MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | Will McGregor vs. Diaz 3 Happen In the UFC? | Ask Mike & AK Anything Part 6

Episode Date: May 28, 2023

With the UFC in a rare off week, the MMA Fighting matchmakers return with their sixth installment of "Ask Mike & AK anything" to fill in the gaps. On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee answer listener submitted questions for the entire program. Topics include how Bellator champions would stack up against UFC titleholders, Dana White's attitude as of late and if he will be held accountable at all for the negative feedback he's received from fans, if a potential trilogy fight between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz will happen in the UFC, Bellator's new flyweight division, The Ultimate Fighter, journalism ethics questions that have surfaced recently, when Leon Edwards vs. Colby Covington will happen, the PFL's big deal with Francis Ngannou, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser 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 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. Welcome to a brand-new edition of On to the next one. I know you're thinking to yourself, wait a minute, there's no UFC card this weekend. What are we doing here? Well, my best friend, Alexander Cayley,

and I decided we can't leave you hanging. we wanted to give you something we do a couple of times a year, mostly on UFC off weeks, or if there's a lull on the schedule. And ask us anything addition of on to the next one. And that's what we are here to do. We got a lot of great questions from you, the listeners, the viewers, and we're going to answer as many as we can here. I am Mike Heck.

And joining me is the aforementioned best friend, Prince of Positivity, the co-host and usually the co-matchmaker, Mr. A.K. How are you, my friend? I'm great, Mike. It feels like it's been a long time, my best friend, since we've done and asked us anything, it'll probably be a long time again, because I think as we said on a recent, I think the last episode of onto the next one, we're heading into a pretty thick period of UFC cards. So, yeah, so definitely be getting a lot of standard onto the next one podcast, a lot of breakdowns,

a lot of analysis, post-fight shows, preview shows. So, yeah, it's nice to have a little room to breathe and kind of let people, You know, let us know what's concerning them the most besides just like, oh, what happened last night or what's happening next week. It's like, we can cover some more, some broader topics, Mike. Yes, it'll be, I believe, 13 weeks straight of UFC cards. It'll actually be. So in the United States, this current weekend, as you're listening to this, is a long weekend. Monday is Memorial Day.

And then the next time that we have a little break like this, it'll be another long weekend in the U.S. It'll be Labor Day weekend. So that's how the UFC is handling their schedules, and that's how we're going to be handling this program. So you got a bunch of questions. Like I said, we're going to go through as many as we can with the time allotted. We sort of narrowed some of them down. So, AK, what do we do?

Just sort of flip-flop how we want to do this? Yeah, we can jump around. We've got a little dock in front of us with all the questions. Again, we don't have to stick to some of the ones that jumped out us right away. Yeah, we're just going to try to get to as many as possible. But Mike, why don't you make the first pick? Why don't you make the first pick of which you want? All right.

Well, I'll just go right off the top of the list here. Jason starts it off and asks, how many Bellator champions would you pick in a fight against current UFC champions? This is an interesting question because if there's any other promotion out there that could match the UFC in some respects, it is Bellator. They have a case for multiple divisions. possibly having the best fighter in the world in said division. So this is going to be an interesting little experiment, A.K., what do you think? I think.

You want to go through class by class? I think we should. I think we just go heavyweight on down. Let's keep a little score here. I'm going to keep a little score at the bottom here. Mike, I wish people could see the advanced tech we are doing here. All right. Hopefully see this will work.

Go ahead, Mike. What's start from heavyweight? So the heavyweight one would be Ryan Bader versus John Jones And we've seen this fight already And that was like prime Ryan Bader And it's not like Ryan Bader is a bad fighter It's this is a clear John Jones win for me Uh yep

I'm I was trying to think of some sort of controversial take Some way to explain how Bader could win this fight Uh that's a that's a no so that's uh that's one for the UFC Light heavyweight okay Oh This is an interesting one We have representing the ultimate fighting championship Jamal Hill

Fresh off of his victory against Glover Tashara versus Bellator light heavyweight world champ Vadim Kov Interesting fight here I mean the easy pick for me though I'm definitely picking Nemcov I think the body of work is a bit stronger Jamal Hill looked great against Glover

Chirot no question about it But I've just seen I just think Nemcov has been performing at an elite level a little bit higher. I think he's been a great champion in Belator. Again, just a little more experience, I think a little more well-rounded. It's always hard to tell with a guy like Jamal Hill, who you feel like we haven't even seen like his best yet. He's probably like a year or two away from his prime.

But that's what I'm saying. If they fought now, I would definitely pick Nemcov. Two years from now, could be a different story. Jamal Hill's a pretty up-and-coming, talented guy. I say up-and-coming. He's the, you know, he's a U.S. champion right now. But that's a pretty clear first win for Belator for me.

Oh, man. I don't know if it's clear. I actually think Jamal Hill is a better chance than most people would suggest. Oh, man. I'm going to go to Jamal Hill right now. I'm going to go with Jamal Hill.

All right. Get it done. It would not surprise me if you're right. But I just, I don't know. I feel like Jamal Hill is, you feel like he's a year or two away from his best, and that may be true. But I think we are on the cusp of his best. I think

we're going to see a run of Jamal Hill at his very best for the next few years and I think we're already kind of there and I think he's running a little bit hot right now so I'll go with Jamal Hill

to get it done. I think this is a very close competitive fight and give him Jamal Hill to eke out a decision with damage. I think damage will ultimately win throughout

and I think Jamal Hill hits harder than Vadim Koff. I think he could do more damage on the feet and I think his wrestling and his grappling have gotten much better. Could be a problem, but I'll go with Jamal Hill to eat that out. So 2.0 for me for the UFC. Middleweight.

This is interesting. This is close. Israel Adasania representing team UFC against middleweight bellator champion Johnny Eblen, AK. Who are you picking right now? If they fought in a week, who would you pick? I'm still, I'm going to go UFC here. I'm going to go with Izzy, but this is almost a toss-up for me. Eblen is, again, sort of that new age, you know, mixed martial arts middleweight we like to talk about,

who's just doesn't really have any obvious weaknesses. Like he seems to be a B-plus or better in every category. Great cardio. Again, powerful wrestling. I would give him an A in wrestling, which is, you know, people have always kind of point to as possibly could be Israel-Edesignia's kryptonite. He's fared well. He has great takedown defense. He certainly had people in the past say,

oh, we're just going to take him down, wrestle him, and ground and pound him. And it doesn't really work that way. But, again, I think Eblen is as talented in that department, if not more, than guys like Marvin Vittory, Robert Whitaker tried to wrestle with him a bit. I would say Eblen's wrestling. I'd put a notch above those guys. And again, then you add in the athleticism. You add in the cardio.

I'm going to, like, I'm only leaning a disson yet because I think, think he'd be able to keep this fight on the feet long enough. And I think he has a pretty big edge over Eblen there, though Eblen is not bad on the feet at all. So I just think if it, I think it stays a stand-of-battle. I think Ezy wins it. But I love the, I love the conversation. I think Evelin has a very good chance to win that fight.

I'm going, Izzy. I just don't know if Johnny can clean up his defensive striking in enough time. Because I think Izzy's going to hit him, because he leaves his chin wide open for shots. and he's very aggressive on the feet, which obviously leads to the takedowns, and I think he can't get Adasani down, but, man, over 25 minutes,

that chin is going to get cracked by Israel Adasania. So give me Adasanya, late finish, in a pretty fun fight. I got to go with Adasania, though. I'm not, I'm sold on Johnny Evelin. I think this guy is going to be the middleweight champion in Bellator for a long time.

I just don't know if he's going to be able to catch up to what Izzy does well. I think the evolution of Izzy's game is more prevalent, more noticeable. And I think the way Johnny Ebblin strikes, I think Izzy's going to see some holes and he's going to take advantage of those. So give me Izzy. But again, another interesting fight. So 3-0 UFC for me, 2-1 UFC for you.

Bellator's about to get on the board, AK, for me. Yaroslav Amosov versus Leon Edwards. I'm going Yaroslav Amos off to win this fight. I feel like his striking is incredible and he doesn't really get to show it that much. Showed it a lot in the Logan Story League fight. And he's just going to be a problem for Leon Edwards with the grappling. I've seen this man frustrate everybody. I think he's kind of, I don't know if he ruined the career of Douglas Lima,

but he certainly frustrated that man to a point where he's had to take a lot of, lot of deep looks in the mirror after that fight. I was there when Yaroslav Amosov beat Douglas Lima. I've never seen a fighter more frustrated in my life at a high level than Douglas Lima when he fought Yaroslav Amosov. He just had no answers. He knew he had no answers. He just kept looking at his corner like, what the hell am I supposed to do?

There's nothing I can do. And I think he could do that to a lot of different guys. I think this is a good matchup for him. So give me Yaroslav Amosov to defeat Leon Edwards. I'm going to go Edwards. I think only because I feel like Edwards is so underrated. I just feel like he's just not appreciated. I understand the first win over Usman was fluky, not to strike itself, but just, you know, the circumstances, the timing, just, you know, being able to land it at such a key moment. I get it. I get it. You know, if you look at it, you're like, well, it was three rounds to one for Usman before. Usman was the better fighter. The second fight was close. I thought a pretty clear win for Leon. I think most people would agree, even though there was a point to Duck. in there, right? Yeah, the fence grab. So even then, I would think most people would, most people would agree that Edwards kind of proved he was a better fighter there. And I think if they fought again, I would like to think Edwards would be pretty highly favored. But I mean, people just seem as so

vulnerable, you know, Colby's a good matchup for him. So people are saying Colby certainly has a chance. If he's an underdog, Colby, he won't be a big under, he won't be a big underdog. I think at most like plus 150, maybe. He might even enter as a favorite. I don't know. I have to look at the preliminary odds again. I know they're out there even though the fight hasn't been booked. And then, of course, Hamza's looming. If he ever makes 170, people just seem so eager to take the belt off Leon. I think he's going to have, like, a decent run. Maybe not like super long. I see him getting at least a couple more defenses. Obviously, it depends who he fights. But I think he has a skill for it. And I would put him over Amosab. And that's not because I think Amosab is bad.

