MMA Fighting - The A-Side Live Chat | UFC 238, Lobov vs. Malignaggi, UFC Rochester aftermath, Sage Northcutt, 2019 Hall of Fame class, more

Episode Date: May 22, 2019

For his final episode of The A-Side Live Chat, Shaun Al-Shatti welcomes José Youngs on the show to answer your questions about UFC 238, Lobov vs. Malignaggi, UFC Rochester, Sage Northcutt, the 2019 Hall of Fame class, and much more Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Instacart, groceries that over-deliver. Service fees exclusions in terms apply. 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 22nd, 2019. And this, this is the Aiside Live Chat podcast. I have all of you out there having a lovely start to your week. We appreciate you so much for joining us today. And this is a bit of a weird one. I said that a couple of weeks ago, and I'm going to have to start the show again. If you have not heard, this is going to be my last episode of the Aiside Live Chat podcast. I am leaving MMA fighting after this week. I cannot really talk.

more about what's going on, but I felt there was no better man to join me on this last show than my fellow Arizonan. So let me bring in my co-host for today. Joining me on today's program, he has my brother's an arm in the desert, the sharpest comic book mind in all of the MMA space. He is a Celtics fan, but we will forgive that just for today. Thank you so much for joining the program. Mr. Jose Youngs, what is up, Jose? Welcome to the A-Side. I enjoyed that intro not often i introduced as a sharp comic book-minded individual i like to think myself as that but uh respect and it's a like you said a weird one for me to like it's a weird one for my first one because i'm gonna miss you but let's do it yeah i'm sorry for bringing you on for your debut on such a uh

strange platform it's all good my man so we're gonna try to get through this i'm gonna try not to cry cry. Nah, I'm going to try not to. It's going to be fine. So we are coming off of another busy MAA weekend. Thank you so much for joining me, Jose. Let's have some fun today. From Rafael Dosaynios to Michelle Prisette Pereira.

There was a lot to like about UFC Rochester. Plus, we have Lobov versus Malinaji. That car crash keeps rolling. Sage North Carolina gets a broken face. Rashad Evans ends up in the Hall of Fame. A stacked UFC 238 is just ahead of us and a whole lot more today. But as we always say, this is your show. So we'll talk about whatever it is that you want us to talk about.

You can ask us a question on the MMA fighting page below, a question that gets three recommendations. Those will turn green and get priority. Or you can ask this question on Twitter using the hashtags the A site or chat wrappers. Replay this show, you already know it goes up on all the usual places. And also remember, the MMA fighting feed has been condensed into one. So you will look up MMA fighting on iTunes, Spotify, SoundCloud, Stitcher, wherever else you get your pods.

And you will get the MMA hour on Monday. The Eurobash, fantastic Eurobash podcast with Patsy Carroll on Tuesday, this fine program on Wednesday and the MMA beat on Thursdays. So go out and subscribe because we want to be your friends. And also we will talk about the future of this show at the end of this show. This show will indeed continue without me as it should. And we will talk about that at the end. But in the meantime, man, let's talk about some good stuff.

Let's talk about some MMA. Let's talk about some happy stuff. You ready, Jose? Always, baby. All right. So let's do this. And this first question is coming from Jay DeLuca, and he wants to know about Baruncle Fighting Championships press conference.

Cringe. Hi, Shaheen and Jose, what is your take on the circus of a press conference from Monday night with Malinaji and Artem Lobov? As a diehard M.MA fan since the early 2000s, this was the most distasteful. Oh, my, there are a lot of adjectives here. Showcase of a promotion I have witnessed. It is likely that more brain cells were lost from simply view.

the press conference video in comparison to a night out on the town letting loose, drinking a few too many with friends. It makes you wonder, is the UFC guilty of causing this disaster in some way? P.S. Shaheen, I'm sorry to hear that you're leaving an MMA fighting. I look forward to your future news as you're excellent at what you do, interested in to hear your greatest memories on today's chat. I hope that this is not the end of MMAFighting.com. It is certainly not the end of MMAFighting.com.

We still have a fantastic team in place here, and you guys are going to continue to kill it. I know that deep within my heart. I know that you guys are going to continue to kill it. I'm excited to watch that. But let's answer this question. Jada Luca coming out hard against this low Boffers Malinagi press conference. He does not seem to be a fan. Jose, this happened on Monday.

What was your takeaway? Is this too much? No, it's definitely not too much. But at the same time, I wasn't surprised with what happened. I mean, we've seen Pauli Malinagi throughout the time. the whole buildup before Mayweather McGregor and then him and Connor got into that that weird spat on like the welcoming thing that boxing always does when they roll out the red carpet in front of the T-Mobile arena they basically got into it there and then when Ardome left and signed with

bare-knuckle boxing right away within seconds out everyone was tweeting oh Polly versus Artham it has to happen and Conn like Ardum or Polly's been calling out Connor this and that absolutely did not surprise me what happened. I don't think it's too far because this is like a legitimate feud. Like they don't like each other. I mean, maybe it's very cringe. Some of the stuff Pauli Malinagri was saying, like he's like, I'm going to pee in your mouth and stuff like that is a little odd.

Shakespearean. Shakespearean is the word you're looking for. Well, I don't like using Shakespearean in MMA if I'm not talking about Tito Ortiz. but Polly Malinaji is a close second. And or that reminded me of the Ken Shamrock, Tito Ortiz, press commerce, when he's like, I'm going to beat you into the living death. And that Tito Ortiz just like openly laughed in his face. It was just like that's going to be just etched in my mind forever.

So I don't think it was too much because at the end of the day, they're not throwing dollies through windows. They're not jumping cages. I mean, I'd like to see how they act after the fight, like whoever wins. If it ends the feud, if they go, if the camps go at it or whatever, I don't know how bare-knuckle boxing security is, especially down there in Florida. Well, the boxing security is Rumble Johnson, so I think they're doing fine. That's true. Like, if he just picks them up, like an upset father and just carries them away, I'd be down to see that.

But I don't think it was too much. It was more comical, and people are talking about it. I mean, it's like, we tweeted out videos, like clips of it, and they got a ton of retweets and views and everything. So it's in the Zite guys. People are talking about it. I don't think it's the bunk hurt around the world of Polly Malinagogy, just like whack-a-moling Artem's head with a microphone. I don't think that was too much because at the end of the day,

no one got arrested and brought to court for throwing something through a window. So it seems like you're on board then. Oh, of course. I've been on board since the announces. I mean, that first fight with Artem and Jason Knight, I didn't watch it live because I was at a Red Sox game. But when I got back, I watched the highlights. And then I ended up watching the whole thing.

And I was like seeing Casey and Esther from a mate fighting like tweeting about it. And they were like, this is the greatest thing ever. So I was like, well, it must be awesome. I went back and watched it. And I was like, oh, my God. Like if Artem fights and Jason Knight's more of a grappler anyway. Like if Ardham fought a legitimate like boxer in bare knuckle boxing, I would be super interested because I wanted, I would like to see how he does against someone like that.

And Paul and Maenajee stepped up and there's a legitimate feud there. So I'm 100% on board. man, I would love to argue with you and take some sort of moral high ground and say I'm above this, but I'm not. Nope. I'm not at all. I'm eating this up. And that's one thing that, like, so Jada Luca is coming out hard saying this is the most distasteful thing that I've ever seen in promotion, et cetera. It's just like, were you not around last year? Like all of 2018, you could point out several examples just from between two men and you know which two men I'm talking about of much more distasteful.

hasteful promotion than this. So I think the moralizing, to some degree, like, let's just have fun, right? Like, this is how I got into this sport was pride circus fights and just ridiculous theatrics and all of this. This has been part of combat sports forever. Maybe the peeing in your mouth is taking it

to some degree of too far, but it's also funny, right? Like, it's just, I think it's funny coming from someone who, Polly's not the biggest guy, and he has a very New Jersey. New York voice. And it's just funny hearing that sort of thing directed at a gentleman who is a European, who is, I don't know, the whole, every dynamic. Also like, like you watch that whole press conference, like Pauli Malinaghi, like you said, has that thick New Jersey accent. So that just adds to it. And then he's wearing like an old-timey gangster suit with like a hat and like, don't point your finger at me while he's pointing his finger at Arsum. That's what I'm getting at. It's just, it seems like Polly is very, very good.

good at upsetting people. And it seems like if he was trying to piss you off, he would be able to succeed at pissing you off so thoroughly that it would be so frustrating. And it's funny watching that bounce off of Artem, I will say. It's a guilty pleasure. I love it. And let me ask you, why does this feel like such a guilty pleasure? Because it does. Like I tweeted out about it earlier this week after that presser and said, I'm all in on this. And I got a lot of people saying, you should be better, Sean. Like, why does this feel like a guilty pleasure to us? Well, I don't think it's a guilty.

I don't like the phrase guilty pleasure because if you like something, you like it, just like own it. Like, you shouldn't feel guilty about enjoying a spectacle. And that's what it is. It's a spectacle. It's not like they're fighting for a championship for like the best bare-knuckle boxer in the world. Like, they don't like each other.

They're going to talk trash. And they're going to get in a fist fight. And when I say fist fight, like a legitimate fist fight, like without gloves, they're just going to throw down in a ring with a little bit of tape. on their hands and that's how they're going to settle this blood feud. So I don't, I wouldn't feel guilty about it. If you don't like it, just don't watch it. I, maybe the, those pictures of Jason and Jason Knight and Arden Lobov after where their

faces are just like all gashed up and a lot of and everything. That to me was more jarring than the buildup to this fight. I mean, I saw that face and like Jason's lip is split open, his eyes swollen and everyone is, that to me was much more, I feel weird watching these people do this to their bodies rather than I don't like watching this because of what they're saying to each other. That's how I took it. That's how I'm taking it. I think that's fair, right? Because you just said you wanted to see what Artem would look like in a bare-knuckle fight against an actual boxer. To me, that feels like, it feels like the

result of this. Yes. Probably the most guilty pleasure of all because Arum, is going to get really messed up. Because he's boxing a boxer. Yeah. But he's saying all the right things, man. Maybe he's not. It's a different situation. Bear knuckle is very different.

The guard in terms of your just defensive abilities is completely different. And maybe that affects Polly to some degree. And also, I will say, I mean, anytime you can just get someone bonk in somebody on the head like that, anything, I'm in on that. I'm a hundred. I'm going to ask you one final question before and move on. is maybe the most outrageous. Maybe this is sanctimonious and just outrageous and just is it should not

even be a question. But is that the biggest fight of June? Hmm. Wow. Like is that a silly question to ask you? It's not a silly question. And it's because I'm having to think about it, it's not a bad question. It's not a silly question. To me, no, because I do think there's like very high level championship caliber fights that are going to be happening in Chicago in the UFC. UFC. UFC 238 is a great card. And there's this giant like slob knocker of a heavyweight

main event in Minneapolis now. That's probably for the number one contender for the fight between Daniel Korme and Sipay Miochich. But so I would say no. I would say no, but it's not a bad question. Like I have to

think of it. I was like, huh, that's a I'm going to watch it. Like, well, is it the most entertaining fight? Probably, but I don't think it's the best fight. I didn't ask if it's the best fight. Fair. It could be the most entertaining for sure, but in my mind, there's an actual high caliber martial arts I'm a little more excited for. I think I agree with you. I would say that you think you agree with me, though. I think I agree with you. It's not, I would say it's not the biggest, but I can tell you that just looking at the metrics we have seen on videos and trap for the website

and everything, I think it will probably be the most viewed or trafficked piece of combat sports that comes out of June, which is effing ridiculous to say. I, it's, and this is just an extension. Like, we thought we moved on from Mayweather McGregor when that ended in, what, August, 2017, whatever we are in June 2019 or whatever month it is, May 2019, and we're still talking about it. That's a, you're not wrong. We're never going to escape. This is basically the unofficial sequel of the fight.

Imagine if this was the co-main event of Mayweather McGregor. I mean, at some point, what do we? Let's do it, man. Just steer into the chaos. Steer into the chaos. I like that. Let's keep going. And this next one is another one from Jada Luca.

