than Patty is. But the most important thing for both of them is that they both fight together.

They both have to fight on the same card for, I mean, just the longest time. You just have to just let them fight on the same card. It's just bit, like what those two are doing together right now is just incredible. The reactions they're getting, the attention they're getting. Clearly, they both helped the other out. Like, Patty had his bet. Like, Patty's, one thing I, one thing that drives you crazy about Patty is the, after every fight, and I know a lot of fighters are like this because fighters are their own worst critics.

The whole, eh, that wasn't me. I didn't fight to the best of my ability. That was Patty's best performance in the UFC, in my opinion. Like, that was one of the best performances of his entire career. Yeah, the first round wasn't great, but you overcame adversity. You had a great end to the round, and then you went out there and you landed a day, and you put Jordan away in the second. Like overall start to finish,

that was the best performance of his career, in my opinion. It just was. So this whole, now that wasn't me, stop saying, like you don't have to say that every time. You just don't have to. So,

I don't know, that drives me a little nuts about him, but the post-fight speech after that with talking about men's mental health and stuff, that was fantastic stuff. Great stuff for Patty. It was an A-plus night for Patty. A-plus night.

But again, however you match, make is it's in the eye of the beholder. You can do whatever you want. But to me, it's just, it's just building this guy up and getting him wins. Just get him wins. Because he doesn't need the title. He doesn't need any of that.

He just needs wins and the reaction that it gets. I am very excited about this. A guy who has found his niche in the space, a tremendous content producer for our sport, Kairos joining the show and joining the space. believe for the first time. And what an honor it is. Kairos, are you there? Yeah, thank you so much.

I just want your opinion on Patty fighting Joel Alvarez. Interesting. I still think it's a little high, but I don't know. What do you think about that one? It's since, I still think it's a little high.

It's a little too dangerous. Oh, we're, okay. If danger's the question, fair enough, that's why I chose it. I was like, I want him to fight an unranked opponent, but also, a person who's going to pose multiple challenges. We know Joel has range.

We understand he has incredible grappling off his back in case Patty wants to try and grapple. And also I feel like his striking is pretty good too. So I feel like at the very least, it's going to be a potential fight in the night. That's what I was looking. That's why. Yeah, and that's kind of why I liked the Jamie Malarkey one too

because Malarkey's not going to get, I mean, Malarkey can absolutely crack and he's going to give Patty some fits on the feet. His ground game is not bad. he's a good defensive wrestler but what's going to happen when patty gets on top of him so i'm curious about that and malarkey's not going to get rattled by the situation so i kind of like that for a step but that's an interesting one too but again he's in such a weird situation where you could book him in any way and you could make a case for all of them you know what i mean and i noticed you mentioned

um iliottiporio's next fight is at 45 so he's staying there at least at least for the time being yeah I think he sees his future. And you saw it in the Herbert fight. He got cracked of that one. He's a little undersized. But the fight that I'm hearing that the UFC is targeting will be at 45 and it's going to be a fun one. Oh, that's good. Thank you.

I won't take him any more time. Appreciate it. My man, Kyros. Thank you so much. Go check him out. Good stuff. Great opinions. Good videos.

Just really good stuff. Let's go to Zeke. Zeke, how are you? Mike, how are we? How are we doing? I had a little quick run the connection today and take two or three times. So I think we're in for a, you know, a positive week. You know, how come up mornings on.

It's a Tuesday. So let's get after it. You know, if we didn't have Patty or Miami this weekend, I would want to put my head through a wall watching that prelim card. Because I think it was, it wasn't quite boring. There was just, you know, there was a lot of stock rising for the English and for the Scottish and for anything else. But, you know, MMA fighters, at least in my opinion.

Like, I think you cover Patty really well. We can't send Patty into a top 15 matchup quite yet. Because if we do that, it won't return home. He just won't make it. It wouldn't look good for him, especially if Jordan LeVette is grounding and controlling him at the moment. No, you know, no flack, I guess you could say, to Jordan LeVette. I think Jordan LeVette is definitely a top 25, top 30 guy. I have a little hesitant to see there.

But he's a fighter, you know, barely. fairly a UFC Wikipedia type guy. But my question for you, Mike, is we see all these matchups. We see all these fights getting booked. We see everything, you know, getting announced. When am I going to get Dustin versus Kobe? I don't care what the division is. Dustin's eyeing up.

Mike Chandler now. Dustin's eyeing up. I'm not even sure. He'll fight a kangaroo at this point, it seems. But I want that Dustin Kobe fight, and I want it so bad, Mike. Thank you for having me. Thanks, Eke. I don't know if we're going to get that.

I don't know. I honestly, I don't know what's going to happen. It seems like all signs are pointing towards Chandler Poria, but I honestly have no idea. Like, Poria is the consummate pro wrestler sort of promo cutter where he likes to plant seeds. And even if it's not where they're going with this, at least he could play it off like, oh, see, this is the fight I wanted. But I guess Poree didn't want that smoke, even though there's no truth of that whatsoever. it wouldn't, like, if you're going to do that fight,

like if you're going to put that fight on the books, you have to do it September 10th. You have to. You have to. You have to do it September 10th for multiple reasons. One, you're dealing with Nate who, Nate's going to be there. I know, Hamzat was saying on the MA hour,

like, he doesn't think he's going to show up. Nate, Nate is going to show up. The guy wants out of his contract that bad. And even if he thinks he's going to go out there and get mauled, he wants out. The man wants out and Nate has a great, great way of finding wins, even in the worst of losses

and getting his stock to rise. But you need a backup plan for both of those guys. Like, what if something happens? Shemai says his visa issues are a thing of the past right now, but like what if for some reason he gets hurt or something happens and he can't travel? Like you need to have something to back it up. And having those two guys on the card,

would answer those questions. You have essentially two backups. You throw Pori in there. You could certainly throw Colby in there. Because if Shamiya, is it, at least how the UFC is looking at this. Like,

I know Nate wanted this fight, and Nate just wants out that badly. And the UFC's like, okay, like you want to fight this dude? Like, we will send you out that way. But if Shamiyev isn't the guy, like, the UFC's going to be like, well, who are we going to put Nate in there with?

