MMA Fighting - The A-Side Live Chat: UFC 250 fallout, UFC 251 and Fight Island, Conor McGregor’s retirement, more

Episode Date: June 10, 2020

For this episode, José Youngs is joined by MMA journalists Kristen King and Anthony Walker to react to some of the top stories in MMA. Some of the topics include the fallout from UFC 250, Conor McGregor’s retirement, Jon Jones and Jorge Masvidal’s feud with Dana White, the recently unveiled “Fight Island” in Abu Dhabi, the upcoming UFC 251 pay-per-view, the welterweight title fight between Kamaru Usman vs. Gilbert Burns, the featherweight title fight rematch between Alexander Volkanovski vs. Max Holloway, the bantamweight title scrap between Petr Yan vs. Jose Aldo, and the rubber match between Stipe Miocic vs. Daniel Cormier, and more Follow José Youngs: @JoseYoungs Follow E. Casey Leydon: @ekc Follow Kristen King: @KristenKingMMA 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

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. We're live, pal. Hey, we're live, pal. I don't hear any music, case you. Do we have music this week? Oh, there it is. What are you guys thinking of the music, by the way? I love it.

10 out of time? For sure. Well, anyway, this is Jose Young's M.M.A. fighting here for another episode of the A-side. Now, a lot of people have been asking me, how come we're not doing Mondays and Fridays anymore, too? It's because fights are back, and we've had fights every single weekend for a long time.

now. So we're not doing Fridays anymore because we have official wayans. You guys all know what official wayans are because you watch our live streams. And then Mondays, we're usually getting back from Fight Week so we don't do A-side on Mondays anymore. So we're back to our normal Wednesdays only. If you're feeling froggy and you want more MMA content, every fine, you've got what the heck. And you got between the links. I'm sure Kristen and Anthony are going to be on between the links in the future and they can both lose to me because I am two and O the two-time defending champion on Mike Hegg's and usually like Anthony's eyes. raise up because he's like, yeah, you're right, Jose. I'm probably

going to lose, so you don't have to come on if you don't want, Anthony. But anyway, this is of course the A-Side live chat. Joining me this week, I am very happy to have both of them. They are some of my favorite people in the business. Aunt Walker, he's been on a few times and from my old iteration to this new iteration.

Always happy to have him, Mom. He's one of my favorite people I see during Fight Week. And of course, Kristen King, making her debut, on the A side. I used to work with her a fan-sided. She's also one of my favorite people in the business. So, Kristen, I'll start with you. What's up? How's life down in Florida? Life down in Florida is exactly what you'd expect it to be, so probably not the most exciting thing.

I think the A-side appearance is like top five life experience for me. So thanks. Top five, don't say that. This is. It is. Like, I haven't been alive that long anyway, so maybe take that with a grain of salt. I don't know. There you go. So, wait, four more things have happened that's better than this? That's insane. Well, yeah, I taught my dog how to sit when he's asking for treats,

and then I also memorized the rap for rap god by Eminem. That was like up there. All right, so what's the third one, then? Because those are easily one, too. Oh, third one actually recently just happened. I learned how to make my own pico de gallo for my barbacoa tacos. So that was a big thing for me.

So when you said fourth, I was skeptical, but yeah, those three things are grossly better than appearing on the A side. Right? I'd probably put dog number one. And then I love Pico de Ga two months. It's probably number two. And then Eminem is like, so whatever to me in 2020, that I'll put him third.

That's perfectly fine with me. But I am. How's life Ben as a dad over on your side of the world? You're completely across the country from Chris. Yeah, man. Dad life has been, it's been amazing. My little dude is getting bigger every day. He's taking advantage of being ultra cute and manipulating me.

and his mother. And yeah, so I've just been chilling at home, watching fights when they're on. You know, about to get this, get this justice on. That's about it, bro. There you go. And before we get into that, I still see you have that bum-ass Deadpool bus behind you. We're not even going to talk about that. Oh, I also brought my Deadpool coffee mug for you as well. Wow, I thought that was a, I was going to give you props because I thought that was a Spider-Man mug. Me too.

I'd take back the props because... But you'll love the reason why I'm using this one, because it's much bigger than my Avengers mugs, and I put whiskey and my coffee today. All right. It's going to be one of those episodes. It's what? It's 10 a.m. where you are. Perfect.

It's perfect time of drink where Christian is. But, of course, this is not our podcast. Oh, I didn't even say, Casey. Oh, yeah. How's up with you? You're here. Casey on the ones and twos. Eh.

Nah. I'm just happy to have my friends here. I haven't seen Kristen a long time. I don't get to see at events. and Walker, we're quarantined. I don't know. I guess quarantine is kind of semi-over now, so I guess we can start seeing each other in the same block.

Yeah, after like come over, you know, when it's safe. Yeah, yeah. Well, as always, this is not our podcast. This is the fans' podcast. You can ask whatever question you want. You can go on Twitter. You can hashtag the A side. You can just respond to the tweets.

You can question in the comment section. I don't know about you guys, but I don't really look at the questions until they show up on my screen. because I don't like to prepare. I like it to be off the cuff. Same thing as I do between the links, and that has been working out beautifully for me.

So, without further ado, Casey, what's our first question? Okay, dokey, first question. You know what, let's go to one of our, let's go to a fan favorite here. From Jose Shorty Torres, a longtime co-host of the A-side and Brave CF Flyweight, with a few popular and former UFC fighter,

with a few popular fighters denying fights because of paid disputes, do you think more fighters will start asking for more money and following the movement with backing out or will the UFC just hire other guys that'll fight for less and just move on from there? Hashtag asking for a friend, hashtag the A-side. And I'll start with you. We're going to use this question as a way to talk about. One of the topics dominating the headlines, and that is Dana White versus a couple unhappy fighters, specifically John Jones, Jorge Mazudal, who have been asking for more money,

quote, asking for what they're worth. Even Sugar Sean O'Malley himself said, I just want to renegotiate and fight for what I'm worth. But to answer Shorty Torres' question, will more fighters step up, or is the UFC just going to hire fighters to fight for less? I think it's going to be a little bit of both. So for sure, more fighters are going to be jumping in line here.

I think it's important to note that John Jones and Jorge are part of the same management company. Yes. If we start seeing management companies put a hard line in the sand and say, hey, our guys need to get paid more, then you're going to start to see a lot more solidarity between the fighters. And God forbid, you know, the Cowher brothers and Ali get along. And they decide that this is what we're going to do.

That'll be such a devastating effect to UFC brass when it comes time to negotiate because it's too many people. Now, of course, the UFC is going to reach out and start calling people up the ranks. The problem is, though, you've got to start from scratch and build those guys up. You can't just call up a guy who's, you know, who's fighting in LFA right now and put him to the same level of a Jorge Massadol. It's just not going to work. So it's going to put the UFC at such a disadvantage having to start from scratch, building up some of these names. And then on top of that, you got to look at how ESPN is going to feel about this. ESPN, strangely enough, has been giving

quite the platform to the fighters to air the grievance. is. You know, Horny Massadol went on Sports Center and ran roughshot over the UFC in that interview. They also had one of their analysts who happens to be one of the higher-ups in the NFL Players Association run all over Dana the other day about this. So ESPN might be backing the fighters more so simply because they'll have the best product to put on. For them, it doesn't matter because they're guaranteed to throw a certain amount of money at the UFC anyway. So why not have the best product? I think with the current state of affairs, we might be creating a perfect storm. It's just that the fighters have to stick it out and see this through to the end.

Kristen, same question, specifically because I think what maybe Shorty Torres is referring to, and you even saw Nate Diaz tweet about it, Gilbert Burns gets the title shot against Kamara Usman, which I think after the win over Tyron Woodley, It maybe wasn't surprised that he got the next shot. But everyone wanted to see the Mazur-Dal-Uzman fight, especially after they were going back and forth. They've done a lot of score. They've been two of the most used fighters for guest fighters in, like, the last year.

