MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | Conor McGregor's 2024, MMA Pet Peeves, More | Ask Mike & AK Anything

Episode Date: May 26, 2024

With the UFC and major promotions off this past weekend, MMA Fighting’s matchmaking show decided to give back to fans of the program with a special “Ask Us Anything” show. On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee take listener submitted questions about Conor McGregor's 2024 and if he'll fight more than his scheduled UFC 303 main event with Michael Chandler, MMA pet peeves, when Khamzat Chimaev and other contending names could fight for a title, best prospects in the sport throughout the weight classes, the possibility of the UFC introducing a women's atomweight division in the future, MMA referees and when to show authority in fights, and much more. On To the Next One will return with a live matchmaking show on the MMA Fighting YouTube channel on Sunday, June 2 following UFC 302 headlined by Islam Makhachev vs. Dustin Poirier. 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 2, Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix Colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprise his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?

The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian

in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster, the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two,

Ghosts in the Machine, available now, only from Audible. And welcome to a brand-new edition of On to the next one. I know what you're thinking. Self, what are these guys doing here? There's no UFC event this weekend. What are they matchmaking for?

We're not matchmaking. Because as we discussed last week, we don't want to leave you guys hanging on a long weekend, especially in the U.S. So we turn the programming over to all of you to ask us some questions. It's another edition of the Ask Mike and A.K. Anything edition of On to the next one. I am Mike Eck, and joining me as always,

the aforementioned AK, the co-host, co-matchmaker, the Prince of Positivity, and my best friend, Alexander Kay Lee. How are we doing AK? What's not my best friend? I love when we get to do stuff like this. I like doing the show. I like doing the weekly show.

Routine is great. I'm a creature of routine. Love talking future fights. Love doing a quick kind of a quick, you know, post events, Sunday, wake up, recap. Love it. Big fan. But when we can, you know, shake up the situation a little bit, when we can, you know, to go a little different direction, we can really get the voice of the people guiding the direction of the show.

I think it leads to some of our best content. So I'm excited. I'll tell people right now, I've looked over. almost all the questions. I'm not like, I don't think I've really pre-prepared a lot of answers. So you guys are getting pretty, pretty sincere off-the-cuff comments for me.

But I did, as you want below, I did look at your questions, good stuff from everyone. Love the, love the input. All right. Should we just get right into it? Yeah, let's go. I'm going to jump around.

I don't know if you're going to go top to bottom on our shared dock, or I'm going to be jumping around. Okay. You can go first. Yeah, I'm just going to go for the, the first one that I see here. And I don't know who submitted this, but that's okay.

Maybe you know, I believe this was sent to you originally. It's a two-parter. What is your MMA pet peeve? Not something larger scale like ranking, squatting, immediate rematches, et cetera. Something that ultimately doesn't actually matter, but gets on your nerves. Mine would be 100% finish rate. Should be reversed for undefeated fighters. If you lost, then you don't have 100% finish rate.

Uh, we want to just start there? I think mine's pretty simple. Uh, yeah, so I sent this to you this from Seth. Well, first I'll say, I don't have a problem with the finish rate thing. I'm also the Prince of positivity. I'm a fan of any time you can sort of skew the numbers to, you know, promote a market a fighter and maybe make their whatever run they're on a little more impressive than it actually is. I say go for it.

I say go for it. Because, and these things matter. We talk a lot about like the get or get got all stars. So, like, yeah, when we talk about someone having a 100% finish rate, we're really emphasizing, like, yeah, they don't necessarily win all the time. But when they win, boy, it's spectacular. So that to me is like solid shorthand for saying that. But I get it. It could also be misleading.

And simply like, oh, they must be undefeated. They finish 100% of their fights. And that's not exactly what that means. So that's a reasonable pet peeve. Mike, what is yours? It's robbery. Robbery is a pet peeve. To this day, robbery is a pet peeve.

A close fight is not always a robbery. Once in a while, we view fights as close and we score them in certain ways. And then we see the scorecards. And I think to myself once in a while, you know what? Maybe that's a little bit of a robbery when we look at how the scorecards are actually put together. But these are very few and far between that there are actual robberies. But again, I know the betting community has sort of changed the focus on what's a robbery, what's not.

different sorts of emotional reactions to certain decisions, but still, to this day, robbery is a term that drives you crazy. Yeah, and it's always seems to like highlight how poor the understanding of judging fights is, and not just among fans. This is among fighters, too. Fighters are some of those vocal on social media talking about, oh, this fights of robbery, what are they doing? Oh, my gosh, what's this judge smoking? and fighters, listen, they know a lot more about us, many aspects of fighting than we do, but a lot of them don't know their criteria of judging.

A lot of the commentators, I won't name names, don't seem to understand the criteria of judging. And we can have a debate right now, and it's ongoing, it's picked up recently, the debate of like, man, like how much is striking? Like, it's so heavily emphasized over grappling. And that is the way it is in the criteria. Should it be is a very fair question. I wonder if within the next couple of years, they will have another sort of meeting about the criteria and a little bit of an overhaul may balance it out a little bit because it does feel like grappling is almost getting ignored too much in some fights. But the point is, whatever the criteria is now, most people don't even know what it is.

So those are two separate debates of do people understand it and do people accept it? Those are different debates. Your pet peeve might kind of ties in with mine. And I was trying not to repeat myself because I know we've been asked this question before. and I'm sure I've said some variation of this. But when a fighter's like, oh, so-and-so was exposed. But now this happened after Robelis, Rebellis to Spain's loss, the fraud check thing.

I didn't mind it for Robelis. I thought it was a little harsh, but I get it. I get it. He came with a lot of hype. He's supposed to be knocking everyone out in five seconds. He puts on it and he loses in like the most dull, unsatisfying way possible. So, okay, cool.

Throw your fraud check thing out there, whatever. That's great. But I feel like since that happened, this is only what, two or three weeks ago. Everything's a fraud check now. Patchy Mix. Oh, fraud check. Fraud check because he had a cold fight with one, he won, two,

oh, Megamad Megamatov, right? Megamadamadov. He's really good. We don't have him in our rankings. I know he's not in our top, but he's a guy who gets votes for sure. I think he's had a votes. If not, he's definitely getting him this time. Also, this is the guy who patchy beat before.

So I don't understand what they're trying to say. Like, oh, well, that first fight was a fraud, and now we saw him checked in the rematch. And the fights before also were frauds. Like, he finished some really good fighters. He's also a fraud. So again, I know I said something this before, but now it's this specific phrase, and it's just, I get it as an MMA community, sports fans in general. This is right up there, Mike, with like, oh, you got that dog in them.

Some phrase gets out there and everyone feels like they have to start using it. So now it's fraud check. These words have meanings, guys. These words have meanings. Just losing a fight after you're on a win streak or having a bad forance. It's not a fraud check. It's not a fraud check. There has to be like undue, undeserved.

hype and attention. Patsy makes the top five phantom weight going to that fight. I don't think anyone should knock him too far. Maybe top seven, top eight. That's still great in one of the deepest divisions in the M.A. That's not a fraud, guys. That's not a fraud. I'm sorry. So I'm maybe forgetting something, but that's definitely, that's always there. And now it's just mutated into a new form, Mike. I think what hurt Patschie is not, it's not even his fault. I mean, look, when you're a fighter and you're really good and you're constantly being compared to the biggest organization in the world. Of course you're going to say I'm the best band of weight in the world. And then there are people who have, I'm going to say hipster takes, but somewhat hipster takes

that patchy Mixed was the best band of way in the world heading into that fight. And I just, for me personally, I've never been able to get there. I can understand why people would want to have that conversation. But I learned something about patchy Mix. I learned that he is unequivocally not the best band of weight in the world. I felt good about, I'm not, it wasn't a fraud check. It just was like, okay, I was right. And then my other thing was, I think Sean O'Malley would beat Patchy Mix in a fight anyways, even heading into that.

Now I'm like supremely confident that he would be patchy mixing a fight. So I didn't learn anything. I guess maybe I possibly ranked him a little. I think I had him in number three heading into that fight. I just don't think he's a top three band. I'm waiting. I don't. He's top five.

He's top five. And I was having conversations with a couple of the colleagues here. and I believe you might have been one of them. I would pick confidently four of the top five UFC Bannam weights that I have in my rankings to beat Patschie Mix right now. I would pick Jose Aldo to be Patsu Bix right now. Sure. And there's nothing wrong with that. He's still very, very good.

The problem is he is in an organization where he just has nobody to fight. Magamemagamagamato is good. He will be ranked in my rankings. But the fact that he had to get on a microphone and call out Lianro He, ego of all people after this win just goes to show you how not deep this roster is for PFL. They have no buzz and no depth in a lot of their divisions. And their best fighters are in divisions where they don't have divisions.

It's frigging insane. So, yeah, it's unfortunate that Patchy is kind of in the position he's in. We're just never going to know the answer, AK. We're just never going to know. and by the time we actually do get to know, unless PFL signs Josealdo, it's going to be too late. It's got to be too late.

