MMA Fighting - The A-Side Live Chat | Iaquinta vs. Cerrone, Brock Lesnar, UFC Fort Lauderdale, DC vs. Miocic 2, Rory MacDonald

Episode Date: May 1, 2019

Shaun Al-Shatti welcomes Chuck Mindenhall to The A-Side Live Chat, where they answer your questions about Al Iaquinta vs. Donald Cerrone, Brock Lesnar, UFC Fort Lauderdale, Daniel Cormier vs. Stipe Miocic 2, Rory MacDonald, and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Hello, hello. Welcome back, friends. It is so good to see you all. It is May 1st, 2019, and this is the Aiside Live Chat podcast. I hope all of you out there having a spectacular start to your week. We appreciate you all so much for joining us today. And it has been another busy week in the MMA world.

And I am honored, honored to be joined by the man on the other side of this show today. Let me bring in my co-host for this morning. Joining me on today's program. You may know him as the man in the hat. He is the best writer in the game. He is the poet and y'all already know it. The man, the myth, the legend. Thank you so much for joining the program.

Mr. Chuck Mindenhall. What is up, Chuck? Welcome to the dark side. Welcome to the A side. Check it out. Check it out. We got it on. Just for you, Sean.

What happened to the cat? What happened to the cat who's usually on this show? Where's he at? Oh, we don't talk about him anymore. He can talk about him. Oh, you even put on your fancy hat for us. That's your good times hat. Yes.

Yeah, it was my thinking cap. Well, I appreciate you so much for joining us today, man. I'm glad to be on the show, man. I'm glad to finally be on here. You know, this thing is morphed from like Luke's thing to like what you guys were doing, which I've always liked, kind of you guys bouncing off each other. So it's an honor for me to finally sit over here with a microphone. Look at this.

Got a mic set up. So this is cool, man. I like this setup you have behind you, too. It's sort of a fight memorabilia shrine. Yeah. Well, it's got to look good. You know what I mean? It's got to be better than like Luke's, whatever he had, like he was in a jail cell.

And then Mark always had kind of like he was in a little, I don't know, holding tank or something. So I wanted something like that you have. I like, is that all the hats I see right behind you on this side? There's some hats right there on that. Yeah, that's some of my hat collection on the door over there. Oh, my goodness. Behind the curtain. I got a bunch of line around here. So, oh, my gosh. That is legendary stuff.

Well, hey, thank you so much for joining us once again. There is so much to discuss on today's show. Brock Lesnar wasted everyone's time for the better part of a year. That was great. Jack Hermanson just had a month to remember Bellator 220. Ended up Bellatorian as hollared as possible. Plus, raging ally, I quit the returns of the cage this weekend against Donald Soroni in the Great White North.

all of that and more on today's show. But as we always say, this is your guys' show. So whatever you want us to talk about, we will talk about. You can ask us a question on the MMA fighting page below. Any question that gets three recommendations, those will turn green. You get priority. Or you can ask this question on Twitter using the hashtag ZA side or chat rappers. Also one quick reminder that the announcement I have been talking about for the past few weeks has finally gone into effect,

which means all MMA fighting shows have been merged into one MMA fighting podcast. cast feed. That is available wherever you guys get your pods. So that means subscribe to MMA Fighting on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, anywhere else, and you will get that delivered to your ear holes every week. The MMA hour on Monday, Eurobash

with Pizzie Carroll on Tuesday, this fine program on Wednesdays and the MMA beat, which my friend over here is a part of, on Thursdays. So go out, subscribe to MMA fighting or else we're just going to all be kind of sad and disappointed in you. And you don't want that.

You really don't want that. We need that. Nobody needs that. And with that, are you ready to do this, my friend? Are you ready, Chuck? Let's do it. All right. Once more into the breach, let's dive in.

Let's start from the M.M.A. fighting page with our good friend Jitmo, who wants to ask about the news of the day. D.C. Stepe A 2. Why this rematch. He writes, with Brock Lesnar now supposedly retired from M.M.A., a rematch between Daniel Kormier and Steep Mioch is just being targeted for a heavyweight title main event. in August and all I can think is why. By August, Steepa will have not fought for an entire year after being knocked out in the first round against Daniel. While other heavyweights have remained busy for that time, JDS has three big wins in the time, two of which came by TKO.

Francis Inganu, he's just listing resumes. I'm going to skip through some of this. Francis and Ganu has been doing well. Curtis Blade's been doing well. So my question is why book this fight between Daniel and Stipe and forego other new and potentially interesting matchups against other contenders. I personally believe Steve A needs to have at least one decisive win before gifted another title shot, et cetera, et cetera. And if Daniel will be retiring soon and DC Jones three won't necessarily happen, why not choose to lengthen his list of defeated opponents before then? So there's a lot going on in that question, Chuck, but this is just generally start with the news that came out yesterday. Brock Lesnar supposedly retiring. I don't know how

I mean, he last fought in 2016. It's 2019. Can you really retire from something you're not actively doing? I'm not sure there, but what was your takeaway from the news? Just thoughts about Brock Lesnar first, coming out with that last night and where we seemed to be headed. Well, it's one of these weird things because I think we've been hanging on this idea that he would return at some point. There's a lot of left undone from his career, obviously, the diverticulitis thing, that kind of happened. We were wondering how that might have affected him. He comes back. He's got

the asterisk on his Mark Hunt fight. And there was, you know, Mark Hunt has continued to harp about this. So you think that there, if anything else, he's going to come back at some point for a little bit of redemption or maybe to save face, maybe for his career, his legacy, all that stuff. But they've been literally dangling this out there for, what, a year that he's going to be coming back. Last summer, I think it was in July, you know, he re-entered the Usada pool. It seemed like that was an admission that he's coming back. That's something I wouldn't think that he'd want to do voluntarily just for the fun of it, especially given his track record.

So I assumed he was coming back. So given that that door was open this whole time, retirement seems like the right word ultimately, but only because we've been hanging on this. And I'm honestly, like when Dana White is basically mentioning him and Dana Cormiere, this fight is basically made in their minds, that's the next fight going forward. That's the last title offense.

This is legacy fight. of, you know, his legacy gift, his parting gift with UFC and all this stuff. And then it doesn't happen. It feels like retirement, but it also feels like a major disappointment in a sense because we've sat and justified this fight in our minds and we've played it over a million times. And everybody who's waited, there's a domino effect of all the guys, all the matchmaking that's went on since then that doesn't happen. All the weird things have happened just for him to shrug his shoulders and then be like, nah, I'm out. I'm out.

So I feel like that it is a retirement, but it's a very disappointing and strange retirement. if that makes sense. Yeah, absolutely, man. I mean, I think viewers of this show know my stance on Brock Lesnar at this point. I'm not a big fan. Not a big fan. But, and this kind of goes to my point, I guess. It seems as though this relationship between him and the UFC for so long has been fraught with uncertainty,

but also just general manipulation, right? Like he seems to treat our sport as a way to more or less just negotiate back and forth between what he wants to do. We're his side piece, so to speak. And I'm now super glad that we could hold the heavyweight division hostage for a year for a guy who continually over and over again seems to just make a mockery of this sport and show total disregard for anyone who's actually in it. And now we've reached this point.

That fight happened all the way in July when they had the pushing in the cage and that seemed to be what was next. Was this all a ruse from the beginning? Like, do you think Brock ever had intentions to fight ever? I have to believe, just on the surface that he did. I mean, I can't imagine why you would go through all of that. He's not a guy that's easy to pry out of his house. He's kind of a hermit, really, when it comes down to it.

I think it takes a large amount of money to get him motivated to actually leave Saskatchewan, wherever he's living now. I think it's one of those guys who just likes his privacy. I think you're not going to budge him unless there's something real and tangible for him to go get. But it is worth noting, though, that when he came out last July for that Stipe Cormier fight, his contract was almost up with WW. And that's sort of what it is, right? It's whenever that happens, that's when he makes his appearance, his grand return to the public guy.

You think, you know, him entering the pool again, you know, just getting him back in the drug testing pool and those types of things. Obviously, that's, that signal to me that he was taking it seriously enough. And I think, I mean, honestly, man, how would how would Cormier, I don't know what they're selling otherwise unless they're like, you know what? Cormier wants to take a bunch of time off without questions asked. And what would be the point of that to drag something out and put everything on hold? I mean, there was a lot of big fights the U.S.C. could have kind of gone with. I was talking about that I wrote a column earlier today about the domino effect of basically something like this. Like you could literally have had this trumpeted up at this point a Cormier Jones trilogy, right?

Like you could have sold those elements and really put this into play to be a big, event happening soon, but instead, you know, we've kind of, we've shot John Jones off in a different direction for now. And, you know, it's just everything kind of gets splintered off of the waiting game with this. So I can't imagine it was a ruse if it was. I have no idea what the end result was supposed to be of this. Because it's really just disappointment when you're dealing in fan I know the fight wasn't like being glorified by fan. There's a lot, plenty of fans who were moaning about it, didn't really like it. They want the meritocracy. But the people who bought into it and the casual fan who's kind of waiting for that to come around again,

I can't imagine you're in the business of disappointment. You know, it's a hype game, which they were playing, and I think it just didn't work out. Yeah, although, I mean, it is worthwhile, I think, to note that this is really words coming from Dana White, right? And the relationship between Dana White and Brock Lesnar has always been relatively interesting. And also, we have just generally seen this throughout the years of all the public negotiation that Dana sort of does negotiating through the media,

negotiating through social media even. Part of me does wonder, and maybe this is just, this is the don't believe his lies meme for Dana White or something like that. But is this fight truly dead? We have seen the UFC use big-name fighters as pawns in negotiations before, whether it was Habib at UFC 205 to get Eddie Alvarez

to sign on the dotted light against Connor without negotiating his contract. Is there any way you think we still get D.C. versus Lezner? Dude, in this game, I feel like nothing is ever dead. I mean, I feel like anybody says anything, you know, you kind of have to just wait and see if they're telling the truth or not. I mean, honestly, too, you're right. That is the caveat we should put on this,

is that Dana White is the one relaying this to ESPN, and we are then relaying what we've been told. I haven't talked to Brock Lesnar personally. I don't think we've heard from him publicly yet. So right now we have his version of it. It sounds kind of, I don't think they would move on unless they really got the indication that he wasn't interested in taking the fight. But again, you never really know how this thing is playing out.

