MMA Fighting - The A-Side Live Chat: UFC 249 rumors, Tyron Woodley’s war of words with Israel Adesanya, more

Episode Date: April 24, 2020

Some topics may include the rumored UFC 249 card on May 9, featuring title fights between Tony Ferguson vs. Justin Gaethje, Henry Cejudo vs. Dominick Cruz, and Francis Ngannou vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruik, as well as the war of words between former welterweight champion Tyron Woodley and current middleweight king Israel Adesanya, Follow José Youngs: @JoseYoungs Follow Petesy Carroll: @PetesyCarroll Follow Anthony Walker: @AntWalkerMMA Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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We're just talking about MMA in the rain and trench coats. Pitchie's wearing a potato sack, as usual, whatever that color is. But anyway, what's up, guys? This is Jose Young's at AmiFunday.com here with, uh, what today is this? Friday? Friday. It's a Friday edition of the A-Syceivedy. live chat. I know we're still doing the show

three days a week now. I know we've had a lot of fighters on in recent weeks and a lot of you guys have liked that. But I also get a lot of questions asking when are you going to have fellow media members back on? When are you going to have non-fighters on? You know, just kind of just talk about mixed martial arts from a non-fighter's

perspective, more specifically a media member's perspective. So for this week, we just, for this episode, we decided to bring back a media member. Of course I had to call the homie Ann Walker Al in LA, Casey's neck of with it. First of all, 10 out of

10 hat. Cannot stress that enough. I like Jesus hat, but anytime someone shows up in a white washers in Bullets hat, respect my man. But anyway, how's life? Last time I saw you, I think, was August in person. Was that for the Anheim car? I think I think so. Yeah,

at 241, yeah. Since then, obviously, life has changed quite a bit. Were you a dad yet, then? No, no. My son will be four months old in a a few days. So it's been, I think I was stressed about impending fatherhood at the last time we spoke. But yet now I'm a dad. I'm settled into the role a little bit. I'm used to not sleeping. And now I'm quarantined with the young man. You might hear him whining and whatnot in the background.

But yeah, love being a dad. So what you're saying is the years of covering Fox Fight Nights, specifically FS1 cards, has prepared you for the rigors of being a dad. And these long, grinding, grueling nights of staying up watching these, you know, you remember the days. Oh, absolutely, man. Yeah. My time as a MMA media member has definitely prepared me for fatherhood. You know, you're dealing with temper tantrums and outbursts.

You are dealing with all sorts of just crazy stuff and bodily fluids. And here we go. I'm here. I'm fully prepared. I'm used to not sleeping. I'm used to waking up in the morning and getting to it. So here it is, man. It's a beautiful thing.

Petezy, we last saw you on Wednesday in someone on the YouTube comments says, of course it's a potato sack because Pete's, Peeze, spelled your name wrong, is I or so. How's life across the part of the neck of the woods? I see you're rapping. I don't know if that's supposed to be. Is that a blue Red Sox hat or is that a throwback Brooklyn Dodgers hat? Either.

I don't really know either way. I just got it because... No, no, this is important. Are you representing New York or are you representing Boston? This is a Blanchard's town hat. That's where I'm from in Dublin. So that's what I'm doing. And the blue was for Dublin.

That has an acceptable answer. But, yeah, I'm doing... I'm actually starting exercise. Remember I was telling you last time that I was focusing on thinking about doing exercise? Actually did some. I'm really slow, but it did 5k a day without stopping. and I shave five minutes off my first time. So,

so what do you think I can make the Olympics by 2021 based on my, my, my curve, you know what I mean? My speed curve. If we drop five, five minutes, four times,

I'm going to set a world record. So there you go. That's how I'm feeling about it. So I'm, I'm getting busy transitioning from MMA media to being Olympian in not only running, but I've also washed my bike. So I'm going to go for the tour France and maybe a gold medal

if they have a cycling event in that. So what you're saying is you're believing, you're seeing, and then you're getting to achieve. That's what you're doing. You're pulling the Michael Bisman trajectory out of your hat? Look, I don't want

Bisman coming at me like that. I don't want any left hooks for my aspirations of the Olympiad. But yeah, that's exactly what I'm going to do. And I'm going to do it. So don't be surprised when you see me on that podium in that beautiful green uniform.

Well, Pete, it only counts if you do it with one eye. That's true. You got to poke your eye out. So, Casey, we got a new dad. We got a future Olympian, apparently. How's life with you since Friday? Or since Wednesday, I should say. You know, being in the quarantine, it's like, there's no good news.

It's like you only have bad news to share. So, like, since it's just things you're going. I don't know. It's just like, you just kind of look at the calendar and go, oh, okay. That's the date. Right. That's about it. It's, oh, it's Friday.

That's about as deep as you get, I think. You know about it. I don't know. It's just, it's a thing. What is that, what was that? Didn't you buy a bag or some sort to work out with? What did you, do you start, did you upgrade to work in your shoulders yet?

Oh, he's, you can't. Oh, here we go. Here we go. Go on, Kay. Those of you just watch, just listening. Oh, Jesus. Oh, those are too heavy. Yeah, right, bud.

Your face is so red already. Like, okay, first of all, what is that called? Bulgarian bag. It's a Bulgarian bag. Yeah, 37-pound, oh, my God, Bulgarian bag, yeah. Well, for those of you just listening, Casey's bought a Bulgarian bag, he went back and he tried to do,

I don't know if any of you watched Nika Montagnos' Instagram. When I see those bags, that's immediately what I think of, because she's doing it on every Instagram live she does. She does a thousand of them. Casey couldn't do one before falling down now his face is all red. Okay, I'm not stretched. Sure, sure.

That's the big boy one. I have a little boy one there too. I went to the big boy one for effect. Well, I can confidently say you can probably that half. I'm going to count that as a half. That's one half more than I respect on that. Plus, for those who just listen in Casey's, He's rocking a phenomenal black flag shirt.

Yeah, my wife. So much respect. Though he's not wearing a hat, he's the odd man out of this four-man panel. But of course, this is not our chat. This is your all's chat. You can leave a tweet on our Twitter, hashtag the A-A-A-Side, or you can just respond to me or or Pizzi or Ann or Casey, because that seems to be what all of you guys do now anyways. Or you can leave a comment on M-Afighting.com, find the post that says the A-side live chat,

just leave it there and we'll find it. Or you can just make fun of us in the YouTube comment, and maybe Casey will throw Throw it up there. He's the director. I don't even know what that says. But of course, Casey, we have questions lined up already. What's our first question from our lovely listeners? Ant, you remember the drill?

Absolutely. All right. Where are we going? There we go. Oh, Jesus. Steve S.D.W. on M.A.fighting.com. Rosters.

