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

Episode Date: October 29, 2023

With the UFC having a rare Saturday night without a fight card, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee didn't want to leave the listeners hanging, so they decided to turn the programming over to them. On a special "Ask Us Anything" edition of On To the Next One, Mike and AK reunite to answer listener questions, with topics including whether or not Khamzat Chimaev is being judged by the MMA community on a more difficult scale than maybe any other fighter in UFC history. Additionally, questions include building a fantasy RIZIN New Year's Eve card, if 2023 could surpass 2016 as the craziest year in MMA, the best seats to watch a UFC event in an arena, what sport would they cover outside of MMA if asked, the fight that they like that most dislike, and the other way around, the MMA fighter elevator test, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

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but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster, the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now only from Audible. ...to the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Everybody and welcome to a brand new edition of On to the next one. Hope everyone's having a wonderful week. It is sort of a weird time, because there's... is no UFC event and the only thing going on this weekend as you hear this, the fight between Tyson Fury and Francis and Ghanu will be over. It will be complete. It will be done with. And I for one will be pretty happy when that is the case. So, but we are here for a very special edition of On to the next one. We are back with Ask Us Anything. I am Mike Heck. You guys have submitted some great questions. We appreciate that and joining me to answer those questions.

The co-host, the co-matchmaker, the Prince of Positivity. Damn it, he's my best friend. The incomparable Alexander Cayley, AK, how are you, my man? Mike, I'm excited. I'm happy to be doing this show. It's been a while, my best friend, since we have just let our thoughts fly freely. I mean, I know you get a lot of this on onto the next one. I'm sorry, excuse me, on heck of a morning.

I get some of it sometimes. We do the preview shows. I think I hosted one of the Q&As recently. But usually we're trying to talk about current events. You know, we're trying to keep it relevant, trying to stick to the buzzworthy topics. There'll be some of that on today's show, I'm sure. But this is really when we say ask us anything, ask us anything. And yeah, there might be some questions we've been asked before that have updated answers.

You know, we're changed men. We're constantly evolving. So I look forward to it. That's very true. We had a whole bunch of submissions, whether it be publicly on Twitter, DMs on Instagram, on Twitter, emails, a whole bunch of really interesting topics. And are you ready to do this?

I say we get right into this thing. Let's just go. Yeah. All right. So I actually want to just go with the first question right off the bat because I thought it was super interesting. Because we have a little doc that AK puts together. He's just incredibly organized.

I would just be scrambling trying to put this all together. Chris Lee. Oh, my brother. My actual brother. My real good brother. Chris, not the referee, not the referee, not the MMA referee, who I'm not related to. So please stop sending Chris Lee, referee complaints to me. If you have complains with my brother, Chris Lee, who lives in Japan, by all means, send those to me.

But yes. But Chris asks us to book a fantasy, rising New Year's Eve card that is even 50% as random slash insane as the real thing will be. So fantasy means that all fighters are in play here, right? Because that's how I proceed this question. Yeah, maybe within a reason. You know, maybe within reason, obviously we're not going to get thrown together some crazy, like 50 UFC fighters on there. But otherwise, fighters, pro wrestlers, fight circus performers, I think is more than okay. Okay.

So I put together five fights. So a main card with five fights. All right. How many fights do you have? I have not, I did not prepare for this at all. I'm just going to go off my dome, but I want to hear what you've got. Okay. So the first fight that I'm coming, the main card opener, open weight matchup, could be, we'll call it like 150.

Maybe you go 55. Maybe this guy would just go up to 50. We'll just call it 55. I want to see as the main card opener, a guy who has fought in the UFC and fought for horizons, Spike Carlyle versus Nate Landware. Oh. That's the opener. Oh, we are going fantasy now.

that's just that is chaos. That is kind of chaos. Wow. The second fight on the card. Two guys who have fought in the UFC. Two guys who have fought for Risen. John Dotson versus Manel cop. Oh, bringing Manel back to Risen for a dream matchup with Doth.

John Dotson has been doing some things, by the way. For anyone who's kind of like, that's a random poll. John Dotson's been doing bare knuckle. He won a fight in Risen recently. John Dotson, I think he got a vote in our M.A. fighting rankings for like the flyweight division. John Dawson is still cranking away and doing pretty damn well. This will be a number one contender fight for what will be some sort of flyweight title

fight in my eyes. Kioji Horaguchi versus Brandon Moreno. God, I would love to see Kiochi with respect to, he's being some good guys, but with respect to the competition's face, I'd love, I'd love to see him against some of those names that have come up in the UFC over the past few years. Again, not to say that he has to do that. Kyoji, we know, is one of the best flyweight flyweight in the world. Phantomweight flyweight, so that's a good matchup.

That's exciting. Yeah. By the way, I took about 60 seconds to put this together. For some sort of superfight strawweight championship, AK, the Rise and Adamweight champion, Saika Izawa, versus the one championship strawweight champion, stamp Fairtech. I literally, I did not put, I would have a separate dock going.

I literally just wrote that down. How did you do that? I don't know. How did you do? I, I hit the X. I hit the X as you started on, I hit the X on Fairtext as you started saying. I'm on a totally different doc, by the way. Okay, yeah, I've got a separate note.

I swear we did not plan that. That would, and that's realistic, like, that would have to have, like, if this, if we're talking fantasy, but like, if they were ever going to say we want to do the biggest, biggest, biggest, craziest card ever, that's one of the more realistic fights that I think has to be made. And in the main event, no title, just madness. I don't know why this is the first fight. Literally this is the first fight that popped into my head. If I could just randomly pair any two guys together,

because this could be done and it would look super weird, but I kind of want to see it. The main event, AK, heavyweight bout, the man that less than two weeks from right now as people hear this could be once again the UFC light heavyweight champion Yuri Perhashka who is fought for Verizon had a great career there another homecoming yeah taking on a man who is taking his career very seriously taking his health very seriously coming off of one of the most memorable wins of his career and in fact, we'll be fighting six days from right now

in the main event in Sao Paulo, Brazil. It's Yuri Pajasca versus Derek Lewis in the main event. Pure and utter madness. Perhashka weighing in at about 225 pounds, Derek Lewis is going to come in, just chucking lunch boxes. We're just going to throw two random dudes in there, and they're just going to swing madness at each other.

I don't know why this is the first fight that popped into my head, but it just sounds so rising. in the best possible way. I love it. I love all that. I have to, man, Derek Lewis does feel like in another world, he would have been a superstar.

I mean, he's a star anyway. But like in Japan, I feel like he could have been a superstar. I think he would be an MMA fan if he fought in Japan. Yeah. I'm strong. Gosh, I'm killing myself right now because I'm trying to remember this name.

I brought it up and onto the next one so many times. Oh my gosh, he fought the UFC like twice and didn't win. This big heavyweight guy. I think he's Samoan. Who am I thinking of? And I kept matching him up with Chris Barnett. Do you remember this?

Rocky Martinez. Rocco Martinez. Rocco, thank you. Rocky. Rocky. Rocky. R-O-Q-U-E. Oh, yes.

Yes. Okay, yes. That never happened. We never got our wish. Rocky, unfortunately, did not win enough to stay in the UFC. So that's on my list for sure. I thought that was such a perfect matchup for both guys. I said already Azawa stamp Fairtex.

Mike, you put up great matchups. I need more freak show stuff. You didn't give me enough freak stuff. So I will throw a couple of freak fights out there. I need Gabby Garcia back. I need her in a M.MA or grappling contest against Gordon Ryan. I think that is a good one. People pay money for that.

I don't know. I don't know what kind of rules you guys want to make to make that palatable. but that to me is the future of JMMMA in a nutshell. Keep J.M.A freak show going. And then I just mentioned, I don't know if I did mention, but Bob Sapp. Bob Sapp is still hanging around. He's still collecting paychecks for various promotions. I need him back in Risen.

And what I think would have been the biggest freak show fight in J.M.A. history, we never got to see. Because Bob Sapp and this gentleman who I want him to fight, unfortunately, he did pass away in an untimely fashion. I wanted Bob Sap and Kimbo sliced so badly. I feel like that would have sold out the Tokyo Dome, Mike, if they had done that fight. Now, I'm not going to be morbid and bring Kimbo back to life. Though if I could, I would. But his son is fighting still. His son is not really a heavy weight. He's actually considerably smaller. But still, we're going open weight here. Give me Bob Sapp and Kimbo Jr. in a featured fight on this card. And now we are talking, now we are talking like, yes. Now we're getting back to the old, the old freak show days.

So, yeah, give you the weird stuff. I'll raise you. Great fights, but I've got some weird stuff on it. Bob Sapp versus Kimbo, Slice Jr. and Anthony Taylor in a two versus one match. Oh, perfect. There we go. There you go.

Anthony can handle a lot of the promotion. Yeah, Anthony can handle a lot of the promotion. He would certainly love it. Yes. Again, we're now encroaching on fight circus territory, but hey, fight circus, get involved in this, can involve this. We can fit in some Indian leg wrestling on the card. Mike, I feel like we did.

We could throw Ben the Bayne Davis in some. sort of fight on here somewhere. So, yeah, Rise in, doing the damn thing. And to my brother, Chris, thanks for sending that question. And if anything like this happens, I hope you go to that show. Yes. A.K. You select now. Okay.

Should I? Oh, I'll go with this one. Because this one, this one tickled by fancy. We sort of answered this before. So there's, I got two questions from SQR NFL on Twitter. One is, how did the, my best friend bit start? I don't remember. Mike, do you have It's like asking me how to have you

I think you just start. I think you just said it one day and on to the next one and it just stuck. It's just a random thing. You're like, you just called me your best friend out of nowhere and it really just made my day and now moving forward, everything we do, you're just my best friend. It always feels good to hear. I don't remember how it started. I just remember the first time I heard it and I'm like, this is it.