I think Amosab is so good for all the reasons you mentioned. And it's still kind of along with Eblin, you know, just needs to go on a run for people to really start appreciating them. But for now, if they met head-to-head, I think it would be a very close fight, a decision-win for Edwards, but, I mean, it'd be a lot of close rounds. Like, three of the rounds would be close. Just two super-skilled guys. But, again, I think Leon is better than he often gets credit for. So, yeah, I'd pick him to win that really, really tough fight.

The only line I could see that was put out was by Caesars. Colby's the favorite, but barely. Minus 1-15. Leon's minus 105. So it's, I mean, it's a coin flip fight. Yeah. As sort of what I think it's going to be when it's all said and done. So lightweight, I think, is easy.

It's Islam Makachev of what we spend in Magamatov. Those two guys probably get after it every single day. And I'm sure Islam is kind of the big brother in that situation. If you ask me this question two or three years from now, I might give you a different answer. But yeah, I would go with Islam in that one. Yeah, you got a level of competition, right? I mean, Usman is great, but I mean, he just hasn't beaten the names that Islam has. As far as you know, as far as you know, Usman could be the best guy in that gym.

You know, we don't know. But just based on what we've seen. Yeah, great, great fighter, awesome resume. He's rising off the lightweight ranks without, again, he could end up top six, top seven at some point without ever fighting in the UFC or not fighting the UFC anytime soon. That's how impressive he's been. But it's hard when you don't have those. It's hard to gauge a guy when you haven't beaten the guys that Islam has. So because Islam, I mean, maybe the number one or number two, you know, pound for pound,

in the world right now, depending on the U.S., maybe number three. You know, throw John Jones in there too. But, yeah, I got to go with these lines. All right, just to kind of breeze through this. Volcanovsky Pitbull would be a fun build, but I would go Volcanovsky. Same. Aljo over Sergio Pettis pretty easily. Aljo versus Patsy Mix is a different story.

That's more interesting, right? But, and who knows? Pitbull could beat Sergio Pettis in a couple of weeks and become the Bannamway champion himself. And then we have Patricia Pitchell and Stirling. which would be interesting. I would pick Amanda Nunes versus Chris Seiborg because we've already seen it. I still would as well, yeah.

Liz Carmouche versus Alexa Grasso, though. Yeah, I think in this case, I know I've been talking a lot about experience and people being in their primes as being the edge. I think Grasso's youth is to her advantage here. And Liz has not looked amazing in some of her title fights. The Deanna-Bendip fight wasn't like, like that should have,

Indiana Bennett's a fine fighter. That would have been a nice statement win for Karmouche. It was competitive pretty much up until the finish. I mean, Deanna Bennett missed weight and all that. But for someone that Karmuch had already beaten, you kind of would have wanted to see more. So I'm not so convinced that she can beat Alexa Grasso this day. So that's another UFC pick for me.

I would go Alex Grasso as well. All right. So I picked one Bellator. Is that it? They don't... U.C. Belator does not have a flyweight champion. That's right. Not yet.

Not yet. Yeah. Men's flyweight champion. And no strongweight division, no current stradway division. So that didn't go well for Bellator, Mike. Well, I'm not like, and we could be completely wrong about some of these. Like these are, some of these are really close fights. Yeah.

Some of these are really close fights. So, yeah, I think that's a pretty fair breakdown of these fights. And a lot of these would be lined pretty closely. I would say I'd probably, if I was, like, given a bag of money and you said you can only bet on these fights, I would probably find a lot of value in the Bellator fighters. I'd probably put a lot of my money on the plus money Bellator because of the matchups and the value that they have. So I think they're very competitive in this series. I think there's only like a couple of matchups that I think would big time favor the UFC.

But that's a compliment to Bellator and what they've been able to build. Yeah, I'd happily take a shot on Eblin or Amosov. I know you picked Amosov and my loan Belator pick was Nemcov. But yeah, again, it doesn't reflect, I think, how close we thought. like at least three or four these matchups could potentially be. All right. You're up, A.K. All right. Unwrap holiday magic at Holt Renfrew with gifts that say I know you.

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Along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. I will also stay down, you know, just stick with the list the way it is, because I like this question. This is from Zardaz.

I also like this movie, Mike. I don't know if you've ever seen Zah. Zardaws? I have not. The gun is good, the penis is evil? No. Okay, not. All right.

Well, that must be a very shocking quote then. Without context, that can't even imagine how that sounds. Oh, man. It's a very strange movie, and I don't really recommend, I don't know, like, just going out of your way to watch it. I watched it when it was on TV randomly. It's a very bizarre sci-fi movie that it gets better the more you watch it, but also you become more insane.

Anyway, so this from Zardaz. considering the constant buffoonery from Dana White and the overwhelming criticism he rightly receives from fans, not to mention the miserable matchmaking missteps. This is just really well written. Do you feel Dana will at some point be held accountable by his bosses at TKO Group Holdings? That's, of course, the UFC WD merger. Do you think they're large, or do you think they're largely clueless of the space and White is bulletproof as long as he can keep inflating the UFC's value, regardless of whether that's accomplished

by lowering fighter pay, etc. things. Okay. Mike, let me jump into this one first because I did see this question earlier and I have a lot of thoughts about it. We, of course, criticized Dana White all the time in the media. We do it all the time. There are a lot of things he does wrong from the role of a promoter.

He is just not a good promoter. That's the fact. He does not do traditional, what you would traditionally consider fight promotion as far as building interest in fighters, maybe events. but definitely not in fighters. So I'll push back, but I had to push back on some of these things. That's overwhelming criticism he receives from fans. It's not overwhelming. There's a, if anything, I think the majority of people who watch the UFC, Mike, you can tell me if you think I'm crazy, love Dana White.

Right? I think, I think there's a vocal minority. Again, there's us in the media who criticize them all the time. There's people, of course, who, you know, look at certain aspects with a more critical eye and thus criticize Dana. But I think the majority of people, like people who don't necessarily comment on Twitter, don't necessarily hang out in comment sections,

I think they really love Dana White. I feel like some of that momentum is going away. I feel like some of that momentum is going away. I feel like not a ton of fans are on his side. Right now, I feel like a lot of those fans who were on his side are jumping off because they're seeing who he is. They're seeing how he handled Francis leaving and signing with the PFL. They're seeing how he handled Al Jermaine Sterling and just burying one of their champions.

They're seeing how Dana is more focused and more passionate about truck drivers slapping each other in the face than the UFC. And they're also seeing that Dana has won the game. He is won. He has won. That company is printing money. and if you thought $380 million a profit was something,

you wait till the TV deal comes through and they're going to be making close to a billion profit. That is a money-making machine. So, just, I don't know, Dana's just not as engaged.

He's more about making headlines. And you know what, A.K., for the first time, for the first time in a long time. Don't do it, Mike. Don't do it. Dana White seems rattled to me. Oh.

He seems rattled. He's doing everything he can to change the narrative. He's pointing fingers at the media. Go look at his Instagram. This is Friday as we record. Go look at what he's posted the last two days. Posting screenshots of articles that he feels he was misquoted on or the headlines is a little clickbaity. One of them is from MMA mania, who is one of our like partner sites.

They're known for the clickbaity headlines. So that's one thing. The other one is like a like the sun or like some. some weird, like, inquire-ish sort of thing, saying, like, Dana said that Barstool is going to collapse, even though he was just like, nah, Barstool is like a great company, but they sold to Penn National. And once you get the corporate suits behind them, weird things can happen. And then it got turned into like Dana White is calling for the demise of, like,

is predicting the demise of Barstool, which is what he did. The headlines was pretty bad. And then the M.A. Maniwan was Dana, Hamzat Shemaiah. unfollow Dana White, UFC Brass and Darren Till on Instagram, which clearly wasn't true.

But the fact of the matter is, he is doing everything in his power right now to change the narrative because he sees people falling off. And they've been falling off since the New Year's Eve incident and how he handled it, not just how he handled it, how the parent company has handled it, how the UFC has handled it,

how the fighters and fighter pay and seeing the profits compared to what fighters are being paid. And again, and I'll let you go, I don't necessarily put all the blame on, I don't, I don't really put a ton of blame on Dane in the UFC for the fighter pay thing. They could come out and be like, you know what? We just came to this monumental deal because we love the fighters. We're going to give them 40% of the revenue. Why would they do that? From a business standpoint, why would they do that when the fighters themselves have not given them anything to fear?

Nothing, nothing to fear. The fact that they did not come. together after selling the company for $4 billion. That was it. That was your chance. Then guess what? You got other chances. You got other chances.

