MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | Ask Mike & AK Anything Part 5

Episode Date: January 29, 2023

With the UFC, Bellator, and major MMA promotions off this past weekend, MMA Fighting's matchmaking show decided to give back to fans of the program with a special "Ask Us Anything" show. On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee take listener submitted questions about the legacy of Conor McGregor as a mixed martial artist and UFC champion. Additionally, fan topics include the 2023 Royal Rumble, Bo Nickal's ceiling, ranking UFC prospects' title hopes — including Muhammad Mokaev, Ilia Topuria, and Movsar Evloev, Aljamain Sterling at featherweight, a potential matchup between Khamzat Chimaev and Colby Covington, dark horse fighters of the year, comparing careers of Dustin Poirier and Tony Ferguson, if Bellator, PFL, or ONE can take a big step towards the UFC in the top promotion conversation, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Yes, there was no UFC event this weekend, but we wanted to fill the gap on the program. We had the UFC 283 live show where we did our matchmaking. following the first pay-per-view event of 2023 for the UFC. A lot of the normal podcast listeners, they usually feel a little bit shafted after those shows because they send in their questions. They want to get their matchmaking ideas read on the program, but it's a little too crazy on those live show days.

So we have to do it through the YouTube chat. And we figured, you know what? We're about to get on a massive stretch of cards, not just for the UFC, but in the sport itself. So let's give back to the people who got us to the dance in the first place. So it's Ask Mike at AK Anything Part 5, y'all. And we welcome you to the program. I am Mike Heck, the mic in that equation.

While the AK is my best friend, Mr. Alexander K. Lee. Hello, AK. How are you on this Sunday morning as we record? Hi, Mike. I'm a little Royal Rumble hungover. I don't watch W.E as often. I'm a big AEW guy. I still keep up at W.E.

You got to get together for the Rumble every year. I know our pals, the M.A. Hour, did their first, I think it was their first rumble pool. I've been doing it for many, many years, so I don't want to brag. Like, I mean, I didn't invent it. That's people wouldn't do it. But yeah, it was a fun show. I think we have a question about it later, so maybe we can talk more W a later. But, yeah, we didn't have UFC this weekend.

So, yeah, I'm glad we have this space, this free space, Mike, to work with each other. You're my best friend. But also our, you know, slightly less best friends. that tune in every week and who we love just as much. Yes, so we'll get into this. We have asked for questions for the last several days. We sent out the retweet, the quote tweet during the Royal Rumble, that it was the last call.

Of course, half of you didn't listen and you sent in questions this morning, which is fine because we didn't start recording yet. Lucky. You guys are lucky. You're lucky. Normally we're already halfway through the program, but it's a different day. Royal Rumble hangover indeed. So I guess let's just get into this.

So what we'll do, A.K., we have our little doc here with all the questions and those who submitted them. And I figure we'll just kind of flip-flop, right? We'll just do one at a time. I'll go, you go, I'll go, you go. Is that how you want to do this? Let's do that. Yeah, we've sort of thrown the questions together. A pretty good variety.

I was looking over yours, the ones you got, looking over the ones I got. So we're all over the place with these. I don't know how much flow there's going to be. but listen, you guys brought us great questions and we'll tie it all together as much as we can. Yeah, these shows are better when there's no flow anyway. So let's get into it. Dad Jackson, who, he's made a comeback.

He was hanging on by a thread being an Otno matchmaker, but he has come back. He has been mistake-free for about five or six weeks, so hopefully this isn't a jinx. But his question, AK, is after UFC 283, does Jessica Androge win a title? back this year or win a title at all and then he said keep on rocking in the free world go chief so do you feel that after the beating jess gun drudge gave loren murphy over those 15 minutes that

she will win a title this year or even fight for a title this year i want to lean yes because there's so many possible ways she could uh for one thing she's at worst the second or third best fighter in two divisions uh at 125 and 115 there's a lot of talk of course is valentina eventually going to make a move out of the flyweight division. I don't think so because they're starting to give her challengers. She seems to have a pretty logical line of challenges this year. We know she's fighting Alexa Grasso. And then I think I feel like the Aaron Blanchfield,

Talas Santos winner will probably get a title fight. People might say it's too soon for Aaron Blanchfield, but she's been on a tear and Talos Santos, you know, almost beat Valentina Shepchenko. So by MMA math, you can give Blanchfield a title fight. Santos obviously deserves one. And then Menon figure out if she wins another, fight this year. She can fight Valentina. So I don't know if Valentina vacates this year.

Excuse me. That would really be Jessica Androids is one of her best pass to 125. One to 15. This is interesting because she has the one fight with Zhang. I think a lot of people would like to see it again. It was pretty definitive. I mean, you know, a Zhang finished her, but, you know, we've seen how good Androjad has done since. She deserves to get another shot. I'm going to say she does not win the title back this year. I think she is going to get a title fight either at 125 or 115. More likely 115, but 125 if some of the other challengers kind of stumble or then need an injury replacement, Jessica Gondrages is right there.

So that's a no, she will not win the title back. I don't think she fights for the title of 125. There's just too many fighters there. 1.15's interesting, but Zhang is just not the most active fighter, right? She just doesn't fight all that often. She's not somebody who's going to fight three times a year. And I don't blame her for that.

It's just, that's how she's always been. And you would have to think Amanda Lamos is there right now. Rosenama Yunus is there right now. It all depends. It's just a tough spot to be in. So I would love to see the fight, because I feel like their first meeting just never really got going. And even though Zhang just blew the doors off of her,

it's not the same as Valentina blowing the doors off of her. Because Valentina blew the doors off her and just kept doing it and kind of tortured her in there a little bit. And Zhang just chucked her and beat the hell out of her in mere seconds. So different fight. I would love to see what happens of those two fighters fought again because they both evolved so much. Zhang is a much better fighter than she was when she fought Jessica And Jod's first time

And Jessica has made some tweaks of her own. So I would love to see it. Unfortunately, I don't think we see it this year. So to answer the question, no, she will not win the title back. And I don't even think she fights for a title this year unless She just kind of falls into something. They book something else. The challenger falls through. Jessica says, I'm ready. And then she gets the fight. Other than that, I don't see it happening. Yeah. Listen, one of the best abilities is availability, as they say in all sports. And she's available, man. She's ready. Yeah, I agree. It would have to be not necessarily short notice, but other contenders that are ahead of her in the line, which again, it sounds so unfair because we know she's the second or third best, like I said, in two divisions.

But when you've been in so many title fights and you're not, for whatever reason, not one of, like the UFC's favored sons or daughters, like a Holly home or Yerai of favor was, which she just isn't for some reason, even though she's super exciting. It's hard to get it back. But I do think it's possible. But even if she gets it, I just don't know if she wins it. So it's not, it's a amount of a long shot. But if there's some odds out there, Dad Jackson, for betting on her winning a title, like a futures bet, like ending the year as a champion.

I don't know if they do division by division. I don't know. Maybe sprinkle some cash in it. I mean, never gamble on M.A. But I'm saying if you already do, might not hurt. I would say sprinkle that else in other places, but you never know. You never know. It's probably like plus 20.

It's probably plus four figures right now. I think it depends on division, right? Yeah. All right, you're out. All right. Let's go to our, our pal, Tristan Gorda. We'll get some newer people later, but let's go to some, we've gone with some of our old favorites right now. Tristan Gordette, oh, this wasn't the one I wanted to read. Well, it's too late. Now I have to do it. Tristan, who are your dark horse fighters that will emerge in 2023?

He lays out the criteria, just some to the effect of, you know, no one who's currently ranked in the top five of the UFC. No one is currently ranked in the top five of the NBA fighting global rankings. So, I mean, I have to look those up, but off the top of your head, Mike, I don't if anyone's jumping up for you right away. I'm going to look at his criteria more clearly. But yeah, who's a dark horse to, I guess, you know, get into title contention or, again, maybe even fight for the title that we're not seeing? I'll see if I can bring up the exact criteria.

Who's jumping to your mind right now? Dark horse? That's such a strange word. Because, like, Shafka Rokmanov's rang number 10, and he's not a dark horse. Umar and Amargamadav is, like, number eight or not. number nine, but I don't think he's a dark horse either. Oh, wait, there was one more, one more criteria. Someone who hasn't,

someone who hasn't headlined a UFC fight card before and obviously couldn't have already fought for a title. So, yeah, so not top five in UFC rankings, global rankings, and has not headlined a UFC card. It's Jelton Alameda.

It has to be. Right, and this is why you're saying it's weird to say dark horse, because based on that criteria, he's a dark horse, but he's also not a dark horse. Because every time we bring them off, we go like, this guy's going to beat up everyone who stands his way and then win a UFC title. So I'm trying to think of a more dark horsey answer, like by the traditional definition. I'll throw another name out. I'll throw another name out.

We just mentioned this division, but I'll throw another name out. She's been out for a little while, but she's going to fight in March. I'm picking Casey O'Neill. I'm going with Casey O'Neill. I've been super high on her. and I think if she had gotten the opportunity to compete against Jessica I, she would have beat the soul out of Jessica I, and she'd be in a much better position right now.

So she's going to fight Jennifer Maya, it appears. Jennifer Meyer's number eight. That's going to be a big win. Casey's pretty active. I know she's coming back from a pretty tough injury, and I think she'll beat Jennifer Maya. I think she's a good chance to finish Jennifer Maya, if we're being honest, probably like a third round TKO of some sort.

I'm going to go with her. I'm going to go with her. I think by the end of the year, we're going to be talking about her in sort of the Aaron Blanchfield position where, and she's ranked higher than Aaron Blanchefield in the UFC rankings. Oh, no, she's not.

She's a spot behind her. Okay. The injury hurt her, but I think by the end of the year, she'll be fighting, or at least she'll be in the conversation, fighting the Lauren Murphys, the Chukagians, the Tyler Santos. And we'll be talking about whether or not

she will get a title shot and whether or not she will be the champion by the end of 2024. So I will go with Casey O'Neill as like a darker, dark horse. What did you say she was in the UFC rankings? She's 11 in the UFC rankings. Okay, that's almost the same as us

because in our rankings, if you could take out Liz Carmouch and Juliana Velasquez and just go with UFC fighters, she would be 11. So, okay, we're actually pretty in lockstep there. I mean, like we said, we can't be, it feels silly

to pick Almeida, it feels just as silly to pick like Umar. I think I think we had, that Justin, you should have clarified who was the biggest dark horse also who is not named Shelton Almeida or Umar and or Magamatov because again, either of these guys by the end of the year, my goodness, just could be doing serious damage in their divisions.

I love the Casey O'Neill pick, our rookie of the year a couple of years ago. Is there really like super, I'm trying to look, is there anyone I can find outside like the top 15? That's like not even in the rankings in one of these Lerone Murphy. Oh, I like that. He's booked, right?

Who is he fighting? He's fighting. Nathaniel Wood. Wow. That's a good one. I suppose since the featherweight division is going to be a little funny with, again, we think, or you've said many times, if Volk wins the lightweight title, he just should not go. There's just no reason to go back to featherweight at this point, right? So that kind of leaves it up in there.

Yeah, that's just being egotistical if he gets that goal 45. And that would make the Josh Emmett-Yahier fight. that person would, I guess, essentially become the undisputed champion. And fingers crossed, I mean, neither guy has had that much luck fighting multiple times, like more than two times in the UFC a year. Fingers crossed did get a couple of talent defenses in 2023. I wouldn't bet on it. And Lorone Murphy, yeah, if he beats the thing, he picks up another win.

There's, there's, he's really good. He just, again, he just hasn't been able to get in there as often as you'd like to see. I like those picks. I feel like I should have. I may Jonathan Pierce if we're going on the same division. Jonathan Pierce. I don't know where you rank him. He's right outside the top 15.

And there's another one in that division, too. And if he beats that some Barbosa, the UFC is going to push him to the moon because they love this guy. And how could you not? Billy Q is probably another. Billy Q. Good pick. Yeah, he saw.

If you want to find dark horses, it's definitely you would go to like lightweight, featherweight, bantamway, because the divisions are so deep. But with the right match with Chris Gutierrez, another, he's got a super tough matchup. He's fighting, did they put him with Munoz? He's fighting Pedro Munoz, yeah.

And that's a good, listen, Munoz. I don't know where people rank him. I would still rank him above Chris Gutierrez, so you put on an impressive performance against him. It's going to move you up to rankings a few spots. So Chris Gutierrez, yeah, if you go to lightweight, featherweight, bansomweight, very deep divisions, you can find guys outside of the top 20 who are like 4 and 0, 5 in the UFC, or at least on three fight win streaks, four fight win streaks.