And they've just been talking about each other this whole time. Gilbert's beat Tyrone Woodley, and you know Gilbert will fight anyone anytime, anywhere. I have to assume he's asking praise is a lot lower than O'Haree Mazur, which I'm sure Dana White absolutely loves. So to answer story towards his question, are we going to get more fighters like? Gilbert Burns who are willing to fight to get those title shots? Are we going to see more fighters unify going forward? Yeah, more than likely, you're probably going to see a lot more fighters just take the opportunity and take whatever they're given with Dana White. Obviously,

he has that take it or leave it kind of thing when it comes to contracts. And I guess in the Gilbert Burns situation, I broke it down to two things, the two M's. It was either merit, which is completely valid as far as arguing should he get the next title shot? Absolutely. just his last three fights. I think it was Gunner Nelson. It was a knockout. Then he had, who was the next one after Gunner? Oh, Damien Maya.

That was a knockout. And then he just completely dismantled Tyron Woodley. And immediately, like a couple of days after, he got shot up to the number one contender spot. So, okay, I think I know where they're going to go with this. So merit, yes, money also, too. I can assure you, same thing that you just said. Gilbert Burns is not asking anywhere near what Jorge Mazvedal was. asking for. And maybe I remember Kobe Coveyton said something like Jorge Masvedal

priced himself out. Maybe that is the case. And unfortunately, this is a business where if opportunity rises and you don't take it, you get left behind. And we've seen that a lot. So I think a lot more fighters are probably just going to be in that position where Gilbert is right now where you just have to take advantage of what you're given. I mean, he was fighting. I can't even remember the other fighters that he fought before Damien Maya and Gunner Nelson. I can't remember their names right now. Dan Hooker beat, I mean, Dan Hooker beat his ass, sent him up to Welchway.

At Walterway? Like two years ago? At lightweight. That was he beat him in light. Like he was fighting like, yeah, you're not wrong. Yeah, so it's like outside of Dan Hooker, I can't tell you the other ones right now. So he's in the perfect place to ask for whatever he's asking for. And if it aligns with Dana White and Endeavor, I guess he's going to get this title shot.

So I would hope that a lot of the fighters unify eventually. when it comes to fighter pay. I think it's great that some of the top stars are speaking out about it, but I need them to do more than speak. I need them to start doing some work here. I think Al Aikwinta said that too on Twitter. When he was talking to John Jones, he's like, you should use your platform and we can do this together.

But it's difficult to do that in this kind of sport. So we'll just have to see. Yeah, let's also not forget that Kamar Uzman got his initial title shot because he took advantage of the situation. When it was like, you said it perfectly. Gilbert Burns is the number one contender on merit. He's the number one ranked guy. Kobe Covington was the interim champion at the time.

So even Tyne Woodley said, like, regardless of how you felt about Kobe Coventon, he should be fighting for the title right now, didn't get the shot because of whatever reason, money or wasn't ready or anything. And they canceled an entire pay-per-view in January. And then Kamar Usman stepped up and took that fight. So Kamar Usman took advantage of the situation. Gilbert Burns is taking advantage of the situation. So I'm with both of you guys.

I hope fighters step up, guys like John Jones, guys like Horri Mazel. Because remember that, what, MMA, A, A thing? A. A thing. It was like GSP, Kane, Cowboy, T.J. Yorn Ripney and. Yeah, but it was like those guys. Donald Serroney with the iPad.

Donald Serroney with the iPad. It was like all of those, and Tim Kennedy, of course, all those guys were big enough names that if they really were serious about it, they probably could have made a difference. Yeah, you never got off the ground. TJ did it go. Because GSP got, it was a lot of negotiating tactics for all of them. Like GSP got like a better deal. Cowboy got a deal. Like Tim Kennedy retired.

Bjorn Rebony was Bjorn Rebony. Ken Velasquez was hurt at the time. So it was like it never got moving. But those were the names you needed. And if Mazbe, and John Jones take the flag and run with it, I'm again, I'm very curious to see what could happen.

I think it's interesting too that Gilbert Burns is now benefiting from this. And he's kind of like a new version of Cowboy, just taking any fight and just trying to move up the rankings as fast as possible and just at any time, anywhere mentality. Gilbert Burns is the sort of guy that's going to look back and wish that he was part of some sort of unionization effort. He's going to look back and wish like he got paid more per fight, especially with the

frequency of his fights and how much he's given to the company so far. So I wouldn't be surprised if two years down the line, if we're still having this conversation, that Gilbert Burns is standing next to whatever iteration of fighters and exiled promoters that are going to start the new version of the MAAAA A, MAA, MAA, something, whatever. The random J was hilarious. The random J. In case anything you want to add to this? You've been covering the sport longer than all of us.

There it is. M.MA. Look, we have shirts ready and everything. I forgot. Yeah, they did. I mean, if you start making shirts, you're pretty serious about something. So I'm kind of shocked that it didn't go anywhere. None of our like

That seems like a weird fever dream at this point Yeah Yeah Look at the names that we have left right now I mean I think only one of them Is still fighting at the moment Yeah

Just cowboy And we've seen how You know How that has gone so far So Has anyone seen going revenue Like he was in this photo No

Mexico Yeah He really came back from Mexico To take this picture and then he disappeared again. All right. Thank you for the question, Shorty. Next question.

From Jay's store, long one from the site, who controls the story and who should? In his appearance on the Stevo podcast, Dana White said fans need to be engaged in a story for fights to sell well. In the same interview, White rallied against media coverage of the UFC and seemed to broadly state

it has little or no value. I thought his stance was a bit ridiculous because from my outside of perspective, the story of a fight is largely told through the fighters engaging with the media. In other words, media coverage sells fights. My question is, from an insider perspective, how big of a role do fighters of the media and the U.S.

share in creating the story of a fighter slash fight? Is it the balance correct? Should it be changed? If so, how? So a lot to unpack on this question. And I'll start with you again. Who controls the story and who should? I personally think it should be like a marriage of all of them.

Like the fight, like Ben Rothwell was on here. And we asked, someone asked him, like, how do you view the media as a fighter? Same as Roxanne Modified. She's like, well, we need the media to get our word out to the fans. Because, like, Ben Rothwell doesn't, isn't out there pushing himself on social media as much. He views us as a necessity to promote fights. I think a lot of fighters view that.

Even Uriah Hall's come around. Like, remember when Uriah Hall hated us? Now even he's come around and he said, like, I wish when I was younger, I knew, like, how to more interact with the media and be less abrasive. I think. So I'll start with you. Who controls the narrative? It was the question. Ideally, we all should. That's the ideal setup. I mean, there's no way you can get around the fact that the media needs fights to happen. And otherwise, we don't have anything to talk about. We do need the fighters to talk to us. Otherwise, we're just talking amongst ourselves all the time. But they need us as well.