Yeah. So he was not, again. See, that's analysis. Did you listen to that? That's called analysis. That is not someone getting checked. That is a breakdown of what happened in the fight. You cannot write off a performance like that

and a moment like that as just saying, oh, a fraud got checked. It's more nuanced than that. It's more nuanced than that. You can say he didn't live up to expectations. Fraud is a very strong word. But I get it. Listen, this is Mike.

these are phrases, just like Seth who asked the question, 100% finish rate, robbery, fraud check. These are all shorthand for fans and some media and fighters trying to express an idea. But I do think a lot gets lost when you boil down your take on something to one of those phrases. So, you know, our pet peeves are really just language related, I feel. Yeah, 100%. Second question, both of you being basketball fans, pick one NBA player. You'd want to see transition in MMA. This must be a current player in their current.

state, not LeBron of his prime. The catch is you lose the rest of their basketball career. As this is a full-time transition. I pick is John Morant. We just had a season without him and nobody missed him. Plus, he's the ultimate test of exactly how far athletic says it could take you in MMA. 6-2, John Morant as a Walterway with a 6-7 wingspan could be a problem. This might be the easiest question of all.

Yeah, I think we're both thinking the same thing. What do you thinking? I like the caveat of you also, you are losing the rest of their basketball career, though. Oh, yeah. That's the sacrifice you're making. That's it also made it so much easier. Oh, you want this because, go ahead. Oh, yeah, because he sucks.

It's Draymond Green. Oh, I thought you were going with Wembe, but okay, go on. Yeah, of course, that's right. Yeah, very logically. Go ahead. Yeah, I mean, that's just it. Like, we get him for like two or three fights. He either becomes like massive superstar that we just want to watch fight people,

or he gets his ass kicked. And I think either way is a win for us all. So, yeah, it's Raymond. Jermond listed at 6'6, 2.30. I think asking him to cut to 205 would probably be, I don't think he'd have the discipline for it. It's a lot to ask. He's 34 years old.

So he's probably going to have to go heavyweight. I went with Wembe because I checked, he's listed at 210. He's a very skinny, he's a tall skinny boy. Seeing a seven foot, so he'd have to cut maybe five pounds, but it's nothing.

Again, he is growing. By next year, he'll probably be closer to 220, but let's say he's 210. And he's just cut five pounds to fight at light heavy weight. I imagine's like a seven foot three. with like an eight foot wings, eight foot six wingspan or whatever, like light heavyweight.

That'd just be hilarious. Now again, your pick makes much more sense since we're losing whatever's left of three months career. That's fine. He has, what, two or three more years left?

Wembe, I am sacrificing maybe the next great player of this generation for MMA. So in that sense, it's a horrible pick. I can hear the booze, but I'm just so curious. I'm so curious.

My other pick, a little bit of a deeper cut, but I think most NBA fans know who these guys are. The Thompson brothers, the guys who just got drafted, the twin brothers, also from the Wembe draft, Amen and Osar. They're so freakishly athletic and coordinated. And very good at basketball, don't you're wrong. But there's still a part of me that wonders, like, if you put these guys, like, these are kind of athletes I always dream up.

If you could get these guys to MMA, they're physically capable of anything. You could train these guys to any maneuver, any technique. And they're not the only ones in NBA. NBA is full of athletic people, but these guys are really young. I think they're right in the area where, I would like to start developing a prospect. They're like 19, 20 years old. Give me one of those Thompson brothers.

I'm going to Osar, and you give them two years of training, some amateur experience turned pro at 23 or something. These guys would just be insane. But, you know, again, some people are fighters, some people aren't. But that's the kind of profile. I'm thinking of just so athletic, so coordinated, so flexible. Gives me chills thinking about it. That's good question.

What do you got? Oh, I didn't even think where I was going to jump to. Okay. There was no ultimate fighter. I don't think there's any ultimate fighter-related questions, sadly. is normally where I would go first. You know what? I'll...

No, I'm not going to start with that. Let's go with Paul. Paul asked, now that Bilal has a title shot, which we thought would never happen, rank these five fighters on the timeline of their title shot, going from next to last.

So going first of all. Hamzat and Kalayev, Umar Nirmagamatov, Manel Kopp, and Mosar. This is kind of easy because I think Manel has to be number one, right?

If he wins his next fight, he's getting a tell the shot. Right? Yeah, but there's just so, I'm not confident putting him in number one. Okay. I would put him number one. I guess I have to put Kamsat number two. I just feel like they're really invested in him. He's, if he beats Whitaker, I mean, that's got,

Whitaker, Usman, back to back. That's got to get him a talos shot at, I would say, 185, but I don't know, like he keeps insisting on wanting to fight for the Welchway title. but and then I'll go Ankolaev Umar Moser. I want to put Umar higher. We've said many times. I think Umar is the best band to win in the world. It's just a deep division.

There's a lot of not, what's at the top? There's a lot of, uh, Sean Malay has a lot of leverage. I put that way to, um, to work his way into certain matchups. Umar is still kind of missing a signature win too. Maybe that's Corey Sanagan. I don't know. Uh, but I don't think he gets to tell a shot. immediately after that even though he should.

So I'm putting him Umar fourth and Movstar are pretty far away. It's company just doesn't like him. Hamzat's number one with a bullet. Ooh. Man. Because I mean, I feel like the other four just, it's got to be forever for all of them.

Really? You don't think Matt out. You don't think Matt one win. He's fighting by the end of 2024 or start of 2025? If he misses weight, like again, what if he doesn't show up to the fight? Like, I don't know.

These are Hamzat questions too, though. I mean, that's why I didn't have him number one. I think he's even more. Well, Homestown's got to make weight at 185. Yeah. He's going to make it. He's going to fight Robert Wittner. Fingers crossed.

He's making it to Sadi. Fingers crossed. Fingers crossed. But if Cop wins, he probably does get one. So I'll say Shemi if Cop, man, because I'm picking Corey to, I'm picking, okay, so it can't be Omar then. Wait to wait to the fraud check freaking statements come out if Umar loses to Corey. God, me.

It's going to be a Twitter timeline full of them. He lost to a top five. He's also top five bantam wins. He sucks. And I'll go Ancolaeuf of Lov. It sucks at Obloyev is like last on this list because I feel like he is the best chance of winning a title. Sure.

Maybe of all of these guys. Definitely. But, uh, man. But you have Umar third still. No, I've Umar fourth. Umar fourth of Lov. Oh, Ankoliath third. I still think even if Umar loses, he could,

uh, he gets it before most stars. He'll go there's a path together. I think, God, I think Mubzar's going to have to, because it doesn't even seem like Aljo wants that fight, which is insane to me. I know, I know. It's insane. I don't know.

All right, let me figure this out. Hamzot, Manel, Ankyov, Evoev, Umar. Okay. And again, I get what you're saying. I get why you had Umar ahead for a minute because just how low the match speakers and Dana White seem to think of most are. But if you are, like, most of it, I think we're assuming these guys win their next fights. So if Umar is the only one that you think isn't going to, then he's probably,

then he's probably, yeah. And I don't even, I don't even love Ankleiath at three. Like, because I just, he should get a shot. I don't know what else he needs to do. Nothing. But Yeri's there. Yep. Pereira could just go F around and fight John Jones. Like that could happen. There's just so much weirdness that could happen. And even like, there's just so much insurity with all of these guys. But I feel like Hamzad is like, has to, to be number one, but he's got to be Whitaker, and that's going to be tough. So that's actually a really good question.

It's actually a really good question. I like me only because I think, again, I just Hamza has his habit of disappearing for long stretch. I'm still not sure he's going to make the Whitaker fight if we're being honest. So that's why I got to go with him now. All right. Let's go to the next one. Let's go to left lane.

And left lane is smart. He's smart. He gets it. You know what? I'm going to do a hold each division question so we can spend 30 minutes. on it. I know where you game left lane and respect. This is what we're going to do. This is the only one that I actually like really looked at and went through it. So the question is, could you give your most promising and in quotes prospect for each division in the way that he sort of put it together

like unranked guys that you could feel comfortable betting on to make the top 10, 5 or even become champion. So here's my list, A.K. And we'll see how you feel about it. Do you want to go? Oh, you're going from bottom to top. I'm going to go, yeah, flyweight through the men's heavy, and then the women's lighter to top. Including women's bantamweight. Yeah. Flyweight, Josh Van. Yes.

I'm trying to think who's not ranked. I think that's the Tertsorotara's rank, so obviously. Yeah, I can't pick it. Yeah, I can't disagree there. That would be my, definitely my pick there as well. Banam weight, there could be a million, but I'm going to die on this hill until it's over. And he's got a really tough fight on June 22nd. I'm going with Montel Jackson. I believed in this guy for so long. Wow. And I'm still going to believe in a AK. I'm still going

with Montel Jackson. What's the stat? Wait, hold on. What's the stat of his next fight again? Did he get pulled out or his opponent got pulled out? What's going on? He was supposed to fight Saeed and Ramaga Madoff in Saudi. Yeah. I really liked that fight for Montel. I was pretty confident he would win that one. And Saeed pulled out. But now, Saeed is out. And now he's fighting for Reid Basharat. which would be my pick Farid I go

Farid or Rinya Rina Nakamura Farid is my guy Forid I think I think we had this question I don't remember on a show a while Maybe the last time

we did AUA Like who would you pick To be like guaranteed Top 15 By the end of 24 And I think it was him Or his brother I think I went Farid

And it doesn't look That's going to happen now Maybe if he wins his next fight I think Fried is a guaranteed Like top 10 guy He's just so solid I know, again, one of those guys probably needs a signature moment, but holy crap, you just watch these guys fight and you're like,

this is fundamentally perfect in every way and just needs more experience and could go all the way. And Javit's coming off of a loss. Yeah, and he's good too. But I think free, I think free, just slightly ahead. Featherweight, I like Danny Silva a lot, but I think Joy Anderson Brito is probably the best answer. No, William Go, no love for William Go Me, huh? One of the most, the most quiet three and O start two U.C. career,

we've seen in recent memory, I mean, how do you expel excitement, AK, GOMIS? Oh, that is how it is done. I mean, Joe Anderson's about to fight Danny Gay, so he's going to get an opportunity. Yeah, he's not too ranked. I'm trying to go deeper cut. I like Nymov, though I don't know about his ceiling. I think he's solid.