This is what we're doing from now on. So three years of being my best friend, AK. Yeah, those are some of the best gimmicks, right, on shows. Like, you just don't, it just happens, right? It just happens. You're like, okay, let's write it. Like, let's just, let's just see how it goes. So anyone who's listens to, like, any podcast and has listened to 60, 70 episodes of

podcast and there's so many, like, little inside jokes and things. And probably by the time you've been listening to a show for, like, over, like, over, like, a couple years, you do. I mean, you probably don't even remember, like, I'm talking about, like, listeners. Don't even remember where the joke came from, but it's just so embedded in you. And the second part of this question, I don't know if this was a shot, but it's a fair question. SQR NFL asked Does Alex actually like MMA Because he's less to pay for you more off than not

He's doing the she's doing Ought no not having actually watched previous Nice card which seems odd for someone Whose job is directly tied to what just happened I'll just say there was a stretch where Probably when I first started working with that Maybe fighting maybe the first like three or four years I don't think I missed a card

I might have missed like two cards out of whatever How many cards the UFC runs like 40 some odd cards a year More than ever now And I've gotten a bit older I'm trying to reprioritize things in my life. And that means I'm actually like, have made a point to take the occasional Saturday off, which again, I had not done for a long time. So yeah, honestly, there are some cards where I keep up with the coverage on MAAfighting.com.

I go back and watch some of the key fights later that night or the next morning. But I have miscarriage. I love MMA. I love M.A. And Fight Night to me is still the best part of it. I still, I like doing the coverage. I like writing articles. I like getting to do the occasional interview.

I love doing shows with my best friend Mike. rest of the staff. But watching the fights is still the best thing. Even as somewhat diluted as a practice has become, I love MMA. So yeah, I definitely would not be doing this job if I didn't style a passion for it. It's just, I think, and I think a lot, I don't think I'm alone in this. A lot of people who have been watching MMA for, you know, so many years are a little burnt out from time to time. And actually, taking a night off really helps to sort of refresh your love for the game. That's how I feel about it, Mike. Yeah. Sometimes I want to take my wife out for the night or do something with my family or go see my parents for a weekend, something like that. And that's

perfectly okay. In fact, one of the things I was told when I first kind of had, when I had like my second interview for the job was for a long time, we were a staff who was just like everybody's on 24 24-7. Like you just get on and do the thing and you just, we just grind away. And one of the things that really made me happy and made my wife happy about it was we are going to prioritize schedules. Like, you're going to work now. Basically it was if you want to work out, extra. Like, I'm not going to stop you. Go right ahead. But we are going to basically tell you you're going to work this day, these hours, and then we want you to do other things. We want you to hang out with your family. We want you to go do other stuff so you don't get burnt out. And that was

one of the really cool qualities that I found with MAA fighting outside of it being a tremendous website and the staff and everybody else, but just prioritizing separation from it. Because you can get burnt out. And I've experienced it multiple times covering the sport, even, you know, not a lot here, but there are certain times where you're just, you're traveling a lot, you're doing this, you're doing that, like you don't, it feel like you don't see your family for months because of everything going on during crazy chaotic fight weeks and pay-per-views and, you know, there's a UFC event and then there's a Jake Paul fight and there's like five events going on at once. And it's just, it's wild. And I don't think I've actually, like, I've taken some days off, but I don't,

I don't think I've actually taken like a vacation at all this year, which is weird because the last couple of years I try to take like a week here and a week there. I think just random holidays have fallen on like a Monday. So I would take like three or four days off, but it would only count as like a day off because the other ones are weekend days or holiday days. So I am going to take like the last week of December off just to like see my family and stuff because I haven't seen my parents in forever. It's just so weird because of the job.

everything. So I get where you coming from? And I've jumped on the show once or twice and been like, I didn't watch any of the fights last night. I just didn't. Remember that car that was supposed to take place in like South Korea and they did it at the apex and Derek Lewis fought Sergey Spivak like 3 a.m? Like who the freak's going to stay up for that? I mean, come on. This is crazy. And this is after like a Bella, I think there was like a Bellator CBS car that this same night or some sort of other event, but it's tough to, like, watch everything and then just be, like, fully engulfed in the sport and then have to watch every single apex card. It's tough.

Plus, we cover influencer boxing. We cover, like, we're covering other fights often beyond just PFL, Belator. You know, we cover a lot of stuff beyond just UFC. Like, even if you were only to just watch every UFC card as a fan, I think you got to be exhausted. I don't know. Now imagine doing that, plus saying, well, I got to make sure I catch keep up with Belator. I got to keep both the PFL. I've got to keep up with one championship.

Imagine having to keep up with all that. It does wear on you a bit. So everyone, of course, I say enjoy your job. And Mike, we have an amazing job. I love covering MMA for a living. But for everyone, I'd just say, you know, in moderation, in moderation. Never let your job consume you, you know. Absolutely.

Let me see if I can find it. I found my question. I thought it was really interesting. I don't know how to find it, though. Oh, actually, can I tag off this one for a quickie? Yes, please. I think this was sent to you from Steve. if you're kind of related,

if your company asks you to cover a second sport, what would it be? Golf. 100%. That's a good choice. It's definitely golf. That's a good choice. Yeah.

What about you? I think I know the answer. Well, I think I would cover basketball. People know I love it, but I've also said many times, it's not something I would want to become a job. So the right answer right now is actually probably football,

Association football, international football, not NFL, not American football, which I enjoy, which I enjoy, but I have no real feel for. I'm just starting to get into football. We'll say soccer. We'll say soccer for the sake of the majority of our listeners, Mike.

All right, I'll say soccer. I'm just starting to get into soccer, and I love it. It took me years. I just didn't understand the structure of the tournaments and that there's so many different leagues and which the league is more important than which. And people tried to explain to me. They did their best, but it just wasn't clicking for me. It's on me.

It just wasn't clicking. And I finally somehow over the last couple years have really started into it. So now I'm obsessed. I would love to jump into that field and just be this eager, like, intern, foot soccer intern, just absorb information because I know pretty much nothing. But right now I'm obsessed with watching all the soccer slash football that I can. So yeah, I'd actually pick that over basketball. So basketball could still just be a hobby, not something I'd be professionally invested in.

So I'm trying to find, there's one question. People want to know the, like our tapology numbers? Yes, yes, from, yes, from Scott McCrae. Yeah, did you bring, go ahead. Did you bring, Scott McCraight asked us. Did you, did you bring yours up, Mike? I don't know how to find them. Oh, okay.

Go to, this is riveting, a podcast, I'm here. You should have my picks in your, go to your profile, my picks in your top right corner, my picks, my stats. Let's see, my picks. Let's go to my picks. And it should be next to your name and your, your belt. Okay. All right, I got them. I got them.

Oh, boy. My number shocked me. You can go first. So I predicted 59.2% correct. since I started with MMA fighting because that was the only time we really predicted anything.

My record is 1,113 correct picks to 768 incorrect picks 102 perfects 292 decisions perfect

where are you at? We should note we also do the occasional Bell Tour like main card big Belltor fights and trying to think so this isn't just UFC

but yeah I'm only slightly better Mike at 61% and I think I was doing picks before you were, before you had joined in May fighting. So I was, I'm at 1,514 correct close to 1,000 losses, 966 and then 155 perfects for 19 decisions. But yeah, I am not someone who's going to boast about their topology picks unless I get a perfect card. If I got a perfect card, which I think I did once since I've been doing topology, I'll probably like put on social media.

But other than that, you're really not going to hear me going like, yeah, I get good picks all the time. picking fights is hard. Picking fights is hard. I would love to know the number if you just like picked favorites all year. I bet it would be close for like 64 or 65% if you just went shock the entire year and just talk about UFC. But yeah, this is what happens when you, you know, you try to analyze. You think you know a lot. Guess what?

Turns out you know nothing. So I am not a picks expert. And read my predictions every week on MMAFlighting.com. My record's actually better than I thought it was. But I like, I need to, I think I need to change my strategy. So just picking who I think's going to win every fight and not just I have to pick to win that week. What have you been doing?

So for the most part, if there's obvious ones, I'll pick like the obvious winners. But there are certain spots, and I've talked about this before, certain times when we do these picks, I have to pick my spots because I want to win every week. So I don't want to pick exactly the same as everybody else. So I have to pick a spot and like try to pick a dog

and pick an upset here and there. When I should just be picking, like, who's just going to win? So I might have to change my strategy. I take chances to win. I have to think more long-term than short-term. But this game messes with you, though, because sometimes you have such a strong feel. It does, right?

When you initially see a match-up, you're like, oh, well, this is it. Like, pretty obvious this guy's going to win. I'm in on that. And then as you get closer to fight week, my goodness, we analyze, we talk about it, we analyze, we talk about it, we break it down 500 different ways in the lead-up to a big fight. And then by the time you get to a predictions time, you're just like, oh, man, like now I've considered every possibility when your first instinct was probably just like the best way to go. So it's the game, the game really messed with you. And there are much smarter people

than us, Mike, when it comes to, you know, picking, especially for gambling, don't listen to me when it comes to gambling. I'll tell you that much. There's much smarter people on that. Jed Mishu, G.C., Connor Birx, listen to No Bet Spars, or at least give you some idea of how to make some money. But otherwise, I do not consider myself a predictions expert. I think for the next watch party I do, I'm going to have my kid just make the picks for me. Yeah. Probably can't do any worse than us. Honestly, can't do any worse.

That was one of my first pieces of YouTube content I did was I would sit with my six-year-old at the time. And he would just read the names and he would pick them. And he would have, he would do really well. Like he had a winning record with his picks. He couldn't pronounce half the names, but he did pretty damn good. So, AK, why don't you pick the next question? Sure.

I will grab one. Well, you know, you mention, okay, hold on. Oh, I like this. Okay, from CV, who DM me on Instagram. What's up, C. One of them, I can answer quickly. Will you be boots in the ground for UFC 297? Yes, I will definitely be covering that, assuming it is in Toronto.

I don't think we've got the, no, we've got the official announcement, right? Official? It's going to be in Toronto. Okay. I will be there. Fingers crossed, I'll have some sort of backup. I would love it if, you know, our constant man on the boots on the ground, Jose Young's was there with me or an E. Casey Liden, it would be a beautiful, beautiful thing.

But if it's just me, I'll figure something out. I'll be there. CV says, I don't think I'm going because I feel like the new main event is going to be mid. Vacant Women's Bantamweight Championship. That's not, how dare you? That's not mid. You should definitely be there. It would be dope to have a chance to meet. Yes, CV, if you are there, DME, we'll figure out a way to say hello to each other.

