MMA Fighting - Reaction | Conor McGregor Is Back, Will Fight Michael Chandler After Coaching TUF | MMA Fighting

Episode Date: February 4, 2023

On Saturday morning, UFC president Dana White returned to the promotion's social media channels to announce a variety of news — including the return of Conor McGregor to face Michael Chandler, not only inside the octagon, but as opposing coaches on the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter. MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and New York Ric react to that news, discuss whether or not it was the right pairing, #UFC287 having an official destination on April 8, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow New York Ric: @NewYorkRic Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Mike Hack here from MMAfighting.com. Excuse my somewhat unprofessional appearance because I didn't expect to be on camera at 11.30 a.m. Eastern Standard time on a Saturday ahead of a big double header with Bellator 290 and UFC Vegas 68 going down later on tonight. But Dana White popped on the UFC social media channels earlier today to make some announcements, including the return of Connor McGregor. He will come back and fight in 2003 against Michael Chandler. But not only that, not only will they oppose one another inside the octagon, they will oppose one another. inside the octagon, they will oppose one another as coaches on the upcoming season of the Ultimate Fighter.

Now, this news to a lot of people doesn't come as too much of a surprise. It seemed like everything was leaning towards Connor McGregor coming back and coaching. It was just a matter of who would he coach against and who would he end up fighting. Tony Fergus, it was a name that was being chucked out there. Michael Chandler was a very popular name in the mix. And in the end, Dana White reveals that it's going to be Connor McGregor and Mike. Michael Chandler on Tough, and then they will fight each other at a date and location, TBD, but sometime in 2023.

And that was just sort of the beginning of the announcements. We got a couple more. And we'll discuss those in a matter of seconds, but I don't want to do this alone. I didn't want to do this alone. So let us bring in Mr. New York, Rick. How are you, my man? Good to see you. I'm great, Mike.

How are you? Feels like we did this just the other day. So I'm happy to see you again. Heck of a morning. It's been a heck of a morning. it sure has so i don't think connor coming back is too much of a surprise i don't think connor coming back and coaching the ultimate fighter is too much of a surprise since there have been rumblings of this for the last couple of weeks but then we saw tony ferguson social media a lot of

people wondering if that was the fight could this be sort of a seroni type situation for connor's comeback seems like he matches up very well with tony ferguson especially at this point in ferguson's career chandler fight is obviously exciting and in the end we go out of the Michael Chandler. So what was your reaction to all of this? Is this the right pairing in your opinion? Yeah. Not caught off guard, as you said. Like this seemed to be the way the rumors were swirling. Also, Michael Chandler has done a very, very good job at campaigning to be opposite Connor McGregor for a long time. That campaigned clearly worked. So not a shocker, but I think that this is very much the right matchup. I think those two will have a great dynamic and either

they're going to get sick of each other in the first two weeks after Michael Chandler is doing the howdy duty, shake your hand, or morning neighbor type situation, and Connor McGregor is just sick of it. Or they'll be relatively uncontentious until the competition starts and maybe that starts to create some animosity. But I'm interested to see how their dynamic plays out much more so than I'd say if it was Tony Ferguson and they're coming in very adversarially. And then at the end of it, we get the great fight. I think that this fight on paper is so much better than a potential Tony Ferguson versus Connor McGregor fight. I love this fight. So I think that that has to kind of shade over the idea of the tough season is at the end of the season, we will ultimately, knocking on wood, get Connor

McGregor versus Michael Chandler. Yeah, it's funny that you're here because the first thing I thought of when I saw that this was official was Michael Chandler being on tough is like you being on BTL. He's going to be so blessed with the opportunity. He's going to be so happy to be here. And then like six episodes, it's going to be like, oh, my God, what the hell am I doing here? But I think Chandler is like the perfect foil for Connor because Connor's going to do his thing. And a lot of people are saying that, you know, tough is just kind of run its course. And I'm one of those people. But bringing Connor and Chandler back, sure, it's going to get a lot of viewership the first week. I think it'll kind of fade out because the show has not evolved at all since the

first season, but I do feel like even if people don't watch the show after the first or second week, it's still going to be massive because this is going to be everywhere. I know you talked about this a little bit on the MA hour, but I completely agree with you on that. Just having like social media clips of them to having conversations or Conner's reaction to Chandler's guy beating Connor's guy. Like it's just got to be gold. I think this is brilliant on the UFC's part, even if people don't watch it. Yeah. I mean, echoing. everything you say. It has become a topic of conversation recently of how much heavy lifting the UFC does in promotion, right? Are they promoting this enough? Are they promoting this enough?