But no, I mean, I would be, you know, two weeks or now we could be talking about Brock Lesnar who is back in it, you know? I mean, it's just that kind of game. It always, you know, this sport, every time you think you actually have a finger on a finger on the pulse of what's going on, something else happens. And, you know what I mean? You're just, you're made to feel like, an idiot again and again. And that's part of what makes it alluring in the end is the unpredictability

of, and then the plot twists and all this stuff. But now, I can see a scenario where Lesnar shows up again, for sure. The money. I mean, the money, right? It's like, if there's money there, he's going to be interested at some point. Absolutely. I feel I just have a feeling this is not the end of this story. But in the meantime, let's answer J. Jitmo's question and sort of talk about what is in front of us now, because we've waited a year. Even Daniel Cormier has, fought since he fought Stipe Miochich and beat Steepa Mioch at UFC 226. He fought Derek Lewis not too long ago at MSG. It seems as though Stepe in D.C. rematch is the way that UFC wants to go effectively rewarding Steepa for sitting out. It will be over a year by the time this fight happens

in August. Is that the right move? You have Francis Ngano out here who has been sleeping fools in less than a minute. Dude destroys Cane Velazquez in like 20 seconds. That's probably the most impressive win I have seen in the heavyweight division over the last year. You have others like JDS, Alastor Overeem, Curtis Blades, all of these guys should Stipe be rewarded, basically, for sitting out what will turn out to be about 13 months. I think so. In the end, I think that that's the right call. And if you even recall, like when we first, when Cormey had just beaten Derek Lewis, he basically laid out a tiered system of the way he would operate, that he would like to operate, which was he wanted Lesnar next. If that didn't happen, he was, he was,

it seemed to me like he wanted the Jones fight. Like that would kind of be the next, the plan B. And then there would be this distant plan C that he was sort of reluctant to even admit that he would partake in, which was the Miochich rematch. And he kept pointing out his reasons for that. And obviously we saw what happened last July. And we saw that knockout, and it was a very impressive thing. It was emphatic.

But I think that when you just look back at what Miochich was doing before that, you know, just what did he had, like six wins in a row. I think five more finishes. He was just destroying guys. You know, you really put it together. He now holds a record that is, it doesn't sound that crazy to win three, like to defend the title three times. But apparently, that's the hardest thing to do because he's the only guy to do it.

So I'm like, you look at the legacy of that and you think, yes, off of those things alone, he does deserve that rematch. He really does. And especially given that the druthers of the whole situation have fallen out or they're just not available, he's the next guy. I think he's the next logical guy. And you know what, man, he did wait it out. And there's something to be said about the principles of that.

It doesn't often work out like this. And who knows if we'll actually see that fight when it's supposed to happen. But, you know, there's something to be said about waiting it out and being principled that way and getting that shot. By the time it rolls around, man, it would feel like a big fight again because both guys, if they just roll any B-roll on those guys, you're going to remember how good both them are, the two heads and momentum going at it again. and the fact that if, you know, if Miyotich evens the score, you then have a trilogy that's kind of built into this whole situation.

I don't know that I agree, though. Like, will it feel like a big fight? To me, it doesn't feel like a big fight anymore. And I think maybe part of that is the way that this has come about. I have been on record saying that I don't like the, I don't think he should be, Steve, I should be rewarded for sitting out as long as he did, especially when you go into UFC 226.

And there was sort of a spoken stipulation for both men that the winner of this is probably going to fight Brock. And both men were very eager for that. Both men agreed to it more or less. And then you go out and lose in the first. And then it turns into more or less just, I don't want to say whining because he was not whining. But he was complaining a lot for the last year after you're the one that ends up on the short end of the stick. Like that's sort of the agreement that you guys made. You can't then just be upset about it afterwards.

To me, Francis Inganu is the guy, and I know he is booked against Junior Dos Santos, and I know they won't do this, but the move to me felt like, reward the guy who has been active, reward the guy who has been willing to take these fights for you, headline these big events for CSPN show. Again, a victory over Kane Velazquez is the way he did it, to me, is the most impressive thing that anybody in that division has done for the entire past year, more or less. take him out at the JDS fight, maybe throw Stepe against JDS or even Alistroverham. I think both those trilogy fight or a rematch would be very interesting. And reward Francis and Gano. And also that fight is just, there's a built-in story there, right?

Francis and Gano just took out D.C.'s guy. He just took out the man who is one of D.C.'s best friends and training partners in the entire world. Let D.C. try to get revenge there. That, to me, is more intriguing, both stylistically and also just story-wise. and meritocracy-wise, then the rematch with Miotich. But, I mean, I am no matchmaker,

and it seems that they do not care what I think. They don't care what I think, Ego-Shan. That might be news to you. But, you know, truthfully, I would have liked to have seen Miotchage stay busy. I would have liked him to win one more fight, you know, somewhere along the way, just to kind of emphatically make his case.

But I do dig the idea that he believed he deserved it, and he kind of stuck by that. You do see guys who stayed busy, and they slip out of contention for good by losing that next fight. I will say that I love the Francis Angano idea. I really do, but, you know, it's still very fresh in my mind.

I know you were probably at the fight with Can Belasquez, right? So it's a little bit different when you're right there, but just from a little bit of a remove and watching it all unfold from a little distance, I still can't get out of my head, you know, his two losses, to be honest. You know, they're still a little fresh on the memory. And so to me, I still feel like Miotchich still has,

you know, it's just a personal, personal druthers, but I'm like, you look at it. I'm like, I feel like meyotich probably has the better case in the end. Yeah. Well, then last thing to wrap this whole story up, and then we'll move on. Just very quickly, we have now passed DC's 40th birthday in his wait for whatever this next fight was going to be. He had always said for a long time that the 40th birthday was set of the benchmark. That would be the end of it. Do you think this is the last one we'll see from DC? Oh, man. Again, you know, this is one of those questions. is like, we try to predict these things,

and it's always if the money is read. And in prize fighting, it's always like, who's doing what, if the money is right, if they offered him a John Jones trilogy, I just can't imagine that he would accept. You know, let's say that DC goes in and beats Miotich, and again, he comes out unscathed. He could ride out on the sunset and be like,

you know what, man, I've done all I can do in the sport. What more do I have the crew? But there would be the one thing, which would be the John Jones thing, right? I feel like they could lure him, because if you talk to his coaches and you talk to guys around him. They talk about how he kind of obsesses over that situation a little bit.

I just can't imagine he's going to be able to say goodbye to the John Jones trilogy if it's available to him. Yeah, I agree with you. And I hope that happens at heavyweight. I don't think that ever will happen, but that would be a fitting end to me. That would be cool. But in the meantime, Chuck, one question up, one question down. You knocked it out of the park.

Let's keep it going. This next one's coming from the MMA fighting page from Jay DeLuca, who wants to ask about Rory McDonald's. Hey, Shaheen and Chuck, Rory McDonald's post-fight speech on Saturday night depicted a reverent religious tone and piously devout, odd demeanor while strongly conveying his feelings of uncertainty on his fighting future. Yet his statement put out yesterday seemed to confirm that he is not done competing. Ariel Hawani stated that Rory's, quote, honesty in this interview about his feelings on hurting another man are fascinating, while Chuck wrote an exceptional piece analyzing Rory's comments,

especially when he stated, quote, but if we melt at shows of compassion when two fighters embrace after they go to war, we should melt when a man goes to war with his own conscience to approve the actions, which is a tremendous line, I must say. Shaheen, what is your take on Rory's speech from Saturday night and Chuck, since you've already written about it? Why do you think more deeply religious fighters in the sport do not echo Rory's compunctious statement.

We got to talk to people about shorten these up a little bit, Sean. These are like, they're full-on novels. They're trying to impress you, Chuck. They're trying to... That's a very well-written question. And I appreciate the phrase of there. But, you know, this is... I think it all caught us the same way, right?

You watch something like that, and it kind of fractures this mindset you're in when you watch a fight. There's a basic hysteria that you're almost a dehumanizing effect when a collective watches. a fight. You basically begin to not see them as two people sometimes, but as instruments of war going on at each other and will's being exacted on each other. So when

somebody fractures that right afterwards and especially in a fight like that that didn't offer a ton of excitement, I felt like it was fairly anticlimatic. It wasn't, I don't know, I'm sure Beltaire would have wanted to play out a little differently, but it's bizarre, right? Like when you have somebody just

kind of say like, you know, I'm not sure I have it in me to hurt another man anymore and he's kind of of empathizing with us and show him compassion to his opponents and and mentioning religion as you know it's kind of an internal dialogue he's got going on with God in the in the cage and all this and it said it kind of fractures up that whole that hysteria that was talking about that people want to see and it's just kind of crazed I can appreciate it because this game is so nuanced in that way there's so much about fighting that all of it should be embraced in that way like it has you know it's that's the complexity of these guys we never give enough thought to how

much internally they struggled to even get you know to even get in that cage so somebody's saying something like that it can be twofold i took it as you know what man that's an incredibly courageous and honest way to assess something right after you've just done it and say like you know i've got more questions to myself that i need to answer um that's one way the other way is like hey man if it's heart's not any probably doesn't want to be a fight game anymore because we've seen guys who start doing it for paychecks or doing it for you know corner people or for people around who think they should, you know, or sponsors, whatever it is. And then they just start getting their ass handed to them and it becomes a sad

in. So I saw it both ways, but in the moment I was very, I was kind of stricken by his honesty and moved by it. And I know he's since come out obviously and said, you know, it's just me shooting off the cup, but, you know, I don't plan on return. I plan on finding in June and all this, which is too, which is very soon, by the way. I feel like he should wait a little longer than that but um but ultimately man i um you know i don't know if i answer the question but ultimately i feel like uh i i appreciate honesty like that because i know that that level exists and all and that most fighters most fighters have to question things on that level and uh and and for you know what i mean and so on yeah no it it takes you back especially in the moment right

because this is rory macdonald they think of who this is this is aries this is the god of war this is the Red King. Like this is a man who we lionized for a long time as just a psychopath who lived and breathed violence and just wanted exact violence upon people. You go back to UFC 189. It's one of the most violent spectacles I've ever seen in my life. And to see now within a span of a couple of years sort of where we've gotten with, Rory, it is.