You got new apparel deals. You had the ESPN deal. You're looking at this ESPN deal and how much money the UFC is making. That's another thing. And then guess what? You just got another chance. You merged for this TKO group holdings company. Your company, the valuation, $12 billion, like three times.

what the UFC sold for. You have leverage. You just got to step up to the plate and be willing to walk away and not fight. But until that happens, the fighter pay thing is on the fighters. It's on them. Yeah. It's completely on them. And nothing's ever going to change.

And just to go back to Desardos or there is no question. There's other things that are sort of, again, I wouldn't put on necessarily on Dana White. The miserable matchmaking missteps, listen, a great turn of the phrase. Dana White is not like the man 100% in charge of making the matches. He has Sean Shelby. He has McManor. He has other people. Other people.

It's the managers. The managers of these fighters are also responsible for sort of helping to kind of, you know, put these matchups together. So Dana White obviously is the boss. Of course, he has a hand in it. I imagine he has to sign off on a lot of these things. But you can't even blame him. You can't even blame him because he's doing his job of at least him and his team, I should say,

getting enough matchups together to make cards, to keep the SPN deal, satisfied to keep that money train rolling in. So, like, I feel like he's not going to be, he doesn't need to be held accountable for anything because, like you always say, Mike, the UFC one has won the game. Dana White's a big part of that. As long as he wants to stick around, I'm sure they'll be happy with it. He's very much a figurehead, which is not to say that he doesn't actually do anything when he goes in the office, but I guarantee you if you ask most fans, like, what do you think

Dana White does? Like, what do you think he does in a day-to-day basis? they probably can't say, right? And this is part of like, why fans love him so much. They just see him at the top. They see the UFC's rocking. They're like, thank you, Dana. And it's like, there's a huge, huge, huge team people that are responsible for all these decisions.

And he's the man at the front. And that's what he has, for me, has always been good at when he was also, so just like the commissioner, not like the president, whatever, just the face of the UFC is the guy who, yes, he receives a lot of the praise. But he's also the guy who, listen, we write all the headlines. We criticize the UFC. We blame Dana White. Fans blame Dana White for things. Again, it's not all him. When fighters were getting underpaid, you know, before, even before the, you know, the huge

billion-dollar deal, it's not necessarily Dana White's call. That's the Fratita brothers. How many times you hear people complain about the Fratita brothers? Rarely. It was like, oh, what's Dana White doing? Dana White's not paying the fighters enough. I'm like, yeah, he's part of it. But he's not the one.

There's guys above him that are very happy the fighters aren't getting paid. And he takes 95% of the criticism, the people behind him, now like Endeavor, Ari Emanuel, whoever, they take 5% of the criticism. Dana takes 95%. That's what you, wow, that's what they want in a front man. They want a guy who's front and center, taking all the crap.

And at that, he is very, very good. I'm not a fan of Dana White by any means. But if you're telling me, like, one of the primary functions of his job, we think it should be to promote, but we know by now that's not his job. His job is to take crap. And he does that very, very well.

So I don't think he's being held accountable anytime soon. He does not part ways with the UFC and TKO group holdings and Endeavor, I think, until he decides it's time to go. He was not punished at all for the New Year's incident. Right. There wasn't even a statement about it. It's never even been discussed by Endeavor or Ari Manuel or anybody else. There's no statement from the UFC, no nothing.

And like I said, for a... And it was funny. And I didn't really realize that some of the fans are falling off until I finished BTL yesterday. because a lot of the questions were about Dana and it obviously were set up for me and Jed to speak openly and honestly about how we felt about certain situations and typically when we kind of be real about Dana

and the way he behaves at times usually it comes with oh there they go hating Dana again blah blah blah blah usually the live chat is like if these guys were out blah blah blah we didn't get like any of that like we got some but most of it was like yeah these guys are right. These guys are right.

Like, never happens. He's losing people. He's losing people. And I honestly think it's just a, he's chipping away at the fans between New Year's Eve, between the treatment of the fighters. And I'm not talking about fighter pay.

I'm just talking about him getting on a microphone and blasting his champions and blasting Francis and Ghanu and blasting the PFL, not saying, we're not going to do any gimmick fights. Oh, but call Tyson Fury. Give me a call. so we can come in and fight John Jones, like three days later.

It's so stupid. And then just seeing the overwhelming promotion for PowerSlapp and like no promotion for their fighters is just unbelievable. And like, I'm not blaming Dana for having excitement about PowerSlapp. Like, go for it. Like, this is something you want to do and you think it's going to be great. Have at it. Be the Power Slap president.

Keep it off the UFC feeds. Nobody wants to see it. Nobody's following UFC social media accounts. for Power Slap promos. It drives people crazy. I get so many DMs about people saying, I just want to go and look at next week's card. And all I'm doing is being inundated with buy Power Slap tonight,

buy Power Slap tonight, buy Power Slap, getting emails from the UFC. Power Slap today, tomorrow, the next day, seven days from now, it's Power Slap. Like, just it's shoving it down our throats. And people are just getting sick of it. Like, they're just getting sick of it. They're starting to see it. And we talk about this all the time.

The UFC has been brilliant. Dana especially, partnering up with Barstool, partnering up with the Nelk boys in full send and all that. Like, this is brilliant because you using those platforms are introducing newer fans to the sport. And those newer fans for a little while are going to stick with those platforms. But eventually, the fans that are going to remain fans

are going to graduate from there. And then they're going to start following. following sites like ours. And they're going to see the insides of what is actually happening because we're going to tell you what's happening. And we're going to write about it and we're going to be open and honest about it. And those people who jumped on during the pandemic and are starting to graduate to the next tier of MMA famineship, those Dana supporters, they're starting to fall off a little bit, AK. They're starting to fall off a little bit. They're starting to see what's really happening. Mike, I want to believe you.

I am the Prince of positivity. That's a very positive, well, not positive for Dana White, but I think positive for the culture of MMA and its fandom. I don't know. I'm just not getting the same gauge, but maybe I don't have my finger on the pulse. But yeah, I don't know. So my opinion, I don't think it gets held accountable anytime soon. Mike, you think there might be.

No, zero. No, he still. No, there's no accountability. Oh, okay. Oh, zero. Oh, zero. The fans might be falling up, but you think the company gives a shit? Hand over fist.

They didn't care he's caught on video slapping his wife. Hand over fists with it, guys. Yeah, whether is a tata, tat or not, whether she hit him first or not. Like, you still, no other person in his position in any sport anywhere would have been, I mean, completely off the hook. Completely off the hook. You're out. They're just like, yeah, go apologize. Let's do this.

Let's set you up with TMZ and we'll script out this whole thing. Like, and I actually thought Dana handled himself well, but like the second go around, like, cool, buddy, you answered all the questions. Like, the media went at you. But we don't, we didn't want to hear from you. We don't want to hear from you. So I don't know. I'm telling you, AK, I'm getting 1987 WWE vibes. Actually, not even 1987 at WWE vibes. I'm getting like 95 WWE vibes. I'm getting 95 WWE vibes because WWE. Once they started absorbing all the territories, they were so far ahead of everybody during the Hulkomania era, they were just so far ahead of everybody that there's like no competition. I mean zero. You had some fans who liked WCW and stuff in the NWA, and, you know, there was a small group of people who were diehards for that promotion.

But as years went on and we went through different stages of WWE, we just needed one company to come forward. board and at least create what some people would perceive as some sort of competition. And not only that, that competition, quote unquote, needed to make a move to change the industry forever. And what do they do? They got Kevin Nash and Scott Hall from WWF, first guaranteed contracts in the history of professional wrestling.

WCW went ahead of WWF for a little while, not forever, for about a year. and a half, change the business forever. And what did WWE do? It didn't go from, we can't give you money, pal. We can only give you opportunity to, now we've got to give these dudes guaranteed money or we're going to lose them. And it was at that moment that the entire industry changed. I feel like we're getting close to something happening here, okay?

Maybe it starts with the Francis deal because this is a huge deal. This is, I don't know if this is Hall and Nashy, but it feels like it could be. and it's going to take some time. And even when Holland Nash left, of course the landscapers are freaking here. They could have been here earlier. When the Holland Nash deal happened, it was just like, oh, this is cool.

Like, they're there. That's diesel and Razor Ramon. And then, like, a few months later, the NWO things happens. And we're like, oh, my God, this all paid off. This is ginormous. This is great.

Maybe this could be the NWO moment, AK. Maybe this could be the NWO moment. Who's going to come with Francis and be the second man? Who's going to be the third guy, AK? Who's going to be the third man in the PFL's NWO? Because Jake Paul is Razor Ramon. Ooh, that's two.

You're right. Francis is Kevin Nash, and we will see it. Oh, who's going to be the third man? One of the third man. Hopefully it's a Hulk Hogan and not a maple, but we'll see. Oh, my God. Well done. That's a deep dirt sheet cut.

I'm going to mute because the landscapers are up front. Why don't you read the next question? All right. All right. I'll keep going in order then. Just it's easier this way. from Steve two true or false questions okay we can do these a little bit quicker plus a bonus question okay that's fair one connor regregor will fight for a ufc title in 20203 two connor gregar

versus nate ds will happen inside the nate ds 3 will happen inside the octagon bonus question will they put a gimmicky title on the line if that happens uh love the show thanks for everything you guys do thank you steve thank you um so yes true or false true or false uh number one Connor McGregor will fight for a UFC title in 23. Mike, you want to take this one first? No, false. False. Yeah, because we...

Well, we don't even know what the Chandler fight will happen, right? It has no day. I mean, we assume after, you know, it'll be announced during the season, during probably one of the last two or three episodes of Tough 31, hopefully. That doesn't always happen, but that is the expectation. That has been the standard in the past. So we got 10. So this will end August 15th.