It's just the divisions are so deep. They can't really move up. But again, if they earn a contenders fight by middle of the year, I don't know. Then you could see them in a huge, you know, maybe a main name. event or a title fight by the end of the year. That's being very optimistic, but again, these are great divisions and I'd love to see one of these guys, these quote unquote dark horses breakthrough. Yes, I agree. All right, let's go to our pal Robbie Ryan. If Bellator one PFL were to rise to the

equal level of the UFC, how many top shelf UFC fighters would they need to recruit and would be your top five names to get to jump ship? I don't know. I mean, I think I get where the question is. And then Sub question are the lower tier MMA promotions which are broadcast on Fight Pass obligated to give the UFC first opportunity at signing outstanding talent? Second question, I don't think is

I think I'm pretty sure is a no because that would just be kind of dumb. Like I know a lot of fighters go on Fight Pass with hopes of getting a UFC contract but if they don't get one and Bellator comes knocking would seem pretty silly to be like, no, I can't because I just fall on Fight Pass for this random card that

may not even, like I didn't even think was going to be on Fight Pass, honestly, until they just acquired the rights to broadcast. So I would say no to the second question. But first question, AK, I think we're both in agreement. Neither of those promotions are going to rise to the Eagle level of the UFC. I think that's just beyond reproach right now. Not in my lifetime. It's so far away.

I'll be dust by the time that happens, if ever. Yeah. Why don't we change the question to, like, who can cement themselves as like, like, I think Bellator is clearly number two right now. And there shouldn't be too much of a debate here because PFL is coming along. No doubt about it. They're coming off a huge year. One has the prime deal.

So that's a very big deal as well. I don't know. Like who could take another step closer, I guess? Like who can cement their place as the undisputed number two for years and years to come? Like how does this happen? What would, what would, need to be done, like in terms of taking UFC talent or fighters

who are once in the UFC, or maybe that's not even the answer to this question, to cement themselves as where the UFC is compared to these other three promotions, this promotion becoming number two becomes that to the other two promotions. If that makes sense. I mean, the question's

weird as it is because what they really mean is how can UFC rise to the level of one championship, of course, the most, the biggest promo. Listen, these jokes are going to come forever as long as this narrative keeps getting, I keep seeing replies on one stories about how like, man, you don't know, like, one is so much bigger in the UFC. And I'm like, in certain markets, I'm sure that's true.

I don't mean to belittle one championship or fans of one championship or regions where one championship has like a greater foothold. I'm sure they're regions, in their areas. But there's just no solid data to back up one championship being a bigger promotion than the UFC worldwide on a broad. There's no, I'm just sorry, the data isn't there. If you look at the financial data for one championship, it certainly does not reflect a promotion that is bigger than the UFC.

So, but yeah, I'm a PFL guy. I've, and loved the idea of the PFL since the beginning, except for the name from day one, I'm like, people hate Bellator and I get it. I think professional fighters league is worse. I think from a, like, I guess from an SEO, like search engine standpoint, it's not bad. It's not bad. Like, okay, I'm looking for professional fight. And I guess if you Google that, PFL might show up.

I like the idea of them. calling it a league. Their PR team has always been very insistent. Like, hey, when you're talking about PFL, can you call it a league? And at first I was like, I guess. But I enjoyed that idea of trying to change the perception of what you are. Like, we're not just a promotion. We're a league.

We're a league like the NBA. We're a league like major league baseball. Okay, fine. But either way, overall, I'm a fan of PFL. Tournament format's great. The idea of having now superfights, you know, big money superfights, bringing in guys like Jake Paul, fingers crossed someday, France and Ghanu. I mean, if you want to talk about jumping ship, that's one of your big names you'd love to get.

So everything that you have at him. And I hope they never push the tournaments to the background. I think that gimmick is so strong. I know Bellator eventually did. I'd like to see PFL find that balance between having the million dollar tournament, you know, their signature and bring people over. But yeah, Francongan is a name that comes to mind. I don't know the likelihood of that happening. But if we're just saying hypothetically, who needs to jump ship, a guy like him would be like number one I'm my list. Mike, who else would you think of? I'll try to think. of some other names. I mean, Francis is definitely the,

Francis is definitely the unicorn here. You got to find a way to get him. I think Bellator probably has the best to offer him right now because they have, it's just who owns them and what networks and what platforms are available to him. Not saying that PFL wouldn't be like, yeah, you can go box people, but I think dealing with them is going to be a little tougher.

Like I know they're part of the ESPN Plus team and the family and stuff like, that, but I don't know if it's just like, hey, you can go fight for top rank right now. We'll make it happen. While if Francis goes to Bellator, Belator will be like, yeah, if you want two or three fights, cool. But if you want to go fight somebody on Showtime boxing, great. Like, we'll make it happen.

We'll make you a headliner or something like that. So I actually think Bellator is more to offer him. I think whoever lands Francis is going to take a humongous leap, at least for this year, because just the fact that he's on the roster and that there are going to be headlines it said, Francis Ngano ends free agency to sign with fill in the blank. It's going to be massive news. Luke Rockhold, he's back. I mean, Luke is a name, and he just said on the M.A. Hour that he's coming back.

He's a free agent. He's free and clear from the UFC. I don't think there's a ton of winnable fights in either promotion for him, if we're being honest. Like if we chucked him in there with Johnny Ebelin right now, Johnny Eblen would absolutely run him over. There's no, this would not be a competitive fight at all. But if we threw him in there with Gayguard, we chucked him in there with Yol Romero.

Like, those are fun. Like, like, rematch, bad blood. Yeah. Jed wants the Luke Rockold versus Francis and Ghanu in Bellator. Like, I mean, we're not going to see that, but just getting names like that on the roster who are, hey, we wanted to leave the UFC for all these specific reasons

and now we're here and we're happy. Look at the smiles on our faces. That's only going to create change and at least get a couple of others over. Now is this going to be a well, the building that is the UFC, this tower is just going to start to crumble down. God, no.

Not even close. But getting those two names, if someone can land both of those names, that's a very big deal. And there's other names out there too. Like Eddie Alvarez is still out there. That's a nice little name to throw in there. Not to the level of those two guys,

but Eddie's a nice name. Nate Diaz obviously is a nice name, but I don't know if he's going to sign to any specific promotion because he has his own, unless they're willing to co-promote and do something fun, which I think Bellator might do. They've already shown they're willing to do that. So, yeah, but

France and Luke Rockhold are probably the two most realistic names right now. I'll toss on, I guess, maybe Apollo Costa. A little bit of a wild card. That's a good one. Yeah. of course we just fought luke rock hold i could i could see that and there's a relationship there but that paul costa did something with bellator not that long ago with the with the liver king and eaten liver bellator bellator bdette or something i totally forgot that happened which is awesome by the way sure i totally forgot that happened uh 2020 2020 was a wild one that's a wild one i do you think uh

there could be a reunion with Justin Gaitzsche, you know, the former World Series of fighting, now the PFL, I don't know how many people are so associated and do you think Justin Gagy

at some point? I mean, he obviously is very well-compensated and well-loved by the UFC, but I wonder, I wonder if, winding down his career, they can get him in a,

in a, oh, you know, how about close out your career with PFL, you know, a million-dollar tournament, et cetera, or super-fight, you know,

offer him a big, super-fight contract, something like that. Doubtful. Doubtful? Because Gauche's already kind of put a like a damage bar

on himself where I only have like three more wars left in me and he considered the Olivera fight a war I would assume by the time this Fiziv fight ends that will be considered another war so we probably only have like two like insane tornado

like battles left in him and I just don't know if he's going to do it outside of the UFC do a tournament Justin do a tournament. Do a welter, do it at welterweight or something. They don't even worry about cutting weight. Do their well, enter their welterweight tournament. Come on. Get another easy, get another easy million. I'm sure he's well compensated by the UFC, but just too for fun. As far as like names, like that would be a big one. If they could even, you know, whatever,

a couple of years from now, even like the latter stage, how much does Justin Gavee have left, Justin Gaithee? That'd be a nice, nice little name value pop. But yeah, I see what you're saying. It seems unlikely. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get a nice rank on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice? Yes, we deliver those.

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Matt and Hanniday, Mike, wants to know. We've had this question before, but now we're, like, getting realistically closer. Who do you want to see Jim Miller fight at UFC 300? Like a newbie, someone nostalgic, like Guida, Lozahn, retiring. Again, we talked about this in other shows. But now UFC 287 got announced. That's going to be in April, right? Mike, 287?

Yeah. Yep. And since the UFC does do, what, 13 events a year, they usually sneak in a two month pay-per-view, two-per-view, are they do they do 14? Do they ever do two? Is it two? They're doing two in March. And then we know they're doing two in March this year.

They almost always do one month where they do two a year. They might, I mean, who knows? Maybe they'll do two in July. I don't know. They didn't last year. They just did. They only had 12 events last year? Maybe they did 13.

I'm trying to remember. There was a stretch where it was just seen like we had, was a, like, did we have two? No, we did have two in July, didn't we? We did. we have two in July. I remember we were so bad. 277, we're both in July. And 278 was in August, right?

I'm going this for, I'm giving up and I'm Googling this right now. I just had 27. 276 is International Fight Week. I think they did it in. 277 was what, like July 30th or something? Yeah, yeah, really like really squeezed in there. July 2nd, 276, July 30th, 277. So they really, but yes.

Oh, that was the Dallas card. That was the Dallas card. Yeah. So we, so they do usually 13 events a year. This year, I don't know. Maybe they'll do 14 because they are doing that London pay-review. but if they only do 13 the countdown will begin

from UFC 287 the 12 month countdown to UFC 300 it's really not that far off we're talking about a year we know barring anything unfortunate happening Jim Miller will still be fighting it's what Jim Miller does he'll probably be fighting

until UFC 350 if we're being honest and who knows knowing him UFC 400 but UFC 300 we know almost for sure and the UFC will do everything in their power They definitely know that, like, oh, he's the 100, the 200 guy, he's all the milestones. They know ESPN 300. Who should he fight?

I think I'm definitely in favor of someone nostalgic. A year from now, again, if we're trying to predict, like, oh, a younger guy, because they've certainly done that, they match him up with people with zero UFC experience, which is amazing. If, uh, God, Joe Lazan, Clay Guida. Clay Goody would be a fresh matchup. He's never fought Clay, right? Or he did fight Clay. I don't know. I have to look.

Joe's on, of course, he has. Yeah. I mean, Jim's, Jim's fought everybody. He's by everybody. Honestly, he's fought everybody. I think I have a weird, out-of-the-box answer for this,

but I think it's... Let it fly, man. I think it's something that could happen. Okay, so people are going to think I'm crazy, but just remember, UFC 300 is a long ways from now. Okay? And...

The sport changes and things evolve and whatever. So here's what I'm going to go with. Jim Miller versus Max Holloway, 155. UFC 300. That's a year plus. I'll go with that.

Max Holloway, nostalgic name. That's just a fun fight. Max isn't going to take a ton of damage in that fight. It's just going to be fun. It's just to be a fun scrap. Two dudes who are going to respect the hell out of each other. I mean, no trash talk. It's just going to be just incredible theater that we can just sit

and relax. It's it's Diaz-Fergusin-esque, but even more fun. That's a great pick. By the way, he did fight, he did fight Cleguida, submit him. He fought Cleggida more recently than he fought Joel LaZant, so I don't know why. It's not long ago. He probably fought ClayGuita twice or three times. Yeah, 2019, August 2019, submit. 58 second submission. Well, I have no recollection of this.

My memory is horrible. But like you said, he spot everyone. I had a feeling he had done that. I love your pick, Mike. I'm going to say, where are we okay a year from now he fought Bobby Green right recently or he's been booked to fight Bobby Green

has he never fought Bobby? Was he not booked to fight Bobby Green? Last year he's both Oh yes yes yes yes and then again UFC 2706 Bobby was out and yeah Bobby was out and then that's when Soroni stepped in for the retirement fight so that for sure would be my pick I want to see him fight Bobby Green

twice I have been teased it in my mind Here's the word thing. I remember that fight happening more than I remember Clay Guida happening, and the Clay Grida fight actually happened, and the Bobby Green fight didn't. That's how much I need this fight to happen just to correct this spot in my brain where this fight exists. And again, it would just be fun. It's just two of MMA, the lightweight divisions, lifers, man.

They've just fought everyone. They've been in every scenario. It'd be really fun. We have a fun build-up, too. I'd be great. I have another good one. Okay, go ahead. And then I'll tell you the one thing I definitely need to see happen at 300 with Jim Miller.

Go ahead, Mike. if uh give me your your other pick the uh paul felder paul feldr comes out of retirement for one more i think that's it because they were scheduled right did they ever fight each other i don't think so i think they're booked but actually never fought each other uh we're expected to fight april 18th 2015 ufc on fox 15 wow ufc on fox era that is when they were supposed to finder was replaced by banyo darre hurt his knee replaced by banyo just for one more one more one more

It seems like Felder is mostly out. Yeah. But if we could do something where he's on the same card with Brady and Sabatini and Petrosby and like all those dudes, if we could chuck Polly, Polly Walnuts on there to get in there with one more fight with Jimmy Mills, let's do it. I like that idea too. Yeah, Paul Felder, we know you're always in shape. UFC 300, one event's going to be Jim Miller, legend. you guys are probably going to win a fight of the night.