So if the UFC isn't putting out enough commercials, well, then somebody's got to tell you that a fight's going on. Somebody's got to explain to you what's important about the fight from a technical standpoint or from a storyline standpoint or whatever the case may be. I think more so the issue is that the UFC views the media as some sort of like unpaid PR system. That instead of us doing our jobs, which is to report on what's supposed to. going on. They feel like if that reporting isn't favorable to the UFC, if it isn't boosting them up, then, okay, we're fake news, or we shouldn't exist, or we're a nuisance, or, you know, all of this is going to be checks and balances with all this, because if we act irresponsibly, we're not going to be able to talk to fighters. We're not going to be able to get certain access privileges

to report on things accurately. So there is a certain, synergy that needs to take place. And a lot of it just involves checking your ego at the door. And I think that's the main problem is that the ego at the top is not being checked. Therefore, everyone works under him. That's not the case. Not the case at all. Kristen, same question. Who controls the narrative? I think you said it perfectly when you said we need to have like a marriage. I mean, we need the fighters to do our job and then the fighters expect us to kind of tell their story whenever a fight is about to happen. That's probably one of the best things about this job is being

able to tell the stories of these fighters that typically wouldn't be told if it were not for MMA media. If it was just complete mainstream media, I think we'd be missing a lot of what the fighters have to offer. So I think we need to rely on each other and not look at, look at the distinction of media can sometimes be out of pocket or out of place when it comes to reporting things because at the end of the day, this is our job. And it's a necessity to know, almost everything that goes on. I mean, there has to be some kind of transparency. I know the fans want to read about these fighters,

and I know I love reading some of your guys' work and stuff like that when it comes to preparing myself for the fights, because sometimes I think Dana is kind of right, at least in the last couple of years, as far as narrative sells fights. I mean, look at the Colby Covington and Kamaro Usman fight. Literally had people hitting me up, like, when is it coming on? And these people would never watch MMA,

but because they had heard so much about what was going on and how the current political climate was being used to their advantage as far as selling the fight goes, how else would you not hear about that if it weren't for us? So I definitely think we need to work together when it comes to telling these stories and it should definitely be an equal balance between the two. Do you guys watch the post-fight press conference from USC 250?

Yes. Did you pull your hair out a lot of those questions? Complete disaster. It might have been total, total dumpster fire. There was a lot of people basically asking Dana White for a job. And some of us, like, when I say the people that cover the sport, like on a regular that are at all of them, you know who I would be referring to. We were all looking at each other and being like, what is this?

Is this a question? Or is he just complimenting the UFC? In the middle of front, what do you have to say, Casey? You just popped in. Oh, no, I'm just, I'm just giggling too of you. Like, no, no, I just thought it was my favorite. My favorite part was when Dana reminded, when Dana predicted, oh, by the way, everyone in this room will lose their jobs pretty soon. He's been saying that for a while.

Damn it. I was like, thanks, my guy. Keep it posse, Dana. Anyway. Yeah, it was a weird, it was a weird press conference. It was the most bizarre press conference I've ever been to. There were a lot of me, like, in Jacksonville and the Burns-Widdly fight, they were maybe, maybe four or five media that were there for all of them.

So we had like this system where like someone would ask this and then someone would come in with this and then some we had like this system that we had worked out amongst the media of who was going to ask what question. So we weren't jumping all on top of each other. And then there's obviously U.C. 250 was a major pay-per-view. So we had a lot of like non like MMA specific media. And they were just like, oh my God. Can we just go back to like this small group of media asking the important questions?

Yeah. I didn't realize how prevalent. that was until I started going backstage and asking questions. And like, there are people that just straight up leave after they ask their questions. And it doesn't have anything to do with the fights. I'm like, why are you asking this? Sometimes I'm like, where's this video going? Like, you're asking a question.

You have a camera. You're not even writing anything. You know what it is? It's just they want a sound bite for their website. That's all that it is. Not even their website. Their Instagram or their Twitter. They just go it out there.

Just hashtag I was there. I'll say, man, one thing. it really, really irritates the hell out of me. Is when you see, I mean, you're at the press conference, you hear a question, get asked. All right, cool. Answers given. And then about two minutes later, someone else asked the same damn question, simply because they just want to hear their own voice. Our own, my coworker Alex Savage, Christian's former coworker fans at, we were slacking.

And like, since we were at the last five fights and, like, there was all, we got all of the quarantine questions out of the way. like we asked all of those questions at UFC 249 in Jacksonville and then all the media that wasn't there had to ask those same questions and we're just like we already answered this three weeks ago guy like move on more questions

about fighter pain anyway I could I digress well hey Casey we we just have to hear the questions these fighters have to answer the same questions oh that's a good point that is a very good point so

what was the final answer it should be a good marriage. Yeah, it's a marriage. It has to be. Even Muhammad Ali knew that when he would speak to the reporters. He would even like, say what you want about Colvin Connington and his political views or if you agree or disagree with him.

That dude does more interviews than any fighter I've ever seen. Like every other day he's like on what the heck and then he's on ESPN and then he's on James Lynch's show and then he's on submission radio. Like he is out there pushing himself. So, you, it, you know, need, and now, like, you might talk himself into a WW contract when he retires solely because everyone is asking about it now.

You know, I would say one of the weirdest parts of my job is when I'm producing what the heck and we're interviewing Colby. And, you know, I, and actually, Colby has a prize fighter. I actually really, he's doing a great job of it. But I'm sitting there like, hey, Kobe, can you move your camera slightly to the left? I want to make sure I see Donald Trump right there over your. shoulder. I'm trying to get the proper, you know, brains. Oh, thanks, thanks. But then, like, once we start recording, then it's, um, it's Kobe time. 100%. Thank you for the question. Jay's store.

All right. Two out of two on good, really excellent questions so far. Matt the donk. Longtime comments. How disappointing is it that the mysterious, closely held secret of Fight Island just turned out to be Yaz Island, a place where the UFC has held events before. So Kristen, I will start with you this time. When they, UFC and Dan Way went on ESPN and announced, Yaz Island is Fight Island. Initial thoughts. I could care less.

I never cared. I never cared about Fight Island. I think a lot of people just think that island is synonymous with like hula skirts and coconut claws and pinia colladas and mermaids, whatever the hell you think an island is supposed to have. And I mean, any person that's dealt with this before, you should have probably known that that wasn't going to be a real thing. Like, I know a lot of people are like, oh, my God, this is going to be like some real life, mortal combat shit. And I'm just like, no, probably not.

We're not going to like some deserted island to have some fights and stuff like that. It's probably going to be something that they've already done before. So when they said it's going to be on Yaz Island, I was like, yeah, I mean, it figures. That's exactly what Dana White would do. You remember in Peanuts or Charlie Brown show or what's her name? She kept holding like the football. She'll take it away. Lucy.

There you go. That's, you got Lucy basically. We got Lucy. That's a phenomenal. Like that is Casey knows my affinity for the peanuts. So that is a 10 out of 10 reference right there. And your thoughts on Yaz Islands just being fine island. Call me a sucker.

Man, I was disappointed. Because like, I'm always the one who's crying about. sporting integrity. I'm always the one who wants everything to be above board and regulated and whatnot. And yeah, I mean, we already knew this was a way to escape regulation. Like this is, this is the whole purpose of Fight Island to circumvent government intervention. But if you're going to do that, just embrace the ridiculous. Just go head first into the foolishness because it's the one time where a guy like me will be like, all right, I'm cool with that. You know, I was, I kept putting out that hashtag UFC Yacht and International Waters because this is this is the level of silly that I that I needed to see if we're going to go against government regulation why just do the same old thing I'm going to I'm going to bring up some some old references right here that I've that if you've seen any of my old shows or read some old work I've talked about this before but like the UFC has the the capabilities of doing a lot more things creatively that they seem to just

pass over on a frequent basis. Think about when the UFC first went back to Japan for I think it was 144 Ben Henderson and Frankie Edgar. Why didn't they have like a nod to pride there with the blue gloves and the white floor on the cage?

Or like when Peders and Bendo rematched in Milwaukee for the UFC lightweight title, give a nod to the WEC with the blue floor. Like something to pay homage to to the promotions that they have the rights to, just something to mix up, then break up the monotony.