So we're hoping the fight happens. Again, this is all taped. So it's not like they couldn't book the fight for like October, November, or December. Like all those dates are certainly a possibility. But we know what Abu Dhabi's in there. It's probably not happening at that pay-per-view. And then I guess November and December, we don't know yet. It's probably going to be December.

That's the target. But then we also talking about Connor McGregor here. I'm more concerned about, Mike, am I screwed on my over-unders? I remember one of the over-unders was Connor, John Jones combined fights in 2023 and I think it was like one and a half. I don't know if you remember this. I do from the,

from the prediction show. Our prediction show. It's probably one and a half, right? I think it was one and a half. Yes. And I was like zero. I was like way under. I'm like, you don't see.

I had these guys. This was before, of course, the Altered Fighter thing was announced before John Jones came back to fight. Cito. So now we're already at one. John Jones won. I'm not dead yet.

I mean, listen, there's a good chance that we don't know what's going on with Jones and Miyochic. We don't know if this McGregor channel. It should happen no later than December. If you just never know with these guys. So I'm not like out of it yet. The number is at one. We just have the one John Jones fight so far. We're still at under one and a half.

But it does look like, you know, if things go well for the UFC, that they're going to find a home for Jones Depey this year. They're going to find a home for McGregor channel this year. So, but yes, I mean, that has to be then, no, he can't fight for a title. It seems chronologically impossible. So big false, right, Mike? Yeah, I wonder if you meant 2024. There's no way to fight for a title of 2023. Listen, this person said 2023.

Yeah, I wonder. It just seems like a weird question. So maybe it was a typo. I don't know. I think it's definitely not fight for a title in 20203. I think it's more optimistic that like the fight will happen closer to the end of the ultimate fighter finale. But I doubt that. Oh, it could be.

Okay. And then true, false. Conner-Regger DS3 will it happen inside the Octagon. This is another false for me, Mike. I don't know. I don't know if you, how you feel about it. I think it's going to happen. In the UFC.

Yeah, I think it'll happen in the UFC. It shouldn't. It shouldn't. Again, we're in this world where change, like this could be another game-changing moment right here because Connor has two fights left in this deal. He could just fight them out and enter free agency, much like Nathan. Diaz did and but Conner's already said I love the UFC I'm going to resign with the UFC and all that so and I think part of him resigning would be to get this Nate fight under that umbrella but wouldn't it be

such a monumental move for both of these gentlemen who have a lot of respect for one another and understand what both would he would both have done for each other's careers it'd be such a bold move if Connor just fought out his deal and then fought Nate outside of the UFC like that would be freaking huge. And you put on this mega pay-per-view and you keep all the money, it'd just be massive. But ultimately, I do think Connor will help the UFC in negotiations to get Nate back. I don't know if Nate signed like an eight-fight deal, but after the Jake Paul fight,

but ultimately, regrettably, I will say true. It will happen in the Octagon. Oh, wow. Okay. I'm leaning a little more towards false. As far as the gimmicky title, be on the line, yeah, I actually think they would. I think they would create the trilogy belt to commemorate the most famous trilogy. I was going to say UFC history.

They would probably say, in fighting history, never have two more volatile personalities, had a more entertaining and meaningful trilogy. So we've created the trilogy title for the winner to take home. So I think they would. I would like to see that. Yeah. Do something. A trophy, something.

I would like that. I'm into that. Okay, Liam Perry asks, Bellator announced the arrival of its new flyweight division. Yes, we confirmed that yesterday. If any, do you think, who do you think will, I suck at reading. Who, if any, do you think will be the first UFC fighter to move to Belator?

Liam Perry's writing was great. My reading was Suss. What do you think? Wow, who if any? Okay, let's see. A lot of good flyweight in the UFC. I'm trying to see who would logically jump over. Actually, there's some names that immediately jump out.

What was the phrasing the question again? Who will be the first? Okay, the first UFC fighter, I assume, 125er, to move to Bellator. I mean, the first name that immediately comes to mind would be like a Tim Elliott. I think he's being taken care of pretty well in the UFC, but I think he's also a guy who probably still, like, has hopes of fighting for a title someday. And I just don't think that's going to happen in the UFC. not to say that I'm questioning how Belator will build their flywood divisions a lot of good talents out there guys from 135 for good drop down but I think Timelaia if he goes over there

would be like an immediate contender he just has a bit of a name he's fought for the UFC title once he fought DJ he was on that also fighter season and so he got that title shot so there's a name there I don't know what his contract status is though as far as it could be Tim Elliott wants to ride or die with the UFC till he retires the other option and only because I'm not convinced. I mean, I know this is asking for first, so I guess Tim Elliott would be my answer for first. If I'm looking at sort of more intriguing names, I would love to see Figuerreta go over there. I know he said he's done cutting down to 125, but I don't believe it until it happens. I mean, wasn't he just supposed to fight Minnell Cop? So I think if he wants to do one more run

at 125, it has to be another promotion. So I don't know where his contracts at, but Figgy would be a logical and a big get for Beltor's flyweight division. This is interesting. This is interesting. My first guess is like Alex Perez because I think if Alex asked for his release, he'd probably just get it

and go over there. But again, talk about another guy who has troubles getting down to 125. Match Snell would be a good one. Yes. I'd like to see like Tyson Nams. get an opportunity like that. Finally.

He never actually fought for Bellator, right? Remember when he knocked out Dantus and then, and it was like, oh, he's going to get signed. Now he can go over to Belator and they can run that one back. He never actually, it never actually happened, right? There was a weird contract thing or they signed him, but he never fought. Yeah, it was very, very weird. Very weird. I forget all that all worked out.

Yeah, it was, there was a whole controversy around it. I'll say, like, just straight, like, the phrasing this question is very, very weird. weird because this is like the UFC is just going to like release them to go to belator i don't think they're going to do that with anybody or is it just like the next name that's currently on the ufc roster that would go i'll say Alex Perez don't love it i love that yeah no you're right because he's a bit of a losing streak still a talented guy i think still in his prime has a lot of great fights ahead of him and yeah maybe maybe i just don't know if he can get to 125 like his fight fell out the day of the last one with men el-com.

He's had some problems with fights falling out. I don't know if you heard about those, Mike. It's been one or one or two fights here and there that haven't gone through. Jimmy Flick, I think, could be somebody that could end up over there. Yeah, it's going to be somebody like that. I'm just so glad that they're doing. I'm so glad they're doing a Flyweight Division. Yes.

I'm so glad. Yes. And do not, for the love of God, don't resign Rayborg to heaven. fight a 125. Stop it. Stop it. Don't do it. Please don't.

Don't make me mad about that whole situation again. I think I'm finally getting over it. Yes. I'm excited for this move. Go ahead. I'm going to read a question from Maltex. Maltex. Hi, Mike.

You always refer to Alexander K. Lee as your best friend. Didn't you mention at one point that you never met him in person? It's kind of a yes or no question. Yeah, we've never. We'll talk about that more in a second. Another question is often mentioned in pause that you guys are not really fans of the show of the Ultimate Fighter. Why is that so?

Whoa. A lot of things to touch it. Let's mention the never met thing first, Mike. Yeah, we've never, we have never met in person. We have never met in person. In fact, of the people that I work with, I have met, I think only three. New York Rick, I've met in person once. Well, G.C., yeah, because I do the watch parts of them.

Ariel, I've obviously met, but they're like kind of on a different wavelength. talking about like full timers Jose I've met a bunch Jed Mishu I met once he because his parents lived like not far from where I live so he got to play a round of golf together which is a lot of fun

but that is it I've never met Casey in person Oh no Casey I met Casey and Esther yes Of course Casey is a godsonate UFC 24 24 24 okay He lent me a tripod after

A security guard inside the Hulu theater at MSG just ran over my tripod and snapped it and didn't even apologize. I was so mad. And Casey had an extra one and let me have it, which this is pre-M-A fighting. I haven't met Casey as well.

He's a good guy. He's a good guy. He's a good guy. He's a good guy. He's the best. I've not met Shaheen. I've not met Stephen. I've not met Stephen either.

And I've not met you, my best friend. I know. It's such a... It will happen. Damon and I met once covering the worst paper. review maybe in UFC history. UFC 208 in Brooklyn.

I met Damon. Yeah. I think I did it. I guess I've met more than I thought. But our connection, it goes beyond, this is, listen,

we live in the world of the internet now at social media. Our connection goes beyond just face to face. We will meet and it will be very emotional. We will film it. It will go up on our socials. We might tweet it out

from the NBA fighting account. I don't know. It may have to be, we may have to make it a whole thing, but the best friends will meet in person someday. I'm probably a hug. probably gonna hug you. Oh, you bet your ass we're gonna hug.

The question is, for how long? Yeah, it won't be too, too awkward, but it'll be a good one. It won't be awkward for us. It'll be awkward for everyone around us. Yes, it will be. It'll be one of those weird ones, but it'll be so worth it for me.

I'll mention the other question real quick that you guys are not really fans of the show The Ultimate Fighter. It's not you guys, it's you guys. It's you guy, me. I'm not a fan of the Ultimate Fighter. And the only reason I'm not a fan of the Ultimate Fighter is because it's the same show that it's always been.