I think this guy could be like a 20-20 fight UFC guy, but I don't know if necessarily a top 10 or top five guy. Chepe is so much fun. Yeah. Maybe I keep underestimating him, but I, again, another guy, I think he's just a guy who's going to be in the UFC for a long time, putting on great fights, just not a contender. Man, featherweight's tough.

It's a tough one. Featherweight is tough as hell. Yeah, Brito's a good choice, definitely. It's probably going to happen soon, but, yeah, I don't really have a pick there. Lightweight, you already, everyone already knows from going at Lightweight. Mick Debeck, Oralby, correct answer. There is no other answer, okay? I'm looking now, man, these divisions, once you get to, man,

featherweight, bantamweight, like, there's so many guys, so you feel like a breakthrough. Brenner finally slipped on a banana peel, but he's just so fun. Like he said, to your boy. Mike Davis, I mean, I guess we can't call a prospect anymore. But, I mean, by definition of the question, he is. Right, not top of the team. Man, he's so good.

I just get healthy. Mike, get healthy. Yes. You are good enough to, again, fight a top 10 guy right now. And you just, I don't know, what's going on. I hope everything's okay with him. Yeah, Mike Davis. But again, it wouldn't be my answer because, again, he would not be my pick as someone I was guaranteed,

because I just don't know, given his, history if he'll ever be active enough to do it. So would not be my pick. Walterweight, Michael Morales, I feel like that's the easy one. He is, of all the names we've said, he right now is the one I'm most confident will be a top five guy someday. I think he's just got everything. Middleweight, I think most people know I'm going here.

It's Ikramal-Scaroff. It's just a matter of getting him in the freaking cage to fight people. He's that good. You would put him over the great bone nickel. Ah, how soon we forget? I would pick Icquem Alaskarap beat Bo Nicol right now. It might be a hot take. I would pick him to beat him.

Would you pick him to get to the... I don't think this is necessarily answer to that quite. Would you pick him to make it to the top five first? No. So it's boat. Man, it just sucks because Icrim doesn't fight. Hickr doesn't fight. He doesn't fight.

Did he not get booked finally, isn't he? book or really some rumored but let me double jure i swear i thought i saw rumored about he was man he's had so many good like fights but he was booked he was scheduled to he was announced to fight freaking paul costa i think this was today i think this came out of the day we're recording he's fighting and he's fighting andre munis june 15th but that's not announced i don't think i think that is reported by someone's sorry it's on topology is it on topology yeah but wasn't report wasn't someone that's based on someone reporting it right not on ufc announcement or anything I don't know.

I don't think we've reported it either. Oh, okay. It's out there, though. It's out there. You're supposed to fight EMAvoff. Yeah. You're supposed to fight Fluffy Hernandez. Muniz's a good win.

Just get in the cage. Just get in the cage. Muniz's the top 20 guy. That'll push in there. He'll push in there. He's going to do some bad things to attribute these. All right. So I'll still stick with the Elscarap.

I understand why Beau was such an easy thing, though. Light heavy weight. Light heavy. This is just what I want. See? Because I don't, he might not be good at fighting. Always agree with a start. He might not be.

Always agree with his start. But he is so friggin fun and he's just such a hitter. Min Yang Zhang, this guy is a terror and he may not be good at fist fighting. I knew exactly where you're going with that. I was lying it. He's just so fun. And frankly, top 10 in Light Heavyweight is not hard to get to these days.

Like Bogdan, Goosegaw is like one win away. And I like Bogdan. I'm just saying it's a be pretty quick. Yeah. Pretty quick rise to the top 10. Because a lot of guys are aging out. I feel, yeah, I think you have to go with Zhang. I think that is the best option here, unranked guys.

It's just the most fun option. That too. I'm just going to fly through the rest of these heavyweight. Janada Denise, maybe, but it's tough. We're giving up on rebellious, fraud checked? Yeah, he ain't going to be a top five anyway. Six months for all training. Because the UFC screwed the whole thing up.

As I told you all, as I told you all, after UFC 299, do not book him with Waldorf-Glaz-Costa. You will be hurt. And people were laughing at you, Mike. But this was the Marge Simpson thing. It was like, I didn't say you couldn't. I said you shouldn't. That was the, when the Homer baking the shirt. You said they couldn't bake my shirt, Marge.

I didn't say they couldn't. I said, you shouldn't. You should not do that. Yeah, that was your, you didn't say it wasn't going to happen. You said, why would it happen? And you were right. Horrible. Horrible match.

So bad. Strowate. Yasim Lucindo, Women's Flyweight. Come on. Just to go off the board. I was going to say, we're going to say Natty Ice, but I think she's ranked now. Oh, Daddy Ice is ranked. I can't pick her.

So I think Dakota Dichiva is probably the right answer. Oh, right. We didn't even go. Yeah, we should be thinking about UFC people. The way PFL is, this is like the reverse of rebellus to Spain. They're matchmaking her. This is what like the UFC should have done with Rebellis. Just give him cans to crush.

because that's what they're doing with Dakota. They're putting her in this freaking tournament, this season format, and giving her just the easiest fights possible in the division, while the Liz Carmushes of the world has to fight Giuliana Velasquez for a third time, and she's fighting, like, the toughest people. So, like, I feel like at the end of the season,

we're just not going to know how good she is, because I feel like Liz, even if she wins her next fight, it's probably not going to get a finish and probably doesn't even get in the playoffs. So Dakota's not even going to be able to fight any of the top people because none of them are going to make the fucking playoffs. All right, all right. If we're going UFC, I'll go Creeney Silva.

I got a weird feeling. Veronica Hardy, the former Veronica Macedo, might actually be good. Like, I think when she came back, her first fight with Juliana Miller, and I think she was a huge underdog because Julianna was coming off winning the ultimate fighter and had quite a bit of hype behind her. And then Veronica won that fight pretty handily. Nashville won three straight since returning to action. She might actually be good.

Like she might be because she was pretty young when she joined the UFC. I think she's in her physical prime now. And just like the Dan Hardy Union, I think is great personally and professionally. She might actually be good and be a top 10 fighter like by next year with the right match. So I'll shout her out. Yeah. I thought about her. But like if I threw her in there with like Korean A. Silva right now, I'm not picking around

McCarty. And then women's battle white, Jesus. I can't believe you. You know, I was joking when you, you don't really have to make a thing. I went with Eileen Perez. and she's probably not very good, but she's got like a charisma and sort of like a spunk to her where I think if she wins her next fight,

they might just give her something big. I think they will try to push her quicker than most. So that's why I want with her, but it could be anybody. One problem here is, yeah, one problem here is I actually don't know who is ranked already. I know our rankings, but I look at the UFC's rankings. Um, GDR is number 15 right now. And she just came back and lost after not fighting for like three years or something.

And respect to GDR, I understand. But like, again, like you said, that shows you how die. If there was like one fighter on like a two fight win streak, they could take GDR spot. And I just like, it's like no one. If anyone there is, they're already ranked higher than her, I think. So yeah, you know who's not there? Josian Nunes. So there you go.

There's my thing. There you go. There you go. There's, by the way. Listen, she'll come back. That's the last thing you want. Now she'll come back even stronger. All right.

That's that. Thank you. That's that. Yeah. Okay. Oh, should I close that. You might bring that open.

Yes. Let me jump. Don't want to do that question. Actually, this is a fun question. Matt Ravelli came in. If it's not too late, what is y'all's ideal to watch a setting,

ideal setting to watch a fight? Personally, I enjoy watching fights if you want to close people on a bong rip. Bing rip, AK, Bing rip. I, you know, I'm correcting for him.

When you start adding more people, I feel like you don't really get to watch the fights as much. Do you and do you guys for more of an atmosphere or to watch by yourself? This is a little bit weird for us to answer. We're working a lot. Which, by the way, I love. I wouldn't pick that as my ideal, but I will say I love actually working during fights for the most part. Especially actually, the fights that I wouldn't watch normally if I wasn't working them.

I think that sounds kind of weird to people. I think it's kind of like, wait, if you had the choice, like, wouldn't you know? I was like, no, I like having to lock in and again, research UFC, Vegas, 89, and kind of forced myself to invest into some of the storylines and fights. And then by the time fight night rolls around, there's actually like five or six fights that I'm looking forward to that if I just like was not working that night, I would be like, well, I don't care about some of these fights with respect to the athletes involved. So for me, like working and watching is almost as ideal as it gets.

But I'm kind of with, Matt, I'm kind of with you on this question. Yeah, the less people, the better. I don't remember the last time. This would have been pre, like, you know, before the UFC was doing 40 some shows a year. This was during the Halcyon days, probably like the maybe mid-to-late 2000s when people were still getting together

and, like having, oh, a UFC party. Like, I don't know if you guys still do that. I haven't had one of those in years. A lot of my friends have kind of moved on from MMA. But those are fun, but not necessarily great for watching the event. So I'm with Matt. I think I like a smaller setting if I am going to watch with people, like maybe two or three buds.

and then that's about it. Yeah, I think, I mean, for pay-per-views, I think I like the best setup in the world, just doing the watch bars at GC. It's the best. Yeah, I mean, I've never had more fun watching fights. This is an even fair question. This is an affair question.

