MMA Fighting - Reaction | Francis Ngannou Now Free Agent, Jones vs. Gane Title Fight Set, Strickland Shines On Short Notice

Episode Date: January 15, 2023

Francis Ngannou is officially a free agent, and a new heavyweight champion will be crowned on March 4 as Dana White confirmed that Jon Jones will return at UFC 285 to face Ciryl Gane for the vacant title in the main event. Additionally, Sean Strickland went out to the octagon on less than a week's notice and defeated the surging Nassourdine Imavov in the main event of the UFC's first card of 2023. Where does Strickland go from a huge short notice win? Following UFC Vegas 67, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Shaheen Al-Shatti react to the Jones vs. Gane fight, Strickland's victory, Dan Ige's incredible walk-off KO against Damon Jackson, Umar Nurmagomedov's frightening finish of Raoni Barcelos in the main card opener, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Shaun Al-Shatti: @ShaunAlShatti 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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All right. I think we are alive, ladies and gentlemen. It has been a chaotic and hectic road to get to this show right here. UFC Vegas 67 is in the books. Sean Strickland gets the job done on short notice against Nasrudeen-Embovoff. First event for 2023 for the Ultimate Fighting Championship is now a thing of the past. And I would love to just come on here and talk about just the gusto of Sean Strickland and what he did tonight against a very game, Nassardine Imbovoff.

But we just can't right now because we have breaking news. And a lot of it, ladies and gentlemen, a lot of it because chaos, has reigned supreme in 2023, why wouldn't the first post-fight show be chaotic as well? And if you guys already heard this diatribe, I apologize. But if you haven't, you're going to hear it. Even if you did, you're going to kind of hear it again. So you may be aware of this, but for those who just jumped on here and you're like, what happened in the world of MMA today? Right around 4 p.m. Eastern, Casey and I are doing the People's Pre-Fight Show,

and we see an image and some videos. Outside T-Mobile Arena, and there's a billboard, there you see it right there, promoting John Jones versus Cyril Gahn for the World Heavyweight Championship at UFC 285 on March 4th. And that sent the M-May community into a frenzy. And we had seen other reports that the fight has been finalized, which by all accounts was not true. It was not 100% done yet. It was kind of the frontrunner heading in the right direction. Didn't get announced during the broadcast.

so people are wondering what the hell is going on. Dana White goes up, sits down at the press conference, and reveals that that is in fact true. John Jones versus Cyril Gahn will fight March 4th in the main event of UFC 285. And it will be for the vacant heavyweight championship of the world. And you may be thinking to yourself, self, what happened to Francis Ngano?

Isn't he the champion? The answer to that question is no. Dana White also revealed that Francis Ngano is stripped of the title. no longer the UFC heavyweight champion. And in fact, he is no longer a UFC heavyweight. He is free and clear. He can sign with anybody he wants. There's no match period.

There's nothing like that. He can literally sign with Bellator, PFL one. He can go box Tyson Fury tomorrow if he wants to. He is gone from the UFC. And on March 4th, we will have a brand new UFC heavyweight champion to either be the returning John Jones, who by the time he steps inside the cage, It'll be over three years since he defeated Dominic Reyes,

and he will fight Cyril Ghan for the chance to become a champion in two different divisions. Holy cow, this wouldn't be 2023 without just absolute craziness. Anyways, I am Mike Eck and joining me to react to all this chaos, somewhat for the second time, is my main man. She, you know, Shuddy. Hey, I mean, listen, if we can't have fun with chaos, what good are we at the end of the day? but Sean, again, and if people already heard this, I'm just going to throw it at you again.

Sure. I mean, just a multitude of massive news to react to. Not to mention that Leon Edwards versus Kamara Usman, the trilogy fight is official for London. He announced that. We already confirmed that Justin Gaici versus Raphael Fiziv is also official for London, but this news is absolutely bananas.

John Jones versus Siraghan, massive fight, super fascinating. This is a huge deal. But what's the bigger takeaway for you? the fact that John Jones is fighting and he's fighting Cyril Ghan and not Francine Gano or that Francine Gano isn't fighting anybody in the UFC anymore because he is gone. Yeah, Mike, it wouldn't be 2023 if we didn't have some kind of chaos. And now we've just had layers upon layers upon layers of chaos. So apologies to everyone.

If you've already seen us do these first five minutes, our stream's got a little cross there. Apologies again, technical difficulties. But yeah, Mike, I mean, the answer to me, at least in this. immediate, you know, trying to process everything as it's happening. It's Francis and Gano not being in the, in the UFC heavyweight division anymore, right? Like him being a free agent is so unprecedented just on on levels upon which we, like, it's just crazy to think that the baddest man in the world, the UFC heavyweight champion, basically just picked up the belt, walked home and is now on the open market, testing his wares. And the number one heavyweight

in the world is just not going to be in the UFC anymore. That is a very bizarre place to be. We haven't been in that place in a long, long time, not since Fador was demolishing people out there in Japan has the number one heavyweight in the world not been under the UFC umbrella. So to me, I mean, it's definitely, that's the biggest takeaway right now, right? Because the UFC had this guy, this homegrown guy, Francis Ngano, an all-time fumbling of what should have been a transcendent superstar for them. You draw up a heavyweight to be your heavyweight champion. He looks like Francis Ingan.

He acts like Francis Ingan. and he fights like Francis and Gano. He has the death touch like that man. They had this man right here, and then this relationship was allowed to fester and reach a point where Dana White says tonight that the UFC offered Francis a deal that would have made him

the highest paid heavyweight in the history of the promotion, which, you know, what does that exactly mean? We don't know. But either way, the fact that Francis turned it down, we heard this from the beginning of last year, from really since the gone fight, the serial gone fight,

with everything Francis has, been saying that this is about respect for him now. This was no longer about money, that this was about respect. The fact that this relationship was allowed to fester to the point where Francis turned down that sort of money and that sort of opportunity is just immensely disappointing and sad to me because the John Jones fight was my most anticipated fight of 2023. We did all sorts of prediction features, look ahead features for 2023. And every single one of them I said that Francis Ngano versus John Jones was the single fight that I was most looking forward to this year because it had so many different historical ramifications,

but also it's just one of those fights that you put it up on the poster, and it sells itself, right? Like you have Francis de Gano, guy who looks great getting off the bus, massive knock art artists, fighting a guy who I think many believe to be one of the greatest fighters of all time, if not the single greatest fighter of all time,

testing himself in a way that we have been hearing he was going to test himself for over a decade now, but not really believing him ever that he would do it. And now it was right here. It was right here in the fact that we aren't going to get that fight, that is supremely disappointing to me. This is the Pete Carroll Seattle Seahawks versus the Patriots Super Bowl moment

where they're at like the three yard line and it's easy to just run the ball and instead they're going to try to do something tricky and throw the ball and then you know, interception happens. Seahawks fans get let down Patriots fans celebrate and I don't know who the Patriots fans are in this equation and I don't know who the Seahawks fans are in these equations

but if you are i mean i'm telling you john if this all is true and if dana white's getting up in front of a live microphone saying this franzangano is a free agent we're not wasting any time here pfl's already putting out little gifts of hulk hogan as it with the nw o colors playing the guitar on the on the heavyweight title belts elitore needs to get on the phone like this is not this is blank check time and this might be like multiple blank checks like pick a card any card pick them all and just write a dollar figure, this free agency, this time next week, it should be over, right? Like, we're not messing around here. We got to get this man on the phone. Deal should be happening as we speak. Should they not?

