MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | How Has Sean O'Malley Handled UFC 306 Loss To Merab Dvalishvili?

Episode Date: September 22, 2024

Sean O'Malley went from having "zero excuses" for his UFC 306 title loss to Merab Dvalishvili, to now telling the MMA world he believes he should've gotten the victory at Sphere. How has O'Malley been handling himself following the loss, and are you surprised by the flip-flop reaction? On a special Q&A edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee discuss the fallout from O'Malley's loss, and the narrative that Dvalishvili is "ducking" Umar Nurmagomedov — and why that's just ridiculous. Additionally, questions include Dana White being ready to enter the boxing space, the UFC's next TV and broadcast deal, the A.J. McKee vs. Paul Hughes bout for the PFL PPV, who Movsar Evloev may end up fighting at UFC 307, Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall, Mike Perry's new boxing promotion, and much more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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But first, there, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Well, hello there, everybody, and welcome. Happy Sunday to a brand new edition of On to the next one. I bet you're thinking to yourself, self, what are these guys doing here? No UFC card this weekend. What are they possibly matchmaking for?

What is going on here? Well, a few times a year we like to pop on here on off UFC weeks and just chit chat with all of you. This is a special Ask Us Anything edition of the program. I am Mike Hack. And as you can see, the gentleman to my right, the co-host, the co-matchmaker, the Prince of positivity, my best friend. And what is that, a Celtic football club shirt? Number one Celtic fan in the world, baby, in Canada, in Canada. Well, probably not even that.

not the real Celtics not the NBA world champions the only Celtics that matter that's just not true it's just not true it is true that's a whole other show Mike that's a whole other show one day we will have a reckoning one day we'll have a reckoning well yeah that's what we're just going to hang out and answer your questions that's what we're going to do if there are is any sort of lag time we do have some questions that were submitted via the magic of social media that we'll get to but Knowing our boisterous audience, I don't think there'll be a ton of lag time. So we'll go for one an hour, maybe a little bit more, depending on how things are going.

So let's get right into it and speak with all of you. We got some super chatters right up the gate, Jonah. Best show on YouTube when it's actually on YouTube. Love the singing mic. It was only missing AK for those famous sweet harmonies, peace and love. Yes, the singing happened this weekend, if that's what you want to call it. I cashed in my punishment to Jed Mishu. Let me just clear something up real quick.

Someone, there's been a few of these messages that got sent in my direction, one of which was, and this is sort of a little bit of a common theme, Mike, this isn't punishment. You were excited to do this. Let me assure you, I was not excited to do that at all. I was dreading it the entire day. I was trying to figure out ways to not do it. But it ended up happening.

And luckily, I'm just one of those people that once a microphone gets in my hand, and I'm just one of those people that once a microphone gets in my hand, all the nerves go away. And I'm a showman more than anything. So if you guys missed it, it's all over social media. And it's a thing that happened. And hopefully a thing that never happens again. You got off easy from the wheel, though. I think I did. I think I did. You had, you showed, you did show, you did show the draw. And you did have some transparency. You showed the draw. There was some Whitney Houston on there. I, I think I have nothing which is one of her hardest song i mean all her songs are incredibly difficult to sing i actually that's one of the hardest i don't think what else i don't think about how crazy that song is i think what

else i'd probably like adele adele was there indel no adele um Beyonce's love on top was one i was like oh my god because that thing just gets higher and higher there's a mariah carey song vision of love that i never heard of so i figured that would be very difficult to sing does there some beber like old beber on there yeah i i think I think the wheel gave me a little bit of a break. I think it was baby. Wasn't the Bieber song Baby? That would have been an easy one there.

That would have been a fun one to do. But you would have had to do the ludicrous rap too, though, I think. Yes. Okay. Oh, if you're asking, what did you do? Oh, yeah, if you guys haven't seen the clip, he did. I want it that way by the Backstreet Boys. So again, check that out on his IG, his Twitter.

It's out there, guys. It's on the internet forever. A lot of people watched it. It's, yeah, that happened. Kenny, good morning, Duncan, Mike and Prince, AK, other than Max versus Ilya, what are your top three announced fights you're looking forward to the most? That's a great question. What do you got?

Let me go non-UFC for one. I am extremely curious about, I just want to see Francis come back. I don't know if that's going to be like an amazing fight, but I am interested in Francis versus Hanan Faheda. That's happening to the PFL. PFL super what's it called PFL Super Fight pay-per-view, Battle of the Giants, bring it on slash brought to you by Riyat season, something like that.

I don't even know. It's such, the marketing of this event is, you know, I don't want to say it's terrible because they are having a trailer come out soon, which is nice, and the full trailer. I think they did the teaser. So I think they're doing okay with promoting it. But yeah, just great to see Francis back in MMA where he belongs.

Boxing was fun. If he wants to box again in the future, have at it. but he's a top five heavyweight in m and i think he needs to show it again and on the other hand hand is also the chance for chaos with uh hana knocking him out so fun fun ffl i think has one of the biggest fights coming up uh i'm super excited for i'm trying to think of all the title fights for air round tree yeah pennington pania yep number one by far shouldn't even count ilia max i mean hamzaa ummaia versus robert wittaker has to be on that list but i know there's a little bit ahead in C.

Not assuming that fight's going to happen, so I can't get excited for it. No, of all the title fights, I like, I like, I like, I like Padena and Roundtree because I really think, like, people are counting Roundtree out way too much. So I am intrigued. I am intrigued. I actually think his style is a problem for Alex Panetta. I know Alex Perez got the death touch. I know everyone's thinking I'm crazy.

He's just going to smoke Khalil because it's a stand-up fight for sure. No one beats Panetta in a stand-up fight, but I think, again, if you watch Round-Touch, I know, and I'm probably buying to the glory killer thing too much, but you watch how he dealt with other high-level kickboxers. Like, he's really good at it. He kind of just has a style for it. And he has plenty of power himself. If you don't think he can knock out, Alps Panetta,

I think you're fooling yourself. So that, to me, the title fights is the one I'm most excited about. And we're not getting Nate Landwehr, right, Mike? Nate Landwehr is apparently not fighting in the next few months. He's not fighting when the UFC said he was fighting. So he was fighting Austin Hubbard in a lightweight fight. Not happening. Not happening.

Alexena Hernandez fighting Austin Hubbard. Disappointing, man. Disappointing. Because obviously any fight with Nate Landward would be on there. I'll go. I will go, because I want to go non-title. Yeah, you could just go one of the other title fights.

I don't know, Mike. Give me your, give me what you got. Let me have a second to come up with my third. I mean, it's Hamzaa Whitaker for sure. I feel pretty good the fight's going to happen. Oh, gosh. these things. I know Whitaker's saying it's a five-rounder. I have yet to confirm that with anybody else at this point. So we'll see if that is actually the case. I kind of hope it is a five-rounder,

because I think that increases Whitaker's chances a little bit. This, I'm going to say it, John Jones v. Stepe, not because I care about the fight. It's because I want it to be over so badly. I just want it to be over so we can move on with our lives. And this one's not on the books, but I feel like there's a very good chance that it could be. God, I don't know. It's either Balala Shafkat or Islam Arman, because we're going to get one of those two. If we get both, it's Islam Armin ahead of Bilal Shafkat because I just have to see that fight again. But I kind of have a feeling Balal Shafkat happens in December. And I have no insider information to this whatsoever.

And then maybe we get Islam Armin in January or something. So I'll say Balal Shafkat. Man, I don't want to say. You know it's not official. I don't want to say John Jones and Steepay. I'm not. I don't know. I just want it done.

I know. I know. You need to move on with our lives. This heavyweight division, all that we just need to move on from John all together. Because he's now he's back saying he's going to retire. and more than likely. And at this point, I'm fine with it.

I'll go, and this is kind of going against what I just said about, like, well, I don't know if Kamsat's going to enter. I'll go with Tatiana Suarez and Vienna-Jorrava, which essentially I'm crossing my fingers in the same way that Tatiana makes it. But maybe this is the day. She finally gets in there, earns her title shot, and we get to see Tatiana and Zhang Wei in first half of 2024. 2025, excuse me.

Fingers crossed, fingers crossed. So I want to see Tent. Also, I actually think that's an awesome matchup. I don't think it's like a lock that Tatiana beats Vyana Jondra. Like I think Tatiana is that good. That she'll be, I imagine a three to one favorite. But Vienna is like at the best she's ever been right now. So I'm interested in that.

So they go a little hipster there probably. Beastman. John Nick rightly mentioned about wanting Sphere again, but also said that they didn't have the loud crowd like usual, but catch 22 is ticket prices. How could we ever get a true MMA fan atmosphere in there? You can't. You can't.

I don't see how it's possible. Yeah, I don't mean to be cynical. And I don't think the crowd was the crowd that bad, the one that was at the sphere? Like, I think they were pretty like it was okay. You can't blame them. Well, Mallin came out. They were loud. Yeah.