But if I'm at home, either, like, I'm okay watching by myself working, but if it's just like people are having, like, as you say, a UFC party, if we're all just like sitting on the couch watching fights, I'm not a fan of that. I'm not a fan. However, if we're playing like poker while the fights are on and like doing something else,

then cool. Like if I fold a hand, then I can just watch the fights. Like we could still hang out. And then we always know, like I think the last time I did that was for UFC 202 when Connor and Nate had their second fight. We played poker. We had a good time.

And then once the main event was going to start, everyone's like, all right, poker's over. We're going to like sit down and watch the fight. And everyone was so into it. Everyone was so into it. Everyone just kind of shut up until like the rounds were over and people sort of gave their scores on how they thought it would go. So yeah, that's how I would do it.

So if it's just like we're doing, we're just watching the fights, one or two people. But if we're like doing something else playing poker or something, then the more than merrier. Like, I think it's your turn to pick a question. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo. Great idea.

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What do we have here? Let's go to... Okay. Hey, Mike, first time you're here. For the upcoming question session for the next Otno, I would like to pose the following hypothetical and get your guy's answers. What would you rather take?

A prime Joseo Alto kick to the nuggets, an Uberine knee to the liver, or a Dan Henderson H-bomb to the chin with the flying Bisbing killing after shot. And then he also wants to throw out there, this is for you, my good friend, Jed Bishu. Also, when I first started listening, I thought Jed was a bit of a douche.

I was kind of right, but now that dude is easily my favorite dude to listen to. Thanks, guys. Yes, like a foot fungus. Jed just grows on you and grows on you until you can't ignore him. Kyle, you should have said he's your favorite douche to listen to. That would have been a great play on words. Yeah, listen, Jed is one of our best take guys.

We wouldn't trade it for anyone in the world. God bless them. Why do people ask these questions, Mike? The actual question that was asked, which, which hellacious MMA maneuver would you rather take? Why do people ask these things, Mike? I don't know. but I thought about this for like five seconds and I was like, I know they answer to this question.

This is pretty simple. Okay, I don't have an... I'll go first. I'll force myself because the more I think about it, I'm not, it's not going to get better. In this scenario, by the way, I'm assuming if I don't take one of these moves, it's like something horrible.

Like, you know, that has to be a kind of like, oh, something terrible will happen to one of your loved ones if you don't take this strike. So in that case, I have to... Okay, I got to do it. I got to do it. I mean, just, you know, just kick me in the nuggets. Just kick me in the nugget, I think.

I think that's my answer. I, you know, listen, we've all been, we all went to grade school. We all, maybe not public school. Maybe some people went to private school, whatever. We've all, we've all engaged in some sack tapping. I think it's a nice way to put it. We've all, listen, we've all taken some shots down there when we were kids. It was a fun game.

It was a fun game. So I think I've at least built up some toughness there, some immunity, or the opposite, Mike, I'm so damaged down there that, you know, there's just my nuggets are of no use anymore anyway. So, you know, Jose have at it, rear back and give me one of those. And also, I love Josie Aldo. So saying that I got rochamboed by the great Joseo would be one of the greatest honors of my life. So, yeah, easy answer, actually. So I assume, especially the way you just framed it, you have to take one, do you have no choice. Yes.

But I also assume that you are prepping yourself for all of those. So you, but you have to sit there and take all of them. But you can't block them, you have to, but you can brace yourself for all. Uh-huh, uh-huh. A Jose Alda kick to the nuggets, you can brace yourself all you want. That's going to suck. Like, it's going to hurt. It could cause long-term damage forever.

It's nothing to do. It almost definitely would. It almost definitely would. Uberie knee to the liver. I think you could, it would be not as bad, but still really awful. Because, yes, you could brace yourself for it. But if he just gets you right in the liver, you could brace yourself all you want. That is still going to be awful.

That liver's going to explode. That liver's going to explode. So I think what I would take. is the H-bomb. Okay. Not sure I understand. Go on. Because I think, like, if I, like, stood there and brace myself and I know it's coming,

the H-bomb is, it's going to suck. Like, it's probably going to hurt. Might even break my jaw. So, like, that's the chance I'm willing to take. But if I, like, at least brace myself for the shot, if he doesn't knock me down, then I don't get the BISBIN killing after shot. Oh, no, no. Oh, no, no.

You have to take the kill shot, too. But what if I doesn't? drop me. You just have to let him hit me 50 times? Then you then gently lay down in your back and you take that. It's part of the question, Mike. It's hard of the question. It's very carefully phrased.

So how come all the other ones are just one? That's, again, that's why I would pick one of those instead of the, I'd still think. I'd still think I'd pick Anderson. Mike, your brain, your beautiful brain. It's just two punches. It's over. Those two punches, you could lose your. It would be awful.

Oh, no, it sucks. It's going to suck. You could lose your ability to podcast. You might never podcast again. The part of you that part of your brain that knows how to do podcasts, that H-bomb could knock it right out. No more podcast. No more heck of a morning. No more on to the next one.

But if I get kicked to the nuggets in the wrong way, then there'll still be no more of those. You have a child. And you have a pitch. And you have a child already. You don't need those things anymore. Yeah. They don't want to hear me talk like that. Like high pitch Eric from Howard Stern.

I think I'm going with the H-bomb. I don't love it. I hate all of these options. These are all terrible. They're all terrible. There's no correct answer. Yes. So I'll go with that.

Probably people won't believe me, but that's what my gut initially told me, and I'm just sticking with it because it's not something I'm going to spend hundreds of hours pondering. What a terrible question. Thanks, Kyle. Mike, I'll go with, I think this is another Paul. I think this is a different Paul. Paul wants to know, I can't let me read this. Conn McGregor says he wants to fight three times this year.

That may be a little too crazy. You predict a yes to, would you be confident to say two fights now that his fight with Michael Chandler's set? Hell no. I'm not even throwing the question to you, Mike. I'm just going to answer it right away. No, no, I'm not saying it won't happen. If you asked me to predict, 100%. There's no way you would get me to bet.

I don't even know what the odds are. You could give me 10 to 1 odds. I wouldn't put $5 on my, on Connemer. That's burning up $5. It's incredibly likely. Yes, logically, any fighter who fights in June should be more than ready to fight again before the end of the year. This is Connor McGregor, guys. You don't know.

So much weird just can happen in the fight. Something can happen after the fight. Could he maybe get booked for another fight? And it falls through. I don't even think you can talk to me into that. He has no plans to fight more than once this year. He can say whatever he wants. He's been saying he wants to fight three times a year since like 2021.

He doesn't do it. He doesn't have the motivation for it. He doesn't have the need for it. He's insanely rich. There's just no reason for him to do it. So this is going to be a sell. I know that we're not doing the buy a sell show. Hard sell for me on him fighting again in 2024.

You have to do the magic wand. You have to have a crystal wall and even order to answer this question. Because if Connor wins, if Connor wins the answer is yes. He's fighting again. If he wins, if Connor wins, I'll say 90% he fights again this year. If Connor wins and Leon Edwards wins, I'll say 100% he fights this year. I think the UFC will be like, hey, you want to fight for the, for the welterweight title, try to be a three-division champion? Sign this piece of paper.

And I think Connor would be like, okay, I'll do it. It's not a world I want to live in, AK. I want to live in a world where Connor battles the UFC and goes into free agency. to see if they'll book him for the last fight on his deal before he resigns. Like, I want to live in that world. But I don't think we're going to. I think Connor's going to be the company guy here. And is he going to beat Michael Chandler is, like, my biggest question.

I'll say yes. I'll say yes. I'll say he fights again this year. Well, I'm glad we're on opposite sizes. In a fight that makes no sense. Yeah, he's going to fight Leon Edwards. And for the Welterweight title. Oh, God.

God, can you imagine that? I can't. If he fights again, I'm already in disbelief that he would fight again in 2024. I'm in disbelief if he gets Leon title shot. So if he gets that far, him beating Leon. By that point, I'm just like, whatever. Yeah, screw it. I'll probably pick him to beat Leon at that point just because we've gone, we're going down this timeline.

All right, let's just go all the way then. All right. So we can move on that we're doing? We can definitely move on. All right. Well, I'll pick this question then. True or false, both Armand Sarukin and Shafokot-Rok-Mov will fight for for titles this year.

Both? Both of them. Possibly neither. I will say, look, if Dustin Poria beats Islamok, Jeff, it'll be ridiculous. Like, it'll be the craziest story ever.

And the amount of times we can talk about that for the next decade will be unbelievable. I just don't think it's going to happen. I think Islam's going to beat Dustin. I don't think he's going to struggle all that much to do it. And then he's going to go to Abu Dhabi in October, and he's going to headline that

UFC pay-per-view, and he's going to fight Armand-Sirukian, and then Armin Surukin's going to win the lightweight title, and it's going to be the best. And then my prediction will ring true. Shavkat, I... Shavkat has to be the biggest Belal Muhammad fan that has ever graced the earth. He needs Belaw-Mahman to win, and he needs Connor McGregor to lose. Like he needs both of these things to happen Because I don't know if Leon fights him

Like I think Leon will probably Either try to pursue something else Or something else happens But Shafcott ain't fighting for the World's Way title this year It's unfortunate I think he's the champion in waiting It just needs his chance But I feel like his chance

Is just gonna take a while for it to happen Because even if Leon fights below and wins And I think he will If it's not Connor on the table I just don't think he fights again this year. He's not the most active dude that we've ever seen. I'll say false. I'll say Armand does.