During the Grand Boy, Lynn, interview on Eurobatch, Grand Boy, and Lynn mentioned that he doesn't expect the UFC and other promotions to make many signings from lower promotions because of the recent pandemic. How do you guys think the pandemic will influence the rosters of MMA promotions in the foreseeable future? For example, will we see less signings? Will fighters be cut from the promotion because the promotion can't offer them the contractual obliged offer of fight? So, Pizzi, I will start with you because your podcast, Eurobash, you and Young Neil do phenomenal work over on Eurobash. If you haven't listened to this podcast specifically,

and Grand Boyland, go check it out. Very interesting to hear a non-fighter, but specifically more promoters speak on the reasons of pandemic. It's always fascinating. But I'll start with you speaking on the Grand Boylan interview. What do you think the pandemic and how do you think this pandemic will influence rosters of MMA promotions in the foreseeable future? I think he's dead right, what he said, and I didn't even think about it.

Obviously, we're all thinking about so many things while this is going on. You know, we didn't even think about how the kind of the road to the U.S. He would be obscured for a lot of prospects. But he's dead right. You know, at any given time, the UFC probably have a huge number of injured fighters on the roster that can't fight. But at the time that they kick back into gear, everybody's going to want to be fighting. And really, I don't see that gap in market for fighters to come through. Even like when they're looking for short notice replacements, all the other fighters are going to be available to go now.

So it's not like, oh, let's call this kid and see if he wants to sign. There will be no need to do that. Also, say like just for example, let's use Ireland as the example. Everybody was so excited about 2020 this year because it seemed like we had a conveyor belt of guys that were ready to go to the UFC again. Particularly Reese McKee was supposed to headline an event Belfast where he's going to, he's going to fight for the Cage Warriors title. When you win the Cage Warriors title, it basically means you're right there.

You're knocking on the door of the UFC. Now the Belfast events been cancelled. the UFC likely won't be able to put on their event in Dublin because Ireland has blocked all major gatherings of 5,000 or more until September. So without that Belfast card, it doesn't give them the spotlight, it doesn't give them the title. Without the Dublin card, there's no incentive for the UFC to come to this region and sign someone in this area.

So I think it really has obscured the path for a lot of young prospects trying to get through. And I can't imagine, unless they're absolutely, forced up against the wall in the situation. I can't imagine there'll be many signings before next year. And same question. How do you think this pandemic is going to affect the UFC

signing prospects? I know a lot of prospects or even former UFC fighters may maybe use, as Pizzi brought up, there's a whole bunch of fighters that get hurt throughout the year. And maybe they need a short-nosed replacement. Probably not going to happen in the foreseeable

future. So I'll say, same question. How is this pandemic? it can affect the UFC's roster and signings of prospects and late late notice opponents that maybe not technically prospects but use this as a way to get into the UFC yeah i'm not i'm not seeing that as a good thing for any of those UFC hopefuls trying to get late notice shots it just doesn't seem like there will be a gap needing needed to be filled with they've already got a with 500 something people on roster already there's a backlog of people who are trying to fight and need the money.

And then on top of that, I think the guys coming into the UFC will have a harder time getting deals that are matching their talents. There's going to be a serious drought when it comes to regional MMA, especially as crowds are reduced. Like the UFC is a big enough promotion.

And Bellator, they're big enough promotions in one championship, of course, where they can run shows without an audience, but your regional promotions need those ticket sales. They need the ticket sales to make this viable

at all. So the alternative for that now is pushing, sort of, sort of like blurring the lines even further between low-level and amateur mixed martial arts. And you have, you could have events in closed gyms, but what's the financial incentive for those promoters? And without that financial incentive for the promoters, it won't be there for the fighters. And they have less negotiating power. They're going to be in more of a financial need. They'll be more in need of a showcase. So the UFC and Bellator and all these big promotions will have more than enough leverage to kind of do what they want at that point. Yeah, it's a similar question we had the last episode of Sarah Coffin where how not specifically signing prospects would be affected, but how this pandemic would affect smaller promotions like the Titan FCs, the LFA's, the Cage Wars specifically that do rely on ticket sales and don't have a deal in place. It's like a broadcasting deal.

So Sarah Coffinson, if I remember correctly, like, oh, you could set up something. Like, if they figured a way to stream in a small location. But, again, they rely heavily on these ticket sales, especially fighters. Like, we've all been to those fights where people in the undercar, even up to the main events, are selling tickets at their gym and they get like a cut of that. Like when I remember what Justin Gagey fall at World Series of fighting, his entire hometown went because he sold tickets at his at his gym and that's how he made a lot of his uh world series of fighting money so that is going to affect it massively case did you want to add anything

what's all you pop in yeah i just think maybe um yeah i get i don't think ufsss going to be signing necessarily a bunch of european fighters anytime soon but with i just predict that there's going to be for the next year at least there's going to be very few international fights but between between different countries the uvd for american fans It's just going to be American fighters fighting American fighters for, I think, for foreseeable future, maybe up to a year. So how would this, maybe PT better answer this. I can see this being a good thing for Cage Warriors in a sense that now the best fighters from Europe aren't going to be, you know, taken away to fight in the States. Now they're all going to be fighting in Europe.

Is this like, can this be a positive for European MMA? I was kind of thinking, like, if you guys remember, when UFC London was cancelled, Graham Boyland, like repurposed a few fighters, basically, and I was managed to put on one fight, which was Darren Stewart v. Bartos Favinsky in the main event of that card. I was thinking that maybe Cage Warriors could become the platform for European UFC fighters where they'd be able to play out their contracts on Cage Warriors cards. But I agree with Casey. I feel like that is going to obscure a lot of European

forest, just the travel restrictions alone, just the strain the travel puts on the world at the moment would be an issue. But from what I'm hearing, European fighters have been told that they will be going and fighting if there are cards in the US, which is crazy, really. Fight Island, baby. It's going to be on Fight Island.

But Fight Island is just international fighters. There's not American fighters fighting, you know, Irish fighters. So true. I'm just. But I feel like if fighters are being told that, there needs to be a situation where the UFC draw along the sand say, okay, we're not bringing international fighters here. And then the options can to start to prop up with the likes of, you know, maybe cage warriors hosting some fights and different promotions around the world hosting international fights.

But as we've learned over the last month or so, the UFC aren't backing down on anything. You know, they want to do it in the most extreme way possible, it would seem. Well, they still haven't done. Uxie has been saying a lot. Yeah, that's true. I've been saying a lot. There's a lot of talk. Literally nothing has happened yet.

So, I mean. There's a lot of talk. We don't even know, like, we joke about Fight Islands. We don't even know where it's going to be, like location-wise geographically. So, again, I think nail, hit the nail on the head, Casey. There's a lot of talk, but. action speak louder than words supposedly we're going to jacksonville in may but that's not even 100% confirms by the ufc that's all like that before casey and i got on we were like so you go

to florida he was like is it happening we don't know so it's a lot of like reports are fights gonna happen in jacksonville but until the uc actually says and does something it's all it's all just debate at this point it's all hypothetical you know again even then it's hypothetical true yeah yeah until the fighters actually enter the oxy to gone, it's all hypothetical. One thing that's interesting is, you know, Dana had made such a big thing about we're going to be the first sport back and stuff. The German Bundesliga, which is huge, their soccer league,

that's meant to be kicking off on May 9th as well. But, like, I mean, when you look at the German situation compared to the U.S. situation at the moment, it's very, very different. You know, like Germany, I believe they close our borders very quickly. Like, you know, before a lot of the countries were kind of on it. Like my friend is over there now and he arrived over to work there last month and walked straight into quarantine. Like Ireland was pretty early kind of putting the telling people to stay at home and stuff. But he was straight into a lockdown situation.