Come on. Yeah, come on, come on, do it, have some fun. And then go back to retirement. The one thing I'd see happen if, again, it'd be horrible if they couldn't find a fight with Jim Miller or if a fight was booked and Jim Miller's opponent got, you know, fell out or he fell out. He at least obviously he has to be there. He has to have front row seats because he's Jim friggin Miller. And two, depending on the timing, you announce his Hall of Fame induction. That would be sick.

I think what's the U.S. these policy on inducting active fighters, they don't. I'm not crazy, right? Like, the fighter has to at least tease their retirement. Because I can always see people asking like, oh, why is Anderson Silva not in the, you know, why is he not in the hall of fame? And I'm like, well, technically he's still active. Two, there's probably a little bit of, not bad blood, but like they want to let this whole,

maybe when he's done boxing, they'll do it. I think you have to be inactive. But for, well, that's not true. People have won have been inducted to the fight wing. But I think for the individual induction wing, they prefer people to be retired. So I don't know. I think Jim Miller, you waive that rule. Even if he's still fighting, you have him there and you announce that retirement.

Oh, not retirement. If he's not fighting, you announce him for the Hall of Fame at UFC 300, assuming it happens before International Fight Week. He deserves that much. Either way, Jim Miller and UFC 300 has to happen in some form. Yeah. And even if they don't have precedence set, you set it for that because you're Hall of Fame.

There's no rules. Oh, we're not allowed to do that. Yes, you shut the hell up. John Jones is in the Hall of Fame for a fight. So what's the difference? Michael Bisbing was in the Hall of Fame. Like, there's Diego Sanchez was still fighting when he was in the Hall of Fame. I mean, B.J. Penn.

Clegwita, who we just talked about with the Diego Sanchez induction. Yeah. Yeah, there's no rules behind that. All right. Let's go to Bryant. Mike Heck, Ohio, I missed you in AK. Your boy had a long couple months for a back baby, and that's all that matters. I have two questions for you in AK.

Number one, is Colby Covington versus Hamzaa Chimaif all but set up now after Burns versus Jorge was made. Or is Belal going to get one of Colby or Humzat? Two, who's the prospect to look out for this year that is not fought in a major promotion yet, but you imagine will this year? Thank you guys. Have a great day. Go Niners.

A lot of football fans chiming in. So do you feel that if you missed it, if you've been living under a rock, UFC 287, Jorge Mazadol is going to fight Gilbert Burns in the co-main events. there's a lot of work still being done behind the scenes for that car. We still even know where that card's happening yet. But when you heard that announcement, did it make you feel like,

okay, now we're getting Colby versus Hamzat? Or did it make you think we're getting Bilal versus Kobe or Bilal versus Hamzat? Where are we at here? I think we're more likely to get... I'm going to play the safe answer here. Bilal versus Hamzat. Colby, you know, is a huge matchup.

And it's just that the whole legal situation with Jorge Masvedal. I know Mazvedal got booked, but part of Covington's thing with him was talking about the brain. Like, oh, my brain was injured in the attack potentially. I don't know how much that's going to get the way of him booking a fight. That was such a weird thing when that came up. I think we all wondered, like, is that something that's going to, like, hurt his career? And does he care that much? I think he's made a lot of money.

I think he can sort of afford to do stuff like that and, you know, focus on winning that case as opposed to, you know, necessarily lying about his mental, his, uh, neurological health and anyway it's a whole other thing but yeah I'm just I'm just I know Colby probably is going to fight this year and it's going to be a big one but I just don't know when he's coming back so I'm leaning towards Bala who obviously is always looking to stay active

always into get a big fight wants Hamza Shamaev I yeah if I had to pick it from these scenarios I'll go Balal Hamza I don't know if that's what people want to hear but I actually really like that matchup of course I'll favor Hamza because I'll favor Hamza over anyone especially if he can make 170 But yeah, that's a big fight. That's a big co-main event fight on a pay-per-view.

Would really, really like to see that fight as well. It's so weird to try to book Colby right now or try to like fantasy matchmake for him. It just all depends. Like, it all depends where a fight featuring Colby Coveington would take place. Because let's just say April 8th. April 8th is we still don't know where this event's happening.

And I've told you for a while that, It was two places for a while. Now it might be three. Brooklyn, which seemed to be the favorite. I've been telling you Miami is one of those places. And it seems like as of right this second, they are the frontrunner. In fact, the UFC came out and posted a tweet

that has been since deleted that it was happening in Miami. So I was told there's still no location that has been officially booked. And I was told even before that, that they want to do Miami. Like if everything fell into place and they could do it anywhere, it would be there. But obviously there's the NBA. That arena is going. Other places are using that arena. If Miami ends up making the playoffs and, you know,

depending on where they seed, how they schedule things out in the first round or the second round, however that works in the playoffs, that could affect things. So they're waiting. It's a wait and see right now. MSG is also in play, I've been told by a couple of people. but an aerial reported that as well.

So we don't know. So if this fight happened, if this card happens in New York, Colby will not be fighting on it because that commission is just not going to let this dude fight on it. It's not going to happen. And if Al Jermaine Sterling and if this card's in New York,

having Aljo on that card is probably going to be tough with him declaring the bicep injury. He's already talked about, he might have a tough time getting sanctioned in New York anyways. He's talked about that in the past. so that could cause a wrinkle. So I don't know. Plus Colby and Mazadol fighting on the same card.

I don't think they're going to want to do that right now. So I don't know, man. I'm probably with you that Bilal versus Hamzad is probably the fight. I don't think Colby's going to come back to fight Belal. I think he would come back to fight Hamzaa. I'm saying it for a while. He would definitely take that. It's the biggest fight he can get by a mile.

And it's a winnable fight. It's winnable. And no offense to Balaamah, Mohammed, it's 15,000 times bigger than the Bala. It's so much bigger. You can headline a paper view with Colby versus Hamsat. You can't do that with Bala, as impressive as he has been.

And I like Balaal, and his personality is great. So I will go Balaal, Hamzat. I'm not confident either of these picks right now. But my pick for Colby Covington is I think he will not fight either of those guys. And then sometime maybe July, August, he's going to fight Dustin Porreier. That's what I think's going to happen. A lot of heat there.

A lot of heat there's been going on for years that the trash talk between them. I really thought the Burns fight was a possibility, but I mean, now we know, of course, Burns got Mazzudal. So, yeah, that's totally through my whole, I don't know what, like, what Colby Covenant is going to do this year out of whack.

And he will fight, though. We do see Colby come back this year, right? I mean, I'm pretty confident. I think he fights this year. I think he fights this year. And by the way, a lot of people were asking, like, how did this Burns-Mazodol fight get made? it got put together very quickly.

Like very quickly within the last couple of days. Like Thursday is when it got approached. And then it got like Friday was when it kind of got finalized. Because Mazadol put out that tweet, right? Big fight news coming. And I was initially told like this has to do with like icon or one of the promotions he runs. And then I was told on Friday might have to do with both. And I heard about the Gilbert's fight.

I heard about the date. Apparently there's going to be a special announcement done in some way by Jorge Mazadol to announce this news. And then Dana White just yelled and screamed the announcement into a microphone Friday, 30 minutes late. So there you go. What prospect are you looking at this year outside of a major promotion? I mean, this one is super easy if I can only pick one. And I always get his name wrong, but it's the lazy king. It's a lazy king.

That's a lazy king and there's no second place. It's that dude and that's it. If I am Bellator right now, like, stop with, just offer this guy like six figure fight. Like, every fight he makes 100 and 100. Get this guy on your roster. Do not mess around. PFL, like, I know Francis is the dude and rock holds right there and you have these big names. But if you're investing in the future, you've got to get Lazy King.

How is this guy not signed to any of these places? I don't understand. I don't get it. But this dude is a freak of nature. He's an exciting, he's an interesting cat, speaks English, great interview, fights his ass off, just went up to 185, was completely outsized, was losing the fight, and then pulled off like a miracle knee bar with like 30 seconds left in the fight. This dude needs to be in the UFC or Bellator.

He needs to be in a major promotion right now. It's him. There's nobody else. Yeah, he's, and if he's not prospecting enough, I don't know if people, maybe they don't view him as a prospecting anymore. I still do, I don't know when he, I usually, if, when he, I usually, if, when, you're, when, When I say prospect, I usually go by amount of years fighting as opposed to amount of fight. Because you could be...

He's 27, so I say he's... And he's only been fighting pro since 2016. So I think if you're in the five to six year range, I still sort of consider you a prospect. It's 27, yeah, being under 30 also helps, depending on the division. I mean, you can be a young prospect at heavyweight at, like, age 34. So depending on the division, certainly it matters. But, yeah, I would... I'll go even more prospectier.

I had to go back, sort of to look at some of my favorite guys from... You know, I do the Misfits every year, and I do a recap. Christian Leroy Duncan, who did get signed, I think. I think the UFC signed him. He was the Cage Warriors, middleweight champion, and a guy who actually managed to defend it. I've written about this a few times. The middleweight title in Cage Warriors is like notoriously hard to hold on to. Like there was a stretch where I think six, five or six champions who could not hold on,

just not could not successfully defend it. I think he's done it once or twice now and in highlight real fashion. So he would have been my pick. I think the UFC did sign him. And then I had to throw in a young man who I really didn't catch on to until the end of the year and started going back on his highlights. This guy from Georgia, his name is Otar Tanzalov. People, you can find his highlights again on MFAFiting.com.

I did a little recap for him or just, you know, Google, whatever, whatever, however you find. However the kids find highlights these days, Mike. Three and O in 2022, just crazy switch kick knockout, high kicks to the face, just winning decisions against tough competition. needs to step up if you kind of look at his record there's a few you know it's a little soft right now

but his last two opponents very solid legitimate guys so I'll say Othar Tanslov there's your guys who could be coming to the UFC sooner rather than later hopefully getting signed to actual contracts and not having to go through a contender series so

yeah I mean there's there's so many right now so it's it's kind of tough to pinpoint certain ones but yeah it's a great question but yeah Lazy King's the dude. Wow, without a doubt.

Guys like Trevor Peak, I really like. Then there's others as well, but we will continue on. I believe you're up. Where do I go? Okay, let's go. Should I go non-MMA? Let's go non-M. I feel like we answered this before, but I do, I did cheat and like prepare for this.

So I better make sure I answer this one. Regular listener, Bobby Adkins wants to know, my best non-MMA sporting event that you've ever attended live. you're from the New England area you have a long list to choose from I'm sure I do indeed big sports town big sports town best event I've ever attended live

not MMA non-MMA not MMA yeah MMA would probably not even make my top 10 if we're being honest yeah oh I might I've been to two Red Sox playoff games where David Ortiz

actually three Red Sox playoff games Ortiz won two of them, won the series twice with walk-off hits. And then I went to another game where I forget who, I can't remember who it was. Somebody else hit a walk-off to win the series. So I went to all those.

But I will go with 2011. It was the Stanley Cup playoffs. I went to the Boston Bruins, Montreal Canadiens first round matchup, game seven. went to overtime and then Nathan Horton scored a goal in overtime to beat the Canadians, send them packing, and then they went on to win the Stanley Cup that year as well.

So I will go with that. That was about as intensive an environment that I've ever been to. The game is crazy. Bruins are up like three to nothing. Montreal comes back, ties it up late in the third period. They go to overtime and Horton hears a who gets it done. That's what they were calling him. He was super clutch.

And yeah, I'll go with that. And that was nuts. Was this, was this a family outing or was this a boy's night out? Sorly Pops, a plenty. Which kind of outings is? Yeah. Yeah, it was a friend. The latter.

Yes, it was a friend night. Mike might have been a little crunk this evening. Oh, it was a good time. Karaoke might have been sung later in the night. In fact, it was. Oh, this was a whole experience, not just an event. Oh, it was a night. Actually, I had to look up.

I haven't gone to a lot. of live sporting events, but definitely the ones I've gone to. My answer would actually probably be like an indie wrestling show. And people support your local indies, sitting, getting a $40, $50 ticket for a front row seat at a local indie show. If you like pro wrestling, bring your kid, if you have kids, or, yeah, or niece's nephews. It's so much friggin fun.

Going to any wrestling show is fun, but there's a huge difference between being an indie show in a friggin' small gymnasium with the wrestlers flying around you, telling you to put your foot up so they can throw a, so a guy's face into your boot. It's so fun compared to like sitting in the nosebleeds for a big show, you know, different appeals. So that would probably be my go-to answer, but I'll go, I had three specific examples. One, I'll say I had the lucky, when I was in school, I was covering the 2015 Pan Am games,

and I got to see the Canadian women's basketball team win a gold medal. That was really fun. Kea Nurse was amazing that day. So that was the atmosphere, it was incredible. One of my favorite sporting event memories for sure. Sticking with pro wrestling, I was, I've been to a lot of pit. pivotal AEW shows, like their first show in Las Vegas, their first show, period, their first pay-per-view.