And as Jada Luka likes to do to me, it is an extremely long one. I'm not going to read all of this. That would take me a good five minutes. So I'm going to just summarize it as best I can while skimming. Ali Abdelaziz is a plea of ignorance, MMA hour interview with Luke Thomas. Hi Shaheen and Jose. So he is effectively asking about Luke

had an interview in studio with Ali, noted MMA manager on Monday. And Luke asked about Khabib's ties along with Ali's ties to Rams on Kadeirov. and Ali deflected. What is the actual question here? All right, I'll read the last paragraph because that seems to be the question,

although I'm not seeing the question. It seems to be a rant. Nirmigomatov's censorship war against concerts and theater that he deems as filth with some of his supporters sending death threats to whoever Khabib doesn't approve of, his teammates and him mocking him and humiliating homeless people seen on social media, his support of various children's matches in Akhmat, MMA,

along with his promotion of merciless figures on social media, begs us to ask, is MMA and many journalists, aside from Kareem to Zadhan, does great work, really doing their job in interviews? So what, where is your, where do you, so you watched Luke's interview on Monday? What did you think overall of that interview, I guess, and to answer Jada Lucas question, is the MMA media doing it enough to pry into these sort of topic? Well, I love, I thoroughly enjoyed the interview. I like Luke did what wasn't combative but he definitely he wouldn't let Ali Abdelaziz like skirt around questions and he would come after him like well that's that's not in your fighter's best interest like I remember him saying that like sternly at Ali Abdelaziz and I was glued to the the interview the whole time I mean I was going to I was waiting for Rashad to come on because I was going to write up a little bit about that and I think you wrote about Ali and you ended up just like basically transcribing the whole thing almost because I was going to write up a little bit about Ali and you ended up just like basically transcribing the whole thing almost because.

because it was so fascinating. So I thoroughly, I thought it was a fascinating interview to see Luke go after Ali. And whether Ali answered the questions or not, it was very telling of how he was trying to skirt around things. And I don't really have a relationship with Ali at all outside of passing, hello, how are you when I would interview fighters during Media Day? But in terms of MMA media not doing their job, I think it's hard to say because I think there's so few.

There was definitely a time where they were afraid about asking hard questions. I mean, I remember being at, I think it was UFC 227 and someone brought up, like, tweets about Cody Garbrandt, and he got mad at him, and I kind of, and Ali got a little upset, and there was like something there during media day. And I think people just got a little scared of asking the hard questions, maybe, because he's always standing right next to his, like, you've been in media days, and he's always next to his fighters. and he's not coaching them or telling them what to say or anything,

but he's just, his presence is there. And like Luke said, are you the most powerful manager in MMA? That was a question he asked him. And it was, he probably is. He has like a lot of champions. He has a lot of high caliber fighters. And that could be very intimidating for some media members. But journalists like Luke and journals like Kareem, who I think Kareem, not just

MMA, I put, I think he's one of the best journalists in the world. not just in our sport. And I think he's, those type of journalists are doing their jobs. But they're just, like you said, they're so few. But they're out there. They're putting out great work. And so I would say, yeah, they're doing their job. But there's just not enough of them out there.

Jay to Luca, not really letting you get it. Softball is to start off your debut here. I'll push back a little bit on maybe one thing that you said in that Ali is always hovering over his fighters for media. I don't really find that to be true. I mean, he's generally in the room at media day, but he's kind of just making his rounds talking to people. Yeah, and the only time I've ever found him to kind of just be hovering around a fighter

is if they need translation help. That's fair. That is very fair. You've obviously been to much more media days than myself. And I just, the more recent ones I'm remembering are like the UFC 227 when he basically just sat next to Cody Garbrandt, but I kind of had a sense that's because Cody didn't want to answer questions about past tweets. And then eventually he did address them later on.

So maybe it's just what I'm like, what's coming to my mind recently, if what I'm saying. And, uh, or especially 227, none of his fighters worked out. Like they had the open workouts and all the, uh, like Henry and, uh, Cody just didn't do a workout and a bunch of people were very upset over it. So, but yeah, you're, you are right. He, I guess he doesn't just hover there. But from what I've seen, he's always around and that could be intimidating.

some people. Yeah, it's funny because this is, I think, the third time or something that we've been asked a question about Ali on this show. And it's always more or less the same premise, which is why aren't more people pushing harder. And I would push back on that to some degree. I mean, you see, you have guys. Like, there are only so many outlets for people to have these type of interviews, right, where it's the MMA hour or Ariel Show or just something where it's a live video show and you're doing this sort of interview talk show, more or less. There's only so many outlets or just platforms where you can have even that type of conversation. But I feel like people do push back on him to some degree.

I mean, he is, he manages a lot of people, but I've had years and years and years of interactions with this guy, and he has never done anything malicious to me. He's never, I have a perfectly fine relationship to him. I think he gets a bad rap to some degree, but I also think that's what I'm saying. I think he just has people see what people hear all the noise from the outside, and he kind of has this intimidating or about him. And then when you interview him, he's not this giant monster that people make out to be.

Well, to your face anyway, I, again, I only, I only know him in passing. I don't have a relationship with him like you do. And the thing is, man, like, I get to some degree the levels of criticism for him, but also, like, you, Lou, you saw even Luke talk about this. As a manager, that dude is successful as all hell, and there is a reason for it. I mean, if you, all you speak to any one of his fighters, they will go to. back for him a thousand times out of a thousand. He gets his fighters the best opportunities available and that's really all you can ask for from a manager. So I would push back to some degree

to say that the criticism of the MMA media when it comes to him. But also I think that some people's expectations are also maybe skewed to some degree where this is still a business of relationships, right? Like Luke's interview was a great example of being a pushing back without being overly adversarial. Yeah. And he sat and Ali sat there and he at the end, Luke was like, I'm not trying to be competitive. And he's like, no, you're just doing your job. And he also gets it. I'm sure he expected a lot of those questions too. So I'm sure he mentally prepared for it. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know that I have much more to add to this other than saying it is always fun when you guys try to make me defend other people's actions. Right. Like you guys always try to make me

either criticize or defend other people that I work with actions. And it's very, it's a, weird thing. I don't know why you guys do that to me. But yeah, it's all I got. Let's keep it moving. This next one's coming from Matt the donk, and he's going to give us a round of true or false. Are you ready for this? I'm always ready for Matt the don't questions. Oh, there we go. Cheers, Sean and Jose. Here goes a round of true, false. Uriah Faber should stay retired. And now Uriah was also on the MMR this Monday. He said that he is very, very likely to, or maybe not likely, but he is very much considering coming out of retirement. True or false, he should stay retired.

I don't like the word, the phrase should. I don't want to tell anyone how to handle their career. And it's not like he's, he's obviously a successful businessman. He has this gym. He's always kind of dabbling in these small businesses. So true or false, I don't want to say he's whether he should or not. He doesn't need to come back if he doesn't want to. But if he wants to fight one more time in Sacramento, I mean, why not?

It's not like he's showing signs of long-term brain damage. you see the Vandalei Silva story that came out a few months ago. So should, I don't like that, but he doesn't have to. I say true. I think he should stay retired. He is one of the few that had a really, that walked out on top, right? Like he walked out on a win in front of his hometown crowd and had that amazing sort of send off. Go live your life.

I don't know. I don't, I have any interest in seeing your eye favorite come back and try to enter this bantamweight division that is currently stocked with absurd killers. He's a new father now, too. He's a new father now, too. Yeah, I mean, the game is passed him by to some degree. There is a lot of really young, talented fighters in both 35 and 45 now. I just don't want to see you right if ever you beat up. True or false, the Diaz versus Pettus fight goes off without a hitch. I'm going to just go ahead and say true because I'm a will that into existence because I really want to see it.

And I'll just say, I'll play devil's advocate, though. I am on your side, and we've agreed on most things now. So I'll just play devil advocate. I'll say false. And who knows? Like, I don't know if Diaz has even signed the contract yet. I mean, maybe he verbally agreed to it. I don't know.

But we still have a few months to go before something can go wrong. So I'll say false just because I'm so jaded now that I don't think he's ever going to fight until he's actually in the octagon. Like he weighs in, still not confident. That's not fair. What are the one things that you that are always said about the Diaz brothers? Right? They never, for sure. They never show up.

They make difficult along the way, but they always show up. We go back to 230, UFC 230. We were supposed to buy Dustin. It was Dustin Porrier. But again, Dustin Poirier came out and said there was a lot of tomfoolery back and forth behind the scenes from both sides where Diaz wanted to pull out and then he pulled out and the Diaz pulled out anyway. So I don't know how much of that is true.

A lot of it is true. And a lot of that was Nate Diaz just trying to get his, which I was. Which I, exactly, get, get paid. Like, if you're going to go fist by another human being, fight for your worth. Like, get paid to do that. So, but again, like, I don't know. Like, I'm sure he will show up, but I'm in my mind as a jaded M.A fan where I've been like, we've had all, like, not even just him, all of these massive fights fall out so close that I don't believe any of these hyped fights are going to happen until they're in the octagon.

That's just where my headspace is at right now. I can't believe you're putting bad mojo on this. Next one, UFC's women featherweight division still exists in two years. Man, that's a good question. I don't know. I'm going to say false. Yeah, I'll say false too. I don't know how long Chris Seibor is going to fight much longer.

And Amanda Nunes doesn't seem all that eager to jump back up to 145, especially because she has her fight with Holly Holam, and she's kind of hinted at how long. She might not fight much longer anytime soon. And then Megan Anderson just lost the UFC Rochester. And she was kind of one of the more popular featherweights out there. And even she herself said, like, they had that whole tough season to, like, find some new featherweight. And then the winner just dropped back down to Bannemweight.

So I just don't know. I don't know if, I just don't know if there's enough talent to have the division, especially of Cyborg and Amanda hang it up. You mentioned all those names. You don't even mention the woman who just beat Megan Anderson, Felicia Spencer. Yep, Felicia Spencer. She called out Cyborg. Cyborg accepted. it. So I mean, but again, like, is there enough to have an entire division? Because when Cyborg was champion,

they were taking bansomweights and pulling them up to fight her often, oftentimes on short notice, or pulling them from Invicta, like Tanya Amateur from Invicta. So is there talented women out there? Yes. I just don't know if there's enough. I just have to say that I appreciate the stones that Felisa Felicia has because how many people are out there actually calling out, Chris Seibor. How many people can you, you can name that on one hand. But how many featherweights are there out there? You could probably name that on one hand, too, in the UFC. Other than Katzingano, Amanan Nunes, and now Felicia Spencer,

I cannot remember anybody else calling out. Gila Harrison is kind of called, but she's obviously not in the UFC, but she said when Cyborg lost to Amanda Nunes, that was kind of, like, she lost her boogie woman. And that really was a call-up. That's not a call-out. I know. A call-out is me directly being, I want to fight you, Jose Young's,

And I want it next week in, you know, downtown Arizona bar of your choice type of thing. Oh, you don't want this smoke. What's that? You don't want this smoke. Boy, I would drive down there right now. He's called me boy. My goodness. Hey, man, I'm, I'm, you can respect your elders.

Oh, yeah, right. Tell me how Sputnik was live. I'm like one year older than you out of that. Well, you know. Look at that shirt. To wrap this up, I will say, I think as long as Chris Seiborg wants to be around the UFC and as long the UFC wants to be around for Cyborg, the Featherweight Division will exist,

just even in these one-offs. Yeah, and I actually 100% agree with that. When Cyborg retires, I think, is one of the division closes. Yes. And so I feel like maybe that will be in two years. I don't know that we won't. I should say, I feel like that will be within the next two years. 100%.