Shafcott does not. Mike, you were forgetting. Oh, you're also, that's good. I'm glad you went false because you're also, you didn't even mention this scenario of McGregor loses Muhammad wins, but Muhammad wins by controversial split decision

and then we run it back. Muhammad Edwards three later this year. Run it back. Too many on answer your questions. Run it back. You forgot about that scenario. So sorry, Shopcott. That's one more hurdle that's in your way. Both those guys are fighting. Like every time Leon Edwards defends that title, he could be in his final title fight ever.

And Balmohamed is, if he loses, will be in his only title fight ever. Blah will never get another title shot. This is it. And Leon is probably in a similar spot. Even though he's gotten over a little bit more, his story has resonated with people. But eventually he's going to have to fight Chopcott. and that's just going to be awful. So, yeah, Shafkot's going to have to wait, unfortunately.

It sucks. I would love to see him fight for the title this year. I just, I don't know. I don't see the pass for it right now. I think it Bala wins the belt. He's got a chance. He's got a chance. Maybe three months is too quick.

But I think if B'all could be the co-main in Abu Dhabi and defend his title there. Again, Shafka, I think you'd do it. It could be a pretty magical day for Danny Rubenstein, watching like two of his freaking jazz. Two of his guys become champs in the same night. That'd be wild. See, now you're getting crazy.

Now you're just getting crazy, Mike. Yeah, that'd be something. So, yeah, that's her amount. All right. I'm going to go to a question that's a little more out there. It's a little more, I shouldn't say out there, a little more less related to actual fighting, more related to the business of M.A. So I should say, before I read that, someone sent this to me,

and I'm sorry I didn't get back to them. It's sort of asking for career advice. So I hope they don't mind. I won't say their name. I hope they don't mind me using it for our, our, ask us anything. because I do feel like I want to talk about this subject in general. So this person, they left their line of work to sort of pursue MMA or wanting to pursue working in MAA.

It's, they say it's one of their biggest passions. And they'd appreciate it at that time to share some insights. And tips on getting their foot in the door. So I have to start off on like a negative note. It's why I kind of waited to save this question for now until we have a little more fun first. Now I just feel like it's a really bad time to be trying to get work in the media to be specifically MMA. MMA is in a really tough spot right now. And I'm not saying it's not a great job. I love working in MMA. It is such a privilege. I know people see us on these shows and

here are sometimes. We sound a little worn out. We sound a little tired because yeah, we just go, it's our job. We cover it a lot. Sometimes we can be a bit cynical. It sucks. It's just there's days like that. But overall, like, I have, I love working in M.A so much. I love getting, I, that's why I said earlier, my ideal situation is working while I'm watching a fight. I love doing that. I love having to look at all these angles and stuff while I'm watching a fight. It's great. So my passion for it is still very high. But the industry itself is just changing a lot.

And again, it's not just MMA, a lot of sports media, a lot of entertainment media, media in general. You guys know anyone who keeps up with is on social media at all. You guys know AI is coming along. AI has come along and quote unquote replacing certain jobs, certain things that normally very well trained and educated people you would need them to do. And unfortunately, some companies don't see it that way. and they're willing to take a much more inferior product just to push content out the window. And that happens. That happens.

Even the nature of our jobs change from here and there from is, you know, look, there's not as much investigative reporting as there could be in sports. And now it's just a lot of, you know, maybe pushing out quote unquote content. Some people dread that word. So the industry is very different now. And again, to this person you mess with me, I'm not telling you not to get into this because if you're passionate about this,

there are jobs to be had. and the only way to get those jobs is to go for it, right? Like someone does, someone gets these jobs. Shmows like me and Mike and Damon Martin and everyone in the MA fighting crew and other great NBA websites. We worked hard to get these jobs, man. And we went and we got these jobs because we went for it. We were not deterred.

We, you know, it's always going to be an uphill battle when you're trying to get in this kind of industry. And you went for it. And that's the only way you can do it. So I'm not going to tell this person, oh, don't, don't try. Don't even try because you're right. Someone out there, if you've got the passion and you've got the skills for it, someone out there will hire you. But it's a, it is a tough place to get into right now. Job security, I will tell you right now, it's not high. Speaking for myself, you guys could see next week,

you could see AK Lee is a freelancer. Like, again, I'm blessed to be working with box media, I'm made fighting. The industry is changing so fast. So it's great to want to be in it. It's great to be passionate about it. I always tell people write and podcasts and do videos and stuff and do it for fun at first. Just do it for fun. And when you have free time, and see how much you like it. See how much you like the grind of working. How much do you like the routine? Can you set a routine for yourself?

How much do you like doing a weekly article or weekly video? How much do you like writing maybe once every two or three days? Like try and make it a job for yourself. Try that for two or three months. See how much you like it. You might love it. I loved it when I started doing it and I was just blogging for nobody. I had time.

I had the luxury of like I had another job. So it was fine. So if you can do that, if you're secure and you can do that and just kind of practice and have a little fun with it, that's my best advice. it's really hard to just kind of pull your way into this business. But I don't know, everyone's experienced a little different, but I will say if you're coming from like no connections and no real background, if you can go to school, find a good sports journalism program.

Cannot recommend that highly enough. Any journalism program is great. But if you're really trying to sort of fast track and go specifically into sports journalism, try and find that kind of thing in your area. So that's a great way to go about it. And other than that, again, just don't be a dick and be ready for opportunities when they come to you. Don't try not to say no to too many things.

So, like, I don't know. I don't know how different is for you. I mean, it's not much more I can add to that. Just know that this is, this is a marathon. Like, it's, we are in a very weird place right now. We just are. Outside of, I'm trying to like just think of what MMA fighting has done. Like, I think I'm the last free agent hire for M.A.

You might be. Like, I know Jed went from part time to full time, but he was already with you guys. Yep. So I think I'm the last outsider to like come in. And I think I'm actually like the last outsider to come into like a full time job in all of MMA. Like for the major websites. Like I know there's been some shifts, but it's like we saw Andreas Hale just got to ESPN and he was full time with the sporting news. It's not like he was a freelancer and like just traded careers.

You know what I mean? And I'm grateful every day for the timing of all that. It's just tough. Like you got it. Like if you want to be a writer, that's great. But you still have to be good at everything else. You have to at least, this is the advice my father always gave me about everything. It goes, be great at some things, but be good at everything.

So learn how to do everything. You need to learn how to video edit. You need to learn how to audio edit. I knew how to audio edit right away. I was, you know, somehow I ended up on the M. May hour, like, well before I was with M.M.A. fighting because I created a jingle for New York Rick and his Rick's picks theme. And I just sent it to him because, like, the podcast I was doing at the time, we would bring Rick on because he was always good at making fight picks. So we would bring him on. And then when he started doing Rick picks and he had no theme song, I was like, you know what? I'll put this thing together. And it was funny. And then my voice was on the M. May hour every week for like 18 months. So that was pretty cool. And then. And it's just all these little things you have to learn along the way. Writing is still the weakest thing that I do.

But being able to work with a Shaheen al-Shadi and being able to tap into, and even Steve Morocco, who unfortunately is no longer with us and with at enemy fighting, like, Shaheen just is the best, Shaheen to me is the best writer in all of MMA. Like, he's so good. And the one thing that has shifted so much about this business is that those pieces we always looked so forward to heading into a major fight week from Shaheen, from the Chuck Mindenhall's of the world, we would build our entire weeks around those.

You'd be like, all right, this is what I'm going to do. Like, I'm going to go to work. I'm going to do this. But I know by Wednesday or Thursday, Shaheen's going to drop an article. Chuck's going to drop an article. And then I'm going to take Friday afternoon, I'm going to take a block and I'm just going to digest both of those long form pieces. And now there's just none.

There's just none of those anymore. So what I would suggest outside of the other things is if you're going to do a freelance, if you're going to be a freelance writer, do something special. Go back. Because I do think it may not be like right the second, but I do think there is a world where the long form storytelling pieces are going to come back. And we're looking for like compelling things. And I've tried to dive into those a little bit more and try to do things a little bit different

by adding the audio compelling to the storytelling. I just miss those, man. I really do. I really do. So if you are a great writer and you're a great storyteller and you know how to take a long form piece, put it in a digestible way where it's long, but it's not going to take you a day and a half to read,

practice that, man. Practice that. Reach out to great writers. Reach out to great sports journalists who write these long form pieces because this is a great, this is a huge thing that people look forward to and now it's like not there anymore.

Yeah. It's kind of tough. So just do that. Just to end on a more positive note. Like there are stories like, well, that made me super sad, like so now I've got to end in a positive note

because right now I don't see anyone trying to fill that niche. But filling that niche is really the way to get into sort of any kind of industry, media industry. I think of, you know, a friend of a BTL, a friend of ours, Alex Wendling. So Alex Wendling, she was, I don't know, she started trying to get into M.A.

This must have been like maybe three or four years ago. And then she sort of veered more into BJJ coverage, Brazilian Jitsu, competitions, things like that. And she's found a really nice niche for herself. She was working with other outlets too, not outlets, but like shows behind the scenes. So she's in the industry. But for her own, like, media side of it, she's mostly covers Brazilian Jitsu. And now she has, like, grown her YouTube page, I think to something like, I don't know, like 4,000 or 5,000.