I mean, I'm sure that people, a lot of people are on the phone right now, or at least trying to find numbers of people to call to get on the phone. I don't know. I would be a little surprised if this happens quickly, though. I mean, it seems like Francis was pretty blindsided by this. Everything I'm hearing was he didn't release. There were a lot of decisions. made quickly tonight, if I could say that. But, I mean, man, not since the old days, right, the days of BJ Penn, where have we seen a sitting UFC champion just waltz right out of the UFC with the belt? That is just such a crazy scenario to even contemplate, right?

Because for so long, we had all these contractual language, the matching, the champions clause, et cetera, et cetera, that were keeping these guys, these champions locked in. And also just the idea that if you're the champion of the UFC, you're. you're the best in the sport, more or less in that weight division. Where else are you going to go, right? Like where else is going to be some better opportunity, some more money, some better competition, et cetera? Like, that just didn't exist for so long.

And the fact that not only has this happened now where we've seen an actual UFC champion just say, hey, you know what, like, I'm cool guys. It's not me, it's you. I'm good. Like, I'm going to take my services elsewhere. But to see it happen to a heavyweight, right? Like, that's the marquee division in all of combat sports. The baddest man on the planet.

That is a title given to. who the greatest heavyweight in a given sport, in a combat sport. Like that is a different level. It's different if a featherweight comes out here and walks out with the belt. But for Francis Ngano, the heavyweight champion, who rightful, the rightful heavyweight champion, right?

The guy who smokes steep amyotich and then just demolish, like not demolished, but beat the guy who is about to fight now for this belt, Cyril gone on one leg essentially with his lesser skills, right? The wrestling. Like he didn't use his bread and butter to win that fight. The fact that he's now the one who's out here now applying his trade on the open market,

like this is going to be one of the biggest bidding wars we've ever seen. We said this last year when it came to Nate Diaz, right, that this is going to be one of the most coveted, highly paid free agents we've just ever seen in combat sports, or at least in MMA. I think Francis might eclipse that because Nate Diaz is one thing, right? Nate Diaz has the fame from the Connor McGregor series, from the Mazvedal, like, shine, like all of these different things that Nate has done. He has made himself a genuine mainstream stripper star.

Francis Angano is the best. heavyweight in the world. And I cannot say that enough. And he is in his prime right now. Like we have not seen an ounce of decline from Francis Aganu at all. Like you could, if you're Bellator, if you're PFL, if you're rising, if you're one championship, if you're misfits boxing, if your MVP boxing promotions, whoever it is, you can sign him tomorrow and instantly claim we have the best heavyweight in the world right here, an absolute monster. Go look him up. He's a beast. And you can just market that instantly. And people will pay attention and want to see what's going on with it.

Like this is, again, just such a crazy set of circumstances. And the fact that I keep going back to it, but the all-time fumbling by the UFC to allow this relationship to fester to the point where this man turned down, whatever this, you know, richest contract in UFC heavyweight history, whatever that means, the fact that he was able, he got to a point just within himself of, you know what, like, I don't care what the money is. I'm going to go out there and find some opportunity for myself and really it's just all about respect. that's just a it's unprecedented we just have not seen that in the modern era and so there's so many different elements to this right like again i'm sad we couldn't see ingano jones i'm excited to

finally see john jones in heavyweight and i'm sure we'll talk about that in a bit this is a man who's been teasing this for so long but overwhelmingly it's just the fact that the number one heavyweight in the world is kind of just out there doing whatever he wants now man like if he wants to if tyson feari still wants to do that francis gano can go do that if francis agonno just wants to go fighting Risen and do some weird circus match. He can go do that. He can do anything he wants now. And that's just a scenario we really have not been able to even contemplate for any type

of person of Francis Stature for really the entire modern era of the O.C. MMA is such a weird sport, Sean. And reactions to things like this are always super fascinating to me because I've seen it all. I've seen it all. I've seen everything from, oh, Francis is leaving because he doesn't want to fight John, which is just absolutely ridiculous. I can tell you that for a fact.

Of course, yeah. Dana White is saying, Francis wants to make more money but fight lesser competition. So that's kind of the middle ground. And then there's the other end, which is like kind of what you're saying, respect to this man for just standing on his own two feet

and just telling the UFC to shove it, just kind of taking them along for the ride. And then when it came down to crunch time, he just said thanks, but no thanks. And just strung him along for a year. that didn't strip him of the title or anything like that. And then he just leaves with the title essentially. He's like a lundra blaze in this situation.

You could take that title to Bellator and drop it in the trash if he wants to. It would be a cool-ass moment. So come like Monday Tuesday Wednesday, but can you imagine? I'm sorry to interrupt you. But can you imagine if that happens? Like that's, I'm not a big wrestling guy.

I'm not a big wrestling historian. But I'm pretty sure that was like a WWE WCW storyline, right? Of someone showing up and dropping the belt in the trash can. Like, can you imagine? Imagine if Francis just showed up on this big Bellator CBS debut with his UFC heavyweight title and just threw it on the ground and started stomping on it and making it a scene like that that's possible now, man. The fact that that's possible is just, again, mind-blowing to a degree if you have been around

this sport and in this sport and in this space watching this over the last decade or two, like that is just not a scenario that could even be something we could fathom until very recently. And Francis is the one that pushed this issue, right? He's the one who found this contractual clause that was able to escape from the champions clause that no one else really ever could or had the willpower to do. Just crazy. You blew my mind, Mycac right there when you just laid that out because that's absolutely something that can happen now. CBS, imagine network television on freaking CBS. First time a CBS MMA event happens.

Ballotaur, get this done. This would be such a massive move for you to get him over there. Holy cow. but it's just incredible to think about. So like obviously this just happened and people are just giving their initial reactions right now, but say, you know, Monday, May hour ends Tuesday, Wednesday, whatever. By the time we get to Thursday, what do you feel is going to be like the resounding reaction for the MMA community? Is this going to be we're blaming the UFC for this?

Is it going to be we're giving Francis all the credit in the world for standing his ground and just saying, I'm out? or like what do you think the what do you think the majority of the MA community is going to be saying about this after we take a few extra days to digest this all I mean come on Mike like you know you've been in this space for long enough like you you kind of understand the way these narratives gets shaped and the way that the UFC is able to exert its narrative control over a level of the fan a certain segment I would say of the fan base a vocal segment of the fan base who probably the same segment of the fan base has been defending Dana White for the past several weeks, right? Like at some point, I would imagine the resounding narrative

from a lot of people will be, well, Francis was afraid. Francis didn't want to fight the best competition. Francis, et cetera, et cetera, like he's just a coward who ran away. As if this man didn't just, you know, demolish Depe, beat Cyril gone on one leg, call for like two years for this John Jones fight and just

the entire time, just be basically begging and pleading them to just make this fight. That's obviously, basically ridiculous. That's that's not, there's no basis in anything. And if you hear somebody say that, you should immediately just know that, hey, like, I can't really, that person's opinion kind of sucks, and I should just maybe not listen to them about anything else when it comes to this sport. Right. Like, that's just a bad opinion. And you know, it's going to become very prevalent over the next week or two, next month or two as the UFC continues to, you know, do the UFC thing and spin this in the

UFC way. And then all of a sudden in March, we're looking at Cyril Gone versus John Jones. And let's say John Jones looks really good in that fight and wins the heavyweight title. and then all of a sudden there will be a massive campaign of, well, John Jones was the best heavyweight this whole time. Like, let's forget about that massive Cameroonian man who was demolishing people before him. Like, let's not worry about that. So, yeah, I mean, that's how it's going to be spun. But the real, the real, like, actual way that someone should look at this, right,

is immense respect for Francis and Gano for having the principals to stick to this, right? Especially if all this money was getting flashed in his face, which it seems like, you know, to some degree it was, to be able to stick to your principles and really, again, for self-respect and say, you know, this is not about money. This is about something bigger. And I want to make this about something bigger. Like that is a level of just like, I don't know the word, the words escaping me at the moment,

but to be able to take that leap into the unknown in a way that no UFC champion really ever has, or at least not since the old days of like BJ Penn walking out with the title, right? Like you can have, there is no other answer than to have ultimate, ultimate respect for Francis Agano for taking it this far. That being said, I can't help myself. Mike, I'm really disappointed. We're not getting this John Jones fight.