I mean, it's maybe not alarming, but it's fascinating to. some degree in it. And it also just kind of makes sense on a, on a base human level. Like, we can, it's hard for us outside of the cage to relate to the people inside of the cage because me and you have never experienced whatever that sensation is. But just on a human to human level, I feel like I can understand just some degree of what Rory is saying, right? I feel like we all can. Like, this is a man who is 29 years old. It's not even 30 at this point. We, we would consider him young, but he has been in this for 14 years. His first fight was 14 years. His first fight was 14 years. ago for more than half of his life, or actually almost half of his life has been spent either

training for a fight or actually competing in a fight. And I can imagine that that just gets tiresome. I do not have the same anger and lust for violence that I did when I was a teenager. And I'm sure and angst and whatever it wraps up in that, especially I'm sure that you are the same. And especially if someone is having the ability to every single day exact that anger, that violence, put that out there in the world and sort of rid themselves of it just for a few hours or however long that lasts, I would imagine at some point you just get tired of it, right? You just want to be a normal person. Rory has a wife and he has a kids.

I'm sure he just wants to be a grown man at this point, but he's kind of, it seems like he almost feels stuck in a way that is very relatable in a strange way. I don't know how, if I'm articulating that right, but it's the honesty, I agree with you. the honesty was just striking to hear from a fighter. He's kind of been that way for a long time, very complicated and introspective guy. I think that he's one of those guys who's communicated in different ways through his career.

And he's also seen a lot. You know, he switched promotions. He's kind of pointed out, seeing the puppet strings a little bit within the fight game. And I would imagine it's very difficult to keep your motivations. Like you're mentioning, especially when you start off in a certain space, there's something you want to prove.

There's something in you need to sort out. And then you go, you know, you kind of navigate your career, finds God, whatever the thing is, because everybody evolves in their own way. You can, you can kind of see, I think his story plays out like that more so than other guys. There's some guys I think they're just, that's what they do. They don't need anger. They don't have to function on some kind of internal wiring that says, I have to fight, I have to fight, that's what I am.

I'm a fighter. There's some guys who's just, it's second age. They go in there and it's a sport to them. They can go in there and trade punches with somebody. And they just see it as a transaction and a sport almost like a ball sport, you know. There's other guys who just, they go through different formation. I feel like Roy is one of those guys. And he's very honest, you know.

I think he wants to communicate honesty and that matters to him. So again, even his, even the thing he put out the little statement, I mean, I felt like it was pretty honest. You know, it was pretty honest of him saying like, hey, wait, it was just me saying this. And let me clarify, but, well, here, I want to ask you about that statement because really, I think another thing that compounded all of this, right, the reaction to all of this, and really just what we saw from the John Fitch fight was what we saw in his last fight, too, against Gagard Musassi, that didn't feel like Rory McDonald. That felt like a man who looked like Rory McDonald, but he didn't seem to have that same,

I don't want to say fire, because that's cliche, but he just looked unmotivated in that fight in a way that I think was alarming. And then the same thing happens in this John Fitch fight. Now, like you said, he's thinking of fighting in June. That's very, very soon. That's next month. It's already May, so that's next month. What do you make of that statement?

Do you think, what do you make of him wanting to fight next month? Do you think this is the right call, I guess? Because that statement, like you said, was very, it was still very honest. And he still, more or less admitted, I need to figure this out. he's not going to have much time to figure it out yeah i would have liked to i would like to have seen him take a little time honestly after saying something like that take a little time and really uh and really try to sort that out because i don't think that that's something you can snap your fingers and be like you know what man let's move on and just get the next guy even if the guy's not like a

heavy striker somebody's going to do tons of damage on him or something like that but let's let's face it man the guy himself has been through wars you mentioned the robbie luller fight and you know that he's been through a lot of wars a lot of fights a lot of where he's had to sit up with his own wounds, shattered nose, parts of his own body that had been broken, essentially, in these battles and basically internalize what that meant, like, to go through these things, and then to imagine doing it to somebody else. And I think that that's where his, his conscience is kind of playing over it a little bit, like, why would I, why would I want to put somebody through this, you know, that sort of thing? I hope he sorts it out, man, because

honestly it's not when somebody does talk like that it's it's a double-edged thing because when he goes in there next time that's certainly going to play over that fight you're like does he want to be here or doesn't he want to be here and it makes it for a it's a complicated thing for a fans who then have a rooting interest and you're not sure what you're what you're even rooting for you're were your first thing you want is the old gory i would suppose but beyond that it gets uh it gets very complicated to what you're watching if a guy doesn't want to be there so i hope he sorts it out, man, but I would have liked to have seen him wait, like, take some time. I know it doesn't work that way when you got Madison Square Garden booked, and you've got a tournament that you're

running. So he's kind of, if anything, it feels like he's kind of stuck to an obligation, and I hope he can navigate that new situation well. Yeah. And one last quick note before we move on. He did receive a 60-day medical suspension for whatever that's worth. I looked at those sheets when they came in. that included no contact for 60 days. So 60 days covers his fight. Like he's going to still be medically suspended for that fight. I'm sure that Bellator is already actively working on figuring something out with the California State Athletic Commission.

But that is- Gracie doesn't make contact with them then, man. We've got to hope that there's no contact there. Well, I guess Rory just can't train either. Like, none of that. None of that makes any sense, but I'm sure they will figure out something. If anything seems fluid in this sport, it is interim titles and medical suspension.

They can be bended at the whims of whoever needs to bend them. What a sad and pathetic thing you just said there. But hey, let's move on and let's talk about the other big event that just happened this past weekend. And for that, we're going to go to GREB 77, who wants to know about Jack Hermanson, the Joker. J.H. has had two impressive wins, Branch and Jacqueray in the last couple of weeks, and is now ranked at number five in the UFC Minoway Division. How do you see his chances against the rest of the top five? at Middlemate, which of the style matchups in the top five?

Would you favor him the most and the least? And so Chuck, Jack Hermanson has, he came out last weekend. And he really, good Lord, man, that dude had a month to remember. You go out there and you submit a noted, decorated black belt like David Branch in the first round. And then you just take it to Jacques-Rae Soza in a way that we have seen very few do, really within a span of a couple weeks. the world is that man's oyster right now. What was your takeaways from his fight on Saturday and his performance?

Very impressed, especially considering that he was a replacement. He had to take an opportunity. And he's going against a guy that I don't think too many people are really excited to fight. I consider Jacques-Rae one of the – so for the middleweight division, it's almost like the old light heavyweight division. There's these guys that have hovered there. they're like the poor horsemen essentially at this point. But Jacques-Rae Romero, you know, Wiedman, you know, these guys are all in that space, and they kind of remain in that space.

So we're like, man, those are hard outs, and they're always going to be right there. But Jacqueray was one of the quieter ones in that group who just kept, you know, his waxen fools for a long time. And so to kind of go, I know he's getting older, but to kind of go against a guy like that on short notice and then put on that performance, man. And some of that inside stuff was just really enlightening. You know, he was, those uppercuts on the inside and, like, some of the short stuff he was landing in such volume and numbers. And the way he was just teeing off on him, man, very, very impressed, especially that second round where he just, yeah.

Yeah, it was just like an onslaught. I mean, you just don't see guys do that to Jacre. So that really opened my eyes to how good he is. And I agree. The world is his oyster. And there are a lot of good options for him, honestly. I feel like they could, they could choose any of those guys, you know, gas. They could throw him a guy like that who just come off of a, you know, a great performance, even

in a loss. I think that that would be a fight that makes sense. But, you know, they could, Romero, he's the other guy kind of who's been sitting out there. Just difficult to even contemplate. But, you know, that fight suddenly becomes very interesting. I mean, it's fun. You get a new guy like that who comes up that you didn't see coming and he looks like a threat. That's kind of the way Whitaker worked.

He entered that space of those guys who were the. his elite names, and he navigated himself, and he's the champion. So you kind of want to see these new guys get the chance to keep building and see the old guys have to knock them off. You know what I mean? Yeah. Man, I mean, I have to say the middleweight division might be the best that has been ever. I don't know.

I don't know if I can remember another time where there are so many mix of factors, right? Because like you said, we had it. Maybe it's the three horsemen now because Luke Rock hold left to light heavyweight. but we still have those three guys hanging around, Yuel, Akere, and Wyatman. And then also we just have these young up-and-comers, Israel, Kelvin Gastilm, and now Jack Hermanson, Palo Costa. Like, the list of names at middleweight right now is pretty ferocious.

And I have to say, man, I was, I still had a little bit of doubt about Jack Hermanson, but he wiped that away from my mind on Saturday. My takeaways were twofold. One, his level of activity for a man that big is relatively stunning. Like his level of offense and the pace that he keeps will seem suffocating, especially with that mix of length that he has and also that defensive jiu-jitsu and offensive ground to pound.

He's a very creative and active style. And I think we saw that. I don't know what the total numbers were, but he landed almost five, he threw almost 500 strikes and landed like more than 250, which on a guy like Jacqueray, no one does that and that goes to my second point my second takeaway which was when's the last time we have ever seen anybody walk into a fight with jacqueray with the strategy of i'm going to take this man down and actually succeed and almost submitted him and almost submitted him like you read the pre-fight articles from our good friends pizie carroll and etc and it's all jack hermanson

saying i'm going to take this guy down i'm going to beat him up on the ground i welcome a ground battle with Jacques Re Soza, and you just kind of read those and laugh. Like, all right, buddy, good luck with that, man. And he did it. The crazy man actually did it. Like, I was stunned by that performance, man. Everything you just said. And the fact that he had that army and guillotine, it was so close.