There has literally been zero evolution to the program whatsoever. And it drives me nuts. We're still doing the stupid basketball jerseys. We're still doing weirdness. Like, it's the same. Like, I don't give a shit that these dudes are living in the same house as each other. They're just going to pull pranks and someone's going to get in a fight and get drunk and do something stupid. like this ain't the Jersey Shore bro

like I don't care about any of that stuff I just want to see these dudes get in there and train and fight that's all I care about this season will be different obviously yeah season 30 what's the last season you watched this season 31 probably the Rhonda Rousey Misha Tate season

that's a long time ago that was it I and I didn't I hated that season too that's when I first started writing about that's when I first started like just blogging about MMA. And the UFC does this to me. They take things that I, that I liked a lot.

Like, the reason I got into MMA was because of the ultimate fighter. The first thing is the ultimate fighter is why I am doing what I am doing today. That's why I first fell in love with the sport because I got to watch Diego Sanchez, not fight dudes in the house, like, because he got hammered drunk.

No, because he was like, John Claude Van Dam playing Frank Ducks in Bloodsport. He's doing splits out on the balcony. He's doing all these weird things, and he's just annihilating people in fights. Like Diego Sanchez was the reason that I watched the ultimate fighter. And then it's just the same damn show. And they're killing my contender series too, AK. They're ruining contender series for me.

This was like my blessing. This is everything I had hoped for from the UFC. Give me the contender series where it's just, let's find out these guys' stories. And let's just have them fight. Let's just do five fights and let's do it. And the best of the best, get contracts. Like, this is how it should be. And they even ruined that for me, AK.

First two seasons were spectacular. Next couple of seasons, everybody who wins gets a contract. And then this past season, the Joe Piper season. Dana White cuts that scathing promo. If you don't show up on Tuesday night, you ain't getting shit. Be Joe Piper. And what happened? About 47 other guys were not Joe Piper and all got UFC contracts.

they've ruined both shows for me okay they've ruined both shows I love the ultimate fighter so that question yeah so this did not I'm very surprised to see this question maltex this is not pertained to me I've watched I know there's the season I've missed I believe I know I never watched the Chinese ultimate fighter season which I feel like doesn't count it was even called something else obviously I guess there's like a translation so they called something else I feel like it doesn't

count but you know but full disclosure yeah that's the one season I haven't seen what did they call out? I can't have found the name for it. Anyway, yes, Ultimate Fighter China. But yeah, I've seen almost all the international, I've seen all the international seasons, I've seen all the domestic seasons,

and just to answer someone, so I love the show, someone out, I think CV asked, will you guys be doing recap pods for the upcoming tough season? You bet your ass, we will, because we actually, starting this Tuesday with the premiere

of the Ultimate Fighter 31, we'll be doing only for the first episode. We will be doing a live show. We will be doing a live show right after. The timing just worked out that way. It makes a lot of sense. I don't know if there's going to be any more buzz around the show than on after the premiere. Maybe the episode where Connor shoves Michael Chandler, that's about it.

But yeah, so the first episode, we will be live this Tuesday. This would be, I think, 11 o'clock Eastern time. So 8 o'clock Pacific. So again, don't get used to it. It's not going to be this way all the time. But we will have using, you know, move. movie magic. We will have post-fight shows every week. Yeah, so there'll be a pod. There'll be video. Connor Birx and I will be hosting. You may have guests here and there and may fighting guests.

And, you know, whoever else we can kind of sneak onto the show to do a quick recap. But yeah, just a quick punchy post-fight show for what will be the most watched season in Mike, probably since the season you mentioned, the Rousie Tate season. because I think since then, or McGregor Faber, maybe. I don't even remember that having crazy ratings or having crazy buzz around it. And then after that, definitely none of the seasons. Even though they had some very solid gimmicks,

nothing really caught on. I think they just have been hemorrhaging viewers for the better part of the last five years or so. So, yes, there will be a show. I don't know if I should reveal the title yet. Maybe I'll wait and you guys can be surprised by the title. Now you have me intrigued, AKA, you have to pry the message.

me the title. All right. Where are you going, Mike? Where are you going? We're in the wilderness now with some of these questions. We are. You know what? Let's just rip the Band-Aid off, okay. Let's just rip the Band-Aid off.

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It started with one and then it led into another. And I just looked on Twitter and something else just kind of like came across that kind of had to do with the question. So it had to do with the Dana White UFC Vegas 73 post-fight press conference, not about what he was. said or do it. It kind of had to do with the Al Jemey and Sterling situation because that's how this all came to be. But at one point, Dana White said, $100 to anybody who can guess who called me on the phone and said they'd fight Sean O'Malley instead. And a reporter said the name and Dana reached into his pocket with his fly down and handed $100 to this reporter. This led to other media members publicly calling this individual out. And they wanted our

response to that. And then in addition, Robbie Fox has been getting a lot of heat from the space as well because there's a video that he posted that Dana White flew him out to the power slap thing. And he took a video of this big old suite in Las Vegas at the Red Rock. And they paid for him to go out and cover the event. And in the journalistic world, both of those things are no-noes. You cannot accept anything from anybody, especially a trip or someone paying for your expenses and all of that stuff. We're not going to, like, plead the fifth on this, but I'm not going to, like, call

anybody out about it. I'm not going to, like, throw names out. I'm not going to really talk about the $100 thing. Enough people have talked about it. Yeah. And listen, we're just not going to throw the name out there because they've addressed it public on social media. If you want to know who it is, it's not hard to find.

They've talked about it. They've defended themselves. So, yeah, I just don't want to create more drama by necessarily just throwing the name out there. Again, it's out there. It's not a secret. It's not a secret who was. And to address the Robbie Fox thing, Robbie is a, Robbie's a public shill.

And he's admitted it. And in fact, the tweet I just saw basically just admitted the same thing. The tweet he just posted was, the PFL also flies on. us out to events and puts us up in hotels. WWE does this as well. So is AEW and DeZone. If you'd like me in the spinning back fist, boys of your next event,

hit up the sales team at Barstool. To Robbie's credit, he is not a journalist, and he has said it a million times. I believe the quote he used in response to some people who's like, I've been making dick and fart jokes for 10 years. I'm not a journalist. I'm a fan.

This is what I do. We are not journalists. So I don't put him in the same standard because he admits this stuff, and especially on the UFC's side, they partner with Barstool. They have a relationship. There's a partnership there.

It's smart for the UFC to invest in Barstool in the Nelk Boys coming out to their events because that's how you get new eyeballs on your product. So I don't lump Robbie into this because Robbie has been clear from day one. I am not a journalist. I don't live by the same ethics as journalists. MMA has enough journalists in this.

the space. I am not one of them. So do not put me in the same category as them. And I respect him for that. So that's why I don't have a huge problem with that because what you and I do, Robbie isn't doing the same thing we're doing. We live by different rules, different guidelines, and Robbie's doing something completely different than what we're doing. And good on him. He's finding success and kudos to him. But he's not a journalist, so I don't have an issue with any of this. I don't. Mike, I'll take it one step further.

I don't respect what he does. I don't like what he does. But he has made it very clear, and I'm just repeating you, I know, but he has made it very clear that he is not a journalist. He has never presented himself as a journalist. He might present himself as someone who, like, you know, can have. has accessed, can get, you know, interviews with fighters. Obviously, he does a regular podcast with Dana White.

So he might, like, boast about those things. And that's fine. That's his right to. That's his right to. So this is, for me, this is like a, just like a personal thing. I'm not a fan of Barstool in general. I'm certainly not a fan of how he covers the sport. But he is doing very well for himself.

So if you're Robbie Barstool, I mean, you don't really have anything to apologize for. Because like you said, as long as he is not presenting himself as this like, oh, I'm objective reporter, which he has never done. He has never done. You can, you can, you don't even need to hear him say it. Look at how he conducts himself. Look at the social media. This is not someone pretending to be a journalist. And, and there, and trust me, there are people in this industry who are pretending to be journalists. He is not one of them. He is not one of them. And that is okay. That is okay. And if you accept that, then that's fine. Then there, then there's no reason to criticize him from doing these things because, as you said, most importantly, like, they're all,

Barstle already is in bed with the UFC. So by that nature, how can anyone who works for them be viewed as doing journalistic work when talking about the UFC? You can't. You just can't. And he doesn't say he does. So that's fine. Just because I'm not a fan doesn't mean he's doing something wrong. You're free not to like it.

Like I said, I don't. But just literally, ethically nothing wrong with what he's doing. Touching upon the $100 thing, I'll just say like, I don't want to make excuses. Because, again, I don't think anyone should do it. I wouldn't do it. And by the way, I also rarely refer to myself as a journalist. If I've done it, it's maybe conversationalally. But people can go to my Twitter profile.

I do not put the word journalist in there. I'm a member of the MA media, for sure. I'm a personality. I'm a writer. My official title is I'm a news editor. I personally don't do a lot of journalistic work for MA fighting. I think Mike you do. I think Damon does.

D.M.A. Cruz. Steve Morocco. Shaheen. A lot of guys do like, you know, you guys do journalistic work. checking sources, interviewing people. I don't even do that many entries these days. So I will say I have never considered myself a buy-the-book journalist. That said, I do try to maintain certain journalistic standards.