I don't see this division. True or false, Sage Northcutt finds his way back to the UFC someday. False. I don't know how, I think he signed that big deal. with one. That knockout loss he has to Cosmo, Alexandria was so hard to watch, especially finding out about watching it when it happened. I was like, wow, that was a brutal knockout. But then knowing what happened after, it's hard to rewatch that highlight. And I don't know if he gets back to the UFC because I don't know how much he fights longer because that's like a

career-threatening injury where he's probably going to be out for at least a year, maybe a year and a half. I don't, I just don't know if he fights long enough to get back to the UFC or if he's healthy enough or if he wants to keep fighting. So I'm going to say false. I'm going to say, I don't know. I didn't understand that matchmaking from the beginning. I didn't either. Because if you're one championship, you've invested in this guy, right? Like he's a very young guy who can become somebody for you and he very much seems to fit in line with the whole one championship ethos of respect and discipline and honor and all of this. He's the nicest person in the world. for his first fight you're going to match him up in a ring no less that he has never he has never

competed in a ring and you're a match him up in a ring against a ridiculously decorated kickboxer who has won like eight straight mma fights like it was uh and what and like i understand that whatsoever like in sage we like he does have some submission victories but like as we've seen in the UFC like he likes to stand up and strike he has like that wide stance and everything so he he's going to want he if he had an option he's going to want to keep the fight standing so you give him a fighter that would also like to keep the fight standing but he is such a high level kickboxer and moiety fighter that in a ring in a ring with small gloves i mean he he like he like alexandre himself said in an interview on our site that like he didn't really take into account

how small the gloves are or he's like one punch like that's a wrap and that's pretty much all he needed to do and that was that was real hard to watch and i don't know what heck one championship was thinking that fight was a short fight and you could even see just the ring craft experience from cos yeah very short fight that it was because he was cutting off the ring you could see sage was having troubles really like figuring out where he was within the space it's just like man you guys really really set this kid up for incredible failure and then when it happens i want to ask you because i know we're going a little long on this one but like why did that one feel particularly bad to watch. Is it because

A, we know Sage is a very young kid and getting a knockout like that early in your career is rough? Or is it B, because he is such a nice guy that seeing something happens so devastating to someone who is really one of the few

really just genuinely insanely polite and nice people in this industry? Is it one of those two things? It's a combination of both because I agree with you. Seeing the aftermath of that nine hour surgery, eight broken bones in his face, like, that hurt. That hits me in a way that maybe a lot of these other knockouts don't, of just feeling like, oh, Jesus Christ, what are we

doing here? It's always going to be the health for me. I mean, that's like finding out what happened to him after. I think that makes it worse, especially because he's so young in his career. That's my question. That's where it comes from me. Like a knockout like that to a young fighter could be career ending, career threatening, like all of the above. Him being overly nice and just being basically a golden retriever inside a human body. Like that to me, he could have done the same thing to Cosmo for all we know. Like he could have landed that one punch and broke his face. So him being the nicest kid in the world is I'm sure to a lot of people like,

oh, it's like watching your little brother get hurt. And I get that. But to me, it's always going to be this young prospect. entering the primus career who's still He's 23 years old. His prime is probably like three years away. Entering the primers career, still developing, still learning, was thrown into a wood chipper,

and now he's going to lose probably a year and a half of his career if he ever comes back. So it's always going to be that to me. It's just, it's super, super disappointing to see you, especially for a fighter who he thought was going to be the future of this sport. Also, not for nothing. how effing big is Cosmo Alexander? I don't think he's seen.

People keep saying that. And he actually, he's competed in, in weight classes the same as Sage Northca. And then when they, they had, like, raised his hand,

he didn't look that much, like, bigger than Sage Northca. Like, I, so a lot of people, I don't see it. I don't think that's a bigger deal.

I'm sorry. We're talking over each other. That's my fault. But I'm just super leery of, of the whole weight cutting system over there at this point. Because it feels like they, I don't know. That didn't look like the same way. I agree with you. I am very leery of it.

But I don't think that fight in particular, because if you look at Cosmo's last fights, like he's fought in a lot of like catchweight fights at Bellator and other promotions where he's pretty much the same weight class as Sage Northcutt. And standing next to each other, he doesn't look that much bigger, maybe a little taller and lankier, but not physically bigger than Sage Northcut. So yes, I am leery, but that fight in particular, I don't, I don't think that's, I don't think there's much into that for that fight. That's fair. I just want to, I just, I just, I just wrap this with a bow for a second time now. I've said that. Which is weird. I never say that. That was promotional malpractice to steal a phrase from the man who had originated this program. To throw him in there against Cosmo Alexander, what are you doing?

Unless that was your goal to get him to lose and maybe be like, hey, you know, look at this. We have better talent than the UFC. If that was your goal, congrats, you did it. But otherwise, what do you guys do it? Well, it's not like Cosmo had a one championship fight before that, or was that also his one debut? Because if that was his first one fight, it's not like they built him up. I think he had, what, seven or six fights in Bellator? No. Well, I think he had a few one championship, like, kickboxing fights. But I think that was his first one championship MMA fight.

Yeah, he had two one championship kickboxing fights, one of which was against Nikki Holston, which is just like, so he basically went from fighting Nikki Holskin to Sage Northcott in a ring. Yeah. But maybe and the pros, like the cons obviously outweigh the pros. But if he, if Sage Northca had just crumpled Cosmo Alexandria, like we're saying, we're sitting here talking like, oh, Sage Northca knocked out one of the best kickboxers. No, we're not.

No, we're not, though. Cosmoo Alexandria is one of those guys, but he's not like the super well-known crazy kickboxer. Like he's still a very niche name. So the cost-benefit ratio is just like, Best case, Sage goes out and scores a crazy knockout, like you're saying. Like, I don't know that people are blown up. Like, hey, man, Cosmo is a lot knocked out by Sage Northcut. I don't know if they're blowing him up, blowing it up.

But I think if he knocked out Cosmo and everyone then looked into who Cosmo was and they realized how high caliber. And it's all, that's all MMA is retrospective thinking. Like, they're going to be like, oh, Sage Northcaught knocked out this nobody. And then people that watch kickboxing be like, it wasn't really a nobody. and then who is it. I get what you're saying. It is all retrospect. Your whole premise is projecting that the MMA populace will do research after a fight.

That's very fair. What are we talking about? All right. You don't, what? You don't think M.A fans sit up in the wee hours tonight and research one championship fighters? I know that the shit-eating wild men steal a phrase from my good friend Ben folks. The shit-eating wildman definitely will, as will we, but there is a large contingent that will not. Let's keep it moving though.

And hey, Hey, Evie. Sorry, my dog wants to bark. Hey, buddy. Thanks. Good job. Thanks.

Sorry about that. 338 does less than 150,000 pay-per-view of eyes, true or false? Hmm. Less? In my mind, it's probably going to be right around 150. I mean,

that ESPN plus buying the pay-per-view debacle that happens, that was a nightmare. What was it was the last? It was the UFC 237 or 236 was the first one. It's a nightmare for some people, but it is definitely not a nightmare for the UFC. They are enjoying it. Oh, yeah, that's for 100%. But in terms of total buys, I'm, I think it's going to be right around the number, you said, because it's just so weird.

It's, it's annoying to buy pay berries now, I think. Yeah, I think, I think true, it's going to do under. I think it'll probably do like 130 or 140. I think this is sort of our new normal. And I've said it's a couple times now, but UFC 239 will be the big one for me. What to you? And I have quite set the benchmark of like how high can we actually go with this sort of setup. And I have a question for you.

Before like a million pay-per-view buys would be like the milestone that people would want to hit. What do you think is the new milestone that people are going to be shooting for now? I'm super curious to find that out. Like if someone comes in with 400,000 pay-per-view buys on ESPN Plus, that's a huge success. That is a monstrous success at this point. That's what I'm saying. When 239 happens in a couple of months, that'll be a really big, interesting sort of just deflection point and viewpoint of just okay, how big can we get this without Connor

McGregor? Because even let's say Connor comes in and does a ESPN plus pay-per-view. That's not going to hit a million, I don't think. No way. So that is when you truly find out the ceiling of all of this. I don't know. I want to say that it's 600, 700,000, but I have 100. no concept of paper views right now.

Right. It's just a whole, it's a new world. It's a streaming world we live in now. Yeah. And then last two, if co-promotion was feasible, Greg Hardy versus Jake Hager would be the fight to make for both men. Oh man, that's true. That's absolutely.

Yeah, 100% true. I mean, yep, absolutely true. Who do you think would win that fight? I think, I think Jack Swagger would. Jake Hager? Yeah, I mean, that's where you'd have to lean. I would like to see Jake Hager fight someone that's a little more physically intimidating inside a cage, but yeah, I tend to agree with you. How dare you criticize

the legendary T.J. Listen, sir, I was in Rosemont, Illinois for that fight. I interviewed T.J. Jones. I am. I am. I am as T.J. Tombstone Jones, sir. Well, we're friends. So, no. It's not true. T.J. Yeah, TJ was a great interview, but I, in terms of, I would like to see someone that can actually, like, really push Jake Hager inside the cage. But I tend to agree with you that I would favor him over Greg Hardy for sure. Yeah, it's that old adage of you get an inexperienced striker versus inexperienced grappler. I think the grappler is going to usually win. You would think so.

Yeah. And then last one, and this is unfair. ESPN will poach all the best talented MMA fighting. False. False. Come on. M.A. fighting is still ridiculously talented team.

We're still squatted out. We have the best photographer in all sports. Esther Lynn, you got one of the best cameramen's Casey. We're Danny's grinding away. Alex is a machine. Guillermo and Pizzi are two of the best reporters in the business. They don't sleep. They just work.

And we're going to be just fine, everybody. I was going to say you're going out on a limb there starting to name names. Because once you're doing it in a live context, you're going to forget somebody, but you didn't. And so good for you. Oh, a man of the people. Let's keep things going, man, and let's talk about this past weekend. This is from Rai Wu Lee who wants to know about Charles Olivera. Great fighter, he says.

How far do you think he can go? Will he ever get a title shot? So Jose, this is one of the more interesting storylines to come out of UFC Rochester. You got Charles Oliver here. He continues to fly under the radar at 155. But now he does. He has five straight wins at lightweight. All of them finishes.

Is this man a legitimate player here at 155? Yeah, he absolutely is, but it also shows you how deep that division is where you can rattle off five straight wins and a bunch of stoppages, like holds the record for most performance of the night bonuses, record for most submissions. And I don't think he's close to a title shot whatsoever. But down the road, I think he absolutely could get that shot. It also doesn't, it doesn't help that his people, obviously he's not in featherweight anymore. And he came up to 155, but it's still fresh in probably a lot of fans' minds of his struggles with his weight issues in the past. And even in Milwaukee when I was there, he had said that he still has unfinished business at featherweight. So if he wants to drop back down to there, that he might get a title shot sooner.

But at 155, I don't know if he's close, but he's definitely in the mix. I like what you said there about people are still thinking about that. And people can't stop thinking about that because I agree with you 100%. And I think that's actually what's holding them back to a weird sort of out of the cage degree. right? Because he is still so closely associated as that guy who just could not make 145, but just could not accept that he could not make 145. And even after he went to 155 initially, and like you said, even recently, he was still continues to talk about wanting to go back down to 145. And I think he's doing himself a disservice by even just continuing that conversation.

Because right now the conversation around him should be, here is this guy who is a, who came into the UFC extraordinarily young. He was one of the UFC, youngest fighters in the UFC when he debuted, and he has slowly come into his own and is now really blossom into a bona fide killer. I don't know why it takes him beating the Nick Lace and Nick Lentz into a pace for the third time for us to finally have this conversation. But I'm glad we're finally having it,

because he definitely deserves to be here. And I think if he would shut down the 45 talk, anytime he's asked about it and just say, this is my division now, and I'm making a title run, I feel like people will take him more seriously. And looking at his resume, he doesn't have that big name at 155. I mean, yeah, I went over Jim Miller. Like Jim Miller has the record for most fights in the UFC.

But Jim Miller in 2018, 2019, is not the Jim Miller that headlines like the Fox card against Nate Diaz. And when Nate Diaz beat Jim Miller, he got that title shot against Benson Henderson. I think Charles Oliveira, like he said, like I need a legitimate opponent, like a contender, a top 10 top five fighter and he took this fight against nick lends he said with the promise that he would get another big name after and there's a lot of names at 155 i mean just because you're not in the top 10 like 11 through 15 or probably not even probably they're there are killers too in most divisions so uh i think he just needs that big name that a big marquee victory over a big name like because clague weed and jim miller is again popular but not contenders in 2019 yeah well let's go this next

question also has to deal with Charles Oliver. So let's jump to that. And this one's coming from Juggie 47-11. He says, what's next for Dubrox? Five-fight Wednesday golf I finish. As I said, Dave Meltzer suggested Justin Gaichy or a rematch with Paul Felder. I say no to Gauchy and not sure about

the Felder rematch, perhaps Gregor Gillespie or Edson Barbosa. And so that was his suggestions. What say you? What do you think? Greg Gillespie, 100%. I said that after the fight, after his win against Nicolence. I mean, I think those are two guys that are making are on the rise making the run like gregor lesby is not a guy who's going to talk back at

you but he's he's a very dominant fighter i believe is he still undefeated uh yeah yeah he's still undefeated uh an interesting character loves fishing uh i would love to like in terms of take the championships take the rankings take everything out of the equation if we're talking about just high level martial arts i would love to see charles olivari and gregor gilles to be fight inside the afternoon. I could not disagree with you more. All right. Could not disagree with you more.