And the crowd was pretty good. That was there. Maybe because it was the first. I guess people are dreading if it happens again. If it becomes an annual thing, will you get like less interested crowds? You get diminishing returns that goes along. Yeah, it's possible. But it's a very expensive venue.

Seating is limited, of course, compared to your average. average arena. So you really can't capture that same thing that you would get when you go like overseas or when you go to towns that don't get your sea shows often. Yeah, that's just, this is the tradeoff with the sphere is you get this kind of cool spectacle. I think this is one of the reasons, Dana said like he, aside from the obvious reasons, the cost, he doesn't necessarily want to make sphere like an annual thing. He's not he's not guaranteeing they'll go there every year. He's not guaranteeing they'll go there. He didn't say when, though, they plan to go there again. I think he'd love to do other cool themed shows there,

but I think there'll be a time and a place for it. And it's, for the reason that the question has just suggested, like, you can't quite create that fight atmosphere that, that you want, the big fight atmosphere. So I think they did a really good job with what they had,

but it has limitations and there's no getting past it. They got to do it again. So hopefully they do and they learn lessons and maybe the production can be still the same quality, but not as expensive, I guess. But I just, yeah, I don't know any other way around it. On a scale from 1 to 10, how much joy do we each, do you get each time Sheehan's fantasy team performs poorly?

It's a friggin 20 for me. Yeah, why are we living in this to 1 to 10? Do you go up to 100? Yeah, whatever the highest possible number is, that is my answer. It is hilarious. It is because he had a pretty smart strategy as far as going for like, I think lesser, not big fights, but fights that he thought will end in finishes

and seeing some of these picks fall flat on their face. Not the fight, I take no joy from the fighters themselves, but knowing, losing, but from seeing Shaheen's get zero points. Every zero is just delicious. Yeah, the unfortunate thing is my draft is just, I'm going to draft people who just aren't going to fight this year. And that's kind of where I'm at now. Mike has, so Mike has not actually had any one fight yet.

And he just, we, we just got a report today from Lassur that, uh, yes, Alexander Volkov and Sildogan appears to be, we think is going to be pushed back. It's definitely not happening at, uh, what was it for? Uh, not Paris. Was it Paris? No, 308. 308. So that was a 308 fight.

Yeah, supposed to be. And apparently there's smoke to that fire. There are reports saying it's going to happen at UFC 310. I'm told, because we haven't like 100% fully confirmed this yet, but obviously the person that I have confirmed. this from at least one side of it i mean it's a hundred it's somebody who one million percent knows this i'm told no guarantees it happens you have c310 there's the thumbs up don't know how that happened but it did and so yeah so cyril gone may not fight this year alessandra costa may not fight this year so it's it's gonna be fun 10 out of 10 just just get there alex perere for the love of god

Just get there. Please. Please just get there. Do you guys know where UFC is going for pay-per-view in early 2025? No, I do not. Back to Toronto, maybe? Hey, UFC, come back. I'm here.

I'm here. Hey, Toronto needs to be served again. What happened to the annual trip to Toronto? Come back here in January. Bring me that Sean Strickland, Drickus, do a deplice rematch. I'm right here, guys. I'm waiting for it. Nah.

No one wants UFC 297. relived because yeah. If some of those Canadian men had just won, it would have brought the vibe way up. It was depressing how poorly the Canadian. Shout us to well, Julian Robertson and Jasmine Yostovish us. But boy, the man did not perform that night. And I thought the main event was fine. It wasn't, I think it got a little overhyped after.

I think you had a lot of people going like, oh, it was one of the best main events ever. A lot of meatheads, just put it that way. It was, it was a good fight, though. It was a good fight. It was one of the best fights in the year. It saved, it didn't save the show, but it kept the show from being among like one of the worst ever. Yeah, I would completely agree with that. Very fun.

I would guess, again, no real insight. Anaheim is probably, I would guess Anaheim is one of them because they have that deal, that's that sort of like dual deal with W. with that arena in Anaheim where like WW is going to do like two shows a year or something or one this year, one next year and then UFC was going to do the same. So maybe that they're going to do

I'm sure they're going to be international. So maybe they just go right back to Perth potentially like they did it last year where they did the Islam Volcanowski card. Maybe do Perth again early. I honestly have no clue. But maybe probably Vegas in March, which is typical.

What happened to? What happened to Houston? Houston, they just had like a, they had like, whatever, four pay-per-view deal with, right? I guess that's just over. They did whatever four pay-per-view there. I think so, yeah. Because it was a multi-per-view deal. I just don't remember.

And they haven't been there in a couple of years now. So, yeah, I'm not sure. But Houston, I feel like Texas. I feel like due to return to Texas. But maybe not first quarter. And the question was asking first quarter, that might be maybe more of a summer. Pay them their money. And then they'll go.

That's pretty much it, right? What's your opinion about how sugar is handling the lost, delusional, or playing the villain? roll. Mike, you go first. I'm curious. I want to hear what you have to say. Is anybody, like, is anybody surprised by any of this? Because I'm not.

This is what I expected. So, yeah. I mean, I don't really know what to say about it. It's not, I'm very indifferent about the whole thing because this is one billion percent how I thought this would be handled. So you just, he didn't win. Like, I'm sorry. He didn't win.

Was it, he lost. You want to give him? three and five, I'm okay with it, but he didn't win the fight. So, yeah, he's just got to keep doing this. And he's probably going to get a title shot in his next fight. And that's it because Rob's going to fight, Umar. And no matter what happens, I think Sean will probably get the next shot anyway. So, because the UFC's just going to give it to him.

I think people need to realize, like these social media bits that he does and these tweets and all that are not really for us. They're not for the hardcore fight fan. So we take some responsibility for this with, uh, you know, the, Connor McGregor comparisons. Not that I think anyone on our staff specifically or even in the media in general has pushed it, but other fighters have mentioned it. Chale Sondon obviously compares them a lot. And Dan Cormy has done a comparison. Like there's been comparisons from the USC itself, obviously trying to push him as a McGregor type star. But something we've talked about a lot is he's very, He's very different than McGregor in a lot of ways.

Other than having a brash persona, he's not great at press conferences. He does not dominate press conferences. Sorry, guys. Or create memorable press conference moments like McGregor did. That is a, like, I don't know. People tell me in the chat, what is your most memorable quote, Sean O'Malley quote from a press conference? I don't think he has one, right? There's no who to F is that guy.

There's no grabbing Jose Aldo's belt. He didn't do any of that stuff. He's not great at press conferences. He's not, like, terrible, but he's just like average. He's an average press conference guy. I'll stop people saying, why doesn't he show up to the post-fight interview? Again, he's not like an elite post-fight interview guy either, even when he wins. Give me your best Sean O'Malley post-fight win quote.

He doesn't have that many. He's not special in that regard, as Connor was. And he didn't step up. Well, no, no, I'm sorry. He has stepped up to the plate many times on fight night. But, you know, this was the biggest test. This was his, I'm trying to think, an equivalent. This is not like his Jose Aldo.

I think Al-Jow was almost like his Jose Aldo moment. This would have been, oh, this was like as Eddie Alvarez moment, maybe, right? He needed to win this fight to take another step up in fame, didn't make it. That's fine. Rob's a very tough opponent. So if we're, you know, whatever McGregor comparisons there are, it's broad and probably inaccurate. So, yes, the social media stuff, to sort of answer the question, I don't have a problem with it. Again, it's not for me.

It's not for me. I do find it silly him saying he's undefeated. I do find this gets, you know, not entertaining. But they're not for me, guys. He has a whole other audience of sort of more younger MMA fans, maybe newer MMA fans. You know, fans who see things in a different way. So if Mike and I were to go in on him and say like, oh, this is stupid and he shouldn't, like, we're kind of preaching to the choir here.

You guys know it's dumb. Like you guys in the chat, you're an educated sort of M. And you guys know it's dumb. But there's a whole bunch of other people. Again, millions, I don't know, millions, hundreds of things. thousands of newer anime fans who don't care about, I don't know,

traditional fight talk, traditional fight building. And they like this goofy stuff. So it's, it's dumb. It's not for us. That's, that's my call on it.

Yeah. I don't really know what more to add to it, but it is what it is. This is what he does. And again, this is not a surprise at all. So,

Hey, Mike, I was just wondering what happened a heck of a morning. Really miss it. Love you guys. Happy birthday, AK. I don't know.

We just don't have the bodies. right now. Like if I'm if I'm on the clock, I can't write stories and do heck of a morning at the same time. You know what I mean? It's just impossible to do. So we're kind of at the point right now where we're trying to figure all this out, trying to body up a little bit. And then we can kind of see what we can do. But yeah, there'll be things coming. We'll do a lot more of the reaction stuff that you guys like. in the meantime, there is discussions about swing rounds becoming a more regular thing, but we just, we got to replace some folks first. So a lot of people are wearing multiple hats right now.

And that's just where we're at right now. So let's the rebuild happen. There's no morning report either anymore, guys. You may have noticed. We still have a morning post, but it's not the same format of like, you know, that big breakdown, social media breakdown. So shout out to Drake, race, for holding it down for a while. Jedman Shoe obviously held down for a long time.

