MMA Fighting - MMA Fighting 2022 Mid-Year Predictions Show: Can Francis Ngannou Win His Battle Against The UFC?

Episode Date: May 29, 2022

We’re at the midway mark of the MMA calendar, so what better way to commemorate this milestone than by looking ahead to what the rest of 2022 might hold. There was no shortage of compelling storylines in the past six months, so how will they impact future events? Host Alexander K. Lee and the MMA Fighting panel of Steven Marrocco, Damon Martin, and Jed Meshew make their bold predictions on what could be in store soon for some of the biggest names in the business, including Francis Ngannou, Tyson Fury, Valentina Shevchenko, Julianna Peña, Amanda Nunes, Kamaru Usman, and Nick Diaz. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts Subscribe: Spotify Read More: MMA Fighting Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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IKEA, bring home to life. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Welcome back, guys. Welcome back. Any of the listeners who tuned into the 2022 mid-year. awards. This is our continuation where we talk about predictions for the rest of 2022. And if you're joining us and didn't listen to the previous show, one, you should. Otherwise, enjoy these predictions. I was going to go like spiciest, sorry, least spicy to spiciest. And I'll still try and kind of do that. But I think it's a logical segue into your prediction, Damon, for 2022. So go ahead,

lead us off here. This is the second part of our show. Yeah, my big prediction for the second half of the year is that I do believe Francis Ngano will reach a deal, which, the UFC, but it will not be the deal that a lot of people think he'll eventually take. I think he will find a way to work a deal to sign an extension with the UFC, probably four fights, that way he doesn't get too long into his extension. And he also somehow books the special rules fight with Tyson Fury. Now, of course, everyone's going to say you're insane, whatever. Listen, five years ago, I was the guy beating the drum saying there's a better chance we're going to see Bruce Lee's hologram fight Connor McGregor and the UFC that we're going to see him fight Floyd

Mayweather. Well, guess what? Never happen. Never happen, I said. I said, That's never happening. I laughed when people said it's, I was like, it's not going to have. There's no way. Connor could at least win that one. That's true.

That's true. I just, there's something about like, I just, there's two parts as why I think this is my prediction. One, we know that Dana, at least from all,

I understand Dana despises Bob Aram. We all, we all understand that. But I think, I think Dana likes Tyson Fury. I think there is a relationship there. And of course, We also know, you know, Tyson's relationship goes beyond Bob Aram, just to be clear.

Like, he's also retired. Boxers have a different set of rights in MMA fighters. We all know this. So I don't know how much Bob Aaron would even need to be getting involved. Part two of that is it's a special rules fight. They're not saying boxing now. They're saying special rules, whether they're going to use four-ounce gloves. We just saw Tyson Fury's training with Nick Diaz now all of a sudden.

I don't know. So the risk of putting your heavyweight champion in there against. Tyson Fury is far less if he's not just in a straight boxing match because I think we all agree. I love Francis Ngano. He's not beating Tyson Fury in a boxing match. It would not go well for him at all. But in a special rules fight when you add in maybe elbows, you add in the clinch or whatever, there's a lot more than Ganu could do.

And it's still a big attraction. It's still a big moment and people would tune in to watch it. And the third thing, I think this is still the biggest thing. Where does Francis go after? If he leaves, and let's say he leaves completely and leaves the UFC, and does the special match with Fury. Okay, he makes $30 million. Amazing.

I'm all for it. I want him to do that. I don't think Francis is going to retire. So what else is he going to do? I mean, is he going to go fight in PFL? No, is he going to go fight Ryan Bader and Bet? No, is he going to fight? I know we're all looking forward to the big time Francis and Ganu,

Arjun Bueller fight. You get my point. If he's going to have big fights beyond Tyson Fury, it's in the UFC. it's John Jones, it's the Steep A trilogy, it's, you know, whatever. Other, you know, Tom Aspinall, that would be, thinking about Tom Aspinall, he could beat Curtis Blaze, which I don't think he will do, sorry, Jed, if he beats Curtis Blades and he becomes an even bigger star in the UK, could you know what I mean?

Like, obviously I know Francis is not from, or not from France, but that would be a big fight for Europe. I mean, there's all kinds of possibilities. All that goes away if he's gone, though, and there's not many other options for Francis outside the UFC and said in terms of legitimate heavyweight talent. So I think when you combine those two things together, I think he resigns, but I think for only the second time in UFC history, they get some kind of deal done that allows him to have this special rules fight with Tyson Fury.