I was sitting there like, this can't, I mean, it's surreal almost. It's almost surreal to see something like that in live action. I will say this. You know, one of the reasons they have to keep finding stars, the UFC. has to keep finding stars because the guys who are coming up, the guys who still don't have respect, the guys who don't have a name yet, they fight hungry, you know, they're better, the parody is better, they're better versed in every, you know, in every offense position, every defense position. They know the techniques. They're better versed than ever, but they're hungry. And I feel like

when you see these guys like that, man, the dude is just hungry. He wanted to go out there and put on a show when he did. And he wanted to show that he could do that, you know, some of those things against a guy in his own wheelhouse and execute and show you just how good he is, what the depths are of him. And I feel like we've been seeing that a lot lately, man. Even the Israel had Asana having to dig deep in that fight against Gasolam was very revealing in its own sense, because we knew a lot about him. We didn't know that he could dig that deep. That was the new revelation and pull that one out. And even Gasolam kind of showing that he had that fight in him to last and go through that kind of battle. These guys, man, I love it. I love it. That's the

hardest thing about being a veteran is you know you've done it so often you go through your routines you figure out a way but keep in the hunger factor there that's the toughest thing um so when you see these new guys come along man it's uh it's always a little more eye opening a little more exciting because you know that they still have that thing in them that's glowing you know that they're they want to show everybody and uh he's right there right now i feel like we're going to probably see him doing that for a little while to come yeah and to answer the the question of our good reader here uh g-reb 77 the match matchups there for him right there now seem very, I mean, I like all of those.

He seems like a very tough style matchup for, with his combination, like I said, of length, defensive jujitsu and offensive ground to pound, but also just that creative, active striking style. That seems like you can give problems to a lot of the guys at the top of this division, especially because of the way he seemed to suck, suck all of the energy out of Jacques, Ray. Like he really melted him over the course of the last few rounds and just sucked all the life out of him. with that suffocating style. I like any fight for him right now.

I know Whitaker and Addisania are probably going to go at it in Australia for the unification fight. It seems like Y'all Vermero and Paulo Costa are probably fighting as well. Other than that, KG, like you said, Calvin Gasolm's out there. Also, what do you think of this, Chuck? Maybe this is a bit of a step down, but it is a good stay busy fighting. He might get an Israel type of bump with this. What about the winner of next week's fight between Jared Cannoneer and Anderson Silva?

That occurred to me. I don't know. What you need in the fight like that, honestly, has Anderson Silva to look. I don't think you're going to get it. But you need him to kind of like remind everybody that he can still do it. If he comes in there and he looks really good and he styles a little bit on a cannoneer, you can see a situation where Hermanson might get something more out of that. I suppose the opposite end is if Canada goes in there and does the same to Silva.

At that point, I suppose you might be able to get a little shy enough of that matchup, but I think that I think it would seem like a step back even if he did that. I think that that would seem like a step back. But if Anderson Silva somehow, I could see that. I could see that.

If Anderson Silva somehow looks good, that would be a very interesting matchup. Yeah. Well, hey, my last question before we move on, this kind of feels like the end of Jacqueray's run as a title contender. Does it not?

I mean, he's getting up there in age. He even said it himself that he's more or less putting his career, his stake in his career on this fight, and it did not work. out for him. He seems to be the snake-bitten fighter at 185 where every time he should have gotten a title shot, something else was going on. In your mind, if he never gets one, does he go down as the best

fighter to ever not get a title shot in the UFC? To not get a title shot, yeah. See, there's guys who have not won a title, but they actually got title shots. You know, like a Dan Henderson, there's a, there are guys like that that always come to mind, but to not get a title shot, he might just be i can't think of anybody off the top of my head um i think the go-to for a long time was mike mike bisbing and right and that show we saw him i just don't see it his at jacqueray's age how that how there's a path to that now it would have to be like a late fallout where somehow it's just aligns perfectly where he gets a shot kind of like what bisping did um i just can't see it but it's a shame too man because i feel like he's a you know he's a very quiet guy you know

He likens himself to a reptile, essentially. So he's not exactly out there just smiting his chest and calling people out. But he's just quietly bided his time and then just took care of business for so long, going all the way back, man, watching him in Strike Force. And even before then. Remember the upkick from Musasi back in the day? I mean, the guy's been around forever. And so my heart goes out to him a little bit, man, because I'm like, you know, there's a guy who just, I think he was on the cusp of having a title. many, many, many times, and he just never could get, never could get to the UFC's title fight.

So I feel for him, man, and I don't see it happening for him at this point. So I think that at this point, if he continues on, I hate that word gatekeeper. I know people say that type of thing, but he would be, I think he would, that's where he's at this point. It'd be a hell of a gatekeeper, but I think that that's what he's at at this point. Yeah, man, it's sad and unfortunate, but I think I kind of have to agree with you, which is a very, Shakuray deserved better. I mean, there were so many times where he deserved that title shot

and just never came to him. But let us move on. Let us continue. And this next question is coming from another one from Jay to Luca. Jay, you've really got to shorten these questions. I'm going to try to abbreviate this a little bit. One championship's new bizarre agent policy. Hi, Shaheen and Chuck.

One announced this week that they are introducing a mandatory agent certification program under their organization as all agents or managers wishing to work with one athletes have to undergo a stringent and aberrant approved checklist, et cetera, et cetera. One of the rules is a minimum of 10 years of related experience, college or university degree, current resident in Asia for at least one year. Chattree, the CEO of one, noted how slight exceptions we made in some cases. yet his new policy system is being met with a high degree of criticism from the MMA community.

And additionally, which is this is worth noting, he announced the launch of one elite agency with this being a, quote, invitation-only sports agency reserved for the top 10% of athletes in one who show the biggest global hero promise. In response to this Malki Kawa stated, that part's stupid. And I think that's a big conflict of interest. They shouldn't have done that. What is your take on these bold decisions from one? Oh, man.

That's the side of the game, too, that's so controversial in general because there are a lot of scumbags. There always have been, though. There always have been in the fight game. There's always been a, the periphery is very dark and dirty when you kind of, you know, start searching around. So you can understand the sentiment of trying to put something in place to filter this a little bit and I guess but at the same time I'm those stipulations are kind of ridiculous if you if one was

only dealing in Asian based fighters and that you know everybody's basically out there but it'd be one thing because you think okay that's not really that big deal to have to live in in Asia for a year that's a that's a crazy ask though when you have North American fighters and you're in the free agent pool they've been signing free agents bringing them over most of those guys that are coming over from the UFC or Belta or whatever have North American representation. So it's very, that seems very strange to me because that excludes all of them. And then you get to hearing about, well, I think they're going to make some exceptions for these guys and these guys.

Well, then it becomes like you're just, you're filtering out then a selective basis based on what, subjectivity again. I don't know. So it's like, it's a very complicated sort of thing. But I would say on whole, I kind of understand where they're coming from. If you deal with these guys a little bit, you understand the kinds of characters who sometimes are representing these fighters. And I think I read somewhere too where a lot of these guys don't have professional management. They have family.

They have guys that they've just known. And I feel like that I like that homegrown sort of organic element to it because that's the guys. There are people who they can only trust with their business transactions, the people that. that they love, you know, the people that are around them all the time. So I feel like this is very, it could be very exclusionary for those types of people because they're talking about having, you know, a degree and living in Asia, all those different things. I feel like that might be a little much. Yeah, I think, I agree with you there. A little much is a good way to put it. To me, this feels like a very, I want to choose my words carefully, but a very self-serving

decision disguised with a veil of altruism. that makes sense. And that's also kind of one's MO, right? Like is making these sort of sweeping statements or movements or decisions and then hiding it behind the veil. Four billion people that watch the last event. Yeah, right? It's such a, it's such a crazy number. How could they possibly get that? But making these sort of decisions and then hiding it under the veil of, you know, this is best for our athletes. This is best for the sport. Our athletes are magicians, they're the most of the most powerful people on the planet, et cetera. Yeah, no, especially with the creation of the one agency itself, it feels like this is just a way

to funnel people into a less than ideal negotiating position with this company. Yeah, I agree with you, man. I mean, it's just, especially that side of it, especially that side of it, I'm like, there's obvious conflicts of venture. to stuff like that. And I really don't think, I really don't think that that's going to hold up. Yeah. I mean, you get prospects from, say, Brazil or Canada or Europe or wherever they're coming from. They're probably managed by their coach or by someone who's related to the gym or, you know, some other outside factor. They can't be part of this organization now unless they ditch their management so that you can deal with someone that you are more comfortable with.

To me, that doesn't, that is overstepping bounds tremendously. It sounds like the one championship heads are trying things, you know, because we've seen the UFC basically do things like this, not quite like this, but similar in scope to what they're attempting. And I'm glad that there's an actual backlash to it and some thoughts, this kind of thing, because I feel like that side of the game is, fans don't generally get too stuck on those types of things, but they should. If they care about the fighters and they care about all the things that are going on,

you should think about all these things and what each implication is. That's too much nuance, Chuck. I don't know that people are worried about that much nuance. Fans generally don't care for fighters, it seems. Not all of you guys. I love some of you, but some of you kind of suck. Well, some some say they do. put it that way.

Well, hey, let's move on and, oh my gosh, what do we have here? This is a question from the Brazilian Beast himself, our own Giermei Cruz, hopping in the A-Side Live Chat podcast. This next one, he says, hey, guys, big fan here. Can Chuck please show us his hats? I mean, yeah, all of them. Oh, brigado. Thank you so much for Gareme for popping in.

Chuck, show off your hats. Well, you know, I just showed you guys my hat. I have other hats, but that's kind of where I keep them. I don't have that many. I've maybe got like 15 hats. One hat related question. How do you choose the hat of the day? Well, I was like, there's a guy out here weeding my stuff.

I have, generally, if I'm wearing like something dark or wear something light, I don't like to match them really. And then, you know, sometimes you want just a contrast, so you wear the blue hat, you know. I mean, it's not, I honestly, it's whatever had I grab on my way out the door, to be honest. That is, that is hard hitting stuff. That is why people come to the A-site. Well, hey, let's keep moving on in this next question. Another one, Jesus, another one from Jay to Luca.

He's getting three today. You guys need to up your question game, so Jada Luca's not monopolizing it. He is asking about John Fitch's alarming words post-fight press conference. Hi, Shaheen and Chuck. I love that all of his start with, hi, Shaheen and Chuck. It's very direct. during John Fitch's post-fight press conference on Saturday for Bellator, he stated how prior to his Jake Shield fight in December 2016,

he had a, quote, bad brain skin, and then he would stop competing in the sport if he lost a fight with Shields. Irrespective of Fitch losing or winning, he has now fought four times since 2016. How is this possible for him to compete with WSOF now PFL, and Bellator allowing him to do so with no medical or ethical interference with state fighter licensing in regards to his brain scan claim. Fighters are required to pass medical tests, et cetera, especially major MM.