The first one in Vegas, when Cody Rhodes wrestled his brother, Dustin, I cried. It was magical. Oh, you were there? I was there. I was there. I was there same night. The Raptors clinched the playoff, their 2019 finals appearance. So I cried multiple times that night.

So that was great. And Mike, you'll like this one. I actually, this one is so memorable. And actually was actually horrible at the time. No, it was funny at the time. It was a Red Sox Blue Jays game. And this was not during the halcyon days of the Blue Jays. This was during the mid, like, there was a long stretch of like 10 years of Blue Jays games,

which was just the definition of mediocrity. On this particular day, they were getting slaughtered by the Red Sox. And I have a policy where I will not leave a baseball game early. I did it once, and I missed the greatest comeback in Blue Jays history. Before that, I had never left a game early. And then after that, I said, well, I'm definitely never leaving a game early now. So even with the Toronto Blue Jays getting sloshed by the Red Sox, what's this guy's name?

Will Middlebrooks? I know you can remember him. Is that the three home run game? The three home run game, he ended with like 15 that season. So he hit like three out of 15 homers in one game. And I saw them on. And at that time, I think he had three. I think he like doubled his home run total that day.

Anyway. And whatever. Jay's getting a beating not special during that time, happened all the time. But what happened was there were three streakers in one game. It was such a long monotonous game. First guy doesn't even get close. Immediately gets taken down by security.

Second guy, like, kind of like almost makes it to the infield. And then by the time we're in the eighth or ninth inning, everyone's just exhausted. Security just doesn't care anymore. The guy runs all the way. This is how I remember it. From center field, I guess past the center fielder, all the way to second base, slides into second from the outfield.

And I'm probably like remembering this wrong now. It was so long ago. Slides into second, stands up. and I think managed to even like pump both fists in the air in triumph before security finally chases him off. And I'm like, that is sports. That is the magic of sports right there. Don't run into the field, people.

I don't approve it. It's a horrible thing to do. You deserve to be banned from a stadium for life if you do it. But that guy was a hero. That's amazing. That guy was a hero. I went to WrestleMania 14 when Steve Austin became the WF champion. That was at the garden.

That was fun of the hell. The Sean Michaels, right? Yes. So that was one of the best WrestleMania's ever. And the other like random wrestling pay-per-view that I've been to

was in Dayton, Ohio in 1998. My older brother was like, do you want to go to the show? Like I have, he had, I don't know if he had like airplane miles or something,

but he flew me out. He was in college at the time in Pennsylvania. And we went, to ECW's Heat Wave 98. Okay. In Dayton, Ohio. That was the event where Bam Bam Bigelow and Taz had their second match.

And Taz and Bam Bam went through the stage. Like, not through the ring, but the stage. I was there live for that. That's amazing. It was the most ridiculous paper. That was Mike Awesome. Tanaka had a match. Sabu and Band-Dam.

against the man who played Hakushi in WWE and uh... I forget who the other one was but that was just a wild ass event Tommy Dreamer and Sandman versus the Dudleys was the main event damn we got to see new Jack come out

yeah this is peak ECW that's peak ECW peak ECW peak ECW it was just random and I went and it was the best it was so much fun the ECW crowd was on fire

but that was just a random ass event that I went to and it was super fun. So good stuff. Let's go to Trishian. Okay, Tristian. Tristian. This is an interesting, this is an interesting topic. Bull, what the hell? It's, ask us anything. Let's go. Now that Vox has shut down Bloody Elbow, what does this say for the future of MMA fighting? So, as you've seen, Bloody Elbow is kind of on the last.

weeks under the umbrella. We saw the news, the founder, Nate Wilcox, was laid off as part of the Vox layoffs. And we've seen, I believe it was Friday, we saw pretty much anybody who works for Bloody Albo, so they got their 30-day notice. So we're not saying anything that isn't public and that you don't already know.

And we also have seen, and we have heard interviews with members of the Bloody Albo staff who say and nothing is official yet and nothing is done, as they have all said on social media, that they are going to be hopefully running the site still just outside

of the umbrella. And they're basically become independent bloody elbow. We know what happened to independent George on Seinfeld. Independent bloody elbow is going to be amazing. The future of MMA fighting, I don't know. I mean, I feel like

we're okay. We've had meetings, but I obviously can't share any of that stuff. But it seems like we're fine. But I don't know. I mean, every day is a new day. It's a weird time in the world. The economy is shit. And it's just kind of where we're at right now. But it seems like we're in a good place. But I don't know. I guess that's all I could really say. But what I will say also is I feel for the bloody out. I feel for all of them. And I know what they do isn't for everybody. Their type of journalism isn't for everybody.

They don't care. If the story needs to be told, they will tell it. I respect the hell out of those guys and gals who work there who have been busting their ass for all these years. They are very good at what they do. They have shown me that there are things I need to improve on. They have shown me that the sport is not the happy go lucky sport that I started covering in 2016.

and after reading a lot of stuff that they have done and having conversations behind the scenes, they have helped me realize that this place can suck ass like any other place if you really look for it. So yeah, it sucks for them. I think the site will thrive and be better than ever outside of the umbrella, if we're being honest. I think being outside the umbrella is the best place for them at this point.

what I do feel bad for is all the staffers who, you know, they have to look for other jobs and all that stuff in an economy that is just not great. So I do feel from on that end, but I do feel that as a website and it's going to take time for this to get to where they need to go. I actually think this is the best thing for them moving forward. I think it's actually going to turn out to be a very good thing. But I do feel bad for the employees who are going to be looking for new jobs and things like that. in a lot of the things that they were doing, it's going to take a lot of funding for them to continue to do, and I feel awful for that as well.

But yeah, that's what I have to say. What would you like to say? Yeah, I don't want to start naming names because then I'm going to leave people out because that staff is so talented. They provide a lot of their writers and their podcasts provides such important features that, again, we just, in our sort of scheduled enemy fighting, we just often don't fit these things in.

Sometimes we cover the same things. It's really big, important stories. But when it comes to, again, you know, talking about some of the misbehavior, and that's using the term, that's a very light term, by the way, I'd say, something very, very heinous political affiliations that some fighters have overseas. Bloody Elbow was on top of that. A lot of the financial behind the scene stuff, again, we do some of that coverage, but there's a lot of in-depth stuff on that in Bloody Elbow that, again, hopefully will continue,

as Mike said independently. They have a lot of freedom, which is great. But there's also, you know, there's a change in resources now that they're not under the box umbrella, but hopefully, again, they find a way to work that out. I want to say, I'm speaking for myself, by the way, because I do think, because people go look at my Twitter profile. And the one thing I don't call myself, and people can refer to me as this way, but I don't really consider myself, at least traditionally speaking, to be a journalist. I'm a journalism. I certainly went to sports journalism at the wonderful Centennial College in Toronto. but I don't, right now, I will tell right now, I don't do a lot of straight up journalistic work.

I do a lot of analysis. I do a lot of feature writing. I do a lot of editorial work. That's fine. I'm very proud of it. I'm a media member. I don't necessarily consider myself a journalist in the traditional sense of what that word means. Bloody Albo had a lot of journalists, had a lot of quality journalists.

Again, I don't want to single anyone out because I'll leave people out. But a lot of the stuff they did there, people that, and the stuff that Mike said, some, some fans don't like. They don't want to see those kind of features. guys, sometimes that's what real journalism is. It is seeing stuff you don't want to see about fighters that you may love, about promotions that you may love. This is valuable work. So you can hate on that concept of bloody elbow all you want, but it is important work.

And we'll do what we can to pick up the slack. But again, we didn't do it like bloody elbow. And I don't think anybody did it like bloody elbow. And I hope that it does continue. So they're very valuable. And then sort of the initial thrust of the question. Yeah, we don't know. Oh, listen, the business is so volatile.

You guys have seen what's having in tech. You guys, I'm telling you, an online writing. From the day I got hired by M.A. fighting. I was over the moon. But the day I got hired, I took a deep breath. I thought, oh, I thought about all the amazing people I was working with. And the very next day, I was like, I could be fired tomorrow. I could be released tomorrow.

There's so many things in the industry that are out of our control. You can be doing great work. Again, look at bloody elbow. That site did not get shut down because people weren't doing great work. There's just behind the scenes finances. There's stuff way, way up the ladder that affects these decisions. Had nothing to do with the quality of their work. So Mike can still continue being the best.

Damon Martin can still keep being the best. All the people I work with can still keep doing the best, best, best work they can do. And tomorrow, if the numbers don't add up, guess what? The same thing can happen to us. I don't think it's going to happen to me fighting anytime soon. But like I said, from day one I got to this industry, I said, my job security is nowhere close to 100%. It's nowhere close to 90%. It's nowhere close to

80%. We're doing our best work and we love it. But boy, I'll tell you, anything could change. Anything could change tomorrow. So that really is the only answer we can give you. But yes, as long as we can, we don't think we're going anywhere. And we appreciate people asking and having nice things to say about buddy elbow as well.

Yes. Well said. I stand by everything you said, including the every day is kind of a struggle in some senses because I mean literally the first day I started with them fighting everything shut down

oh yeah everything shut down it was the official it was the official white flag waving day of COVID 19 that all right this is actually a thing

and we're shutting everything down and I'm like what? So I was like what an auspicious time to start and then we had layoffs like two weeks later and I was like

Jesus Christ it was like It just was the way that it was. And there have been a few layoffs as you've probably seen in the news. Like, none of this is behind the scenes, behind the curtain stuff. You all know about this. So, yeah, it's been, it's been an interesting road, that's for sure. But we wish everybody over Bloody able the best.

And I know they're going to land on their feet because they all kick ass over there. So, yeah. And I do really think this site's going to thrive being independent bloody elbow. Just like Independent George was his best George Costanza. independent body elbow is going to be something else. To you, my friend. Oh, is that me now? It's you.

Oh, I'm sorry. That was such a, that was such a involved question. I forgot whose it was. Okay, where do I jump around here? What do I jump around? Okay, let's talk about, should we talk about, no, I already kind of did a non. Let's go back to fighting a little bit.

Okay, let's keep this down. Barry O'Reilly, our pal, our man in Ireland. Please rank these undefeated fighters. He's doubling up here, so we can do a couple of quick hits here. Please rank these undefeated fighters by chances of them becoming champion, UFC champion. Makayev, Basharat,

Vloyev, Lorone Murphy, who we just mentioned, Ilya, Tuporria, and Ian Gary. Okay, I'm going to have to write this down. Makayev Javid Basharat, Vloev, Lorone Murphy, Toporia, Gary. Hmm. Mahamakai's number one. Yes.

A whole hard degree. Hard degree. This might be a little bit of a hot take. But I'm gonna go ahead and say it. It's not that hot takey, but I'm gonna go ahead and say it. Because I actually think the timing is actually gonna line up better for this gentleman. Number two is Bob Zare of Lov. Number three, Ilya, who's right there.

I just feel like, I feel like I feel like Ilya is going to run into Volk when Volk is still number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world Volk. And it's gonna be just the timing is just not going to be great. and I feel like by the time of Lov gets a title shot, Volk will either, like, it'll be clear that he's sliding a little bit or he won't be the champion by the time of Lov actually gets to a title fight because I feel like his road's going to be a little bit longer, and I feel like Tupori is a win away from getting a title fight,

and of Lov is just going to continue to get better and better, as will Teporia. Then I will go with, God, I mean, these are all really good. I'll go with I'll go with Lorone Murphy because I feel like if he beats Nathaniel Wood he's going to get a bit of a push Ian Gary Javibbosha. Ian Gary, you have Javid last.

Yes. And I'm not going to say he's last. I have him sixth. I have a very strong list. Jabi Bashra could fight for a belt. He's just in a division where it's got taken forever. Ian Gary, by the time the UFC is just like, okay, we've seen everything we need to see as far as building him up.

They're just going to launch him to the strength sphere. And I do think with his skill set, even though he's a little green as a pro, this kid's going to be something special. Like, I truly believe that. I'm very impressed with being Gary. I just think, like, I think they're going to build him very, very slowly, very slowly. Okay, my list would look similar. I have, I would have to paria a second.

So I go, Makayev, Toporio, Ev, that's sort of my stronger three. and then Murphy, Javid, and Ian Garry are sort of more in the outset of my, I think a clear notch below. I'll say this though, Mike. And I'm going to say that, I'm going to say a bold thing, and I reserve the right to, one, change my mind and two, pretend that I never said this. I think there's a really good chance none of these guys ever win at UFC Tunnel. Wow.

I'm not, people know I have not been jumping on the Makaya of double champ, you know, two champ. He's so young. I need to see more. The skill set is clearly there. but there's something to be said about maturity. There's something to be said about physical maturity and just getting those reps in there.