That's my prediction. I say it, I say it 2022 because we know he's going to be out of the knee injury. So it won't actually happen. The fight won't happen until 20203, but I think they will get a deal done this year. Damon, no love for Aries FC. He could be the face of Ares FC. He could be the face with a lot of. places but name some valuable heavyweights outside the UFC right now and that list is mighty short

the list of valuable heavyweights in the UFC is short it's a garbage division but he's at least like look I'm not saying you're wrong you probably are right it would be so dumb like if he signs with the UFC again it's just so stupid go fight Tyson Fury get the bag get all the bag don't give the you have seen any of the bag. Try and weasel your way into a fight with Deontay Wilder or somebody else and get another bag. Joshua. Joshua,

some like that. And then go to PFL. Nobody in PFL is going to beat you. Brunelazzo's not going to beat you. Whereas like, Tom Aspinall could. And then the money train has died. Or do the much better choice.

Fight two boxing matches. Get a lot of money. And then go be a deep. list actor. It's great. It's a great plan and you don't take a head trauma. It's, I don't know why he wouldn't do that. It's the most obvious outcome. And it's so infuriating that you're

probably right and I'm probably wrong. Okay, just to be clear, I'm 130% on the Jedmishu train for what he should do. I'm just saying what I think will happen. Just or go do the cyborg thing and just pick up other belts.

Like go fight Brian Bader. Because then you can be like, I'm a two champion. And then I go get the PFL belt for a million dollars because I get a free million dollars every year. It just so many better opportunities in fighting Tom Aspinall and Steepa again. Could you imagine how quickly Arjun Buller would sign with AEW if Francis decided to go to one championship? I mean, come on now. There's not a heavyweight out there that's going to be. No pro wrestle.

Go pro wrestle. I didn't even think of pro wrestling. I'm sadly even like less optimistic that he gets. like I'm with the, I think he's just going to mention to resign for some of the reasons you, you mentioned David like the big fights are there and I don't even think the hybrid rules if it even happens. Like it should, but Stephen, well, what do you define it as hybrid rules

because like literally anything that's not like this elbow thing ain't happening, Damon? It'll be four ounce gloves. That'll be the rule because Furio still beat his ass with that. And they're not going to let him throw. Yeah. Yeah, they're not going to let him throw elbows. So, Stephen, you think it's possible.

out of 10, Stephen, out of 10, what do you think the likelihood is of this happening, both things happening, that he besides the UFC and that there is some bare minimum hybrid rules match arranged by the UFC. So they've never done before. So I think it's, I think it's unlikely. But I don't know, out of 10, what do you think that both the chances are both those things happen? Hey. Oh, wow.

Yeah. That's high. I mean, this is, I think he's proven that certain things are more important to him than, you know, making the brass happy, you know, getting a deal done, being a company man. He's gone this far. Why not get this? Why not get further? I think that it's really just a matter of like the split at this point.

That's going to be where the battle is fought. How much the UFC wants for this privilege? Yeah. Yeah, I want to believe you guys because, but they never do anything fun. That would be so, that would be fun. I think I think it'd be fun. Well, that's how that's why we have Jake Paul. I mean, they've left their flank open.

We're lucky in a sense. We're lucky and unlucky in a sense that UFC is no longer this shiny new thing. Like the UFC has now become this very stale product in many ways. And that's what's allowed a lot of their competitors to get into the market saying, hey, look, we're just different. You know, BKFC is a great example of this. You know, we're very fortunate in a way. Yeah. Biden's exactly.

Dana loves to pretend that the UFC is above these kind of weird, fun, weird, weird, hybrid, freaky things we're seeing here. They brought in James Tony. They brought in James Tony. They brought in CM Punk. I mean, come on. Like, if Jake Paul wasn't so 110% against the UFC, without a shadow of a doubt, if he said, I want to fight him in a MA, they would sign him tomorrow. Without a shadow of it, they would sign him to me. If he was just a social media star and a big, and he had had those wins.

over Woodley and all and he was everything but he had not been anti at UFC if he had complimented the UFC and said I want to go what they would have signed him yesterday 100% and Logan Paul so all this highbrow were above that is BS we all know that you know they signed Kimbo they signed you know they said there's a difference between signing one there's a difference between signing one person and building your business around it yeah and they haven't built

their business around Kimbo no but they're not above it They're certainly not above it. And that's why I said this one example. Like they'll do this one thing. And because also real quick, I'm sorry. One of the alternative is what? They're going to let John Jones be heavyweight champion. I mean, do they really, I mean, is that any less of a headache for them if he becomes

heavyweight champion? Steepay is like basically two fights away from probably retiring. And they've not enjoyed dealing with him either because Steve A has stood up to the UFC. And they've threatened to strip his title away like 19 times while he was champion. So who else? I mean, Tom Aspinall is probably their biggest hope because he's undefeated in the UFC and he's looked great. But again, they're banking on, are they banking on John Jones being the future of the heavyweight division? I know.