To me, that feels like a nothing fight for both of those men. Neither one of them gains anything from that fight. Right now, they're both in the exact same spot where they're sort of, I'm just pulling up the rankings now, and Charles Oliver is now 11, and Greg Gillespie is 12. We know the rankings don't mean anything, but they at least provide some little bit of context. They're both in this position where they're sort of outside the top 10 on that periphery looking in, and they're both on crazy streets.

To me, they both deserve better than to just have another hold your place fight. I like Edson Barbosa for one of those guys. And I like, honestly, if Kevin Lee can come back to Lightweight, I would like him for the other one of those guys as well. Yeah, I mean, again, and like I said before, lightweight is so deep that I would, I'm down to watch them fight any of them.

But in terms of, like, I get what you're saying, they'll hold me, like obviously, The goal is to get to the title shot. And those fights that you're bringing up will obviously get them closer to that end goal. But in terms of, I want to see him fight Gregor Gillespie. I would like to see him fight someone that is physically in their prime. That is a high-level wrestler. Go up against Charles Oliverer, because Charles Oliver has some, he is this killer on the ground,

but he has a lot of submission losses. And Gregor Gillespie, I don't think he's obviously not fought anyone inside the octagon. on Charles Oliver's level on the ground. And he's so dominant with wrestling, I just want to see them. I just want to see it because I want to see which one of them is the legitimate contender to push themselves into the top 10. Yeah.

I mean, that's fair. And I certainly wouldn't oppose. I wouldn't be angry mad if they made that fight. But let's use this question as a jumping off point to sort of talk about the rest of UFC Rochester, which was headline by Haffield Dosenos, really getting a really nice win over Kevin Lee. It seemed to be an important win for him.

He said, you know, big, big weight came off his shoulders when he got his name called. He was on a little bit of a slump. Now he is sort of back in this. Did that fight teach you anything about either men? Yeah, it told me that Hafeiades Osangos is still a legitimate contender. And Kevin Lee still has some work to do, whether it's his cardio or I don't want to tell them. I don't like telling fighters to change camps. I don't like when people tell fighters to change, fans tell them to change camps.

But there's obviously questions out there where what he's lost to Tony Ferguson, beat Edson Barbosa, lost to ally, Akinta, and then lost to Hafei El Desaños. Kevin Lee, like Charles Oliver, he came into the UFC super young and, like, fought Tony Ferguson. I think maybe a little too soon. He was just kind of one of those interim title fights, and he looked good in there. You have to wonder where his heads at, especially, I don't know, and I don't know. I don't want to, I can't speak for him, but that loss of Robert Fawley, really, like he said it affected him a lot, not just as a coach, but he was like a father figured him.

He moved to Vegas for him. And the loss of Robert Follas, I don't know if he's completely moved on. And maybe that's always in his mind. I can't speak for him. I don't know. But it showed me that he still has work to do. But it's not like he was just blown away. I mean, he belongs in there with these killers.

I mean, he proved that. And to me, Hafei El-Dessonio is a lot. it's always it's always what have you done for me lately and hafiel dosanio's being on a two-fight losing skid and headlining a card i'm sure i am actually i'm not even sure i'm positive fans brought up oh he's washed up this and that but like who did he lose to colby covington kamar ozman the last the interim champion and the and the reigning champion so it's not like he's just losing to nobody's he's losing to and he beat robin waller like he that 45 second combination against the octagon is one of the craziest highlights I've seen in recent memories. So it proved that Hafeiro de Sano is still a

gentleman contender and Kevin Lee has what it takes to be in the top five, but he just still have some work to do. You know, man, I'm actually, I'm really glad you brought up the Robert Fawas point, because I think that's something that gets lost when we talk about Kevin Lee, especially with recently, within the past, you know, six months to a year. I'm reminded when that conversation comes up of a story I did several years ago. on Sean Tompkins and sort of the Sean Tompkins team, Team Tompkins. And, you know, that was Sam Stout, Chris Wordecke. Oh, man, I'm blanking on the other one.

He fought Jose Al-Doh. Mark Homonick. Yeah, Mark Homonick. It was those three guys and others as well, but they were the three main guys. And, you know, over the course of doing that story, I got really, you know, involved with that team and talked to a lot of those guys and a lot of people around Sean Tompkins quite a bit. And one thing that came out,

my biggest takeaway from all of it was, we do not on the outside, understand on the inside how deep and these relationships go and how big of a loss, something like that can feel like. And I remember totally not all of their records, pre and post Sean Tompkins being in their live. And pre-Shon Tompkins, they were all,

or I mean, I guess during Sean Tompkins, they were all, you know, winning 90, 80, 90% of their fights. and usually pretty, you know, in pretty good fashion. And then once he was no longer here, that percentage dropped to like 20 or 30%. And it never bounced back for any of those guys at that point. I hope that we're not in a similar situation with Kevin Lee. Yeah.

And I- Very, very young. But it's such a tough thing to lose a figure like that in your life who is so instrumental to all of this, whereas your whole identity is wrapped up in this. And I can't remember who he fought, but Kevin Lee had a fight in Burrower. Brazil and he got finished.

And I remembered one of the stories after that was Robert Fawas wasn't, he didn't make the trip to Brazil. And Kevin Lee was like, I will never make that mistake again, not bringing or not having Robert Follis in my corner because he's like you said, so instrumental. And he got finished in that fight. And to this day, he was like, that was one of the biggest mistakes I had was going down there without him. And then now that he can't bring, now that he's gone and he doesn't have him in his corner

at all. I can't speak for him, but I don't know if he's, I don't know if he's completely mentally recovered from that loss. Plus, it was such a shocking loss. It was so tragic when it happened. Yeah. Well, let me ask you one last question about this fight. And maybe it's unfair question considering what we were just talking about, but I guess just on a physical level, you take out any of the outside factors. This seems to be a pattern now with Kevin Lee where he starts strong and then he sort of gasses to some degree and fades latent fights. I want to ask you, What do you think, because he is still very young and he's very, very talented. It seems like he has all of the tools to put together to eventually be a champion.

What do you feel like is limiting his ceiling right now more? Is it the lack of a division that he feels truly comfortable in? Or is it just the cardio? I think it's a little combination of both. I was coming into this welterweight fight. The number one question I had for Kevin Lee was I want to see how his cardio would be without that cut. I mean, he looked like he like when he fought Tony Ferguson and he he struggled to make the way. And then he had that staff infection.

He's like, oh, it kind of sats my energy. And then I was like, well, let's see how he is after. And then he kind of ran through Edson Barbosa. So I was very curious how his, his cardio would be in his new weight. And he fought a guy in Hafeel de Sanyos who has some of the best cardio in the entire UFC. I don't know, man. He definitely doesn't have a home. he didn't look he didn't look big at welterweight and i think it was you when you when you talked to

dustin porriere and he said it took took him a few fights to feel comfortable like he to feel like a legitimate lightweight rather than a featherweight just a blown up featherweight and maybe that's what happened to max uh when they fought and maybe kevin lee needs a few more fights to really come into his to grow into his welterweight body but i so i think it's a little combination of both to answer to your question. That's fair. That's fair. And then one last guy I want to highlight before we move on from Rochester. And you already know where I'm going with this because you were there in Arizona when I could not stop talking about this man. Vicente Lucay, he comes out here and he gets another finish because that's what he does. Vicente Lucke gets finishes. He takes out Derek Krantz, short notice

replacement. He's supposed to get Neil Magnin, which was finally the ranked guy he's been looking for for so long. He ends up with Derek Krantz comes out, makes his debut in, God, making your debut against Vicente Lucke is a tough ask. He lasted about four minutes, which is admirable. But Lucke gets another TKO finish. He is now nine and one in the OFC over his last 10. All nine of those are stoppages. He is an absurdly violent man.

What do you do with him next? What does this man have to do to get some love, Jose? How are you matching him up? Well, Vicente Lucke, I mean, that fight was, well, is pretty much how you expect it. And talk about making your date. Like he's one of like who I can't remember the opponent he fought, but like his opponent is now in that group of like, I think it was a Daryl Horcher, whoever. He made his debut against Habib Nirmiga Madov on that Florida card.

So it's like, hey, you want to fight? Who am I fighting? Oh, this undefeated Dagestan named Habib. And you saw how both of those fights ended. But Vicente Lucke, he called off Santiago Ponzanivio. I know they're going to Uruguay. I like that fight. Whether it makes sense matchmaking wise, I don't like, or ranking wise to get to the title.

I'm sure there's better fights for both men, but Bicente-Luke, to me, when people started bringing it up, I was like, oh, maybe San Diego-Avian, like, maybe he should fight some little higher ranks. He's been in the UFC a little longer, but, well, maybe not a little longer, but he just, his resume is just maybe a little better because he's had those, those bigger wins, but Bacenteuque convinced me, they're going to Uruguay. They both have Latin American descent. They need a main event. San Diego-Panzanivio has already headlined the Argentinian card.

he knows how popular he is down there so he sold me on it uh i think that's a fun fight again whether it does enough in terms of getting them closer to the title is different story but i just think that's a it's a fun fight and it makes sense for a fight when you're trying to break into the uruguay market yeah i will i will add that santi or santiago plaza nimbio right now is sort of in the robbie london running uh he could there's a chance he could get that fight and there's a chance that that actually ends up happening so but if that doesn't end up happening i agree with you i think that that's absolutely the fight to make luke ponsonibio uruguay that feels right to me and that is if anybody has deserved a chance to prove

himself it is vicente luke because i am on record saying if this man gets the opportunity i think he could absolutely be the the breakthrough fighter of the year for this year yeah i mean i always thought he was one of the more i don't want to call him underrated but like on the rise and then after that that fight against Brian Barberana, just Concussion City. I was like, yep, let's,

I'm on board. Sean, you're the conductor and I'm on board this, the Sente-Lukee train. And he just, I wish,

I wish that Neil Magny fight had happened, man. So now the win is, a win is a win. Like getting a W on your record is always great. But again, I didn't answer any questions for me. But a win is a win.

Yeah. Well, let's keep moving. This next question is coming from Ted Bear. I guess it's not really a question. But thanks for everything, Mr. Al-Shoddy. I'll forever remember your piece on Facing Aldo. It's still the high watermark for MMA journalism, in my opinion. Best of luck, sir. I really, truly do appreciate that,

Ted Bear. Hopefully, I will be able to continue introducing pieces like that for many years to come, but I appreciate that. This next question is coming from LFMWA, who says ESPN era floundering. Ratings are super low, he writes, especially when prelims are on the flagship. It seems like every event is a C-slash-C-plus fight card with one or two B-plus A-E-level matchups. Overall impressions on the ESPN era now that we're almost halfway through the year. What say you, Jose? Well, I'm going to take, well, the ratings, I'm going to take a different approach. And I love this ESPN era right now solely because, especially in the...

Is it the pacing? No way I was going. That UFC Rochester, when, like, we wrapped up, and it was one. what, like 10 o'clock at night, maybe 9.30 at night, I was like, this is great because like 8 o'clock at night on the Fox card, we still got a six fight main card to go. When you say we wrapped up, you mean like we working wrapped up. Like the fights ended like at like eight or something. Like I don't know when they ended, but it felt like it they ended absurdly early. Right. And so I love the pacing. I love the pacing a lot. I have people online.

I don't like you go on Twitter, it seems like every time a new fight's coming up, There's one up. There's another tweet that's like, wow, this pacing is great. I can get behind this. And so personally, maybe a little selfishly, I enjoy, I enjoy the ESPN era a little more just because we're not sitting through all of these long commercial breaks and we're to get to these fights. And then when the fights do happen, you're just like, all right, then set another 30 minutes

to the next fight. So I enjoy, I enjoy the ESPN. Whether the streaming service and the ratings thing. things. It's still, it's new. It always takes a little while, I would imagine, to get to really find your footing in a new home. But I personally have enjoyed the ESPN era. Yeah, I would say that the UFC and ESPN, I feel probably mutually. I can't say for sure. I'm not an authority on this, but I would surmise that both of them mutually are very, very happy with this. Yeah. Because for ESPN, the UFC is not a television investment as much as it's a streaming investment.