I might be underselling it. But she's got like a real good phone. Maybe way more than that. But I remember there was a time I think I wasn't long ago where I retweeted like, let's help Alex get to 1,000 subscribers. And like, yes, she has far cleared that now. I can't remember when the number is now. And that's an example of someone who, you know,

she probably wanted to, when she got in, oh, it focused like on MMA a lot. But like, okay, let me, I can do that. But I can also, there's this niche. There's this underserved niche of people who want present you to do coverage in a way that no one else is doing it. You know, she's doing her videos a certain way. she herself is competing and she found an audience and it's not easy let me it's not easy to do

I don't know if I could have done that but that is kind of what you need to do to start and and again it's gonna it's gonna be hard at first like you could be you could be cranking out content and I think I know for her for like the first for a little while like those videos you see the videos maybe not get a ton of views but then you get the right interview you get the right second you get the right clip boom you get that following so that's I just want to shout her out because she's worked super super super super hard and every time I see her like the success she's having, I think like it gives me a lot of optimism for the industry, which is like in a time where it's just maybe not a lot of room for optimism. So a big shout out to Wendling.

Yeah. And Wendling found her role. She's, she realized like, hey, I'm not a journalist. You know, I'm not going to be digging into things. Like, yeah, I'll go work for Kambate and do, you know, analyst work and do shows for them. And that's great. Cradi Combat. I'm going to be the sort of sideline reporter for Crotting Combat. That's awesome. That's awesome. that's awesome that's the lane she chose like i remember seeing stories her mom was wasn't on air personality and she's kind of following in her footsteps like and she's just super nice and she works her fucking ass off so that's that's a thing if you mentioned all the companies

she'd work for it guys that's hard work like eventually when you get a name people will start reach out to you but she like really made a name for herself and then i i imagine to sort of like i don't think he's cold calling people but made it very well known that she had a name the industry that people could like trust and that's why she's getting all this work. So it's a lot of hustle. It's so much hustle. Ben Davis. Ben Davis is doing commentary for like 8,000 events. And from being like a social media joker guy, like personality guy, and now he's a professional commentator. So that, listen, and these paths aren't for everyone. It's really, we're just saying like find your path because you, I'm sure who if you're out there,

you can offer something. If you're really passionate about it, you're really talented. You can offer something that other people aren't. And at first, it's not going to click right away very likely. because again, it's different. It's different. But eventually you have people who are looking for something different. And if that's you, you will suddenly find your audience coming. But it's a lot of hard work. So don't be discouraged, guys.

But definitely, you know, just do it for fun at first and see where it goes. I'll do one more quick one. Then we'll take a break. Let's see. What do I want to do? What do I want to pick? All right, I'll go with this one. If you could pick one, this is Kelly, by the way, shout out Kelly.

If you could pick one retired fighter to come back for another fight, Who would you pick and who would the opponent be? Wow, this is so easy. No one. No one. If a fighter's retired, I just, like, I just want to see them relax and be happy and never come back. This is a, yeah, very easy answer for me. No, just let people be retired.

Once someone retires to M.A., I can't remember the last retirement, probably Khabib, where I said, gosh, I wish this person wasn't retiring. I wish, I wish that, you know, we have so many more years left with them. I very rarely have that. maybe Jimmy Flick, that was a weird one. We kind of retired and then just came back. But other than that, when someone retires, I'm very satisfied, Mike. I'm very satisfied with the experience I've had with the fighter.

I'm rarely left wanting more. I understand the compulsion. I understand the question. For me, it's pretty much nobody. I will have an answer if we need one, but I'd love to hear what you say. The answer is two retired fighters fighting each other in a rematch. I want to see Carlos Kondit Robbie Luller, too. Like, no, they're happily retired.

If I had to, if I had to see, if I had to see it, let them fight, let that fight. One more time, let's do it. You're sad that they both survive in that fight and you want to rectify that mistake. I also feel like Carlos Condit won that fight. Sure. And I think he deserves to know the true answer if he was the better guy. But like, I don't want to see Carlos Condet fight Shopcott. No.

Yeah. Throw those two dudes in there. It could be at 185. Doesn't have to be anything crazy. Like that would have been a good like 300 fight. Just throw them out there. It would have been fun as hell. But again, I'm with you more so, A.K.,

where it's just like, I don't want to drag any of these guys out. But if the question is like, you have to choose two guys, and they have to be willing and up for it, I can't just lock them in a cage and have them fight each other. But yeah, I kind of want to see that again. Both my answers would have had to be have a beep in them. One of them, of course, Habib, Charles, which I wanted so badly. And let me tell us something.

Charles can beat him. All right, Ivan. I know, I know. We kind of got an answer for this with what happened with Islam. But they're different fighters. I still feel like Charles has a chance against Habib, even though Kabib is probably better than Islam. But still. And the other one would be eight, you know, Turkey, Y'Al Sheikh, if you're out there.

Can we get some, we throw some money at Habib and GSP for a grappling match? Just a grapple. The atmosphere would be so effing cool. Like, I just, Riyadh season, baby. Give me that Riyadh season. Just grappling, no striking, GSP, and Khabib. What a spectacle that would be. It would just be so fun to watch.

It would be surreal. It would truly be surreal. So I still haven't given up on them hitting the mats in some way. And I'd like to see it. All right. Well, we have a few more to get to, and we will do so. We're going to take a short break. We'll pay some bills as the cliche goes.

And we'll be back to answer the rest of your questions coming up next and on to the next one. 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 rink on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice? Yes, we deliver those. Goaltenders, no, but 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. varies by region. See app for details. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here. Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus, powered by Peloton IQ.

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I don't know if we have anything that needs such an involved answer. No disrespect to the questions asked from It's Not Cage Fighting. By the way, shout out to those guys, guys and gals, actually, I didn't say. I don't know. I don't know how many people involved. Shout out to them. It seemed to have a very, very budding YouTube channel. So if you guys haven't checked out, the is not cage fighting podcast. Have that. Check them out. Question of the Q&A.

Why don't we see more mid-tier 125ers making the jump to 135? This is women's 135. Excuse me. The talent pool is much shallower. A lot of the tough fighters are entering their late 30s. NBS didn't wow anyone at 125

get fought for a belt once she's switched. Mike, we've been asked this actually quite a bit. I feel like this question comes up. I don't know if we have a great answer. I think it might have some to do with the perception of

135 it's just not a glamour division. I don't, I think if you move up there you don't feel like you're going to be promoted correctly. Yes, there's a shorter path, but we had a discussion when there was a 145 title where like, why doesn't someone just go up there and do that? So I imagine some fighters are discouraged from

making those jumps. I think they like some of these women here in 125 to stay in 125, which is fair because that's how you build a division. You kind of tell, I think you would tell fighters, you would tell their managers, hey, we're looking for opponents for your 125, let's work that way. For some fighters, just their ideal weight class, I think, as well. It's not comfortable fighting with 10 extra pounds that you're just like you don't need.

And also, there's still a size difference. I do think there are some fighters who like some of the legitimate 135ers, like a Raquel Pennington, obviously Amanda when she was active. If you're a 125er, you definitely were not planning to go up there just to end up running to Amanda Nune or something. So there's various reasons. But I agree. I do think there's some that should try it. And I would like to see that.

I think we saw it more the other way when 125 came around. We saw 135ers go down to 125. That made sense. I do wonder if we'll see it go the other way, but still seems unlikely. If you asked you this question a year ago, I'd say it's a no-brainer, and we've talked about that. But it's not a year ago. Things have changed my best friend. And the reason why I think some of these 25ers won't make the jump anymore is because of two words.

Kayla Harrison. The path isn't as quick as it once was because now Kayla's there. So now it's not like Macy Barber could just go up and fight for a belt if after Raquel fights Giuliana, if Giuliana wins, because the winner of that fight probably has to fight Kayla and it's not even guaranteed that Julianna Payne is going to get that shot because Kayla just might sneak in there and get it. And then at that point, just the window's a little bit closed. would Macy want to go up to

135 and fight Kayla Harrison? I don't know. Maybe if she wins the 125 pound title and she goes on a nice run. But I think anybody who we sort of talked about the Manon Fioros, the Aaron Blanchfields, etc. Aaron's obviously lost.

So she's got work to do at 25 and I think she has work to do in general. And then Manon's next in line for 125, one would assume. And there's just a lot of weird in both divisions right now. So I don't think it's as glamorous as it was even six months ago that jump up to 135. I don't think the path is as quick as it is as it was even six months ago.

So I get it now, especially now that Kayla's there and she made weight and she beat the soul out of Holly Holm, even though Holly Holm basically just gave her the fight that she wanted. But yeah, I think Kayla being there sort of changes the tune on this conversation. Yeah, good point. Good point. Yeah. Big factor. All right. Let's go to Moani. One, have you or Mike watched anime before? If so, what are your favorites? I have not watched.

If I've watched it, it's by accident. So I am not the right person to answer the question. What about like a Pokemon? I mean, you know, you have a young, he never got into Pokemon? No. Okay. I'm trying to think what. What cartoons did your son watch for him?

Pop Patrol? Or was that after? Without a been... No, he did... He did Paw Patrol when he was younger. He was a big Thomas the train kid.

Now he's into like Godzilla. Oh. So we go and saw like minus one, which is incredible. There's a good time to be... We're in a Godzilla

Renaissance right now. Like, this is like the perfect time to be getting into Godzilla. Godzilla versus Kong. Things of that nature. So... And then he,

you know, there's some like YouTubers he likes. He likes the unspeakable guys and some, some others. But he's not really a big, a big anime guy. Like we'll go, we'll go and see some, like, they did a Ninja Turtle's cartoon movie. We saw that, like, Into the Spider-Verse.