You know what I mean? Like in God's as big as problem is he wants a better contract, not because he's a problem child or because he's a bad guy or any, none of that. He's just, he wants a better contract. He's the best option. Like drop. I was going to say it. Like, gosh. I'm just saying.

Like, I'm just saying. Like, when you put all the. options on the table. Francis is the best option. Let's be honest. Well, I, this is kind of a weird sake. I was going to say, listen, this is, this is, there's a reason that we miss this one of the best moments and how, like, the ways it can unfold could be even more kind of mind-blowing. And we hope that that's the case. But again, some of us like myself, I think it's just going to become status quo at the end. I hope I'm wrong. I hope I'm wrong. Now, like I said, I wanted to go sort of, let's go to something a little less spicy

and I think someone that all of us might be close to like a 10 out of 10 on the likelihood of this happening. So Jed, why don't you tell people what is your bold prediction that will occur in the next six months? Valentina Shvchenko is going to become the UFC women's band and weight champion become the second woman

to have won belts in two divisions and firmly entrenched yourself as the greatest female fighter of all time. Are you saying she, Peña beats Nunes and she fights Either way, she gets the winner of this fight. I don't, if, if Nunez beats Pena, they're not going to run back a trilogy

just because one, I doubt there's going to be a huge call for it unless it's some kind of a weird robbery or something like that. And it will just be Nunez course correcting the upset. Like they didn't run back a trilogy with Sarah and GSP after GSP beats there. I was like, oh, yeah, we got past the hiccup. Now we're back on to the path we want.

And if Pena wins, then obviously she needs somebody else to fight. And Kellen Vieira, you know, maybe had pole position, but the way that that fight with Holly Holme went down, I just don't think that that's going to be a fight they're going to go for. Instead, Valentina Shichenko is the number one pound-for-pound female fighter in the planet. She already has a win over Pena. I think that they just booked that. And I think that Shevchenko beats either woman in a rematch.

She pretty easily defeated Pena the first time. She obviously has two losses to Nunes, but that second one, very close fight, very competitive, easily could have gone the other way. And you'd say a lot about that in the first one as well, even though that was only three rounds. And since then, I think we're clearly seeing that Amanda Nunes is going to, this is the start of her decline.

Now, how long she can still stay at the top while declining is a question, but I don't like it when fighters leave their long-time camps, especially when they leave it with at least a little bit of acrimony. I'm, you know, I don't know exactly, but I know she wasn't super stoked with the whole Kayla Harrison thing and how that all shook out. And I think that she's just been fighting a while, and this is, we're going to start to see the downtick.

And we've never seen a down tick from Chivchenko. She's the best fighter I've ever seen. So, yeah, I think she is going to, the U.S. is going to find it in there. interest to try and get her a second belt. And she will get that opportunity after she runs to Tila Santos. And then she's going to get it. Stephen, I thought I saw you nodding along with Jed's thought.

It's possible. It's possible. I was not as. Like I said, I'm in agreement pretty fully that there's multiple, oh, I guess two scenarios. Well, I think only, I'll say, I'm a little more so than Jed. I think Pena is my pick for now. I reserve the right change of mind when the fight actually rolls around. I do think Pena has a good chance of beating Nunes.

And if Pena beats Fights Svchenko, I just don't see how she beats Valentina Shurchenko. So that's why I'm very much in agreement with sort of this prediction. I'm in a 9 out of 10 only because I think there's a chance that Nunes beats Pena. And I'm not as sure as Jett is that Shepchenko beats Nunes. But anyway. Stephen, how much you are you nine out of 10, 10 out of 10? Yeah, I agree with you. I mean, I think that

Shepchenko meets Pena, I think the same thing is going to happen. The real X factor here is what happens in Nunez versus Pena if the decline is real and how far she falls. I tend to go for