It says something to just give you something a little more visually. And this was the opportunity to dive head first into that. If you had Fight Island where you couldn't have any fans there anyway, why not have, you know, Dana White sitting there like Shane to Song in the background, lowered and over the cage. So just, just why not? Why not? I mean, what we got to lose? This sport is already a carnival. It's already a ridiculous mess of foolishness. Just embrace it. Just love it. I'm so disappointed. I was on the reaction to UFC. There you go. I did a reaction piece with Mike Heck yesterday when they announced it. And they asked me, are you surprised it's Yaz Island? And I was more surprised at myself that it wasn't my first guess. I was like, when as soon as they announced it, I was like, Like, yeah, duh, why didn't I think of that?

I mean, Habib, let's not forget, Habib flew to Abu Dhabi when he thought he was going to fight Tony. And then when he couldn't get in, he just went back to Dagestan. I'm like, oh, yeah, Habib was already on his way at Abu Dhabi. This should have been the first thing I thought of. So not surprised at Jazz Island. I am surprised that it was not my first guess. I can't think it was going to be like Costa Rica or something like that,

or off the coast of Florida. Which is not an island. I know. I know. Everyone kept saying, dude, both. Dude, Bodoog already did Costa Rica, which is not an island. But technically every continent is an island because it's surrounded by war. Whoa, you just blew my mind.

So they could have just, they could have just gone to Tachi and, hey, North America is technically an island. North America is an island, right? Well, if you include South America, too, as an island. It's fair. Don't do this. North America is a peninsula, I guess. Jesus Christ What is this delved?

Next question, Casey. No, screw that. We're talking geography, bro. We're not talking MMA anymore. I control the questions. I can do whatever one. All right. Ask your geography, that question.

What's your favorite Fjord? Who's your favorite explorer? And why is it Magellan? It is Magellan. It's always Magellan. Everyone loves Magellan. Magellan rules. everyone for Ferdinand.

Francis Drake has the coolest name, though. Yeah, but Magellan had to go all the way down to South America when he could just cut through. Right. He took the long way for no reason. Jose, next time we talked to Dana, make sure you ask him, but if it was his favorite explorer. It's your favorite explorer, and why is it not Magellan? Yeah.

Thank you, Matt the donk. Of course it's going to be Yaz Island. From Zakukegi and S.J.Y. I have a dual question because S.J.Y. Responding to Zaku Kogi, two long-time commenters. Putting yourself in Danish position, how would you go about resolving the current issues with Jones, McGregor, and Mazzvidal. And then SJY responds with you can also throw in triple C. So we talked about it a little bit.

Jones and Masvidal are voicing their displeasures at fighter pay. John Jones even said, don't, I'm sure you both saw it. He put out the tweet and he goes, advice to young fighters, don't let the UFC take advantage of you. Get paid now. He said he got taken advantage of him throughout his entire 20s. Because what was John Jones? It's like, you're building the UFC brands.

You're not just building your own brand. So get paid when you can. I don't, McGregor's not really asking for more money. He's asking for, he just wants competition. He wants to fight Justin Gagee for whatever reason. He's just like, why can't I fight Justin Gachie? Wow, wow, why, let me fight Justin Gage. And Daniel's like, no.

And then Triple C retired because he felt he did everything. And there is a number he'll come back to fight for or he'll wants to fight Alexander Volcanowski. So, Chris, I'll start with you again. What do you do with Jones, McGregor, Mazur, and Triple C? Four fighters who are four of the big, I say McGregor is the biggest superstar in the history of the company, the sport. I think John Jones is one of the few other fighters that seems to be much-watched television. Mazu doll is very hot right now. And Triple C is one of the greatest combat sports athletes of all time as he calls himself.

So what do you do with these for? Well, if I was in Dana White's position and I'm the president of a billion-dollar company and my main stars are complaining about pay, I would pay them what they are asking for because they're the ones bringing in the revenue. When you buy a pay-per-view, it's more than likely for us, a specific fight or a couple fights, something like that. You have John Jones, greatest light heavyweight champion of all time. You have McGregor.

We don't even have to touch on how, like, astronomical his influence is when it comes to MMA in general and especially the UFC. You have Henry Sehudo, who as frustrating or annoying as his stick may be, he's a damn good athlete. And he's probably one of the best champions at the UFC will have. and has had. And then you have Jorge Mazuadal. I think I talked about this with AMP before.

I personally believe that he should definitely get paid, but it starts to get confusing because you're the champion, you're the BMF champion, right? And a lot of people are saying that this is a one-time thing and whatever. I'm starting to think like, is that one-time thing as far as like benefits go, as far as pay goes? Because now they're trying to put him right back

to the kind of pay structure he was making when he was a regular Walterweight contender. So I don't know too much about the Jorge Masvedo situation, but I do know if people are talking about him, people are eating up the whole street Jesus thing. They're eating up the three piece in a soda thing still today. That's always repeated. I mean, these guys are all marketable and they've done it in their own way, good or bad. John Jones, yeah, we know what he has done, but he's always in the headlines, whether it's a good or bad situation. Henry Sehudo has his thing. Mazurah has his thing

and McGregor is on a different level so if my top guys are talking about being paid more I would do it I don't see how they're not making more than they already are and the fact that Mazurado pointed out that they're making roughly between 15

to 18% of the revenue that the company brings in is like insane to me and which Dana White completely skipped over when someone asked. Yeah that was ridiculous Absolutely ridiculous because you look at other major sports organizations and they're making around 50%. Like that's a great split.

That's a good split. If you can't do that in MMA, especially the UFC who is always champion themselves as being the leader in mixed martial arts, what are we doing? You can't underpay these guys. You can't lowball them. So I'd pay them. Wouldn't it be great if MMA had a union? Oh, my God. If they don't have one by like 20-24 or something, I'm going to happen.

It's never going to happen. But see, I'm thinking like maybe they have so much traction behind it right now because the main guys are talking. And then we talked about Sean O'Malley before. But then I'm like, who really has the upper hand here? This sport is built on opportunity. So if these guys don't want to fight, some other guy is going to want to do it. And Dana White is happy to give it to them. So I don't know how long we can hold off on this.

We'll have to see about that too. because I think the UFC is probably in a better position. Because we've seen these fights before. We've seen the fight between them and emotion over pay and what ends up happening. They figure it out. I think what the UFC and fighters would need is we saw it once when they had that athlete summit. And Kobe Bryant came out and was like, you all need a union. Right.

Like Kobe Bryant's voice carries, like I hate to say it, carries so much more water in just the world than any MMA fighter. Like RIP, Kobe, so up. But they need someone like that who has a professional athlete that is a global icon to come out. But that was also like Kobe didn't say that on TV. Like who was it? Leslie Smith or someone was like. Leslie actually asked him the question. Yeah.

Someone was like recording it on their phone. Like Kobe Bryant was on. Yes, like first take. It was like Dana, fighter pay. Why don't you have a union? Like that would get things moving. Because I hate because I again, I hate to say it. Kobe Bryant being on ESPN saying it,

cares a lot more than John Jones tweeting about it. But what do you do with these four fighters that are disgruntled? I mean, I'm with Chris and you pay them more. And the thing is that you don't have to, if you're the UFC, you don't necessarily have to go the direction of the NFL or the NBA where the athletes get half of the revenue. If they're getting 15 to 18% now,

if you bet them halfway at like 30, you just might quiet a few people down and still maintain, you know, most of their power base. So I think at this point it's just pure stubbornness and how ridiculous is it that Dana White references Deonté Wilder, you know, when Deonté Wilder is not nearly the level of draw that John Jones is. Not nearly. Like, Jones should be getting paid more than Deonti Wilder. The problem is the UFC's business structure. It's not that these guys don't sell. It's that what they sell doesn't go in their pockets.

So that seems to be a problem with the business structure. So if they want to preserve that business structure, they're going to have to give some leeway, at least to the star fighters that are starting to speak up. Because I think if they leave this unchecked, just more and more people could jump on board with this. I mean, we saw how fighters on Twitter started drawing the line in the sand, and this is where they stood on it.