They're going to put him in there with a guy like Colby, who's just going to take him down and put him on his back and just, just beat him up for 25 minutes. Like, that's a tough bet. That's a horrible matchup for Nate too. So if you're going to do that, you have to do it September 10th. If not, it doesn't really make a lot of sense of Chandler sitting out there. So we'll see what happens. If they make it cool, it would make sense for September 10th.

It's a nice addition to that card. Be a good co-main event. It's fine. But outside of that, like, I just don't. don't know where it fits, especially when everybody wants Seporia to fight Chandler. And I think Chandler understands, like, he could

still maybe get the Connor fight, but Connor's such a mystery right now. Especially with Olivera fighting Machachev, you know that if Oliver wins, they're probably going to look at Connor, because what else would Oliver have to do? Like, that's the fight Olivera wants. He would deserve

the red panty night if he goes out there beats his Lamachev, which a lot of people don't think he's going to do. So, we'll see. Let's go to James McDonald. We have another James. He's coming up as well. James, how are you?

All Jameses are welcome. That's right. Heck of a morning, Tia. Firstly, my condolences to you and your family. Thanks, ma'am. Okay, well, I haven't got to call in for a while because I was on vacation, but I wanted to address the Nelk fan boys coming at you a few weeks ago. and just assure you that you could talk trash about my mother for 15 minutes.

And if you made some cogent points, I'd tip my cap to you. So keep going. What I wanted to ask you is I forced myself to sit through some tough episodes. Sorry, AK. And I did see the little face-off that Giuliana, Pena and Nunez had. And it kind of to me seemed like Nunez, or sorry, Peña didn't want anything to do with it. She was uncomfortable.

Nunez had that look in her eyes. And I did have the Delta variant of COVID. So I dealt with some fatigue afterwards. So I totally buy the excuse that Nunez was dealing with some after effects. I'm thinking she rolls on Saturday. I was interested to hear your opinion. Thanks, Mike. Thanks, man.

Yeah, I don't know about the Nelke peeps coming after. but if they did, I missed it. It's all good. Either way. Not everyone's going to like you. Yeah, I don't know, man. Like, I'm picking, I'm picking Giuliana to win. But I don't know.

Like, I'm not coughing that pick at all. Like, I'm just playing the game that just maybe she just has her number. Like, it's not always that you're the better fighter. Maybe just the better fighter against that person. maybe just have that number, but, like, my, I have, I honestly, this is one of those fights where I've literally have no idea what's going to happen. I have no clue what's going to happen. So, I would think, like, skill for skill on paper, I mean, Amanda should win this fight

easily, and Amanda should probably should have won the fight easily the first time. But Juliana's a dog, man, and, like, Juliana called her shot from the get-go. Like, everything Juliana said happened. It was crazy. I'm the worst matchup for her. She's strong in the first round. I'm tough as hell. I can take her best in the first.

And then once I do, I'm going to knock her out. And that's, she didn't knock her out. But she could have. She could have grounded upon her, but she took the neck, choked her, and that was it. Like, that was just somebody just saying things. And normally we're like, get out of here. And then it actually happened.

So either way, like, no matter what happens on Saturday, Julianna Payne slayed the boogie woman. And even if this is like a Matt Sarah GSP situation where Matt beat GSP and then we saw them fight again and GSP just ran over Sarah the second time. Like Julianna is always going to have that. She's always going to have that moment. And no matter what I meant, it was going through it during that time, whether it's COVID effects, all that. Like Julianna is going to have that highlight reel. There's going to be forever.

the video picture of Anik and D.C. and Joe Rogan and just complete and utter shock reacting to Julianna Pena winning the title. So I actually, my gut tells me that Giuliana just kind of has her number and it ain't got to be pretty, but I could be totally wrong. And I have very little confidence in that. Like my official pick will probably be Amanda Nunes, like when we do our staff picks, but it's like it's just a feeling in my gut. that tells you that.

Julia, I mean, just, I mean, losses create hunger, that's for sure. But when you have won for so long, and then someone just kind of takes your best shots in the first and just walks you down in the second and just beat you up, how do you come back from that? I don't know. After such a long winning streak for all those years, I'm curious to see. Like, I'm very curious to see how that plays out. But I don't know. My head's telling me Nunes.

My gut is telling me that Paine is going to do it again. But I don't know. I'll probably, I have to watch a little more footage. And I'll have an official pick on Friday during the preview show. Let's go to MMA anomaly. I like that name. How are you? Make sure you on mute.

Doing good. How are you? Good, man. Good, good. Thanks for the opportunity to speak. Just want to start off by saying, I'm a huge fan, been a long time listener, and you are one heck of a host. Thanks, man.

Absolutely, man. I hate to circle back to the Paddy the Pimlet category or topic here, but I have to say, I agree and disagree with what you said, right? I don't think we have to fast track him to the title shot. I don't think he needs to get, you know, kind of catapulted into a top five opponent. But at the same time, I say we keep growing the paddy train and give him, you know, some face value, some name value. Give him somebody like a Jim Miller.

or Clay Guida. I think both of those guys are not super easy matches for him by any means, but he does have a shot in those vites, and those would build quite a bill of relevance for him. Yeah, I mean, the Guida one I could see, the Guida one I could see, the Miller one I'm not a fan of for a couple of reasons. One, Miller's on this, like, nice run right now,

and matching Miller and patty up, like, someone has to lose, and either way, it's kind of a rough result. If we're being out, like, Jim Miller is just on this cool run. And like the reaction Jim Miller gets from just fans, fellow fighters, like it's just when Jim Miller goes out and gets wins over, especially these up-and-comers,

these really hungry upstarts. And then, like, you just see how the fighters react on Twitter after Jim Miller goes out there, gets a TKO in the second round or submits a guy who won, like, 11th. 11 fights in a row and was like a minus 400 favorite against them. Like that's the best. That's just the best.

When I get to write Twitter reacts to Jim Miller wins, it's just the coolest. Just the coolest thing. So I kind of don't love that idea. Gweed is okay. Like I don't mind that one. But again, we're at a position where you could go any way you want with Patty.