Pena is younger than Nunez, right? I believe so, yeah. I tend to go for the younger fighter. If the younger fighter has won the first fight, usually in rematches that happen very soon afterwards, I mean, there's not a whole lot time to do a lot more. So I just tend to pick the person that that won the first time. I have, I have no argument against Valentina Shavchenko being Phantom Way champion at the end of

the year. She's, she's a juggernaut. And it's hard to argue against that. Yeah, no, for sure. Damon, is this the most surefire? Is this the most surefire? If I, if I said for sure, Valentina Sierchenko was going to fight Juliana Pena, would this be your like number one pick for? Well, if I had to, you know, put a pun not intended bullet to my head, you know, would this be your pick for? I think she can pull it off. Yeah, I think the only the only X factor is timing if something happens where, let's say, Giuliana Pena wins, but like breaks her hand that she can't fight again in 2020.

That's the only, like that's it. You know what I mean? Like Valentina Shochinko is the best fight, the best women's fighter on planet Earth, pound for pound not a question um i know we all know valentina from interviews i've interviewed her dozens of times that woman is the picture of focus she never looks at anything as less than the most dangerous opposition in front her she never looks at anything is like i don't need to worry about this person she's treating tylus santos with the same intensity that she treated lorn murphy is the same intensity she had for uh you on j check and on down the line um obviously i think

we all agree Amanda probably looked past Juliana the first time. She did not look. I mean, she just came out there and looked like she was just going to run through her, and it didn't happen in that first round. And then she just had nothing left in the second. And I agree that when you freak out and change training camps right after that, it's a little concerning. And is this the beginning of the decline for Amanda Nunes?

It may be. I mean, she had a great run. She had a lot of fights with her featherweight. Then all of a sudden she goes back down to Bannonweight. Her gas tank is zapped. All these kind of things. I think Valentina and Chichinko could be a three division champion because I think she could go up and beat Amanda Nunes or Giuliana Pena.

And I think she could go up again and beat Amanda Nunes at featherweight. That's my only question is will they just fold the featherweight division next year or will they, for the sake of symbology, let Shevchenko try to do the first ever. Oh, you got to give her a shot. Why take the featherweight division this far? Like, why string it along for this long if not to give her that shot? The only thing Shochinko might not be able to do right now is, is, and I think she could, I'm saying, like, if she could, the only thing she can't do right now is take the title from Carlos Spars,

because I don't think she could cut enough weight to get to 115. If she could make 115, she'd be a four division champion. I don't want to see that. I don't think she could do that. But Valentina is, is the best. She's the best. And, yeah, I don't, like, I, I think she has, I think she, I think she, I think she beats Pena handily. and I think if she gets a third shot or even a fourth shot at Nunez in the long run,

I think she wins both those fights. I just, I'm 100% on, I'm riding a Chevy truck. I'm 100% on the, on the Chichinko train. I have jumped on the bullet train, but I'm 100% like I'm going to help, I'm going to help Jed navigate this bullet train. Listen, this seems like a pretty safe pick. It just seems dependent on what happens with the Pena and Nunez fight. And then will the UFC give her this opportunity?

I don't like that I have the least hot takey of the I was surprised I was a little surprised but I get it I thought it was a I thought it would be a little spicy and then everybody was like no that's probably gonna happen I think we all kind of agree I think we all kind of agree like I think it really honestly I think all it comes down to is valentina is like whether she wants to do it like a real that's it like that's it Antina white Antina white he's kind of been she's a company woman she's a definition

of a company woman yeah if misha tape beats Lauren Murphy and I'm not saying she will, but if she does and she looks really, really good doing it, that's still a big fight. I mean, I think Valentina, you know, I think Valentina steamrolls everybody,

but I mean, that's still a relatively big fight. Misha Tate is still a big name. And the UFC can say, hey, before you go to Bannonweight, you know, we want you to do,

you know, the Misha Tate fight. That's basically what's going to prevent her is, is that. So, yeah, I just feel like she, I think that that's totally possible.

I think the most, honestly, the most likely prevention for this to happen this year is that pain, wins and it's just like, I want to fight that woman. Because that's a reasonable response to her. She should be bigging up other challenges. She'll be like,

that Kelly Vieira is just a monster. Suddenly, she's like, you know what, I want to go to featherweight now. I really want to take that other bell from Nunez. I really want to do that. That's actually almost 100% what she will say if she wants a rematch.

And should. And should for sure. I think, though, for me, like, I think there is, Shevchenko said she spoke with areas.