I would not have taken the $100 bill. I have never been flown out by promotion. I've never taken anything from promotions. Just because I want to maintain some sort of objectivity in general. And I think once you cross that line, again, it does muddy the waters a little bit. But it's another but. MMA journalism and media is, and we kind of touched upon it with the Dana White thing, is unlike any other sport. That doesn't mean that the media in it shouldn't adhere to basic journalistic tenets,

but it is not the same thing. It is not the same thing. So I think taking the money was wrong. I just don't think it was necessarily the worst thing in the world. It was a kind of an amusing moment at the press conference. Again, it was a very, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's not a business transaction. Let's let's let's not call it that. It's not something that I feel like happened so that, you know, this reporter will give beneficial coverage of the UFC. I don't think

that's what it is. It was kind of just an in the moment thing. Again, shouldn't have happened. I wouldn't take it. But it's not the same as, you know, someone giving of journalist money for some sort of favor or something like that. So again, just kind of a weird, funny, silly thing. And, you know, I don't approve of it. But not the worst. thing. And again, same, and just the same thing with Riley Barstool. I don't like it. But no, his behavior is not like, it's not hurtful to the media, the journalism industry because he doesn't present ourselves as a journalist. So there you go. That's really, I think, the nicest way we can sort of address it, Mike. Yeah, I wouldn't have taken it either. I would have been like donated to a DV

charity. That's probably what I would have said. DV charity. A journalist. A journalist. Yeah, journalists. Yeah, things that help journalism. funds. Give it to the WGA little fun going on right there, which you can support them while they're on strike. Yeah, it's just a weird thing. And maybe it's a learning experience. Maybe it's not.

I don't know. But at the end of the day, the way I see it is if these, if these, if people are able to look, look themselves in the mirror and they're like, I'm okay, then more power to you. That's, that's it. Like, you know, I inherited. impress anybody you know i've misreported a thing or two and you know i've apologized for it and done whatever um i could be a stubborn prick at times i ain't perfect but yeah there are certain things i wouldn't do because look dana keeps receipts man he does videos and all this stuff and all it takes

is for you know me to accept that hundred dollars and then go on heck of a morning and say what i would answer a question honestly and then Dana'd be like oh look at the guy that I just gave a hundred dollars to now ripping the promotion like makes you look like makes me would make me look like a hypocrite so because I don't know I'm just I'm more Boston sports radio and just say what's on my mind in a I mean there's certain ways I don't do it I don't attack personally I just go by with what I see but yeah wouldn't wouldn't be my thing but again if this person can look themselves in the mirror and say, cool, you know, I didn't do anything wrong, then that's all I need. I'm good. That's as much as we're going to say. Like, we could go further, but there are a lot of people.

I didn't want to just, like, AK and I talked about this behind the scenes, like, should we address this? Because we got so many questions. And I figured, I think we'd hit it the way we wanted to. Yeah, I agree. I agree. I've said my piece. And again, I want to say, again, to the reporter who took the money. Again, I've, I didn't, I didn't mention it. I didn't talk about it publicly. Like, I didn't tweet about it. I didn't get involved in the conversation. Because again, I just, I didn't think it was like this horrible, horrible thing. But I also don't blame the people who called it out. Let me make that clear. I do not blame the people who called it out. It's not something that should happen. But I'm also some, I don't want to say sympathetic, but kind of understanding of

why it happens. And, you know, it just, it is a little thing. And like you said, maybe it's a learning, maybe it's a learning moment. Maybe it isn't. But, um, hopefully, well, just sort of, move on from it and not, not see too much stuff like that again in the future. Well, with that said, we'll go to Alicia. Hey, Mike and AK, first time submitting a question. I know a lot can happen between now and then, but who do you think will be the women's champions in the UFC by the end of 2024? And as a second question, will someone else besides Amanda Nunes have the chance to have two titles? What do you think, AK?

I hope that Amanda Nunes doesn't have two titles by the end of 2024. Is that fair to say? And not because I want to see a lose. I just want to see this featherweight division buried. It was great. You had to make a belt when you got Chris Cyborg. It was great when you also happened to get a bantamweight champion in the men of Nunes who could come up and comfortably fight at 145. So there was this brief window, 2017, 2018, where it's like, oh, cool, let's talk about the women's featherweight division as if it's actually a thing.

And these are like legitimately intriguing fights. I want to see Chris Cyborg fight, you know, Hollyholm. I want to see Chris Cyborg fight in a manorneungis. but since the Saabberg-Nunes fight, it's been a bit of a joke calling Nunes a two-division champion with respect to Policia Spencer, with respect to Megan Anderson. It's just not like the other divisions

where you really have to have this outstanding body of work to earn a title shot. It's just, are you coming off a win or two? Does Amanda Nunes want to defend the featherweight title? Boom, guess what? You're fighting for the featherweight championship. So I would hope by the end of the year, They just don't, they just take that belt away.

It's just getting absurd at this point. So, so no, I guess, to that, what was it? Well, so, no, no, because no one should have, other than Shepchenko going up and fighting Nunes for 135, which I think the ship is kind of sailed. Schenico, of course, would have to win the, the flyweight title back first. No, that's, I don't think you see that anytime soon.

The BAMP, just do the BAMPtherweight division and just do like 135 up. Like, like, treat it like heavyweight. weight. You know what I mean? I'm fighting for it, Mike. I'm fighting for it. Just one title.

135 to 155. Just do it like that. You can weigh on whatever you want in between those weights. Who cares? Like, who cares? It's just so silly that we have three feather weights in the women's bantam weight rankings. It's so silly. It's so ridiculous.

But so I'm with you. I think Amanda Nunes will be the Bamptherweight champion by the end of two. No. No. I was saying, are you? I mean, correct. Are you on the Irina Aldana upset train? Yes, I am.

I sure am, AK. I got vibes, and the vibes have been screaming to me ever since that press conference. I just feel like Arini Aldana's going to beat her. And I feel like she's going to finish Amanda Nunes. I feel like she's going to have a big moment. I feel like she's going to have a big moment. And I think she's going to hold that title for a little while. Because, honestly, there's not a lot of other people to fight.

Who's she going to fight next? Pennington rematch. We could do Pennington. You can do Holly Holm. I'd like to see those two running back. I'm going to say, Rienie Aldana at Bantamweight, and then her first order of business

is to kill the featherweight division forever. Aaron Blanchfield at 125. Zhang Wei at 115. Oh. Grasso, she has a tell defense scheduled, right? I'm not, no, she doesn't. She's probably going to fight Valentina. Next.

there's talks about Aaron Blanchfield maybe fighting Manon Fioro in September which I'm definitely picking Aaron Blanchfield to win that fight and I just think when Aaron Blancheville fights for the title she's going to have the title

for a long time so that's why I'm picking her she will get her shot and she will win Mike I'll friends forever with you on Aldana I love it I'll stick with Carasso to win to still be the champion whether it's because she beats Blanfield

or the Blanchfield fight just doesn't happen this year. End of 2024, AK. It's end of 2024? That's so far ahead. Oh, my gosh. I mean, hopefully there won't even be a women's bantamweight division by then. But let me take a quick glance.

I've got my rankings open anyway. Let me take a glance at my gosh, bantamweight. Like besides Aldana, what if she fought Pennington? Pennington beat her again. Can you imagine that? Could happen. And it'd be great. I'd be very happy for a Caled Pankton, but what a state the division would be in.

Arena Alexeva just made her debut but she didn't even make weight this is something else Julia Avalos coming back at some point maybe she makes her run I'll it won't be a man in an internet I just think she'll

we say this every year that she might retire I think there's a good chance if she's still champion at some point she's gonna walk away right if she beats Aldana what's left for her yeah

I don't even want to have to answer this question I honestly don't know I honestly feel like someone has to come up from 125 and do it. I don't know. Aaron Blanchville should do it. If she dominates,

that's a great, she should come up and do it. So I'll go with you then on, yeah, Blanchfield will be championed by end of 2024. That's true. That does change things. I'll go with you on that.

You know what? Maybe Valentina goes up to 135. I'm going to throw it out there randomly. Valentina up to 135. Last run of her career. You finally gets that title. And straw weight. Straw weight.

really is a pretty easy pick you know what jillian robertson oh damn let's go canada let's go i'm going to throw it out there i like what i've seen so far i don't know if she has a shot in 2024 but she's she could get there she could get there i'm the ufc's return to toronto next year uc comes back to toronto next year jillian robertson gets her dial a shot wins in front of the home crowd i'm i am manifesting this and then March 2025 co-main event for the flyway title Aaron Blanchfield versus Natty Ice

Let's go Natalia Silva Let's go Go ahead, AK I believe you were up All right, let me grab one here We'll do two more There's a few Colby ones

I feel like we have to do A lot of Colby talk We can do some Colby talk Yeah let's do some Colby talk All right well first I'll go with I'll remember something the other question so I'll spin them off

so guys apologies and everyone else if I don't get your name in there but from Ronald first Ronald just wants to know simply enough at this point

when will we see Leon Edwards versus Colby Covington happen it seems that these cards are filling up fast and space

is limited I guess is Abu Dhabi the hope now Mike what are we what are we thinking here my guess

if the UFC could have it their way co-main event November Madison Square Garden. John Jones,

Depe, the main event, co-main event, Leon versus Colby. Then we get not only two title fights, we get Colby back at MSG, we get John Jones at MSG, we get a press conference

with John Jones and Colby Covington on the same stage at the same time. And you know the UFC is going to love that. So that would be my guess. You don't be the COVID event? You don't think Connor Chandler might land there? If it does,

they'll do it in December. Whenever Jones and Stepe fights, that will be the co-main event. But Connor wants MSG. He probably wants MSG, right? He's like, I'm not going to wait until Vegas. I guess Vegas, you know, he looks Vegas, too. I just don't know if he's going to be, if he's going to be able to do the six months and get cleared.