So when you say the ratings for the prelims maybe on ESPN regular aren't that great, they're still not terrible. But the big thing is they're driving customers to ESPN Plus, and they're driving a very, very targeted, very large niche base of MMA to ESPN Plus. And I think it's safe to say that the UFC has probably been one of the biggest biggest draws for ESPN Plus as a streaming service. I would I would guess, I would hazard to guess that, you know, a very large percentage of the ESPN streaming service populace at this point,

decent percentage is MMA and UFC fans. And I think that's a huge, huge win for ESPN and the UFC both. So I like you, I'm enjoying this so far. The pacing is certainly made our lives. me and you and the rest of the media it certainly made our lives a little easier on weekends not having to stay up until God knows win for terrible fight cars but I will add that you know this gentleman said

that it seems like every event is a C plus fight card with maybe one or two good fights it's kind of been what we've been doing for years now right I get yeah I was going to be like what like what's the difference between this year in the last seven years of the Fox deal how quickly y'all forget how terrible so many of those fox cards were just atrocious cards with maybe one or two good fights yeah and seeing like what was the card it was i can't remember where but it was the charles

olivera max holloway fight card where it seems like every fight went to a decision on fox and like and it was so it was the fox pacing with a bunch of decisions the whole time i'm like charles oliver and max holloway i just want to see that fight i love that fight and then charles oliver like gets hurt in like a minute and And I was like, oh, my God. So, like, that to me is like the pinnacle of just like just the Fox era where that card just dragged. And then the main event just had Tom Foolery at the end of it. Yeah.

I would say look back in the past if you think that these cards are weak because this has been a trend for a long time. And this is just sort of what we deal with at this point. There was a reason the oversaturation argument was such a big discussion. All right. Next question is coming from MVP UK. Michelle Pereira, discuss. Yes, yes, we will. He writes, P.S. gutted to see you're leaving MMA fighting. I hope you'll continue to provide YouTube content going forward. All the best for the

future. Thank you for that. I really do appreciate it. I will continue to provide content of some form, but I cannot say right now what's going on. But please follow me to it. It should be fun. But Michelle Pereira, my goodness, Jose, I don't even know really where to start this man in our Slack. We have an MMA fighting Slack where the whole team corner sort of just converses throughout the day throughout these events. I won't name names, but somebody who was not watching the event saw the last maybe like four or five seconds and saw everybody saying, oh my God, knockout of the year, one of the best knockouts of the year. And he posted it and said, why is this one of the best knockouts of the year? It seems like a pretty cool knockout,

but I don't know that's anything crazy. It was just a flying knee. And the answer, he got barraged with people basically saying that knockout is only 1% of really the actual performance. And that, that's the truth, man, is that knockout was cool. But more or less, that was just like, I don't know how long it lasted. But for however long it lasted, it was just several minutes of Michelle Pereira doing ridiculous shit that didn't seem like it should ever work. And somehow it was very much working. And everything he was doing was working. And it felt, it felt weird.

It felt like a video game. It felt like a movie. I do not really understand it. It may be, and I'm trying not to exaggerate and go into hyperbole here, but it might be one of the best UFC debuts I've ever seen. Tell me your opinion on Michelle Pereira, because I don't know what the hell I watched still, and it's been several days.

The best way I would describe it is if you and I played a UFC video game, and I was so much better than you, but I owned an Xbox and you owned a PlayStation and we played on your PlayStation and I was sitting there trying to figure out the controls. So I'm just hitting all of these crazy moves inside while you're just like watching me just do like these crazy backflips and you're like, what are you doing? I'm like, I'm trying to get the controls down. And then I figure it out and then I connect with a flying knee like straight punch combo and that's a wrap. And I was like, yep, it's all that coming. I just need to figure out the controls real quick.

So it was unreal. It was technical button mashing at its finest where he was throwing all this crazy stuff. It was high, it was very high level just. But it looked like there was a purpose to it. That's what I was going to say. It's not like it's just like fluff and like he was just doing it to do it. Like every move he made, there was rhyme and reason behind it. And then it was just a culmination of this grand, of this big dance, a violent dance.

a violent dance inside the octagon and it was uh it's what it's got to be up there for ufc debuts especially because that entrance he was crying his eyes out yeah man that's a good point he was crying his eyes out getting in then he during the introductions he was like breakdancing like during the intros and everyone's like who is this this man cried and then he's breakdancing like what what is this i'm like oh you must not a red misfit son mhmatfighting dot com because they he's been on there a few times he's i believe he's the one that did the backflip like off the cage on like a local scene like yeah like a moonstone the whole time i was like this is i don't know if he wins but this is going to be a memorable fight and then i didn't i did not

expect it to end that way i thought he was going to do some wild stuff i didn't think he would finish danny roberts like that that's the thing is danny roberts man like danie roberts is a tough guy he's not a pushover he is not walking no one's walking over danie roberts like he is going to suck you into a war if you're going to beat him. And that's not what happened on Saturday. And you mentioned the walkout, from the walkout to then the breakdancing introduction, to then the ferocity that we saw with also the goofiness. Our friend Casey, our cameraman Casey, called him wacky violent.

And I think that's a really good way to phrase it. He isn't just wacky violent. I've never, I mean, you see this a lot of times with guys who want to make a name for themselves. They're just doing shit just to do it. And it doesn't really feel like there's a purpose. It felt like every single move that he was making, regardless of how outrageous it was, it was so fluid and it was so, it didn't feel forced.

It felt kind of natural in a way that I didn't, that didn't make sense. I was blown away by it. Especially Danny Roberts, man. It's Danny Roberts. That's nothing to sneeze at. It feels like we go through errors of the UFC where eventually ground and pound is the big thing and then you have jujitsu and then you have this fluid striking and with the emergence of Johnny Walker and wow you said his name a million times and I've already been.

Michelle Pereira, this is just the error of dance inside the Octagon and I am so here for it. I think it was our buddy Guillermo Cruz who said that if this was pride you would just match those Johnny Walker and oh my God yes I'm harder to say you would regardless of weight classes like I'm kind of here for that. Inject that into my veins. Last question on this. Is this like a legitimate thing? Like, is this somebody we should believe in and sort of target?

Or is this going to just end up being a fun guy who wins some and loses some, maybe Mike Perry stop? Hmm. I mean. I know it's tough right now, but what's your gut telling you? My gut is telling me. Because also, I've got to say he's huge for that to very. He was monstrous size. And I'm going to, it's hard, and I'm going to compare it to a few sports.

It's like when you get this hot pitching prospect or hot batting prospects, or you don't know anything about him, so you don't know how to approach him. So I have this initial success. And then once you crack the code and you know where in the, where if you're, if it's a batter, now you know where to pitch him. Or if it's like the, when you get this running bat or this quarterback in the NFL where all of a sudden the read option was really successful for one year. with RG3 and Colin Kaepernick.

And then all of a sudden, defense coordinators could scheme around it and now you don't see anymore. Same as the Wildcat when the dolphins did it. Because remember when the dolphins played the Patriots and the Patriots had nothing for it? Once you crack the code, it doesn't work anymore. So I want to see a few more fights. A few more fights before I can really answer that.

But he's a fun guy. I think someone eventually is going to figure it out. That was a weird Patriots thing to throw in there. but all right well you know what you're doing there but it's kind of hard to comment the goat who has six rings at this point wow yeah there you go uh so it seems like you're leaning more towards maybe uh it's not flash in the pan but not you don't think this is sustainable no i don't think i think he's i don't think he's changed like it's that's who he is i'm sure he's going to fight like that all the time i just he's just not going to get flying knee knockouts every single fight

Yeah. Although we've said the same about Johnny Walker, and yet he has done that in every single fight. So far against pretty high-level competition. So maybe I'm going to choose to believe in Michelle Pereira. I think this could happen. I want it to happen because I need another person like this in my life. If a year or two from now, we have Johnny Walker and Michelle Pereira dominating the sport, I'm here for that. Hey, the era of dance, my friend. The era of dance, my friend. All right. Let's keep it moving. This next one's from Milo of Croton, who says UFC caliber. Hi, guys. It used to be thought that if a fighter left the UFC for another organization and subsequently lost, that the UFC made the right decision in cutting and letting go of that athlete. Recently, we've seen Sage and Eddie both lose, and DJ even had a tough

fight, though he won. The question, if fighters keep leaving the UFC and subsequently losing, at what point does it start to look bad for the UFC brand in what it means to be a UFC caliber fighter? does there come a time when people start to view the other promotions as having equally talented fighters and as a result devalty of the UFC's best in the world brand thanks p.s, good luck Sean. We will miss your live chat. Thank you so much for that. So Jose, if we keep seeing guys like Sage and Eddie come to these other promotions and lose, is there a point where it starts to look bad for the UFC? That's a really interesting question that it would look bad for the UFC. I had not thought of that at all. I'm sure it will look bad in the eyes of the quote-unquote casual

fans. I hate that phrase, but I mean, you saw that headline. I can't remember what Cite it was, but it was like Sage Northcut Suffer's Knockout in like minor league promotion. And they got roasted for that. Yeah, Deadspin. And it was like one championship is not a minor league promotion. But if you and I just the most difficult man Sage North Cause ever fought probably. I mean, he fought like, that dude stalked him down and sniped him with a hand grenade, broke his face. And I'm sure the optics will look bad because I know, I know their fighters where it's like, oh, what do you like, I've talked to fighters like on the regional promotion and they'll meet people that don't know what they do. And like, oh, what do is like, oh, I'm an MMA fighter.

They go, oh, are you in the UFC? And they go, no, I'm in like Bellator or whatever. And they don't, they don't know what Bellator. Like this fan doesn't know what Bellator is. they know what the UFC is. So I'm sure the optics of these fans that don't know about won championships and the Bellator's exist. I'm sure it will look bad. But it's a very interesting question that whether it will look bad for the UFC.

I don't know. I do not know. I think I agree. It's a very interesting question and maybe not one that I had considered that much previously. But I also, I feel as though at this point the UFC is Kleenex, right? The UFC is Q-tips. The UFC is just, it is. such a well-known, well-established name that, like you said, a lot of casual fans even refer to the sport as UFC.

I don't know. I think at this point it is relatively infallible. Like it would take something to a very crazy degree happening for UFC to maybe lose some standing in this sport, in this world, just because of sort of the way that this sport has been built up over the last 10 years. So I don't know that it's going to ever start looking bad on the UFC. If anything, I think it might look good for the UFC for in the way that like the New England Patriots to use your logic, always let these veterans go, maybe one or two years early, where they still have maybe one or two years, good years left. But then they fall off and the Patriots aren't paying them crazy money. Some other teams doing that for lesser performance.

I think if anything, people may start to look at it like that. But also, I mean, I don't know that. like nobody's seeing Eddie Alvarez lose and then thinking less of Eddie Alvarez really. A lot of these guys were leaving a Gaygard Musassi of Roy McDonald and Eddie Alvers. They already have their bona fides. Like they are already guys in capital with a capital G. So I don't know that that's like I think if anything, you're just, now people know who Cosmo Alexander is, right?

Now people know who Timothy Nasihukin is. So if anything, you're just helping out, you know, you have the other promotions to promote their own guys. and maybe to get some level of, yeah, at some level of, I think, actually, I just just, you know, it's a live show, so I'm ranting a little bit, but some level of when Deadspin does release a tweet like that of minor league promotion, you know, stage North Carolina debut, they get barraged with people telling them that that's not a minor league promotion, whereas two years from now or two years ago, I don't think that happens whatsoever. I think people just allow that tweet to sort of flow into the ether. Now people see it and get upset about it. I think that's a win, if anything.

100%. And for all the sage north cuts and Eddie Alvarez, you've had that suffer those knockouts early, you get the Gay Garden Newsosities, Roy McDonald's and Ryan Bader's who jumped to another promotion and clean up the gold. I mean, Bader's a champ champ in another promotion. Now we're talking about how years ago, Bader versus D.C., we lost out on that. So it's a double-edged sword for sure. Yeah. All right. We have one question left. from the MMA fighting chat and then we'll hit over to Twitter. This one's coming from Rob Holland. True or false, Sean will stay active as a podcast host.