Like, I'm really disappointed. We're not getting Francis and Gunno versus John Jones. That to me is just so, I'm not going to keep harping on it. But that was just, that was it. That was the money fight. Like, that was just the fight for so much legacy, so much everything stakes all of it. It's a bummer that we're not going to get it. And by the time John Jones is finally here making this heavyweight debut,

I think the hardest challenge for him would have been Francis. And that's gone. So it's just, there's so many layers to it. I'm getting disappointed and excited as I'm talking in real time. We're all processing this. So we've used the word chaos a lot this year. And I think another word that kind of rings true, especially after hearing what you just had to say,

was irony. Like there have been a lot of ironic moments that have happened this year. We're not going to mention the Dana thing, but that's obviously one of them. It's kind of ironic now, isn't it? Because John Jones, after three years, is about to make his heavyweight debut, waiting for this for so long.

He's going to fight for the heavyweight title in his first fight. And in a weird and strange way, he's almost the Daniel Cormier in this situation. After Daniel Cormier, right? Like it's so strange to think about because Daniel Cormier would win the belt. And he never really got the praise for it because he never beat John. He didn't beat the best guy because John, for whatever reason, wasn't around or he got stripped of the belt or whatever. And D.C. became the champion and whatever. And now the number one heavyweight in the world is gone.

It's different reasons, but if John goes out there and just bolts zero gone, they can be like, oh, John Jones is back, but he didn't beat Francis and maybe it doesn't hold as much weight. It's just such a weird year, Sean. It's such a weird year. It's such a weird year. But again, I just, I know, I know that we're going to start to see a lot of Nate Diaz comparisons in the next couple of days. To me, there is some merit to that, but also these are so vastly different because Nate Diaz is such a short, short, short, short. shelf life on that, right? Like, if you get an idea,

is he's way older into his career, I believe he's like 38 years old, something like that, you probably got him for like one or two really good big fights, right? Like you can pull off, you know, a couple of boxing fights, maybe an MMA fight here or there. That's only going to last so long. Francis Agano was the UFC heavyweight champion

this morning, like he was the rightful, he's the number one heavyweight in the world on our website, on the UFC's rankings, he was the number of website in the world, maybe still is right now. I don't know how quickly they update that stuff. on every other website, he is the number one heavy way in the world. Like this could last if you're Bellator, if you're PFL and you get Francis right now,

or one championship or whatever, you can have that guy for the next four or five years of his career. And he could be that person for you for a half decade. Like Francis, we've seen in the heavyweight division the way that these heavy weights age compared to other divisions, right? Like Francis has a lot of time left. And especially, you know, he's not fighting very often. and like he will be able to do this for a bit. Alster Overeignyam is still out here, like getting offers from people.

Like, Francis and Gano could still be that guy for a very long time. It's just, it's a crazy, crazy set of circumstances that has led us to this moment. But oh my God, the opportunity now for other promotions, for boxing, whatever, it's just nuts. It's just crazy to think about, Mike. What's crazy to also think about is, by the way, I am fascinated by this John Jones-Sierrogan fight.

Like, if we weren't getting Francis, like Steve-Bee was obviously, see a big name and that'd be like a really cool fight very nostalgic fight with two of those guys but from a stylistic perspective jeez louise i think this fight's a ton of fun and i'm curious to get your thoughts on this because we had opening lines when this thing was kind of a rumor and now that it's announced we have line movement one site as of right now has cyril gone as a minus 175 favorite getting closer to minus 200 against john jones it comes back a plus 145 are you surprised by this or Or is this kind of what you expected?

No, I don't know that I am surprised because actually the way that these lines have worked, John came out initially. He was the opening favorite. And that got bent down very, very quickly to now he is, I believe, the underdog, but like you just said, and that makes more sense to me

because I know he's John Jones and I think that's ultimately what a lot of people are going to go back to, right? It's like, hey, it's John Jones. Like, this is John Jones. Like, that's all you can have to say, right? Like, it is John Jones. He's one of the greatest fighters we've ever seen.

But the truth of the matter is, like, John Jones hasn't looked like John Jones for a pretty long time at this point, right? Like his last two fights at Light Heavyweight, I think a lot of people think he didn't win either of them. I certainly didn't have him winning the Dominic Reyes fight. That, to me, is one of the biggest robberies in MMA history and just generally one of the biggest, you know, sliding doors moment in MMA history where it's almost the GSP Johnny Hendricks, where this guy was deprived of this legendary moment of beating this all-timer when he really rightfully should have had it. I had John winning the Tiago Santos fight, but he did not look spectacular there either. I mean, if you're barely getting by Tiago Santos, who has no knees and can barely walk at certain points in those fight, like, you're not the John Jones of old. So I can understand people having some reservations about how this is going to go for John.

I mean, Serogon is very much a natural heavyweight, whereas John had to blow up two heavyweight to reach this point. We've seen John win in the past when he gained a lot of weight after one of his many transgressions and then came back and fought Ovin St. Prue and just generally didn't look very good with all the extra weight, like he looks sluggish. I think it's a very real concern whether that's going to be the case again now. And I mean, we've been hearing how big he is for a year, right?

Like he was 265 a couple months ago people were saying. So he's going to be a very, very big boy in there. How is that going to affect his general skill set and his natural abilities in terms of speed, timing, etc., etc. Also, he's just been out of the cage for a very long time, ring rust, all of that. I think the Don matchup to me is an interesting matchup because we just saw Cyril Gone lose because of someone's wrestling.

And I don't know that anyone's going to confuse Francis Inganu for Daniel Cormier out there anytime soon. Like that is obviously a very big hole in Francis and Gano's game. John Jones is for all he is. He is a very good wrestler. So that is a path there for him. So that makes this matchup a little more compelling. And I low-key kind of wish they would have gone Curtis Blades or something like that. because that to me is a much more interesting stylistic matchup.

Like Curtis is a giant man, and I would have loved to see that matchup, but obviously Curtis was never going to get that opportunity from the UFC. But, I mean, that's ultimately like the way all this has come about is a bummer in another way in that it makes this John Jones moving to heavyweight finally being a reality. Like it makes that news so secondary to everything else, right? Whereas that should be giant news. We've been waiting for this. This dude was saying he's going to move to heavyweight in like 2013, right?

Like this has been something on just the MMA populace's mind forever. And it feels like we're finally going to see it come to fruition. And it's just like this footnote to this weird night where all these other things are just going on. That's a bit of a bummer. But either way, yeah, I mean, I'm extremely fascinated to see how John Jones is going to perform at heavyweight. Like this is, again, one of the greatest fighters of all time. And he is actually testing himself in a way that we have not seen John Jones testing himself in what? five years, six years, seven years.

It's been a long time since we have seen something like this from John. I'm here for it. It's just a bummer. It's not against Francis. And a big, a big, I'm sorry goes out to the world to Curtis Blades because a man who amongst reports for this whole thing was kind of the on-deck batter in early reports for this. Like if they couldn't do Francis versus John, they were going to do John versus Curtis

Blades, some of the initial reports. But now with all this. Francis leaves and it feels like the door opens a little bit more for him. And now he's going to have to fight freaking Sergey Pavlovich. Golly. Oh, God. What a tough, what a tough draw for poor Curtis Blades. But even like that, like you just mentioning Sergey brings another level of disappointment to me, right?