Not that I think that really matters at the end of the day, but I don't know. What Connor wants probably, Connor gets, but. Yeah. I'm hopeful Joan Steepa gets done and then we do Connor Chandler in December. Okay. So you like Leon and Colby at Madison Square Garden in November? As the co. Yeah.

as the co-main event to yeah whatever Jones stepey happens that's the co-main event if they can't get steep A and Jones this year let's say that doesn't happen this year then what do you think

happens to Colby and Leon that'll headline whatever Connor doesn't tricky man a lot of Dominoes need to fall eh not really that's tricky if Connor and Chandler fight in December

it's either Colby Leon is co-main event to Joan Stepe or if they can't get that one done then Colby Leon is the main event uh Okay, okay, okay. So it's not like super complicated. Spinning off of this, Mike, there's a question. I just read there. Oh, yes, I put it in a weird place. Carl France wants to know. Can you explain how Covington and Sugar, Sean O'Malley, get propped up as title contenders beating no one of note? That's an interesting one.

You've been, you've been, you've presented a pretty strong case for why Colby's like not a crazy, you know, choice to get this tell of shots. You want to, you don't want to reiterate any of that? I'm happy to defend the O'Malley title shots, which isn't difficult at all. I mean, O'Malley is easy. And plus we have to remember, ladies and gentlemen, this is the UFC. This is the WWE. This is not WCW.

This is not Bellator. It's not the PFL. This is not meritocracy, be damned. This is what fight is going to make us the most amount of money as quickly as possible. And with what is available right now and what is realistic right now, it is Colby Covington versus Leon Edwards.

In fact, if Jorge Mazadol, had defeated Gilbert Burns, we would be talking about Leon Edwards versus Jorge Mazadol for the title and Colby beat the brakes off Jorge Mazdaal. Like that fight was, it was a one-sided destruction. Like Mazadol had a moment,

but Colby dominated that fight from bell to bell. So that would have been a tough hang as well. There's really no right answer. Hamzaa Chamaif is such a mystery. There's literally, like, Blah Mohamed's there, but Colby was aren't. the guy. Like, Colby was already the guy. And Colby is a prize fighter. Like, I get so many questions on heck of morning. And I'm not do anybody for this because this is, this is a learning thing. They're like,

well, what they should do is they should just do Leon versus Belaw and then Colby just has to fight Schofcott-Rachmanoff. I'm like, what the world are you living on? You think Colby Covington is going to be like, yeah, man. Like, you were just going to give me a title shot. Now I'm going to fight backwards and fight Shafkat Rokmanov? Side of the up. Yeah. And what does Colby gain from beating Shafka Rokmanov? He gains nothing.

Nothing in the grand scheme of things. To the fans who are like not fans of Colby getting a title shot, it's, well, he finally got a win, but you know what you're going to say. You know what you're going to say. Well, Shafkot, maybe just wasn't as good as he thought he was. He only got like four fights in the UFC. He has to beat a top five guys, so that win ain't shit. So I know how a lot of you guys think.

I know how it all works. Colby's going to get a shot. Leon wins. We have a meritocracy. Belal gets the next shot. We're good to go. But Colby is a prize fighter, man. Like Colby, much like Dana White has won his battle.

Colby has won prize fighting. He has found a way to make money, win fights, and beat the biggest names in the sport at the perfect times where the risk was as low as it could have possibly been, i.e. Tyrone Woodley, Jorge Mazadol, Robbie Lawler, the list goes on and on. He beat a really good RDA, and then he fought Oosman and had two very competitive fights with Kamah Ustman.

There are a lot of people still who tell me that they feel Colby won the second fight against Kamar Usman. They felt that Colby won it. So I don't have an issue with it. Like, I don't have an issue with it. I feel for Bilal Muhammad, but if I'm Belaw Muhammad right now, I ain't worried about Colby Covington. I'm worried about Connor McGregor. I'm worried about Hamzot Shamaif, and I'm worried about your boy Shafkat Rokman.

Because if Hamzad doesn't fight Kamar Usman, we live in a real world where Shafcott could fight Kamar Usman. And if Shafkat gets that fight and wins, he's probably jumping over Kamah Uspin. And if Hamzat Shemaya fights Kamah Uspin and wins, he's jumping over Balah al-Mahad for sure. and if Connor meets Michael Chandler, he's jumping over all of them. So he's got more important things to worry about than Colby. And that is why I hated having Blah Muhammad Gilbert Burns at U.S. 88.

It made literally no sense to put that fight on the card. Did nothing for it at all. Did not make an extra dollar for the UFC putting the fight on that card. And now poor Blah Muhammad had to fight Gilbert Burns on short. notice and he's going to have to wait probably a year if he's going to get a title shot. He's probably going to have to fight again. And it just sucks for the man when we could have just waited until any other month this year. And you could have done that fight with the same stakes and everything else on the line.

But instead, Blah Muhammad has to just hope that Connor and Chandler don't fight, hopes that Hamzaa Shamiyev stays at 185, hopes that Kamar Uzman doesn't fight Shafkarakhan. he like he speaking of things that need to fall in a place Belal needs everything to fall into place for him and it's not fair it stinks but Colby's gonna get that shot man he's gonna get it he's smart you ever see called him to be the backup he said yes

made weight like a champion knew that day he knew the day before the fight he was getting a title shot they told him you're getting the next title shot so yeah he's not gonna be like you know up below you're right here you go I'll go fight Shafkat instead. No, he's not going to do that. He's fighting for the belt, guys. I'm sorry. I know you don't like it, but he's going to fight for the belt. I'm super like anti-Colby getting the towel shot. Like, I hated it. I hate it when it was brought up. I hate it was suggested. But the phrasing of this question is weird saying that he beat no one of note, which is like, because you'd actually have to go pretty far back to find someone that he beat that wasn't of note. Again, and you can question, oh, whether these people were in their primes or not. But just on paper, Masvedal, Woodley, Robbie Lawler, RDA, Damien Maya is a

pretty strong resume. Again, criticize where they were. Listen, these guys were top 10 when he fought them. I get it. As years go by, people get going like, oh, well, now if you look at Kobe's resume, he hasn't beaten anyone in the top 10. But you could do that with a lot of fighters. Like, that's not really fair.

He beat these guys when they were ranked when he was supposed to. So his resume is like, it's legit. It's legit. Again, I don't like the circumstances under which he's getting the teloshot. I'd rather see, you know, God of Kamsat to actually make the weight. I would prefer that. Balal, I feel like should have gotten it. Shafcott, I know he doesn't have near the resume of Kobe Compton.

I'd still rather see that fight. But just based on resume, you really can't dismiss Colby. Like, the phrasing of the question doesn't make sense. And Sean O'Malley, definitely not. He beat Peodor Yan. Guys, he beat Peodor Yan. He beat the former champion, the number one ranked guy at the time. I don't know how anyone can say he's just being propped up.

And again, I'm not a fan of Shauna Malley either. but that Yon fight was awesome. And if he had lost, the narrative around Sean O'Malley would be so different today, Mike. It would be like, man, Sean O'Malley really, he didn't win the man,

he really showed a lot of people. He belongs in the top five. One thousand percent. During the fight, I wish there was an easier way to track social media. During the fight, so much of Twitter's

Twitter responses were like, man, Sean O'Malley's looking really good. Like, holy crap, like he's doing much better against Yon than we thought. As soon as the decision was read, you saw,

I don't want to say it was the same people, but you saw a different segment of people to suddenly chime in, like, oh, this is bull crab. Like he's, there's a robbery. Like, like, Yon, Yon, like, you know, Yon clearly beat him. And I'm like, no, it was a really, it was one of my favorite fights of 2022. And I hate that so much the conversation was like, oh, he didn't really beat him. It could have gone either way, for sure. But if you're saying that, John, that there's no reasonable way to score that fight for

Shauna Malley, you're just either super biased or you don't know how to score fights and you don't know what you're talking about. that's a legit win. That's a legit win that made him the number one contender. So that sounds like we're coming hard, down hard on the person who asked this question. But yeah, there's very logical reasons why these guys are getting their title fights. And you don't have to like it. Like I said, I don't like the Covington title fight.

But I know why he's getting it. Mike has outlined it. There's so many tangible reasons that he's getting that title shot and why other guys aren't. So that's how it is, guys. That's how it is. So you don't have to like it. But listen, as long as you're watching the fight, that's all the UFC cares about.

Look, one of two things are going to happen. Leon's either Leon's going to beat Colby and then he's like out of the title picture for a while or Colby's going to win and that's going to screw up a lot of things. He's probably fighting like Connor or Chandler next. Like that's going to be really interesting if Colby wins the title because there's no way Leon's getting a rematch if that happens. And things are just going to get out of control. And I'm kind of here for it.

I just want to see people's heads explode. I want to see Dana just kind of lose the shit a little bit more when people start questioning his decision making. And I kind of love that stuff. I kind of love that stuff. All right, I'm going to pick this question. This is what we're going to do AK. We're already an hour and 17 minutes,

which is like longer than I thought we were going to go. I do have to pick up my child in like 15 minutes. So we're going to ask one more question. And then since next week's card is not good, we will answer the remaining questions. Sure. How about that? That's what we're going to do. I'm going to Robbie Ryan because I feel like this is an interesting topic.

A lot of people seem to be jumping on the PFL bandwagon and trashing the UFC since the Francis signing. But is anyone in PFL really any better off other than Francis, his opponent in the season winners? How does their minimum deal compared to the UFC? How much are their fringe? Where did the question go? Oh, sorry. I mess with you. Just keep you in your toes.