She said she wants to, you know, she's going to weigh it out, judge it. But I think if you say, hey, come take the Bannamweight and we'll let you defend both titles, then the Tate one makes sense. Because again, Vierre probably needs another win before she fights with the belt. So if she goes and beats Penaa to get her second belt, then she can drop down and fight Tate. Then she can move up, fight, you know, whoever has established themselves at Bannamweight because Bannamweight has five fights a year.

So it takes a while for a true, a true contender to emerge in that division. To add to that, Bannonweight has five fighters also. So, you know, there's like literally... Bannamette has like 30 contracted fighters, Damon. Okay. Five to matter. Five to matter. Let's just go there.

I don't even think featherweight has five. No, I'm saying Bandsway has five. It depends how generous you're being with classifying someone as a featherweight. Okay. Yeah. So it's, if you cheat, there's fire. Welcome aboard Air Canada. Rocky's vacation here we come.

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Air Canada. Nice travels. Wi-Fi available to Aeroplan members on equip flights sponsored by Bell. Conditions apply. See Air Canada.com. You may have heard of the sex cult Nexium and the famous actress who went to prison for her involvement, Alison Mack. But she's never told her side of the story until now.

People assume that I'm like, this pervert. My name is Natalie Robamed. And in my new podcast, I talk to Allison to try to understand how she went from TV actor to cult member. How do you feel about having been involved in bringing sexual trauma at other people? I don't even know how to answer that question. Allison after Nexium from CBC's Uncover is available now on Spotify. Okay, I want to get to my prediction. But guys, I don't want to dwell this one too long because it's going to lead to this whole other discussion.

that has just been beaten the death. And I finally, I'm only bringing it up to kind of make my statement like a clear on this. All right. I think, I think it's very possible that a major promotion, specifically I'm going to say Bellator slash Showtime, MN, is going to try to do an event with open scoring. I think, you know, we've kind of mentioned a bunch of times. We've taken some like weird side shots of Belator about how like other promotions have passed them, we said Eagle FC.

I think people would say PFL. PFL certainly loves to send out PR statements saying that they have surpassed Belator. and honestly in some ways in some ways they have maybe in the eyes of the public. So if you're Beltrard, you need a bit of a, you need to juice something up. Now I'm not to say open scoring is going to like, oh, you know, my mother's going to hear about open scoring. I'm going to check this amazing thing out. But it'll build a little bit of intrigue, a little bit of buzz to a card. And I want to say, I think anyone who knows me, I've been an advocate of speaking against sort of like open scoring being this cure all for judging problems and whatever other issues people have with how fights were scored.

But I will say, but I am not against it being implemented. I think it's cool that Invicta did it. I think it's cool that people have kind of taken some data from there and used it to support open scoring, though I think that the raw data is extremely unreliable and small. But that's sort of my opinion on that. But I would love to see if mostly like Beltairet or try it. I think it's fine. I agree with the very fundamental case that Casey Leiden has said, Air Hawani.

It's just kind of good information for the fighters to have, which is true, which is true. I think there's no argument against that. Could it screw with the fighter's head? I mean, maybe. But in the middle of the fight, guess what? There's like a hundred different things that can screw with the fighter's head. So open scoring, if you want to add it in, I don't think you would blame it. I'm sure maybe some fighters would start using as an excuse.

But again, they have 100 excuses already. So I'm okay with it. I'm okay with it. And I think it will happen. I think Belator is just going to try to, they see the conversation. They, you know, they have run a quite a few, you know, they run a lot of cards other than, other than the UFC in North America. They run the most cards. So give it a shot, see what happens.

I think it's possible. I think Scott would be cool with it. and we're going to continue having this conversation anyway. So why not, why to have a major promotion taking another shot at it? Otherwise, it could be the PFL because they have the smart cage. And I think that thing could really like figure out a lot of the math and fix things. And they should be told that the, the,

FPR, fighter performance rating. What's it? They should be told that. The smart cage should be the one, the thing that determines. We get rid of judges and we're supposed to the smart cage. Because the smart cage feels everything. It's got invisible like lasers that are like analyzing the fighters. that we don't see and it's just like at the end this this fighter is the red corner is the winner and then

there you go not to not to rain on your prey but the other X fact you got to deal with here aka when you talk about open scoring is the commissions like the commissions have to go for this and I don't think bellator is going to be going to Kansas anytime soon so yeah I think that's the other issue you're going to deal with run Connecticut come on mohigan sun arena well he can son whatever I don't think we're going to see open scoring in any major promotion ever I don't think it's ever going to happen. The only one that I could see it potentially happening is PFL only because PFL only because PFL loves to inundate you with stats.