Yeah, he has a ton of amateur experience. That's great. That certainly counts. He's way more experience than the average fighter who has whatever 10, 11 fights. He's really a 20-something fight veteran, so I get it. I get it.

It's not just the pro experience. But if I were to bet, if someone is gunned to my head, will one of these guys win a UFC title, I will say, for now, I will say right now, And it could change their mind depending on how Mikhailov's next couple. I need to see him like a couple of his next two fights go because we know he's getting kind of a walkover in his next fight.

I don't think any of these guys get it done. I love it. I'm going to put it on tape for now. I'm going to put it on tape for now. I can change my mind. I could change my mind depending how Makayev's 2023 goes. But that's where I'm going right now. Dude, that, listen, I love the take.

Absolutely love the tape. And Mike, let me give Barry. I like it. You could be right. I could be. I could be. Not often, but I could be. Let's do a quick answer for a second question.

Who could benefit the most from a change of division? What fighter do you think fans could benefit most from seeing change divisions? That fans would benefit the most? He's like asking two questions, but I'll say like kind of lump it into one. Like what would be one that the fighter would benefit and it would also be fun? That would also be fun for like the fans to see. I think you kind of suggested one already, Max Holloway. Max Holloway for the eventually and then eventually leading to a fight with Jim Miller at UFC 300.

And he would definitely benefit as well, because we know that cut to 145 as he's gotten older, just sucks. I mean, it was never fun. And it just totally sucks ass now. Yeah. He's a huge. He'd be a big 55 or. Yeah. He'd be a big 55 or so, yeah, holly's my guy.

We're about to see Volcanowski go up to 145. Maybe he's the answer. That's 155, excuse me. I don't want to, like, light heavy weight, heavyweight's too obvious. Again, you know, whatever. We can talk about Giles and changing out divisions, but he's kind of fighting in two divisions. as it is. It's one of the women fighters maybe?

No, maybe Valentina going up finally committing to Bantan Wait because it would just be all... If Valentina goes up to Bantan Wait, went up to Bantan Wait and beat Amanda Nunes and then Nunes like retired, there is no one... I'm trying to look at anyone at Women's 135

that would have a chance against Valentina outside of Nunes. There's no one close. Chichengo could rack up 20 straight tele defenses at 135. If she chose to never retire, she could defend that total of 25 straight times in the 135 division.

There's no one that could be here. I'll tell you what. The correct answer might be Juliana Pena, moving up to 145. She just says like, you know what, I'm a 45 or now. And Amanda Nunes would be like, well, you know,

like I don't think she should get a title shot, but I don't want to cut weight. Maybe, maybe it could be her. Mike, we're talking about real divisions. Okay, we're talking about real divisions that exist. that exist and have rankings and are promoted. But yeah, I would love to, again, if Valentina just ever gets tired of cutting weight

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on Cifora. com or in magazine. Uh, so this is... Yeah, I'll go with this one. Dan, I, I know big chunks of this answer would be working

and covering the sport of MMA, but what to say typical day look like for each of me. Yeah, I got this. Okay? Well, I got this one, I got this one too. I got this also from Mr. Ned Higgins. Ned, thanks for sending this question as well.

And he wants to like the inside baseball take. And I said, listen, I'm mostly a house mouse. My day is pretty, I don't travel much. So I like being a house mouse. I've said this many times on other shows. So my day is pretty simple. I do a lot of notes prep for sure. I take a ton of notes.

You know, I make myself look pretty for our shows. But I don't do a lot. One of the questions Ned also asks is how, how slash when do you sleep sleep is a little tricky to come by as you during the fight weekends Mike we have Mike I don't know what we're doing

next week by the way for UFC South Korea aka UFC Vegas 69 or whatever it is Bella Tor Belator Yes that is the one night by the

we're all going to be clamoring to rather be on Beltor duty than UFC Vegas duty because that's going to end at what like three in the morning the UFC Vegas card like at Eastern time three or four or four are you and i doing onto the next one around the regular time can we push it to the afternoon that day yes yes we can we normally we normally record about 10 or 11 on sunday

eastern time i think we might want to push that one back i don't know what state i'm going to be in if i have to cover pelotor so sleep well especially with the paper view the next week and it's going to be like the same type of schedule and we're going to be going live the next like there's no moving that around so so like specifically i would say for your for your answer from a pay-per-view thing, because now you're Jetson. Now you're not just South Carolina Mike now. You are now also, sometimes New York, Mike, because you are

doing the watch-alongs now in the M.A. hour studio, the Fox Media Studios. So what is your pay-per-view weekend like now? Okay. So, so starting on Saturday, I wake up at about 3.45. I take

a shower. I usually shave the head. And then I, you know, the brush of teeth, that stuff. And then I just run out the door. I run right to the airport. Check the bag. If I, if I'm checking one, go and get my coffee, hop on a plane and go. This past Saturday. Wait, wait. Hold on. You get up. Wait, wait. You get up. What time you say? I get up a 345. In the morning. In the morning. To catch a flight early, to catch an early morning flight to New York. Yes. My flight's usually between 6 a.m. Sometimes it's 5.55. Sometimes it's at 630, but no later than. Do you just stay up at that point? Do you

even try to sleep? Do you just stay? Do you just stay? stay up? I usually don't at all. Okay. Like I try, like maybe I'll nap for an hour and then the dog will bark. And once that happens, I'm just like, well, I ain't go back to sleep. I'll watch the office or Seinfeld for a few episodes and I'll just get up with each other. This man's getting up at 3.45 so he can be in New York for the watchlong. Okay, go ahead, Mike. I'm sorry. Yes, uh, that I fly to New York and catch the Uber, go to the hotel. Hope the hotel that I'm staying in is in a good mood. And I try to butter them up with, with sweet compliments and hope you're having a great day. And just be polite. Because I don't want to pay the extra fees to check in early.

And sometimes you have to. And other times they don't have rooms available. But if you're nice and you say nice things, they will let you know like as soon as possible when that room opens up. So luckily for me, got there, room opened up. They had one room left. And I said nice things. They're like, you know what?

Well, it's a little bit of an upgrade. I'll let you have it. So I went up to the room. I will say this. I have, for the last seven weeks or so, almost two months, I have been a CrossFit nerd. I got into CrossFit. I got a two-week trial membership to a place about 10 minutes away from me, which is about 15 minutes less from the gym I was working at before.

And I went in there and I tried a class and I tried another. And I went for two weeks straight. I went six days a week both times. and as soon as the trial was over, I canceled by gym membership and I started traveling for holidays since I went to Massachusetts, I went to Florida,

and by the time the holiday travel ended, I was just like, I'm all in, take my money, like this is what I'm doing. So when I got to New York on Saturday, I scouted out whether or not there was a CrossFit gym

near where I was staying. And it turned out, there was a CrossFit gym like literally a three-minute walk from where I was staying. And I was like, this is awesome so I go and I ask them and they're like yeah come in just like try the class I'm like well how much is it they're like not just come in and try it I was like all right sweet so I got to do a free cross-way class it kicked the living shit out of me

it was so brutal uh it was freezing cold so it was not only like hard stuff inside but it involved running outside in the freezing cold weather so that wasn't great but it was a really good workout and I went back had some lunch and by the time that was all over I took another shot hour and then I walked on over to the studio, did the show. What time did you get to the studio? How early do you get to the studio? I got there at 6.30. 6.30. So, so, and you, okay. Oh, wow. Okay.

So we go in, we do like, we're testing everything out, making sure everything's working. We do, like, run-throughs. We're kind of going through, like, how the flow is going to go. Because we're trying different things, right? We're doing the, open the packs of cards. We're playing the video game. We're doing this, that, and the other. thing who's coming on when are they coming on and we're trying to organize all of it and then we usually go live at 945 it just flies right by and then at showtime we go until it's over and then it ends and we do we need to do usually i run right to the restroom because i haven't gone in like seven hours and then i just run across street back to the hotel to do the post fight show and then or the press

conference whatever's happening and then i put that all together do the podcast it's like 530 in the morning and then I go to sleep. The alarm goes off at 7.30 on that Sunday morning. And I bet some of you think I'm crazy, but here's the thing. The hotel that I stay at, there's like 44 floors and three elevators. Three elevators. If you don't time this right, you could sit in the lobby waiting for an elevator for 45 minutes. 45 minutes? Does this happen to you? Three elevators. Yes. So now I'm like 730. I'm getting up, I shower, I pack up all my stuff, and I make sure I go downstairs by like 9.30. By 9.30, like any later than that, you are waiting. So 9.30, I hit the button. Usually wait like 10 or 15 minutes because what happens is you finally get that ding that you've been waiting to hear.

Oh, my elevator's here. And then it opens and there's like 87 people on it and you can't get in. And I'm just like, ugh. And I learned that lesson. And then there's a Dunkin' Donuts right down the street. so I'll run downstairs. I'll get my coffee or coffees in some regard. And then I will run back and I will check out. And then I will sit in the lobby for hours waiting for on to the next one to start, doing on the next one, producing it for the pod network, which takes an awful long time. Because we have to download the video, the live video from YouTube, which takes an hour to do.

And then we do all that. And then I just go and find a bite. I go walk around, try to find a place to get some lunch, watch a little, sports and then I Uber to the airport and I fly home. So I sleep between Friday night and by the time I get home, I sleep for like three hours total. It's tough. Such a rock star. You're such a rock star. So people who just watch the watch along and are like, oh, what a fun time. What an easy time that Mike is having. He just shows up and gets paid to watch MMA. You guys don't know how much crap is going on around to get that all set up and what and then after. And then heading home after so you can go see his

his beautiful wife and child and dog. It is a ordeal, man. Like I said, I work from home. I'm pretty good for the most part. But Mike and some of the other guys who have to travel, Jose Young's. I mean, my God, he's been our man on the street for the majority of the events for the past, like, three years. It is wild stuff. So if you guys...

But as I've said, as I've said many times, I would rather do the watch party than actually be at the event on the night. It's like seriously. Like, if I'm at a cup... Yeah. If, if, if, if, if I'm like, Mike, I just want you to go out for like the pre-fight week stuff and then fly to New York for the watch party, like, that'd be awesome. I would do that in a heartbeat and just not be in the arena for the fights. Like, so much better. Let me add on to this question while we're talking on personal stuff.

We had a few people, I think. And people ask us every show like every show. Updates on our friendship, Mike. Are you guys really best friends? I think I saw someone, is there a plan to meet up? So one, yes, we are really best friends. Two, no, we still have not met. Three, do we have plans to meet up?

I hope. Let's, Mike, let's speak this in existence. I will, I will do it now. I will come to South Carolina this year. Let's go. I probably shouldn't be making promises like that. I am in a relationship now. I don't know if my girlfriend will want.

That should probably want to make. I've been to North Carolina, one of the greatest experience of my life. She can come. Absolutely. You know, listen, we're Canadian, but we, we, we, we hate. cold weather. So I'm not saying, I don't know. Maybe it happens this winter. I don't know. But summer would be a great time

to travel to. She's in education, so she gets that whole, you know, two months, whatever, that summer vacation off. My wife is too. It's a calming ground. Look at this. Look at this. So I'm going to speak into this. I never make promises, Mike. You know me. I never make promises. But I also believe in saying you'll do something

and that kind of making the gears go in motion. I will meet Mike Heck in person this year. I will go I will go to South Carolina. I'll go to South Carolina. Even if I can't get the time off, whatever. Bring my laptop with me. We'll set up a little office.

We'll work. We'll go out later after work. A.K. A.K., across from where I'm looking right now is another desk and another... Oh, my God. There we go. It could be our headquarters. Oh, my gosh.

Okay. So, again, no promises. Viewers, I'm not saying it's definitely going to happen. But I definitely like saying something will happen because I think that helps. I think if you keep putting something off forever, then it just doesn't get done. And if you don't even think about it, speaking into existence, I will go to South Carolina and I will meet Mike in person this year. Oh, man, that's amazing.

The only people from the site that I've actually met in person. I've met Casey in person, but that was before I'm inviting. I've met Jose in person a bunch. And the only other staff member that I've met in person is Jed Michoud. I've also met Jed. Yeah, he came to Toronto. Jed came, Jed's parents live probably like 20 minutes or more I live. So he came up and visited and we played some golf.

We played 18 holes of golf. It was a wonderful day. It's a wonderful day. And Jet is the exact same dude that is on the scale. That's not a character. That's not a character. It's just a... It's not a gimmick.

It is not a gimmick. It is not a gimmick. That would be amazing if we could make that happen. Absolutely. All right. I'll do this one. Did you enjoy the Royal Rumble? Did you watch it?