I guess you're just going to have to wait and see. True or false, Chuck will take over the A side. That is false, but we will discuss that more later on in the show. True or false, Kevin Lee will never fight for a title. What do you think, Jose? Wow. Interesting. I'm going to say false.

the UFC has so many random interim title fights and random last minute replacements. He could be fighting on a card and then in his division and the championship falls out on the main event and they just pull him from the prelims to the main event. So I don't think anything's out of the realm of possibilities in the UFC at this point. I mean, Joe Soto fought for championship in his UFC debut because he was the only other bantam weight on the card. So there's nothing out of the realm of possibility. That is very true. Also, he's very young.

And you never know how this is going to play out. Maybe in two years they do do 165. And then maybe he's one of those guys. So I say false as well. I think he will fight for a title before he's done. True or false, Frankie Edgar retires after he loses to Max. So this is jumping on a couple steps forward. Hmm.

I don't, I'm going to say false. I don't, I'm going to say false. I don't have, I can't, obviously I don't know what's going on in his brain. I don't know where his headspace is at. But I mean, Frankie's, lost championship fights before and we thought he would never fight like he'd never get back up his two losses to benson uh his his his loss his losses to jose aldo him him him those two losses to aldo and then people thought aldo would never lose to anyone not names connor

after that 13 second knockout like we've had this conversation before we go oh is frankie ever going to get the featherweight get get the uc championship back like yes maybe he loses to max i don't i can't it just my gut is he's not going to retire And I can't explain why. I say absolutely false. I actually absolutely false. And I say that because Frank Giger still has one more thing in his back pocket. He still has 135.

He still has 135 in his back pocket. And we have heard from a long time from Mark Henry that that's probably Frank Yeager's best division. And this is a man who was champ at 155. So that's always incredible to think about. But if things go poorly against Max, I feel like we will still see Frank Yeager try to be one of those. guys who is a two division champion and go down to 135 and try to see if he can make he can make it happen down there. And wouldn't that be something if he did? I don't know any comparison for someone who would be champion at a division and then two divisions lower. That's a pretty,

that's a pretty wild accomplishment if he's able to do it. So I think he's not going to retire until he exhausts all options to be able to get gold back in his life. Is he teammates with Marlon Marais? Yes. If Marlon becomes the champion, though, and Frankie loses to max. Do you think Frankie drops down if his teammate is the champion at 135? I mean, anything can happen in this sport, right? You never know how long someone's going to be the champion. So I don't think they would ever fight. In fact, I'm pretty confident in saying that. But I could still see him making the move just in case Marlon lost. That's fair. That is very fair. All right, let's keep it going. Next one is we will, or true or false, we will see the 125 men and

145 women's divisions go before we see 165 for men. Gone? Yeah, I'm going to say, I'm going to say true. I think the flyweight division is already on its last legs. Its champion is fighting at 135. And like we said, I think the featherweight division ends when Cyborg retires. I think we were in agreement that's probably going to be either in two years or somewhere in there.

And Dana's beating that into a horse where 165 isn't going to happen until he's gone from the UFC. So I'll say true. I'm going to say false, but I think it's true. I say true regarding the women in 145. I think that, like we said earlier, is probably contingent on how long cyborg wants to stay around. I have no idea what to think about 125 for men at this point. I have absolutely no read on this flyweight division at this point.

It seems as though the UFC is half in, half out. Henry Sohudo is talking about how he's gotten assurances from the UFC that the division is staying. I hear other whispers about how it's not. people are getting cut left and right i have genuinely no idea what to believe about this anymore so i i could see you know the ufc man they they uh are not willing they are not hesitant to do whatever they want to do so if they want to be half in and half out i could see them being half in and half out on this division for several years if that's what it takes before it finally just kind of shudders uh and we

still have that what benavitas and formiga happening and that's at flyway and that's basically a number one contenders match. And yeah, but again, I just, I don't see 165 happening for a few years. So, uh, I'll still stick with my true. I'll still stick with my true. Uh, true or false in 2020, the UFC adopts one's weight program. False.

False. 100% false. In a way, this is, no way. They've been doing it for what, 25 years, the same thing. I don't think they're going to change anytime soon. Also, because they would have to do it. in a way that is very different than one of C, the way they do it. Oh, yeah.

Because that level of non-transparency would not fly over here. With all the conditions and everything, that would not fly whatsoever. Oh, you're not going to let us see the weights. You're not going to let us see them weigh in. You're not going to give us a list of the weights. That would never fly over here. Yeah, so an emphatic false on my hand. Yeah, same.

True or false, Tiago Santos surprises John Jones with a few big scares, but John edges him out in a day. decision like Gustafson won. Yeah, true. I mean, I think he'll, really? I don't think he's getting, I think he'll surprise him with something. I mean, Tiago Santo decision though. Hmm. I say false. I think John's dealt with big hitters like this. He's never really true. True in the sense that I think he surprises John with something, but I don't think it reaches a decision. So I think the first like Johnson's like, what is happening right now? This is a,

a three-headed chainsaw with limbs coming at me and then he settles in and finishes him later. But I think that like Taco Santos is so unpredictable in there. I think true to catch to surprising John with maybe one or two things, but in the end, I think John does finish him. What are the other two heads on that chainsaw? A hammer and because he has the hammer on his chest, right? Okay. And a flaming sword.

All right. I don't know where that's coming from, but I like it. True or false, this is Holly Holmes' last title shot. Huh. Interesting. False. I don't think. I'll say false.

Seems like Holly's always going to be in that. On the app. Yeah, I'll just say false. I think she's always, like, it's hard for me to articulate what I'm thinking, but she's always going to. She's always one fight away. Yes, perfect. She's always right there. And when they need a championship fight, I mean, she fought Cyborg a Featherweight.

She never fought a Featherweight. Well, I guess she did fight technically the first Featherweight champion. Duranemey, Duranmi, that was the first Featherweight fight. She lost and then she ended up fighting again because it was for the vacant title. So I'll say false because Holly is always in that title picture. I'll say false, but I'm very hesitant. with my false because of she is 37 years old true and she has a game very much predicated on fast twitch sort of reactionary stuff um but she's also the the number one contender in two divisions

that's true she does she did beat megan anderson that was a featherway people people kind of forget about that yeah she she had her pick of basically do you want to go for this featherway title you want to go for this bantamway title against the same person so it doesn't really matter but it's just like what do you want to do and do bantamway but But if this Amanda Nunes fight is close, if it's controversial in any way, I can see them running it back at 45. And even after the Megan Anderson fight, her post-fight press com, and someone was asked her like, oh, after that,

like, do you want the featherway or the bansom way because you basically have the pick? And her answer was like, verbatim was like, I want it all. So if she wants all those titles, she's going to keep going for it. So I'm going to say false. Yeah. And then last one from, I'm sorry, two more from Rob Holland. Charles Oliver is the dark horse of the lightweight division.

We already talked about this pretty extensively, but I'm going to say, True, he's one of the dark horses. I think they're still. Yeah, but like we both said, that division is so deep and so talented. There's multiple dark horses for sure. Yeah, but he's definitely one of them.

And then last, Kamar Usman doesn't rain as long as Tyron Woodley, but he will have more title defenses. That's interesting. So more title. So basically more title defense. in a shorter amount of time. Like he's just a more active fighter, is what he's saying.

That's what I got at that, yeah. I mean, he's pretty active, but he just had what? He had knee or knee surgery, I think, or something like that. And he doesn't even have his first title defense. And until Tyron Woodley took that break between, what was it, Maya and was it Till? Was that the long break he had? So he had a couple long breaks. He had between Maya and Till, yeah, that was about.

And then he had that long one between Kelvin and Robbie. But that was, then he knocked out Robert. Then he was pretty active after that because he fought Thompson twice. He was the most active champion after that. But he, so he, Tyron has right, I guess not right now because his title reigns over. But he ended up with three title defenses. And I guess four, three and a half, depending on what you want to count the draw. That's more of a title retaining.

It's not really a defense. But it's about three, three and a half title defenses. Do you think Camaro can get more than that? I reserve judgment until Camaro has his first title defense actually booked. Because we don't know when that's going to happen. That's fair. That's fair. Just in timeline, you mean?

Yes. Because for all we know, he won't fight until December. And that's like months after he won it. I'll say false. True. But I'll reserve judgment. Yeah. And then Rob adds, hate to see you, go, Sean, but wish you all the best.

Thank you for all the quality content, smiley face. I really appreciate that, Rob. All right. Well, that's all from the MMA fighting page. Let's move over to Twitter now. And you guys can ask a question using the hashtag the A sign. Let us see. This is a good one. This is coming from our good buddy, Dan Shapiro out in L.A. He writes that UFC

238 has five women's MMA fights. Valentina versus Jessica I, Taddez Juarez versus Nina Anseroff, Carolina Kobokovych versus Grasso, Calderwood versus Chu Kagan and Angela Hill versus a Chinese name that I'm not going to try to pronounce because I will not get it right. Is this the best lineup of women's fights on any single card in MMA history? also what are your top two shangl shoddy pieces i appreciate that um i think it's definitely the best in the ufc uh and like it's it's obviously retrospective thinking but i think it was like those early invicta cards like if you just look at all the names oh that blossomed into like these megastars like i think it was in victa fc two or three where like carlos sparsa joanne calderwood

and was Tisha Torres, Paige Van Zay on that card? Like, those were the prelim fights. And then, like, you had Jessica Penne, I think, was in the main event. And so those early Invicta cards, looking back, had a ton of talent on them. But I think in the UFC for sure, it's the best all women's, not all women's, but like it's the best stretch of female fights on one card. And before you answer, my two favorite Sean Al Shottie pieces, I'll give

There's two I have two answers And for different reasons I think the best The best long form piece I've ever read in MMA Was your Sean Tompkins piece for sure I mean I read that and I was like well

I thought that was a game change Well it was a game change in how I viewed Long form writing in MMA It was very I knew it was possible But it was it was that was such a Like that I still read that sometimes. That was such a good piece.

And then for nostalgia reasons, I was stuck in an airport on Christmas Day. And the only thing I had was my phone. And I read your, I believe your Anderson, the Silva 16 came on on Christmas. Yeah, yeah. Nostalgia reasons, that one. And then I moved into an apartment and I had no internet except for a phone. And I believe it was your India Diaries one. So.

They came out in consecutive days. It was weird. So the. The Anderson and India Diaries for nostalgia reasons, but that Sean Tompkins piece to me is still the gold standard of long-form writing in M.A. Thank you, man. I appreciate that. I appreciate that a lot. Absolutely, man. I forgot the question. Oh, is this the best lineup of women's fights on any single card in MMA history? That's tough. I mean, like you said, the early invicted cards were probably really good. Also, if you want to go old school, some of the old-fashioned hookings.

and shoot cards where you had Misha Tick and Young and all those really like true trailblazers back then in the Midwest. Those were really good cards as well. But it's definitely, I think, the best UFC lineup for sure. Let me ask you, among those five fights, Valentina, Jessica, I, Suarez, answer off Kobolkavich Grasso, Calderwood Chukagin, Angela Hill versus again, sorry, Chinese woman that I cannot pronounce. Which of those five is, do you have your eye on the most? Tatiana Suarez against fill in the blank. I wrote the breakthrough fighter of the year list, and she was one of the female fighters on it.

And she's so talented. She's been pegged. I remember when she won the ultimate fighter. People were already kind of pegging her as a future title contender, and then she's only gotten better and better and better and better. And she's winning dominantly. So Tatiana Suarez versus Blank, I'm always going to be the most interested in. Agreed.

Agreed 100%. That's the number one contender fight for me. I cannot wait to see that one. Also, man, Nina Ansoroff has been continued to surprise people. That's what I'm saying. Like, wasn't she hinting at retirement at one point? And then she, like, took a player short notice that just ran with it. And she just beat Claudia Gendaya.

Like, that was a pretty definitive win. So, like, I don't know, man. I don't even know what to think at this point. but I'm looking forward to that. Let's keep going looking for more questions. This one's coming from Aussie Fight Fan. He says, hey guys, we're all sick of these sea level judges in MMA. How about the UFC hires fighters who aren't on the card to judge the fights?

Pros, they know what they're looking at, they have experience, they get paid, and they can interact more with fans. Cons, none. Thoughts. So that's an interesting idea. He says how basically the UFC hiring their fighters who maybe are around but aren't on the card to judge the fights. Like are they still on the roster? He didn't say, but let's say yes.