I peeked in every little now and then. But as Mike said, we've had some personnel changes. Of course, Shaheen going on to Uncharted. Best of luck to him. Stephen, who was fantastic, you know, just was a victim of the numbers game earlier this year. And we haven't really had a body step in, unfortunately. So we're working on it, guys, a lot of stuff happening at MA Fighting, SB Nation, Vox Media. We're working on it.

And again, shout out to Drake Riggs. He's just moving, guys, he's moving on from MMA for now. He's actually has a, he does a pretty successful streamer. I think he does streaming on TikTok. So guys, follow him on TikTok if you're not. If you're wondering where Drake went. TikTok, I think he said, I want to say Switch, but I think he said TikTok primarily. And also he's like card trading, right?

He does card trading, something like that. Yeah. And he buys themselves cards. Yeah, and I know there's a huge culture for that. So if you guys into card trading, buying and selling, check out Drake Greeks for sure. But yeah, guys, people move on. People leave. People let go, unfortunately.

We are still here holding it down and thank you to all you guys who are still tuning in and checking out the website. And we're getting back on track, guys. are getting back on track. Slow and steady. We'll get there. Do you guys think the UFC will go back to Apex events after the hiatus or are we officially done?

Is there going to be a hiatus? What hiatus? I don't think that like they're there. They're going back October 12th and 19th and then they're back there in November. Yeah. What hiatus? Yeah. I don't know anything about it.

I know there's every time there's an Apex card, people take pictures of the dirt and maybe they're expanding it. but maybe they're just going to do their hiatus, if there even is one during the off time, I guess. I don't know. But also, he also is going to first UFC event in Edmonton. Is A.K. are going to be there? A.K., you're going to be in Edmonton.

I don't know. I doubt it. I will say I doubt it, but I do have to talk to our higher-ups and see if maybe I'll be out there. Because I love Edmonton. I was there for, what was it, Chris Seabor, Alicia Spencer, Frankie Edgar, and Max Holloway. and it was a great time. Edmonton is fantastic.

Love Edmonton. So if I get there, hopefully I'll see you guys there. Yeah. By the end, the apex, unless there's, unless their new TV deal is like,

we'll pay you a floppyy trillion dollars, but no apex cards, they're going to keep going. Why wouldn't they? They'd be insane not to. Like, people are just,

they're still going to watch it. It's bad cards. There's no, there's just no feeling or emotion when watching these events at all. It's just brutal. But they save and make so much more money when they're at the apex. So my guess is they don't go anywhere, especially with the new TV deal up.

They're still pumping out 40 plus cards a year. They're going to the damn apex. It's just, it's happening. It's staying. That's real talk. I mean, yeah, what can you say? I think we'd all like to see it go away. But they built it knowing that it.

be something that could help them and their profits for generations to come. So sorry guys, Apex's not going anywhere. With Instacard, you get groceries that over-deliver so you can over-share your preferences. Want russet potatoes with no brown spots? You got it. Want turnips that look light but feel heavy? Easy. Want honey crisp apples that are firm green and definitely not Macintosh like last year when you lost the fall bake-off to perfect Penelope Johnson? Okay, a bit TMI, but we're here for it. So download the app today and get zero-top. delivery fees on your first three orders.

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This is big. Get the new iPhone 17 Pro at tellus.com slash iPhone 17 pro on select plans, conditions and exclusions. Solutions apply. What else we're doing here? What else we got? Yeah, I don't think they'll ever stop going to the apex. UFC still doing apex cards.

Let me pull. Let me see. Let me pull something from our people who sent us questions. Because I do appreciate people sending us questions on social media. Let's see, what's a good one here? Okay, let's address one. This is two questions actually kind of. This is from Thomas Collins and Double Dutch.

They're both asking separate questions, but they're kind of related. Mike, what does it say about the state of the USC rankings that Diego Lopez is ranked ahead of Mosaar despite Mosa bd bdum last year. My view is that it is a marketing play for the UFC. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts. And then Double Dutch kind of has a question for us. How can the UFC and you guys have Ortega ranked inside the top seven when he only has two wins in six years? So rankings is tricky, guys.

I mean, it's, let me, I have to draw them up to look at this, look at the rankings now. So we don't have, we have Mosaar ahead of Diego. which we think is right. But the UFC has Diego in front of Moussar, which is like somewhat justifiable. Okay, again, I think Moussars win over him from a year ago, and also that went over Arnold Allen. That was a great fight, by the way.

That for me is enough to keep Mosec in his top five position. But Diego has fought more. And if you're a fan of activity, and if you're the, which apparently the UFC voting panel is, then you can sort of make the case that Diego, deserves you up and then he finally gets a win over a top five guy in Brian Rotega and that's all they need to see him go up. So there's

a logic to it. And as far as how do you guys have Ortega ranked inside the top seven when he only has? I mean he beat Yair guys. He beat Yair, yeah, years in the top seven. So unless you're going to drop both of them out, then which you could if you wanted to, but then who are you putting in? Anytime I see someone ask

how can you, why does your top five, top six, top seven, top eight, whatever, look like this? Send me your top five, top six, top seven, top eight. Give me your order. Give me your order. does it. You're just asking questions and you're not providing an answer. I think you, I don't think you can bump Brian or take it down that much from this loss of Diego. I think that'd be weird. Inactivity, yes, bad, but it's pretty elite by the way it still, I think. Yeah. I mean, the more I think about the more I like, I think ranking Diego above Moussar is somewhat okay.

Although they fought each other. And I don't, you can. cannot, you cannot put the short notice thing into the conversation. They signed a contract. They said they're going to fight each other. If that wants to be on the back of your mind in some degree, sure, but the fight happens. They both agreed to it. They both put pen to paper. They both made weight and they both fought. Mobsar won. Like Diego gave him a good fight, but Movesar won. So they fought and Mobsar beat him. So to me, I don't think you can rank Diego above Movesar unless he just doesn't fight anybody for like two years and we have to take him out of the rankings. But activity does matter.

The other thing I'll say about Ortega, and it's true, he doesn't have a lot of victories as of late, it's the same reason why it's not exactly the same, but it's the same reason why I rank Charles Olivera super high at lightweight and in the pound for pound rankings. Brian Ortega's strength of schedule is ridiculous. This dude ain't fighting. There ain't no bounce back fights for Brian Ortega. This dude just fights murderer after murderer after murderer. His level of competition is pretty ridiculous.

So that goes into the equation as well. Frankie Edgar, this is not washed Frankie Edgar on the heels of retirement. Frankie Edgar. It just isn't. So let's just look at his UFC run. Let's go just 2017. Hanata Moikano. Stop them.

Cub Swanson. stopped him. Frankie Edgar, stopped him. Max Holloway, then he was out for a while. This is zombie who was kind of on the back nine,

but was less than a year away from getting a title shot against Alexander Volkovsky. Then he fought Volkadovsky, fought Yaiyar, fought Yaya again and stopped him, and then Diego Lopez. Like, that is a ridiculous run.

That's a ridiculous run. So, yeah, that's why he does. deserves like to be kind of where he is right now. The strength of schedule has to matter to some degree. But yeah, dude, he's, he's kind of out of the title discussion at this point. Featherweight is loaded and these guys are coming. Like these guys are going to come and they're all have a chance to jump over him.

They're just not quite there yet. Yeah. And who are you going to put above him? Because so I'm just looking at our rankings. And this is including non-DFC fighters, by the way. So we have Ortega sixth. I wouldn't, would you put Arnold Allen above him? I wouldn't put.

I don't think Arnold Allen has got a win that's better than the I year. I don't think that I don't think Arna, whatever his recent wins were are higher than Yai Year. He lost to Yaira to Yer right? Didn't that fight happen? Am I on drugs? I'm on drugs. I'm on drugs.

No, no, no, no. I'm thinking about De Jare and Arnold Allen. That hasn't happened. I think we've made that matchup a bunch of times. Yeah, we've made that match up a lot. You know, so yeah, I think we've made that matchup a lot. We just want to see it happen. It hasn't happened yet.

I think it makes so much sense for both guys. Would you put Fritio Pitbull about Brian Ortega? I wouldn't. Josh Emmett, I'm just looking at our list going down. Josh Emmett, Aljo. I don't think Aljo's higher than Brian Ortega. So really, who are you putting in the top seven or top six above them? I don't understand.

Calvin Cater, Giga, Danny Gay, like why? So, you know, I don't know. I'm getting defensive, but I think the rankings very seriously, Mike. I take the ranking very serious. True. Okay. Who do you guys think everybody's saying Marab is ducking Umar? Very clearly said that he will fight anybody UFC puts in front of him.

He just said that Figgie deserves it more, which I agree with. I do not agree with that. I don't agree with that at all. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry. That's crazy. Rob, like, look, I think people know that I, I am a Rob Fonk guy. Rob, I've been following since even before he was in the UFC.