You could go any way you want with Patty. And it all makes sense. You can make a case for all of it. Like I said earlier, We've had internal dialogues with them a fighting Within our Slack channels and on Zoom calls and stuff We're like Patty Pimble versus Toti Ferguson Is of interest to certain members of the staff

I hate it I hate it so much I know Shaheed Al Shadi who is here just jumped in He hates it as well You don't need it You don't need any of that But if you wanted to do it fine I just I hate it I'm not a fan of it

Maybe like four wins from now You could maybe do something like that but now I just don't love it and I think Tony would win that fight I think even though he's he just got viciously ca-oed and he hasn't looked great as of late and let's not forget Tony won that first round against Michael Chandler he dropped Chandler heard him the dude could still fight just look at the guy Tony's losing to he got battered by Justin Gaichie I mean it's hard to come back from that but Patty versus Balarky you want to do Patty versus Guida like if you want to do Patty versus Guida, that's as high up as we're going.

We're not going any higher than that, in my opinion. But again, this Patty thing is so interesting that if someone wanted to make, at least attempt to make a case for a Tony Ferguson or anything like that, you could find a way to maybe justify it. I hate it. You're not going to convince me, but you might be able to convince

others. And speaking of, speaking of the deputy editor of M.A. Fighting, Shaheen Al-Shadi joins us. Sean, how are you, my man? I'm so happy to have you here, my man. I'm happy to come in at the exact moment I did because you're preaching to the choir. I mean, the Tony Ferguson disrespect in the MMA world right now has just gotten out of control,

but this is an actual conversation that's happening. I figured like it was just going to, it was like a button push. Sean's coming in. I was just waiting for it. And here you are. The Okakuui signal went up in the air and you know I have to respond. I just want to say, first of all, love what you're doing with it. Mike.

You've built an incredible community here. First time, long time, but happy to be on. I've got to ask you, though, because it's been interesting watching the past couple of days, the reaction to UFC London. And to me, it's felt, have you noticed a slight difference in the way people are perceiving Patty Pimblit? Now, it feels like this last one seemed to have validated him in a lot of people's eyes and maybe people are coming around in a way that they weren't before this whole Jordan Levitt thing. And maybe the post-fight message played a part in it.

Maybe it was because he didn't really get hurt in this fight as opposed to the other ones. but I'm just curious. Do you sense this sort of change happening around the perception of Patty Pimbley and how people are viewing him now in space? I like that question. I think this one was definitely viewed differently. I think the post-fight interview certainly helped. Everything that he said after the fact

and then the subsequent conversations with the media backstage, like not just at the press conference, but just with the broadcast partners and stuff, just really just digging deeper into those conversations. I really think that was a really good look for him. And I think people just kind of understood, like, Patty is an entertainer. Patty is who he is. And you can see, like, the teabagging thing, which is not a teabag bag, by the way.

I hate that we even have to say this in a sentence on a space, but there's not a tea bag. That was just him, like, twerking and getting low. Like, that's a move I would do of get low play to the club. Like, I would just be like, okay, yeah. but it wasn't a teabag. He didn't sit on his face or anything like that. So stop that nonsense altogether.

Secondly, I feel like people are just, they just see Patty for, like the entertainment factor is huge. And he's such an interesting character right now because I don't know how good this guy is. Like I, my gut tells me that this guy is, is a star, but he's not great. Like this is, I feel very confident in the fact that Patty Pimman's not going to be fighting for the type.

But I also understand that that's okay. That's okay. Like Max Holloway never has to fight for the title again, and he will be fine. Like he didn't need to fight Volk for the title the third time. Like, it was just the guy there. But even if Max is the champion, he doesn't need it. He's just, he goes, there's certain guys who are just beyond titles and beyond numbers next to their names and beyond rankings.

And I feel like Patty, even though he's three fights in, has become one of those guys. And it's just crazy. It's just crazy. to me, Patty Pimlet, and this is going to be a weird reference unless you were like a pro wrestling fan in like the early 2000 or even earlier than that, Patty Pimlet is like the Bill Goldberg of the UFC right now. Like Bill Goldberg like had that undefeated streak where he won like 100 wrestling matches in a row. But he was just running dudes over. Like he was fighting, he was wrestling quote unquote job guys and just just spearing and jackhammering all these like guys with two.

first names like Tony Roy and Dwayne Gill and all these guys like these are the and Bill Goldberg became a star beating those guys. It wasn't until he had like 75 wins and he was super duper over that they built him up even more. And I feel like that's kind of the position Patty's in right now. Like Patty's like the Bill Goldberg of the UFC right now. Like that's how he should be built. That's how it should be.

But again, it's just so interesting because we haven't really seen a, we have. haven't seen much like this, Sean, have we? Like, we haven't seen a lot like what we're seeing with Patty right now. Yeah, and it's, it's an interesting conundrum just in terms of matchmaking of like how long do you prolong this? Because it's certainly like we could do this for the next three years, right? And it seems like people would be maybe not some fans, but it feels like the UFC would be happy with him just beaten seven mediocre guys in a row and just sort of seeing how long we could push this. It's a very interesting place. But I can't believe you're on team, no tea bag. Because that was absolutely, that was a tea bag. Like, you can't actually let the man

teabag back somewhere. It was a fanciful team. What? He said he was going to do that. He said he's going to... I'm not going to say what he said exactly, but come on. Come on. You can't put your kibbles and bits on another man's face in the octagon.

Like, that's as close as he got. That's as close as you can get to doing that without actually doing it. Come on. Jordan Levin also rose like the undertaker in that situation. He knew it was coming. He was like, nope, I'm getting out. I will say the last thing on this and then I'll get out here. I did, again, I think the post-fied message

was an important part of it, too, just the whole performance, because it did feel like it resonated with a lot of people, in particular just within the sort of time we're in and the space we're in. Like, I'll just, speaking personally for me, I mean, yesterday, actually, the 25th was the 10-year anniversary of my own father's death, and he took his own life. And so, like, to hear stuff like that being sort of put out there by, you know, a character, like this guy who plays this character,

but who, you know, has a massive fan base who has a lot of, of people who listen to him, who has a lot of people who care what he says. I think that's a really important part of sort of the whole performance that we saw at London. I think, I don't know, it felt like to me like that sort of changed a lot of people's hearts and minds, just the whole way that that whole day played out. I don't know. I'm seeing less Patty Pimbled hate than I did, you know, a couple months ago or in March. And it's an interesting sea change to watch. Yeah, I do, I do agree with that. This is, this is, this is. This had the potential, like, at first to be like an MVP type of situation.