And then question for you and Mike. If you were stuck in an elevator for an hour with three fighters dead or alive, who would it be? And are you picking and you can pick either who would be, who would be like the best to help you escape or just like, I think just to hang out with. Okay. Wow, that's interesting. Yeah. All right, I'm going with the hangout. You're going with the hangout.

This could not be easier. Yeah, I'll go to hang out. This could not be easier. It's Brandon Moreno, Derek Lewis, and Nate Diaz. That's it. Those are the three. Nate Diaz is definitely going to keep you calm. He's going to have right away, if anyone's freaking out, he'll find.

a way to keep everybody calm. I don't need to say how, but I think we all know he'll be ready. He's ready for these situations is what I'm saying. I think Derek Lewis would probably be as well. And Brandon Murray would just giggle at everything and it'd be incredible. A lot of positivity, the real prints of positivity. And yeah, Derek Lewis would just be hilarious. And Derek Lewis would just be dropped bombs, gallows humor. That's a good one. I'm going with the like if I can sort of, I don't know. This is almost like the dinner question. You know, like who would you sit with for for a dinner, but like a little different because you're stuck in the elevator. It's not quite as comfortable, but it's not super different.

GSP, I think, would make my list. Both again, because I think he'd be cool to hang out with. I'd love to talk to him. And also, someone who in that situation would have like some insightful thoughts on, you know, on hand-a-hand. He'd wax poetic about being stuck in an elevator. And I like that a lot. Does it have to go? It has to be fighters.

Dead or alive. I already trotted out Kimbo for our Risen question. I like Nat and Nate Land were a lot. I know again, there's another guy we just mentioned earlier in the show, but he's just got a matter of fact way about him. I feel like he'd have some some homespun wisdom again that would sort of keep me

calm. He also has a lot of stories and Mike we could sort of tell him about like the nine million fights that we book for him and just sort of just sort of like get a gauge of what he thinks of all that. And then the last person this is

tough. I was like, I just had a horrible thought. Weirdly, I was going to say, I don't know why it's pot in my head, so I'll just go with it. Henry Sehudo, I've said so many things about how this man annoys me. But he'd also have a lot of stories. He'd have a lot of stories, not just about MMA, but about, you know, coming up in wrestling and things like that. And some of these stories may not be true. But I think I need a little bit of contrast.

I can't just be in the elevator with my favorite people, Mike. I think I need someone to stir the pot and maybe even annoying me a little bit. little bit just to make it a memorable experience. And then, you know what? Worst comes to worse. Me and GSP can complain about Henry later when we're, when we're, after we've escaped and we're exchanging text messages. So yeah, I'll go, I'll go with that. Kind of a weird choice, but it popped into my head. So it must be first thought, best thought. That's a good one because honestly, I think I would come out of that elevator really liking Henry Suhudo. I don't know. Because we wouldn't get we would no, because we wouldn't get the guy that

annoys us. We'd get the real guy. We wouldn't get the shit guy. We'd get the real dude. The one that everyone tells me is like the greatest guy ever. But we don't get to really see that guy. We get to see him a little bit at media day when he opens up. We get like that version of Henry and you can tell like it's the real guy. But not Twitter Henry with the crown on that you see in the videos. No. That guy. I don't know. Whatever he's doing is working because he still finds his way in big fights. It's wild after screwing over the UFC. He just popped into my head. So he's literally taking up brain space.

And how can I deny that? One more thing from MJH also asked on IGDM, Mike, if it was in Toronto, what would it take for us to do a live watch party? I mean, really, it wouldn't be possible because I'd be there. I'd be there. So that's the only thing that would stop it. But if anything, I'll hopefully be able to come to New York sometime and join you and join you in GCC. But we'll see. fingers crossed.

So with the watch party, like my goal, like one of my goals, I don't know how realistic this is, but one of my goals with the watch party would be to do it in the same city as the event. Just find a spot. Yeah. It's hard to get tickets, man. Like, it's hard to get tickets to a UFC event. True. And they charge astronomical money for it.

And I feel bad for anybody who bought tickets to MSG to watch John Jones versus Steepa for that sole purpose because you spend a crap ton of money on that. But one of my, one of the things I, I would love to do is find like a, not even like a theater, just like a big open bar space and we do the show, we do the watch party, like me and GC on like recliners watching the fights, but there's people there watching the fights as well. Like, we can't show the TVs, but there's just people in there like watching the same screen we're watching. I think that would be like incredibly fun. And we get like the crowd reaction behind it and we just charge like a nominal

fee like 10 bucks to get in and like find a spot it's like 100 200 people like that'd be incredibly fun that's what I'd love to do someday get people's immediate reactions get people's immediate reactions come off you're like oh what you think of that knockout uh New York Rick could pop in and he wouldn't ruin fights for you guys by watching a different stream so that would be he's the dad Jackson on the watch bar you're gonna have to ban him for like three weeks that was so and I people know I love New York Rick that was one of the most offside things I've seen I was like are you kidding me I was so mad dude Are you kidding me, man?

I love New York, but that made me really upset. All right. So, like I, I don't even know if I said the slide, but I definitely said this to you off air, that there's like two questions that I saw and I like actually thought about. And this is a really tough question. So I'm going to go with it. Manic Hispanic 12 on Twitter. What is a fight you hate that everyone loves?

And what is a fight you love that everyone hates? hates. So this is almost impossible to answer. So I'm just going to contextualize us the way I view it. The fight that I love that everybody hates is a fight that if we went back, if we all went back and watched it now, and we took all context out of it, and we took all opinions we had that, that night watching it, and rewatched it as like just a fight on it in and of itself, I think everyone would love it. It'd be one of people's favorite fights of all time. I'm going with the rematch,

the second fight between Alexander Volkadovsky and Max Holloway. Because that fight is incredible. But the, but people hate it because of the whole quote unquote robbery talks. and everyone thought Max Hollowe won that fight. And it's just amazing now that we look back on Volcanovsky-Machachev won, and everyone thought Volk won that. So many people thought Volk won that fight, and then Islam killed him in the rematch.

I thought, I have watched that fight probably a hundred times since it happened because the amount of hate that I got on Twitter, and I don't get a lot of hate on Twitter, I feel like people are just, like I'm pretty even keel. I get a couple of haters, but I feel like I have a pretty good thing on Twitter. But the amount of hate I got for just simply tweeting, guys, Volcanowski Holloway is not a robbery. It just wasn't. I got murdered for that.

And I'm like, it was a super close fight. Like that was like the beginning of this whole like, what's a robbery and what isn't a robbery? That fight wasn't a robbery. Volcanowski won. He won three rounds to two. Hollowing on the first two rounds. Volk won three, four, and five. incredible fight.

But the reaction in the aftermath was, it was a robbery. Holloway should have been the champion. He got screwed. So people hate that fight because Holloway didn't win the title. The fight I hate that everyone loves, this was like incredibly hard. My first thought was was Kimbo Dada. But then I, like, I actually really love that fight. Yeah, you don't hate that.

The most hilarious reason. I know what you mean. I know what you mean why you, but you don't hate it. But, you know, knowing the kind of the aftermath of it and all the stuff surrounding it, it does, it does cast a bit of a pall over it. But if someone asks me right now, like, I'll pull up any fight you want right now. I'd probably pick that one. Like, it's up there. I would have to, it's not a fight that I've seen in years.

So I'd probably want to watch it again. The fight I, so this is, I landed on this one. And it's so weird because, and I'm thinking about. this the complete opposite of Volkovsky Holloway. I'm thinking about it the moment I watched it. It was actually my pick for knockout of the year in fight of the year in 2021, but I'm picking this one. It was Yuri Prahashka versus Dominic Reyes. And the reason I say that is because I legitimately, in the moment, thought that Yuri Pohashka killed Dominic Reyes with that spinning back elbow. Like I thought Dominic Reyes might be dead for a split second.

The way he collapsed to the ground, the way he was just laying on the floor like that, after that crazy fight, it was when I think of moments in the sport where I was legitimately scared for the guy who lost and was like, oh my God, like something really bad could have just happened. That's the first one that pops in my mind. That's the one where I was like, dude, he might not get up. and it wouldn't shock me. It was just a scary moment watching the fight. And it was an incredible fight and an incredible finish. That's why I nominated it so high on both those lists. And I think I was the only one to pick those for both that year.

But that was like one of those moments where I was like, man, I love this sport so much, but I kind of hate it too because it's so dangerous. And you have a moment like that. And I thought Dominic Reyes would never fight again after that. Yeah, that's always a good reason, I think, to like say I don't want to watch a fight again. or don't view a fight as well when someone gets when there's such a nasty I'm like that with Chuck and

Rashad. I and I a lot of people hate that fight just because they didn't like Rashad Evans. They really they loved Chuck still. They kind of didn't like Rashad and then when Rashad knocked him out I think Rashad was booed whenever they showed him in the crowd at like every other event after even after he won the title. I think he

kept getting booed when they showed him on screen and one of the main reasons was because they did not forgive him for a knockout joke and I thought he broke Chuck's neck So nothing wrong with that fight. It's not a bad fight. It's not a bad knockout. It's an amazing knockout.

Every time I see that clip, I get a little squirley. So that's a good reason. I don't really have one. You know what? It's not that I hate this fight, it's that it makes me feel bad when it gets brought up. Because when Cub Swanson and Do Cho fought, I was there.

But I can't remember why I did not, like I was there covering it for some outlet. I think maybe I was with the score at the time, not in a fight. I don't know if I was doing a scrum or something or I was lost in the sauce trying to get some sort of inside interview. I don't remember. I did not see that fight live. I was in the building and did not see that fight live. A Hall of Fame battle, one of the greatest fights people would say in modern UFC history, totally missed it. Every time people bring it out, I'm just like, you know what? I suck. I missed it. So I don't hate the fight. Maybe I just hate myself, and that's worse.

A fight you love that everyone hates. Mike, I'm along the same lines as you. It's all this robbery talk lately has really spoiled the discourse surrounding some great fights. So Volcanovsky Holloway 2 is a great example. For me, it's the Sean O'Malley-Pyodor-Yon fight because I don't like Sean O'Malley as a person really at all. But that fight was awesome.