He literally got there and had to stay in the apartment he was put in, you know? So interesting though that other leagues around the world seem to be kicking off again or at least have plans to. And with the UFC obviously trying to make these plans happen. But I do, again, I do feel as though very different situations. in the U.S. and Germany. Hey, man, just inject some Lysol into your body. You'll be clear. You'll be good as a new.

Have you guys done that yet? No. Have you destroyed? I tried a little bit ago. I'm not feeling too good, but I think it's, I think it's just working. It's just like killing all the COVID in me. I don't feel too good. I think it's working. That's hilarious.

Anyway. Enough hypothetical talk. Casey, next question. Everything's hypothetical. Everything. Geez. Stay positive, Gacy. Stay positive.

Thank you for your question. And shout out to Eurobatch for the excellent work. Woo. Thank you, Neil. From Ice King. It seems to be good. It's not cut off. Ice King.

I'm sorry. If the UFC champions become fast zombies, like World Horse's zombies, what contenders would you want to, what contenders would you want to help you fight them? So if every UFC champion became a zombie, like a la zombies like in World War Z, I'm assuming all of you guys have seen the classic zombie thriller starring Brad Pitt World War Z.

If all of the champions in the UFC became a zombie, which contenders in their division would you want to have you help them fight this zombie UFC champion? PZE looks absolutely flabbergasted by this. I'll go to my man and aunt. Thank you. Yeah, I kind of don't know what to say here, but I'll just say Tony Ferguson for every weight class. Tony Ferguson for every weight class. That's a good.

So he would be a zombie too. If he's a zombie too, we're screwed. That's just dangerous. Maybe he is a zombie. We just didn't know it. Maybe like we've been misinformed what zombies look like and it turns out it's. Does you saw to test for zombie? Is that like a thing?

This got to be a piece. You get suspended because you're a zombie. Yeah. Did we answer the question? No. We don't even know what the question is last. The answer is Francis and Ghaner. Okay.

Yeah. The answer is just going to just punch everything to death. Also, if you remember in this movie, I don't know if any of you guys have seen this, I was joking about that. Zombies do ignore people who are sick in this movie. So if you have like the cold, they'll just run past you. They want a healthy body. it. So Alex Hernandez is saying?

Alex Hernandez. Yikes. Shout out to Mike Hack on what the heck. If you haven't watched that interview with Alex Hernandez, go watch it. It is Iowa. It is something. God, I hope we get a question about that. Wait, so I was, so when Mike does these interviews, I'm directing in the back and I'm changing

cameras, doing that kind of stuff. And like when he was saying this, I'm listening. I'm just like, wait a minute. So he was prepared to fight at 249 with the virus or with the symptoms of the virus. And I was just like, oh, yeah. Wow. Okay. That was all right. Just bleed, baby.

Just bleed. Yeah. His original opponent is Islamakad, who was probably going to fight him, most likely going to get sick. And then bring it back to Dagestan. This is literally exactly the scenario we were all talking about when this first happened. Like, remember when Jack Galaher was on, he was like, this isn't like we're all living in Orlando. This is someone from America fighting someone from Russia and then going back to where

they live. Like this was the scenario he brought up and this was almost a reality. It's, again, I don't want to give away too much the interview if you haven't watched it, but definitely go watch what the heck with Alexander Hernandez. If you want to watch a UFC fighter getting a massage talking about the coronavirus, it is quite quite. How does the girl giving him the massage feel as a person. he's looking into the camera going, yeah, guess I have it.

Yeah, right. I think, you just see the hands coming away like this. He's like, oh, God, what I have to do to make 75 bucks? It's like, why is this essential? We didn't even answer the question, but that's okay.

That's true. Unless the zombie is a good wrestler. Thank you, Ice King. Cold, but Germany is already reopening schools, et cetera, from Suzanne in the YouTube comments. Everything is hypothetical should be the title of this episode. No, you're not wrong, Suzanne. Frank Herbert, what do you guys like most about MMA? I forget what it actually is.

I think it's just this game. right now. What do you like most about mixed martial arts? Man, I'm a long-time martial artist, so I just like the one-on-one competition. I like to see the skills match up against each other. I think MMA is the purest sport that you can have. Fighting, you know, like all sports or metaphors for warfare, and you just skip the metaphor, and people just beat each other up, and there you go, you have sports. So it just makes sense. It's simple. It's direct.

it's pure i like it who was the football player that was like we're going to war and then he got like suspended Callan winslow calvinzo Jr he went he had this interview yeah he had this interview he had this interview he's like we're going to war strap up my guns we're going to war and I'm like

and then he she said some other crazy stuff and got fired by the NFL someone says that in MMA that's just that's just a Thursday like so I like all the I like all the crazy characters not crazy characters I like how when I'm watching baseball

Because baseball is my favorite sport. Shout out to the 2018 Boston Routtsets. We did not get out of World Series taken away. That is why I'm wearing this hat. There's a lot of players they don't like. There's a lot of players that fellow players don't like. And I'm just like, why don't they just fight? Like getting a fist fight right now.

Can't do that in baseball. You can do that in MMA. That is my favorite aspect about mixed martial arts. My girlfriend hates it because every time I don't like someone or someone bothers me in any sort of public setting. I'm like, I wish I could fight this guy right now. She's like, well, you can't. This is public. He was a mixed martial artist.

There you go. Those in the octagon, we sell out of differences. But Pizzi, I know you like to get in a fight now and then. Fight myself. That's what else. Yeah, I think the people in the sport are the best thing about it. Like, I mean, they're all great. Like, I mean, the fact that we all found ourselves in this game, you know,

there's always a very interesting story for most people. that I'm in. And like, as I said, it's like, it's the most pure thing in the world to go in there half naked, stripped to the waist and beat the shit out of each other in front of the world. Like, I mean, it's, you're risking everything. You're not just risking your career. You're risking your ego.

You're risking your self-image. Everything. Like, I mean, it's, it's an unbelievable thing in that respect. How much is riding on these things. Every fight is so important. It might not, might not feel. it to people watching a home, they're tuning and tune out, but they really are. It's like every fight is life and death parties, guys. And that's something that's really, really appealing

about it. Yeah, yeah, I love it. But right now, as I said, it's very hard to remember what it's all about because it feels like it's just about booking events that don't happen, getting everybody talking about every possible, yeah, every possible outcome, every possible situation. And I was like, no, it's just very strange at the moment. It's a very very, very strange. That question's very good because I feel like we haven't asked ourselves that in a very long time, to be honest. I like to think of, I know every like the movie Fight Club is very divisive. But I think what was the Tyler Dern? It was like, how much you're going to know about yourself, you've never been punched in the face? I love that quote. And for people that have been punched in the face, it's not a pleasant statement.