You saw guys like Ray Maynard and Cubs Swanson jumping into this. We got the question from Shorty Torres earlier. Like, there are going to be more fighters. If the UFC just stands back and just lets it play out, more people are going to be disgruntled

and they're going to be vocal about being disgruntled. I think that the fighters, though, they've lost so many opportunities to do something like this. It's just mind-blowing. Like, my take was, at UFC 232, which, you know, I was air covering live and seeing how that event got switched last minute and all the fighters that got screwed over as a result, if they weren't going to

unionize then, if they weren't going to talk amongst themselves, I mean, they're already staying at the same hotel, they're already in the bus together, on the plane together, if they don't just say, hey, you know what, we're tired of this shit. If they don't just come together and just have that conversation at that moment while they're all actively being screwed and money is directly falling out of their pockets as a result of something that they have absolutely zero control over, then I don't think this is ever going to happen. So maybe now we're at one of those rare flashpoints where if things go the right direction, all those dominoes do fall, maybe. But if not, we're going to be having this conversation again in a year and a half

and it's going to be Gilbert Burns pissed off or it's going to be Sean O'Malley voicing his concerns again. So, I mean, it's time to shit or get off the pot. There you go. Well said. Anthony, who's going to pay for Dana's taxes? It's to the point where...

It's an import itself. When we get these Uber prospects like Stylebender and Sean O'Malley and they're really hot right now and the U.S. he's putting the marketing machine behind it, Like, Casey and I have had this conversation, like, just between, like, just talking. We're like, I'm just waiting for the day when they get in a feud with Dana White. Because it always happens.

There's always, like, their champion always gets. I mean, we saw, like, a glimpse of it when the Robert Whitaker gasoline fight fell out. So then Anderson Silva versus Stalbender headlines the card. And Stylebenders immediately, like, where did the pay-per-view points go? Where did all that money go? And I'm just like, oh, it's begun. That was just the first. That was just Stalbender saying it publicly.

I guarantee you. Izzy's a smart guy and he's been in prize fighting long enough to, like, behind the scenes, yeah, they're... Well, actually, we didn't get the question on this, but let's ask this, I want to ask this now. What do we think about D.C.'s, Dan Cormier's kind of almost criticism of these fighters going public, rather than just keep it behind the scenes, you know? So that's the way to go, guys. What do we think about that? I'll jump on this, Gordon.

Yeah, I mean, as much as I love Daniel Cormney as an athlete, and as much as I respect him as a man, I think as far as the fighters that I've personally interacted with, as a human being, he's probably the most impressive, just as

far as the sincerity in responding to your questions and just the heartfelt answers and whatnot. So with absolutely no disrespect to Daniel Cormier, but he is playing the company man to a T. You know, I do think it's I mean, the UFC has obviously

taken care of him where they haven't with other fighters, and he was vocal about some sort of things like a $10,000 bonus or something. They got sent to him by surprise, around Christmas and all that. So the UFC looks out for guys in a very deliberate fashion, I think.

He's got his opportunities as a commentator and as an analyst and whatnot, and he's done very well in that role. So for Daniel Cormier to go against the company line right now, he has so much more to lose other than his time in the cage, which probably with this trilogy fight with Stipe, most likely will be coming to an end. So Cormier is certainly looking out for self right now. So if there's any voice that I normally respect on a lot of issues in the sport or a lot of analysis or just any sort of voice that I respect in the sport, it will be Daniel Cormier,

except for this topic. His is a voice that I don't think should carry any weight right now. The UFC obviously has had private negotiations with all these fighters. I seriously doubt that John Jones just woke up one day

and decided to just go on a Twitter rant. And then two days after that, Jorge Massoudol decided to go on a Twitter rant. And Henry Suhudo decided, oh, I'm suddenly going to retire now without having any conversation about future pay.

Those conversations it just it doesn't match up but daniel cormier habitually will take the company line therefore can't listen to him for this one christin same question yeah i agree with that i thought daniel cormier you know what it is i think he's trying to ensure his future with the company especially because not only is he like an amazing fighter and an amazing champion he's finally got this trilogy with steep he has a future in broadcast and i don't think that he's trying to screw up any kind of opportunity that the UFC is going to give him as far as that goes. So I think he's trying to not play like a mediator or anything like that, but just kind of quell the flames that have been

slowly rising from a lot of the fighters. I personally don't see the issue in taking it public because as Anthony said, I'm pretty sure they've had private negotiations and there's always going to be an opportunity where a question comes up and they're like, okay, well, why couldn't you get John Jones versus Francis Mungan Dund. And you're going to hear what Dana White has to say, and that's one side of the story. And the fighter may feel inclined to defend themselves as John Jones, Jorge Mazvedal, they have been doing on Twitter. So I'm fine with them kind of exposing what's going on as far as the negotiations

and the behind the scene work behind it because I think they're also trying to get fans on their side. Like, listen, I'm trying to get this fight done for you. But here's what's going on. The negotiations are stalling. and it's for this reason. So maybe if public outcry becomes so overwhelming, the UFC will cave in some kind of way

and give them whatever they're asking for or some version of that. So, yeah, I don't know. Daniel Korme is probably not the best one because he's carrying the torch for the UFC right now. He's not trying to mess anything up that they got going for him. Right.

Well, I hope that answered your question, This is a kukokey because we went on about a 15-minute tangent on it. Hey, there's a big topics. It was a big stars, man, yeah. It was the biggest story going on right now. All right, let's go back to some geography. Oh, God. All the user comments, I mean, all the comments we're getting is like, guys, let's talk geography, man.

Like, I don't want to hear about MMA and, like, fighting. All right, right, right. Yeah. You guys are weird. Next question. Do, do, do, do, do, do. from trumbo Connor versus Dana

I'm not usually want to jump to Connor's defense but Dana St. Connor turned down the last minute replacement fight versus Tony

is pretty disingenuous if you recall Connor had just released an impassioned plea to the government leaders to close the borders and the institute

a lockdown would have looked really bad to then fly to the U.S. for the purpose of a fight. Bigger question.

Is Dana next level villain enough to have offered Connor that fight knowing he turned down simply to be able to use it later if Connor complained

about not getting Gachi or Habib, what level of deviousness do you ascribe to Dana? Well, this is a phenomenal question, Trumbo. And I'll start with you. Did any of that scenario ever cross your mind? Yes. That was the only scenario that crossed

my mind. We've seen this before. We've seen the disingenuous offer of a fight, knowing that it's going to get turned down, only to be used against them later. So we've heard about people who who've had bad injuries and they get offered a fight and they say I can't fight and then later will he turn down the fight you know so this this doesn't shock me in the least bit at all and then on top of that like

I think we're getting a lot of double speak here because I do remember at one point Connor McGregor was trying to get a last minute fight I think it was against Frankie Edgar if if I'm remembering that correctly. Right. So he was he was campaigning for that and they said, oh no, we can't promote a Connor McGregor fight with just a couple of weeks. So no, Conner's ruled out. But now you suddenly can promote a counter fight on a couple weeks notice. Like we're hearing conflicting messages and every time we hear that conflicting message, it comes from the same messenger and it always benefits the company line. I'm, you know, I'm not going to call Dana White a comic book villain or anything. He's not like Kingpin or Dr. Evil or anything like that.

But I will say that he is a fight promoter. Typically, fight promoters do scumbag things. Typically, fight promoters lie. No way. Don King is such a nice man. Don King is a saint among demons, I guess. I don't know. I look at fight promoters as what they are.