They love stats. That organization, I swear to God, there's going to be a point where their bottom ticker is bigger than the fight itself. It's going to be like the entire screen is taken up by miles per hour stats and like all these other things. Damon, that's not going to happen because again, PFL's about to come to Atlanta and I'm finally going to pitch them on the damage bar, which can give

rid of all the other stats. No, the best idea in the history of that. I am all for open scoring. If we're not talking with the judges scores, we're talking about fighter performance rating. I want the fighter performance rating. I want the coaches to go like, oh man,

you're only a, you're only a 72 in that round. Sorry, the smart cage. You're only a 72. The smart cage doesn't lie. Sabre message, baby. Yeah.

And it's like, and then if I know, I kind of gave like 70%, like the cage was right. I'm saving, I'm saving my 80%, 90% efforts for rounds two and three. That's the kind of discussions.

I want to see happening during. We've argued, we've argued for so many years about how flawed the 10 point must system is for MMA. We've argued for years about the scoring. I mean, they've improved the scoring criteria, and yet it still doesn't get followed,

like half the time. I know. So, but my, so that's one, like change hardly ever happens in this sport. We've talked about, we've talked about knees to the head

of a grounded opponent since I started covering the sport 20 years ago. And that only rule, and the only rule that's ever really changed is now in certain areas. is you don't have to have more than one finger down for it. I mean, come on. Like, things move at like a galacially slow pace in this

sport. And for people to actually embrace open scoring in a major promotion and major like Nevada, California, come on. Andy Foster and he said he doesn't want it. He said in the M.M.A.R. He doesn't like it. He doesn't like, I'll maybe open to it for an amateur fight. It is never happening. It's not going to happen.

I'm not saying it shouldn't happen. I'm saying it's not going to happen. Also, AK, you said it. You said it yourself. Like, who are we doing this for? Like, we're not doing it for your grandma. Like, this isn't going to, this isn't like the equivalent of a new star coming in. It's like, it's not, if it's not going to help or change the bottom line in a positive way, then why would they do it? I mean, at the very least, they can say, hey, look, we're doing something the UFC isn't doing. Or if their marketing team is even smarter, we're doing something the UFC is afraid to do. What are they hiding? PFL's argument. That's been

PFL and Bellator's argument. That was Bjorn Rebney's argument for so long. The tough toughest tournament in sports. You know, PFL, you determine your destiny. How's not working out for you? I'm not saying it'll work. I'm just saying as long as there's a new quote unquote gimmick to be tried.

Can I make a side? Can I make a sideway? There's no gimmick. Listen, listen, we're way past gimmicks. There's no gimmick. Stars. Stars are what drive the business. This is pro wrestling with real punches. Get used to it. Do you want to do you want to hear?

I mean, this dude's doing grand prix. There's still doing. You want to hear a more likely prediction for Bellator slash Showtime MMA? I'll make it right now. Here's a controversial one. This is going to stir some problems. I'm going to get a message from some people about this one. By 2023, the face of Bellator, because he's far more reactionary and far more

willing to add, he's far more adversarial. By 2020, the face of Belator. where MMA will become Stephen Espinosa. Scott Coker will fade to the background. And I say this because Espinoza has no problem going at Dana White. Espinosa has no problem

battling the people on Twitter. Espinoza has no problem speaking his mind. Coker's not that guy. I love Scott. I'm not saying anything bad about Scott Coker in any way, shape, or form. I'm saying he's not that guy. Unless you're Logan Storley and you watch their London card. Yeah, but he doesn't, that's

not Scott Coker's business. If they're if they're going to get adversarial with the UFC, Stephen Espinoza is going to be the face of that. I'm just saying. And you said this your 20-23 prediction by the end of 2020. Okay, save this for the end of the year. When they want to do it, watch, that's going to be the face who fights that battle because it ain't going to be coger.

All right, guys. I want to get to our, what I feel is our spiciest prediction. Now, Stephen, now this man, now this man woke up today and saw a story published on NMAFaI.com and then chose violence after. He didn't pull this out of nowhere. This was based in a quote, a little interview that someone did with TMZ, giving some juicy headline fodder. Stephen, what is your prediction?