For people that choose to get punched in the face and get paid for it, they are another level of human being to me. I could never do what they do, so I genuinely, I know we talk about all the crazy, like all these crazy things people say, and how could you lock yourself in the cage? You want to fight in front of a couple thousand people for less money than you deserve for the love of it. All power to you because something I couldn't do. But Casey, why do you like M.A? You didn't get, you initially, when you first got into covering this martial arts, you weren't the biggest fight fan, if I'm not mistaken, right? No, this was, this was human cockfighting. I didn't, yeah. I'm one of the, I'm a unicorn in the sense that I work in this industry and I wasn't a fan of the sport at all.

I, like, I literally got hired because I knew how to actually do things on camera and edit and stuff. I got hired to do promos for initially. But then once I actually met fighters, met coaches, it's actually coaches. When I met the coaches, that actually, they're the ones that really made me get a better understanding of the sport. And so it was coaches and then really just understanding the storylines and what it takes to get to that point. And especially not so much now, but maybe a few years ago, it really felt like every single fight, especially a UFC card, every single fight felt like that was a Super Bowl for those two fighters. Even if it was the first fight in the night, it felt like it didn't

feel like a regular season of baseball game, you know, like every fight felt important. And And that just the high, the incredible high stakes for every fight alongside the incredible amount of athleticism, the incredible amount of just dedication and the incredible amount of just toughness that these men and women have to have to fight at this level was very inspiring when I, when I first got into the sport for sure. And yeah, that's why I like MMA. and I've seen you at a couple of PWG shows back in the day. Did your love of professional wrestling play into this? It played a little bit in mind because when I was younger, I watched a pride event. I'm like, oh, this is just professional wrestling, but real fighting. And that kind of got me in the door when I was young.

Did that play a factor for you? Yeah, but it kind of happened the opposite way. So when I was like eight or nine, I swore that WWF was real. And like you couldn't tell me otherwise. So when I found out that the ultimate warrior and Hulk Hogan were like actual fighters, I was just crushed and devastated. And then I started watching boxing with my dad because I knew for sure that they were really hitting each other. And that's what started being in a combat sports, you know,

without tracing the Ninja Turtles and Bruce Lee lineage into my interest in martial arts. Like combat sports was because I found out WWF wasn't real and I was heartbroken. so Pernell Whitaker helped ease those wounds for me. So you're saying you truly believe the Undertaker was an undead lightning wizard come to bury his victims? I tell you this. When I saw the pallbearer hit Axeljim Duggan in the back of the head with the urn, I was yelling from the crowd. I was shocked. I was appalled.

I was deeply offended. And I thought The Undertaker was a jerk. So, yeah, I thought something. I thought the undertaker wasn't undead zombie who came to plague us. And Hacksaw Jim Duggan was on the side of righteousness. And I'm still a little upset about that. I'm still a little affected by that. So it took a lot for me to step into PWG.

But man, I love PWG though. Can I see your hacksaw impression, Ann? I think I've been a fool of myself already. you know what's weird though and this was the thing that like when because I came to MMA from a different I guess a different path than most fans I didn't I never saw a pro wrestling connection

when I first when I first I watched it I never obviously the history of the sport was especially in Japan like you can't you can't separate MMA and pro wrestling because it was basically the same thing but like I was like once I was always just shocked I never I never saw the connection between them until I really understood the storylines and how made a lot of the business how the UFC sold their product is like oh okay now I get now I get the connection but as far as like know the

performances in the ring versus fighting in a cage I never I was always like what that's those are two that's like comparing golf and you know in the way I never understood it but same same same thing completely completely sorry I did have them, like I initially got in, because I was a Pride fan really before I was a big UFC fan. I watched the UFC, but Pride was my go-to back on the day. And then I really, really started to pay attention to the UFC when Brock Lesnar made his debut. And I know a lot of people kind of like, oh, like they don't like, I know a lot of people that don't like to admit Brock Lesnar and got them into MMA. A lot of my friends that watched MMA were diehard wrestling fans that only tuned in to watch Brock.

Lek-Lessner fight in the UFC and then from that they discovered their love for mixed martial eyes. So I know a lot, I know personally that first fight against Frank Mere opened a lot of eyes to a lot of my close friends and to mixed martial arts. And does anybody remember that weird period, like right after UFC 1 and 2 where there started to be a bunch of like up-and-coming MMA promotions, but some of them were scripted fights? And it was really bizarre. I mean, I remember Sugar Ray Leonard had one. And it was, yeah, it was, it was so strange, man. I had the, uh, the black box cable so I could, you know, get all the discrambled paper views or whatever. And one of them was for,

I can't remember the name of this company, but they had pro wrestling type characters, but they were billing it as they were, they were really fighting. So they had, they tried to have the storylines. They tried to have them cutting promos and all that, but they were like these exotic martial art styles. And I remember that was one dude. I know exactly what you were talking about. And I cannot I remember and they all were like a different ethnicity. Yeah. Like they were like women. They all were like like one guy were red every single week and then another one

were blue every single week. I know exactly what you're talking about. Yeah. There was a drill sergeant. And the drill sergeant was one of them. There was a guy named, name, uh, named Mozar who created a martial art called Mozart. And then there was, um, there was another guy named the Mongolian that had like the long like ponytail,

the long-braided ponytail. And I remember, like, he fought this little kung fu guy who did this, this jumping spin kick and bust his mouth open. And then he tried it again. The Mongolian just picked him up and just slammed them down and just started beating the shit out of them. So, yeah, that was fun.

I know exactly what you're talking about. I can't think of it. Didn't it? Did not the Japanese MMA have a similar kind of passage into becoming a big thing? It kind of had the pro wrestlers come over and there be different works or, whatever way they're called.

I don't really know anything of pro wrestling. But I know I've read that before that. They kind of had those mixed events in the early years of Japanese MMA where there would be some kind of choreograph fights among real fights. Is that right? Yeah. I forget the organizations, but there are much better historians out there that know a lot about those years, like the early 90s, a lot in Japan.

But man, I got to see. I got to find them. I haven't looked down in a while. but man, some of those fake fights, dude, they look so real. Yeah. They look so real. It's not wrestling, like, they're throwing punches and doing, like, a lot of kicks and everything. It's really interesting.

I'm sure our own Dave Meltzer would know a lot more. My parents didn't even give me that, like, time of pro wrestling. I can remember, like, watching wrestling when it was three. I mean, dad was like, yeah, that's bullshit. They're not fighting. Thanks. From Darren, oh God, Darren the Fapper, too. There's no way I'm skipping that name.

What's a fopper? Oh, okay. That's okay, Pizzi. Do I Google that now? No, definitely do not Google that. We'll show you all fair. From this, this. No.