They are carnival barkers who can tell a good story that's probably got a lot of lies in it. Dana White is no different. So he's just a little more profane with it. And that's really it. So yeah, he probably did this on purpose. I'd be very surprised if he didn't. Kristen, do you agree?

Did Dana do this on purpose? Did Dana offer Connor a fight knowing he would turn it down? Probably. And especially because I don't know what the reason behind it was. I think I saw him on like a media appearance and he said that Connor didn't. didn't want to be like the replacement fight because obviously Conner is going to be the A side no matter what in a fight.

So for him to switch around and come in on short notice and take on someone like a Justin Gaichi on a couple weeks notice, it just sounds weird. So yeah, maybe he did do that. And he didn't really care too much either when Connor announced his retirement for the third time. He just said, oh yeah, he's making a lot of money from proper 12. he probably needs to fight again and it's like, okay, well, what if he does want to fight again? Are you giving him the fights that he wants? Is Connor asking for

Justin Gaichi? Because if something happens to Khab, who's the next person to call as a replacement? As bad as it sounds to say, Connor, I mean, yeah. There is Connor. Connor's the only one. There's no one else. I mean, so I can see Dana White

doing this on purpose. I don't know what's going on between these two. It's just a weird situation overall. it's uh i think when dana seems like i think we all agreed when like when connor announced his retirement for like the third time we're just like yeah okay guy like whatever you say whatever you say man uh i think but we dana was well i think when dana was like when dana was like like christian said just like he he didn't seem like overly angry about it like especially like when gs p announced his retirement it's because now dana doesn't have to be like that's because now dana doesn't have

to promote a fight with Connor with no fans. Because he's like, oh, that takes that out. That makes my life easier. Now I don't have to try and book Connor a fight knowing that he'd be fighting in front of no one because losing out on a Connor McGregor Gate is a lot of money. So maybe, and also remember what, 48 hours, 24 hours before Connor announced his retirement, did you all see that video he posted on his Instagram of him hitting pads and hitting, like, he has that like boss routine like set up with like all the the targets everywhere and he's like hitting him and he's like putting in good work this and that and then he

deleted it. So like he literally like 24 hours before was like feeling good working on striking and then he announced his retirement and then Dana was like oh that's a shame like he has a lot of money he gets to have to fight but now in the back of his mind I bet he's like great now he can be retired until fans can be in attendance and we don't lose out on a McGregor Gate. That's probably. Anyway, that's just my theory. Well that makes sense to me. Guaranteed money from ESPN changed everything. Everything. Everything.

That's why Brock Lezner didn't come back because he doesn't get that paper viewpoints. You wanted that just flat lump sum. Do you just say that Connor is going to get the next title shot? Is that what you said? No, if Habib or Justin had fallen out, I think even just looking at

the lineup, Connor would be logic. It probably wouldn't be Connor, but if you're just looking at rankings and stuff, it probably would be Connor. Yeah. It's a This modern UFC It's a low Lowest bid gets the title shot Sure

But that would be That would be an excellent way for Dan to get his fight Between rematch between Habib and Connor Yeah we're gonna We're gonna see it's gonna be Habib versus like You know Charles de Bronx You know

Paul Felder Paul Felder There you go Unless New York messes that up again All right Thank you Trumbo Yeah honestly Good question

Trumbo, lots of words. These are some excellent questions this week, guys. Y'all did good job. Here we go. From another question from Trumbo, DC versus Steepa. Oh, wait. Well, first, did we ever go over this? Oh, you read it real quick.

Sorry. Well, real quick. First of all, it's Stepe versus DC. Champion gets top billing. I know D.C. is a company man, but do you like, do you like Dana giving DC a shot at the heavyweight belt, knowing that he'll retire and bake it if he wins? Do you think Dana is banking?

on being able to coax DC into a defense if he wins. Are you a fan of giving fighters title fights for the last fight? I personally think it hurts the division's credibility because the new champ didn't win it off the lineal champ, i.e. let's say DC beats Stipei, retires, vacates the belt, then Stipey fights in Gano and Stipe wins the belt again. A bit weird. It is weird, but is anyone saying, who's saying that it shouldn't be D.C. versus Stipe? Or Stipe versus D.C. 3?

Is that, like, I get it, but, like, who would you rather see D. fight right now for his last fight. John Jones? It's either... It's twice over. No, no. Oh, for DC? I mean, there's DC,

for DC, Steepay is the first one I want to see. DC, John Jones at heavyweight, it's the second one. Yes. And DC versus Naganu is the third one I want to see. Yeah. But that order, there's... DC is the logical

fight. Like, even if he wasn't retiring, this fight would make sense. Even if he is retiring, this fight makes sense. And we just said that you sell fights and storylines, And this is a major storyline. Plus, you have the retirement angle. Plus you had, you know, D.C. You know, has said, he's kind of hinted that in the second steep a fight, he took it injured

and he probably shouldn't have taken it, you know, hence the weird game plan that he had with the no wrestling. So, yeah, this fight absolutely makes sense. And the retirement angle is even a bigger selling point. So nice question, Trumbo, but I don't agree with it. Really quick, like rapid fire. And do you agree with this fight? Absolutely. The winner is the greatest UFC heavyweight of all time.

Book it. Could be the greatest heavyweight in general, all of MMA. Kristen, same question real quick. Is this the fight to make? Yes, absolutely. They need not to make it. There you go. All right.

Thank you for the question, Trambo. Another question right here? Is Dana really going to do a charity fight from at the seaside? No. Damn, your thoughts. Um, yes, please, but it's not really going to happen. Yeah. Kristen, your thoughts on Dana fighting fellow Floridian Dan Levitard?

Well, you know I'm going to be biased, and I have to root for my fellow Floridian man. So fellow Floridian man like I am one. Sorry. But I don't think Dana's definitely, he's not going to take a fight. Wasn't he supposed to fight? Tito, Tito. Yeah. And Tito backed out apparently.

That was Tito backing out going to Dana. Allegedly. Yeah, so it's not going to happen. Have you seen the whole spikes, the 30-minute... Oh, yes. I love everything about it. It is a sitcom. Every new MMA fan who came like in the Connor era, the Ronda era, Google that. I think it's on YouTube. Watch it just to understand what the UFC really is. Like what the sport really is. Because that's, that was just peak promotion and just, oh.

They even got who's the old Nevada State Athletic Commission? Keith something. Keith Geiser. Yeah, even he was there for the way. It's because they were taking it that seriously. Like, oh my God, I wish, yeah, go watch that. But no, it's not going to happen. Also, I don't know how I feel about Dan Levitart.

He says some things that I hate and then he says some things that I agree with completely. Very bizarre. Like everyone. Like everyone. Yeah. I don't like how he sold his Hall of Fame vote for the MLB. That infuriated me. But then I what he's saying about Dana White.

But anyway, go on. We really need to see Stephen A. Smith in there with that, with that growing shot to the uppercut combo. That's the fight to make. No. Anyway, we got any more questions? I'm sure we have more questions. We start a little bit late.

Yeah, actually, we're done for our question questions. Let me pull up some fun ones from the YouTube comments. From YouTube. Oh, whoa, whoa. What's going on? Wrong button.

Do you have any more ice cream questions? That was a really good one. about that like every few days. I'll ask you guys that question later. It's so good. There's a right answer to it, by the way. Everyone else answered wrong except for me. You know, I can't find the question, but I saw it earlier, so I'll just ask it.

What are we thinking about this Saturday's actual fights? We actually have fist fighting this Saturday. Remember when we all, everyone's like, oh, we need sports in our life. Well, we got it this Saturday. And no one asked one question about it, freaking weirdos. You got free fights this Saturday. You have an awesome main event between two exceptional lady fly weights. Who wins?