Yeah. The Ninja-Torles cartoon is really good. I thought that was really good. Yeah. And I thought the end of the Spider-Verse movies were really good. So it's probably, I don't even know if that's considered anime, but that's probably like the closest thing to it. So, yeah. The person who asked this question is laughing at you right now, Mike.

Yeah. It's not my, it's not like that. Anime, Mike. I specifically specifically at Japanese animation. I'm so far out of the loop and it's sad because there's a lot of interesting like premises I've always wanted to watch and a lot of them got put on Netflix so like

I haven't watched like One Punch Man or all these things obviously this is Jose Young's territory so I've watched it before for sure I really loved Cowboy Bebop but that was like 20 years ago so a very influential anime but definitely an old one so I loved that one and when I was growing up I had loved this cartoon called Robotech

which was actually kind of like a retooled American version of this Japanese series called the Mac Cross Saga. So that's a very deep cut. Again, another pretty influential cartoon. I loved that cartoon when I was younger. I had no idea about the Japanese history until way later when I got older. So, yeah, I do like anime. I wish I had a little more time to watch it.

It's just not, I don't have a lot of time to watch too many shows these days in general. But yeah, I really want to watch One Punch Man. I think if I get back in anime, that's probably the one I'll start with. And then who knows? Maybe I'll jump at some other stuff. Just tap Jose and. Jump with some other stuff. There's a couple more.

Two-part question. Pineapple and pizza is hot dog a sandwich. For me, pineapple and pizza cannot be by itself. It needs to be Hawaiian pizza with bacon and Canadian bacon. Yeah, yeah. I'm good. Extra crispy, cooked really well. I think that's a good combination.

I assume. Yeah. I assume when people ask pineapple on pizza, they're never meaning just pineapple, are they? Yeah, but yeah, it can't be. By itself, it's not good. I've never seen people do that. I've seen it. Have you?

It's just not my thing. That's good. I don't take offense to it like a cultural way that some people would. But I've never seen. Yeah, you've got to get some meat on there with it. And it works beautifully. Oh, yeah. As a hot dog a sandwich.

If you want to call it a sandwich, fine. I'd just call it a hot dog. It's it. How do you define? Like, you would say a sub is a sandwich, right? Yeah. I mean, subway calls, like, for example, subway calls their sub sandwiches, subway sandwiches. I mean, technically it's like an open face sandwich of some.

kind. So, sure. I mean, it's, I'm not going to die on any hill here, but if you want to call it that, I'm not going to argue with you. I don't know. I definitely don't consider hot dog a sandwich, but I just don't know the difference, because I would say a sub is, but I wouldn't say hot dog is. So I don't know.

Maybe I'm the wrong person to ask. I'm a big foodie guy, but I don't, I wouldn't consider a hot dog a sandwich. Fair. And then the other question, the MMA question, over under five years until the UFC introduces an atomweight division. There was a third option of never. I would probably go with that. It's not going to happen.

If it hasn't happened yet, it's not going to. Oh, I'm just going to go super prints of positivity. And I still will, Mike. Under. Under. But it's going to take right around that five-year mark. It's right around that five-year mark. It's going to be like, yeah, 20-2020-ish.

Like just 20-29 or just before 2020-29. We'll list hear rumblings of it because, listen, they always need more fighters. They always need more. you know, content, as it were. I think you always could be a fine way to spruce things up. You know, get an alternate fighter season out of it. Oh, no, I've really talked myself into it. So, yeah, definitely.

Oh, no. Yeah. Under. I will say this. I have the right to change my answer if Dana White is no longer running things. If he's gone in three years, maybe I'll change my answer. But as long as he is sitting in that role, he's not going to do it. Comfortably, not having to ever do anything.

like dynamic with the product because it's not even that money if there's like a superstar out there at 105 like a must have like best women's fighter in the world kind of a deal that's an atom weight and she would be a crossover superstar kind of like what ronda was if there's a ronda rousey type at 105 that comes along then i think the ufc would entertain it but as it stands now i just don't think they need it. They have no problem sending tiny 1-15ers into the cage. I think it's a nice way to put it as well. They don't care. There's like, oh, you're 105. Hey, guess what? You know to cut weight now. Have fun. You're a straw away now. Yep, you're a charlieway. Ah, stamp fair text, save us. Get well soon, stamp and then save us. Yes, for sure. From Bo. Love the show. Love on the

next one. Can we please stop matching fighters just this week with whoever fought last week. Get creative with it. So I don't know if this necessarily directed at us. I don't think it is. But I have no problem with this because that's often just how the UFC schedule works. I mean, I think when I take my notes sometimes so one thing I do, this is

a bit riveting podcasting right here. When I'm making my notes, one way to save time is I will I will you know, I'll look at the card that a fighter previously fought on and then get all the information on all the fighters who fought on the card

who are also fighting on the card that I'm doing the research for. And you'll often find like five or six names all competed on the same card. And it's not a coincidence. It's just kind of the way the schedules line up. So I don't mind. I get what this question is saying, question of suggestion, that, you know, we can be more creative.

Don't just say, oh, this person won at USC Vegas 92. They should fight this person who won in UFC Vegas 93. But it's kind of how these things go sometimes. So, yeah, it's, and you listen, if it's not interesting enough, we're probably not going to read it on the show anyway. But I don't think there's anything wrong with it. you could certainly be more creative. But if you're just kind of fishing for out, no points,

or trying to be accurate, you really can't go wrong with just looking at who was in a weight class that fought within the past two weeks and matching them up. You're probably one out of five times you might, you're probably going to get it. Yeah, I mean, we're not fantasy matchmaking here. We're trying to predict what the UFC is going to do.

And oftentimes, availability, timelines, schedules, they just happen to line up, especially when they're going to the world's most famous, apex and they need to fill slots. And a lot of times some of these main card fight night fights, it's just a dart throw anyways. So it's just a matter of trying to find someone who fought in a similar time frame that had a similar result that didn't get banged up, that wasn't in a war, et cetera, et cetera. So I mean, that's just basically how it is. Sometimes it's,

it's somewhat lazy. But oftentimes we also put that out there as well. Like we'll say if there's Vegas 91 and it's a week for Vegas 92, we'll matchmake for the Vegas 91 person and say whoever wins this fight at Vegas 92. And then that person happens to win and we say, well, we already said that we're going to matchmake with this person, so here we go. So

we're trying to just get them right. We're not trying to fantasy matchmake here. We're trying to put ourselves in the brains of the matchmakers. And oftentimes they do a great job. And oftentimes they book Rebellis to Spain versus Waldo Cortez-Costa. I'll never let it go, folks. He'll never let it go.

so bad. That's the second worst piece of matchmaking the UFC is done in the last two years. Maraub de Wallis U.S. Rueh versus Jose Aldo will always remain number one. painful. Terrible. All right. Let's go to Ryder. I think we have two more. Sure. If Johnerson Brito goes out there and beats Dan Ege with a good solid performance, do you rank him above Diego Lopez? He beat Lopez a couple years ago. So how do you rank it? I don't think I'm going to rank him. above Diego Lopez. I got to go to our rankings and notes here

because, you know, we like to make note when a fighter, they're not necessarily ranked, but they're on a significant win streak or result streak. In this case, Brito, I believe it's five straight all finishes. Yes, five straight wins for Jans and Prito all finishes. If he finished Danny Gay, look at my own rankings here. Yeah, I would, I actually would put him above Diego Lopez.

I do not have Diego Lopez ranked right now. Mike, you have him in your 15 spot. So I imagine for you, you would just drop Igay back and Lopez would move up to take his spot, etc., etc. So I can comfortably say I won't. Sorry, I will. I will put Brito up, but I see how you wouldn't have to. Because I don't think, I don't know, we did update him after 300. We did.

I probably would have to. No, you wouldn't have to. You could drop Ige out of the rankings, move Lopez up to 14, and then you could introduce Brito at 15. So you would not have. I would do it. You know what? Now that I look at what I have, I probably would put Brito one spot ahead of him. Because as much as I respect what Lopez is done, the fight with Mobsarro on short notice was impressive.

The other wins weren't against high quality opposition. Sidique Yusuf was a great win, but not a guy I had ranked in my top 15. Ege is a perennially ranked guy. Of all the wins that these guys would have in the UFC, I think Brito beating Ege would be the best one of all. And it would kind of, I don't know, maybe it will depend on how he does it. Like if he loses a contra, if he wins like a controversial split decision, which Andy Ege has been a part of a few of those,

maybe I'll put him at 15 and Lopez up a spot, but if he just goes out and just beats Dan clean, then yeah, maybe I would. I thought I actually had Lopez ranked a little bit higher than I did. But yeah, I think there's a good chance he would be ranked higher. If he finishes Danny Gay, I might jump him up a little bit even further into the top 15. Like, Danny Gay is extremely difficult to finish.

He never has been. Am I crazy? Am I forgetting something? I think Danny Gay's never been finished, right? Nope. I would bump up. I'm not expected. I think Brito, the best we can know for is a very, like, convincing decision win.

If he finishes Danigay, man, I might bump him up 13, 12. Making some moves. And if people look on my list, that makes sense. He'd be taken out, like, I put him about like Bryce Mitchell, probably above a PFL king, Movly Kabalayev, maybe even above Giga. I don't know. No, maybe it's topic of Giga. And Giga's got a fight coming up, so that'll sort itself out.

So, yeah, he might come in at 13. That's a good question. I don't know why. When I saw this one, I was like, I don't know how much could he really move? And then I realized, like, Danigay's, you know, we consider him one of the best, biggest test for like a reason. So I think I'm the only one in our panel who doesn't have Giga ranked. I don't have Giga ranked. And I don't blame you.