That's trending right now. I did watch it. I watched the entire thing. Did you enjoy the Royal Rumble? I really did. I said, like, tell people. I'm an AEW guy, but I definitely come around for the Rumble every year. I haven't been keeping up with WrestleMania. In general, I do keep up with the results. I thought both Rumbles were

really well done, really fun. I'm not saying either than were like all-time classics. They're pretty light on surprises, but just as far as execution, well-booked, making good wrestlers look strong, like Gunter, you know, some people might remember him as Walter. Now Gunter looked fantastic in the Mentoral Rumble. Weir Ripley, who won the second Rumble, looked amazing. She was her. and Liv Morgan went the distance from one and two all the way to the end. Both women looked great. So yeah, just from a logical, strong booking standpoint, some

great moments. The Logan Paul, Ricochet Friggin' Matrix, two guys just nodding their heads, like, let's literally fly into the air and throw our bodies at each other and see what happens. That was ridiculous. That was ridiculous.

It made notes. It literally made, I'm watching them talk to each other, and I'm like, they are not just going to jump off the pop rope and collide because what's like why would anyone do that? Why? In this match in particular and they're just like, okay, let's do it. And they did it.

I was like, wow, that was the dumbest thing I've ever seen. But it was awesome. The only thing that made me so angry was, so Mike, I don't know if you did a rumble pool this year. I did not do rumble. I had number 20, I think he came in, I want to say 29 or 28. So I had his number, Logan Paul was my last best chance to win. And he does that spot.

and then disappears. And then I saw the commentators are doing the, oh, this is who's left, not mentioning Logan Paul. And I'm like, you know, we're keeping detailed notes. We've got our pool going. I'm like, and I was asking, I'm like, did Logan Paul get thrown out? And I'm like, he didn't get thrown out. The commentators are doing a misdirection thing. And I said, this would be the ultimate troll.

Cody Rhodes wins. Logan Paul comes off behind, throws him out. And I'd be like, the crowd would just, the crowd would just boo his ass out of the building. The heat would be nuclear. Instead, he shows up when there's like three people left and throws one guy out. And I'm like, Logan Paul, you friggin rookie, you couldn't have waited until the very, why are you coming in with three people left? You could have waited until the very end and want me money.

It's the only thing that's spoiler for me. Otherwise, if just talking about the two rumbles, both eight out of ten or better, very solid rumbles. What do you think, Mike? Rumbles are great. I mean, it was pretty obvious once Sammy Zane didn't appear that Cody was definitely going to win because I was curious how they were going to handle that. If Sam is in the Rumble, like, if Cody won, would he get booed out of the building?

Right. Because I actually think, I actually think there's a chance you would have. But then I was like, all right, this, whatever happens in this main event is going to be spectacular or just riveting stuff. The Bray Wyatt match was awful. You didn't enjoy, I mean, that was. Mountain Dew. There's been tremendous.

Mountain Dew, Fish Black and a store near you. Oh, man. All fine gas stations and, uh, poor, L.A. night, poor LA Knight, who is going to be, who I believe could be a big star for them, like a legit star for them, just gets, I mean, dumbtrucked. And then Uncle, Uncle Howdy or Uncle Doody just dives, dives off the balcony and misses LA Knight by like a football field. And it goes through like a bunch of cardboard boxes, which somehow set off fireworks.

I mean, this was this was AEW exploding ring type shit. I love stupid shit in wrestling. People know, I love stupid shit and wrestling. This was not good stupid shit. This was bad. Like, really bad. Like you said, the big moment where he's supposed to jump through the table. Completely horrible.

Just horrible from being to end. It was real bad. It was hilarious. And then the main event match, Rains and Owens was, I mean, I'd go. I get it. I mean, we're telling a story. We're building up to the moment. And then the moment afterwards, which just seemed like, it seemed like it took forever, but it was still so riveting.

Like, I, I'm sitting there just watching Kevin Owens getting handcuffed and kicked in the face over and over again. I'm just like, it's a little excessive. Like, I'm glad of my kids not watching this with me because he'd be like, what the hell is going on right now? But that moment when Sammy Zane hit Roman with the chair, much like Seth Rollins hit Roman with, a bunch of like the shield breakup. The crowd reaction was incredible. It was amazing. He made his choice and like Sammy just played it off so well.

Rividing stuff. I know Jedmishu hated it. Did he? I saw him on Twitter. He was out of family. He thought it took forever. He thought it was terrible. Oh, he was DMing me about the rumbles,

which he seemed to enjoy. And I didn't get his, I didn't see his thoughts on the actual like the matches, just like the individual matches. Oh, okay. Interesting. Didn't know that. Yeah, he was like, I'm going to watch it.

I'll pull up his tweet. Is this normal for wrestling event? 15 minute postback and 30 telling that can be done in two? The shit is telling. So again, like I said, I have not been keeping up WWE, but every, I have a lot of obviously people who follow M.A. and pro wrestling on my feed. And everyone was saying, like, this bloodline storyline is like one of the best storylines

the debris has done in like years. Like it's just phenomenal. And so I'm like, cool. Okay, this is kind of my first chance to read. I've seen like highlights and seen some segments. I love Sammy Zane, Roman Raines, all those guys. So I'm like, you know, I just don't have time to watch W. But I do, I do enjoy some of the stuff I've seen.

And I was riveted. Yeah. It certainly dragged on very, very, very long. No question, it dragged. But I really thought they wrung every ounce of drama out of it that they could. And I thought it was super well done. So listen, W. W.

It takes a lot of crap for supposedly not being to tell long-term stories. It's a strength of AW. AW is a pretty good job with it. W. Usually gets criticized for not doing it. But this Roman Raines Bloodline storyline has been going on for like three, like two years. He's been the champion for two years. They've kind of been putting pieces together with the bloodline storyline.

And I kind of feel kind of bad. I miss most of it. But from what I saw in Rumble, I'm like, oh, I see why people are so high. Incredible. The trauma was great. I mean, that is, that is pro wrestling trauma. If you don't like pro wrestling, obviously, whatever, you're just going to be like, this is the dumbest thing I've ever seen.

But if you're, you know, invested, if you're even kind of invested in it, phenomenal stuff. Phenomenal stuff. I'll tell you one thing that annoyed the shit out of me about that ending. And AEW does all the time, and it drives you crazy. Especially in this card, because how many times, how many times? How many times during the Royal Rumble event Did Adam Pierce and like a bunch of Oh yeah

Security people come out and just separate stuff? But there is a near I mean there is there is But this is happening and nobody comes out Nobody comes out And look I understand I understand we're storytelling But at least send them out and have like Roman in the crew Just beat up the story guys He has a whole team to like to start beating them off

You would think this is the perfect time What are we doing here? Like they're saying for 15 minutes watching Kevin Owens just get kicked in the face over and over again. And no one's coming out to help them. But like if Beth Phoenix spears rear-rilly wants on the aisle, we got to get out there. We got to get out there. We got to break the top. Like that stuff drives you.

And AEW does it all the time. My only. Just one thing that. My only depends for it was that because they had their efforts to break up the, the, the, the, the brawl. twice earlier in the show had proven feudal. They're just like, screw it. We're not going out there. And as he said, you know what?

He's got a whole gang. If we're going to go out there, we're just getting our asses beat. We've already put our lies in line twice. If people don't want to listen to us, screw them. Screw him. You know, Adam Pierce was like, no, no, we tried. This is how it's going to be. Stay back.

We did our job. So, yeah, that's the, oh, we were talking about this with my friends. I was watching the show. I'm like, yeah, why is security not coming out? We literally saw them come out twice. But I just laughed. I was like, yeah. But yeah, for sure, a big, big logic.

Incredible. Just to touch upon this real quickly, I saw, I know you got a question from Stanley asking, is the UFC or MMA bigger than pro wrestling? No, it's no. No. It's not even close. It's not even close. And I think the tail end of that question is, will it ever get there?

No, it won't. It won't. It just won't. I think you have to go demographics for sure. I do think there's certainly an older portion of combat sports fans who do prefer MMA. Not universally. There's a lot of old.

or wrestling fans as well for sure. I'm a fan of both, right? So it's hard for me to say I'm a fan of both. Definitely along the younger crowd. I mean, pro wrestling just so much bigger. It's catered to a young crowd. WD. Look, they went PG like 10 years ago. A lot of people criticizing for it.

There's a reason they did. Sorry, they listened. They went back after the kids, you know, that sounds about them back. But they went back for that younger audience that they had in the 80s, you know, with Hulk Hogan. And guess what?

They got them back with like John Cena. And then some of these. So it has a much wider age range. It just appeals to a younger group of fans. UFC made some strides with that when Connor McGregor happened. Sure, you got some younger fans in there. Sean O'Malley, now I think it's someone who's getting there. But that's like, again, I'm naming one or two guys as opposed to a whole product that really appeals. And then you talk about like a Bell tour, PFL, I think they have like no traction with the

younger audience. It's really just UFC. So, and again, listen, I don't know if it'll never get there, but pro wrestling is such a big start. And pro wrestling has been a marquee main event headlining attraction at stadiums, at arena, since the early 1900s, since the turn of the century. MMA has only been a mainstream thing since the 1990s, right? I mean, this is maybe late eight, I don't know, I don't know which events you want to call MMA, maybe late 80s. Even then, nothing compared to pro wrestling. So pro wrestling, certainly on a global scale and a broader scale, is bigger than MMA.

Especially if you go about the mom test. My mom can name way more pro wrestlers than she can name like MMA fighters other than maybe Connor and Rousey. That's about it. Yeah, if you asked me this question like three months ago, I would have said there's a case to it. But, and I hate to go back. Like, I'm going back to the Dana White situation from earlier, from New Year's Eve. But the reaction to it and who covered it and who didn't.

And the reaction from other sports was just, I mean, it told me it was just like, wow, maybe the sport isn't as big as I thought it was. And again, it's a baby. And it's getting there. And what the UFC has done is bent from a business sense. It's friggin insane. But there's just no, like, even watching the Rumble last night, one of the first things I thought of was, could the UFC go to San Antonio at the Alamo Dome right now

and sell that place out? And the answer is no. I don't think they can. I don't think they can. I said this about AEW too, because AEW, look, they're doing really well for the clear number two promotion in North America. A great job. But I was like, I remember when I was at, like, they're doing their first few pay-per-views.

I'm like, oh, wow, I can't do they sold out this venue. Then three months later, they sold out another venue. this is before they had a weekly show. I was doing great. And then I was like, WW literally sells out two arenas for Ron Smackdown every week. Two arenas every week. Plus they do house shows,

which do, you know, they're not as big venues, but like, you know, whatever, in the thousands. This is every week. They're selling out huge venues and selling out smaller venues every week.

Again, AW can't match this. UFC certainly cannot. UFC's just amazing. They're doing now almost a weekly events and selling out, again, well, they have the apex.

We'll see if they get out of the APACs. picks. Brazil, that is no way 283 is a yeah, they called that a sellout

a flat out lie. So yeah, all you're just looking at the very top, top, top of the pro wrestling world, you look at W.E,

they literally sell out two arenas every week. Dude, they sell out, they, they didn't sell out WrestleMania last year,

but they did like 75,000 night one, and then the next day, they did like 67,000. That's insane. The UFC could not do that. They couldn't do that. They couldn't do that.

They announced, Over 50,000. 51,000. They might fudge the SummerSlam. Yeah, SummerSlam is like 40 to 50,000. Because now they're doing, it's not just mania getting the stadium treatment. Now all of them are in. Now like the majors are get SummerSlam Rumble, all getting major arenas.

Survivor Series is still a little bit small there at the Garden in Boston for that event. But SummerSlam, WrestleMania and Rumble are like week long experienced things with and massive stadiums. not arenas, friggin stadiums. And I just, outside of like Connor, maybe Connor versus Nate could, could get 40,000 people in the Alamo Dome, but they're not, no fight.

I mean, if you go to Australia, it's different. Like, there's certain regional venues they can go to because they, and they've proven it. Toronto, they had a big crowd. Australia, they had a big crowd. But here in the States, it's just not, it's not happened. They're not going to the Ram Stadium and putting 70,000 people in the seats.

They're not doing it. Sorry. It's not happening. It's just, again, there's history. There's the broadest. And then you go globally. I mean, look, India. W.E is fucking enormous in India.

It is huge. Sadi Arabia. M.A. is just starting to, like, get traction in India. Japan, of course. Listen, M.A. is huge there still. But, I mean, pro wrestling is bigger there as well. There's such an enormously long history of pro wrestling.

So, yeah, once you go around the world, France, listen, France, just like, legalized M.A. He's big in France. So it's not close right now. Even just considering W. And then you add in AW all the other pro wrestling promotions out there. So yeah, I don't want to say it can never happen, but it would take a legitimate cultural shift. So anyway, we probably scared a lot of people off away with this pro wrestling. We've been talking about wrestling now for like.

So what do you want? Let's maybe a couple more, a couple more before we. Yeah. Yeah. I think I did I just add, oh no, we combined. Yeah. So you got to kind of go to my list now. Grab anything that tickles your face.