And are you excited about this main event? So I think that I saw the question. It was fighters, like fans were complaining that we're not getting fights all the time. And then as soon as they announced the fight, they complain about the fight. It's like fans are like, we want fights. And then they're like, not that fight. So first I'll start with you, your thoughts on Saturday's main event. Yeah, I'm fine with it.

I'm in the boat of I will take a fight right now. I don't know why everyone is expecting, like, the three-fight championship combo for every single fight card that we're going to get in the middle of a freaking pandemic. Like, you get with what we can work with. And if Cynthia Calvio versus Jessica I is the main event, then okay, that's fine. I'm pretty sure that you could think of a lot of other. main events that you didn't want to see, but you tuned into anyway. So I think give the ladies a chance. It doesn't have to go for everybody, but it's fights.

That's what you want at the end of the day, right? So just watch it. And your thoughts on Saturday's main event? I mean, it's definitely a high enough level fight to where it should get prominent placement. I don't think this necessarily is main event material, but main card sounds about right to me. But I think the problem more so is the fact that we have fights, we have fight cards that are ridiculously stacked, and then we have this. Like that, if you took one or two fights off of one or two other cards and put it on this one,

then you've got something that's probably going to be a little more respectable in the eyes of a lot of fans. But, I mean, I'm not ready to jump off a bridge complaining about this. I mean, at this point, the UFC is behind on their contractual obligations to ESPN. So they're just going to put together what they can, and we watch it or we don't. It's just that simple, considering the fact that all four of us, us are professionals in the watching part. We're probably going to be watching. I might cheat and may not watch it live because, you know, I might just start grilling and listen to some schoolboy

cue or something instead. I don't know. At least it's not Joe Button. Oh, let's let's let's be tolerated. Joe Button slander will not be tolerated. Joe Button slander is not to be excused, my friend. So, so yeah, I'm okay with this, but I'm going to still get my jokes off. That's just what it is. For unusual. Yeah. When they announced the fight, I was like, all right. Like, that's, I don't really, didn't bother me.

You know who else that didn't bother? The fighters. Like, Callantukagia was like, I love it. And like, so like, if the people that it actually affects, that doesn't bother them, doesn't bother me. Also, like, people complaining at Jessica I and Cynthia Calveo, like, why are you complaining at them? What are they going to do? Say, no.

Like, eh, if I gave you $500,000 to play point off of the Lakers for a week, would you? Absolutely. Yeah. I take that money. Yeah. You're going to say... I was considering challenging CM Punk during the pandemic, but I haven't been able to put together good enough fight camp, so... Oh, okay. I like it. I'll come to Panda Dojo and get my training in.

Go, man. I even have indoor mats now. I have a garage dojo and indoor mats right here. Can't see. Have you ever able to do that Russian bag over the head yet? Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. I can do it now. I did... I did pull my back a little bit the other day. but I had to slow down a bit but yeah Bulgarian bag Bulgarian bag 37 pounds

I think's heavy Can you put your foot behind your head yet? Oh man RIP RIPP RIP He's still on this earth Oh well

If I don't see him I don't you don't exist That's true You never know if Pizzi It is Ireland There's a lot of craziness If you guys ever talk to Pizzi Off camera asking him about like

Just life in Ireland and I'm just like, how are you still alive, man? Like, there's no reason for you to be here. It's insane. Anyway, any other questions, Casey? Uh, la la la, la. Anything about this? Are there any, I'm trying to find other questions about,

I'm trying to give more focus to the fight card this weekend. Yeah, a couple people would say Roberts and Vittoria should be a main event, which I don't agree with. Neither of those guys are top 10. If anything, I had, if any, if there was a scenario that I would have preferred, but again, it doesn't really bother me, is if they had just made Al Jermaine Sterling Sanhagen, the main event from last,

they took that fight and made it the main event for Saturday, so they would get the five rubs. But I think Alzer main Sterling fighting on that card probably got a lot more eyeballs anyway, so didn't bother him. Yeah, I can see both ways on the UFC. You know, you want to load up your pay-per-view. You know, you're paying money for the pay-per-view,

so you want to see top-level fights. So, yeah. Yeah, you know. Yeah. I see a baby behind you, aunt. Is that your baby? That's my baby. I didn't, I didn't, just my baby.

I didn't rent a baby today. That's my actual baby. Any other questions, Casey? Are we signing off soon? Wait we got right here. Is this a good one? From Ollie, to any of you fear that Aldo might miss weight since we've seen several guys like Stevens and Robertson

bosh a weight cut? If Aldo misses weight, does the UFC bail on the fight so we get a champ? What a on that fight. So do we get it? Fix your grammar, Ollie. My goodness. So, Kristen, are you afraid Jose Aldo will miss weight? And the Bantamweight champion, the title will still be vacant after UFC 251.

Didn't he already make 135? 136. He sure did. He made 136. 136. Okay. Maybe he didn't look the best, but he made it. So why would I be worried about it now?

Because of the whole pandemic thing. I'm pretty sure fighters are finding the way. that they need to do to lose weight, so I'm not worried. But if Aldo does happen to fall out of the fight, I mean, I'm not saying that that would be a bad thing because I am of the Al Jermaine Sterling train. I want him and Peter Jan to fight so bad. So if Aldo is out of the picture, I mean, I'm not going to cry over it. I'd much rather see the Al Jermaine Sterling fight, and he definitely deserves it after that

San Hagen performance. Well, Al Jardelman, did, I asked him. and Al Jemman said he'd stay ready just in case something happened. So, Anne, what do you think about this Aldo Yon fight? I mean, it's happening. It's going to be a good fight. Let's not forget that Aldo's

0 and 1 and is ranked number 6 at Bantz. If we're just looking at pure martial arts entertainment, yes, it's a great fight, but Aldo does not deserve a title fight. At least have a win in the division that you've competed. He lost. He lost the fight. Yeah, it's nuts.

And he lost to the former champion. So now with the title being vacant, like, if anything, it should be marlomerized in Yon or Yon and Aljo. Those are the only two iterations of this that make any sense whatsoever. So I'll be entertained by the fight. Hopefully, Aldo makes weight. I'm not necessarily too concerned about that. I'm concerned about his long-term future at Bannon Wing, considering how bad he looked on that scale. But I'm sure he'll make it for this one, and the fight will happen despite the.

fact that it shouldn't. I'm a big fan of if Aldo, I want Alito to rematch should be rematching favor of Bannamweight because their first fight at W.C. days with a featherweight. And then Marlon can either fight Cruz or Frank Yeager can fight Cruz because I want both of those fights so badly. But like Marlon Mariah seems to be the odd man out in this whole scenario. He called out Dominique, which I love. I love that fight. Yon and Mariahs were booked. They were already booked. They were. They were. That's good point. Kazakhstan?

That's a very good point, yeah. Yeah, like, I'm a bad, I think Martin Morales still deserves it, but whatever. I'm just amazed at the dedication to get Aldo this title fight. Like, during the pandemic, like, all right, you know, you had to make do of what you can get. But now they just double down on it. Like, although actually earned a title shot. It's amazing. We said the same thing.

Like, when Amanda won, we were all like, what's next? Like, if she wants to drop back down to Bantamway, and Casey and I were like, well, it's a general idea of Dadaana. Like that's the only fight to make it Bantamite. Now she has to fight Holly Holm. If Holly Holm beats another contender, like you know they're going to try to get Holly another title shot. Like they really want Holly to fight for the title again. But that's a tough fight for both of them.

But that's a conversation for when that fight happens. Casey, any other questions? Nah. All right. Question for both of you. Yeah. If you, this was asked several weeks ago, and we all gave our answers.