Because Sergey versus Francis had Sergey won another fight or two would have just been awesome. Like that would have just been a ridiculous matchup to hear about. And the heavyweight division right now is more fun than it, at the top at least, than it has been in ages, in forever. For so long, this was a division that was hamstrung by these rivalries that would just take forever, play out over years. We were getting one title fight a year, and the contenders really didn't impress, like, all of this. Heavyweight right now, you look at the top, it's better than it has been in a long time. And just, it's very fun. There's just a lot of fun stuff going on.

And I would have loved to see Francis and Gano be able to take on that line of challenges. that we're going to come up, and especially like the Pavlovich's and et cetera, et cetera, John Jones, all of this. And now it's just, you know, maybe we're seeing Francis fight Ryan Bader in a couple of months. Like, this is what we're doing now. But good for Francis. Make your money. Yeah.

I hope he makes a ton of it. He's the easiest freaking guy on planet Earth to market because you don't even, he doesn't have to speak. He's very simple to market. So we'll see what happens. I'm sure Francis will be, who knows, maybe. Maybe he'll be speaking with Ariel sometime in the next several days. And we get to hear his side of the story because there are two sides to every story.

We hear Dana's side and we've heard from Cyril Ghan and we have not heard from Francis and Ghani yet. So we'll see what he has to say. It's the matcha or the three ensemble Cado Cephora of the FACTS that I just just niche that me energize o'clock. Hmm, it's the ensemble. The form of standard and mini, regrouped, call on Ben. And the embellage, too beau, who is practically pre to donate. And I know that I'd ever give them.

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Shop now at IKEA.ca.ca. slash Black Friday. IKEA, bring home to life. Man, what a newsday. We get this fight. Francis gone. Oospen Edwards 3 is official for London. We got freaking Justin Gaiji versus Raphael Fiziv,

which is just the best. I'm so excited. Can I jump in? because I know we're about to start talking about UFC Vegas 4506 or whatever this was. I don't want you to gloss over what you just said about Viziv versus Justin Gagic, because we've been saying for so long

with this lightweight division, just begging and pleading for the UFC to do the thing. Just do the thing. You see, please match one of these up-and-coming young contenders up against the old guard that's been sort of just fighting each other forever at 155. And it finally happened. They did the thing, Mike.

Like this is another thing that's getting lost on this crazy. on this crazy day. They did the thing. They did the thing. I can't wait for this fight. This is an amazing fight. Happy and Viziv has deserved this opportunity for such a long time. And now he's finally getting it.

And hopefully this just opens the floodgates and me is more of an omen, portending more to come of these dudes being forced to fight downward now. Like Michael Chandler needs to fight Armant-Ru-Serukian or whoever else coming up, right, a Jalen Turner. Like, let's make these dudes start fighting downwards. And if this is the sign that that's about what's about to happen, that is cause for celebration on a level that like I don't know like I'm just I'm very excited that's all I can say I'm running out of steam on that but I'm very very excited by this announcement do the thing do the thing just do the thing they did the thing they did the thing they did the thing they did the thing by resigning AJ McKee and doing a lightweight Grand Prix like everyone's starting to do the thing it took a while but everyone's starting to do the thing and that's all we asked for we try to keep it simple so let's talk about UFC Vegas 67. Sean Strickland, short notice, jumps in there with Nasardine Imovov. And a lot of people,

Shaheen, if you listen to the preview show, we're not giving Sean Strickland much of a chance here. They thought Nasdaen Emuvoff, and we're all very high on him. They thought Emavov would get the job done and it wouldn't be all that difficult. But Strickland is just so tough to fight. He just comes forward. He's just awkward in so many ways. The volume doesn't stop. Three days notice. three months known as it doesn't matter. He doesn't slow down. He doesn't get tired. That volume just keeps on going and keeps on going.

And honestly, I actually thought Emovoff, for a lot of the fight, looked pretty good. I thought he moved around a little bit, but I think he just got a little bit frustrated. Like, he thought he might have had Strickland's timing at certain points, and Strickle would mix it up beautifully and throw him off his game a little bit.

Super impressive stuff from Sean Strickland, bouncing back from that cannoneer, loss and coming back. And that was actually, a pretty fun fight. What did you think of Strickland's performance in the first UFC main event of the year? Yeah, what a night of conflicting emotions for France, MMA, right? Like, geez, one guy gets pushed into such a crazy opportunity and then the other, your other guy is just falling flat like this. Yeah, this felt like somewhat of a reality check for Nasredin Nemov, right? Because I think this is someone that we have talked about him, like we have talked about a half-eel Fiziv to backtrack a little bit or a Jalen Turner. Like he is that sort of guy at middleweight. that up-and-comer that no one should want to fight, that up-and-comer who had felt like he was inevitable

to be in these title conversations, and then he just ran into someone tonight that he just couldn't figure out. Sean Strickland, with his pace, forward pressure, and just non-stop in your faceness, like he had, he had Imovov pretty baffled at various points in that fight, and he just couldn't figure out how to get past it.

And that really is. I mean, that's the veteran test that we've been waiting to see for Nasardine, but also this is a career-saving night in a way for it, for Sean Strickland. Because if he had lost two in a row, and then especially this one where it's someone who is, you know,

not a top five guy, where's Sean Strickland's career go at that point? Because then he's probably just turning into a gatekeeper and he's not thought of as that contender that I think a lot of us still think of a mass. So now he's back in that spot. He's back in that title contention mix to be thrown around amongst these top 10 guys.

But, man, pulling it off on short notice and out carding, I should say out-cardiowing a guy when you were just called in here last second, That's pretty impressive, man. People may like Sean Strickland. People may not like Sean Strickland. There are a lot of reasons for both camps to feel ways they want to feel about this man. But Duke can fight, and he came out here and just had Imovoff absolutely flustered and put

on one of his better performances in the UFC, and you have to give him credit. Absolutely. And a lot of people are wondering, what's the weight difference going to be here? Like, how much impact will have on the fight? And we didn't think it would be too, too much. We figured it would still be like your typical two middleweights fighting at, 205 because of the short notice nature of it. But Strickland weighs in 10 pounds more. It didn't seem like when they were facing off. It was that much of a difference. But man, in this fight,

especially rounds three, four, and five when Strickland was clinching up and putting up against the fence, like Imov had to work his ass off just to get any sort of separation. And then in rounds four and five, he had to do it pretty much the entirety of both of those rounds. And any chance he had, any time he got any offense going, Strickland just tied him up and put him against the fence and made him work a little bit harder. So to me, the weight difference, I don't know if it's like the biggest, most impactful thing that happened in this fight, but down the stretch where Strickland just needed to hang on and win those rounds, it was a huge thing, at least in my eyes.

What did you think? Did you think it made a big impact on this one? No, absolutely. I think you totally just nailed it right there, Mike. And again, credit to Sean. He's a smart fighter out there sometimes with what he's doing. Like, I don't know that marching forward with your chin up in the air against Alex Pereira and choosing to throw hands with him.

I wouldn't call that a smart decision, but then he goes out here on a night like tonight and really flusters, again, someone who I think we were all very high on. So you have to give him credit, especially to be able to do something like this on such short notice, right? Like this was a couple days.