He's a New England guy. And beating Rob Fonant is a nice win. He looked real good in that fight. Then he beat Cody Garbrandt, who wasn't even ranked at the time, I don't think. And then he beat Cheeto Vera, who was. coming off of one of the most lopsided title losses I have ever seen when he fought Sean O'Malley. Like three very quality wins. But Umar went out there and beat Corey Sanagan, who's still at the top of his game.

And I understand that maybe the resumes isn't exactly the same. But you also have to understand that Umar was slated to fight other high level guys. And then opponents fell out or whatnot. And you just have to fight who's in front of you. Corey's the best win of all of those names I just ran off. It's not even close. This isn't even a discussion right now. And as much as the Sanhagen fight was slightly more competitive than maybe some of the scorecard suggests,

Umar was never in danger in that fight, not even really for a second. So that performance alone to me puts him above Figgy Smalls. It just does. So, yeah, it's just the best win the two. have at this point. So, look, Figgi's there. Fingie versus Jan has been the fight to make for like a year and a half now. What are we doing here?

Just book that one. And if Figgi beats Piero-Jan, whenever Piero-Yan's ready to come back, it seems like he's ready to come back, then he gets the winner of Marab versus Umar if the UFC does the meritocratic thing, which they probably won't. So Figgie's going to get his shot if he gets another win. But, yeah, the Mar-Rab thing is just weird because of what he's. he said after he won. It was just hilarious. It was just hilarious. Umar's right there. They got him on screen. They set the table for him. And instead, Marab was just like, I love you, Data White. Let's be friends.

Let's have a cup of coffee together. And thank you for everything you've ever done for me. I mean, very nice thing to say about your boss, but come on, man, this is a prize fighting. Got to sell that fight. That's the fight he's getting no matter what. Yeah. There's no, and if they offer him that fight and Marab says, nah, I'd rather fight Figgi. The UFC is just gonna be like, all right, bet you're not the champion anymore.

It's what they're gonna do. So he's gonna fight Umar. I don't think he's ducking him. No. But he's, he is, I guess he is somewhat prize fighting. He's, you know,

Figgie's a tough fight. But at the same token, Umar's the dude and that's it. Like, go fight him. Yeah, the question is asking, why do people think that?

And I think, Mike, It's a perception thing, guys. You got to use your mic time wisely. And any time you suggest a name other than the number one contender, some people are going to take that and run with it as, oh, he's avoiding him. So it's Marab has to take responsibility for that. Just listen, Figgie is a worthy title challenger.

Like I wouldn't, he should not get the title shot over Omar. I think that's absurd. If it happened, whatever, I wouldn't be happy about it, but I also wouldn't go like, oh, this is the biggest travesty. I mean, we've had so many unworthy title challengers. Figgy would not be close to like the worst of those. I think he'd be fine. He's a former champion.

You saw it that way, champion versus champion, whatever. But yes, when you leave that door open, it reminds me of Tyrone Woodley. I don't think Tom Woodley was ever ducking anyone during his, his Walterweight Title Reign. Because he ended up fighting the guys they wanted to fight. People thought he was like, oh, he didn't want to fight Damien Maya. He didn't want to fight Wonderboy.

He didn't want to fight Darren Till. And he did a really bad job of hyping up those fights. I think it's one of the problems people have with T. Woods title reign. as he was always talking about someone else. So it created the perception that he was ducking because he would go like, I want to fight Nick Diaz. I want to fight George St. Pierre. And obviously, in my mind,

it didn't mean he was scared of Wonderboy or Darren Taylor, any of those guys. But it left the door open. It created a perception that he was ducking. It's a duck. So it might not be fair, but if you're a fighter, you have to be aware of how you are allowing your narrative

to be shaped by people when you put these quotes out there when you're morab and you say something like oh i know umar's out there but davidson figurado would be a great opponent wouldn't he guess what people are going to take that and interpret it in a certain way i don't think it's ducking mike you don't think it's ducking but the fact that it's even a conversation is kind of his fault uh super chat from slito well heck of morning ever return to having withdrawals we already kind of touched on this yeah sorry slito slido check out the replay uh we did we did kind of get in depth about it tv d tv tv we just don't have the bodies man like I can't I can't I can't run and I can't be on like the editorial side of things and do heck

of them more at the same time it's absolutely impossible cannot be done so we're figuring it out once you body up we'll uh we'll go from there let's do this one rank these overused phrases in order of most annoying I came into this fight injured I dared to be great give me the 50 G's fraud checked I want to fight Connor next fraud checked is number one without a doubt That's number one for me. That annoys the shit out of me. To come out and say that Sean Brady was fraud-checked by Balal Muhammad, who is the champion of the world, is ridiculous. It's such a ridiculous statement. This is fistfighting.

This is mixed martial arts. Unless you are Habib Narmagham-Maghamatov or John Jones, you're going to lose. It's just the way it works. Everybody is going to lose in this sport. Even Diego Lopez has lost. It happens. Mozar hasn't lost yet, but many people feel he lost to Arnold Allen. Sometimes you don't have your fastball.

Valentin Ashvchenko lost to Alexa Grasso, got stopped by her. No one thought that was possible. No one thought that could happen. Israel Adasania lost to Sean Strickland. Very few people thought that was possible. You cannot. I think fraud checked is just the most annoying term of all, because this is a sport that is just so unpredictable.

Dared to be great is probably number two. What else is there? Rall Rosed say give me 50 Gs is bad, real bad. I'll say that's three. The Connor thing is four, and I came into this fight injured is five, because I just feel like that's the easiest thing to say. Connor would have been higher like three years ago.

That would have been like number one. 100%. Three years ago would have been number one. That was about. He would have been, Connor would have been five if Joaquin Buckley didn't do it this year. And that's why it gets bumped up an entire spot at number four. That's still the worst thing I've heard all year.

So good. So can I see them again? Can I see the options again? Yes. Yeah, fraud check. So it's interesting though, because some of these are fighter phrases and some of these are phrases like used by fans, right? Like fighters, I don't hear a lot of fighters say fraud check.

I mean, why would you? You're just diminishing your own win. So you don't really say that. I dare to be great. I feel like this is a specific shot at Michael Chandler. So how dare you all of you? This is Jamal Hill. Jamal Hill.

Jamal, Spencer. Yeah, I came to this fight, injured. It's not bad. I don't think. I agree. I'll put, actually, give me the 50 Gs in number one right now. I think that's bad.

Maybe I'm reeling from Roel Rosas Jr. It's brutal. Give me that bonus thing. But, guys, it's just not good. It's not good. I wish the UFC. I know they don't like to control people stay in the microphone. I really wish they would just do a little backstage note,

like, hey, guys, on the mic, don't ask for the 50Gs. Don't ask for the bonus. It's a bad look for you guys. It's a bad look for us. It's not good for anyone. So I find that so bad. And it's just,

it's so out of the fighter's control. And I just don't think it's ever led to like a good response from Dana White, publicly anyway. I've never seen Dana at a press conference go like, you know what? When that guy asked for the 50 G's, that's when I knew who's about this life. That's a real fighter.

It's like, no, it just goes, it just doesn't go mention, go, it just doesn't get mentioned later and it can't lead to anything good. So that's number one for me right now, I think. Yeah. They're all, they all are pretty bad.

We got good suggestions in the comments. So we got Mike Conlin. We'll get to those. Mike. Oh, go ahead. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's go. Let's go find them.

Go to scroll all the way down here. We got lazy bed. We got Mike Conlin. Anything can happen to fight. True. True. We're going to find out Saturday. Yes.

Yeah. Kills us. Guys, when we're writing way in post headlines and we're trying to like, I trust the matchmakers. We're horrible. Horrible. I'll take whoever the UFC gives me. Oh, God, that combo, that's a one-two combo of mediocrity of just like, do you not care?

Yeah. Tough. There's some bad. There's just some real bad ones. There's some real bad ones. Where is? There we go. There's like this one.

Give me your way too early prediction on the next UFC TV rights deal. What networks will be involved? Mike, go ahead. I got to remember what the WW deal was. It's tough, man. It's tough because they will not be exclusive. don't think they'll be exclusive to anybody and i think they'd on it and you know dana white could hear this to be like this fucking idiot is no he's talking about but at the same token i think it would

be a very bad business decision to be exclusive to anybody because everyone's going to be throwing money at them so you could get you get a separate deal for the contender series you get a separate deal for apex cards you get a separate deal for pay-per-views and you get a separate deal for fight night events on the road and you could maximize profit in all of those things. I'll say Netflix is probably going to be involved in some way, shape, or form. I think they will stay at ESPN a little bit. I think Contender Series will stay on like ESPN Plus or something of that nature.

Again, I have no knowledge about this whatsoever, but I think, I think ESPN and the UFC helped each other so much that I don't. And Dana seems like a pretty loyal guy to, you know, however you feel about the man. you know, to all of his faults, he seems like a pretty loyal guy. And if you've been in a good sort of relationship with him and you've treated him well and he feels like you've treated him well, then he's willing to go to bat for you. So I do feel like ESPN will be involved in this in some way at a much more limited capacity. I think Netflix ESPN are probably two of them, if not all of them.