Yeah, I'm going to your list. I'm going. Let's get a couple more. What do you think Boe Nickel's stealing is And where do you think His skill level is now? Okay.

This is from Thomas Holt. Of course, Bo Neckle will be making his UFC debut March 4th in Las Vegas at UFC 285. I don't want to disrespect Alex Perreta because

And I just said about Makaya, there's something to be said about a practical fight experience. You know, really needing to see how you, how you do when you're in against elite competition.

And Boe Nichols fought whatever guys. They're nowhere near the level. of a world champion of a high-level UFC fighter. But it is so hard not to see his skill set. And again, take into account his championship wrestling career. That is

combat sports. He's not the only NCAA wrestling champion to enter MMA. I understand that. We've seen them come into the sport. We've seen some guys falter. But one, his resume is among the best ever in collegiate wrestling. And two,

the eye test, seeing how he has committed himself to M.A. He just looks like a guy who has fought more than whatever two or three times two times he looks like a guy who's fought ten times he performs and finishes like a guy who's fought ten times athleticism is a big thing we always talk about athleticism boy he's a plus athlete uh middleweight is a mixed bag of athletes you got some good athletes in there a lot of the times some guys are just pretty average bone nickel already just by being a plus athlete is like a top 10 most talented fighter in that division and you could like a fight with him and and poiton

would legitimately be interesting. I'm sure Alex Pereira would be favored, maybe even, you know, open at 3 to 1, but I think some money would come in on Bo. We talked to earlier that list of guys, like, will they be future champions? If Boe was on that list, I would put him over Makayev. I think Bo Nichael is,

and again, this is based on division. I also think, like, the competition that Makayev would have to fight at flyweight and at bantamweight is tougher than Bo Nican might have to fight at middleweight. So taking all that into account, I mean, his skill level is super high right now, obviously a lot to learn, but his ceiling doesn't have one. I think could be UFC champion by 2024,

even by the end of the year if something funny happens, I don't know. But if you told me Bo Nichols, a champ by 2024, I would gladly put money on that. Yeah, I mean, I think everyone's kind of in the same place. We're all very high on him. We expect a lot from him. Seems like he can thrive in the pressure that is being bestowed upon him. I think he beats Jamie Pes.

Pickett, but I also think Jamie Pickett can give him some challenges potentially, especially on the feet. But yeah, I think this is going to be a big year for Boehickle. I think he'll probably be ranked by the end of it. I think the UFC is going to push him very quickly. What I said about Ian Gary, I don't think they're going to do that with him where they slow roll him. I think they'll go from Pickett to a little bit of a step up to a top 15 guy like in his third fight. I don't think they're going to mess around too too much. You don't want to push him too quickly. you don't want him to beat Jenny Pickett and then you chuck them in there with Martin Vittori because that's just not the smartest thing to do. But yeah, I think he'll do that.

Get a guy like in the top 30 and then if you pass that test, then we go right into the top 15. Throw them in there with like Gregory Rodriguez or something like that. You beat Greg Cop, then you get to go. And we'll just strap the rocket. Yeah, we're all very high on. Yeah, it's hard not to be. And again, we've seen guys flame out.

I specifically mentioned NCAA wrestling champions. Sure. It doesn't always translate. But this is an eye test thing. This is a you have to have watched his fights. And there's a big difference between him and some other wrestling champions who have come in, like, just with wrestling and done well, but obviously never quite rounded out their game. His game looks very solid all around right now.

I'm not saying he's an A-plus striker. I'm not saying his MMA grappling is A-plus. But, boy, he looks like he could get there and not too far into the future. Mike. Kyle Hank Levy wants to know. I like this question. Better all-time legacy. and their legacies aren't over

their careers aren't over yet, but so far Dustin Porre or Tony Ferguson and who would win in their respective primes? So first, better all-time legacy if, let's say, neither guy fought again. Both guys tomorrow said, I'm retiring. Who's got the better all-time legacy? That's a great question.

It's really good. It's Dustin Porre, though. I think it's just a pourier. Quick, quick thoughts? I think it's just a point. He's got the two Connor wins. The I mean, the losses are tough, losing to Charles the way he did. He just never won the big one, and Tony never won the big one either.

Like, he won an interim title fight against Kevin Lee. We never got to see the Habib fight, but at least, like, we got to see Dustin get his opportunities. Like, Dustin fought Habibi lost. Fott Olivera, had his moments. He's got wins over Justin Gaichi. He's got wins over all these dudes. Plus, like, I think... that the Connor wins just kind of put it over the top.

And then him going in there and fighting Michael Chandler and just kind of putting the boots to him and stopping him in the third round after a tough second. Like, Porre giving back to the community. And I don't know. I just feel like, I feel like the back nine of his career has aged. I mean, this is not an actual debate at all.

He's on the back nine. He's said it many times. He's on the back nine. But still, his career and his legacy continues to age extremely well while the back nine of Tony's has not aged well at all. It's been pretty bad.

And we're to the point where whether or not we feel like Tony Ferguson should fight Connor McGregor for his own safety. And it's just not a discussion that I thought we'd be having about this guy two years ago. So better all-time legacy. I'm going to go

at Dustin Porreier. crazier career, it's Tony Ferguson by a long shot, but better all-time legacy. Like, if there was an MMA Hall of Fame and both guys retired now, they would probably be both voted in the first class. But if it didn't end up that way, you can only take one. I think Porier gets it over Tony. I'm looking at the stretch.

When we talk about the greatness of Tony Ferguson, we're talking about that 12-fight win streak. We're talking about those missed opportunities to fight Habib. I don't know. I don't want to say there was a case, like, when he was winning all those fights, when he won that win streak, it's a six-year unbeaten streak that, like, anyone was saying he was definitely the number one lightweight, but he was certainly top three for the longest time.

I want to say he was slightly ahead of Porre, if only because Porre got that weird Michael Johnson loss, which probably like messes up the rankings, depending how you keep them. Ferguson was maybe, oh, man, but doesn't Porre near the end? 2018, 2018, 2019. Justin Geh, Eddie Alvarez, Max Holloway. Wow. Oh, Anthony Pedeson there, too. Wow, that is a hell of a four-fight win streak.

Um, yeah, that's a hell of four-point streak. Yeah, I'll certainly lean Porre. I think it's closer than people. Well, like you say, it's a good question. You said it was close. Yeah, that's what makes it a good question. Definitely the recent of last few years have made Porre look much better than Tony Ferguson. Where are the age-wise?

I know, oh, Porre is younger. I know Ferguson's almost 40 now. Pori is 30. He'll be 39 next month. So, yeah, I'll lean Porre as well slightly for a lot of the reasons you've stated. And again, the quality competition, pretty similar. It's pretty similar near it.

Once Poria got selling it lightweight, so, and once he moved on for that, Michael Johnson lost.

So yeah, I'll lean Porre. In their prime who wins? That's the other part of the question. I'm, gosh, it's so hard to say

because I just, I'm, the reason see bias is killing me. I thought, I really thought Tony Ferguson could have beaten, had a chance to be Habib.

We now know that's probably not the case. We've seen Habib at his best. We've seen Tony at their best. And even though they never fought, I think most people would comfortably say

Habib beats him. Dustin Porreier, though I'll say, I think I would have If this had happened, I'm trying to transfer myself back If this fight had just been booked in their prime, sometime between, let's say, 2015, 2019, I would have picked Ferguson. I'll say no, I would have picked Ferguson.

I think a lot of people would have. But in hindsight, I think Porreier would have. I don't know, it's tough. It's tough, because Ferguson, Ferguson's durability was such a big weapon for him and Gaichi used that weapon to his advantage very well when Gaichi fought

Ferguson because he just kept pouring it on and it never stopped. Porre has been shown to fade down the stretch and Ferguson could just take that ass weapon extremely well. Maybe not as much these days, but back when he was winning all those fights

I would pick Porre just because I think he's the more well-rounded fighter here and I don't know. It's tough. It's super tough because I think Porre beating Connor like obviously boosted him in a different way.

And they're just viewed in different respects, but I do think Pori's game is a little more more well-rounded than Tony's. Tony is pure chaos, but he won a lot of fights based on that chaos, but Porier loves doing the triple Indy in the chaos pool too.

So yeah, I don't know. It's a great question. That's a great question. happen now? I still do. I think poor, I think, I still do. I think poor a, I think poor a trucks. Yeah, it doesn't, it doesn't answer that.

And so I don't want to say it. It doesn't answer that question, but I still do. I still, I still would, wouldn't mind seeing it. I guess I'm sick like that. And also, listen, I still have Tony Ferguson ranked my top can, so we don't need to go over that again. All right.

Let me see. All right. I'll ask this one. One more each. Let's go. All right. Strike.m.X. Was Connor McGregor only in a lot of elite fighter at featherweight.

And then his little explanation, despite his amazing performance against Alvarez and judging on results, not skills, Connor was only elite at featherweight. After leaving featherweight, he is three and four above 145 and was finished in all four of those losses. Two of his three wins were against middling fighters in Diaz and Cowboy,

and all of those fights, mind you, to add to the context, were at 170, all of those fights. Cowboy and both Nate Diaz fights. So what do you think about, about that, AK. Do you consider Connor only elite at featherweight? It's a fair question. It's a very fair

question. It is a fair question. And it gets more fair with every passing year. We've said it before. Beating Eddie Alvarez, we sort of had discussion recently with Jamal Hill winning the UFC light heavyweight title. What does winning the UFC title mean? And Connor was an example. Did Connor beating Eddie literally

fighting one time at lightweight, make him the number one lightweight in the world? In Conner's case, it kind of did because Eddie was the lineal champion. So at the very least, you could say, okay, I beat the guy at the top. And that's something that Jamal Hill can't say. And it's not his fault. He beat who he had to beat to win the title. You know, it's not his fault.

He couldn't get a fight with Yuri. But for Eddie Alvarez, I'm sorry, for Connor McGregor, yeah, beating Eddie Alvarez. Eddie came in with the lineage, essentially, and Connor took that. So you could say, okay, at that moment, on that night, UFC 205, Connor McGregor was the number one lightweight on the world. He beat the guy who beat the guy, who beat the guy, who beat the guy, etc. That said, again, now looking back, he only fought again at lightweight one time in a fight with Habib where, you know, he got some credit for making it to the fourth round, but otherwise did not look great.

He got dominated. He got dominating in the fight. And then we have welterweight fights after. It's pretty harsh to say he wasn't elite at lightweight, but the facts are pretty damning. Again, strikeout MX. Thank you for this question. You laid it out pretty nice. He wrote some more, which I didn't include in our docket here, but it's pretty damning.

So I am going to confidently say he was not elite at lightweight. Listen, if you beat the world champion for sure, that's the elite performance. You had an elite evening. But being elite in the division has to mean competing in that division with some regularity and beating top names. Eddie Alvarez, literally his only big name at lightweight. and that to me is not enough to say that this guy was an elite fighter at 155 because he just didn't fight there enough.

So not to not to poop on his in case legacy that much because he's certain elite fighter as a whole, but just his body of work at 1505 is is not elite. Yeah, I think it's a fair question. It's, it's so strange because it's so strange because that Alvarez's performance was like one of the all-time greatest performances in the history of the sport. and it was at 155. And I honestly don't... Habib aside,

I don't think there's a human being at 155 on planet Earth that would have beat Connor McGregor that night. Habib might have. Because Habib just does that to everybody, but I think of Connor fought anybody that night, that dude beat pretty much everybody.

That was the most elite Connor McGregor's ever been in terms of performance. It's one of... If you could only pick five title defenses or five championship challenger fights, Connor is in everybody's top five. That performance, it's probably number one or two. There's just, I just don't think there's anything better than that.

Eddie had no chance. Like literally no chance. And Eddie went in there and just trucked Haffieldosanjos, which was a huge win. It was massive. Everything about it was like, oh, damn. like Eddie's

Eddie's found his groove again like this is this is that Eddie's that dude again and then just Connor just kick Connor beat the shit out of him like it was Eddie had no chance

this wasn't like an Aldo or like you know I mean great great great championship that's a top five you know challenge your win for sure but a challenge your performance like an actual performance

that's what the Alvarez win was you're right he we got to see listen we got to see Eddie show what he could do, and nothing worked against Connor was just a robot machine that night. So because of that performance, I will say no to the question because of that performance. It's one of those, I know we had like a what if kind of question. And we're not, we probably won't get to that because that's just a lot to put it down.