And I think he won fair and square. You could score it for Yon, too. I have no problem with it. But I rarely hear people talking about that fight as like one of the great fights of 2022. Or was 2020, 2020 or 2021 by now? 22. 22. God, my life moves fast.

I think it made people's list. I know it was on my ballot. People just forget, like, how well O'Malley was doing and how much it surprised people. And I always tell you, like, if I could find a live feed of the social media responses during the fight, so much of it was like, win or lose, O'Malley's really proven. and holy, like he belongs with the top three. Like, this guy's really good. And then as soon as he won that very close decision, holy crap, it turned around a lot.

Not poop, that's sweet people in the media, but just sort of more fans going like, oh, what a run. Like, this is crap. Like, he got dominated. It's like, he shouldn't have won. I'm like, we got to get over the scoring thing, guys. Just enjoy a fight for what it is.

And if someone you didn't, you don't like wins or someone you didn't expect to win wins, you got to get over it real fast. I don't think judging is as bad as people think it is. We do see the occasional bad card. I actually think overall it's it's fine. It's a scoring system that's screwed up. But, yeah, there's a lot of fights of this,

but this is the biggest example for me recently. A great, I thought a great, great fight. One of my favorite fights in recent memory, and you just only hear people talking about the controversial, the controversial scoring and how much they hate O'Malley, which is hilarious. And I was, when I did the robbery review, Mike, and I scored it for, I said, O'Malley's win was fine.

I was getting accused of being like an O'Malley, like, fan. Like, I biased towards O'Malley. And I'm like, this is so weird. I've never heard this before. It wasn't a robbery. It wasn't a robbery. It was a great fight. It was such a good fight.

I really like that. All right, we're going to take, I'll you pick one more, AK, and then we're going to take a commercial break here. So, A.K., go ahead. Well, all right, then. I won't waste too much time. Let's go right to the next question.

And some irrelevant news. Two related questions. From Amd-Dood 23 on Twitter, has Hamzat become underrated? Seems like he's judged on a grading scheme. nor other fighter has before. People expect a first round KO every time. And at D. Brooks, at DM me a similar question.

Do you think COVID comes out to more of just a first round fighter? Because his battle with it may have affected his gas tank. There was, you know, thoughts he might retire. And then he's, you know, been very inactive since. So they're kind of related questions, Mike. Do you think he's become underrated? Do you think his cardio is shot? What are you thinking about after that the Usman fight?

I think COVID had, I think that about a COVID had an effect on him in some way. But I think the first question is a little more interesting, has become underrated. It seems like, because he is judged on a, because I remember, you mentioned the, you were covering the Cub Swanson, Doho Choi fight. I was covering in Jacksonville, the Hamzaa Chimae of Gilbert Burns fight. I was in the building, but I wasn't watching it Caged side. I was watching it in the back. And the arena was, like, the media room was shaking with how the fans are reacting to it. But I'm watching it backstage with like Oscar Willis and a few other people.

And we're just like mesmerized by everything that is happening here. And I asked Dana White at the press conference, I said, have you ever seen anything like Hamzat? Because all week in Jacksonville, the reason anybody wanted to talk to me about anything fight-related was about Hamzaat Shamaif and Gububurns. had nothing to do with Volcanovsky zombie, had nothing to do with Al Jemann, Sterling, Piotr Yan. I think that co-main event actually built up pretty well throughout the week. But it was the Hamzat Shamiyev show all day long. And I mentioned Connor McGregor to Dana.

And I was like, look, we dealt with this with Connor. But I feel like Hamzad is different because with Connor, and I remember one of the first memes I've ever seen with MMA was, it was this picture of Connor McGregor, and it was like a list of things Connor had to, accomplished before people started to believe in him. He's got to beat a guy with so many fights. He's got to beat a top 15 guy. He's got to beat a wrestler. He's got to beat a striker. And then the last one after he's got to win a title. Now he's got to win the undisputed title.

And then the last thing was he's got to beat the undertaker at WrestleMania after everything else was crossed off. And it was frigging hilarious. So when Connor was built up, it was like all these questions like, yeah, he's not that good. UFC's just building him up. What if he faces a leg kicker he's not going to do. When he faces a wrestler, he's screwed. And he goes on and just beats everybody. And there's still all these questions. With Hamzad, I was just like, he's going to kill everybody. And it's just a whole different thing. There was no doubts about Hamzad. So it's never, I've never really seen anything quite like it. And I do feel like he is graded in a way that no other fighter has before. And this includes Connor McGregor.

Because so much criticism from the Gilbert Burns fight, and I don't get it. It was a crazy-ass fight. Hamzad didn't stick to the game plan for sure. He got lured into a war and he won. He won the fight. And I understand the criticism with the Usman fight. He looked like the greatest fighter that has ever walked planet Earth for five minutes against Kamar Usman.

No one has ever dominated Kamar Usman like that ever. In any fight throughout Usman's Hall of Fame career. and Hamzad Diddy, 10-8ed Kamara Usband. Doesn't happen. And then he slowed down, had the hand injury, different guy. But even in round three, when the momentum was fully with Usman, he found a way to win. And that to me, I understand why there's trepidation now. Maybe the gas tanks a question, maybe the layoff.

There's a number of things that could have gone to that. He went from Paulo Costa, who everyone thought he was going to kill, to fighting Kamasca. Maa Usman on 11 days notice, it's a completely different fight and he still found a way to win. That to me is incredibly impressive because if you can show up against top level guys, not have your fastball, not have your best stuff, but still win, that to me is more important than Shemai of getting first round finishes. Having that sort of championship medal makes you great. Those are the things that make you great. may not be the best performance. You have great moments, but you won. He didn't lose to us,

but now if he lost that fight or if it was a draw, we're having a whole different conversation. But Shamiath won the fight. So yes, I do think he's, I don't know if underrated's the right word, but unfairly judged, I guess I will say. But I understand why there's questions. And his next fight is going to be super important. If he ends up fighting Sean Strickland, I'll tell you what, man, if that performance did anything, it made me way more interested in the potential Sean Strickland versus Hamzat Shamaia fight, because if that fight gets to round two, Sean Strickland is live and it's way more interesting than I thought it was going to be. Yeah, I'll also kind of avoid using the word underrated.

I think he's getting closer to properly rated, maybe, if anything. I think the Gilbert Burns and Usmaud fights gave us a gauge of how good he is right now. because we were saying for the longest time, Usman should have called him out 18 months ago or whenever he still had the title, he should have made Hamzaa one of those defenses because Hamza probably is not as good as he's, at the time was not as good as he was going to be.

Right now he's probably not as good as going to be. I still think there's a ceiling with him. Maybe it's improving the cardio, maybe it's just rounding out his game. I think there's still a ceiling. And I think if he fought Usman at 170 a couple of years ago, I think Usman, now after seeing this, maybe probably beat some.

So we are getting, I think, a better gauge of where he actually is now. And I can say this also as someone who I think overrates him. Like I think I have been overrating Hamzat. I'm kind of buying into some of these excuses like the Gilbert-Brens fight. Oh, he just didn't stick to the game plan. The Usman fight, there's rumors that he broke his hand in round one. So like for me, as someone who thinks that he is one of the 10, maybe 10 best pound-for-pound fighters in the world, I'm like nodding my head when I see these excuses.

I'm like, oh, okay, that explains that, that explains that. but at some point he does have to fight one of these elite guys and beat them and then we need to hear no excuses after and he hopefully has to win convincingly because Burns fight was great Usma fight, gutted it out as you said Mike. Neither was a super convincing

like oh this guy is like far and away better than Gilbert's. This guy's far and away better than Usma. He didn't outclass them. And so while that may sound unfair that we're saying like we're, you know, mentioning that as a negative, like I said, this is how we properly rate someone. We're actually getting a real gauge for how he fares against this level of competition.

And I think that's a good thing. So we're very hard on him, but that's because I think we're seeing the real him. And the real him is pretty good, Mike. It's pretty good. Pretty, pretty, pretty good. We got more questions. We're going to take a short break. When we come back, we're going to answer the rest of them.

Or as many as we can get to right here. And on to the next one, the podcast. With Amex Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. 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. Goaltenders, no, but just, just. Chicken tenders, yes, because those are groceries, and we deliver those too, along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. Welcome back, everybody, to a very special edition of On to the next one as we continue answering your questions. Since once again, no UFC event, we do this from time to time. A.K., I'm not sure if you're up or I'm up, but I'm going to defer to you my best friend to pick the next question. Oh, dear. All right.

I'll go to our pal Casey Carpenter, who has kind of a facetious question. Casey asked on Twitter, with it looking like steep his career is over, well, we don't know that. How long will the damn, damn they were good episode be considering that he is Jed's favorite fighter of all time? And what is your guys pro wrestling Mount Rushmore? So two separate unrelated questions. We'll talk about Steep A first. Steve A will not get one. And I'm not just saying that because Jed is actually not a fan of Steve.

He's made it pretty clear. He's not, it's not his favorite fighter, as Casey jokes. Before I get into that, like, why? Mike, do you understand, are you okay with that? Would you want to see Steve A. Miotich get a damn they were good episode? I mean, I feel like he has to, right? I don't know. How?

Like, how could he not? Because I feel like we're getting away. decorated UFC heavyweight champion of all time as of right now. What does that really mean? I feel like we're getting away from the, this is the Jed in me speaking about it. I am doing, if you pitched this to Jed, what Jed's response would be.

I feel like we're getting away from the spirit of what damn is. I think, I think because there's these guys like, you know, Carlos Konday, we did one cowboy, like kind of fighters who world championship level maybe never quite made it or won an interim title or challenged, didn't win it.

but had, you know, super important memorable careers. And then a little further than that, fighters who were like so dominant and so influential and so important to their, you know, to their era, which is why I think they just did Anderson Silva, then BJ Penn in the past. Steepa, again, this is Jed. This is not me.

This is Jed. Steppe, yes, holds the record statistically for the most heavyweight title defenses, but it is kind of a dubious record. It's just not a very high record. It's just the nature of heavyweight, right? Because we did Fador. You know, Thador, when we think heavyweight dominance,

we think Fadeor. or. Stepe, we should, but I don't know. I've just never looked at him that way. I've never looked at him with that mystique, which maybe is why he does need to have a damn done. I don't know. But I feel like, based on what I feel like our judge criteria are,

Stepe might not make the cut, but I don't know. I don't know. Mike, I think I'm crazy being crazy here? So you think, like Mirko Krokoop will get one? Yes. Yes. Yes. Correct.