Well, something is patent, especially becomes overlooked. This question is kind of getting all over the place. But correspondingly, Rashad Evans was rightfully prevented from competing in instances obtaining a license based on his MRI results, i.e. bad brain scans. Love to get your take on this. So really quickly, Chuck, I mean, John Fitch, at the end, after his fight against Roy McDonald, spoke about this, about how that was going to be the end for him

whenever he loses his next fight because of this bad brain scan. I'm not going to lie, that's the first I had ever heard of it. I don't know if he had spoken about that publicly before, but what is your take? I mean, I remember when that happened as well, and it's very difficult. Rasha, bringing up Rashad is a good example of this, too, because, you know, they're the guys where there was some kind of public knowledge. Either they were talking about it or, you know, it just came out through the commission, essentially that there was a bad, something showed up.

And I feel like that that's always a weird thing. That's the one thing about fighting that you don't want to hear about, ultimately, especially when you're getting ready to watch a guy trade punches, is that there might be something wrong with their brain. And I would say that John Fitch, when that all came out back in the day, I guess it's been a couple years ago now, I thought that was probably it for him. he's always been a very rational guy

he's competed for a long, long time. I thought like that might be it for him. And I was kind of surprised, honestly, that he's still going. And to be completely honest, man, I assumed that he'd been cleared basically over time, like that, you know, nothing was, they weren't finding anything definitive and basically he was okay to fight.

That's the way I kind of understood it. But I would say that the stigma of having to worry about that at all or that there might be something there doesn't go away. Once that guy has something like that, I feel like every time I hear John Fitch's name or you know he's going to fight, that's the first thing that goes into my mind, you know, is a guy like that rattling themselves further.

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's a difficult question to answer because I would like to hear more from John Fitch about what bad brain scan actually means. Because that's the problem is he hasn't really followed up publicly, like what's going on with that, right? Yeah, because before every fight, these guys, regardless of whether you weren't doing anything for a bad commission, a good commission, anybody. I mean, the California State Athletic Commission is one of the best in the country.

Andy Foster does tremendous work. They have to get CT scans. They have to get cleared. They have to get all of their mental faculties checked and cleared. So he has obviously had multiple CT scans and brain scans since then, and nothing seems to have turned up. So I guess for me, I would be curious what bad brain scan actually means. It's hard to comment on it otherwise. I mean, the doctors so far have found him fit to compete.

So it's difficult for me to say that he's not. The stigma remains. Like you hear somebody something like that. It's hard not to think about it when they're going into their fight. That's the problem. You know, I remember what was it? Mark Hunt, that Players Tribune type piece or whatever, he mentioned some very alarming things that he thought he was going through

like short-term memory, weird things, and you're like, in the fight game, man, you hear that stuff, and unfortunately it sticks with you because that's something, that's the one thing that you have to guard most against and that you're most concerned with is doing damage to your brain. So you've got to be very careful with what you leak out there, and I suppose you've got to follow through. If you do say something like that, at some point, you know, just for the humanity of it, you'd like to know what's going on with guys like John Fitch. You'd like to hear, you know, some professional who's examined to give you a better

explanation. But until we kind of get that, you have to just go with what the doctors say in these situations. Yeah. All right. Well, hey, let's keep it going. We have a lot of green questions to get to still, so we'll try to get to all of them. This next question is coming from our good friend Lodovic who wants to know a little bit about Greg Hardy. Gentlemen, he writes, how do I put this? Did you feel embarrassed to be an MMA fan watching the co-main event on Saturday just like I did? I think that's one way to put it. I wanted to believe MMA was becoming a well-established sport with at least some level of integrity. He writes, putting an NFL outcast against the kind of bum who's fighting for 10K as co-main event makes me feel the sport is not getting anywhere. Also,

does it really help the UFC? I get that this kind of novelty gets you casual to viewers for single event, but I also think you're losing hardcore fans who will otherwise turn in or tune in regularly. It is difficult to care about divisions and rankings when the UFC clearly doesn't, isn't it? What do you think? Is the UFC overestimating the value of of these publicity stunts over actually developing their assets, or is it just me being a European and not understanding the real impact of having WWE and NFL celebrities on the card? So Chuck, Greg Hardy continues to be in our lives.

He made an appearance last weekend in the co-main event once again. Now his second time in a row is the co-main event after losing his UFC debut nonetheless. And he gets his first UFC win. also comes out yesterday. I've reported, yeah, it was yesterday, that he also made $150,000 for his first UFC win, which was one of the highest salaries on the entire card, made more than Jack Hermanson.

Were you embarrassed to watch that, I guess, if we're going to go off of this question's premise? Embarrassed is a stranger. I mean, if you follow this game long enough, I'm not sure I get embarrassed anymore by anything that goes to the lead up. But I would say that, you know, what would you say? Like, there's a part of me that, man, I just don't get it. I don't understand why they have to put him in a co-main event. I don't understand, you know, the best you can say about him is he's a green fighter.

He's still learning the aspects of the game. So what is the best case scenario? The best case scenario is that he did exactly what just happened. He knocks a guy out who he should knock out because the guy probably had no business being in there. But if he fights anybody who has any real chops, I'm telling you right now, I don't think Greg Hardy lasts as long as that guy did against Greg Hardy. I mean, he's just not there yet. So my concern, obviously, is that if we establish what UFC caliber means, we have to kind of uphold it to an extent.

I feel like he's not really UFC caliber, which then, you know, kind of appeals back this whole other layer of why? Why are we, you know, it didn't help, like back in the day when Herschel Walker was fight and what was the name Greg Nagy or whatever, you know, 2011. It didn't. It wasn't like having that spectacle or that novel piece was going to generate billions of people to watch it or tons of money. It just doesn't really work that way. Not to mention you have a guy who literally is polarizing for a lot of fans. I think that he draws more disdain than just about any fighter going. And it's what? Because he has the NFL credentials. I really,

don't understand it, I guess. I don't really understand. I don't understand as pay, you know, at 150 versus, you know, I don't understand any of that sort of thing. So if the UFC had only just said, okay, look, we're going to put them on the main card, maybe the pivot bout or maybe the first fight, okay, there's really no question about it, but the co-main event should be people who are, you know, deserving, I think. I got a lot of hot water about this topic when I wrote about Artem Lobov, not deserving basically a, a, um, a, um, a, um, a, um, um, a, um, um, a, a co-main event in his last UFC fight, and that turned into this big thing. But I'm like, Artem Lobov has about 10 times the credentials that Greg Hardy does.

So that gives you an idea of what I think about Greg Hardy being in the co-main event. He shouldn't be there. Yeah. I mean, you mentioned in your answer that UFC level. What is UFC level anymore? I would humbly submit to you that UFC level doesn't mean anything anymore, right? I feel like we have just thrown that out at this point. And perhaps it was the CM Punk experience.

I mean, Mike Jackson, our good friend Mike Jackson, I don't mean any disrespect. But I feel like UFC levels stop meaning something a while ago. And this is sort of the long lasting ramifications of it, right? Where we are, it's obvious what the UFC is doing. And I mean, anecdotally, I think it works to some degree. I don't understand the fascination either. just like you don't. But I know other people that do, certainly, just anecdotally, I was not watching the fights

on Saturday. I was, or at least live, I was at a friend's 30th birthday party. But there was a TV on where we were at with the fights on. And throughout the entire night, not one person stopped and watched the fights at all, except for Greg Hardy. At the moment Greg Hardy gone on, there was a pool of maybe eight to ten people who actually, all guys who all kind of joined around the TV and watched for a minute or two minutes. And I think that's just anecdotally what it is, right?

Like he has name recognition that Jack Hermanson or somebody else won't for bad reasons. It's not for good reasons that he has this name recognition, but it is still a notoriety of note. And people will tune in even if I don't get it, even if you don't get it, we're not the target audience in this case. There's just more to it, though. I mean, that's good. It's good to know stuff like that, because maybe sometimes you get a little stuck in the bubble of MMA, and you think only in terms of how the internal inside the bubble is thinking about it, right?

But the casual fan obviously becomes a whole different scenario. But, you know, what's to say then that Logan Pulse shouldn't be in the UFC or that, you know what I mean? Where is the line then? And I feel like this is really where the, you know, it gets a little bit puzzling because I'm like, okay, he went through the contender series. He was able to knock some guys out. I'm not saying he's not showing talent. Obviously, the guy clearly wants to be a mixed martial artist,

and he's doing fairly well at that level. I'm just like tone it back from the coment. You'd still get that same audience if it's like, if it's the first fight, right? If it's the first fight on the main card. So why not just put him on the first fight? Well, you know, he is the Michael Jordan of combat sports, you know? And then they get into this stuff,

of the hyperbole that starts to come out. I don't know. This is, I used to, I did a whole piece once on celebrity boxing for this very thing. It's like these guys when Screech is fighting a Horshack or something like that, I'm like, if it's just a person that you recognize from someone else and all of a sudden, like, what is he going to do where you want to see and get his ass kicked? I get it. I get this layer of the game, but it's a very strange layer of the game, at least to spotlight in that way.

That's put it that way. I don't know what the best case scenario for the UFC and Greg Hardy is. Is it that he, you know, he goes on and he realizes a dream and becomes a champion? Because I'm not sure, I don't know how this would play out, but I honestly don't believe that his redemption story would be like this big triumphant thing for the game base. So you just take that in consideration. And you're like, this seems very, very myopic. Like it almost seems stubborn, honestly, by Dana White.

It almost seems like a stubborn. No way. Dana White's stubborn? I don't, that's crazy talk. Yeah. Well, he's digging his heels in. pretty good on this one. I just think it's one of those strange things, but kudos to Hardy for going out there and getting his first victory. I'm not going to take it away from him, but

that fight, embarrassing is the wrong word, but that fight was certainly, it was one of those ones that sets things back a little bit. You see a guy just get hit and he wants out of there and you're like, oh man, not this. Because it just, it seems like the old belt, the old strike force, there was fights like that in strike force. There were fights like that on regional cards. where you see a guy who has kind of a name and he just destroys the other guy. I'm like, yeah, it's a setup. Yeah, nope.