Because for a long time, it was just like, oh, when's MVP going to fight somebody legit? The problem is MVP was fighting dudes in like Thackerville, Oklahoma, fighting him at Unkisville, Connecticut, which I like Uncysville, Connecticut, don't get me wrong. I like bohagan's side. I've been there a million times. But MVP, like, if MVP was going on this run and winning all these fights in London, we would have much different view of MVP during that run. eventually after like 12 wins we'd be like all right come on now like let's let's move this up a little bit but

when you get that reaction that patty gets and you see how like just people respond to it like it almost doesn't matter like I'm almost hesitant to put Patty outside of London like if you want to bring him and Molly to the States and just see how his fans travel I'm intrigued to see it right now but I am like I would be a little hesitant

Because even like heading into that fight, I was saying that Patty should only fight in London, and it doesn't matter who the opponent is. But if you, those two seats like together. I don't know, man. Like I'm curious to see like if they did it in MSG or did it in Vegas. Like how would that, how would their fans travel? Would there, I don't think they were going to get like Connor fighting Jose Aldo type of travel. But would you get a thousand Patty and Molly fans traveling to the States to watch them fight? I'd be curious to see.

So it might be worth a shot, especially if we want to get one more at the end of the air, because there's no guarantee how many times the UFC is going to go back to London or go back to the UK or go back to that area. Like, we don't know. So how will that translate in Las Vegas?

How would that translate at MSG? I think it would translate huge in MSG. But I would also understand why they wouldn't want to fight there for money purposes, taxes, all that stuff. But it's just, it's amazing. Like, heading out of March, you're just like, yeah, Patty won. But heading out of this, like the whole 40 minutes of the show has been the Patty Pimbled show.

Like, how do we book him? And we're all over the place. And for the most part, none of us are really wrong. I mean, unless you say Tony Ferguson, then I think you're wrong. But you could still make a case for it. I'm just not going to buy that case. All right. Let's go to James Foster.

You've been waiting for a while, my man, very patiently. And I appreciate that. What's up, buddy? Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Hey, you know, with the pay-review coming up this week, you got women and midgets. Yeah, I don't think it gets too much better than that.

But with the main event, do you think no matter what happens, just as long as Amanda wins, and we're probably going to head to a trilogy, even if she steam rolls, Pena in 30 seconds, or dominates her for 25 minutes? And the Chris Curtis and Jack your Manson thing, I don't know if you have anything on that. I just thought it was kind of strange. Two guys kind of acting out of character. But maybe it was just frustration on Chris Curse parts, but how's curious you've had any insight on that? And the Patty Pimlet thing, I mean, I'm more in the I want to be entertained business than Bill Patty up. I mean, I would, I know you're going to disagree with me, but I would

like to see like a Bobby Green or a Joe Lowe's on or even a Clay Guita. But if you want to build this guy up to be a star. I thought of a name that I don't think I've heard anyone say yet. Matt for Vola, I think I'm pronouncing that right, the guy that got steamrolled by Terrence McKee. I think that would be maybe a good matchup for Patty if you just want to build them up. But man, Mike, it's nice to have you back. I definitely felt your presence kind of gone during the post-fight and pre-fight show. So I'm just happy that you're back and hope all us well, buddy. Have a heck of a morning. Thank you, sir. I appreciate that.

Shout out to Shaheen and the crew, who held it down in my absence. I also have to say that when the Boston Mike character comes out, I have to take like three days off and talking because I just yell and scream and I basically become one million times who I actually am. So, yeah, I kind of tone the voice down. So it's like perfect timing for Boston Mike to show up on BTL. Yeah, the Favola one's interesting.

I mean, I know that's the fight Matt wants. I don't know if he's re-signed with the UFC yet, because I know after that crazy last fight that he had, he was a free agent, and I don't know, that'd be a good way to entice Matt back. It's just a matter of how much is it going to cost. Is it the right fight? Yeah, we'll see what happens there.

The Hermanson, Curtis, you can go to M.A.fiting.com. Jack Hermanson was on the M.A. hour, and you could check out Jack's thoughts on that. But, yeah, listen, I just think, was frustration even on both sides. Like even seeing Jack Hermanson kind of getting out of character a little bit as well was just like, wow, these two are like two of the nicest guys in the sport. And here we go.

But I just think it was frustration for Chris, just that performance overall. This is a big opportunity for him. He was very confident that he would go out there and win. And a lot of people were very confident in Chris to go out there and win. And Jack just put it on him. Like I thought Jack clearly went all three rounds, at least in my eyes. And Chris's winning street comes to an end. And who knows, maybe his middleweight run comes to an end.

Maybe he has to go back to 170, and he was loving life at 185. But who knows? Maybe he could stick around. Who knows what's going to happen there? But I think it was just frustration. And I think Jackermanza was just like a little frustrated himself. How many times is he going to get matched up at these big fights of Darren Till and then they don't happen?

And he has to keep taking these short notice opponents. And everybody was overlooking Jackermanson. Everybody. I was on this show last week. I said there's, I just don't see any world where Jackermanza wins this fight. And I was 100% wrong. And this is maybe Jackramanson just, you know, just metaphorically putting the middle fingers up at all of us. Just saying, see, I'm a nice guy and I'm not going to go on the microphone and call all of you out.

But I beat that man. And this wasn't close. So stop sleeping on me. That's a real thing. let's go to we'll go to Tristan we'll go to Four Corner Sports and then I see a few of you

I'm going to try to get to as many of you as we can here Tristan how are you doing Mike how's everything wonderful my friend that's great to hear I just want to go back to what I said to you last week I think on Friday about

I'm hearing about Ben Juan Santini versus Christos Diagos for the September 3rd card for Paris. I don't know. I just wanted to know if you're hearing that. I don't know if it's confirmed or not.