But what I think one of the big MMA what ifs answer that question is, what if Connor didn't go fight Floyd Mayweather. What if that fight never happened? We'd be living in a very different universe right now. We might never have had, we might never have had to talk about Jake Paul. We might never have had to talk about Jake Paul. I feel like there's a direct through line from McGregor Mayweather to Jake Paul

existing in the combat sports universe. Yeah, if that dude just kept fighting in MMA and didn't take all that time off, and just, I don't know. You went to the boxing world and made a whole bunch of money. Good for him. No regrets. Good for him. Set himself up forever.

but if he didn't, if that didn't happen, because we all at that time, we're like, there's no chance that fight's ever going to get together. Oh my gosh. And then somehow it got put together, and I still can't believe it. And it's still the most genius thing I've ever seen

because they somehow convinced the world that Connor had a chance. And I can't believe, like just the amount of discussions I've had when it came to that fight, like leading into it. I went and watched, like,

I wouldn't watch that fight with like 100 people at like an outdoor, thing. It was a beautiful summer night and we had the big inflatable TV and like I was around people that I knew and then a whole bunch of people that I didn't. And these people were like willing to physically fight me

because they thought because I thought Floyd was just going to look that ass and like they're like no dude you don't understand. Don't you cover MMA? Don't you cover MMA? Don't you know how good these guys? I'm like yeah, I get it. And then as like each round is

going on, they're all like I fucking told you, dude. I told you, sit there. I'm like, have you ever watched Floyd May Weather Fight? Like, have you ever seen this? I was like, don't worry about it. I'm like, I'm going to be laughing in your face, man. I'm telling you.

And then Floyd just starts tuning him up. And I'm just sitting there. I'm just sitting there with like this, this look on my face of just come take what's coming to you. And I, and I, and I handled it with class. But I was just like, look, man, this is just, this is exact what I told you. And I called the round and the finish and everything.

I said, look, Conner's going to win some rounds early. Floyd's just going to let him punch. He's not really going to hit him that much. He's going to hit him a couple times. But Floyd's going to let him punch a lot. And it's going to seem like Conner's landing all of them, but he probably only lands like 8% of them. And then Conner's just going to get tired,

and Floyd just got to piece his ass up. And that's exactly what happened. At the end, they were just like, all right. But like, might have been fixed too. And I'm just like, I'll leave and see you. It's been a fine evening. It's been fine, even, why not? Yeah.

I was like, I hate all of this. But, yeah. But that is a huge what if is, is what if Conner just didn't do that? Like, I'd probably be happier. Like, it changed the whole industry. That fight, again, like I said, Jake Paul, whatever, all this freak, all this high, we'll always have freak show fights. That was never going away.

But at the level that freak show fights have, the prominence that they have reached, does not happen with the Conner-Megger, and seeing how much money can be made with just a little, a little creativity, a little, a little mixing of the, no, not mixing the martial arts, but I don't know. I don't want to that far.

No one's ever made money mixing the martial arts. I'll tell you that much. Hey, maybe, hey, listen, that was the return of, like,

promoter Dana White. That was the loudest he was, and he started screaming again, and I wonder if, like, I wonder if we're back to, to that guy again. My ears are still bleeding.

Oh, my gosh. Yeah, I'm going to throw out, let's end up a matchmaking note, because, so everyone who sent in questions, Thank you. A lot of great questions. I got a ton of them. You Instagram, Beasts are just something else. But I'll go to a favorite of mine. And again, I want a masquerque question. Michael Conifrey, the man who runs the Otno and M.A. Fighting Memes, Instagram. I definitely follow that page. Mug Connoffrey wants to know, Mike.

And by the way, I want to say, we're cutting it off here because, Mike, this isn't a heck of a morning where you, I've seen you every episode. You're like, okay, I got to run in five minutes. And then you take like three more callers and you're on for like another 20 minutes. I mean, you're the best in the business. But you got to. This is it. You got to value your own personal time, Mike. Every episode, you give so much time to the fans.

You're so dedicated. But Megaconeofrey wants to know. If Aljo moves up to featherweight, what are his chances of becoming champion? That's somewhat compelling. This is a good question. What would be your preferred first matchup for him in the division? So let's go on. Now let's go on to the next one here.

What are his chances? Who do you match him up with first? I might take a beating for this, but I don't care. I actually, like, I think Aljo's chance, I think he has a chance. It depends because it's tough. Like him and Volcanowski is a tough matchup, but Aljo is really good. And he just doesn't get the credit for it because of just how wildly awkward these last few fights have been.

So I would say, I don't know, it's tough. I mean, because I would pick Volcanovsky to beat him, but if Volk wins the lightweight title, I would pick Alja to beat Josh Emmett, and I would pick Aljo to beat Yehira Rodriguez.

I agree, okay. I would pick him to beat both of those guys. I agree. I would pick him to beat Ilya right now. Just because of the, and I know Ili is a really good grapple. but Aljo, even though Ilya's a bigger featherweight, I actually think Aljo's bigger than him and stronger than him.

So I think that's an interesting fight. That would probably be the fight. That would probably be my pick. Iliate Siporia. Like if Aljo loses to, like if they, whenever the Suhudo fight happens, because it's still being discussed and there's all sorts of craziness going on. if Aljo loses to Suhudo and he moves up that's the fight I would go with

that's a hell of a welcome that's a hell of a welcome to the featherweight division I mean you can't you can't chuck him in there with Billy Q right now we just we got it we gotta keep on going I'm looking at like a Dan E. Gay but there's maybe just not doesn't quite have the wattage that's not no no no no no no for that one

Brian Ortega maybe but he's coming off a loss So no. Yeah. I know it's a weird loss, but still loss. Alger's fighting, like, if Aljur moves up to 145, he's fighting for the belt. So that's probably the long and the short of it. But again, it all kind of depends.

You think they're thrown into an instant title shot? If he moves up to 145, they probably, he probably gets a title play. I'll say this, first of all, I actually don't like his chances of winning a title. You're right. If it's, yeah, you're a year or, yeah, Josh Emmett. It's true. One of them, depending what happens

with Volkanowski and Makkah. I think he beats both those guys. I do like... I would pick him against both of those guys. I think there's other people he doesn't match up as well with. I don't love... I actually think Ortega's a good matcher for him.

Arnold Allen's good matcher for him. Mowalsar. I think he's a top one. I think he's going to have some decent amount. I mean, he's a good, healthy size phantom weight, but I think coming up to feather weight, he'd be given up some size.

I'll lean... I'll lean towards Ortega, who I think what would happen. I think his name value is super high. I think his rankings still high. And they think that would be an interesting winnable fight for Aljo or a fight that could get Ortega back on track because they like Ortega.

So that would be my guess. That would be my guess of what could happen. Yes, he's coming off two losses, Ortega, but fine. But yeah, I actually don't like... I don't like his chance. Other than, it's weird, because I do agree with you, the Emmett Rodriguez, both of them being good matchups for Aljo.

But I still, I don't know, weirdly, I don't think he'll win the title of Featherway. I'm not sure why. I think if you could become the two-division champion at 135 and 145, the men's divisions, that would be right up there with the best champ champ-cham accomplishment is because these divisions are so deep. And defend, obviously, not just go up and win it,

but defend the featherweight title title title title title. If you're able to get Tyler 5 and 145, boy, you are one of the all-time great pound-fighters because these divisions are friggin loaded. So that's why I don't like his chances to win to become a champ champ. How old is Algenstein? 29? No. Way old?

33. It's way off. Yeah, he'll be 34 in July. 29? I was like, no. He's got the spirit of a 29-year-old. Yes, he does have the spirit of a 29-year-old. It's just how long does he want to keep doing this?

I don't know. I'm intrigued by it. It's going to happen. It's going to happen. He is going to move feathering at some point. I mean, at this point. point, no matter who he fights next, whether it's Zahudo or O'Malley, because it seems to me, and

this is like some of the discussions I've had, because we reported that the Sterling Suhudo fight was targeted for April 8th, which is not fake news, by the way. I think I've laid that out pretty clearly. Uh-huh, quite vehemently, yes. But, yes, but there's, um, again, there's a lot of moving parts, including this Mazadol-Burn's thing that just got put together willy-nilly, essentially from, from the conversation that I've had.

So maybe they're just, maybe they're not confident that Aljo can fight April 8th. That fight is still on the table for April 8th, I will assure you, but maybe they move it back again. I do know,

I do understand that if they push it back again, like they ain't pushing it back further. So if they're just like, dude, we're fighting this card or not, like if you can't fight, they're going to go Suu-O'Malley for the interim title

and then the winner will fight Aljo later on. And then, so in my eyes, Aljo's going to fight one more time at 35 in the, he's going up. He's gone to make room for Marab, one, two, he doesn't want none of that Umar smoke. Get out.

I'll joke, get out of there before Umar gets in title shot range because this man is, he's going to go, listen, he's going to live up to that Nemego Medov name. And I don't, I don't want to say he never loses like, you know, like Habib, but I don't see him finishing his career with like more than one or two losses. This guy is a friggin monster. So, yeah, I'll joke, listen, get that big Suhudo fight, maybe get an O'Mali fight if you get past Suu and then get the hell out of there. Yeah, and

Or, I'm actually surprised to hear you say that, A.K. Oh? I'm surprised to hear you say that from a matching perspective, because you've been saying for a long time, like, Oosman should have just went right for Hamzot, like right away. Like, if you're going to get him, get him now. Before the, uh, the Roos just come to Roos, so to speak, or whatever that.

He should, he should have gotten in his first U.S.E.C. fight. It's too late. It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it. too. No, I've seen too much for Umar. I've seen too much. All right. Well, I think we did a pretty good job answering these questions, but it's time to go, ladies and gentlemen. Almost two hours. Holy smokes.

I didn't see that happening, but you guys rule. We'll be back in next week. Will we? It'll be a little bit later. I hope so. I hope so. It'll be just a later release than normal because the UFC event is at just a weird time. And I'm not going to complain about it

because I know some of our international listeners are like, I'm going to complain about it. I don't care about it. I don't care about them. I don't care about them. I don't mean that. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

I don't mean that. Oh, man. So I have to run this card down, don't I? Let me, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, Lewis versus Speedback, baby. Oh, I pulled up the wrong one. That was the one from November. That didn't happen.

I made that mistake as well. Yes. But yes, but you are correct. Let's go. Lewis Peeback is main eventing February 4th. Yes, next week. Okay. Here we are.

Prelims, 10 p.m. Eastern. We have 12 fights. Here we go. Main event, Derek Lewis, Sirkes to be back. Daun Jung, Devin Clark is your co-main event. Marcheen Taibora versus Blagoi. Two heavyweight fights? Oh, mercy me.

Okay. Yes, two heavyweight fights and three fights. That's your feature bout and your main event. We do get the return. turn of the Korean Superboy Du Ho-Choi on this card, fighting Kyle Nelson. Usaku Kinosita versus Adam

Fuget. And then we have the Road to the UFC final fights. We have Anshil Jubilee versus Jekha, Saragi, Jai versus Jiang Yung-Yong Li, Rinyan Nakamura versus Toshiyomi, Kazama, and

Yung-Sung-Sung-Parkh versus Syeong-Guk-Choi. That is descending from lightweights to fly weights, by the way. Gian Kim versus Mandy Bowen, who is in a must-win situation for sure. Jun Young Park versus Dennis Tallulian and the guy who seems to be getting forgotten in a lot of these prospect discussions, Tatsuro Taira, fighting Jesus Aguilar, the undefeated

Tatsuro Tira, not getting enough love. Good for him, but not pushing him too fast? He's only, is he younger than Makaya? Or around the same age, like 22 or something. Yeah, they're both very. They couldn't put that as a main card opener. But hey, you know what? I often complain about...

It's the first fight in the card. I often complain about pushing people too fast. So if this is... Maybe this is the last time he's this low in a card, and that's okay. There's only his third JocC fight. Main card opener, I think, would have been a nice spot, but...

Okay, whatever. Sorry. It's not terrible. Yeah, he might have actually... Yeah, he might have actually... He might actually have a tougher matchup than Mahiaf has right now, for being honest for his next fight. But we will see what happens,

and we'll be back to... matchmake for all of it. Sometime in the afternoon the day after that event. Of course, Bellator is back as well. Bellator 290. That's going to be a fun one. Their CBS debut. I mean, what a three-fight card they're given on network television. We got the final Fador fight against Ryan Bader for the heavyweight title.

We got Johnny Eblon versus Ante Tocoff, which is going to be an incredible battle at 185. And then just an absolute heater to kick things off between Sabahomasi and Brennan Ward. That is just going to be violence personified. And we'll talk about it next week. Not that. Most of the UFC stuff, but we'll probably sprinkle in some Bellator Talkas. Please.

Who knows? Maybe that's all we'll be watching at that point, live in on our television screen. So thank you very much for A.K. I am Mike Heck. We appreciate you. We'll be back next week, but always remember the golden rule.

Don't take this stuff too seriously. MMA is supposed to be fun, and we'll have more fun following UFC Vegas. 60. Which one is this? Nine, maybe? I'm not editing this. This is 69 or 68?

Wait, wait, what? Okay, UFC Vegas 68. Question mark. Yeah, yeah, Bearer San Hagan, 69. Okay, 60. All right, fair enough. UFC Vegas 68 right here. On onto the next one, the podcast.

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