There's nothing good about that in the end, you know? So kudos to win, and hopefully the next one gives him a little bit more of a challenge. I guess my last thing I would say about this is, I'm obvious, I'm on record saying that I don't really agree with him being thrust into this position. Maybe if you want to give him opportunity, that's one thing. But if you're going to try to push him as a star when he's clearly not ready

and he also doesn't deserve it in any capacity, like that's i don't agree with that but if we just take that at face value and we accept that that's with the situation and we sort of move forward with that the hand wringing over the set up fight which was basically what that was and that the level of opposition he's getting that to me doesn't make a ton of sense because this is kind of what the ufc should be doing if this is the guy that they've targeted as hey we're going to make this guy into something that's how you do it that's how you build somebody up is you give him these type of fights. The matchmaking itself, I don't have a problem with it.

You already reached that point of accepting that this is the situation that we're dealing with. The matchmaking in and of itself makes a lot of sense to me, actually, and it seems more or less correct. It's just you don't need to, by putting it in the co-main event, you are attracting this sort of conversation that you just don't want, generally. If he's, if there's 13 fights on the sky, I don't know how many fights are on that call. If there's 13 fights, either he should be kicking off the main card or should maybe closing one of the prelim sections. Something like that. I guess where he needs to be.

Honestly, that is my only gripe about it. I completely agree that's the caliber of fighter he should have got at that moment. If that fight is the fifth fight of the night rather than you've waited six, seven hours to get to this point and this is the last one before the main event, I feel like it's received tremendously differently than, again, waiting the entire day to watch Greg Hardy smoke some guy who didn't deserve to be in there. There's not a lot of satisfaction in that, you know? Yeah.

Also, I will say if I'm Jack Hermanson or I'm a guy who's been in this promotion for a long time, Mike Perry even and Alex Olivera, someone who goes out there and leaves it all in the line, and I see Greg Hardy's making 75 and 75 for his first UFC win, I am making some phone calls to my manager and I am upset because that. point, man. I mean, a lot of those guys, especially that Olivera, Mike Perry, if I come on, man, those guys have the dog in them. They both go in there and just, it was ridiculous. You knew it was going to be that way. And I don't know what they made. You probably know that. I know you deal with the salaries a little more than I do. They both made less.

Alivera made in the 60, 60 and 60 range. And Mike Perry was like 55, 55. Yeah. It's, I, yeah, speechless, man. I don't know what to say about that sort of thing. I would just be making phone calls to my manager, because at that point, it's just like, Make your money. I'm not going to ever be mad at anybody in this sport where nobody makes money. I'm not going to be mad at somebody for making money. Make that money. But I'll be making phone calls to my manager.

I'll be very upset. Let's move on. We still got a lot to get to. Oh, this next one's going to be good. It's coming from Rob Holland. Chuck's first round of true or false on the A side. So we like to have these occasionally chucked a little quick round of a lightning round, if you will, of true or false. And so first one, true or false.

Rory McDonald wins the turn. and then retires despite his fresh contract. I'm going to say false. I could see a scenario where he wins the tournament, but you mentioned earlier, the guy's 29 years old, and he's still going through his process of discovery. I think he'll find it in him probably at some point to want to continue. I wouldn't be surprised the other way, but I'm going to, I'll say false.

I'm going to say false, but for a different reason, I don't think he wins this tournament. Yeah? I think he'll get by Neiman Gracie, just on pure veteran guile and experience, and he just knows the right things to do. But if you're going into a finals matchup against likely Douglas Lima, who is one of the most violent welterweights on this planet Earth,

and you are just not sure whether this is something you want to do. That to me seems like a setup for a bad, bad time. That is a great point. He's going to have to find him to want to fight, man. You can't go in there kind of half-hearted on that one. Yeah, I mean, the first Roy McDonald v. Douglas Lima fight was a bloodbath, and I don't know if Roy doesn't want another one. That's not the right man to do it.

Next up, true or false, Stepe knocks out Daniel Cormier, and then they do the trilogy fight right after. Well, if he does knock out Cormier, I think that that's true. I think that Cormier is one of those guys who wants to redeem himself. We've seen that with the John Jones thing.

So I think that that was sticking his crawl a little bit and he'd want that back. I think false. I don't think Stipe will knock out D.C. He might win, but I don't think he'll knock him out. but if that were to happen I would think the trilogy fight would be right after next yet

next one in the future we will see Greg Hardy versus the Black Beast true or false man I'll say false but only because we're talking about a pretty huge gulf still between those two guys

I think that Greg Hardy's going to have to prove that he belongs there and he's obviously in a situation where he's going to be going against guys who can knock him out he's going to have to get it better and he's going to have to get there or Derek who's going to have to fall off so much where that becomes a fight but I'll say false I'll say false too but if Greg Hardy gets any kind of momentum that feels like the type of fighter that they would throw him against right if there is a contender who is maybe not

any sort of grappling base contender that you can guarantee it's going to be a slug fest it's the black beast and that seems like the type of fight that Greg Hardee could actually, not right now at all, but down the line, if he develops, have a chance, and if the UFC's trying to advance him up the ranks, that feels like something they could do. So I'm going to say true. I think we'll see that at some point. Ferguson versus McGregor is in the making as we speak true or false. I'm going to say false on that.

I say false because I honestly believe that Ferguson is just not there yet. I don't think he's back. And then, of course, McGregor is just too. He's, who knows, man. But I'll say false. I say false just because I don't think Connor would ever even accept that fight ever. I don't think you would either. That is a terrible stylistic matchup for Connor, and I do not think he wants it.

What's that? He needs a win, not another wall. Yes. Next up, Germain Durandini will never again fight for a belt even after defeating everyone they put in front of her. I'd say, oh. So if she, they're saying hypothetically if she wins a bunch of fights that she still could never get back. to it. I would say true. I think that they're pretty spurned by her. I think she'd be cut like at the first sign of trouble. I can't see her getting a title shot again in the UFC.

As unlikely as it is, I'm going to say, I'm going to say false. I think, or maybe, yeah, never five, no, yeah, I'm going to say false. I'm trying to understand the premise. She, if you look at it, is not that far away from Bantamway title contention. She is probably one fight away from being the one of the next, if not the next. If not the next. contender at 135. So I actually think it could happen sooner rather than water. I feel like the UFC holds it against her. You never know, man.

You never know. I guess I could see it that way if it happens, but it's going to be an uphill battle for her. Yeah, can you imagine that announcement? Two left, true or false. Anthony Smith fights and beats Luke Rockhold in 2019 at Light Heavyweight. I hope it happens, but I hope the fight happens. I'm going to say false, though.

I love Anthony Smith, and I think he would give Rockhold a really good fight. But I'm anticipating that Rockhold's going to look better at his new weight, just projecting. I think that he'll be too much of a handful of that weight for him. I'm going to say true. I think that's absolutely the fight to make, regardless of whatever happens with either of these men in these next fights. They want it.

I want it. And I think Anthony Smith could surprise some people, though, although who knows? Luke Rockhold might become a murderer once again. That'd be a great fight. I'd love to find out. Yeah, absolutely. Same. And then last one coming from Rob Holland,

Tyron Woodley loses to Robbie Lawler and will not move to middleweight yet. If he loses, I think he goes to middleweight. So you think that would be the end of the Welter Railroad? I think so. I don't know where. I mean, I think he kind of wants to stay vital to a picture, a, you know, a title picture. So I don't think that he would be anywhere near that at that point at Welterweight. So probably a new landscape would be right for him.

Yeah. I'll say false, but I just to say false because I don't think Tyrone Woodley will lose to Robbie Lauder. But that's why they fight the fight. You're saying false just to say false. All right. Next few ones should be quickies. This next one's coming from Sped Ed Penn. E. All right. I don't know. I don't know. I feel like there's probably a joke there that I'm not getting. Hey, fellas, I was wondering, how does your pay structure work? Okay. Do you get paid by the article, by how many live events you go to shows like this, or beat?

Is it just an hourly wage or salary? I don't want to know how much you actually make. It is just something I've always wondered. Thanks. I can just feel this one really quickly. I think both you and I are on salary, Chuck. I get $15 per article. I was supposed to salary.

Yeah, we're both on salary. I think it varies generally for the industry. Maybe that's kind of what you meant. I definitely know some people at other websites who get paid by article, by project. I don't know anybody who's on hourly. That would be more of like desk shifts and et cetera, but I'm sure it exists. But yeah, generally, I think most full-timers with freelancers in general. Freelancers in general, I think, are more per article.

Some people have an actual word count that they're supposed to meet per month, like, retainer type things, but everybody's deal is different. But speaking about us, we're salaried positions in full-time. Yeah. And next question's coming from Milo of Croton, who says Chuck's writing. Sean, Chuck, great to see this combo. Chuck's writing is amazing. I love how colorful his language is. I agree with you, sir. Does Chuck have any writing tips on how he can come, how he does come up with his particular style of writing? Example, in his recent Overeem article, he writes, that's the latest wrinkle in Overim's story career. He has some hard asses barking at him when another writer might have said Overim has a long career and has had a long career in a

tough division or something plain to that effect. Thank you. Chuck, the people want to know about your skills here. Man, well, thank you for that. To be honest, I've been doing it for so long that you try to stay away from, you know, basically wording things exactly the same as anybody else might, you know, you try to add the color to it, I guess, a little bit and stylize it. But ultimately, you know, I always feel like you should just be who you are. You try to write, I'm more of a columnist. If I'm writing a news piece and I've done that too, but you're certainly not trying to stylize it. You're not trying to do anything that would be overly, you know, personal to what you're doing. But if you're giving your opinion in a column or you're writing a feature

or some kind. Race, get to your points, make your points, but you should add as much color to it as you want. You know, I just feel like it's kind of finding your own voice in the process. Yeah, well said, well said. We are running long on time, so let's try to breeze through these last one. This next one's coming from Trumbo, who says, in honor of the new era of the A-Side Live Chat podcast, Chuck should do a shooey. Yes, he should.