That's my first question. My second question, I know that the UFC London prelames wasn't great, but there was a bright spot in Jonathan Pierce. He's now on a four-fifide win street. What do you, I didn't, I don't know if I heard you match him up on Otno, but I think I really enjoyed his performance against Maquan.

He looked really gritty. He looked really durable and tough in there. So I think the next fight for him, I think it could be Julian O'Rosa or Charles Ordain or even Tucker Lutz. I think those three would be really good. And if he goes out there and beats any of those three guys, I mean, you may have to start looking for him to find maybe a top 15 in the featherweight division. So I just want you your thoughts about that as well.

And as far as Molly McCann, she called out Antonina Schochenko, and that was like one of my A&O picks that I sent to AK, and I think that's appropriate. I think she's a name, but someone that I really would favor Molly McCann in that fight against Antonina Schochenko. Antonina used to be a former top 15. And, you know, give her that fight, see where she's at. at that point.

So, you know, I just want to hear your thoughts on that. And thanks for everything, Mike. Thanks, buddy. Yeah, I mean, I assume the Sentany fight is happening. I will admit I haven't gone crazy looking into it. But considering who reported it, I've seen on Instagram, at least one of the fighters confirming it. So I mean, that's probably what's going to happen.

Santini should probably be on that card anyways. So, yeah, I think that's probably. probably the fight. Molly Antonina is fine. I like, I actually, I went with J.G. Aldrich on mine. I actually think J.J. is a tougher fight than Antonina. And I, I actually, I think this whole, I know Ariel talked about this on the May hour and he asked Dan Hardy about this, but Caddy Pimbled's presence has really helped Molly McCann. The confidence levels have risen. You could hear it in her voice. You could hear it in her promos. You can see it in her performances. Like the evolution of

Molly McCann is real. Like, we're seeing it. We've seen it in these last two performances. She needs a step up in competition, though. Like, Patty, it doesn't matter. Patty doesn't matter. You can throw him against anybody. I feel like if we're talking potential title fights,

like Molly is... Molly could win two or three more and fight for the belt. Patty is going to have to win like eight or nine, maybe 10 before he fights for the belt. That's just because of the divisions they're in, mostly. But you can, I mean,

you can make a case right now that if the UFC just wanted to put a interesting big fight together and just do Valentina versus Molly,

like in London, like that'd be gigantic. That'd be huge. That'd be huge. Now, Valencia would win that fight, but if they wanted to just do that, like, they could.

It wouldn't be, it'd be somewhat egregious, but not incredibly egregious. But I think it just kind of continue to build that confidence is what I'm saying, but give her steps up. I like Aldrich. If you want to do Antonina, that's fine.

I know someone suggested Casey O'Neill might be a toughie, but I don't know. We'll see. Courtney Casey would be an interesting one because even if Courtney wins, somehow in our eyes, she'll still lose a split decision to Molly. So it's almost like unless she gets stopped, she'll probably win that fight because the judge has never rule things for Courtney

Casey anyway. Yeah, just give her a step up. If they want to do Antidina, it's a fine idea. Who else has been waiting for a minute? Let's go to... Actually, I was going to bring him on, but I don't see him anymore. So, all right, rapid fire from one mic to another. Michael Morgan.

How are you... I'm exceptionally well. I'm glad you kind of qualified that, because Mike, what the heck is what I was about to say before I jumped in here? when you're talking about the confidence, when you're talking about how she stepped up. Come on, she was given two scrubs and she did what she had to do. No disrespect to Molly, and I mean this from the butt of my heart, I do see exactly what the UFC are trying to do here.

We don't have any stars over here in the UK in terms of rosters. It's depleting on an almost monthly basis, so I can see why they're building these quote-unquote stars. But let's not guess like people. Let's not pretend that we don't know what's going on here. We know what it is. It is what it is. And the reason as soon as I heard that from you,

I click the send button for the mic is because I couldn't believe Mike was about to gaslight us. But no, you caught yourself. You kind of doubled back. You kind of scrup and rewound. So I'm glad you did that. But just let's underline this. We know what's happening here. We know what's occurring.

Appreciate that, man. I love the energy. I love the passion. Yeah, listen, there's certainly true to that 100%. But I stand by my confidence selection too. Because let's not forget, Molly was fighting people she was heavily favored over earlier in her career. And she wasn't beating girls like that. She wasn't going out there and spinning elbowing people.

She wasn't. She wasn't. She was happy just brawling and winning two rounds and losing the third and hanging. on to win decisions that she was heavily favored to win. And now she's out there just throwing shit around. She's got the attention of the people's champ, the great one, the rock. The confidence is, I'm not taking away anything of what you're saying as far as the opponents go, but you can clearly see she's more confident fighting.

I mean, she's not going to be fighting the Hannah Goldie's forever. She's not going to be fighting those types of fighters forever. But she's going for the kill. She's trying to get finishes. she's being creative in there. So, yeah, I think there's certainly confidence rising. Now, the level opponents, you're right, haven't been spectacular. Anna Goldie is essentially a straw weight.

But she's trying stuff and trying to get people out of there and just ripping shots with Michael Chandler and Yawani and Jacek in the crowd. Like, that's just fun. It's just fun stuff, but I don't know. We'll see how good that. confidence translates. Let's give her a little bit of a step up. I think Antonina makes sense. JJ Aldrich makes sense. I wouldn't go much higher than that. Those are two tough fights. But I wouldn't go Casey O'Neill. I wouldn't go Aaron Blanchefield. I know Miranda Maverick wants that

fight. I don't love that idea. I would do like a step below Morana Maverick. I think Miranda's got a fight too, memory surgery correctly. All right. Let's get through these. I'm going to try to get as many as I can. I got like seven minutes. So let's fire these got let's fire these off uh the name's birchie what up what is up mike heck it's not too bad man this is the first time i've ever um um um real quick uh have you do you have any news on any like fighter unions to get fighters more fair pay because i know even connor mcgregor is underpaid so do you have any uh any news on anything like that going on and uh i'll get off and listen You know, that's one question I wish I could confidently say I had an answer to, but I don't.