And for him to be able to come in here in a couple days, also, I mean, for Imov to try to plan for Sean Strickland, who is a very awkward fighter and very unusual style. It is not easy style to replicate. For him to have to do that and switch up on such short notice, that's a tough ask for anybody but man i mean again all the credit in the world de sean strickland like he needed this performance bad bad bad bad for his career and he he got exactly what he needed so all's right in the world for him now great win bonuses for tonight no fight of the night

um all performance bonuses alon nasimento who got the first submission of 2023 he'll be a trivia question uh in it for the years to come uh roman copulov who now I can't unsee it. Everyone said he's just a more jacked up version of Chase Hooper. And now I just cannot stop thinking about it. He looks fantastic. It's Punisoriano. He gets a bonus.

Umar and Magamato, who I'm sure we're going to talk about. Of course he got a bonus, but I do want to talk about Mr. 50K himself, Dan Ege, who is in a very interesting spot. Damon Action Jackson, four-fight win streak,

getting this big opportunity to fight a rank guy. Ege coming in, just fighting a murder. murder's row over the last few years coming off three straight losses, including that last one against Ms. of Loya, who is probably going to fight for the Featherweight title in the next two to three years, max.

This guy's an absolute killer. And Ige needed this one. He needed this one bad, and he looked fantastic. And then he just bulls Stamen Jackson with that beautiful left hook. Props to Dan Ege, man. And you could see the emotion just pour off of him. when he was talking to Paul Felder, but Danny gave back on the wind column.

And people who forgot about this, man, he just reminded you that dude is full of fireworks and thunder, especially in that left hand. What did you think of 50K tonight? You got me so excited, Mike. I thought it was Umar time. I thought we were about to move on to Umar and I got really, really stoked for it. We're on deck. It's on deck, I promise.

I know. It's coming. We'll get to there. Yeah, man, talk about saving your career. And again, a win you desperately needed. Dan Ige was in the exact same spot, probably on a lot worse spot than Sean Strickland was coming into tonight. And he really salvaged it the best he possibly could, right?

Because Dan I know he lost three in a row, but you look at the level of competition that this guy has been put up against in the UFC over the past couple of years, ever since he really became someone that I think a lot of people considered a contender. Just look at these last like, I don't even know, seven, eight opponents.

Mercedee, Bectick, Edson Barbosa, Calvin Cater, Chan Sung, Jung, Josh Emmett, Josh Emmett, Josh Emmett, Mowicear Eveloy, and then Damon Jackson, who was on a very nice streak before 4-4 tonight. Like, that's a murderous role, Mike. That's a crazy level of competition to be up against every single time out. So he had been struggling with it, sure, but he is still someone who is, I wouldn't say he's a title considered by any means in this division. But he is not an easy out for anybody. And again, it's so cool when you can see the humanity in the game sometimes, right?

And I think his post-flight interview in particular was a good example of that, just him to speaking about how difficult this is when you identify yourself with your job, with your career. And you're a winner. You're this guy. You're a winner. That's who you are. And then all of a sudden, he just can't seem to find it anymore. The tricks that will play on somebody's mind. He talked about that. And it's a very real thing, man. And for him to be able to come out here and really perform in a make or break back against the wall type of moment, all the credit to him, it was one of the best performances he's had in a long time. And he looks spectacular out there. Mix it continues just get it done for these guys.

He went one and two in the main event in the co-main with Sean Strickland and Dan Iggy as well. So they're doing big things still out there at Extreme Couture and Daniga gets it done. He went one, two, three, actually, because Puna Soriano too. Well, Puna lost, but yeah. I was trying not to mention that. Yeah, I know. But hey, Roman Coppulov got the job done. So speaking to Spectacular, I think there's a new spelling for the word spectacular, Sean,

and I'll let you wax poetically. I think it's now spelled U-M-A-R. Let's go, Mike. Let's go. Get after it. I want to hear from you, too, because, I mean, look, I'm not going to hide it. I'm very, very excited about Ubar Nirmagamadoff. The fact that they're making Nirmagamatov's now who have hands like this,

like that is a scary, scary proposition, right? Like, this is ridiculous. This is not what we have seen from this gentleman very often in his UFC run. He has been submitting people left and right and really confounding people on the ground. But that combination that he ended that fight tonight with was gorgeous. Like I don't know if we'll be talking about that 12 months from now when it comes to knock out of the year. It's probably not. Maybe it'll make a short list of honorable mentions.

But that was spectacular. And it seemed to even surprise Umar. And it feels like we had been waiting for this moment for him to, I don't want to say get tested against a top contender. because I don't think that's what tonight was, but only Barcellos is no one's easy mark. No one is going to be dispatching Barcellos in that way for a while to come. And that looks pretty easy for Umar. Like I would feel comfortable now, confident throwing him against any top 10 guy in this,

in this Bantamweight division and just seeing how things work out. And I would pick him to beat a lot of those guys right now. Like this to me feels like someone who, if not, will absolutely be fighting. for a title, like I think he will, but might just be a future champion in waiting right now. Like the Numergan Madov story, the fact that the Nürgen Madov story is not even close to done yet, just generally on this name and this legacy, include Islam in that as well, if you want to, is just crazy to me. And this newest iteration is extraordinarily exciting.

How could you watch that, Mike, and not get excited, right? So let me just break down the fourth wall here. as you were talking, I'm literally watching a slow motion of the finish over and over again. It's gorgeous. It is gorgeous. It's gorgeous, but it also like doesn't make any sense. It's just so strange how it happens. Like he lands the left kick and before his foot even hits the ground, he's just like, bink with the left hand.

And then he just falls to the ground. And then Umar lands is just vicious, murderous hammer fist. And then right when he's about to throw it again, he decides, you know what, I'm just going to cradle your head because I just feel so bad for what I just did. Like, it was just a magical, emotional roller coaster of a finish. And I really hope this one doesn't get forgotten when it comes to the year end awards because just so much happened in that like six second stretch that I just respect the hell out of. Just everything from the strikes to the vicious hammer fist because the referee just didn't get in there in time to just cradling his head. afterwards. I mean, just just gives he chills. Like I've literally watched it

15 times in a row and it's just I still don't get it. I still don't understand it and how he did that with such power. Like how that little left hand without his foot even being on the ground just knocked him dead like that. It's just crazy to think about this guy is a problem. I can't wait for on to the next one tomorrow because I have a matchup that people are going to think I'm absolutely insane to throw out into the universe. but I'm telling you, I feel very confident that this fight will come together. Hold on. You can't just throw that out there with a tease like that.

Give us a little taste. Give us a little slice. His name. All right. His name starts with an M and it ends in Rob DeWallish Willie. Let's go. There you go. That's the one. Because. Book the fight, Mike Heck. Let's go. It's weird because it almost spoils an interview that I did with Ricky Simone

because I felt like that was the fight. They were just going to do Ricky and Marab the rematch because the story was there. And we see what the matchmaking looks like right now. A lot of the young hungry whippersnappers, unlike lightweight, are getting their shots at some of these bigger names who are at the top of this division. We're seeing it with Adrian Yannas and Rob Fon

and some of these other guys. Like there's just nobody else available for Simone or anybody else. and that one makes sense, but I just feel like Umar just, in whatever way he did that finish, which still doesn't make sense, as I'm still watching it in slow motion. I can see you.

I can't see you watching it. I can't take my eyes off of it, but I think he's going to get the big fight. And those are two guys that nobody else wants to get in there and fight. Like, no one's going to be like, oh, I'm happy to fight Barab. Ooh, Umar and Amaga made off. Yes.

Sign me up. Give me a pen. None of that's going to happen. So I just think they're just going to chuck those two dudes in there together. Maybe March 4th. Who knows? It was hilarious tonight when he called for March, right? Like, hey, I want to get back in here really soon.