Pizzi gave the worst answer. Angela Hill gave a good answer. can't remember who was on after. Oh, Brian Boone Keller also gave an answer. He had a good answer. But I'll be the judge of your guys' answer. If you could turn your arm into a Mega Man style cannon that only shoots ice cream to save world hunger, and you can only shoot one flavor, what flavor would it be? And let's keep in mind, there's a few things I want to clear up, because this is my scenario. This is not a continuous stream of ice cream like soft serve. So it's not just like a flame thower of soft serve ice cream. This is a one shot.

Like you're shooting, you're shooting scoops of ice cream, right? So you're not just, it's pop, pop, pop, but you only get one flavor to save world hunger. What flavor do you choose? Kristen, your answer. I can already guarantee my answer is going to piss a lot of people off because this flavor, I see a lot of hate for it. All right. My flavor is mint chocolate juice. That's a terrible answer.

I do you have to say that, but it's my favorite flavor. I don't care. Let me, I'll answer, I'll respond to that in a second. Wait, yours is probably vanilla, because you're vanilla. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, excuse me. Wow. Wow. Excuse me? Sound my bombs that just dropped right there.

Yeah. Anyway, and what's your answer? Cookies and cream. That's the only answer. That is so, Kristen, I'll answer yours in two parts. One, I approve of your, your flavor based on their art. things in the ice cream because it's more filling, so you have to use less and it's easier to spread out. Someone says butterscotch. I disagree. Pizzi said vanilla, which is the worst.

That's the worst flavor. Like, it's not a bad flavor, but it's bad flavor for hunger because it's not filling. You need an ice cream with things in it, like fish food or chocolate fudge brownie or cookie dough, like that's more filling so you can spread it out more. If you just get a thing of vanilla, you're like, wow, I ate this and I still want more ice cream. Where's the ice cream man all of a sudden. So, Christian, you picked a terrible flavor, but I like thought process and putting the chocolate chips in

there, because mint and chocolate do not go together. Yes, they said. No, and the little mint chips, they're going to, this is a weapon, too. They're going to, they'll slice you up, too. This is not a weapon. This is to save world hunger. We're not using this to thwart evil. Well, can we thwart the evil that starts to work hunger? Can we

shoot at them and let them get cut with the mint chips? I know, I see you're confused. I know this is a lot like you're on the wrong side of 40, so I'm going to talk to you about this fantasy, this fantasy scenario. Mega man, like this is a weapon of peace now? It's to save world hunger.

That game. I use Mega Man as a- That version of Mega Man sucked. Yeah, it did. But that I'm talking about, like, I use Mega Man as an example of someone that, like, you know, because some people are like, well, what do you mean? Do I get a gun?

Do I get a laser? Like, no, it's literally like your hand is a cane and like, and then it pops out. Like Metron style. except Metron was a suit. Shout out to Matron. Rocky Road, strawberry cheesecake, banana nut.

Never had strawberry cheesecake ice cream, banana nut and whatever the other one was good. Pistachio. Eh. Yeah. You're going to kill someone with that one, probably. Thin mince.

I'm chocolate chips. Pistachio will definitely slice some more. I mean, I don't like raisins at all. Yeah. One time I went to a Casey and Esther were there. We went to a, what was it, Sunrise coffee, Casey.

In Vegas? Yeah. They kept giving my order to the wrong table, like three times in a row. And finally, I was like, where's my food? And they were like, what do you mean? I'm like, we brought to table this. And we're like, it's not my table. They did that three times in a row.

So then finally they were like, we're sorry, here's a cookie and we're working on your order. They gave me a raisin cookie. I'm like, this is worse than before. I don't have no cookie and no food than having a raisin cookie and no food. Anyway, but I digress. Whoa, calm down. Let it go, Jose. I will never let it.

Go ahead of go, man. That was a dark moment in my life. Anyway, we're up on time. Good answers all around on the ice cream question, even though Kristen picked a terrible flavor. Thin mince are terrible, by the way. As always, the guests of honor get to plug, talk about, say whatever they want, and I'll start with you.

All right, so I'm going to tell you guys a quick little story here. So I went to one of the protests last week in L.A. It was in downtown L.A. ready to get my protests on. So I thought the cops was going tear gas everybody and start clubbing us outside the head. So I was prepared. I had goggles, my construction goggles. The case of tear gas started.

I had my mouthpiece in a case I got bashed in the mouth. And I had my protective cup because police dogs like to go for the nuts. Now, we ended up, this ended up being peaceful fortunately, but we marched about 15 miles. So I'm walking about 15 miles with this protective cup in. And the cup started rubbing against my inner thigh, exposed. some skins that I have missed a layer of skin inside my thought. And that's what I like to call a justice rash. So I have been injured for the cause. But yeah, I just had to share that I'm a casualty of war. Let's go. I love it. I love it. Kristen, what you got to say? Say it plug,

anything you want to do. I'm definitely not a casualty of war. But if you can donate to our cause, please do so. There are plenty of petitions. GoFundMe's you can sign. We need just for a lot of people, especially ones on my shirt that are no longer here. So if you can find it in you to support our cause, please do that. And thank you to all those MMA fighters from a bunch of different promotions for speaking up on it, especially about racial injustice right now. It's definitely an important conversation to have. And you guys, rightfully so used your platform right now to say exactly what you need to say, but I will ask this to plug both of your actual work. You guys have a piece you work on together, right? Yes. For my in the main main.

News, King and Slim. So we call each other up. We talk about a topic and one of us transcribes it, submits it. Boom, there it is. King and Slim. Go check it out. Guys, I thoroughly enjoy that piece. Where can they find it? What site? MyMMA News.com. There you go. Go read it. And Casey, anything you want to say? What do you got? Yes, yes, yes. To help the cause, me and Esther Lynn, all elbows online. I was about to ask that. We are selling her shirts and 100% of the proceeds, not just the profits, but everything of the proceeds, outside of shipping, which is including the cost.

So you pay $25 for a shirt. Pretty much all $25 bucks goes to two charities. Oh, sorry, let me show a picture real quick. We have a variety of shirts. This is one of the shirts. Where are you? There we go. I have that shirt.

Yeah. It's our all-elbo's shirt. And we have a couple more on her. Just Google All-Albo's T-shirt, or you'll find it or follower in Twitter or whatever. But we're selling those shirts and all the proceeds go to National Bell Out, which is helping protesters who've been unjustly arrested and helping them from court costs.

And it's a split cause. And the other half of it will go to a theater, actually, in Los Angeles called Old Time Music Hall. And it's been hit very hard by the COVID virus. It's one of my favorite places to go in Los Angeles. and it's called Old Time Music Hall. And so look for us online, order a shirt, and all the monies goes to them. And one last thing.

Well said everyone. One last thing in reference to Mr. Anthony Walker's shirt. If some of our fans, if that's a little too abrasive, we also have, I want to show this off. There you go. Well, to keep on theme, for those of you just listening, and is rocking an NWA shirt. What shirt are you wearing, Casey? Public enemy.

Public enemy, fear of a black planet. Mine just is straight to the point. That says, listen to Biggie. Do yourself a favor. And then Kristen, who's on your shirt? The victims of police brutality that are no longer here. So Sandra Bland, Mike Brown. The old Sterling on there and pretty gray.

He's on, he's somewhere. Hold on, I think I was going. There we go. Got to move my hair out of the way. Well said, everyone. And well, well represented. Anyway, this is going to be a wrap for this episode of the Ais. They went along, but rightfully so.

Thank you so much, Aunt. Thank you so much, Kristen. We are 100% going to have you back on. And, of course, you can come on between the links and lose. But that's for another, another week, as both of them just give you the side eye right now. But for Jose, that's Casey. That's Aunt. That's Kristen.

You find this on Spotify, Stitcher, YouTube. Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, all that stuff. But until next Wednesday, we're out. Good job. That was good, guys. Well done. Good to the Vox Media Podcast Network.