Steve is in that limbo between clearly, a great fighter, obviously well-recognized world champion. But does he have a sexy career that Jed would want to highlight? I don't know. I won't speak for him. He may have to do it someday through gritted teeth, but I think to answer the question, there's a good chance. Even if he does get one, it's going to be a while.

It's going to be a while before you see one. True or false. One day, we will do a Dan They Were Good on Rich Franklin. I would say false. And I hate to do it because he's also True to that, then we had to do, Cibbe. Right. I will say false, but I hate to say almost because

he's kind of an example of a guy that like within 10 years, people are going to be like, oh, who's Rich Franklin? Oh, just the guy that Anderson Silva beat. And someone almost feels like you have to for historical purposes. So maybe that's the thing. Maybe that's how Steve will, he would be. Maybe that's how Steve B will sneak in down the road.

If we are worried that like, you know, some new hotness that heavyweights come along and everyone's not even talking about this era of heavyweights. You're like, well, you know, there was a guy during this era who defended the heavyweight title. three times and also beat a number of notable heavyweights. So it might do it. And by that time, Jed may have just passed a long dam to someone else.

Then Stevie will definitely get one. But as long as Jed's there, I don't know. What if he beats John Jones? Oh, that will be our wager. When this fight gets rebooked? I say when, I'm pretty sure it will be. When this bike gets rebooked, we have to tell Jed if Stevei wins, not only is he getting a dam.

He's the next dam. If he retires, if he beats John Jones and then retires, it's an immediate. He had damn. Within the next 10 days, there has to be a damn. There has to be a good episode on Stepe. So knowing. And he has to be part of it. So knowing Jed, yes, he is who he is. He is Mr. Doe-Gray area.

I do feel that once him and John fight and Steve Bay announces his retirement, that we will immediately do on him for like SEO purposes. Like just, just for the good of the website. What if Jed asks you to host it? What if he says, Mike, take it away. You've been on the show. You know the format. I'm sick this week.

I know you would. Wouldn't you want to make him do it? So how long will it be? It'll be two and a half hours, like every other one. Because we'll just have things to say. Yeah. Like, we'll just talk about it. My Rushmore is like an hour by itself.

And then we get into all the other categories. So I'm with you. I feel like if we don't get, like if we don't get a steep A1, I won't be shocked. But I'll say 5840. 42 we get one. I'm already thinking about the casting, the movie casting. If only, if only like Woody Harrelson was younger, I feel he could have done a good steep aim, they're not sound alike, but I feel like he's a great actor.

He could have done some sort of steep A approximation, but we'd have to get him. Liam Neeson would have been good. Wow. Ooh, I like that. Younger Lee Jason. Obviously not. Today, Liam Neeson. But what's your pro wrestling Mount Rush War, okay?

Mine's pretty easy. And we've had this discussion a couple of times on. And this has to be personal because if you want to go like historical, there's just so many arguments to me made about like, I mean, you can have Hulk Hogan on it. You could have, you know, Stone Cold of Boston. You got to go way back. You can get, you got to go. I think you have to go international, like Ricudazan and then like El Santo and Mexico. So I think anytime someone is saying a Mount Rushmore of pro wrestling, you just have to be speaking personally. So for me, who sort of formed my interest. So Stone Cold Cold Coldie Boston's mine online because he's my

favorite probably just number one favorite pro wrestler ever uh sean michales i think i would throw on there i just think he's just so influential to pretty much every wrestler you see on tv today like he kind of invented that this this main event style main event tv style that we see um i feel like i'm missing some sort of hoss name obvious hoss name on here i will say i have to have ray mysterio i'm a huge rameisterio guy i know there's you know people say oh i'm sure there's more influential high flyers out there but like in north america not in North America, actually, especially in the United States. You know, he brought that up with ECW and ECW, and just like there's so many, you can't,

most people who, again, are just fans of American wrestling, cannot look at a high flyer, a mass high flyer, and not think very mysterious. So that's, so that's a pretty big deal. I'm struggling for a fourth name right now. And we're just talking wrestlers, right? Mike, go ahead. Fill out some of yours, and then I'll think of a fourth one. I mean, like, you can textualize this in many ways, and you could do multiple Mount Rushmore for different categories,

but I probably just go with like the game changers of my lifetime. So it's Flair, Hogan, Austin Rock. Like it's got like, that's it. Those are the four. Now if we're doing like best performers, I mean, because you can even put like,

you can even take like Hogan, like Flair out and put Sina in there. I mean, it was a huge star and all that. But there's, I mean, there's so many other ways you look at. Best workers,

Flare would have to be in that one as well. Sean Michaels is definitely in there. And then there's a whole bunch of other ways you can go as well. Kurt Angles probably up there. There's just so many ways you can go at this. But that's probably it for me. Like Flair was giant star. Hogan, giant star.

Austin took the reins, became the biggest star in the history of the business. And Rock was like just behind him. And once Austin left, Rock took the reins. And WWU is still putting up like ridiculous numbers and ridiculous crowds and all that stuff. But Rock's probably my all-time favorite wrestler. He's the guy that, like, obviously Austin was big, but Rock's the one that, like, made me watch Raw every Monday. And I'm not talking like Rock with WWF Champion Rock.

I'm talking Nation Rock, the game of microphone, started talking in a third person, Intercontinental Title. I brought a sign to WrestleMania 14 when everybody hated the Rock that said, Ken Shamrock, question mark, the Rock thinks you should fire him. Brought that sign. True story.

I went to my sophomore year in high school. Was it a sophomore or freshman year? Sophomore year in high school, I went to the Halloween dance as the rock. Had the leopard shirt on, left it open, padded on sideburns, sunglasses, the jewelry. Like, not wrestler rock, cutting the promo rock with the $500 shirt rock.

That's how I rolled. And costume was a big hit, AK. This is before everyone started doing the rock. the black turtleneck fanny pack photo. Rock was like way over at this point. Yeah, he's wearing the leopard shirts and all that crap.

And yeah, I looked pretty damn good that night. I guess I got to throw in Brett. I guess I got to go Canadian. Got it through my boy, Brett. But it's funny because I almost feel like I have to choose between him and Sean. And this is like blasphemy. I would pick Sean.

And if I was picking just my favorite in-ring performer, like just whatever, however if you want to quantify like wrestling ability, it's actually Brian Danielson would actually be number one, not Brett, but Brett is pretty influential. And just looks like he belongs on the list like that. So him and Mysterio, Austin, and whatever, the other one I said. We could do like a whole roundtable about this someday.

And again, you're right. It really depends on what it is your, you know, what it is you're evaluating by. There's just just so many ways to go about it. All right, let's see what we got here. So I'm just going to ask two, I'm just going to do two of them real quick. Rob, send me an email. Will you guys do the prediction shows? again for 2024 and the recap for

2023. If Royval wins in December, AK probably wins. No, thanks. Yes, we're definitely doing those. Those are my favorite shows of the year on this entire network. So we're definitely doing those. So stay tuned for that. But I'll ask the question before that. Got an email from

Melissa, hey, Mike and AK. I became a fan in the middle of the pandemic, so I'm not a historian by any means. But listening to all of your shows, you guys have said many times that 2023 has been a chaotic year in the sport. I've also heard you say, Mike, that you believe it would take a lot to surpass 2016 as the craziest year. So if everything that has already happened, injuries, Jones, Izzy K.O., Islam Volk twice, cancellations galore, Sean O'Malley, Sean Strickland, and everything else, is there any way?

2013 could beat out 2016 for the craziest year in UFC history. Is it possible, A.K. For those who don't remember in 2016. Go ahead. Yeah, give him the rundown. No, no. We had, Connor McGregor supposed to fight Hafield Osangos. Oh, my gosh. The lightweight title.

Yes. RDA gets hurt. Nate Diaz steps in. They do the fight of 170. And Nate Diaz submits Connor McGregor, UFC 196. And that turned the whole sport upside down. Everything changed. Like, the whole year changed everything about it. Then UFC 199 happens. Michael Bisbing becomes the middleweight champion, short notice. Docs at Luke Rockhold.

UFC 199, by the way, I know, especially with this here website, there's a lot of bad juju that comes to that. But that card is incredible. Like, that might be the, from what expectations were heading in to what it actually was,

it might be the most overperforming card in the history of the UFC. We got the Brock Lezor announcement. We got Connor Nate 2 officially announced. Ariel reported both, of those beforehand, which is what led to all the craziness at 199. And then 200 comes along, which, by the way, McGregor and Nate were supposed to originally headline that card.

That was all the rumor and innuendo. And then Nate was just like, nah, dude, not doing it. And Connor's like, yeah, I'm not doing it either, essentially. And then we were supposed to get Amanda Nunes versus Beecha Tate, Frankie Edgar Josie Aldo. And then we're supposed to get in the main event, John Jones versus Daniel Cormier. And John Jones tests positive right before you,

UFC 200. He's off the card. There's a crazy video. I think it's from an embedded or just like a vlog of Dana telling DC that John's out of the fight. DC just loses it. And like one of the most raw moments you'll ever see. And then freaking Anderson Silva comes in on two days notice and fights Daniel Corby at UFC 200. Amanda Nunes becomes the champion. All this just weirdness happens. And on top of that, there are rumors flying around that the UFC is going to be sold. And right after UFC 200, despite all the, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's all bullshit. If you don't hear from us, it ain't true.

And that's all bullshit. They get sold to endeavor over $4 billion. Big deal. And then the year just carries on. UFC 202, we get Conor Nate 2 and everything that happened there. then we get the UFC getting legalized in New York that year, and they go to Madison Square Garden for UFC 205. Connor McGregor, with one of the all-time great performances in the history of the sport,

just rolls Eddie Alvarez to become a two-division champion, like the first two-division champion. We get Wonderboy Tyron Woodley, a fight that's often forgotten. We get the moment Habid and Ramaga made off is a made man. And it wasn't even on the main card. All the crazy, Misha Tate retires. Like so much shit happened. That yet, Ronda Rousey.