Send us out in a banger here. The banger, this is a down note as far as I'm concerned. I'm basically saying, and the only reason why I'm predicting it is because it's dumb. And it's because it's really dumb, it's probably going to happen, which is Nick Diaz will fight Kamara Usman, who will then hold out for a new contract that includes boxing. He will follow Francis and Ghanu one way or the other and be the next crossover guy. The depressing thing is the fact that Nick Diaz could be fighting again at all. He should not be fighting. He is well past his prime. He should not be taking any more head trauma.

but he is still a bona fide star in this business. He still moves the needle. And if he wants to come back, some manager will get him back in shape and get him in the cage. And Usman, I don't, you know, he's already proven. He's beaten the top guys already.

And Leon Edwards is the next logical guy Kamzat Shimaev is also a logical guy, but perhaps maybe not right away. So in my humble opinion, he doesn't really want to do that right now. He'd much rather go get the big back. And that's where this is, you know, this Canelo stuff is coming in. He's not going to fight Canello unless, you know, Canello some, you know, slips on a banana peel and, you know, completely screws everything up. needs a career resuscitation, which is hard to imagine because he's Canello. So, yeah, I just, there's this depressing, you know, inevitability that I, that I see coming

down the road when I see these quotes from, from fighters like Nick. And the only thing really to stop them is athletic commissions. And so since those are such, you know, your mileage may vary, I can, I can see this happening. Okay. Well, what a great, depressing, right? What a great note to add this show on. I hate predictions. No, I know. I hate predictions.

Full disclosure, he put Stephen in a very tough position. We did. We did kind of say, you know, give us a little something crazy. And look, Stephen, it's based on real world news. That's what we do here. We don't choose the stories. You don't choose your predictions. You have to read the tea leaves.

Yeah, my predictions choose me. The prediction shows you. And this was a very compelling interview Nick Diaz did with TMZ, where he was kind of like half signing autographs on one side and half like kind of talking to this cameraman the other side. maybe not ideal interview circumstances, but who are we to judge? But I mean, look, it's basically every TMG interview, by the way. And again, I'm not criticizing any of it.

All right, TMZ, whatever. But the spec, the speck of it is out there. The quote is out there. It's in the headline. They specifically asked him, hey, do you have anything to say to Kumaru? And Nick says, yeah, I think I can beat you. So there you go. It's out there.

It's framed without context. It is there out in the universe. Just need one spark to start a fire. That's it. Jed, do you love it? I mean, do you love this prediction? No, that's, I mean, I, I think I can beat you.

Narrator's voice. He couldn't. He could not. I mean, I love, I love the moxie. I also think it's not impossible for this to happen. I hate that that's true. But this is a sport in which we spend a lot of our personal time and energy. Sport in quotations.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. And you know, if you're Kumar Oussman, it makes sense. Look, the point of prize fighting, we say it all the time. you want to get the most amount of money for the least amount of work. That's really the point of any job. So listeners out there, unless you are literally saving lives, do as little as you possibly can and get the biggest bag for it. And for Kamar Usman, that coincides with fighting either Connor McGregor or Nathan or Nick Diaz.

Any of those three going to be right there where he wants. And it also means he doesn't have to fight Hamzaa Chamaia. And that seems if I had an opportunity to get a big bag of money to, like, go for a walk or fight Hamzaat Shamaev, I would take the big bag of money in the walk. Then fight Hamzot Jemayev. I think that's reasonable. I think it's crazy right now. I'll say it right now. I think there's a chance.

I still, I know, I know Jed disagrees me. That's fine. I truly believe at this, unless he just completely falls apart or falls off. I still think Kumar Husman beats Hamzaa Chimai of right now. That being said, he should fight him right now. Could you imagine a three-fight run for Usman where he beats Leon Edwards, which I think he will beat Leon Edwards? He beats Nick Diaz. He beats Connor McGregor, and then he just walks away and just I can see it happening.

100% could see it happening. Don't say that. Don't put that evil out there, Damon Bar. I'm saying that's tell me right now you could not see that happening. I 100% could see that. It beats Leon, beats Diaz, beats Connor, and then just walks. Why would you? I apologize.

This is very upsetting. This force of the show has been very upsetting. And he's going to claim to be the greatest welterweight of all time. And it's going to drive me insane. And also, let me be clear, it's not, it's not be, he, I think he was GSP. It's not because Oosman's not willing. I'm saying this is the time where Oosman wants to get paid. And again, could you imagine an easier way to make nine feet or not nine, it should be eight figures?