But I'll say Netflix will be like the major player. All rights combined, like we said, let's say, let's say there's no Netflix involved. Let's say there's a little ESPN Plus sprinkled in there. Let's say there's another third network involved. Mike, will the deal surpass a billion dollars? Oh, God, yeah. Yeah, easy, easy, clear? I think so.

What was, um... So I'm looking at, WW was Netflix 10 years. This was 10 years, uh, 5 billion, 5 billion over 10 years. How much was the ESPN deal? Oh, it was. wasn't a billion, I don't think. Yes, it was. Five years, five year,

1.5 billion. Wow. For just the ESPN deal. That was the original deal. Shortly after the original deal was signed, the contract was extended for two years and pay-per-view broadcasts were added. Man, that apex is worth every penny.

I'll tell you right now. Yeah, dude. This is going to be, I mean, multi, multi-billion dollars, multi-billion dollars. More, not more than the W.E. Um, probably not. WAB's putting up way more pro.

I think this is crazy to say W is putting on more programming. The Netflix deal is just for raw. That's it. Crazy. Nothing else. So maybe they could do. I don't know, man. I don't know.

Is Peacock still like Earth Pavey's still going to be on Peacock? I don't even know. Did not even know Peacock was still a thing. Sorry, Peacock. Did not even know. Yes. So, yeah, it's going to be a, it'll be multi-billion dollars, though. It's going to be gigantic, huge.

I bet their next deal combined will be $5 billion. Five billion. We'll be around the $5 billion mark. Okay. It's going to be humongous. Right. So it'll match the Netflix raw deal, but probably not whatever the total, whatever W.

No. But still, not bad. That'd be damn good. Not bad. That's good money. It'll be damn good. That's good money if you can get it. My goodness.

The pay-per-view model is what's going to be the most interesting. Are they going to keep it on ESPN Plus? Is it still going to be 80 bucks per plus implicable taxes? Or are they going to do the WWE model where it's just, hey, you subscribe to this service for $10 a month? You get the pay-per-views. And you get the whole backlog of fights and events and all that stuff. So I don't know. It's going to be interesting.

I can't wait, man. Mike, let me pull one up from, because this is a good one. Nick Verberg, Mike, wants to know, do you feel the UFC is disincentivized to have superstars like Connor and Jones in the future? I feel like having big stars like Poetan, but the UFC brand still being the bigger star is so much better for them than the super nightmare of having athletes that are actually able to flex with the UFC. Disincentivized. That's a strong word.

They realize after they sold the company. that they don't want to, of course, having Connor around is huge. It's massive. He's the biggest star in the history of the sport. But they now also realize they don't need him. They do not need Connor McGregor. They are bigger than they ever were even when Connor was at his peak right now. And they don't, it's very smart and wise for them to not have a fighter who many

believe is bigger than the sport and the promotion. And for a time, especially in 2016, Connor was that guy. And Connor was a big reason why they sold for $4 billion. It was the biggest reason for sure. And Connor will be, by all intents and purposes, a big reason why this TV deal is going to be as massive. Because let's just be perfectly clear here, MMA is still a baby. Why do you think PFL is getting like the deals they're getting? It's not because these networks are like, hmm, let's dive into the ratings and look at their star potential because they ain't got them. They ain't got star potential. But because they are MMA and MMA, when you think of MMA, you think of the UFC and you think of ESPN. Like that just kind of gives you a better

incentive on working with them, which is why PFL is a profitable business. No one gives a rat's petude about what they are putting on fight wise right now. They have zero buzz. But they are profitable because they are making deals to have sponsors and be on TV and all of those things. But at the same token, it's just the UFC has learned to this point. They are just a machine that doesn't stop. They're so well-oiled at this point that they can really do no wrong. And Dana has been the face of the company and has been for a while. And they're reaping the rewards of this. They don't need a gigantic superstar. They just want people who go out there and liver performances. Poetan doesn't even have to say a word. He just has to go out and make the

scary face, go do a cool way in, have the cool walkout, boop a dude, and he's good. Like, people just want to keep seeing him because he's learned the biggest lesson of becoming a star now in 2024. It's not always what you say on the microphone. It's being present and being in front of that camera as often as humanly possible. That's a made Kevin Holland to star that's what made hamzaa shima if a star that to make other people stars at this point in the sports history is just going out there as often as you can and delivering performance after performance and that's why poitin is over as he is right now because he just keeps fighting and he keeps saving the day and he looks like a hero right now in a lot of people's eyes and the ufc also understands

that people love watching him but he's not bigger than the company so it's the perfect thing for them. So that's kind of where they are at right now. And I think they're pretty gosh darn happy to be in this position right now where those three letters are bigger than any name and any fighter on the roster right now. But they're still popular and they're still making money at the same time, at least comparatively to where they were a decade ago. Yeah, I saw a question earlier in the chat. Like, is he fighting too much to be about Poetan? And is it like at some point has become less special. Like, he's fighting just the right amount, Mike, I think for the reasons you said.

He's fighting just the right amount. He is the guy that the UFC needs right now. As far as, not they need anyone, but I mean, as far as, yes, him being their, I guess, current, active, biggest star, obviously, we're not counting Connor. We're not counting John Jones. I wouldn't even count John Jones right now. I might not even count him after the year's over because he's probably going to retire. So as far as, like, someone who is active, who the fans can look forward to seeing fight more,

it is Alex Padetta. and we talked about the McGregor factor stepping up in all these big moments. And that's what he's done. He stepped up. He's delivered. He hasn't had to say much. He's got a catchphrase. People love saying Chama.

Like I know so many people, I have friends of mine who are like very casual combat sports fans. They love saying Shama. They just think it's so cool, the mystique around him, plus the highlights. So yeah, I think he's fighting just the right amount. I don't think people can get enough of them. I think the fact, if anything, the fact that he's fought however many times in the last 12 months has just like endeared him so much in this industry of guys who seem to be you know jockeying for fights getting too involved in the politics behind the scenes getting just not fighting

he just gets in there and he takes care of business so uh everything's just right with poiton and yeah this kind of goes along with with the question where like they i don't think uc is disincentivizing anything i think of a big enough star comes along they're happy to push that but they don't need it right now don't know any right now maybe maybe two or three years from now Again, they strike gold with some young hot fighter. They'll ride that until the wheels go off. And then they'll settle back down again into just being the UFC. But yeah, they're not, they're never in the business of creating stars.

And they don't have to be. What's next for Darius, Gamrot, Fazeve, Patty? I think Gamrots kind of screwed right now, unfortunately. Great fight with Dan. So here, who's coming up at, who's coming up at lightweight right now? I think Gamrod's going to have to fight like Esteban Riebovich or somebody like that. Wow, that's tough. Like, he's in a tough spot.

The spoiler. Darius, I like Daryush Patty fighting each other. That's the fight I wanted after Patty's last win. And I know, look, I know people are like, even when this interview drop, oh, you can't do this. He's ranked so much higher now. He's active and this guy hasn't been. Give me physique versus Dan Hooker, man. Like, just give it to me.

Fiziv's ready to come back. Like, that fight could headline Tampa. That could be the main event for the Tampa car. Dan Hooker versus Raphael Fiziv. That is a friggin banger. What a great return matchup for Raphael Fizier. I think it makes sense. And Fiziv even said, like, look, he's higher in the rankings.

But of all the names in this division, since I got hurt in the Gamrod fight, Dan Hooker is the only person that has said his name, which means Fizizizizizizzi likes that and thinks they would put on a fight of the year contender and I don't think he's wrong. So I think the UFC could see value in that. And Oliver is booked and some of these other big names are booked.

So if Dan Hooker wants to fight before the end of the year, go fight Raphael Fiziv. That fight friggin slaps. Yeah, he's being very coy Dan Hooker about who his next opponent is. So I do hope it is Fiziv. I think that would be sick as hell. I love the idea of Patty and Benile. I can't remember, Mike, what did I just say recently on onto the next one

though? I had some dumb ass pick for Patty. Um, Michael Chandler. No, no, that was a dumbass pick from a while ago. I had a new, I thought that was still the pick.

No, no, was it? I think I had to, I think it was. No, because I said, uh,

Chandler's off the board because he got the, uh, Ola Verify. And then I was like, I have a new stupid pick for a point, Patty Pimble. Uh,

I believe I said, oh my gosh, where is it? Someone who had just fought. It was someone who fought on the card. I don't know, because, you know what,

if it comes to me. Oh, I said, I said Brian Ortega. Oh, that's right. That's right. His 155 debut, Brian Ortega's 125 debut, I guess. Youser.

I don't know what I'm doing anymore. Let's see. Question for AK, any chance of us getting a segment where we give video version of Robbery Review with AK Mike doing live scoring while we, the viewers, give our vote live. I have thought about a lot about turning robbery review into a podcast. Someone has already done that, though. I'm sorry their name escapes me out, but there is a robbery review podcast out there.