I need March. I don't see many volunteers out there at 135, just jumping on that opportunity to go fight this guy in a couple of months. Like, that's going to be met with resounding crickets. But I am way here for the Marab matchup, because Marab's kind of just existing right now in this division, right? Like, he's not going to fight for the title, as long as Aljo's that guy.

He's just sort of clogging it up if he's going to, that's the space. he's going to take. Why not just throw a guy like Kumar against him? Like I think that's fantastic. I don't think that's too much too soon at this point. I've seen, I needed going into tonight, I needed to be sold a little bit more.

I needed to see a little bit more and be convinced that this is someone who's ready. Again, I don't think anybody's doing anything like that to Honi Bacoselos again anytime soon. I am sold now. I think he's ready. I think you can throw him in there against him Arab and he will, you know, he will meet the moment.

I'm here for it. I like that, Mike. You're pretty good at this match. making thing. Maybe you should do a show about it. That's pretty good. Yeah, I think I'll call, I'll call my best friend AK. And maybe, I think he's got some good ideas too. So, um, and spoiler alert when it comes to Umar, uh, stay tuned for the next MMA fighting ranking show, because I have a feeling Jed Mishu will probably have Umar number one or number two. So get ready for that. Uh, good win for Raquel Pennington, split decision, super close fight. No robbery there. Uh, we'll see

what happens. I have an interesting idea. Maybe she gets a title shot. Maybe she doesn't. Jabid Basharat. I'm sorry. I see a comment on here. He basically saying Rob, you should get punished for what he did to Jose Aldo, and this is the punishment. That's probably. I can't disagree. Let's say that.

Yes. Javid Basharat, that's another guy who we got to keep an eye on at 135. He looked spectacular. He looked against Mattias Mandank, who's a really good fighter. So Javid Basharat called out Chris Gutierrez. I love that fight. Sign me the hell out for that. Abdul Razak al-Hassan just out there

just popping like wrestling D1 Abdul Razak al-Hassan made an appearance and he was like that was not as fun as I thought it was going to be so I'm just going to start chucking bombs again and knocks out Claudia Ribero Matush Rebecca is just that dude is a tank

props to Nick Fiore New Englander just hanging in there just trying to tough it out but he was just fighting a beast Alon Nassimento we mentioned Daniel Argetta gets a win and then Charles Johnson kicks off 2023 with the first victory and the first finish of the year. Finishing Jimmy Flick, the comeback story takes a bit of a sad turn, but we'll see how Jimmy Flick bounces back. So that's UFC Vegas 76.

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Stop wondering. Start gifting. Winners find fabulous for less. Let's take a couple questions from the peeps because there's a lot to unpack. I'm exhausted after just running this down, which for those who aren't aware, that's probably the third time we ran down some of this stuff. Let's do it one more time. I like it.

It felt good. Let's this is not a dry run. Let's do it for real one. This is the best one. This is the best one. I'm going to press your cord now. All right. Here we go, guys.

Real quick before we get to fan questions, because I don't think anybody's going to ask about this because it's thoroughly the most uninteresting division in all of M.A. And it's not even close. You, I know, you rep it and you defend it, Casey. So I get it. No. You know, like it's uninteresting.

Does Raquel Pennington now basically have to get this a man in Noon's title? shot, right? Because it's between her and Rayna Aldana, right? Like, those are now at this point with Ketland-Vier are out of the equation. Pena. Those are the two people. But does, do people want to see the Pena trilogy yet? Does anyone I want to see any?

Does people want to see anything? Yes. We want to see our fight Valentina Shepchenko. That's who want to see. But look, I would do it away. I would do El-Donna. Yeah, I'll just give it away. The fight to make is Raquel Pennington versus Juliana Pena. That is a legit number one contender fight.

Those two have history, both being on the same season of the ultimate fighter. Raquel Pennington, just go back and listen to any time she's asked about Giuliana Pena. They are not friends. They're not buddies. She has nothing nice to say about Giuliana Pena. So just do that fight. And if Juliana wins, she gets her trilogy fight. And if Raquel Pennington wins, she gets her title fight.

And if Amanda wants to go fight a Rini Aldana, cool. She wants to go up to 145 and not cut weight and just truck over Norma Dubon. sure if she wants to fight valentina shovchenko woohoo that's what we want but a manna can just fight anybody at this point and it's just it's just Amanda we just want to see her fight I just he want to fight

Nunez Adana is the fight I want to see but I don't I don't think anyone really has like they've earned it you know or they deserve it the most it's just throw someone in there and let's see what happens and I'm glad we got to

I'm glad we got a decent fight from the lady 35ers and, you know, I hope. I'm glad we got a fight. A fight, a fight. It had been a really long time since we had a women's band and weight fight in the UFC. Jed's been on this. I think it's like September or October since the last 85 days or something. Yeah, it was an outrageous amount of time since we had. And think about there were two top five ranked fighters and they fought behind

Soriano and Russian Chase Hooper. I forgot his name. And those guys are like top 30. I don't know. And there were two top five fighters and they're still behind them. And the card. That's just how you see and just fans just think of the ladies 35's vision right now. And that's just unfortunate.

It's really a perfect embodiment of how I think the pulse of 135 is just generally within the space, right? Because I'll be honest, it took me a good minute and a half. after Raquel won to remember that she had already fought a man Anun's like, Anun is like five years ago. Like I'd actually forgotten that that fight happened. Like that's the state of this division right now. It is just so uninteresting. And I wish it could be interesting. And I wish that the talent was there coming up like it is at 115 and 125 where you have so many great prospects coming up at flyweight in strawweight, right?

Like it's just so many interesting things could happen in those divisions. And then 35 is like the same cast of characters over and over and over and over again, except it's not even over and over again because they don't actually have fights anymore. Like it's just like three fights a year for this division. So, yeah. 35 is so crazy because it was the premier division. And I would honestly say worldwide,

35 is a worst division than 45. They should just combine them. They really, yeah, just don't, yeah. Which would actually have no effect. You would get Norma Dumont in there. And that would be the extent of the combination. That's all you got. I like it.

All right. I like it. Good on Raquel, man. Five wins in a row. Good on her. And she's fought some pretty legit competition. So. All right.

But my heart, my heart definitely, as you a little bit of a question, my heart broke for Ketland Vieira the same way it kind of broke for Marina Rodriguez, because both of them had solid arguments to fight for the title, like two wins prior, and neither of them got title shots. And neither of them probably bought that one now. I scored tonight for her. And yeah, you're right. She's going to have to win like seven fights in a row now to win this.

By the way, gentlemen, the UFC doesn't have a champion at heavyweight or light heavyweight currently as we speak. What a world. That's what we're doing. That's what we're doing in 2023. Wow. Yeah. And we don't have a straight undisputed champion at 125 yet. I mean, Davison's the champion, but Moreno's the interim champion.

So that that title isn't even unified yet. and who knows with that rivalry, what the hell will happen there? And mid-35. 15 is going to be interim belt pretty soon, right? Well, let's just take this a step further. The three heaviest champions in the UFC are no one, no one, and Alex freaking Pereira, who this time last year had his best win was, again, I forget this man's name, was over a Greek fella that I can't remember his name.

Andreas Bicholitis. There you go. That was his best win this time last year. That's the state of the UFC champion. divisions in the heaviest classes in the sport right now. And Leon Edwards is the month ofweight champion. After like a Hail Mary, I mean, not Hail Mary, but just it's one of the craziest moments in UFC history.