And unfortunately, I don't think I'll ever have an answer to that question because they didn't do it when the company sold for $4.2 billion. Why would they do it now? It's a sad tale, people. It's a sad tale. And this is just the story we're going to be living. We're going to be fighting for fighter pay. And we're going to be on preview shows and post-fight shows and fan Q&As and shows like this talking about how these fights. They're not.

And they do deserve more. They all deserve more. Even Connor deserves more than what he's getting. The problem is they're just not going to come together. They're just not. And Joe Lozahn gets a lot of shit for saying that the union's never going to happen, that fighters can be selfish, and he gets a lot of crap. People think he's anti-UFC.

That's something you told me a million times because people think I'm anti-UFC. I'm not. I see because I've been here for so long. When fighters fight for more money, more oftentimes than not, they fight it for themselves. They're not fighting for the rest of the roster. They're fighting for themselves. And now you have 700 people on this roster. Some are making 10 in 10, making their dreams come true, getting provided this opportunity.

Some were making 40 and 40. Some have shot themselves up the ladder. Now they're making six figures. They're like, wow, I don't want to screw that up. So getting these people together to say, you know what, pay us more or we're just not fighting? it's just not going to happen. I would love to see it happen. It's just not going to.

Major League Baseball in 1994, players like, eh, nope, not doing it. And it happens in all these sports. Like at certain times, there's threatens of walkouts and all these different things, and it's all about money. And the players are just like,

okay, we just won't play. I mean, they're making a lot more money than the fighters are, but that's how it starts. That's how it starts. And then there's a union, And then we come together. Then there's negotiations.

We try to fight a middle ground. One side wants something totally egregious. The other side wants something totally egregious. And we try to meet in the middle. It's just not going to happen. I wish I could give you it. It's just not. We're never going to get 700 fighters together to ban together

because you need the Conners to do it. You need the Adasanias to do it. You need the Dias to do it. You need the Inganoes to do it. You need them all to do it. And then you need the guys making 10 and 10 who just got a contract out the contendant. series who just got their, the thing they've always wanted since they got into the sports,

they went into the gym for the first time on the mats, it took their shoes off. They made it to the UFC. And now before they have their UFC debut, you're asking them to just not fight. They're not going to do that. They're not going to do that. And it sucks. As Rick Petino famously said, it stinks and it sucks and it sucks and it stinks. But this is the world we live in.

And as a guy with a voice and a guy who hosts a million shows, we're going to be talking about this forever. And it sucks. It's, the UFC is certainly to blame, but also the fighters need to look in the mirror because they've had opportunities to come together. They've tried to put weird

random groups together. Like, Bjorn Rebney just came out of hiding and was the head of some association that could have happened and then all of a sudden, just Bjorn Rebney went back into hiding and the thing dissolved. It's just crazy.

It's just, I just don't see it happening. It sucks. but it's just I just don't see it happening. Gary, how are you? Gary? Hey, there we go. Sorry about that. There we go.

How's thanks? All good, man. Things are okay, my man. How are you going on, man? Hey, I'm doing phenomenal. Hey, I wanted to chime in real quick. I think people are asking too much from the UFC in regards to McCann and Pimble. I think they're handling it just fine.

I think the last thing you want to do is snuff, either one. of their stars right now. I mean, in the world of MMA, they're like a power couple and wildly popular. The U.S.T.'s best move would be to put them on one of those EBC cards and get them national exposure against a couple people they can beat and let them go wild, let them rip shots in the crowd, and, I mean, if they follow that path, I mean, he could, Pimlet could be as big as Connor. He might not be as Connor, or he might be. I don't know. But, I mean, he's got that kind of start potential. And McCann, let's not forget. It was just two fights

ago. I mean, she was like a 500 fighter. So, you know, let's not ruin a good thing here. I mean, you know, build them up. The last thing you want to do is see them, either one of them lose, and then people go back to not caring. Hey, you're preaching to the choir, my man. You're preaching to the choir.

Like I said, Patty Pimblech should be treated like the Bill Goldberg of the UFC. Just let him get wins. Just let them run people over. Let the crowd go banana. As Pat Patterson, once said, just let him do that. And then with Molly, like, give her, they're both kind of the same, but I feel like Molly

give her a little bit more of a step up just because the division is what it is. Molly could win two or three more fights and then they could throw into her title fight with Valentina. Like, they just could. It probably isn't going to go very well, but you probably could do that because people will care and people will buy the paper route. They just will. Patty, again, you don't, it doesn't matter.

Throw them in there with anybody. You want to throw them in there with the Jordan Levits of the world every single time? Fine. It's totally fine to do that. If you want to give him a little bit of a step up, sure. But if his next fight is against Armand Sarukion, that is the worst booking ever. Don't do that. Definitely don't do that.

If you're building up any prospect right now, you don't throw them in there with Armand Saruken. Don't do it. Just don't do that. It's a bad idea. Rel, how are you? Hey, good morning. What's up, buddy? How you doing, Mike?

Wonderful. So I think with the whole Pettie Pimbley thing, I agree and I disagree. Because I think people, one thing you've got to remember, this ain't boxing. You don't get one L and then you're just on the back shelf. Nobody's going to pay attention. This is mixed martial. You could get an L and then go on a four-fight winning streak and be back, if not in a better position than you was before.

So I think, do I want to see them just give Patty a bunch of opponents? that he could beat. I don't want to say that, but give him tests that shows like he's growing, he's growing, and he's growing. I don't want to see him go beat a bunch of fighters in a row

that we knew he was going to beat because then when he get to the title shot and he get turned back, it's like, well, that's probably what was going to happen. But I think a lot of people got to throw more respect on his performance this past week. To lose a friend and go out there and do that,

that, the gross thing, is there. The growth is there. And then one more thing. I've been hearing people talk about D.C. is making a return. Have you heard anything about that? Is that something that we should be paying attention to? Have a good morning. He did a

thank you for the call. D.C. did a Twitter spaces with Monster Energy with Hans Malen Camp, I think it was. And someone had asked if what it would take for her to come back. And he mentioned, I believe, that he would fight Yuri.

for one more. And listen, it's not going to happen, but D.C.'s a competitor, man. Like, he always has been. And I'm sure there's a small part of him that misses the training

and misses getting ready for fights and misses seeing his name on a poster and things like that. But I'm sure the guy's very happy with what he's doing. The guy has, I love the shows he does on ESPN Plus where he breaks down certain fighters.