Unrelated to us, unrelated to us, just doing their own thing. So I have not checked that out. But yeah, I think we would like to do our own version as well. It's just, I like writing it up.

I think writing it up has its own appeal. If you guys have read my robbery reviews, I'm very proud of sort of how I lay everything out and try to be as objective as possible as far as when it comes to not my own scoring, talking about everyone else scoring. And then, but video would be great.

I think video having stills of the fights, talking about key moments, would be a lot of fun. And yes, having a vote is always fun, having people involved. We wouldn't be able to really watch the fight. I guess we'd be kind of like a watch-along type set up,

but that would be weird. I think it'd be more fun to sort of talk about it and live chat with you guys while doing our review. So we'll look into that. I think it could be a fun idea. Big news from this past weekend. What do you think about Dana going into boxing? So I've been asked this a lot,

AK, and I have not responded to anybody. who continues to ask me this question. So let me just answer this question with a question of my own, AK. Hasn't Dana already been in boxing for quite some time? This Callum Walsh thing, he's been in boxing. He's been promoting this kid more than he's promoted Marab de Balish-Villy for the past two years. What is his, I don't understand.

Is he, what is his relationship with Callum Walsh? He's not his, like, manager or anything. I see, what is the business? I don't know. He's, there is some. sort of partnership there. I'm so because, yeah,

Callum Walsh is their, he's like their individual power slap. Like it's all over their socials. It's everywhere. Like, it's anytime this kid fights, it is a full court press from the UFC to put this kid over.

And cool. Like, you have the power, so you might as well use it. But he's been in boxing for so long. Like, this boxing thing, the Calamawton,

it's been at least two years with Dana and Callum, Has it not? Something to that nature? Something like that. I'm still confused. Again, is there any sort of financial investment in Callum Wall? There has to be.

There has to be. That we don't know about. There has to be. Okay. I remember covering International Fight Week for the Izzy Canineer card. And we were doing like the Radio Row thing. This was what? 2020.

Was this 22? Or 21? I think it was 22. And Count Malsh was there. They were trotting him around to everybody. Hey, you want to interview this kid? He's an upcoming boxer. He's going to be fighting on fight pass.

Bo Nickel was also there before fighting on the contender series for the first time. Right. So he's been in boxing. So I'm just curious how different it's going to be now. Is he just going to run his own boxing company? Is this another match room? going to do something with turkey? Are they going to combine forces? Now that you see what turkey's done? Like, what is this going to look like? I think we found another use for the apex, though.

I'll say that much. Are you ready for apex boxing series? I love it. This is the apex of professional boxing. They should do. So I remember saying this after watching it. But remember when they did the game bread boxing card with like all the big names on it, Jose Aldo, they, Anthony Pettis, Roy Jones, Jr. I think we did a post show after that. And my first thought was, this is what Zufa boxing needs to be. It needs to be active UFC fighters boxing each other. Like for those who are like, I only get two fights a year.

Well, now you can get more. Now you can just go box. You can go box of the apex. Like, we could get like Adrian Yannas Rob Font 2 in a boxing match. That is cool as hell. I'd watch the shit out of that. That's a great idea.

I think that would do very, very well. Now you can mix in other names as well that are outside of it, but doing, like putting your UFC fighter, your current rostered athletes who want a box. And part of the reason they would go to other promoters is because they say, hey, I wanted to go try this boxing thing.

Now I can be like, yo, you can go try this boxing thing. We have this boxing thing that you can just go do if you want to. So I would love to see that. But who the hell knows? We could extend like Tony Ferguson's like Zupa career by like another three years with this. Oh, no, no, no. Put the gloves on, Tony.

Put the gloves on. Listen, he only lost some of those fights because he was out grappled, Charles Olivera, Benile. I feel like we get the gloves on. It could be a whole different story, you know. Callum Walsh, okay, this is from the UFC.com. This is from their write-up ahead of his fight that just happened this weekend. Callum Walsh has a long-standing relationship with UFC president and CEO Dana White,

who has supported Welsh's career and provided guidance after building a combat sports empire in UFC as an undefeated rising star. White wanted to help make it possible for Walsh to fight at home in Ireland after basing himself in California for most of his career. So again, very vague, very vague. He has provided guidance. That is the official company line. So I don't know. I don't know what's the, but yes, if the Zufo boxing thing is ever going to start get going,

you'll be hearing a lot about Callum Walsh. And I wish, Mike, I wish your idea would come true because I would love to see some people just throw on those big gloves and throw down. TKO bought a little TKKKK. K-KO boxing action? Do it. Do it. Maybe there's some WWE guys in there that want to try all the sweet science? I am all in.

I am all in. We'll go for like another 15 minutes. What do you think of Mike Perry's soon to be bare-knuckle MMA promotion? I think he doesn't have the star power to do his own promotion. It'll be fine. As long as they don't over-promise. Don't over-promise and don't over-spend. That's it.

They'll be fine. I don't think this is something that Mike Perry and whoever else involved is trying to pour like 50 million dollars into i would hope not anyway i i think you start at a reasonable regional level you slap that mike perry brand on it and you'll be okay you have him i i assume he's able to fight for it would bkfc a lot maybe a co-promotion co-p maybe a co-promotion maybe a co-promotion maybe yeah yeah this is this is a this is a matter of budgeting not a matter of like star power because we've said in a lot of our shows the man love him or hate him has carved out some kind of niche.

And he is occupying it full force. And, you know, more power to him and other fighters who manage to do that because it is very hard to do that. It's very hard to stand out in this business. It's very hard to make a lot of money in this business. And if you are ambitious enough to try and go with your own promotion, I say have at it. But yeah, I don't think it'll be a lack of star power.

It'll just be a matter of finances and just being smart with your business. But I think it'll succeed. I think it's a cool concept. as long as the fights are good, as long as you can create some good highlights on social media, that'll create buzz. Just do it right. You know what I mean?

Just don't go out and book Amelie Arena in Tampa for your first event. Don't be booking 18,000 cedars, book like 500 cedars. This is what I've been trying to tell Gamebred Bear Knuckle for a year and a half now. They have something. They got something. The concept is great. There are some elements they need to drastically change. I think like the commentary in particular is something that needs to be upgraded.

Some of just the broadcast details from that perspective need to be upgraded. But they got to, they have to be ECW. They have to be ECW. They have to be the bingo hall, you know, rabid fan base type promotion where they just go bananas. They just want to see like violence all the time. and they're just there for it, as opposed to trying to sell out an NBA arena. You can't do that.

You can't do that. In closed spaces, small but loud crowds, that's how you get over. And I think that's what Mike Perry needs to do too with this. Just small venues, 250, 300, 500 people, and just keep it small, keep it tight, book some decent names, and I think he got something.

So I think he'll be okay. They're not going to be, I mean, they're not going to be the UFC. but it's something. It's something. Just be smart about it. I think you'll be all right. Mike, let me grab one question here from Barry O'Reilly from Twitter.

Mike, who are some of the fighters that could benefit from a change in weight class? Is it wrong to say maybe Pantosia is, has one or two up in commerce, but has beaten most of the top 10 in the division convincingly. And it's probably the most disrespectful champ as he is excellent and doesn't get a lot of buzz. I mean, that's really just the nature of flyweight. I wouldn't include Pantosia on my list of people that I want to see move up yet. I don't think he needs to. They kind of screwed him. No.

By releasing him. Flyweight's fun right now. It is, it is. And really, Makayev would have been a very worthy challenger if they hadn't just cut him because for whatever reason, whether it's his fault or not.

So I think he's fine. I think he's fine and flyweight. Pentosia would not be on my list. Who would? Who needs to change weight classes? I like that Ortega's changing weight classes. I don't think he's going to be like a world title winner at lightweight, but there's fun fights for him there.

Like, I think this is a good way just to get bonuses and have fun matchups. I don't know, man. Who should change? A lot of people have made changes recently. I think like, and I'm so happy that Michelle Pareda, I'm so glad he's 185. I think Figgi going up to Bantanway was so smart.

Who still needs to? Valentina Shetranco. Yeah, definitely. Go back to Bantanah, Valentina. Who's stopping you up there? I pick her to beat Kayla. I don't care. I know there's a huge stuff.

Oh, my year. I mean, I love the gusto. I don't know. It's a tough question. Not O'Malley. I think O'Malley. will just because I don't know how many options he's going to have 135 after a year. Well, we'll see when he comes back.

He'll have plenty of options. But I know he's young. Maybe we're all roaches Jr. He's jump up to Fed's he definitely right now. He definitely. Oh, now? I don't know now. I think he will in the future.