I don't want a fighter on the roster like judging a card. I think you should be not even, you should not be an employee of the UFC while or contracts to the UFC while you're judging an event. And I do believe it was you that wrote this article a long time ago. Someone asked Forrest Griffin this about like, what do you think about judges, fighters judging fights? And he was like, no. Emphatic, no, because fighters will judge based off of their style. I know he's, he was like, I'm not, like, if a wrestler fights a,

because like Forrest Griffin's argument was he always favors guys with high volume and low power output. because that's his type of fighting where Matt, he's like, me and Matt Hughes will never agree on a kickboxer versus a wrestler if they fought their style. So for a long time, I was like, yeah, fighters should judge. But then Forrest Griffin was so emphatic with his no and laid out all of these reasons why that he definitely swayed me. And maybe Forrest Griffin is not the best person to answer that question because maybe he just doesn't want to judge.

But I tend to agree with his take on it. I'm curious what you have to say, though. No, that's a great point. That is a really great point. And I forgot that, I forgot that little comment from Force because you're 100% right. A Black Belt who spent his entire life on the mat is going to be giving much more weight to grappling actions and things like that, defensive wrestling, while a guy who's been kickboxing his entire life is going to be giving much more credit to jabs and random, you know, various stand-up techniques. Also, though, this is a bad idea for more reasons than that because just also fighters have biases, man. This is a very, very small world.

All of MMA, everybody knows everybody to some degree. And some fighters like some fighters. Some fighters don't like some fighters. Some fighters used to be teammates with some fighters. Some fighters know people that used to be teammates with some fighters. You're just going down a road where you have no way to have any real knowledge of, like, hey, what's this guy's connection to this guy? Is it truly an unbiased observer?

Or is there maybe something that happened seven years ago? to one of his teammates that like that sort of thing like there's a very slippery slope there that would if you're giving them the power to sway matches for people who are actually in the same promotion as them say even a guy who is a lightweight is judging a lightweight fight against contenders yeah yeah he has his own stake in that at that point so it just wouldn't work it's a good idea i mean it's an interesting idea i don't know if it's a good idea but it's an interesting idea It wouldn't work. All right.

Let's keep it moving. True or false, and this is coming from J-Stat 504. True or false, Francis knocks out JDS and gets a title shot. True. I'll say true. I mean, we talked about, I think it was after, no, it was after his knockout of Kane. You were like, I think Francis might be the best heavyweight in the world, but that was always if Daniel Cormay was going to stick around or not.

I'll say true. Francis has looked, what his last two fights, have his last two fights combined to be two minutes, like Curtis Blades and, um, Kane Blasquez that I just said. So I'll say, I'll say true. Whether, I don't think it's another flash knockout, but I think he's just stronger, faster, harder hitter all around. So I'll say true. I say true as well. I say true as well. I think, I think, I think Francis is going to be championed by the end of the year. I'll just say that. Ooh. So do you think he fights Stepe or

Kormier, or do you think he fights for a vacant title? I think that regardless of what happens next with Steepa and Daniel, there's a good chance that Daniel retires. It would be fighting. It would be Francis versus probably Stepe or someone for the vacant title. Or maybe

Stepe wins and then you go into the Francis rematch or maybe D.C. wins and he goes into the Francis rematch. I just think by some point, at the end of this year, Francis will be so undeniable that he will get that chance to fight for a title. And I am a believer in what this man has become. Yeah, and it's not like he's at this, like, yes, he deserved. Like when he knocked out over him, like he was clearly the number one contender. Like, same for now.

It's not like there's an argument against him to get that title shot. It's not like, oh, he's not the flavor of the month. He earned that title shot if he beats JDS. Especially now that it's a main event, a five-round fight. Yeah, yeah. Exactly. I agree with you. Let's keep going. The next question is coming from Natalie Zamundio, who wants to ask, is Sage Northcut suffered such a severe facial injury? I wonder if it'll ever be cleared to fight again. Who else has had their face broken into so many pieces in return to the cage? I don't know about as many pieces. I guess I don't know specifics of their face breaking,

but Cups Swanson certainly had an incident like this a lot earlier in his career with Josealdo, that infamous double knee that took, I don't even know how long. maybe 10 seconds, something like that, in the WEC. And he certainly bounced back to have a really nice, really solid, successful career. It's not a death knell by any stretch. And actually Cubs reached out on Twitter to say, to offer him some words of encouragement after something like that. So that was very cool to see. But that's one that sticks out to me of getting his face broken

and still coming back and having a long career afterwards. Was that how he got injured, though? I always under the impression that it was a training injury that when he broke his face. like on the severity of stage north cut for cup one oh you're right i think you're right so in that he said i don't know i don't know i don't want i could totally be wrong but i know cub broke his face at least once yeah i believe there was a training but still that i mean that he wasn't the same after that i'm sure it took him a while to get back from that aldo one too i mean you talk to him um uh in terms of i can't think of anyone that's had that severe of an of an injury

in the UFC. I know there's been fighters like Amir Sadala, who, like, when they fought Duane Ludwig, he was never the same, but that was like a prolonged, like, constant barrage of beating and he never physically recovered. But I can't, Cub Swanson was the first name that came to mind, and he ended up being, like, climbing his way back to the contendership. Yeah. Okay. Well, hey, let's hit two more questions. We are running low on time here. This is already a pretty long show, but I figure why not, right? Screw it. This next one's coming from Eduardo Bueno, the good man, Eduardo Buono, who says one final true or false. RDA fights for the UFC title at least one more time.

Thank you for the great content, Sean Hart. True. For the same reason, for the same reason I said Kevin Lee, nothing is out of the realm of possibility in the UFC when they're handing out title shots. Again, like, to me, if you're fighting on a card, like I remember talking to Jose Shorty Torres about this before, 227 where he wanted to fight on the same card as Demetri's Johnson and Henderson Henderson-Henishahudo in case one of them got hurt and he was the only other flyweight on there and then he just got pulled from the prelims up to the main event so the UFC's done it before so I'm going to say I'll say he'll fight for a title because again nothing is out of

the realm of possibility so I'm assuming and you're in this scenario that would be the 170 title I yeah I would imagine unless they make a 165 yeah I say false I don't know how much more he has left in him of being this world high, high level class guy. But it'd be cool if I was wrong. I mean, he's always been one of the good guys in the sport. And he's always, for a long time, it was one of the most overlooked fighters of his era, really. So it would be cool to see him go out with one more title shot.

I just don't know if he'll get there. All right. Last question. And this one's coming from Chris Poole at Maple Bacon, 88. I like that. Say it ain't so. as we prepare ourselves for Shaheen-less A-Side podcast. Can you two please reflect on a moment from a fight week you covered that has stood out in your memory?

Thanks, guys, and all the best. Cheers. In terms of covering it together or just individually? I think it's just individually. He didn't say anything about together. So what's one memory from fight weeks that stands out for you? One that stood out for me was I was super young. and I'm sure you've gone through this before when you're young and you're new in the game. Media days can be a little intimidating,

especially with all those scrums where you're trying to get your interviews and everything. And I wasn't doing video at the time, but I had like my recorder. And they did one of those media days where it was, I believe it was for, before Aldo McGregor, when they took all the fighters that weren't even on the card,

like all the upcoming fights. So they had like, and it was like a month after Holly Holme knocked out Ronda. So like she was like there. And they had, had T.J. and Dominic and Katzenegano was not Katzangano. I can't remember all the fighters there, but it was basically fighters that weren't fighting the next day. And they were all not cutting weight, so they were much more lively and talkative. And that was from 189, right? No, I was 194,

I think. Oh, yeah, you're right. You're right. So, and I was trying to interview Demetrius Johnson, as someone was going to knock on my door right now. I was trying to interview Demetrius Johnson, and I just couldn't. Like, I kept trying to get my questions in and people just talk over me. And someone did it again, and Demiore Johnson was like, hey, this young man has been trying to ask me questions

for the last five minutes. And it was like, and then I asked a question, and he was like, that was a good question because I was writing this thing on like, because he fought in the WC and stuff. It was like, oh, this WBC fighter is headlining the biggest card at the time. And I was trying to get all these WBC fighters

their takes on it. And it was like, when you're new and you're not you're still trying to build that confident and like arguably the greatest fight in the world kind of like reassures you that you're doing okay like you're you're not you're not an idiot basically like that was like to me I was like cool like I can do this kind of moment so that to me that's the first one that really stuck out in the later that time I asked Dominic Cruz and I've interviewed if you've interviewed Dr. Cruz enough I asked Donald Cruz about the WC and he talked for like 25 minutes while other reporters behind me were like oh my god this kid needs to

get out of here i was like sorry guys hey but you got your story you probably got great calls from i did and uh so that was really the time i was like all right i can i can do this moment that's cool that was a really interesting week too because that was when they were doing the three events in three days yeah that was a long week yeah that was wild i remember that week really really strongly and That's cool that Demetrius did that for you. She went on stage, and I remember turning around, and Chuck Mennonhall, looked at me and gave me a wink and a thumbs up, and I was like, all right, I can do this. Like, stop being nervous to talk to people.

That stuff is needed, man. Like, I remember back in the day a couple different fighters did that for me when I was still really young and starting out. And it's, you're in an intimidating environment with athletes and you're young, you're a young guy, and all these veteran reporters are around. That's awesome. That's a really cool story. Yeah, so that was really important. Like, Mike, and it confirmed that I wanted to do this for a living.

Yeah. I think my two memories of Fight Week that stand out really strongly. One of them is UFC 200. And I don't know that there was even a particular memory about that week. It was more so just the three-day stretch that started with this craziness in the middle of the night with John Jones popping, and everything that sort of devolved from that, me and Ariel and Mark,

Ariel Holwani and Mark Romani, were actually doing an MMA-fighting live chat, just like this one, at the exact moment when we found out that all of that happened, and that actually, in about five minutes, there's going to be a press conference downstairs across the entire MGM, like you had to run to it, basically. And we were in casual clothes,

and we had to cut that live chat short and just sprint out there and go cover this weird press conference with Daniel Cormier crying and John Jones crying and Daniel White not having any idea what was going on. And then from that point on, that whole week was just crazy. It was just nuts. There was one thing after another. I remember at that impromptu presser that UFCPR staff were around sort of in their gym clothes. Like they had just come from spin class. Like everyone, it was the beginning of the week,

and everyone was already totally thrown off. And then the next several days were just chaos. And then the event actually happens. And then literally 12 hours later, the UFC is sold for this crazy figure. And I was at the Summer League basketball, just watching, like, finding this hard week's over, I'm going to just enjoy some Summer League basketball

watching the young sons. And halfway through him, I was actually, I randomly ran into a UFC PR rep that I know pretty well down there. And we were just watching the suns together. And halfway through, he looked at his phone and he got Ghost White, and he was just like,

I got to leave. And it was just, oh, something's going on. And then like five minutes later, I heard from somebody else that Saylor had happened. And it was just the weirdest week I have ever experienced at a fight week ever. It was just chaos nonstop. So that's one that sticks out. And then I think the other one that always will stick out to me is UFC 196,

which was D. McGregor 2. That was one. Oh, good. 202 is what I'm thinking of it, which is the rematch. And I've covered a lot of counterfeights over the course of my life. And those were always probably the most fun weeks that I've really had on the road. But 202 was just a different level entirely.

It was unbelievable environment to you were there, right? I think it absolutely was. We sat next to each other. Yeah, that's what I thought. It was an unbelievable environment that is really hard to describe to somebody who isn't there. There's that big fight feel times a thousand and also the animosity between the two camps because it was very much like two different sides. It was west coast, east coast type of thing. And we did the preview show after the way ins. And so all of the Irish were just rowdy as

all hell after these wayans, super psyched. And we did a preview show amongst a sea of Irish and both myself first and then Mark Romondi second pick Nate Diaz to beat. Connor McGregor, we were incorrect, but we picked him amongst the sea of Irish, and the whole preview show is just chaos. It's only like seven minutes long, and at some point we lose Mark in the crowd. He gets carried back from the sea of people, and it was Ariel just in his truest pro wrestling Paul Heyman type of mode. He was just crushing it, owning the stage. It was one of the coolest memories I think I have from a five week is just that preview show and watching it afterwards and just cracking up.