No, it isn't. Sorry. From this YouTube comment that I just, Is any media member actually going to 249 or are you covering it over the internet? Cases and I were talking about that before we all got on there. We don't even know if media members are going. I know the rumor is, again, it's all hypothetical because the rumor is it's taking place in Jacksonville. The rumor is it's going to be Justin Gage and Tony Ferguson.

And the rumor is Henderson-Hooder versus Dominic Cruz. But until I get official word, we don't know. If it's in Florida, I imagine we would go. I can't imagine we wouldn't go. I know we've talked about this on a past episode that. I know we'd all be in agreement. It's our responsibility to go cover it. Because all these questions we have,

we can only get the answers if we're going there and asking the right questions. Like all of these hypothetical scenarios we have, we have to be there to find out the answers. And yes, it would not be the smartest thing to go. It's definitely dangerous to go, especially Florida. Can I ask you? one question. Can I ask one question? You know, already, and you can already see it from the way people are asking us questions. Like, people fully believe this is going ahead on May 9th. Like,

there's like, they don't even, they're not even considering the situation the world is in at the moment. They're like, so what he's going to do when this happens? What happens if, which is kind of like, like, it's definitely a possibility. This event gets pulled on the week of the fight again. Like, I mean, what happens to the UFC then? Like, I mean, are they going to be able to spin this into the, oh, the MMA media stopped the event. I doubt it. Like, I mean, you can't keep going back to that. Like, what happens?

Who, who ends up with egg on their face this time? Like, I mean, does the UFC get bitten because of it? Because they've, they've got all these fighters, fans, all these hopes up that it's going to happen and then it gets taken away again. I mean, I feel like, you know, that's a huge possibility that happens. And at what point do the fans get pissed that they keep on advertising these things that don't happen? The interesting question.

I would imagine they're still going to blame the media because it's always the media's fault. That's true. But it's an interesting question. How many times can this hypothetical U.C. 249 be canceled before fight fans just get fed up? I think at this point they're just so desperate for a fight they want to believe. And when it doesn't, when it falls apart, they lash out at the person that Dana White points at. And that happened to be the media because I know Casey brought it up on a past, So when Habib fell out, we all remember, we posted a poll, like, what should the UFC do?

Like, book a time of fight, like, book the rematch, or book, like, wait and cancel this, book the interim fight against Justin Gagy or, like, when we gave another example. And all of the, like, the vast majority was, like, postpone the event. It's postponed the event. When Habib fell the first time, 75% of the respondents said just postponed. Yeah. Yes. And then as soon as they say, oh, Justin Gacy is going to fight Tony Ferguson.

And people are like, yes, fights. And then that gets canceled. Everyone's like, boo, the media. So that was in the span of what? Like five days? So in five days, we saw a shift from postpone the event to why did the MMMA media get the UFC to postpone the event? I don't even want to, I can't even, I don't even, I don't even want to think what they're going to do if this happens again. I feel like the appetite is huge now, though, because I'm having people who probably watch Connor Foyt's, nothing else.

Text me going, this is really happening on May 9th, right? Like, oh, we got something to watch, something to watch live, you know, something we're all watching together. Like, that's the whole thing here. Like, people just want to watch a live sport together with the world watching, you know. And I just feel like it's going to be, you know, if this happens, which is, again, quite a possibility in this situation, like, there's going to be a huge kind of reaction to that.

And I wonder what direction is going to go in. And you've watched a lot of the stuff going on Instagram Live, right, like the rap battles, Right, yeah. Did you watch horse and everything, too? Like, Gambay player playing horse? I couldn't bring myself to watch horse. I've watched the DJ battles. I watched Teddy Riley and Baby Face on.

I wouldn't watch in the horse. Like, no. Well, that's horse, lads. It's a game. It's a game in basketball where, like, if you make a shot, you're the person you're playing has to make the same shot, and if they miss, they get a letter in horse, so they would get an H.

So, like, if Anthony does a 360 windmill through the legs dunk, and you can't do that, then you would get an age, which I imagine you can do it, so you would have nothing to worry about. I do it all the time. Right. I don't even think you know the words I said. Let's play horse.

The closest thing we've got to like a live sport feel for me was like the last dance, so everyone talking about that. Like as in, it was all everyone reacting to that at one point. It was a big one. and yesterday the draft blew up. Like the NFL draft happened last night. I know Casey thinks it's super boring.

I like the first round. Yesterday was weird because there wasn't in the giant auditorium with all the like the war rooms and everything. But it felt for like a good couple hours that everyone on the line was talking about the NFL again. They didn't even know what happened. They weren't acting like, oh, the NFL is postponed or announced. It just felt like a normal draft.

Like it obviously wasn't normal, but it felt good. I can honestly say it felt good to like when the Packers drafted a quarterback and all my people I follow that are Packers pundits were like talking about. I go, oh yeah, there's a there is a pandemic going on. This guy's probably not going to play this season. But it did feel good to mentally check out from what's happening in the world and think about the NFL again. You know, I mean, people are so star for content at this point. I mean, like they're watching people have been hyped about Tiger King, just the the idiocy of that. They've been hyped about Thank you, Anthony. Finally, someone agrees with me.

Oh, it's, oh, it's dumb. I mean, I watched it. I was so into it, but it's completely stupid. No one's saying it's hoary brow. I'm not proud of it, but it was dope. So, so like people watching that, they're watching these Instagram live battles and watching Tori Lane's act of fool on his Instagram live. They're watching anything. And they're watching the coronavirus daily briefings as if it was some sporting event. Like people just want to watch something and cheer and boo at something, anything. So when you have an actual sport like M&A trying to push along, yes, they're going to be on board because at the very least, man, people are just bored and starve for regular life.

And that's at least a sliver of regular life, even if it doesn't make sense to go forward with it right now. And there is that disconnect, right? Like when it's not happening in your living room, when it's not happening right in front of your eyes, you don't really see the danger of these guys fighting each other, right? Like, I mean, it feels the people, they feel very separated from it, I guess. Right. I mean, they don't understand the normal consequences of the fights themselves in a non-pans.

Yeah, that's very true. Jesus, that's very true. You know, all the times we've seen, you know, we've seen people get booed and trolled online because they didn't go out and stick their chin up and just start swinging wildly for 15 straight minutes. So I wouldn't expect any level of compassion or, or, forethought about anything other than just their pure amusement because that's all they cared about in the first place.

That's nail on the head there. I didn't even think it. It's a great show. It's so true. And this is why you bring Anthony on to have some intelligent conversation. Yeah. One of the rare times people look to me for that. Yeah, they definitely got getting that out of me, Anthony.

Don't worry. I do see that nonsense Deadpool bus in the background. You don't get a pass 100%. I was a gift from my wife. Oh. I will tell her that you said that and you'll have to deal with her. So good luck to you, Jose. Tell her to get you a real superhero bus anyway.