There is no doubt in my mind that this will be one of the most promoted things they do all year. And I'm just talking about tough. I'm not even talking about once we get to the fight itself, which will obviously be a mega fight for them and be promoted. But the idea of tough where every week they're going to be generating clips, Connor McGregor is for 10-ish. I think it works out to weeks going to be all over everybody's social media feed. Connor McGregor is going to be back in a gym, back in a fight setting for fight fans to understand and to say, okay, this is where Connor McGregor is at

and kind of get much closer of a sense of him. He kind of feels a little bit like a celebrity off on an island doing other things and then dropping into the fight world. I think this will be a good re-exposure for him for fight fans. And then in addition to that, you're also getting the potential ESPN audience. I imagine that they're going to try push this to linear. And I suggested it on that episode of the MMA hour that you were talking about,

why not push this to ABC? At least the first episode, maybe the last episode, figure out a way to get this in front of mainstream sports fans and middle American moms and dads and just push this to everybody that you possibly can. Connor McGregor is back. Here's his opponent. Watch the drama unfold. This is going to be massive for the UFC. Having Connor McGregor buy into a property like tough helps them and helps the tough brand it gives that a well-needed boost as you said it's been a while since we saw some innovation in that front so just really good all around really good all around for them it and the ABC idea is great even if you do like replays of it on a Saturday like throw it on there like 130 with I mean it's either we could watch a and I love 10 pin bowling as much as the next

guy but you know take take the bowling off and we chuck on you know even if you cut it down to 30 minutes It's just had like the best of the best and show the fight and then we move on with our day. But yeah, I completely agree with you. Last thing on this, because the fight's going to be cool. I'm very excited for it. What Connor do you think we're going to get? Do you think we're going to get the Donald Seroni second Dustin Porre fight Connor? Or do you think we're going to get more of the third Dustin Porre fight Connor where he's just ain't going to be mits and words?

It's just going to be, I'm going to try to get in Chandler's head the entire time and try to get him all fired up. I'm going to say we get more of the Donald Seroni version of Connor McGregor, but for how long that lasts remains to be seen. I think Michael Chandler has a way by being too nice, by killing people with kindness, to kind of grate on them a little bit. So we'll see how long that lasts. But just based on the fact that he got hit by the bike, the guy in the car on his bike, and he's riding shotgun with him back to town. and he seems to be in a different mind frame, the benevolent Connor McGregor, who's willing to offer up 500K of his money

to sponsor Katie Taylor's fight. It seems to be he's in a different mind frame, I think, than the third Dustin Porriere fight. So I would expect that we get Connor McGregor on quote unquote good behavior happier to be there than to be angry at the world. And Michael Chandler has been very respectful in his callouts of Connor McGregor.

I think that's a key to kind of why this fight is happening, if I'm being completely honest. Connor McGregor has never been the guy who, when being disrespected, wants to give you that opportunity. Red Panty Knight is at his discretion, right? He gets to hand those out. So I think Michael Chandler played this very, very well. And ultimately, we'll get two guys who respect each other,

at least in the start. I felt like the other thing besides you, like Michael Chandler being BTL New York, Rick, that I thought of was the timing of this, say what you will about Dana White in the UFC. and promotion and all that. But man, do they pick their spots? And I don't think the timing of this announcement

and when it all happened was any coincidence at all because the UFC has to know at this point that all eyes on Saturday nights of fights, they're not on the UFC tonight. They're on Bellator. They're on Bellator's CBS broadcast debut. They are on Fador's final fight.

And to me, that was like my other thought, I was like, man, what a, what a brilliant move here, putting out this information because there's no way Dana White's up at 7 a.m. Vegas time to make this announcement. They had this thing in the can ready to go for a specific time. I got to say, I thought it was brilliance and a perfect move by the UFC. But do you agree with that? Like, do you feel like they could have done this yesterday, but nah, we're going to go ahead and drop this on Saturday?

right we're about to have a card and right before one of our biggest competitors is going to have a massive card on CBS. I tend to agree. There's only two reasons this would possibly happen as it happened this morning. One, they've been waiting to push it and the moment they were able to definitively confirm that this was all wrapped up and locked up and ready to go. They pushed it out as soon as they possibly could because they didn't want it to leak or break. The alternative, the more cynical approach or the more cynical thought and stress, could be they decided to bury Bellator show with the biggest news in the sport on the day that they're going to be on CBS and also take some attention off the fact that they're hosting a fight card that starts at 10 p.m. Eastern for the prelims down in Vegas. So I think there's a there's, as I said earlier, there's a lot of conversation. There's a lot of talking right now about the UFC's promotional tactics and strategies and how UFC 284 is being promoted. Today, if you're judging it through that lens was a bit of a masterstroke

and the art of promotion at its finest. So I would say that they get high marks for how this played out. Other announcements that came out, Sean O'Malley has signed a new eight-fight deal with the UFC, so he will be there for the foreseeable future. Eight fights for New York Creek?