It's a great one on Alexander Volkanowski. he's doing the color commentary with Anick and Joe Rogan and there's probably going to be other things in the future of this guy. It's got to be on a TV show, the Warrior TV show. I mean, the guy's crushing life right now. So he doesn't need to come back, but I'm sure it's just like GSP. Like, GSP's always asked, oh, what would you do to come back? Like, who would you fight if he could come back?

And GSP's a little more, he's got NASA so much and he's more seasoned to it. So GSP will always stop in his tracks. like, well, if I were to come back, which I'm never going to, I would fight Hamza Tchaimayev, I would fight Kamar Usman, I would fight Israel out of Sanya, but I'm not coming back. We'll come back. But if I were to come back, even though it's never, ever, ever, ever going to happen. These are the three guys I would be interested in fighting. D.C. hasn't gotten that season yet.

The guy just retired. The guy just got to the Hall of Fame. Two years from now, we're going to be having those conversations where D.C. is going to be walking those things back, putting in those little precursors saying, I'm not coming back, but this would be fun in an alternate universe. GSP has mastered that. DC just hasn't had the time to master that just yet. But if we're holding our breath for a DC comeback, I wouldn't hold it.

I would just let that breath out. All right, we got four more on the books. Esteban, J. Money, King Cat, Civ, Ram, and then we're out of here. Esteban, how are you? Hey, Mike. Heck of a morning. Yes, sir. Quick question. I wanted to talk about Michael Kiesa. He's been in a rough patch lately. I think he's like on a two-fight losing streak and, you know, he's getting up there in age. And he seems to be really comfortable on the desk. You know, now they're going to him for live comments during fights. You know what Dean Thomas? I think he still does it or used to do it? So my question is, what's the future for Michael Kiesa? Do you see him fighting? I mean, he's, you know, he's not old, but he's old in fight years. He's been around for a while. So do you think his future is still fighting or in the desk or what's his future?

future for Michael Kiesa. Thanks, Mike. Thanks, buddy. Kiesa's a good fighter, man. Like, go back and watch that Sean Brady fight. Kiesa may have lost the battle. It's just one of those things.

Like, he may have lost the battle, but he might have won the war because he had all the momentum coming out of that Sean Brady fight. He broke Sean's nose early. Sean was having trouble breathing. He had blood in the back of his throat. I've talked to him about a million times. Kiesa beat up Sean Brady in that fight.

Sean Brady would be the first one to tell you that he did. The Lucay one was crazy because it looked like Kiesa was on his way to a submission win and Lucke, just being the king of violence at 170 pounds, comes through and comes back and somehow gets the victory. And I mean, those are just two really good fighters. So I think there's, I think he's in a weird position right now. I mean, I hope they don't throw him Shafcott, Rachmanoff. I hope we don't see anything quite like that. But, Maybe a D-Rod, maybe a Randy Brown, you know, something like that. Kevin Holland, perhaps, like something like that.

I think there's still some tread on those tires. As far as a broadcaster goes, his future is incredibly bright. I thought this when I, like Michael Kiesa was one of the first UFC fighters that I interviewed back in 2015 or 2016. And I thought that of Michael Kiesa the first time I talked to him. Guy just has such a mind for the game. He's so good in that role. And if you watch LFA broadcast, he's great in color commentaries. Excellent.

So I think there's a future for him doing some color for UFC events, too. I don't think his fighting careers over. I know he's dealing with some injuries and things like that. So maybe a minute before he gets back in there. But I still think he's got a couple fights left. And his commentary career is going to be really good because he's excellent at it. Really, really good. Let's go to Jay Money.

What's up, man? Hey, Mike. How are you doing? Good. How are you, man? Good. So I had a couple questions. So I saw the Kreelov report that he told the UFC he didn't want the flag on the shorts and stuff. But I was wondering, do you really think that was him or you think that was maybe them just pushed him to do that?

And also one of the question about the Derek Lewis Pavlovas fights. I was wondering if Pavlovak goes out there and wins, do you think he could fight someone like a blades or folk off something like that for the next opponent? And maybe he gets up to the heavyweight wings pretty fast. So I was wondering about those two things. Thanks, Mike. Thanks, man. Yeah, the first one I'm not all that familiar with. So let me look into that a little bit more and then I will have some thoughts on it.

The Pavlovich one, I don't think he's getting Blades, because I think Blades is going to get the winner of Tuavasa versus Gone. Maybe the Volkov one, I don't know. Maybe Romanov. Because Romanov's coming up pretty soon, too. He's fighting Shemiel Abdurahimov, I believe. is it on this card? Is it this weekend he's fighting him?

No, it's coming soon, though. Maybe it's 278. I think it's 278. So, maybe match those two guys up. Alexander Ramanov, man. I am so excited for that guy. I mean, he's just, he's got to fight for the title. There's no doubt about it.

That guy's fighting for the heavyweight title in the next 27 months. Maybe even sooner. Dude is a madman. I'm very excited for him. I mean, Pavilich is favorite against Derek Lewis for sure, but Derek Lewis is Derek Lewis, man. He could lose 14 minutes and 58 seconds of this fight and still knock the guy out. So don't love the matchup for him stylistically.

It's a nightmare. But Derek's got them hands, man. He's got them hands. King Cat, are you there? The wheel is spitting. The wheel needs to stop spinning. And we got to move on. All right. Sorry, King Cat. We tried.

Siveram. Civerum. Do we have you? I know he's yours. There we go. Here he is. How are you? I'm doing great. I just want to let you know about my opinion and two things. And I just want to hear what's your opinion on those things. And the first one is about the UFC 277, obviously. My gut feeling and my mind both are saying that Julia Penn is going. going to win another time, mate. I know she's like a bull like a frame she got.