Like, just so much happened. So much happened. Ron Roses is here before. Misha Tate becomes the champion. And like the craziest fight with, like, so much happened in 2016. And I'm probably missing a bunch too. I'm also looking, you see, it started. It started with Loller Condit.

Yeah. The greatest fight in the NBA history. My favorite fight of all time. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. You know what? Free agency. Free agency was a big thing in 2016, too. That's really that those talks started heating up was 2016. Me being Mr. Goldfish, Mr. recency bias, I was about to say it already has that 23, 23 has already surpassed 2016. But now that I'm looking back on it, it's hard to say. I was going to say just based on sheer volume, just like how many crazy things.

But I realized like by 2016, the UFC already was almost in the current like schedule slate we see now, 40-something events. I forgot. I had forgotten that. I thought it was more recently that we had fallen into the, you know, two or three fight nights a month and a two or three fight nights and a paper per view every month. But I guess it's been that way for a while now, hasn't it? I guess it's been that way for a while now. So yeah, 2016, very tough to be. But, and I think the other reason we have to, we can't say, uh, 2023 beat it is because as you mentioned, Mike, the McGregor Dosanyo's fight falling apart was the domino that has sent us her. down this combat sports path that we still have not recovered from.

We're still falling. We're still falling and spinning through the chaos of the repercussions of that fight not happening. Because there's a world where he fights RDA and RDA just beats him. That wins the decision. I don't know. Submits him. We don't know. Or he beats RDA and just somehow the NADS fight still never happens.

Just he moves on to other things. Maybe we still get the Eddie Alvarez fight right away. I don't know. but everything that's happened since are still the ripples Sean Strickland beating Addison as the ripples Volcanovsky coming in to fight Makachev on less than two weeks notice

these are ripples these are all ripples of this crazy thing because again Volcanowski wanted to come a two division champion like a simultaneous two division champion that's because McGregor did what he did at Mazur Garden seven years ago we're still feeling the ripples So you're right.

Thank you for running that down and framing all of it. Because I was about to go and say 2023 has already done it. But that's a great question. That's a great question. Thank you, Melissa. Dominic Cruz won the Bannamway title that year on a fight night card against T.J. Dillishaw in Boston. And then end of the year on the wrong end of one of the all-time ass whoopens that went 25 minutes. Cody Garbrandt became the Bannemway champion at the end of 2016.

Amanda Nudas, I mentioned Ronda Rousey. Amanda, the final pay-per-view main event, we got Garbant running crews out of the building, and then Amanda Nunes, welcome back Ronda Rousey by just ethering her in 48 seconds. By the way, on top of all of that, yeah, Misha Tate's a champion. Demetrius Johnson annihilates Henry Sehudo. Steppe Mietchich becomes the heavyweight champion.

Knox up Fabrice O'Roodo. John Jones returns from, suspension to fight Ovin St. Prue and just a stinker. Eddie Alvarez wins the lightweight title against Hafeeldo Sanjos, not on pay-per-view, is the Thursday card before UFC 200. And then the next night, we got Yawani and Jacek, Claudea gadalia, in just one of the more underrated fights that women's MMA has had, a fight that doesn't get enough credit.

Tarn Woodley wins the Welterway title Steep A knocks out Alistair Overeem in Cleveland CM Punk debuted at UFC 203 No this was 2016

Yes CM Punk lost a biggie goal How long was this year? How long was this year Was this year like Was this 14 months In this year or something? How long was this year?

Michael Bisving fights Dan Henderson in his own in his first title defense Uh Demetre's Johnson Defends the flyway title

on the Ultimate Fighter finale against Tim Elliott. Oh, so good. On that card as well. Max Holloway beats Anthony Pettis at UFC 206. We had Team Yawanna

versus Team Klajia on the Ultimate Fighter. We had tough Latin America three. We had tough tournament of champions. Kicking off as well. It was a very busy year for the Ultimate Fighter in 2016.

This can't be real. This is a very, Someone edited this and added extra months, extra 2016 dates. That's too much. That's crazy. 2016 debuting fighters, AK. Maybe you recognize some of these names. Alex Morono.

Alexander Volcanowski. Alexa Grasso. Brandon Moreno. C.M. Punk. Chase Sherman. Chris Avila. debuted in 2016. Curtis Blades. debuted in 2016

Devin Clark Eric Spicely Gregor Gillespie Gregor Gillespie Gerald Mearshart debuted in 2016 Will Brooks debuted in the UFC

in 2016 Belvoir champion Jack Hermanson Jeremy Kennedy Josh Emmett Caitlin Jukagian Ketlin Vieira Who else we got?

Marvin Vittori. Mike the Truth Jackson. Mike Perry. Nico Price. Paul Craig. Randy Brown. Shane Burgos. Tatiana Suarez.

Oh. Made her UFC debut in 2016. Tyson Pedro. And the list goes on and on. And we got the second UFC event at New York City. It was the first UFC event I ever covered, AK. headlined in beautiful Scenic Albany, New York by Derek Lewis versus Shemiel Abderahima. Was this a classic, and this was a classic Lewis win, right?

It was like he was, he would have lost, he was on his way to losing a decision and just smash him. And just smashed him. Just smashed him. We got Chris Cyborg versus Lena Landsberg. Headlining a card. Headlining a fight night. We had a canceled card that year. B.J. Penn was supposed to fight Ricardo Lamas in the Philippines.

but B.Japan got injured and they canceled the entire card. That's so random. What else do we have? There's one I just saw. I was like, ooh, that's, that's what, oh, this was the year that Michael Johnson, absolutely ethered Dustin Porier. I mean, it's just, it's just crazy. We had Yaya Rodriguez versus Alex Casares headline a fight.

Great fight. Holly home, Valentina Schofchenko, headlined a UFC card. That was kind of like the real, that was like a big coming up. party for Valentina Shubchenko. She looked incredible in that night. We had, dude, it's just a crazy year. This is insane. This is insane. Yeah. So,

Tim Johnson and Ryan Bader had landed in a fight night. 2023, super drunk, no question. Way out of pocket. But I mean, 2016 is, was the definition of chaos. So we know, one more. One more crazy thing. Sorry.

We actually had two canceled events that year. One actually wasn't canceled. It was supposed to be It was supposed to be a pay-per-view. It was supposed to be headlined by Fabricio Verduem versus Kane Velazquez. Kane Velasquez had a back injury, and Steppe was going to step in, and then Fabrice O Verduem announced he was pulling out of the fight due to injury, so they took it off of pay-per-view, put it on FS1,

and it was headlined by Stephen Wonderboy Thompson knocking out Johnny Hendricks in the first round. That was 2016 as well. That was the debut of Mickey Gall, fighting Mike Jackson with the winner getting CM Punk. Oh, the stakes. The stakes. That was the fight past prelims, winner versus CM Punk.

Part of the question, this question that was asked for us though, Mike, was, can't, is there any way that 2023 can pass 2016? So somewhat suggesting, you know, 2023 is not over yet. I'm just looking ahead and just talking about USC only, Boy, what could happen? If Derek Lewis knocks out Jelton Almeda next week,

which I hope that doesn't happen because I'm a big Jeltenameda fan. But if it did, that would add to it. That would add to it to it. It would be a little nudge it a little bit closer. Pajasca Pareda ending in a double knockout, for sure. Would be like both guys throw spinning back fist and just KO each other. That's taken up. Then you're like, okay, now we're getting near 2016 levels.

I don't know what could happen in the Pavlovich-Aspanol fight. Maybe someone winning the title by like DQ or so. Yeah, you know, Al Jermaine style. someone goes on a legal blow, something like that. I think Asadol, I think Asadol going out and, like, running over Pavlovich would add to it. Sure, sure. A 12 days notice after coming back from a catastrophic injury. What else?

I'm just looking ahead. I'm looking at for stakes. There are certainly a lot of fights that have potential to be wild. Colby winning would add to it. Yes, I didn't want to go to the next. Yeah, I'm trying to look at anything in between those pay-per-views. Colby. Bilal Muhammad also debuted in 2016, by the way.

Damn. And Saul hasn't got a title shot. I'm so sorry, but I'll. You should get one. I don't know whether I came into. Colby winning for sure. Of course, the year of the broad doc. By the way, Mike,

nice try trying to gloss over the person asking what I win the predictions again. When I win the 23rd. Oh, you're definitely going to win. I would win the predictions and Otno in the same year. The treble, baby, the trouble. Two podcast championships in one year. I mean, Patty Pimler versus Tony Ferguson. The fight existing is chaos.

So I don't know what crazy thing could happen. Stephen Thompson, I think, like, head kicking shop would be wild. There's a lot of stuff. You're tempting fate right now. Because what if Patty Tony falls apart? Don't say that, please. All this is for nothing. We all need this.

As a community, we need this to happen. I think I speak for everyone when I say that. But yeah, I'm just looking at 296, and there's a lot of results that if they have like upsets or like the way a fight ended would be nuts. So I won't get into each every one, but like, Emichato Gary could get upset. What was the guy here? Tony beating Patty would definitely add to it. Tony beating Patty would definitely add to it.

I'm going to be hilarious. So there's only one, so for me, there's only one, like all those things have to happen that you just said. Yes. Patty, Patty, losing to Tony would be one of them. Colby winning would be one of them. Jailton losing to Derek Lewis would be friggin insane. Right ball, right, Val, you're the raw dog. You're the raw dog.

That's definitely just going to be awesome. Yep. And it would just be a cool moment, but I don't know if that's like a game-changing moment. But the correct answer is the only answer here, and even this might not be enough. all those things have to happen, plus this thing has to happen as well, which by the time you are listening to this, it may have already happened. If Francis Ngano beats Tyson Fury and all those other things happen, this officially surpasses 2016, as the craziest year in the history of the sport. And I agree, because that'll fracture the timeline again. Yes.

If that happened, that would influence the next seven years of like crossover, oh, free agency, free agency, crossover, boxing, balance, whatever you wanted it. Like, it would just open all these eyes to the possibilities, again, that I don't think any of us would even think to consider. But it's not going to happen. It would break, it would break MMA and boxing. I forgot, Mike. It could have already happened by the time people. It may have already happened. We'll cut two parts. Oh, it didn't happen. I can't believe it happened. People might not even be able to hear this podcast because the internet might be disintegrated. That's true. By a Francis and Ghanu first round knockout of Tyson Fier. I love that question, though.