Like John Jones signed an eight-fight deal and now Shot O'Malley signing an eight-fight deal? I didn't think these are even a thing anymore, except if you're going from like tier one to tier two, but locking those two, two guys up, especially Sean O'Malley at this point, especially with Al Jermaine Sterling saying, I'm going to fight Henry Sehuto in May. And then if I beat him, I'm going to make my way up. Looks like they're trying to make room for shot O'Malley to be potentially the star of this division and one of the biggest stars for the promotion for a long time.

Eight fight deal? Now we're seeing a lot of these, man. Were you surprised to hear of all guys and everything that he's saying over the last couple of years, Sean O'Malley is locked up for eight fights with the UFC. I'm not surprised and here's why. It's a tentative agreement. It's rather maybe not tentative. It's a tenuous agreement based on the principle that, yeah, we'll be together for eight fights, but some way midway through the fighter might decide I'm going to sit out until I get more money. Sean O'Malley seems like the type to know his value.

I think he's playing this well and thinking of a situation down the line where if he needs the leverage, if he's ascended to a higher position, that he'll be able to renegotiate that. If he can't, he might get iced. We've seen these kind of negotiation tactics from both sides from fighters in the UFC where we don't see a guy for a while or a girl for a while, depending on how they feel about their contract. I think all of these UFC contracts, because of the idea that you could be cut tomorrow and not fulfill your agreement,

doesn't really change how I feel about whether it's four fights or eight fights. Ultimately, it's one fight every single time. And then you're subject to maybe renegotiate if you have the clout, if you have the power that somebody like John Jones or Sean O'Malley has. So, yeah, on paper, this is eight fights and it's at this rate. But ultimately, depending on how high Sean O'Malley climbs, and you mentioned John Jones, how John Jones ultimately plays out, I think there's some wiggle room down the line for them to figure out a way to re-leverage that and hold the UFC for more money.

Last thing, last bit of news that was announced by Dana White. Even with the announcement you made last week, UFC 287, the big fights, Alex Pereira versus Israel Addisonia 2, and then the Jorge Mazel, Gilbert Burns fight. We still didn't get the answer to the question that we really wanted. Where the hell is this card going to take place? And we've been reporting for about a month now. It was either Brooklyn, MSG, or Miami, and Miami became sort of the frontrunner,

UFC kind of with a little flub teasing Miami last week and then telling me specifically that that's not the case. but it is going down in Miami. Jorge Mazadol is going to fight in Miami against Gilbert Burns, and we get Pereira versus Adasania in Miami. First, I don't even remember the last time the UFC was in Miami. This is a very big deal for them. I feel like this is the right spot,

especially with Mazadol being on the card. You got to do it in Miami. I think this is the perfect place to do it. Stinks for the New York fans, I get it, but they'll be back in November, not the end of the world. I feel like Miami's the perfect place. What's saying? Yeah, nothing else to add there.

This was where it had to be, and there's no surprise that they were, targeting it as the reporting was going. This or New York would you know both of those locations are metropolitan cities that can really fill an arena but to have Jorge Mazvedal in Miami and even Gilbert Burns and a lot of the fighters who are from Florida or train in Florida are from Florida is massive and it makes a lot of sense and it's it's a perfect venue you you mentioned last time I don't know the last time they were there but the last pay-per-view per tweet from our friend Ariel Hawani last UFC paper view in Miami

UFC 42 in April 2003 the broadcast team for this event Joe Rogan as play by play Phil Barone as color analyst so this is a time machine into

another dimension I'm not sure when they were last in South Florida generally but last pay per view was a literal lifetime ago so holy smokes yeah it's been a while Wow. Yeah, just hearing those names altogether.

Yeah, it's giving me feelings right now, and not great ones if we're being honest. So that's that. I see a lot of comments coming in. The good news is, my friends, 515 p.m. Eastern, myself and Jedm. Heshoe are going to be back on this here channel. We're going to have the People's Pre-Fight Show for Bellator 290 and UFC Vegas 68. And usually we just kind of blow the doors off of everything. Like we can talk about those two cards, but then you guys can ask us about anything. So we will get your reactions to all of this.

We'll pull them up on screen. We'll discuss it a little bit more because we got to get out of here. It's a long day. We got to get ready for this long night of mixed martial arts action. And 5.15 p.m. Eastern, Jed and I will be back here to take all of your questions about those two cards, this news and everything else going on. So New York, Rick, I appreciate you hopping in on short notice. You are the man. I appreciate everybody tuning in right now.

Everybody listening after the fact on the podcast network right here on YouTube back at 515 p.m. Eastern. and appreciate it for New York, Rick. I am Mike Heck. We'll see you in a little while. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.