How do you block trombou? Honestly, I saw Mark do that. We watched it recently. I don't know if I could do that. That's pretty disgusting. I like beer and I like shoes, but separately, I don't like, I don't really like them together. What about something out of a hat? Would you do that?

I just think that the beer wouldn't hold. I suppose what kind of hat it is. Yeah, I could do a hatty. I could do a hatty. Like a really well-worn, old, frayed-up hat? That seems more on-brand for you. See, this is whatever we want. They want it to be something disgusting.

So I guess a worn-out hat would be as bad as a shoe, I guess. But not better. One of these days, I'm going to do a shoe. We shall see. And then this last question coming from the MMA fighting page, and then we'll move over to Twitter. What's next for Platinum, Mike? After beating Cowboy Oliveira, is Mike Perry ready for his step up, say the winner of Magni versus Lucay?

Y'all is going to not let Vicente Lucke advance up these ranks. It's ridiculous. Or is he better suited to fight, say, the winner of Bam Bam Barbarina versus Randy Brown. That's an interesting one. I like the latter option. I think he's got to take it a little. Remember, the guy's like, I think he's only like two and three in his last five fights. He's a guy who will fight anybody, clearly.

I mean, he'll go and fight him. but if you really want to try to get him on a head of momentum and kind of, you know, milk his unique brand of charisma and star power, I think that you've got to give him a couple of fights he can, that he's at his level. I don't want, you know, you don't want to see him thrown to wolves and just keep losing because eventually he, you know, all the charisma in the role, all those things would just kind of go away if he's losing more fights than he's winning. So I'd like him, I'd like to see him with guys right now who would be competitive with him,

but that whom he could beat. Yeah, I agree with you. I actually really, really like the Barbarina fight. I hadn't considered that. Because he's tough, man. That cat can fight, so. Oh, he's incredibly tough. He's one of the toughest men I've ever seen.

He walked into Baby Shark at UFC Phoenix in, put on one of the fights of the year. And he's the prospect. Like, he kills the guys with the hype and the buzz, right? He's a buzz guy. He kills those guys off. Yeah. And also just the dynamic between the personalities. Brian Barbarina is very low-key.

and platinum mic is very outspoken. I think it would be an interesting pairing. I like that fight a lot, actually. I agree with you. You got to build him up. Let him get some momentum going. He is a fan favorite already. Absolutely.

All right. Well, hey, that clears the MMA fighting page. We're going to now move over to Twitter, get as many of these as we can, and then we'll get to the promo, and then we'll get out of here. And we appreciate you guys for sticking with us. Let us look on the Twitter machine.

Let me see if we can find something. All right, let's talk about this weekend. And this is coming from our good buddy, Dan Shapiro, who says, now that there's finally some order being restored to the lightweight division, can we go ahead and sign up the winner of Saturday's Cowboy Soroni versus Regan Al-made event to fight Justin Gaichie? Oh, man. I would have no objection to that. I mean, you think about like a Gaichi-Soroni fight and it's kind of,

surrounding spot everybody i mean just the fact that they would accommodate each other in the ways that you know would make for a ridiculous fight i feel like that's anybody gaichi fights really but um no i wouldn't have an objection with that either way even if you know i equinta it wouldn't matter to me i actually think that's probably the fight i i spoke to al yesterday and he he's taking a view that i think is probably a good way to take when you're in a division like this where it's so log jammed and backlogged where it's just i'm not even His view is I'm just not even going to worry about this. Let the cards will fall wherever they fall.

I'm going to just go ahead and fight Donald Serroney this weekend and then we'll figure it out from there. But if you look at that, realistically, the winner of that fight should be in some level of contendorship. But yeah, we're not going to get Habib versus Dustin until much later this year. Connor McGregor isn't fighting. Tony Ferguson deserves better. I don't know. Also, we just don't know of his status yet. the next man up is

Alia Quinta and Justin Gachy when it comes to the ranking. So it feels to me that that would probably be, I don't want to call it a stay busy fight, but it's probably just a hold your spot type of fight in a division as stacked as lightweight. I think Gachi probably should get the winner of

this weekend's fight. I like that a lot and I think either way that goes, whether it's Al or whether it's cowboy, God damn, sign me up for that. Well, let me make a call. Good a good. Really quickly, Chuck, how you see this weekend going with Reginald and Cowboy? It's a good fight.

I like the way Seroni has looked. It's funny how we always kind of start writing him off. Like maybe he's been around too long. He's starting to decline, and then he just bounces back. It'd be intriguing, man, because obviously I think Alia Quince is one of the toughest dudes in the division. So I think this will be a tough, tough fight. But I'm favoring Raging Al on this one, man.

And I think that he's, I don't want to say underrated. He's kind of been in and out of radar. And I feel like when he's on, though, he's just, he's really on. I think people want to remember the no Magamato fight, but you just think about those circumstances. I kind of have to dismiss what happened in that fight and just remember everything else. So I think that that's the guy we're going to see, the best version of Raging L, and that dude is a tough out.

Yeah, I mean, I just want to, I mean, look at the road we've gone through with Rage. now, right? Because how long ago, maybe four or five years ago, it seemed like he was done. Oh, yeah. It seemed like he was on the way out. So even like three years ago, his body was betraying him. He was having all these knee issues. He seemed to be in an impassable contract standoff with the UFC. And now this is his third straight event that he is headlined. He is number four in the best division in the entire world. The turnaround is pretty damn remarkable. Just how what he's been able to do over over these last year or two. Go rage now, man. That is incredible work for it to really make, because I thought he were at some point, it really looked like he was never going to

fulfill the promise as that guy that we thought he was going to be. And now he's out here doing it. So I agree with you. I think he probably takes it this weekend, but it'll be fun to see. I've got discounted him all the way back when he lost in Toronto. Was it Mitch Clark? He lost that fight. It was like a weird, you're like, where did that come from? But since then, he's kind of just been on this a steady role, but you're just accepting the Ramagabana fight. If he didn't take that fight, if you just stick to his original fight, it's possible right now, like his name is, you know what I mean? We're clamoring for a title fight for him. So circumstances, he had to do what he had to do. But that guy is right there, man. When he's on, he's on. Yeah, absolutely,

Absolutely, absolutely. Also, I mean, even just in the Kevin Lee fight, this last one for him, I feel like there was still a large majority of the MMA population doubting whether he belonged. And I think it's pretty clear at this point that he definitely does belong. This next one's coming from Natalie. Zemundio, hopefully I said that right. I don't think I did. Who wants to know UFC will never allow crossover fights like Bellator does with Risen. But do you think we could ever see a UFC versus Bellator softball? game for charity. Imagine the lineup

possibilities. I'm going to say no. It's not to say that the fighters themselves couldn't organize that. I don't think the UFC would actually stop them. So I think that as long as the fighters want to do that, I'm sure they could arrange something. If you're putting together a UFC Bellator softball lineup and you can choose from either

pool of talent, who's like your cleanup hitter? Like who's the home run big power guy that you're just snagging and been like, oh, you're going to get like 10 RBIs this game. Wow. Well, man, you think of guys like in Gano or something, right? Like, he looks like he would just be able to be able to do that. I don't know, though, because so many of those guys are very awkward with, yeah, you still got to be able to run and all of that.

I truly don't know, man. I don't know who I'd put in there, right? Nobody just jumps to mine. I feel like there's a maybe steep, right? Because he played, he actually played baseball. That's a good one. I was thinking somebody maybe like a Wyedman, somebody with like a long frame

who seems relatively athletic, but Steppe would be good. Yeah, somebody like that. I don't know about a little bit. Chuck Congo, man. Yeah. This one's coming from D.Piercy Comics. Can you ask Chuck how he feels about

Goren Bros? Flatcaps? I don't know what that is. I might have one. You know, I don't really, you know, it's funny, the Boston Scali guys are the best, I think. Like, they make these six panels, which is kind of the ones I like. They just lose flat cat. Those are my favorite.

So if I had to endorse one of them, it's going to be them. But honestly, man, anybody who, most places that make the style, even if they're not like these fancy expensive material ones, they're usually pretty good. Yeah. Next one's coming from Dennis Soros, who wants to know with the Brock News, is the money, era officially over is the UFC getting back to business in maintaining order what leverage do fighters have left for big paydays. I'm going to answer that with a resounding no. We just had a 10-minute conversation about Greg Hardy making 150K and being in the co-made event. Yeah, I don't know, man. It's all weird these days. And I feel like the, you know, like even

just Cormier getting that, you know, getting rebooked now into that rematch with Miotich, even that fight, which in the original pay-per-view model, when it was the UFC running the pay-per-views, might not have been as desirable, but you can tell now that ESPN is running, you know, the pay-per-view side of the business, these things I feel like we're going to see. The meritocracy may restore itself in a weird way, just given this.

I don't feel like the same onus will be on the UFC to make the matches. It would just be, they can make the fights if they're not the sexist, they can go to Plan B's, and they don't have to stress about it as much as, they might have previously. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's, it's, money era is going to go on and on and on.

They're going to do what they want to do. And it's actually, this is a nice little follow up to that question. This is coming from remote Matt, who I hadn't thought of this, but this is interesting. Could the new UFC pay-per-view model be the reason stars, like Lesnar and McGregor are not fighting? Like the UFC business model just does not require them anymore.

And that's actually a really interesting question because as we have seen, and we still have yet to really figure out what this all means on a grander scale, because we've only had UFC 236. But the UFC is making money, significant money, every pay-per-view they run now, as if it was a successful paper view from ESPN. And pay-per-view buys are probably going to get dramatically cut, especially for earning for guys who earn money off of those pay-view buys and earn the majority of their paytracks from that. do you think there's any connection to this new switch and now people like a brock lesnar being like you know i'm i'm good i do feel like the ufc no longer uh like these i feel like in the in the generation of stars right like you're trying to get these guys who are traditional pay-per view uh blockbuster guys i feel like the ufc doesn't have to be as beholden to them anymore like they don't have to meet people um with these ransom notes anymore they don't have to do that anymore i think

like a little bit that they can the UFC can kind of go back to the way they want to do their business and make these fighters regardless of where they're at in their stature at this point come to them a little more so I feel like the UFC has kind of put the ball back in their on their court a little bit yeah I mean it's actually that's actually a really interesting question I'm going to dig into that a little bit after after we we get hang up because I mean there might be something to do that I mean, Brock Lesnar was the one thing that we know about him. He loves. He does like money.