I don't blame you. The inactivity has really hurt him, especially in a division this deep. Now, if he beats Arnold Allen, he will get a huge jump in my opinion. Because I have Allen at five. So he'll be, he'll be higher than him all if he beats, if he beats, if he will be a huge jump, he will. if he goes out there and it beats Arnold Allen. We'll see. You have to wait for these all to play out.

But yeah, if Brito goes out there and finishes, he game with you, he gets above 14. He probably gets to 13 or 12. I think we have a handful more, but I think we'll just do one more, eh? Yeah, I think this is the last one. Okay, we're going to wrap. There's a handful of others, but you know what? Oh, no, there's a couple.

That's fine. I think we can wrap here. We've answered some of these questions in some form or another, on other shows. And listen, we'll do another, ask us, anything soon. Hopefully. Actually, Mike, are we about to run into another one of those crazy ass UFC runs of like nine million consecutive shows? We are, right? Aren't we? 302. And then I see... I think the first weekend of July, I think the first week of July they're off

after international flight week. So it's just an insane June and then we get a little break. Okay, okay, okay. So maybe we'll do, maybe we'll do an after the McGregor car or something. Five. I think I, I am not promising that. I'll tell you right now. After that, McGrath, I might need a break. I might just do a weekend off. But either way, we will do one sooner or later.

But yeah, I just look ahead of it. 302, June 1st, June 8, June 15th, June 22nd, 29. 302, start the month, 303 end the month. Goodness me. I had not really taken a good look at that until now. But let's end with this one, because this is a fun, I think, a fun conversation starter. Yona, very upset with officiating, Mike.

Why are referees and Emma wane to get the opinion of a fighter during a, like when they foul? Who cares of the fight group Zoom? Don't understand this looks like a joke. If there is a foul, take a point. If it's blatant and it seems damaging like we just saw it with the headbutts. It's a DQ. The referee decides that is why he's in there.

The most crinsed thing in the sport is a need to a ground opponent. We are waiting to see if the participant in the competition wants to take the win. This is written in all caps. And his second paycheck. Effing DQ the dunk or take a point. No need to ask either party. I think we're, this is preaching to the choir here. Mike, I think we've spoken many times.

about officials needing to be more authoritative, more willing to take points, more decisive. And it's not an easy job, by the way. We slag a lot of some of these referees sometimes. We're very hard on her being over the past few years. It is an extraordinarily difficult. I think it's a considerably harder job than some of the major league sports. People may think I'm crazy because all sports are difficult to be sure, don't you wrong, especially once you get to the highest, highest, highest level.

I think MMA is right up there. I put it up there with the NBA. I put up with the NFL. I put it up, yeah, whichever sport you guys consider difficult to officiate, I would put it up there. It's really friggin difficult. But what's so frustrating is that we feel like referees have the mechanisms to make their job less difficult, and they don't use it. And that's where the frustration comes in. Mike?

I mean, I mean, what else could we say? We're the ones on all these shows. Jedd and I have been the conductor and co-conductor of the just cheat in every fight misweight, like misweight by two pounds. If you're a relative newcomer, so what?

Get every advantage you can. There's no penalty. You lose what, 20% of your purse that isn't much anyways. And then if you just win the fight, then it doesn't matter anyways. It all just sort of wipes itself out. So there's just no rules. There's no penalties for any of this shit. And

yeah, I was happy to see you. a DQ. That was a blatant headbut. That's a DQ. You want to shit on Ariani, Carnalosi? Go ahead. I don't care. I'm not here to tell you one way or the other, but he cheated. She cheated and she got caught. Pierre Rodriguez delivered a blatant headbut for the second time. It's a DQ. Fights over. Like, the referee did the right thing. We need to see more of that. I've seen referees do interviews and say, well, we're a little hesitant to take points because of the pay structure, we don't want to cost a fighter half their money,

you know, because these points are hard to come by. That's dumb. Like, that's dumb. What are we doing here? Every other sport, there are rules. And if you break the rules, even if you're wrong,

like, so what? That's why we have instant replay. If you take a point or something and the fighter's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, take a look at that. And they go back and they look at the replay and they say, you know what, it's not. Then you just say, fuck it.

No point taken. let's resume action. But yeah, the referee needs to be more authoritative across the board. They need to be consistent across the board. It's just it's the nature of the beast. Like I'm waiting for one referee. They call Keith Peterson no nonsense. But there's so much nonsense.

And like all of these fights, like I want to see a true no nonsense ref that says, you know what? We're going to follow the rules. You grab the fence. You get one warning. If you grab it again, you lose a. point. Just do something. Change the rules. Do whatever. I don't know. You're giving too much power to the refs. And I understand that they're trying to be like decent human beings, but that's not your job.

Your job is to officiate. Your job is to make sure fighters follow the rules, no matter how egregious they may be or how natural things may seem in a fight that if you're getting taken down and you're near something to grab, well, then your natural instinct is to grab the fence. It's not like that. This isn't a real fight. This is a real fight. But it's a professional fight with rules. You can't grab it.

None of this stuff. It's, it's annoying. It's a problem that just continues to fester in this sport. And I don't think it's going to change anytime soon because why would it, okay? Why would it? If the UFC just change the pay structure to like just one flat fee,

I don't think we'd, I think we'd have more points taken. I think we'd have more of that. But again, preaching to the choir again, I'm not here to talk about fighter pay and all that stuff because the fighters have the chance and the choice to change things and they don't want to. So, you know, it's not going to change, which means the officiating is not really going to change, which means we just kind of have to live with it at this point. And we'll all be happier, all be more peaceful with ourselves.

If we just live with it, as dumb as it may be, this is just the world we live in. Yeah, and it's silly for officials or fans to make the argument that are like, well, I don't, I don't want the official to influence the outcome of the fight so dramatically. And it's like, well, by not acting, they're influencing the outcome of the fight. That's a thing. You think like, oh, they took a point that affected it. There's a lot of scenarios where them not taking a point had a huge impact on the fight, had a huge impact on the course of the action, not penalizing someone, not calling out a fence grab, what have you. So not acting is just as bad as acting. and yeah, there's got to be some way,

there's got to be a middle ground, right, between, you know, these guys not being robots. Of course, they should use their discretion to determine like whether something was truly, truly accidental and unavoidable and whether, you know, it must be an instant penalty. But it just, right now, I totally understand the frustration of fans.

We just think, like, well, they are not near that middle ground right now, if they're not found that balance. And I feel the same way. There's a middle ground and they're not close to it yet. But it's there. It can be done. With the current rules we have,

It can be done. Referees are human. The freaking Super Bowl was decided two years ago by the referees. Sure. It happens. Like, referees are there to make even the hardest decisions. It's just the way that it is. So there you go.

I think we're good. I think we're good. We got some great questions. Thank you guys. Great questions. Yeah, shout out to Stephen. Shout out to Rob, who submitted questions. These are questions that we kind of answer all the time.

Maybe I'll answer a couple of these on a heck of a morning if we need to fill some time. you guys delivered as you always do. We appreciate you. And AK and I will be back live next week on the program following UFC 302. And wouldn't you know it, the lineup looks different than the last time we talked. We still have Isl-Machochoch-V versus Dustin Pori. We still have Sean Strzegov versus Paul Acosta. Kevin Holland versus Mikhail O'Ezek.

That fight is not going to last very long. I don't think. Jelton Al-Mata, Alexander Romanov. I kind of hope that fight goes the full of 15 because it'll be just hilarious and fun to watch if it does. Randy Brown looking for some damn respect at 170, taking on Elizus Oleski. Roman Coppilov, don't quit on him yet, my friends, taking on Cesar Almeda. Big one at 155, French top 25ers looking to break through Grant Dawson, Joe Selecky, Phil Roe versus Jake Matthews, Nico Price versus Alex Marono. That's going to be fun.

Mickey Gaul is back. First fight since UFC 273 in Jacksonville when he lost to. Mike Milott. In Mike Malat's UFC debut, he takes on Basil Hafez. The rivalry between Jocelyn Edwards and Eileen Perez will finally be settled,

and Andre Lima will welcome Ultimate Fighter Veteran and Contender Series veteran, New England's own Mitch Raposo to the UFC. It's finally happened. He's getting his shot. He's getting his shot.

He's getting a shot. I've been falling Mitch. Damn. His career for a long, long time since he was a young amateur at about 18, 19 years old. It's been New England's top prospect for Jesus, pretty much his entire pro run. And now he gets his chance. He's beat everybody except on the sort of Zoufa stage where he lost on the Alt of a Fighter. He lost to Jay Cadley, who missed weight, by the way.

Yeah, Alderman Fighter, he was a bantam weight. Altun Fighter, competing at 135, not his weight class. Yep, not his weight class. And then, yeah, since then, four finishes, won the CES title, won the Cage Titans title. Guys are real good. So we'll see if he can come through in a big moment against Andre Lima, who has his first fight since Bightgate, when he won via disqualification after getting bit in a UFC fight. So lots to like about UFC 302, very excited for it. And we're very excited to go live Sunday morning after UFC 302

to discuss what's going to be next for some of those names following UFC 302. So thank you all very much for AKI and Mike Heck. Thank you for all the questions. Thank you for listening. Back next week. Always remember the golden rule. Don't take this stuff too seriously. MMA is supposed to be fun.

And we'll have some more fun next week following UFC 302 right here. And on onto the next one, the podcast. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first? There, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes.

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