But no. He's a he's a big Banimoyant. He is. He's a big, big dude. He's only going to get bigger. He's only, I mean, according to him, he's only going to fight until he's 25. So he might as well go make a run now. The Pats.

the featherweight belt is still slow, but I think it's more maybe not. Maybe I'll just not say that. I feel like you can get there quicker at featherweight than he can't abandon weight. I feel like I'm missing some obvious names here. I feel like there's some underachievers

who I'm not... What about Usman? Just stay at middleweight? I still think there's good fights for him. He's in this unfortunate position where he rightfully so only wants to get big fights at Welterweight, but I don't think he has any issue making the cut. I still think he beat like 90% of these welter weights.

Like I would favor him over like Jack Della Madelena, Ian Machado. Like there's contenders that he can beat. He just, he and his team probably just don't want to have to go through that again, which is totally understandable. But like it's not like he's out of it at welterweight. I would pick him to beat a lot of these guys who are surging up into the top 10. So you know who needs to move? I'll say it right now.

Jalen Turner. Jailen. Yep, that's a good one. I think this lightweight cut is affecting his performance. I can't prove it. I have no like science, statistics numbers, but he is a huge dude. I just can't see how he's fighting his best at 155,000. I think he's one of those guys.

When you see him move up to lightweight, you know, one, he's still going to be bigger than some of those welter weights. Excuse me, I move to his up to Walter weights. He'll still be bigger than some of those guys. And you're going to be like, oh, wow, it's like an Anthony Johnson thing. How did this guy ever cut to this weight? Why didn't he stop doing the cut sooner? So Jalen Turner, I think, by far is my pick.

Got to change, Jalen. I think he's a really good fighter, has a lot of talent. Could absolutely be a contender at 170. Yeah. I like that. That's probably the correct answer. Can we say Kelvin Gasselm again, like seven years later? Go back.

What are your thoughts on Gian Silva offering to fight Movesar? Should Movesar accepted? I mean, thoughts on the callout? Fantastic, obviously. If you're John Silva, yeah. I mean, eight plus marks. But I think the credit needs to go to Gilbert Burns, because he's the one that put this out there to begin with.

So I think credit goes to Gilbert. I like it, man. I like it. Moussa should take that fight. So we're confident Mopsar is not getting like the Ilya. He's not locked into the Ilya. Oh, well, we know. Sorry, he's fighting Aljo.

Sorry, so he's about Aljo. No, he's not. He used to fight somebody. Diego would have been good. But I get why he doesn't. Yeah. Or he shouldn't do that. If I'm Diego, I don't do that.

But it would be just a G move if he did. Bryce Mitchell would be a good one. Like, I think if Calvin Cater can fight, I think that's, I think he should take that fight. Yeah, yeah, so I'm just thinking with the original question. Oh, no, Mobsar Devon should not do it. In my mind, I was thinking like, yeah, it'd be a cool win to have take away this kind of guys,

this other guy's hype trained. But like, just hope it could knock him out. So I would just say, that's a lot of risk. That's a lot of risk award there. If you're Mobsar, yeah, you got to fight someone, but hopefully you win the title within the next, you think you can win the title within the next year,

and then you can always fight John Silva down the road. Fighting him before gain the title shot is just seems a little too risky. Someone suggesting cop should move up, Mike. I don't know if that's a pretty good last time. Yeah, I don't know if that's his issue. Silva still injured proposed him for 309. So no, not happening. Mike, let me give you one more from my DMs,

and it will end with YouTube because I like this question from MMA heads. No J.A. U.S. Fear is well done, and as in Mexican myself, it made me press. If you had to pick the theme for the next U.S. the event is fear, assuming there is one, Mike, what would it be? I like Anik's suggestion of doing, like, the history of the UFC. Yes. And, and you could throw in, really, any promotion they have the rights for.

Like, you could throw in strike force. You could throw in pride. Like, I think that would be amazing. WEC would be fun. WEC theme event. It'd be wow, because they would have, like, footage of, like, they own, he never fought for them, but they own that footage of like Fador and stuff. Like, Fador, all that stuff.

Like, that's all pride stuff, right? They own that. That'd be crazy to see that as part of a graphic thing. I think it would play out, and as much as I enjoyed the video stuff, I think they kind of ran thin with some of the ideas. Obviously, when they did the future of Mexico, it was just hilarious by that point. But yes, doing their own history of MMA.

Some people would hate it. We will say a lot of people would hate it, Mike, because we don't necessarily want the UFC's version. We've seen how they rewrite history, and it's not always great. but the fact that they have so much this footage the fact that they'd be their second go at it they'd have so much more experience

with how to put on a great show and make these short films like imagine Fadoor up there imagine Kimbo. Imagine Kimbo was mentioned in these videos. That'd be insane. Kimbo on this fear wall would be surreal. So yeah, I think they're allowed to do a little bit of a little bit of patting themselves on the back. A little Barry Horowitzing here if they want to do that, dude.

Yeah, so do your victory lap UFC. I know a lot of us, there's certainly, we have our quabs with it, but they can do it. And they'd probably do a fantastic job with it, at least as far as promoting themselves. So then that's the way to go. Yeah, I like that idea. And again, what they did at 306 was ridiculous. It was so, it was freaking cool. Like, it was just so cool.

They took a swing. And that's like, and I'm looking at a comment like this right now. You guys are biased against UFC, which is actually. absolute bullshit. I've already destroyed David in this argument a thousand times already. So I don't need to go through the receipts of why this is such a bad statement and so incredibly incorrect. The problem we've had with the UFC over the years is that they are just so far ahead of the competition that they don't try. They don't try. And we've always said like we understand why they don't try because they don't need to, they're so far ahead and they're so financially successful,

they can throw just a trash card at the apex and is going to make far more money than PFL doing this Francis and Ganu, Hennon-Ferra event. It's, they're, they will make more money running UFC Vegas 98 than the PFL will make doing the Saudi Arabia pay-per-view. Buy a lot. It's not even close. All we've been asking for, is for the UFC to try and just try to be fun with things. And we got two events this year, two, where they did the thing and it was electric. UFC 300 is going to go down in history as one of my favorite events of all time. It is going to go down as one of the best events they've ever put on.

We put that fight card over from Jump Street. That was the greatest top to bottom fight card of all time. it delivered in that same in the same way 306 we knew the card quality wasn't spectacular you had a main event that got a lot of top people talking the co-main event made a ton of sense there's a big story there you put a rising star in the feature about against a guy he had a very good chance of beating and it worked out in that sense yes we got a fight of the year contender we have the round of the year on lock because of ufc 306 and then on top of that it's just the theme of it all being in and taking a risk and taking a swing.

And that's, we've been calling the unfun championship at this website for like two years because it's just the same thing over and over again. This year they're getting out of their comfort zone. They're doing something different. They're trying things. And I respect the hell out of it. That's why no matter what 306 looked like, I was happy and respected the fact that they tried something.

So to me, this is a, this is a great, this is a, good, I'm not going to say a bounce back year for the UFC, but at least like the hope for the future with this TKO thing and seeing like what WWEs, how they've been able to improve and just seeing some of the things that the UFC has added this year has been fantastic. It's been great. Now we're still going to have to deal with apex cards and stuff of that nature. But yeah, like when they try and they actually like put their best foot forward, we see this. And it's so fucking cool when they do it.

And then it's just like, okay, then it's just gone. The UFC 300 thing was so cool. And then it was gone. And then like three weeks later, we're like, oh, I miss UFC 300. I missed UFC 300. I missed everything about it. And then it was just gone. And then we got 306. And now we're like, we're going to Paris.

Then we're going to have 307. And those are cool. But then we're going to be back of the apex for the 12th and the 19th of October, which, by the way, those are actually pretty decent cards. So you're not going to get a ton of complaints from me. But yeah, man, we just want to see them try. that's I mean that's not biased that we just want to see them try

put forth some of that effort you put towards power slap and Kalam Walsh towards the rest of your promotion then we're okay then we're okay that's all I'd say about it uh all right Mike we got some yeah there you go there's a good one

yeah we'll take a couple more then I'm gonna go uh is booking agent McKee Paul Hughes too soon for Hughes or good booking for the PFL good booking good booking you got to give AJ relevant fights. Those are kind of two different questions.

Is it too soon for Paul Hughes? I mean, probably yes, but I also think it is good looking. Paul Hughes also has quite a bit of hype behind him. Maybe not so much that people will be like, I'm trying to say that he's not a big enough opponent for AJA, B. McKee, because it's not like AJ McKee is a household name either. Like, we've talked about many times how we felt like PFL, Belator, excuse me, I'm blaming PFL now for their past errors. Bellator didn't like do an amazing job of of marketing AJ after the first pit bull win, right?

Like we just thought, I don't know, they could have had him more everywhere. Maybe there's only so much they could have done, but it just feels like they didn't come close to doing as much they could have done for AJ. So now they've sort of been rebuilding him as a lightweight. He's been great four or no so far. If he beats Paul Hughes, five and O, you probably give him a title shot after this. So it's, you just need to keep feeding AJ relevant lightweights. And if Paul Hughes wins, boom, overnight you have yourself an instant guy who's one of your, you can push them on the faces of your league. So I'm all for it.