Let me slow down that. figures, eight figures, then fighting back to back twice with Nick Diaz and then Connor McGregor. I mean, come on. Like, who's going to say, who's going to, who's going to deny, like, if he had that option, who's going to deny him that? If those realistically, if those opportunities realistically came up, there's zero chances no.

Zero chances. Let me end with this real quick, guys. Very quick, very quick, very quick. Who's more likely to be in a straight boxing match in the next, by the end of 2020, over the next 18 months or so? Who's just boxing? None of this hybrid rules bull crap. Francis Ngano or Nick Diaz.

I'll go to you first, Damon. It's going to be Anderson Silva versus Jake Paul, and Anderson Silva is going to knock him out. But you want me to take odds on Nick Diaz or Kamar Usman. Who is it? I'm sorry, Francis and Ganu or Nick Diaz. Francis and Ganu or Nick Diaz boxing? Just boxing, in a pure boxing.

I mean, I guess pure boxing, I'll go odds and say Diaz because I guess like he could technically talk to Yose into releasing him because I could see that being a thing maybe. But yeah, I think that's, I don't think. And we already know Fury's not going to box again. He's not, you know, he's not going to come back for that. I think he's going to do the Floyd Mayweather route where he gets in these weird exhibition bouts and makes a lot of money good for him. So yeah, I guess Nick Diaz, if you're really forced me to pick one of those two. Oh, I am.

Yeah, I'll go to Nick Diaz. Jed. In Ghanu, very clearly. one, I suspect that when he fights Fury it will just be a boxing match anyway because Inganu doesn't care and Fury has all the power and making it in a cage or whatever

is not really going to do crap to change the stakes here. But also, I said this before Nick Diaz fought Robbie Lollah the second time, a fight which I'm still not entirely confident happened and isn't just some sort of weird fever dream. I will believe Nick Diaz fights again three days after Nick Diaz has fought,

and I can confirm it with video evidence that he in fact stepped in a cage. This man is the premier seller of wolf tickets in the history of combat sports, frankly. And I mean, for like seven years, like, yeah, I'm coming back. And then he finally did. So credit to him, he finally did it the once. But I just will never believe Nick Diaz is fighting

until it is fight day. And it's like I was said, technically, like I mean, look at that Google plot. Technically that fight didn't even happen. That's a no contest. I mean, that's stricken from the record. So there you go. Do you see what you started, Steven?

Do you see what you did here? I'm just saying Nick Diaz's next fight could be in the metaverse for all we know. I think that's what Jed is saying. And he needs to be verified. The blockchain or whatever needs to be verified. I need to physically watch him fight, sleep on it, wake up and be like, oh, that actually happened. That actually happened.

Okay. Well, listen, that's, that's one vote for Diaz, Damon, one vote for Ngano, Jed. So, Stephen, you're the type of here because I'm not getting involved in this. So what are those? too, who is more likely to box over the next 18 months? Yeah, I'm going to go in Ghanu because I do think that, yeah, I think it's more likely that he actually boxes this whole special rules thing. First of all, you got the regulator issue, you know, the clash between promoters, you know,

getting it actually, you know, the big headache over what that could be, you know, what exactly the rules are and sanctioning will probably just make them go that the boxing route. And Francis wants to box. And Francis has the ability to box. He won't be Tyson Fury and a boxing. in a boxing match, but he can do it. And yeah, I think that Nick Diaz, I hope that it's the last we've seen of him.

I don't know if he gets out of his contract with the UFC, but I hope that we have, we've seen the last of him. And I say that with all due respect, but yeah, I can't, and I don't want it to see him, you know, do any sort of combat sports. I want to see him at high rollers, maybe. that sounds that sounds fun but yeah Francis Ingano box

well thank you Stephen so there you go two to one and gone again like I said I'm not getting involved guys let's let's wrap it up there I think we've we've crossed we went from glorious all the way to grim talking about the best of the first half of 2022 and now what we think could possibly happen in the next half of 2022 and maybe beyond depending on on how far reaching some of these storylines are so

thank you Damon thank you Jed thank you Stephen for joining me on this. This has been super fun, at times, grueling podcast as we kind of try to, you know, predict the future. And the future does not always look so bright for, for some of the fighters. But some of the picks we made, guys, could be the same by the end of the year. Could be totally different. And our predictions, I'm sure we're going to go four for four. So I cannot wait for listeners and may fighting readers to come back to us and lavish us with praise at the end of the year about our amazing predictive abilities. So thank you again, guys, for joining. And thank you everyone for listening to this show. And we'll see you again very soon.

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