And that was really such a wild week. I remember watching that happen. I'm like, I'm curious if I'd see them after this ever again, or they just get carried into the ether. But that was, because that was, those wanes were in like a ballroom too, weren't they? It wasn't even in the arena. Yeah, that was a, I remember entering that week. I kept saying like, this is a big fight, but it doesn't feel like it.

And then when I got to Las Vegas and after that first press conference with the water bottle thrown, I was like, all right, this is, this is madness right now. This is going to be anarchy in the streets. And we were 100% right. So, yeah, that was a wild week for sure. That's a good call because I remember the entire first beginning of the week. The whole conversation was like, oh, this doesn't feel as big as I thought it would. And then as soon as the water bottle thing happened, it was just like, oh, okay.

And that fight card was great. I mean, you had Rumble Johnson, like, sending to Chera's tooth, like, into the stands. you had the Cody Garment knocking out to Kay Mizugaki like faster than Dominic Cruz and then yelling up at him at the Fox desk and then Mike Perry getting a random callout for his UFC debut on a main card scoring a crazy game. And I will say I was the first ever person to interview Mike Perry in a UFC fight week because he was at Media Day. You're a good buddy Mike Perry. Right. He was in his meet at Media Day and no one was talking to him at all. Like the media day started and everyone ran to all these fighters.

And in my mind, I'm like, I'm going to get all the fighters that no one is talking to now. And then when they switch, I'll get the fighters that everyone wants at the end. So within like the first 30 seconds of media, I just walked up to Mike Perry, seven minute interview. Memory chip got crushed. So that interview never saw the light of day. And then what did you say? Time is indeed a flat circle because now Mike Perry and I are basically linked forever through the magic of the internet. So it's, it's definitely come full circle. Yes, he's a big fan of your friendly

hair. Hey, man. I'll never live it. I'm like, if I, that's what I'm known for. That's what I'm known for. Hey, man. As someone who has very unfriendly hair, I am extremely jealous of your ability to have friendly hair. I would trade you in a second. Uh, so, you know, I'll trade you my hair. If you can trade me your wax poetic ability to put words on onto the, onto paper. You find me a genie who can somehow, get this done and we'll do it deal i'll trade you a couple banners uh for the sons oh god then you didn't even need to sweeten the deal but it's already i'm in min i'm in all right well i think i've wasted enough time i don't know that i can stretch this any longer i don't want to say goodbye uh but i think

i have to say goodbye so at the end of our show we do something called the promo you guys know uh where we talk about just whatever we want to talk about uh hose you are the guest of honor today so I would like, would you like to go first? Sure, and I'll keep it short because I know you want to do your thing. And this is all off the top of my head. And I kind of touched upon a little before. But I've been getting a lot of tweets and messages saying like, oh, are you guys okay? Is the health of the site going to be, is it still going to be around?

And we're like, and I'm not promising that we're going to like try to work hard. Like we're going, this isn't a promise to try to work hard. This is we're going to keep working hard. I mean, I think we have the hardest working staff in the business. Esther is, to me, the best photographer in sports, not just combat sports, all of sports. Casey, the best videographer. Danny in the MMA hour with Luke, absolutely fantastic combo. Danny and I work every day together.

Alex is a machine. I can't say enough good things about his work ethic where he'll just, he'll work for hours. I'm like, Alex, you should probably sleep. He's like, oh, I got stuff to write. I'm like, oh, my gosh. And then Pizzie and Gee are just holding it down on opposite ends of the world. So this is a we're going to continue to work hard. And I know it's weird coming from me because I am the newest one on this staff.

And people don't like change. And I know like I have like a nose ring and tattoos and all that stuff. So maybe I'm not your cup of tea. But this is, it's my, since I'm here and I'm saying this like we're going to keep working hard. I still think we're the best staff in the business. And yes, I'm very sad that we're losing Sean. as a writer, but I'm very also super sad that we're losing one of my closer friends in the business because I've saved this for the end, obviously, but like Sean and I went to Arizona State,

not we didn't know each other there, but we kind of gravitated towards each other because of that bond. So it's weird that I worked, we would see each other in fight week and every fight week, you would be like, just keep working hard because someday, I remember you telling me this at UFC I think it was 189, which was McGregor Mendez. You were like, because you had your nice suit on everything. And you were like, someday you're going to be here with me when you were doing your preview show. And I was like, I hope that happened someday.

And I never like in the back of my mind, I was like, oh, maybe it won't happen. But eventually I got here and I got to work with you for a few months. And it was so awesome to work with you. And I'm still obviously going to see you. and I'm super happy for wherever you're going. I'm bums that you are leaving because we're losing your work and I'm not going to be able to interact with you every day because you're one of my closer friends in the game,

but I'm happy that you're getting this opportunity that you're going to have. But the M.A fighting train continues on, and we're not going anywhere. So hopefully you get used to my face, Danny's face, Alex's face because we're all still going to be here. And it's weird when you said you did that post show with you, Mark and Ariel and now you're not you're all off on your own quests so it's a little intimidating because I think the three of you if you make like a list of the best in the game you're right

there on the shore list so it's an intimidating quest that I'm on now to keep to to live up to your guys as standard but I'm going to do my best oh man you're going to kill it I know you're going to kill it and I know you guys are going to kill it and damn Jose you're trying to make me Cry. Get emotional. I'm going to. I'm going to. All the waterworks.

I'm, I didn't prepare anything. Maybe I should have. I'm going to miss you guys. I'll miss you guys a lot. I know I'm going to, I'll start by saying I agree 100% with everything you just said. This, this. It's hard for people who don't see behind the scenes to understand how hard this team works and how well run, like just how, how slick this operation is over the course of a fight week where there's so many things going on and there's

just so much demand for so many different posts and content and social and et cetera and this team works like such a well-oiled machine and you guys are going to just continue to kill it and i am excited for you guys to get bigger opportunities now to be able to become to get your faces out there more i i'm going to be very much a fan of mma fighting for life i'm going to watch and i can't wait to see what you guys do with it i know you're going to crush it um I don't know. I'm going to, I guess I'll try to not get emotional while I do this, but I started this. I started with this company about 10 years ago. I was a, I was a junior in college and Arizona State, as Jose said, and I was in a class, and I had just kind of settled on writing in English as a major. I bounced around several majors until you finally just figured out maybe this. this is what I'm good at. And I was in a class, and one of the assignments for the classes was reach out to someone

who has a job you would like and see if you can just have an interview with them. And so I reached out to SB Nations. It was a gentleman named Seth Pollock who ran the Phoenix Sun's website on SB Nation. And I said, you know, I love your guys' site. I love the sons. I love your coverage. Can I just do an interview with you? I did the interview with him.

And then at the end of the interview, he said, would you like to be an intern? with bright side of the sun. At the time, it wasn't even bright side of the sun. It was going to be an Arizona site that no longer exists, SB Nation, Arizona. And I was overjoyed at the possibility, and I ended up doing it. And I realized in retrospect, it was just a way for them to get free work, because I worked my ass off for a long time. And it was just, but it was cool.

It was a really cool introduction into the business. And that somehow led to one opportunity, which led to another opportunity. which ultimately led to M.A. fighting. And when I came to fighting, I mean, I was, it was surreal to me to be part of a team that was so talented. That you had been folks, Ariel Hawani, Luke Thomas, you know, all of these guys, Mike Chiapetta, OGs of the game, who really, you know, built this from the ground up. And it was surreal to me to work along so many people and call them a co-worker. And it is still surreal to me. to this day even, every morning to be able to open my computer and see that home page and just know that I played some small part in this and that somehow I got lucky enough to work with so many talented people and that this company took a chance on a kid who had really no actual qualifications other than he loved sports. And I will forever appreciate it. I don't have words to say how much I will appreciate it. Ten years. I mean, this company raised me. This company made me.

This company made me who I am today. I remember the day, I don't want to do this, but I remember the day my dad took his own life. One of the first calls I made was to our fearless leader, Brian Tucker, because for some reason, I felt like I had to let him know that I wouldn't be able to work for a little bit. And just that, this team gave me so much support when I really needed it the most. I bleed the black and yellow of MMA fighting so much. And I feel like I always will. and I will forever, like I said, be a fan of all of you.

And I just don't have proper words to thank you guys. So I'm going to try to do a quick rundown of thank yous. I hope I don't miss anybody. This is all the top of my head. And so that's risky, like I said earlier. But I want to thank Ariel and Luke, two of my mentors, my biggest mentors, I could not have asked for better mentors in this business. They're two of the best.

And they will continue to be moving forward. Mike Chiepeta and Ben, folks, who gave me early encouragement as writers and who I looked up to as riders and eventually got lucky enough to call teammates. Those were the best in the game and they still are. Esther and Casey, the greatest of all time, the best at what they do in any sport. And I will ride or die with them forever.

Congratulations again, you two on recently getting married. You guys taught me so much over the course of the past 10 years. Mark, one of my best friends in the space. I'm really proud of what we were able to do together, man. Guillermo Cruz, the best damn journalist in all of Brazil, and he always has been, and he will continue to be. He owns that beat like nobody else has, and I say the same about Pizzi Carroll. He is the best damn journalist in all of Europe, and I know he will continue to kill it, and you guys just subscribe to the Eurobash podcast if you have not already.

Chuck Minnitonhall, the best writer in the entire game. It was incredible honor to work and learn alongside him. and just learn about the craft alongside him. He is our generation's poet. He is just the pinnacle of this space when it comes to writing. Danny, Alex, A.K. Lee, Jose Jedd, has been an honor to carry the site into this next era with. All you guys, like I said, I know you're going to kill it for years to come. I am really excited to watch it.

And Brian Tucker, who is sort of the anonymous face to all of this. He doesn't get the headlines. He doesn't get the recognition. but he is the captain of this ship and his support, your support and belief in me has been invaluable, man. You were the best boss I've ever had. And it's been incredible working with you. And all of you, man, I mean, all of you out there,

all of you readers, listeners, supporters, fans of MMA fighting, I do not get the opportunity to do this job for so long without you guys. And I do not properly have words to thank you for it. And I'm just still barely holding this together, so I'm going to wrap it up. But as I see you pumping your fist over there, Jose, cry. I genuinely do not have words to acknowledge my gratefulness at how much support you guys have given throughout the years,

the readers and listeners and fans of MMA fighting. You guys really are why we do this and why we're able to do this. And to have your support for so long has meant so much to me. As Mark said and as Ariel said before him, this is not goodbye. It is just see you later. And I will definitely see you guys later. I'm going to miss now working with you guys on the road. Man, it's going to suck. I'm going to miss not working with you guys on a daily basis, but I need to wrap this up before I lose myself. So it's been fun, man. It's been fun. And I'm excited to see what you guys do with this,

because I know you're going to absolutely carry this tradition forward and kill it for years and years and years to come, and I can't wait to talk to you about it five years down the line when you're the most famous man in the MNMMA media. Wow. I don't know that. But yes, I guess we should also acknowledge that, yeah, that I am leaving this show. So the future of this show, the show will continue and absolutely will continue. This is your guys' show.

So one person's departure does not change that. I give the show to you, Jose. Wow. This is yours to do what you want with it. The readers and the listeners are wonderful. I hope you guys will give Jose a chance like you gave Mark and I a chance. We were terrible at it for a long time, and I feel like we're still probably not very good at it.

So Jose probably will be better than me. But I give it to Jose. He says you're the captain of this ship now, as long with the rest of this staff. And I know you're going to continue to kill it, man. No pressure going from Luke to Mark and Sean and now to me. No pressure, right? No pressure at all.

You got this, man. Again, I'm going to do my absolute best to keep working hard for everyone that I hopefully, I know people don't like change. I'm sure you guys experienced it when you took it over from Luke. And I'm sure I'm going to experience it initially. But I'm going to work as hard as ever to keep this ship floating. Yeah, I know you will, man. and I'm going to drive to Las Vegas with you in two days. Right.

To go see some wrestling. So like I said, this is not goodbye. It is just see you later. But that is it for me. Thank you guys so much for everything. I really can't say that enough. This has been the A-Side, live chat podcast. My name is Sean Shottie.

That man is Jose Young's. Let me ask you, Jose, because I don't even know. Are you guys doing a show next week? I plan on it. I mean, no days off, my friend. All right. Same time, same place. Next week.

I cannot wait to see it. Thank you guys so much once again. I love all of you. A-Side Live Chat podcast. My name is Sean Oshaddy. That man is Jose Youngs. We'll see you when we see you. Thank you again, guys.

A-Side.