I actually thought PFL did a great job putting that one together. It's good booking. Again, I, and I just feel bad for Eiji McKee. He's just been kind of lost in all this. And they'll get to fight on two big pay-per-view cards, I guess. So, I mean, they see some value in him. But he just fights and then we just forget about him. And then they book him another fight.

And then we just forget about him again. Like it's just, it's just so tough, man. Not this time, Mike. Not this time. But it is good booking. Like the risk and reward is, especially on the, on the, um, the huge side is pretty significant. Like if he beats, if he beats A.J. McKee, that is ginormous for him. And if A.J. wins, then people kind of expect him to win, then he can go fight Oosman and go from there, man.

It's been, Jesus, it's been such a bad year for PFL for, It's so, it's been so bad. I'll take a few more. I have a good one. Beast Man, very confident. How do you feel about Dan Hardy's commentating gig now as opposed to him being at the UFC? I've always been a fan. I will say I'm on the side of I think he's a good commentator.

I know not everyone, he's not everyone's cup of tea. Let me put it that way. But I think more so than like a Dominic Cruz, I feel like Dan Hardy walks that line between providing, like, really good analysis and accessible analysis. And also remembering that he's, like, on air talking and is also supposed to be providing entertainment and not just analysis. So I'm a fan.

I like the work he's done. It's a shame. I do think it's a shame that his relationship with the UFC went south for whatever reasons because I would have liked to see him doing UFC shows again. But he's happy where he is, I'm sure. And yeah, I think Dan's solid. Yeah. I mean, he's good.

Less is more with Dan, honestly. Because they did, like, Bellator used to do the same thing, right? They would put John McCarthy and Josh Thompson on, and those two have grown on me. I will say, I know that's not everybody's opinion. But what makes, what makes them more tolerable to the community is when there's less of them. Like you don't have to go to the desk after every single Bellator fight. You just kind of keep everything in check. And sometimes with Dan Hardy, there's just like, there's just too much of him.

You know what I mean? It's just like he's the voice of the entire program. It just seems like it's the only voice I hear. And maybe that's still okay for some people. Just to be like, I like having the mix of stuff. I kind of wish PFL would bring somebody else in to do the post fight interviews. Like keep Dan at the commentary booth and just have him do color and then just have somebody else go in and do the interviews. I think that would make it better because it just seems like there's just long post fight interviews.

It's just a lot. You know what I mean? So to me, like I think Dan's great. I think he's better suited for being with PFL and Bellator and stuff. I also would like them to just kind of keep things separate. Sean O'Connell should be one or the other. As good as he is, you're the PFL. F.L guy or you're the Bellator guy.

You can't be both. It just doesn't feel any different. It's so, it's just so kind of frustrating where it's just I'm good. Why is Jimmy Smith not doing play by play? Why is he the color guy? What is going on here? Jimmy Smith

should be the voice of Bellator. Mike, you're getting, bring somebody else in. Like, what are we doing? You're getting PFLO's angry again. I know. Your therapist, your therapist talk to you about this. thing like your your your therapist has talked to you about this you you you need to when when ffl what stupid ffl beltor stuff comes up yeah you just got to take a deep breath

remember the good times you know things you enjoy about combat sports you can't let them get to you you can't let don davis win you can't let don davis win okay what is brian yeah i see a lot people from brian stanton was freaking great it was real good too good to pay him whatever it takes pay him whatever it takes and then And pay Joe Martinez, whatever it takes to be your ring announcer, the Bellator ring announcer. Then you got, we're cooking with some gas here. Jimmy Smith and Brian Stan, that'd be what an electric combination that would be. It would be tremendous.

I want to read a question real quick just because it's a quick answer. Professor Genki, why is there becoming a narrative that the O'Malley Moravite was close? I felt there was extremely easy to score when watching a lot. It was extremely easy to score. Professor Genki, you're not crazy. I'm sure your scorecard is correct. There is no narrative. It is a narrative being pushed by O'Malley as a joke.

and by bad faith commenters and clickbait YouTubers who are trying, who are desperate for attention and to keep their train going before the wheels fall off. So I'll just say anyone pushing this O'Malley won that fight thing. Just don't listen to them, guys. It's not a narrative. It's not a thing. It's just people talking to talk. It's, no. But a fair question to ask, because you're right, if anyone goes on social media,

you'll have, and you can look it up and you'll have people like crowing about it. But those aren't real people. They're not making real arguments. They probably have a blue check mark next to their name. Again, they're just trying to get engagement and attention, which I've just given them. But I'm not naming names, guys. I'm not naming names. But you can take a few guesses what I'm talking about.

Yeah. The this is, I'm trying to like think of like a comparison. So this is like the complete opposite of, you remember when Giuliaaida Pena and Amanda Nunes had the rematch and it was just an ass whoopin, but then we would go on the potion and be like, man, Giuliana Pena really made this interesting. She threw up a couple of submission attempts and they look close. Like, that was a 50-45

that was just on paper. It was an entertaining ass-wopin. It was a compelling ass-kicking. This one was maybe the scorecards look 48-47, like the fight was actually closer. But at the same token, Marab was not in danger for a, I mean, well...

At the end. The fifth round. But still, like, Marab was just going to scoot around the cage. Like, O'Malley wasn't going to finish him in that fight. The fight was never really in doubt, even if you scored the third round for Sean. You know what I'm saying? So it's just one of those situations where, yeah, it may have been closer.

If you want to, and I've rewatched the fight. If you want to give O'Malley the third, I don't have a problem with that. I said that on the watch party. Like, you can make a case Sean won that round because nothing happened. Very little happened in that third round. And what did happen was there were battles against. against the fence, maybe a takedown, but no damage done. And then Sean had a couple of moments where he landed shots.

So to me, I think there's a case to be made he won round three. But yeah, man, it's just a silly narrative. 48, 47, Davaochevili, perfectly acceptable scorecard. 4847, O'Malley? Nope. No, that's a terrible card. It's a terrible card. All right.

I think we're going to be done. Oh, my, can I do one more? Let's end on this. Rock kid, because rackett's been asking a lot of questions, I think this is actually a good one. Why are they making Aspinall as a backup fighter since neither Jones,

I'd say it's neither. Neither Jones nor Miotichish will fight him if there's an injury. That's my question to you, Mike. Do you think either guy, Miyosich of Jones, would find a way to, would accept Aspinall as an opponent

if it came down to it? Yeah, probably. Steve, what Steve? Do you think Steve A, would. If it's for the actual belt. No, I don't think Steepi would. No, I don't think Stepe would. I think Stepe is only coming back to fight John. John, I think John would do everything in his power to get Pereira first. Yeah. Yeah. Just to try, because it's a bit, dude, it's a bigger fight. Like, I don't, it just is the bigger fight. So I think John would try to like cash out on that big one, especially

Pereira goes out and wrecks Khalil roundtree and gets another knockout I think they would try to entice him but at that point like if John's John has never gotten the chance to fight a Madison Square Garden does he just do if he's doing it one more and then he's retiring do you just go in there and just

let the chips fall where they may and fight Tom nah I don't think so I don't know I think honestly that's the only chance that the fight happens I think uh if one of them jumps out Aspinal is going to end up fighting someone I like It's going to be like last year. Last year's massive regard to show.

Who would he fight though? I don't know. Who do you fight? I don't know. Solic. Hold Derek Lewis from Edmonton and just have Tom Aspidal versus Derek Lewis. Makes no sense, but it'd be fun. Rebellis to Spain.

Rebellis to Spain. Oh, God. Oh, God. No, Rebellis is booked beautifully right now. He's booked beautifully. You know, maybe Cyril gone. Oh, Bill is saying God. Yeah.

Ring it ding ding. Right. Right. Boy. would that be like for my fantasy team? He gets thrust into a vacant heavyweight title fight. Main event probably too. You get main event points. If C-Idle gone, can you imagine what that would do for fantasy implications? First round finish. First round. Headlines and wins the title in the first round. I would win. Like, I'd be the champion of this fantasy team of this whole entire

league. It's crazy. But all right. Yes, gone, Bull Cop Delay. for 310. By the way, that's not 100% true yet. The fight's not happening at 3. It is that I know for a fact. It is delayed. I'm told there's no guarantee for UFC 310. So stay tuned for that. Stay tuned for all of our programming.

The UFC back in action. Next weekend, they will be in Paris, which you know when the UFC goes to Paris. It's usually a very good time. The crowd's usually quite electric. They get into it. They're very loud. And they get very

excited. The main event is Benoit Santini versus Hanata Moikano. I know we've talked to Hanata Moikano already. I'll be talking to Benoit Santini next week. Stay tuned for that. We also have Nassadena Neumva versus Brennan, William Gomoy, Joranderson, Burrito, Kevin Juset, Brian Battle, Morgan, Juset, Brian Battle, Morgan, and a whole bunch more. And we will be back next week to discuss that car from a matchmaking perspective. So for Alexander Kaylee, I am Mike heck, thank you all very much. Back next week with the matchmaking crowns back on. We'll see you then, everybody. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.