He loves his money. He loves his money. And with him coming back to this new space, this new situation that this is sort of worked out, probably wasn't going to make nearly as much money as he would have before unless he adjusted his contract to some degree about the paper view stipulations of the points and everything. So I think there's very, there might actually be something to that. That is a very interesting point. Let's get a few more really quickly. and then we'll get out of here.

Let's see. Here we go. This one's coming from our good friend Strike MX who says Chuck, or I'm sorry, Cub Swanson has lost three in a row. And if he loses on Saturday to Shane Burgos, what happens to him? Should he go to Bellator Juan or PFL?

Should he hang it up? Do you think he still has the skills to beat the top featherweights? And this is an interesting question, Chuck. Chuck or Cub Minuton. Cub Minnard. Jesus. We've been talking an hour and a half.

It's all running together. Cub Swanson has lost three in a row. Good names. Brian Ortega, Frankie, Eger, Hanato Moikano, but still three in a row. He is now coming into this fight against Shane Burgos, who I believe you spoke to. What do you think?

What do you make of this? I think he's at that slippery edge, man. I think this particular one, because I and I'm not as no knock on a guy like burgos who's obviously very good but he's more of a radar guy he's just coming up into his own uh the other guys he was losing to are a little bit more established obviously I think that those are fights that everybody knew he could lose if he loses this one I feel like he's you know being there's some kind of bypass there going on like he's being bypassed by some of the younger guys coming up and uh at four four losses in a row I know that the UFC likes and they like his style like he's a guy you can plug in He always said, oh, Cub Swanson's on the card. That's cool. You know, so I feel like it may not cost him his roster spot, but I think that as far as him being, you know, the old Cubs one, the guy that we've, you know, come to love since he debuted and, you know, the WEC way back like a decade ago. I just don't think that he'll have that anymore.

I think that this will probably close the chapter on him as a contender for good. But, you know, man, a big timely win for him could do wonders too, man. because remember he was on a nice streak before he hit this three this three fight losing straight he was doing really well so um this this this is a big fight for him man it's a crossroads fight for him crossroads fight that's it that's a good way to put it because you're right i mean i don't think i know the ufc likes him a lot and dana white in particular likes him a lot he's been very loyal to them he's really done a lot of things that they've asked them to do uh he he never really got that title shot when he should have uh and they certainly remember that so i don't think

if he loses on Saturday, that that would be the end of his UFC road. I think he's one of those cases where they will keep him in this, give him another shot. Hopefully he wouldn't make it five straight losses, but they would give him that last shot. But, I mean, he is 35 years old. I agree with you. I don't know. I think his title window has closed at this point. This featherweight division right now is brimming with young, talented, hungry guys like the Volcanovskis and the Mago Meshirepovs. It feels like it's sort of passed Cub by, which is, unfortunate to say, but that's kind of the realities of this. It happens.

The sport is merciless when it comes down to the guys that are coming up to replace you. And we've seen it a million times, and it will continue on that way. You know, that's why you've got to get your money. You got to make your glory, whatever you're going to do and get in and get out. The guys who have that mindset are very, I mean, I feel like they're dialed in. Cody, or wasn't in Corey Sanhagen, just in his last fight. I remember talking to him and he was just like, you know what, man. It's, I want to get in, get the biggest fights I can't make as much money as I

kind of get back out after a few years. And I feel like guys should probably look at, you know, having a large, a big picture in mind like that a little bit. Yeah. That being said, I mean, I hope I'm wrong about Cups Swanson. I enjoy him greatly in this game. He is always a very fun, entertaining fighter. He is always tremendously generous with his time and he's a very nice guy, too. So I hope this isn't sort of the attorney point for him. Maybe he can, he can write some wrongs on Saturday. But even if, even if so, I feel like he still has some mileage left in him if he wanted to do the Bellator PFL type of route. So we shall see. And then last one, let's do one last one. And then we'll do the promo and get out of here. This one's coming from death metal and bidders.

It's an interesting name. After Edding a skid, what is your view on Carla Esparza? She talked, Joanna rematch and trying to contend, but she's 31, had her best stretch five years ago and retooled her game to uneven results, what will a real comeback take, or is it impossible, given this division? Oh, man. I don't want to say impossible, you know? It's, uh, what do you think? I mean, I think that it's, it's fighting, right? So I feel like anything is possible, but she got a hard. I'll say that the, the, because we and you were both there for her fight at UFC 228 in Dallas against Tatiana Suarez. Yeah, and that was immoralizing for her.

I mean, that was like a bad one. Yeah, that was a really rough one because that was one of those fights where somebody is going right into your wheelhouse and just outclassing you. And Tatiana Swarres just kabed her. She manhandled her. And I think that sort of sets the ceiling of how far she can reach, right? Because it does feel, I think both of us agree that Swares is probably the future in this division. but I will say I mean Carla has really revamped her game in a way that I have found surprising

and I was not sure that she could. She came out on Saturday and, you know, dominated a former invicted champion. Maybe not dominated, but she did very well against a former invicted champion. It was very smart in how she executed her game plan, you know, she took what she was given. Like that, sometimes you're like, when you're trying to get back on track and make waves, you've got to kind of do that a little bit. You try to, maybe you're not trying to showcase the aesthetic so much as just get the job done. I felt like she reverted to that very well.

Like she just kind of knew what she had to do and the takedowns and things like that. She took them where they were. So good for her, man, like kind of playing that game a little bit. Yeah. And even if you go back last year, she was inches, inches away from beating Claudia Godelia and they fought at 225. So she is still absolutely a contender in this division. I just think the upper, upper tier of this. division, the very, very tip top of it, it's going to be hard for her to catch that.

Yeah. All right. Well, hey, man, you did it. I did it. Did it. Your first A-side live chat is almost in the books. We have one last order of business to get to. And that is something we call the promo.

We just speak very briefly about something that is important to you, something that maybe fell through the cracks. And I, would you like to go first or would you like me to go before you? I will give this your choice. seniority you go first all righty I will roll right now and I know I often like to do a little something

positive speak about a positive story something like that unfortunately that's that's not the case this week if you have not seen it yet by now our own Guillermo Cruz had a story that released earlier this week about MMA veteran grizzled veteran of the game

one of the old school OGs Babeluso Brow Renato Babelusa Brow and he was a It was not a fun article. It was a little sad, a little depressing. He was more or less speaking about how he is starting to feel symptoms that he believes are CTE. Obviously, the brain disease that is afflicting many football players, many boxers, and we are starting to see it now seep into MMA as well.

And you hope that what he is experiencing is not that, because that is very life-rooting. But also it is a very somber reminder of what all of these people do. All of these men and women are doing, yes, for themselves, because this is what they enjoy and this is how they're making their money and some of them make very good money. But also for our own entertainment, every single weekend, all of these men and women are putting their lives on the line in a very, very real way to entertain us.

And I think that is something we need to keep in mind more often. Some of the quotes from Babaloo in that story were tough, tough to read. I'll read one excerpt, quote, Today I can't walk a straight line. I lost sight in my left eye, which is a big price to pay. I have no balance, and my balance is almost zero.

And I don't know his exact age, and I won't look it up on the fly because this is a live show, but I know he is too young to be experiencing things like that. And he is worried about he will not be able to communicate and see with his kids and see his kids grow up. And that is a very real fear. So let's, everyone out there, man, let's just be more cognizant of what all of these people are sacrificing for us. Be nice to fighters on social media.

They don't need your negativity. They just need your positivity. And that is my message for today. Read that story by Gierman Cruz, if you have not already. Tremendous work by him. Well done. Yeah, great. That's an awesome.

I did read that article. And it's an unfortunate thing that's, you know, in our sport. And I do feel like in the age of social media, especially, man, it's like, just stop once in a while and remember that. Because going back to our Aurora McDonald's talk, I think that that's a, it's just something you, you know, when you break it down, man, you remember that these guys, they're human beings and when they have families and everything else.

And it's tragic, man, when you hear those types of stories. But it's inevitable. And I think that that's what the fight game does. That's part of the risk involved. But for mine, man, it's my first time on this A-side chat, which was more. from Luke's thing. Now it's like it's this whole thing, but I'm like, you know, it's kind of cool, man. I didn't think I would ever really show up on something like this. So I just wanted to say like

awesome, you know, like it was a lot of fun. And I don't know if I'll do another one. I don't know if we're, what are you going to do? You're going to like roll in a rotation or something like that or contemplating all that still? Yeah, yeah. No, we're going to have different, different co-hosts every week. So if you enjoyed your experience, we would be more than happy to have you back. at some point. But I will say that I think it's cool. I've been, you know, I've watched the show, especially watched it early on. I haven't seen it in the last six months.

No, I'm just kidding. I have watched it. And I've just, I dig it, man. I think you guys have done a great job. Mark, power to Mark, going over to ESPN. I know he's going to kill it over there. Hopefully he gets something going where they give him a little bit of a platform to keep doing something like this, at least a mailbag or something. But it was fun to sit in, man, and

talk to you guys and talk to you and kind of deal I never get to really deal with the public like this, where you're going to answer questions directed at you and stuff like that. Because after the beat is a Luke thing, he picks those questions. I don't. So, so, so that was fun. So thank you, man. Appreciate it. Absolutely. Well, we appreciate you for joining us. And that about wraps it up here for today's episode of the A Side Live Chat podcast. This has been a fun one. Next week, we will have a different person on Chuck Men in Hall seat. But we will have the man back. Most certainly, it is an open invitation anytime. you want to come back, you're more than welcome. We appreciate you, and we appreciate you guys for sticking with us. It is a busy week this week. We have UFC Ottawa coming.

Our own Alexander K. Lee is in Ottawa for that, so we will bring you coverage all week from Ottawa. It's going to be a fun one. In the meantime, I hope you guys enjoy your weekend, enjoy the rest of the fights, subscribe to the MMA fighting new feed, where all of our shows are now in there. In the meantime, my name is Sean O'Shti. That man is Chuck Menin-Haw. This has been the Aiside Live Chat podcast.

Same time, the same place next week. We appreciate you. We love you. We will see you then. Have a good weekend. A side.