I punish her my favorite, but you can't see the action pick. He's all right. All right. But back to the original question about actually the media actually covering it. We actually just, I forgot the word of the question. but we don't we cover it we don't even know if media's going to be allowed to cover it um if we are is that how apparently not huh is that they already not apparently yeah so like yeah we're like that i mean if i had the option i live in i live in englewood so i have to fly across

country which is that's probably the most dangerous part is the flight and catching uh the virus via through the flight um but like just as a as a journalist and like it was like I would just I just hate that I did I might go to this whole quarantine and not be able to get see that my my my experience of the quarantine will be just basically in my house which is it is which is what it is what it is for 99% of people it's just so I'm hoping just on almost a bit of a selfish selfishness that I can go just so I can experience what I can experience what it was outside of my home for the quarantine so but I highly doubt my

I imagine it would be a big, like California, where you and Anthony are, has probably dealt with this pandemic the best of all the states. Florida has probably dealt with it one of the worst. So it would be a drastic transition for you guys if you went to go from a state that shut down a lot of cities quickly. A lot of people said premature. In hindsight, it was 100% the right thing to do. Florida is now opening businesses, professional wrestling as an essential sports.

So you're going from a state that handled it phenomenal to a state that's not even handling, like, period. So I'll leave it at that. Yeah. I kind of think that for me, I would, I'd have to know what those safety protocols were before leaving. You know, I would just have to know something. I couldn't just blindly jump on the plane and say, all right, I'm on the way to Florida. I'm going to cover this fight. Like I feel as though it would be my professional duty to do so.

offered the opportunity to do it in person, but I've got, I've got a baby son to be more concerned about. I was going to ask, has being a dad, has becoming a dad changed how you now approach that? Like, if now that way, I imagine before you, you had your, your child, you would be like, yeah, let's go to Florida. Absolutely, man. Like, I always, I would joke about this a lot when talking to friends and family and to my wife, like, single me without a son, without any offspring, like would just be on some other shit just totally just totally on another on another wavelength like right now if if i were living through this pandemic right now and i used in in my the room i used to rent when i lived in long beach and all stuff what i would end up doing right now is either one

sitting in it sitting in my room with a big handle of gym beam which i actually have right now anyway um and or and playing video games or i would end up calling like oscar who, you know, Oscar Willis for Mac Life, who's like one of my best friends lives in Vegas. And he's stuck in his house by himself. I'm like, hey, I'll drive over there. We'll just hang out and play video games and drink together. Like, I would do something completely reckless like that because whatever, it's just me. But when you got a little one that's looking at you, I wonder where his next meal is coming from and just want you to pick them up and smile at you and change his diaper.

Like, you know, priorities get straightened out. And as much as I love mixed martial arts, I love my son. I love my wife more. So I would have to know what the safety protocols were before I just stepped on that plane because if it's just like, hey, trust us when you get here, no, I don't trust that. I need to know, is there some sort of quarantine set up in case I start having some symptoms? Am I going to get testing even though I might be asymptomatic? I need to know something. And I do as much as I respect professional duty.

I think duty to family trumps that. And granted, maybe because my full-time job is not mixed martial arts media, you know, it's a side hustle for me right now. So maybe that alters the perspective because I do have a paycheck coming in that is not related to the fight world. So I don't have the financial pressure. But when it comes to pressure of duty, family number one, man. I love MMA, but not like I love my little man.

So he's number one. Oh, yeah. If I lived with someone that, you know, that was high risk, I live, you know, like a child or like a sick grandmother. No, I would, I would be off the list. I mean, I just would say no. But I'm in a fortunate situation where I have no children. No Esther's not pregnant or anything crazy like that. Sure.

That's where I could, I would want to do it. But because like I said, like when Joe Lowe's on. I want to see how they're doing. I want to see how the testing is done. I want to see. I just want to see what company they bought the test from. I want to see what procedures are doing because they can say all this stuff. Like you said, well, we're going to throw all the fights.

Absolutely. I want to see it. I want to see. I want to record. I want to document. I want to show people what's actually going on. Yeah, I think our episode with Joe Lozahn was eye-opening too where he's not even a fighter. He's a coach.

So he would have to go with one of his fighters to the fight. but he's like my wife is like an ER nurse so like I have to think like if I get it and then she gets it and then she goes to the hospital like he's thinking about all this stuff that he's not even fighting he's not thinking like if I get it that's fine but if I give to her she passes it on to all these sick people it's eye opening it's an eye opening time you think about a lot of things that you you wouldn't think of if this wasn't going on but well said anthony very well said and do you know how flexible pizza is from Angie in the YouTube comments.

No, but I'd love for him to show me. So this is a ritual. This is a ritual for all of our new guests. All right. People that are listening and watch. Making excuses already, I see. All right. Hang on. Hang on there. Are you going to do the Simone Biles thing where you like take your pants off without using

your hands? I'm just going to show you what a supreme athlete I am. That's all. I'm going to do it this time. Hang on. Yes. Just a barrel. Just a barrel. Did you hear that crack?

Oh, my God. I think I pulled my grown watching that. Oh. Now, people know this, people that watch and listen to this. Yes, round of applause. I do it for all of you people. We'll fight this thing to cap. This has become a narrative.

Every time there's a new guest on, they get to see pizza do that. And then they get told the. same story that all of our listeners and watchers here. In the middle of UFC 240, 246, U.S. 246 Media Day, PTC walks up to me. Middle of Media Day, Ant, you've been to UFC Media Days. Middle of Media Day, he walked up to me and goes, do you know I'm the most flexible person in this room? And I go, huh?

And he goes, watch this. And he does that on the floor, surrounded by media people. Wow. So they get the queue back for just that day? there are a few UFC staff members whose faces I'd love to see when they when they watched that happen so he does that he did that and then went and interviewed Anthony Pedis so we were ready the line to be Anthony Pettis that he did that so so next thing you got to do the showtime kick if any of our listeners or viewers

bump into Pizzie Carroll in the wild asking to do that it's quite the sight from there are no problem from Trumbo on the site I know we all want to talk about this is only matter of time. Woodley versus Adasania. I'm going to say Adesano versus Woodley champion against top billing. Would this fight look like Romero versus Izzy? Again, Izzy versus Romero champion gets top billing, dorks.

Tyron is very patient and waits for his moments to explode. He does not come forward much and doesn't bite on face much. Woodley has fought Wonderboy twice and is well-schooled and tricky karate slash kick boxers. Am I crazy to think Woodley would have a shot here? Not that this fight would actually ever

happen. And I'm going to start with you because we were tweeting about a little bit. We're going to use this question to kind of catapult into what's been going on online right now. You have been a long-time defender of Tyne Woodley, one of the, you like to call yourself, as one of the few people that, and this is your words, one of the few people that enjoyed Woodley versus Thompson, too, in Anaheim if I'm not mistaken. That was, I wasn't alive at that one. I was at the Maya fight in an Anaheim. Yeah, I did enjoy that one actually too. I did. Anaheim one was Maya. U.S.C. 209 was a lot. U. U.S. 209 was the rematch in Vegas against Woodley.

Another ill-fated Habib Tony Card, but that is another conversation. What do you make of all of a sudden this war of words between Tyrone Woodley, Israel Adasanya, Kamaro Usman, and Dan Hooker is throwing his name into this.