All right, you're not the question. Oh, where do we even go from there, Mike? Where do we even go? I think I wanted to Denny Lynch. Denny Lynch, Denny Lynch on Twitter. Simply asking, Mike, you've been to more shows than I have. Where are the best seats for a fight in your opinion, including, of course, cage side, but including the floor.

Oh, yeah, because there's floor seats that aren't exactly the cage side. So with the cage height, fighter size, lights, cameras, etc. There are more seats with obstructed views than Fenway. So, Mike, what's your opinion? I guess it depends where you are, but what do you think? I know my answer. So I've been to a few. The garden from most of them.

I did go to one in Dallas, which is a hilarious story because we started off in the balcony and the guy I went with got so drunk that he was just being an asshole and almost got us both thrown out. But I was like in such good spirits and so excited to be there that the... usher that was walking us down while my friend was being really pissy about it while they're trying to kick us out i was being like super nice of the guy so instead of like kicking us out he moved us to a different spot he moved us to the second section next to one of the ufc cameras so we're like it was like ufc cameras and then just us in this section because he didn't want like he didn't want my friend

to offend anybody else but didn't want to get thrown out that lasted all 30 minutes because my friend just kept yelling at nobody. And the UFC production team was like, you got to move these guys because you could hear him being an idiot on the cameras. So we end up getting moved down, like to the first level for the rest of it, to the point where you could just walk down two stairs

and when Mirko Krokop walked to the cage, like you could pat him on the shoulder. It was pretty cool. Somehow him being a complete prick worked out for us. But to me, like, it's probably the middle section. like the 200 section or whatever. That's where I watched Dominic Cruz, T.J. Dillashaw. Great seats.

It's like just, it's close, but not too close. It's back, but not too far back. It's like you could see everything pretty clearly. But honestly, there's not like a, MMA is a really tough sport to go to live. You just go for like the experience of being there because you're mostly just going to watch the fights on the screen anyways. because it is obstructed and you're dealing with a fucking fence.

So, I mean, there's like so much you can do. You're almost just going to watch the screen anyways. So I would say like the middle sections, like not on the floor, but up a tier and sit as far back as you can. But there's not like a ton of like great seats. You're just there for the experience. And I would recommend everyone go once and then you probably got your fix unless you go, had the opportunity to go to like a huge fight for free or something. Yeah.

I mean, you essentially took my. answer Mike because I was going to say the best seat is in the comfort of your living room. Yes. Or if you're lucky enough to be to be GC sitting on a comfy couch in a studio right next to Mike Hack. That is like the best because it is, I'll say I'm not someone who goes to a ton of live events anyway, but some are better than others. Like I for me, I love going to baseball. I love nosebleeds. Really almost, there's definitely bad seats, but baseball is one of the best sports for watching live because it's just so wide.

It's so big. you anywhere you sit you're going to see you're getting a good view of something cool so i love baseball basketball i don't like watching live unless you have like kind of what mike said maybe mid-range seats or or behind one of the one of the nets um but mama because of because of the cage like it's there's a reason we always go like man like we talk about how cool it is like rise in fighting in a ring other promotions that you know have a ring rings are the ideal fighting for for uh spectators um the octagon is cool a cage fighting in general is cool it's a great visual, but if you're sitting on the floor level or something, man, you are going to be having a lot of trouble seeing anything good. It's just not meant for that. So if you, I would say save as if you, yeah, Mike's right, go once. I think I've only paid to go to UFC event one time. I believe I went to Winnipeg and it was a very bad card, one that the UFC apologized for.

So I've only gone to, I've been to a bell tour and some other smaller shows, but UFC just once and I was good. And then I go occasionally when they come Toronto to cover for Emma fighting. But If you can stay at home with your friends, have some friends over, chill out. You guys all have big ass, everyone has big ass TVs now. That's the best way. No fighting for the lineup at the washroom. It's the best way. But definitely go once. And like Mike said, maybe mid-range.

You know, don't splurge for floor seats. It's a cool idea to be down there. And it is, you know, it is cool to be as close to the cage as possible. But also, it's just not great for watching. I don't even love going, like, I don't even love going to the actual fight. night when I cover it. Like August, 2.92 week was like my, it was like the dream scenario. I went to Boston. I covered, went, did Media Day, did the Thursday stuff, did the Friday stuff, and then I flew to New York Saturday morning to do the watch party. If I could do that for every

pay per view, I would be happy. I'd be a happy, happy, happy person. I don't need to be there for the fights. I don't need to. I like doing the watch party. So much better. Like, I enjoy that so much more. So yes, if you've never been, I highly recommend you go once, but I don't think you need, Especially with where ticket prices are going these days. Sheesh. It's tough. Especially if you bought MSG tickets expecting to see John Jones. Yikes, man.

Tough. Let's see here. All right, I'll go to this one. Stubi. This is IG DM. Mike, you've always taught us the golden rule. Never believe a rumor or fight booking unless it's on MMA fighting. Great website, BTW.

But there are rumors on the social media is that Colby Covington is injured and Belaw Mohamed might step into fight Leon Edwards. For now, let's call this a hypothetical. But if that were the case, and UFC 296 would be re-headlined by Edwards versus Muhammad 2, would that be a good thing or a bad thing, both in your eyes and for the UFC? So in this hypothetical world,

which by the way, I've been asked about this a million times, I've heard nothing about this at all. I've tried to reach out to people, and I've gotten no response to this, but I have seen rumblings on. on social media. I've seen people who have gotten news correct also say there might be truth to this, but again, I haven't heard anything. But we are living in a hypothetical world right now, okay? Let's just say Colby gets injured, Balal steps in. Dana goes and makes the announcement.

What is the reaction to it? Is this a good thing or a bad thing? First of all, I wanted to say this at the end of the chaos question. I told her if Muhammad somehow, Bala Muhammad somehow stepped in and ended 2023 as the UFC welterweight champion. Again, that would add to the argument. Because beginning of the year, there's no world where I would have said, yeah, Balamah Muhammad somehow going to get that title shot and become Welterweight. It's no way I would have thought that.

And we are one, you know, rumor coming to fruition away from that becoming almost possible. I mean, it's, I have campaigned for Bala Muhammad just based on merit. I'm not saying he's the most exciting fighter. I'm not saying he's a great draw. I'm not saying he's great on the microphone. Some would say he's terrible on the microphone. But winning fights has to mean something. So in that regard, I think it's cool.

But this is, for business-wise, this is bad. This is bad. I don't like Kobe Cumberton, but it's hard to deny that people, talk about him. We write a lot of stories about him. Just things he says and just his persona, it draws some sort of traffic. It draws some sort of attention for the UFC. The kind of attention that Abelah Muhammad, for better for worse, he just doesn't bring that. And Leon Edwards, the fact that it took so long to book this fight, I mean, it has to happen.

Because Leon on his own, again, is not viewed as like this compelling personality, at least not by the majority of MA fans, like, as for what they're looking. for in a champion and in a MMA star. So if you put two guys like that, Edwards and Muhammad, who great fighters, I think it's an awesome fight on paper. There's a history there because of the no contest the first time. I think

it's cool as good as for me as someone who wants to watch it, but the UFC would be hurt real bad because the Edwards and Covington fight. People have won it for a long time. Covington, I think, I would say, has certainly that's a better chance than Bilal Muhammad, as good as I think Ballal is.

So I will say if I have to be binary about it, good thing or bad thing. Bad thing. Bad thing for the UFC. Not their favorite way to end the year problem. Yeah, it'd be pretty tough, man. That's pretty tough. That'd be two December pay-per-views in a row that kind of crumbled and left a bad taste. And I was like, look, Blal deserves a title shot, but he better hope Colby don't win that title.

He better hope these rumors are true. Because if Colby beats Leon, the law's not. never get a title shot. Like, it'll never happen. So I think Blal's best hope is that these rumors are true because otherwise he ain't getting a shot. But yeah, this is bad, man. This is bad. I'd be thinking about my first thought would be watch party numbers. Like, how drastic of a shift would it be to the watch party numbers if this was the new main event? It'd be cut in half. It'd be cut in half. Yeah. We'd probably get over 200,000 with Colby. We might get 100,000 with Blal. And It's just the reality of the situation.

Blal is a really good fighter. He's just not popular at all. He's not a draw in any way. And he could have been had he called people out correctly, had he got Mahamsat Shemaya fight, had he just screamed for it when the lights were on him, he'd be in a much better place right now, but he chose poorly.

It's always that, I forget what movie that is, but I remember how I met your mother, you make a choice, and then the guy with the, chink of armor and the crown comes in and just goes, you chose poorly. That's how every callout went for Bilal. And then you realized it. Indiana Jones.

Indiana Jones. And the last crusade. In the last crusade. Yeah. It's that. And then Belal would be like, yeah, damn it. And then he would try to course correct by doing 8,000 interviews and calling out for Hams up when no one cared.

Just so many, just a few decisions the other way, he would have been fine. but we'll see. It'd be great for Balal. This is his best chance. Because if this doesn't happen, he's probably not getting a title shot. And you know what's funny is I actually think Balmoh Mohammad,

I actually think he has a good personality. Like if you follow his social media, I think some of his tweets are really funny. Yeah, he's good. He actually has, but there's a difference between having a good personality, like as a human being, like a generally good personality in society

and having a good fighting personality. It is very different. You could be, again, you could be the nicest, most compelling person in social situations. but that doesn't mean you can sell a fight. That doesn't mean you can be a larger than life prize fighter. And he's not that.

He's not that. And I'm sure he would tell you that himself. He's not a larger than life personality. He's kind of quirky. He's kind of funny. Demetius Johnson is like that. I think Demetius Johnson is really funny. If you see him in interviews, he's very thoughtful, really compelling guy.

But he's never, he was never going to be the guy and a guy to do, you know, a Connor McGregor-level trash talk or put on a character like Henry Sohudo. He's just not going to do that. And that doesn't mean he's not. Again, not doesn't have a personality. He doesn't have a prize fighter personality. And that's how it is with some people. That's certainly how it is with the law.

Yeah. Okay. Well, Okay. I mean, it would be great for Ballal if it happens. Yeah. It's going to be tough.