Yeah. I mean, what time to be alive? We should just meet Alex Pereira, the honorary heavyweight champion and Leon Edwards is the honorary light heavyweight champion right now because they're the heaviest in the second heaviest. So like, that's how it goes, right? And less than a month from right now, Islam Machachev's fighting the featherweight champion. and Alexander Volcanowski for a battle

for pound supremacy. This is just such a chaotic year. And we're going to get the return to John Jones like less than a month after that. Wild. Baddest man on the planet. John Jones has not walked into the cage yet. John, so I remember what you said,

Mike, about this John Jones really fighting it. You're not going to believe it till you see him walking into that cage. So don't get too, don't get too excited. I'm still at a seven. I'm still at a seven. even though there's a fight in a billboard that was produced too early. I'm still at a seven because I'm still there. I have to see him make the walk. I see him in a press conference.

And in the year, we have to remember this, too, that how maybe, who knows if this is the biggest story of the year because it seems like an incredibly big story. It's broken by a billboard? It's broken by a billboard, broken by a freaking intern at T-Mobile Arena who went, hey look at this uh let's just let's put it up there cool you know hey thank you to that intern um if if 20203 has taught me anything it's that there's no consequences

for your actions so that intern gets to live the rest of his life with the knowledge that he messed up and live in shame and that should be good enough let's keep let this man keep his job and there's no punishment that needs to be given to that man i mean he's living with the shame did dana say when they were planning to announce this and uh in his in his scrum tonight because it was leaked so i mean what was this even leaked leaked we let's talk about that yeah yeah i yeah i just oops uh okay is there is there a chance of sudden gana news and jones gone leak is a move to deflect attention from the new year's incident a textbook wag the dog case

on the ufc's return with dana at the presser no i don't know i don't think so like if If they were trying to do that, because one of the first things I thought of when we did, like, reactions to all this is that tomorrow they're going to announce Jones and Gano just to like take our attention elsewhere. And that didn't happen. So I don't think it's that. I just, yeah. Because again, like I have entitled heck of a morning yesterday as what in the world is going to headline UFC 285. We're less than two months away. They had to do something. And both targeted title fights are gone. So they needed to do something. Like Ingano Jones probably wasn't going to happen March 4th. It doesn't look like Al Jemaine Sterling Henry Sohudo is going to happen March 4th. So now you're less than two months away with nothing. And you got to sell tickets and you get to sell pay-per-views, which by the way, that's the first of two paper views for the month of March. So it's going to be tough if you don't have anything there.

So, yeah, I just think it was kind of they were getting to desperation mode and they had to make something happen more than anything. And I think they probably thought in Ghana was a go. and now he's gone. Crazy. One thing I thought was super interesting from the Dana White Scrum was he admitted that these other promoters were going to pay him more money, didn't he? He said, yeah, he'll get more money and fight lesser competition. So he's not even like, he basically admitted, yeah, we're not going to pay him the most money just because we're the biggest organization. I thought that was weird, I guess.

Is it, though, at this point? I know. I know. I just... Like, we all get it. Like, we all understand what this was and what this has been. Like, it's... None of this is surprising. Fight for the UFC for less money, but you get, you know, free backpack and some cool shoes. You get some Reebok gear.

No, no, I'm sorry. You get Venom gear. You get some Venom gear. And some rock shoes. Yeah, whatever. If you need to know... If you need to know how the business structure works, just look no further than when it got to the point where Dana was asked whether or not Cyril Gahn got the same kind of money. And he likes scoff. He goes, no, no, this gets better.

Because he goes, because he goes, no, Cyril's got a deal with us. Like, Francis didn't. And they're like, well, what's John going to do? He goes, oh, we just sign him to a new eight fight contract. I was like, what? Cyril doesn't get a new contract to take this fight. But John Jones gets a new eight fight deal. It was hilarious to go from that.

It's the scoffing. And then, oh, no, John's getting. a new eight-fight contract. He's good. Not even scoffing, but like kind of almost being genuinely perplexed by the question. Like the foundation of the- Almost insulted. Yeah, like, how could you ask such a stupid question?

Because we all know that if France isn't gone, or I'm not, Francis, I can blind it too many. We all know that if Cyril gone had said no, that that billboard would have been saying Curtis Blades fighting John John's like. Sergey Pavvich. Come in Derek Lewis up there. Who knows? That's true. John Jones versus Marcinio Burr.

I don't get you stupid. hilarious. All right. What a mess. Is Francis the biggest free agent in MMA history, Shaheen Al-Shadi? To me, yes. To me, yes, he is. And I think this can be looked at a couple different ways, right?

Because ultimately it will be between him and Nate, just in terms of like the biggest bang for your buck that you can get on the open market. Nate's probably, not even probably, Nate is the more famous man, right? Like he is mainstream people know Nate. I think anywhere Nate signs in books of fight. I'm going to be getting texts about it from my non-MMA friends and my non-MMA family members asking me like, hey, what's going on with this Nate Diaz thing? I don't know that Francis extends that far outside of the bubble, but ultimately Francis is the biggest free agent in my mind in MMA history just from a competitive standpoint where this is again, I'm not going to rehash everything we said earlier, but like the number one heavyweight in the damn world,

the best guy in the number one weight class for the marquee in the entire world, who, by the way, isn't some wrestler or isn't some boring point fighter. He's someone who's going to go out there and try to destroy your soul, like rip your soul straight out of your body. He's now out there on the open market,

and he's again gotten like a good four or five years of just being that guy. That to me is unprecedented. That's crazy. That's a real thing. Yeah, it's just, I guess, kind of credit to the, for as much crap as we gave the UFC PR or whatever for the whole slapping thing. But way to get ahead of the narrative on this. Dana, they've controlled the storyline now.

Now it's up to Bellator, up to PFL, up to Jake Paul, up to Francis himself to now change the narrative. Dana set the tone. and that's where they're very good at. Dude, if I am Jake Paul or I'm Nikisa or I'm KSI or any of these dudes running these circus circus boxing promotions, I am offering Francis Inganu as much money as he possibly ever could want to just go in there and fight dudes that look like E Honda from Street Fighter. Like I am just lining him up to do the most absurd circus fights ever. Like I remember KSI did that two fights one night crap last year.

I'm doing like a four fights one night for Francis Ogano. And I'm just shoveling people in there for him to knock out. Like there are so many ways if you're creative, which there is a very gigantic lack of creativity in the MMA space when it comes to promotions. But if you're creative, there are so many cool things you can do with the best heavyweight in the world. Like that's, I'm going to stop saying crazy because I've said crazy a lot in the stream. but it's just very interesting that that is now a possibility. Fight circus. Fight circus.

Let's go. You don't mean you need to go fight circus. For years, K-1 in Japan had these gigantic tournaments and were like their best fighters fought multiple times a night, you know? And Eddie Alvarez was in the lightweight tournament for Dream. He had to fight multiple times in the same night. This happens. I mean, this is possible.

We can do this. And, oh, all the chaos in the first. what half month of this year. There's, oh, yeah. First, like, 10 days. Yeah, we're only 14 days into this year. And like, it's just, oh my God. This is insane.

All right. Unbelievable. What else we got here? Oh, man. We're 14 days into 2023 and like, you know how sometimes people write these year-end lists of like, hey, the top five stories of 2022, like that type of thing. Like, you could write a top five stories of 2020, though. That'd be pretty substantial.

And like all of those stories would be pretty like, you know, like, hey, yeah, that deserves to be on that list. Here's an interesting question. So crazy. Would PFL signing for Anzegano and Jake Paul within a few weeks of one other make them the second biggest promotion in the world? Would you be willing to make that, to stake that claim, Gene? Absolutely.