So as a long-time defender of Tyne Woodley, what do you make of what is going on online? Man, I am definitely I would describe myself as a Tyron Woodley apologist. just I can't support this in anywhere, stay performed.

This is, this, this trash talk between all the bit of them is just, oh, it's just so terrible. It's so terrible. And Tyrone is getting eviscerated right now in the battle of words. Like that, that bomb that Dan Hooker dropped on him last night. We said like, I thought you knew your rap career was a joke. Like, Mike drop. It's, it's over.

Like just, you need to, Tyrone needs to block Dan Hooker on Twitter. You know, he needs to just take a, take a week long, and just come back and just talk about something totally different. I think right now, Tarron Woodley is feeling the pressure of not having competed for so long. And the last time we saw him, he was getting completely dominated by Camaro Usman. And it's happened in such an unfortunate time for him

because it seemed to be right when fan sentiment was turning in his favor. You know, he had been his entire reign as a champion being like the most, the most hated champion in the UFC, whether it was the second Thompson fight, whether it was the Maya fight, whether it was the injury layoff for when he tore his shoulder or him calling out Nick and Nate Diaz and GSP and all that. There was always a reason for a lot of fans to dislike Tyrone Whitley, you know, but when he was winning, kind of didn't matter because he was champion, the UFC still had to deal with him. He still would earn top money. Now without that,

And our last image of him was getting dominated in one of the most lopsided fights in U.S.C. title history. You've got to feel that pressure now. He lost on that Leon Edwards fight because of what's going on in the world. And, you know, he's not getting any younger. I think this is a ploy to get attention and keep his name relevant until he gets booked again. Now, Pizzi and Casey, I do want your thoughts on this, but I'm going to ask this because of we are running short on time. You can answer this, obviously, much better than we can. What do you make of the direction all of a sudden this war of words has gone where

Tyrone Woodley calls Israel Adesania the Great White Hope? And he also says, you know who to call to make this fight. He's the one that owns the whip you respond to. Yeah. What was that? A motorcycle drove past my window. I thought someone had a sound effect but we're like, who had the motorcycle? What is the motorcycle sound effect?

Oh, you ship me stuff. I was like, what did I? But I'll say, I definitely was not a fan of those comments by Tyrant. And I don't want to speak for him too much in this scenario because I can't exactly say what was on his mind at that moment. But what I will, I'll say what I suspect. And I suspect because Adasagna has gotten a lot more mainstream appeal that it kind of, it kind of takes away from the street cred in his eyes, maybe. And I don't think that's a fair thing at all.

But that's probably how Tyrone sees that. And that would lead to comments like that. I mean, he's, Otisanya has been, maybe he's been more of the company man than Woodley was his champion with his, with his, his frequency and activity since emerging on the scene as a title challenger and becoming a star, maybe he has a better relationship with Dana White and the UFC Brass. And the promotion has definitely done a much better job of pushing him than they did Tyrant as champion by far.

Maybe that's what he's seeing, but I can't say that I'm comfortable at all with invoking any sort of slavery imagery in this whole scenario. And especially given Woodley's very, very vocal criticisms about the U.S. C's promotion of him as an African-American champion, I just don't see the correlation there. I just don't see how those things are relevant. I don't see how that's fair at all to Adisania. But quite frankly, man, it's not for Woodley.

I doubt it's about being fair. I think it's just about keeping your name in the headlines and trying to get out there and gunning for some sort of big fight. This was the same Woodley that was talking ahead of the Usman fight. And I know we were there covering this. I definitely talked to Tyerman at that fight week where he was dead set on fighting Robert Whitaker, who was then middleweight champion. So he's had aspirations for middleweight before. And this is just, I guess, another road to get there. albeit however disturbing it may be to me.

P.C., what do you make of what's happening online between Israel, Adasanya, and Hooker, Usman, and Adasanya? You know, I just feel like the real tragedy of this all is Leon Edwards was the fight for Tyrone Woodley. It was a perfect fight in terms of matchmaking. And now Leon is coming away with nothing. We haven't heard anything from it. And he seems to be completely removed from that conversation. I mean, in the direct aftermath of Leon falling apart with Toyer and Turin was on, ESPN talking about how all these guys are fake and how he needs to go and sort of all these clowns because the whole fight game has been changed, but it looks at Colby Covington and all these guys not being real. I think Leon's a realist guy out there out of everyone.

I mean, he's never changed his tune. He's never jeopardized who he is to sell a fight. he is the guy that Tyrone Woodley is referring to as being a real fighter and yet he is rewarding this other behavior, the Colby Covington situation, the fake people, so to speak, that he's talking about. I feel like he's rewarding them by going after those fights and therefore he's feeding into that culture. If he wants the real guys to fight the real guys, he should fight Leon Edwards.

That's what I feel. Casey, I'll ask you as someone who's... trains mixed marco arts and has covered these fighters extensively. To answer the actual question, would Woodley, Adisania v. Woodley just be Adesania v. Romero Part 2. Not the same, but it's Woodley being definitely a counterstriker. No, not a combo, not a really combination puncher, just kind of wait for that one shot.

So, yeah, there are definitely Romero similarities. but yeah, of course he has a shot. He punches hard. He's going to be a smaller guy, shorter guy. I think, you know, Izzy beats him. But it's, yeah, I mean, it's just kind of, I don't know, I just think it's whole, I think the whole trash talk during a quarantine pandemic, especially over international borders, it's just silly and desperate, unfortunately,

to say, you know, I just, I feel very bad for retiring. Willie because according to, I think, Aeroa Wani reported that the most the fighters received from the UFC London card was only 20,000. So I'm sure Willie put a whole camp in there. I think he trains, is he still training up in Wisconsin, Willie? I had no idea. Didn't he go to TriStar for a little bit? Either way, either way, Willie, I'm sure Willie's camp is expensive.

and I'm sure he just literally just got he just you know he doesn't see any money coming in and when he was champ he may have been living off a certain lifestyle um just I don't know we want to call it he was he was also on aerial show and he said he kind of fell into that like he bought a bunch of houses bought a bunch of cars and now he's not fighting anymore he's fighting to get back to that so imagine if he has a bunch of houses that he's expecting to make income off these house of these properties ain't no one making money right now unless you're selling and hand sanitizer or you're a gaming company, you ain't making money right now. Like, even like, like, people say, like, see, oh, the media is making much of money

because people are watching, like, these podcasts and stuff, but these podcasts are paid for with advertisers. But if no one's buying the advertiser stuff, they're not advertising. So, like, even though we, even though our site, CNN, ESPN may be getting good traffic numbers, they're not getting advertising money. So everything just sucks for everything, money-wise. And a guy like Tyon Woodley, for the last three or four years, he's been living off championship money. Everyone knows how much less money you get as a non-champion.

And then he just loses that Leon Edwards fight. Only makes 20 grand, supposedly. Yeah, it's just, it's just, he looks just kind of, I get it, it sucks. It just sucks. It sucks for everyone. sucks for Ty and Woodley. The only one that seems to be having fun in this whole situation is Izzy. I think Izzy's kind of been.