Mike, we've only got a couple more, I think. Yes, I think we only have two. Okay. So let's do it. I'll read the one from Photos by Darren.

What is your F- Friday meal of choice, Mike? Do you have one? So I usually, I'm not the guy that just eats like a single chicken breast and like a side of broccoli. But I eat like pretty pretty good during the week. But Friday, Friday we get after it. Like after the work week is over, we get after it a little bit. Like we get takeout.

And there's like one burger that I usually get that's local. It's called the brothel burger. Then I get this like pizzeria slash tavern. And it's just like this huge burger. And it's got, you know, lettuce. tomato, but it's got bacon, it's got jalapenos, and it's just like cooked perfectly, little ketchup and mustard, and the fries are awesome. And I just eat that. And it's so good. And then like my kid usually gets a pizza. So he'll eat some pizza. And like, I might have a slice

or two of the pizza too. It's Friday. I don't give a crap once Friday comes around. Like, that's our day to just kind of get after it. So it's usually that, but there's no like actual meal. It's just we know we're going to go get takeout and we're going to be kind of sloppy a little bit. Yeah, I don't know if this is in the vein of like in the Dana White Effett Fridays where he suggests some like kind of weird frat house combination meal thing. I'm not a creative eater. I'm not a big foodie in general. So I'm usually the worst person to ask these questions.

But yeah, I like I like good, greasy fried food, man. You know, like just give me a nice plate of chicken wings. I always talk about hot star fried chicken. That's a time when he's fried chicken franchise in, I think not just in Toronto, but there's a few in Toronto. It's just, it's so delicious. I rarely have it. But every now and then I will go out and just chomp down on one of those.

But yeah, I don't know. I'm not the kind of person that's going to like, I'm going to put a Big Mac and a strawberry milkshake and then, I don't know, fry it. Like that, I'm not going to do that sort of thing. So wrong person to ask there. But yeah, to everyone out there, you do you, if you like doing weird crazy stuff. But I see those kind of videos on like TikTok Instagram. I'm swiping right by.

I don't need to know what you guys are putting in your business. rallies. Yeah, I was done. I was done with F-It-Fri-Friday, like January 7th, honestly, but that's neither here nor there. So, okay, I guess this is the last question. Four Corner Sports has two questions. I'm just going to ask the first question. I'm not going to ask the second one. That's just a lot of thinking, and I don't really want to do that anymore. We kind of did a car. It's like asking, like to make a card or something. We kind of did that with the Verizon one. Yeah, I mean, and nothing's going to be better, like, more chaotic than that. So, Four Corner Sports.

This is from DM to you. For the Ask Me Anything episode, if you were Tom Aspenol or Sergey Pavovich, how long are you sitting out after a win after November 11th, especially with the John Jones injury? Should they defend the interim belt? What do you think? So, of course, much of this depends on how long John Jones is actually going to be out.

When Dana White made the announcement, he threw the number out there of eight months, that it would take eight months to recover because John's going to get surgery, factorial injury. But that's not locked in. You know, that's not, I think,

I think that's sort of the worst case scenario. And I mentioned in our Slack that if he, if that did happen, then John probably won't be coming back until next summer. He'll be 37 years old by then. So I don't know what the plan will still be. And steepy, I don't again,

also be a little bit further along. You have to wonder. But I'm sure they both still want to take that fight. That's just, that's locked in for both of them. So I guess what Four Corner Sports, one thing they're asking here is, do you wait around for the possibility that you could get the John Jones fight if you're Tom Aspinall or your Sergey Pavlovich? I assume that's part of the question. And I would say, hell no.

Defend the title at some point, or I think to build up whatever event this might have to headline, like Aspinall or Pavlovich's first title defense, they're going to say this is the undisputed title now. we will elevate interim to undisputed and when John Jones Steve B. Come back I don't know, they'll figure out some other promotional thing the goat heavyweight title Mike, they'll create the goat heavyweight title for Steve A and John Jones to fight over

get a new gimmick belt. I'm all for it. But I think Aspinall-A pavitch will be recognized as the undisputed UFC champion. At least I hope that's what they do because I do I'll tell you right now, whoever wins that fight I'm probably just going to bump up to number one on my heavyweight rankings. I just cannot out waiting for John Jones to return.

So that's what's on the line for me. And I hope that UFC makes a right decision and does that for them as well. Yeah. I mean, it's tough because we, God, we might actually get an intern title defense. Because I feel like,

I feel like John Steve A will headline international fight week. Because if it doesn't headline UFC 300, then you can't put it anywhere else besides international fight week. You can't just throw it on UFC 298 or 299. Like, it's either 300. or it can be on 301. It's got to be one of the big, big, big cards.

And I think that's what they'll try to do. And as soon as that fights over, whoever wins November 11th is going to be Robert Whitakered into becoming undisputed champion because both guys are going to walk away. Jones will win. He'll say, I'm out, but I'm not slamming the door.

Steepa will retire. Whoever wins that fight becomes the undisputed champion. but it's a long time to wait, man. It's a long time to wait. Now, if you're Tom Aspinall, Sergey Pavich, I think we'll wait. If you're Tom Aspinall and you win the belt in November and the UFC goes back to London in March for a pay-per-view,

I kind of have a feeling Tommy Aspinall is going to want to fight on that card. So, does he defend against the Jailton Almeida Derek Lewis winner? It could happen, especially if Jailton wins, but does Tom want to risk the title against Jailton? Maybe. But outside of that, I don't think Tom would fight, but if they go back to London for a pay for you in March,

I think Tom's going to try to get on that card if he wins the belt. So I'll say maybe, but only if Aspinall wins, will that belt, will the interim title be defended? Oh, that's a good point. That's a good point. Yeah, I could see Sergey just being less motivated to jump back in there, unless by some chance they went to Russia or something. I don't know if they would do their plan to do that. But it has to be come undisputed because we saw Dana White's answer,

the, was it the Power Slap media scrum they had recently? Was there any thought to having Steve A, you know, like fight for the interim title? He was like, no, these interim titles are crap. I'm not going to, Steve A's better than that. I'm not going to make Steve A fight for an interim title. What are you kidding? These things are worthless. Now, he didn't say that in so many words.

I may be paraphrasing a bit, but I would think if, I was just saying if Tom Aspinall were to fight in England that they would say this is for the undisputed heavyweight title. And the other thing is they want to do that as soon as possible, I think, because Francis is still out there. And every time, and Francis is, you know, called the lineal heavyweight champion, I feel like it's a little, it's a little poke, a little shot at the UFC, and he is the lineal heavyweight champion, by the way. So they need to say.

He might be the lineal boxing champion right now. Yes, maybe. But that's what I, well, that's what I meant. And I think the UFC needs to. tout whoever they can as the world's undisputed heavyweight champion as soon as possible because having Francis out there and then going like, oh, look, we have an interim

our interim champions defending, it just sounds so silly. Yeah, it's not like any other division is dealing with vacant and interim titles. It's craziness. I think that's it, right? Wow. We did pretty good. Nice job, everybody.

Yeah, those are awesome. Nice job. We might do one more of these for the years over. I don't know when. probably won't do it like Thanksgiving week that probably will not happen or I mean we're past your Thanksgiving AK or is it

is it Canadian Thanksgiving? We already passed that right? October baby we're moving on this this month's almost over and thanks things evening's way in the rear view so we may not do on PFL championship week how about that? Does that sound better? We will wait you're saying we might not do one

we probably won't that's a holiday week but now you're explaining it in a way I understand yes absolutely so but next week we are back to the to the matchmaking, everybody. UFC Sao Paulo going down with looks like 14 fights, and we lost one

this week. So we had 15. We got the main event with Curtis Blades out, Jelton Almeida versus Derek the newly resigned Derek Lewis, the man who tested free agency at the peak of his powers for about 36 hours.

Welcome back. Go fight this guy, Derek Lewis. Gabriel Bonfine versus Nicholas Dalby Nicholas Dalby has thwarted a lot of prospects in Brazil so keep an eye on that Rodrigo Nassimento versus Dantel Mays Kyle Barallio not in the co-main event

at least for right now We don't have the official schedule yet He has to be in the co-mainteam come on Come on All right let me look at the I'm going to the official website But we're also so far away from it I don't think they finalized

I would be very surprised they'd buy the list. They did. They did. Yep, Bonfim Dahlia be the co-main event. That is absurd. What did Kyle, Brailleo do to deserve this? Fight for the UFC and co-main events. What an 8 for Abbas Megameta, who was headlining in his most recent fight due to deserve this. Come on.

Look, they want people to get there early and often. They don't want people just showing up for the main event. They want to get people in the building a little earlier. Sure, sure. Kyle Barallio will face the man who helped usher the Sean Strickland Era at 185 pounds. Abus, Maga Madoff. Looks to bounce back. Hidalfa Vietta versus Armin Petrosian, Ishmael Bonfim versus Vince Pichel. Elvis Brenner versus Esteban Riebevich. That fight's going to be insane. Yes. Daniel Marcos, Victor Hugo,

Elizu Zelisky versus Renat Fakritinov. Whoa. That's a big test. Big test. Yes. And if Akritinov wins, he's going to get a big fight. Victor Vitrino versus Modestis, Bukoskis. I had no idea this fight was happening. Angela Hill versus Denisi Gomez? I did know, and it made me sad because I like both fighters a lot. And this is one of those. I wish neither fighter could lose, but hopefully it's just put on the banger that I'm expecting.

Man, Angela Hill has become like the Edson Barbosa of Women's M.A. She's just fighting killer after killer. Monsterats, Connejo, Ruiz, versus Eduardo Maura, and Kayaway Fernandez versus Mark Jacase. That is UFC, Sao Paulo. 14 fights. I got to look. This is the big thing.

Oh, God. 9 p.m. main card, 6 fights. All right, it's not the worst, but it's not great either. It's not great. 9 p.m. for 6-fight main card. Yikes. But then it's UFC 295 the following week. so.

AK, thank you for doing this. Thank you. Thank you for being my best friend. And thank all of you for listening and submitting the questions back next week right here on the program. And always remember the golden rule. Don't take this stuff too seriously. I'm going to be fun. And we will have more fun with the matchmaking crowns back on right here.

On to the next one, the podcast. Listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.