So she fights like a bull also. She results. Her wrestling is very good and her job and one-two punching is very good. I think Amanda Nuz doesn't like to take punches to her face, you know. That's why she gets very aggressive towards Julianapan in the past match. That's what a very, you know, strategically mystic fighting with Julian Appain. So that's what my opinion was about the one thing. And the second one is the who you back, who you got made, is it going to be Moreno or Kaikara fans?

Because last time in the first round goes to the Kaikara fans and second round maybe to the Brandon Moreno. And a thrott round kind of a, you know, I can't decide who got that round. Maybe Kaikara fans evolved so much very good with his striking ability and his punching power. So I don't know who's going to win that match. And a lot of people is happy to see losing Brandon Moreno and some people is backing the Kaikara fans. And what do you think about that, man? Thanks, buddy. Yeah, I'm kind of with you on the.

Pena Nunes, my head is picking, I'm a little different than yours. My head is picking Amanda Nunes. I feel like on paper, you just look at everything, skill for skill. Amanda Nunes is the better fighter. But my gut is saying that,

maybe it's going to happen again because Juliana Pena is just, she's just going to get in her face, man. She's going to keep getting in her face. She's going to keep coming. Amanda's going to have to stop her, and she's going to have to stop her quick, or else she's going to lose again.

Taney is just such a, she's just not going to stop coming forward. And I think Pena's just got so much confidence right now. That's so big. My official pick could probably be Nunes, but it would not surprise me to see Giuliana Pena go again. But I might just go all in on Pena. We'll see what Jed Bishu has to say.

Because you remember last year, Jed Bishu became instantly famous for his Giuliana Penae selection, and it came through, and he was correct, and he got it done. The biggest, the most intriguing thing on this whole card in my eyes is Brannon-Morino. because he's left Entrom. He went over to James Krause's gym at Glory MMA. It was kind of a shocker. I didn't think Brandon Mariano would ever leave that gym.

I don't think his team or his coach has ever expected that to happen, but he did it. And now he's over with James Krause, the human cheat code, as AK likes to say. And I'm really curious to see how different he looks, what kind of different game plan is going to come up with, like how he's going to flow with Kraus yelling instructions in his year. Like, I'm really fascinated by that. I'm really interested to see. And Kai Kar-France is a dog, man. What we have

seen Daddy Kai-Kara France, just becoming a dad is just a different guy. Like, he's just, he's digging deeper than he ever has before. Him being Asker-Askaroff is just such an impressive win. That win is going to age extremely, extremely well. So that fight rules. I don't have a pick for it yet. I'm leaning Braden Moreno right now, but that's a great fight. All right. Last one, rips and picks, and I got to go. I have to get out of here. Rips of picks.

Unmute. Unmute. What's up, Mike? How are you doing? There we go. I was going. Hey, I'll just keep it short, man. I obviously saw that Yuri had called out Glover again, just saying, you know, my performance

wasn't too good the first time. I'd love to just do it again. I'm just curious, man, like now that Yuri has won the belt, now that he's kind of a newer star for the UFC to be able to tap into. And we got a big light, heavyweight fight coming up between Ankeleev and Smith. I mean, what do you think the chances are that they just run that fight back? I mean, if Anka Lai or Smith even has a big win, you know, that could even kind of propel them into that. But I'm just curious if you think that one's going to happen again.

Thank you, sir. Yes, I do think it's going to happen because, like I said, right after the fight, you have to do it now. You can't wait. This is not Connor Nates. This is not one of those fights where you can just put it in your back pocket and just pull it out anytime you want,

anytime you need an event or any time you need this or that. You got to do it now. Glover is not the youngest man in the world. That fight was incredible. And I just don't know, like in both those guys. Like, just look at both of their careers.

Just look at the types of fights that both of those guys get into. There's just not a word. world where like four or five years or not, both these guys are still fighting at that high of a level. Like Glover's probably going to be coaching multiple UFC champions at that point. Yuri, I don't know how much he's got left in him. Just the types of wars that he's been in and will continue to get in.

You have to do this now. You have to do it. So it would not, I was saying just do it at MSG. Like, let's just do it. I love it. before the end of the year, you got to do it. This Anthony Smith-Ankelya fight is interesting.

I think if Anthony wins it, I think if Anthony goes out there, bold smogam in Anka-Liaf, he'll probably be next to mine for the winner of that fight. Ankelyaf, if he just goes out in decisions, Anthony Smith, like I don't think the UFC's going to be in any rush to put him in a title fight. He might be the best 205 are in the world,

but I don't know if they're going to be in any rush to just throw him in there with Yuri. They might throw him in there with Yombo. which instead. So that fight, Anthony Smith, Magamette, Ankleav is huge

for the division. I think it means probably a little bit more for Anthony Smith right now. Again, former title challenger. After the John Jones

fight, did anyone ever think that we'd be talking about Anthony Smith being in a title fight again? Not a lot of people did, and he's knocking on the door right now, which is just incredible,

and it's just says a lot about the man who is aptly nicknamed Lionheart. But, all right, We got to get out of here. We get a very busy week ahead of us. Of course, it's fight week. UFC 277.

We'll get the MMA hour back tomorrow. I'm sure the lineup will be sensational. Last, yes is ridiculous. We've got freaking Hamzaa Chamaif on the show. You don't get a lot of Hamzaa Chamaif interviews these days, and a man, Ariel, got it done. Thursday, we're back here. 10 a.m. Eastern, we'll do it again.

Friday will do it again here at 10 a.m. Eastern. We'll have the Way-in show. Actually, Friday might be a little different, just depending on when the way-ins happened. We will be here Friday at some point. BTL Thursday, a preview show on Friday, People's Pre-Fight Show Saturday, all the coverage, Jose Youngs will be in Dallas, 4277.

This is going to be a busy week, everybody. So buckle up, strap in, and stick with us over here at M.AFighting.com. We're all of us here. We appreciate it very much. Have a great day. And as always, have a heck of a morning, everybody.