Izzy just made a big paycheck. And I thought Izzy actually had the best tweet of this entire pandemic when he, I think he retweeted a MacLife article, a MacLife article about Chelsea Sunnan talking crap about, um, it was a John Jones thing. And he just said, argue about this. Just argue about it. Yeah. Because Izzy gets it.

He's like, I'm not fighting anyway. By the time he comes back, people are going to be talking lots of crap, you know, and then he just, cool, big money fight. for him. So, um, this is dumb. You can't put a foot wrong,

is he, man? He really can't. Yeah. I do, I do feel bad for Leon Edwards, though. Of course. Oh,

man. I mean, it's a real. It's a joke. It's a, like, I mean, that was a perfect fight.

You know, in the sense of, here's this guy. He needs to fight, a bono fight, a champion, a guy who's proven himself time and time again.

That's Tyron Woodley. The fight was, was savage. Like, I couldn't wait. for that fight. And now Leon's not even in the conversation. Like he's, he's, he's the, the nowhere man of Welterway basically again. And it's like, how does this, like, it's not even like there's a quick fix where, oh, if Torrin starts talking about Leon again, maybe don't make the

fight happen. No, he's across the, this is the border there. You know, like he, he can't, we don't even know we can get over there. You know, it's, I'm sick for him. I'm sick for Leon Edwards, honestly. Well, we're running up on time. I do want to mention that our own Damon Martin said in a separate chat we have that the UFC 249 cars most likely going to be announced. Three events in a week separate. And he added all three shows will be in Florida. Governor DeSantis has signed off and the Florida Commission will oversee all three shows. So that is from our own Damon Martin right now.

So it looks like. These events are going on in Florida. So is my original theory correct? The Fight Island is really just Key West? Might be. Can you see the other questions we got? Yeah, let's do a few of them. Let's do rapid fire.

Rapid Fire. Hold on. The best I wrap before. Wait, you see me do this on. I'm really good at it. Cruise versus Triple C. Come on. Come on.

How many times do I have to tell you people? Champion get top billing, Triple C versus Cruz. Dear God, who do you favor in Triple C versus Cruz? Thank you. You got it wrong on the headline. I think Cruz with the style of operatives is super difficult, this and that, this and that. Do you think Triple C can beat him?

If Cruz wins, does that change? You get the next title shot. Henry wanted Aldo, big name. Cruz basically has always just fought the next guy up. Is it better for the division if Cruz will win? Yes or no. Is Cruz winning better for the band of white division with Pizzi quickly? No.

Is Cruz winning better for the UFC Banffrey? division. No, he shouldn't get the shot in the first place. Oh, yeah. Let's go. Accruza win, but he shouldn't get the title shot. I agree. It's not, I don't think if it's better or worse, but he shouldn't be getting

a title shot anyway. As, as Pete, you'll probably say, it's just Peter Yianna's division where they're just living in it. Yes. Aljo or Yana, the only guys that should be for me for that title. Oh, so we had a little technical difficulty. I was muted, so only you guys can hear me. but our wonderful fans out in the world cannot hear me,

but we're back on. We're working now. So, yeah, I said some interesting things, but you'll never know now. Wow. Dear Lord. So any other rapfire questions? How do you clean these hats on a serious question?

Focus, T.T. From Eugene C. Holly. Keep in mind, this is all capitalized. and with like five or six question marks. So he's screaming this. One of the three greatest women's MMA fights to rewatch during the lockdown. Pizzi, three greatest women. Yamaguchi v. Angela Lee, Wiley Zang versus Yawanna and Jacek.

And, uh, Oi Percy, Leigh, and Jessica Penny. It's a bloodbought. Fantastic. Go ahead. And best women's MMA fights to rewatch. Uh, I say Wiley versus Yawanna. Yowna versus Goddelia. you two and Misha Tate versus Katzenegano.

A big fan of Misha Tate versus Julie Kenzie and Strikeforce, I believe. I think that's a super underrated women's MMA fight. What was the crazy invictive fight we talked about a couple weeks ago with Elias? I forget their names because they both have very European names. You were so good to pronounce them the first time, though. I cannot think of it. That fight is insane. Yeah, those two.

And then everything else, Pizzi and-Hita Tate and Holly Homes go for you as well. Meech-Tat-Hollahom is a phenomenal. Very good fight, yeah. My fight, I would actually recommend watching Holly Home Ronda. Still just an amazing fight to watch. And the fight that we haven't mentioned at all, Invicta Championship fight between Jessica Pene and Michelle Waterson for the Adam-Wa-Tight title. Oh, yeah, very good.

Yeah, yeah. I forgot about that fight. Let me see, we got any more questions. from the la la la la la la la la Esserlin Favorite podcast? Song Exploder from our own... That's a weird way to spell Eurobush?

The ass is silent. Eurobash is one word. It doesn't have a song or Exploder in the name. Ah, we're done. All right, we're done. Thank you so much for joining. joining in. Sorry, we started 10 minutes late. I saw a lot of you guys tweeting on me, where's the A side, this and that? We were chatting before we got on. We haven't seen A

in a long time. We were catching up a little bit. Shout out to Ptianas Crystal. And, but of course, you know the drill you are the guest of honor this week. The floor is yours to cut a promo on anything you want. All right. So, of course, y'all know I'm a big hip-hop head. I'm going to put you on to... I don't know. You like Joe Button, so I'm going to put that on the last. Joe Button is one of the best lyricists of all time. We will have this debate off air. So there's a man by the name of Stove God Cooks who was a protege of rock Marciano and you talk about the most beautifully ignorant

cocaine-influenced rap music. That is it. I can't be woke all the time. Sometimes I just want to hear some ignorant Coke rap. So therefore, Stove God Cooks, he just dropped a banger of an album. Also check out anything Griselda Records is doing, West Side Gun, just dropped a banker called Pray for Paris.

Yes, a lot of beautiful hip-hop. coming out. Please check it out. I do want to ask you one thing before I go off there. Did you listen to the new J. Electronica album? Yes, I did. Did you agree with me that it is basically just a JZ mixtape with a little bit of J.Electronic on it? That is exactly what I said. So me and me and the homie, Matt Hunter for Mix Combat Radio have a new show called Nothing New, where the first episode we talked about that at length. I love J. Electronica as a lyricist. Obviously love J.Z, but man, that is not the album I want it.

That is, in my opinion, the most disappointing debut album in the history of my life, considering I've been waiting for that album for about 10 years. Also, do you know who Immortal Technique is? Of course. Yes, I do. He is Casey, Pizzi, you, what is it you guys that didn't listen to Memorial Technique, right? I miss a little bit. Is he not the perfect person to listen to when you're sad and depressed that Habib, Ferguson,

has fallen off for the fifth time? I just thought. Actually, I would, if I'm sad and depressed, Joe Button. No, man. Check out the movie. Music will make you sad about for a week. Take out the move music tape. Stick on that.

Stick on that. Stick to the Vox Media Podcast Network.