Just keeping in your toes, my best friend. How much of their fringe top guys get paid compared to the UFC five to 15 ranked fighters? How are their former champions paid compared to other UFC contracts? It seems a lot of people have instantly developed a stance that the grass is greener for everybody over at PFL. But is this really true? So I don't know.

honestly about the dollar numbers, but I'm sure it's not terribly far off from what the first contract is for the UFC. Plus you're getting the opportunity to a million and all that other stuff. So this is just an interesting question because of where PFL is positioned after this Francis deal. There are some people who feel like, like to me, I feel like this could be a game changer.

Like PFL could be WCW here. I'm not saying they are now, but they could be. If this pays off and this Francis deal works and it gets a few more big free agent names to head on over to PFL and they can swing this and make it work and not go out of business, this could be the WCW moment. This could be it. And I'm hoping and I'm wishing that that is what happens here because the MMA space, if that happens, will become. so fun and so interesting if this does happen if this is a wrinkle effect down everything now this remains to be seen will this work because this is a huge risk i mean this is great for francis francis didn't just fumble the bag he picked up 12 more bags on the way to the finish line he

has all the bags so this worked out great for him pfl potentially this could work out great for them but I just have a million questions about how they're going to recoup any of this money anytime soon because they're just not going to do well on pay-per-view. And I don't know. They just have a lot to deal with. And there needs to be more. It can't just be Francis. Like I said,

there needs to be an NWO. You got Jake Paul. You got Francis. You need one more big name at least on that roster that can be like, oh my freaking God, this guy's in the PFL or this girl is in the PFL. in all respect to Kayla Harrison and what she's been able to do

as the face of that promotion since it really launched, but she's not it. She's not that NWO, third member, game-changing name. You need somebody else. And I feel like the PFL is at least positioning themselves, AK, as a very fascinating alternative.

That a lot of fighters who are on the cusp of free agency who may not be a star in the UFC, have talked to their managers at some point over the last 10, 14 days and said, look, let's keep PFL on speed dial case we need them. I feel like this Francis move has at least gotten fighters' attention to the point where if they're going to become a free agent, they will be less likely to just re-sign a deal with DFC. They're going to have a conversation with the PFL before doing anything else. What are your thoughts on what this deal could mean?

could perhaps the grass become the greenest grass outside of Las Vegas with this whole thing? I was very optimistic when the deal is. I still am. I still am. I think my immediate grade was I gave Francis an A, if only because for me an A plus would have been if Francis had signed with the PFL and if we also knew that he'd sort of like locked in a fight, even if it wasn't with like a Tyson boxing match, sorry, even if it wasn't with like a Tyson Fury or Deonté Wilder or Anthony Joshua, if he had at least we knew like oh he's definitely and i get it his him and his manager are saying where you know we're in talks to a lot of opponents we're very competent he's going to box in twenty twenty three and that's great and that's great but there's still a chance it doesn't happen so an a plus for me would have been all the stuff we know he got from the pfl plus a

match locked in i did give the pfl an a plus though i gave the pfl and a plus in the deal and i'm going to stand by it because i think uh in the short term it accomplished his goal of getting people talking about the league, man. I mean, people are rightfully questioning, like, you know, where are they going to get the money for all this? His opponents are guaranteed $2 million. Plus he's going to get paid, you know, presumably more than that. Let's say even, let's say even a conservative estimate. Let's say he's making $2.5 million. He's making $2.5 million. He's probably making more than $2.5 million. That's like $4.5 million for like a non-paper-view. Oh, I guess I'm going to put on pay-per-view. I'm sorry. For an unproven pay-per-view brand.

the super fight division. Plus, I guess he's going to get points. I don't know if the opponent gets points. He's going to have points. So this is a lot of money for the PFL to invest. I don't know if they're looking for this to be like a lost leader where like just they know they're going to lose money on France's fights. But overall, they can keep, you know, draw an interest, keep getting investors interested,

you know, just keep that buzz going, that that is worth it more overall to their brand. That's certainly possible. Again, a lot of companies do this. Just for another example, a different kind of example. W.E, their whole NXT brand for the longest time, was not a money-making brand, but it drew interest to other aspects of the company. And in the long run, I think, has been beneficial. This is definitely a different gamble for PFL, because this is at the very top that we're talking about.

This isn't like some side thing if it doesn't work out. If this Francis deal doesn't work out, I don't think it's the end of the league, but it's very, very, very hurtful to them. So there's a lot of risk, but I still consider it an A plus just because the alternative is to do nothing, to not attempt to make these big waves and to eventually either either just peter out as a lot of promotions have or be content to be like number three behind bell tour or behind you know bare-knuckle boxing as it is if we're just talking about like how much people talk about it bare-knuckle's still up there but i think pfl in the last couple weeks is at least for now is number two if we're talking about cue rating buzzworthy

you know just making moves they're number two it was that big uh i want to touch upon how much former champions get paid compared to UFC contracts. We don't know everyone. We do know Anthony Pettus got 750 grand for his June 24th fight last year, which is incredible. Again, I don't know if that's what every, you know, UFC transfer can expect to, to, he's the only, I want to say he's the only champion? Warren McDonald, 250 grand, not a former UFC champion, former Belator champion. Fabio Verdeum was there. Yeah, how much does he make?

I don't know. Do we know, do we know, oh, sorry, you're missing former, yeah. I don't know if we got the payday for that one. And his whole deal with them was weird, there no contest and everything. But it seems to be that if you are a former UFC champion or even a Bellator champion, you're getting a good deal. And as you mentioned, Mike, we don't know about the fringe guys and sort of the lower level guys, but they can't be making, it's very unlikely they're making that much less,

if at all, than 12 and 12, which is what a lot of these sort of contender series guys are getting, guys and gals. So it's it I don't want to say the grass is greener, but every promotion sort of has can offer things the UFC doesn't with Belator's sort of the sponsorships and and I guess a lot of guys that feel like there's a little more freedom. But again, then you go to Belator, you're sacrificing paper viewpoints because you could become Johnny Ebblin is never going to get paper viewpoints Beltor. This is not a thing. Yaroslav Amasov is never going to get paper viewpoints. So there's a cap to how much they can make. So it's not always. greener in Belator. It's not always greening the

PFL one championship. But it's different. It's fresh and you can still make a lot of money and not be under some of the restrictions that the UFC has. And now Francis is showing how many restrictions can truly

be lifted. I mean, they're going to let him box, which is just something the UFC would never do. Forget Dana's Floyd May. We made the Floyd Mayweather fight happen talking. Oh my God. I don't want to get you started. Mike, you got to go I don't want you going to start that. But yeah, I don't want to say, I'm not as, I'm a little more probably cautious with this

PFL deal, but like I said, short term, it's an A plus. Long term could be an A plus plus plus plus. There was just no reason not to do it. And I'm glad it happened. So yeah, is the grass always greener? I don't know. But it's certainly a different color. And for a lot of fighters, I think that's worth explore.

Yes, I'm super cautious about the deal, but golly, am I fascinated? If this works, I'm telling you, this is, this is the, this is the change. This is it. This is WCW, baby. I'm not saying it will. PFL could be mid-south for all we know. And they get a little buzz and then they just go out of business. Like, it could happen.

But they could also become WCW and change the game. And that, that's a world I want to live in, AK. That's a world I want to live in where there's competition. Like real competition at the top where in 1987, there's no one who could come close to WWF. and then they did it for 83 weeks. And then it was over. But at least they did it and they changed the business.

WWF has never been the same since. All those wrestlers are making great money and getting guaranteed contracts. The whole game changed. And maybe it just takes this one move to change the game for us all for the fighters getting paid, for the fighters to have the courage in the intestinal fortitude to band together

to battle against, Those who don't, they feel like aren't paying them enough when they're making $300 million in profit every year. This could be the change. And this is tremendous change. And I hope it works out. And once again, PFL, I know Francis A-Fling until 2024. But you have a card coming up very soon. You have multiple cards coming up very soon.

Please, for the love of God, make them digestible. Make them digestible. Appetizer. salad right after the app, meal right after the salad is finished, and then dessert right away. I don't want to wait for any food. Just give me the damn food.

That's what I want. I don't need to wait 30 minutes between courses. Give me the food right away. Finish one thing. Room. Next food. Room? Next food.

Don't make me watch a PFL broadcast for 14 hours. Don't do it. Make these digest. You're going to have more people watching your cards for this next one than you had it all last year. Please, for the love of God, don't let me go on Twitter and see 800 people saying, what am I doing with my life? This is taking forever. Use this momentum to your advantage.

Take that snowball, turn it into the lower third of the snowman. Please, I'm begging you. I'm rooting for you, PFL. I'm rooting for you. We're all rooting for you. We're all rooting for you. We're rooting for you, Belator. rooting for all of you.

One, we don't need us to rue for you because you have billions of billions of people. So you don't need us rooting for you. You've already won, apparently. But we have won today. Great questions from everybody. We'll put a pin in this. We will answer the rest next week.

AK, thank you. Appreciate you, my best friend. I have to go pick up my kid. But for all of us, have a great weekend if you're in the U.S. Don't forget what Memorial Day is all about. And enjoy the long weekend, everybody. Back next week following UFC

Vegas 74 main event is Amir Al-Bazi versus Kai Kara France. Should be a fun one. And we'll back to recap it off from a matchmaking perspective right here on onto the next one, the podcast. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.