Yes. Unequivocally. Because at that point, you have the number one heavyweight in the world. That's it. You have the number one heavyweight in the world. and you have also a dude and Jake Paul that obviously people are interested in watching whenever he's doing.

Like, that's it. That's it. That far exceeds anything Bellator would have at that point. I want to say yes. I will have to see PFL's first show with them because something will have to greatly improve as far as like their presentation for a big event. I mean, Belator for all their issues,

when they do have big events, they have the big stage, big lights, know, the big graphics and stuff. I never, and that's kind of been my issue of PFL. I've never felt fights have been big with PFL. If they get Francis, they get Jake Paul. Let's do it. They do have Jake Paul.

We just don't have a date or anything. Something needs to change with the show itself to feel not like a PFL show. It needs to feel like a big event. And I don't know. Maybe that's just me. I don't know if you get that impression when you watch PFL, that it just doesn't feel big. I'll tell you what, just an idea that occurred to me. If I'm Nate Diaz right now, and maybe this is silly and toss this back,

tell me, shoot this down if it's stupid. If I'm Nate Diaz right now, I'm calling Francis Inganu, and I am trying to make us a package deal, wherever you get one of us, you're getting both of us. Because the idea of getting both Nate Diaz and Francis Inganu under whatever type of roof, whether it's a PFL, a Bellator, a boxing show, whatever, that will make an obscene amount of money for whoever is doing it. And those dudes will make an obscene amount of money off of it.

And if I'm Nate, I'm getting Francis the phone. I'm saying, hey, we're doing this together. Let's make it so that we get all the pay-review revenue. We get, you know, multi-million dollar paychecks, et cetera, et cetera. We're going to find some financiers like this is going to be a thing. Because if the two of them did something together, it would be seismic. It would be seismic. The amount of coverage that would get would be utterly.

insane because they're the two dudes who beat the system right like like we have never seen anybody beat the system and now there's two of them and both of them know how to speak like both of them know how to are to properly like tell their own story themselves and they could do such an excellent job in the lead up like maybe this is a stupid idea and again i'm just tossing this out there but i think i think that could be magic it's a great idea real like on instagram in the next three days i need to see Francis and Ghanu's family members sitting around the dinner table wearing Real Fight Inc. T-shirts. That's what I need to see. Dude, yes.

That's what I'm saying. That's a great idea. I didn't even think about it in that way. Francis doesn't resign with any of the promotions. He signs with Nate with Real Fight Inc. And then they package each other out. That's great. Yeah.

Do it. Showtime and Scott Coker need to get together tomorrow morning. and they got to really figure something out because they have that show tomorrow morning, tomorrow morning tonight. Tonight. Coker better be on a flight

to Cameroon right now if we're being honest. They had that show on CBS. They should all be washing out. Show on CBS. And they're at Fador versus Bader no matter what happens, no matter what happens in that final fight,

it'll be right Fader's final fight. They need to have some sort of something has to have. If anything happens in Francis, it needs to happen right then, right there, national TV. I don't know. It's just, it's right there.

That's, Sean, what you said right there is this a stupid idea, whatever your idea. But you know what? We're only 14 days in this year. Nothing is stupid right now. Everything's on the table. There's no stupid ideas. Right now. I love that idea.

Let me see what else we got. Man, just. The ideas are they fellows. If you guys, if you two end up doing that, cut me off a percentage piece. Yeah. I mean, just give them one percent. and I think Shaheen will be sad. I'm thrilled.

Grilled. My little boy, my baby boy is going to get some new clothes if that happens. He's going to Harvard, baby. Let's go. Let's go. I mean, with each question, our idea tanks are just getting bigger and... This is no too crazy, but I like where this gentleman's going. Any chance in hell belts or scraps their Fador plans.

Makes a move for Ngano and books Fador versus Ngano murder from Peter's retirement. Damn. I send that back. I send it back. No, thank you. I want no part of this. We're thinking outside the box, though. I like it.

This is an idea session, right? I mean, that's, I mean, if we're being honest, that is a far bigger fight than Fader versus Bader. I mean, ginormously bigger. And let's never speak of it again. Yeah, we'll never speak of it again, but. It's MMA. The Stiliest outcome is always on the table.

Yes. This year, are you kidding me? Yeah. We just got a fight broken by a billboard. Yes. Yeah. Ryan Bader could be walking to the cage February 4th,

and France is wearing a luchador mask, could just like DDT him on the floor and with the UFC belt around his waist and then walk in and fight Fador. Cash in his briefcase and get that fight. We're turning this. We're going full circus with all of this. I love it. The Betoerfinite does their.

the mask reveal again. Oh my God, that's Francis and God. I just keep revisiting what you said at the beginning of this show, Mike, of Francis chucking in the trash. Showing up wherever he shows up with that UFC title

and just chucking it right into the trash. God, can you imagine the scenes of that, man? I have to see it now. Anything less would be disappointing now, now that it's out there in the universe. I want him to have 50 versions of that belt so that everywhere he goes that. I just want to see that be his introduction everywhere

so that it's a constant reminder because this is something that again will be washed away very quickly if people allow it to and if Francis in particular allows it to a year from now it could be this narrative of like he wasn't ever really that good anyway. It's like no, I left as the best

and if I'm him I'm just perpetuating that for it. That's awesome. He just shows up like just throwing the first pitch at a Cubs game and he just bring the belt and back with him. They didn't think they make a fake dynamite. And this right here is why the Champions Clause existed for so long.

Like this exact thing. It's the most, I mean, it's the fourth time we've done the show, but it's so much more fun this time. Do we have anything else? I mean, I don't know what else. I don't think we can talk anything we've done here. Yeah, we're just getting ridiculous ideas.

Hell, man. He can just, he can do everything, right? He can go on WWE. He could go boxing. He could go MMA. He'd go kickboxing. Like, the world is his oyster right now in a way that is just hard to fathom, frankly. If there's any belt makers out there, reach out to France's people and just make a whole bunch of UFC belts just so we can have and bring him everywhere and chuck them in every trash bag around the world.

Yeah. Well, I think we're done. Right? I mean, what else can we say? We're good. We're good. There are 50 fights tonight, but yeah. We gave more time than I thought we were going to for being honest.

No disrespect, but I mean, when we have a night like this with all this news, the best heavy way in the world is a free agent. The greatest fighter of all time in most people's minds is officially coming back to fight Cyril Gone. Raphael Fazeev is fighting Justin Gae. I mean, holy crap. And then we're definitely getting, despite all the worries about the brace on Kamara Usman's hand, we're getting the fight we're supposed to get for London, the right fight, Leon Edwards versus Kamara Usman 3. So, yeah, chaotic day.

And there were UFC fights. Oh, man. I feel like I need a shower. Yeah. Yeah. I think so. But thank you for watching. We appreciate that.

Thank you for listening if it's after the fact. And AK and I are going to do some matchmaking tomorrow. We might even have our own little Francis and Gano segment on the program because he's out of the UFC pool. So we're not going to be able to matchmake for him anymore. So it's going to be an interesting edition of Otno. If I don't hear any Honda reference on that, I would be very upset. I mean, I could never take that for me. That's your.

You trademarked that. You're all good. But thank you very much. Next week, it's UFC 283 in Brazil. We got two title fights and all the normal stuff coming up. So get some sleep, take a, you know, relax a little bit. And then the chaos is just going to brew right back up sooner rather than later. But thank you for watching for Casey, for Shaheen.

I am Mike Heck. Good night, everybody. Marab versus Omar. Let's do this. Let's go Happy birthday, AK Francis versus Poodzilla and KSW, yes, come on You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network