MMA Fighting - The A-Side Live Chat | UFC Sao Paulo Fallout, Frankie Edgar's Future At Bantamweight, The State Of Brazilian MMA, Nick Diaz's Return, More

Episode Date: November 20, 2019

For this episode, José Youngs and Anthony Walker discuss the aftermath of UFC Sao Paulo, Jan Blachowicz’s decision win over Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, Charles Oliveira's KO win over Jared Gordon, Frankie Edgar's future at bantamweight, Nick Diaz' return, the state of mixed martial arts in Brazil, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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But, of course, this is Jose Young's. Joining me this week on the A-side over here at M-AFundian.com is my very good friend, Anthony Walker of Sherdog. He's been on the show before, but that was, as Esther Lynn calls it, the extra live A-side live chat. and we're both there in the same room together. But Anthony Walker is making his debut via the Magic of Skype. The exclusive Anthony Walker, live from L.A. He's joining us via Skype. I'm great to have.

He was supposed to be on a few times before. Things, guests and whatnot, kind of threw a wrench into that. But he is here with us. So, Anthony, welcome back. How you been since the last time we saw you? I believe it was UFC 239 Fight Week. Yeah, I think 239 Fight Week, man. Happy to be back.

Always a pleasure chatting with you. always have a good time we get to kick it so it's always fun to talk people getting punched in the face for money with with some friends so so let's get to show on a rober man i think we saw each other at the dominance mma media day too that was a good time you had i heard uh exhilarating interview one mike tyson if i remember correctly uh oh oh yeah you could you cut out for just a second there ain't nothing man the magic of internet but i heard we saw you at the dominance ma media day i her you had an absolutely riveting interview with one Mike Tyson if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, I did get to talk to Mike Tyson, man. That was pretty cool. That was one of those

moments you have to control your inner fanboy. Right. Mike Tyson blowing weed smoking my face the whole time. That's a bucketless thing. My dad thought that was cool. Did he actually answer your questions? Yeah, he did. He just didn't really give good answers. So I'm asking him about a bunch of fights. He was like, yeah, I didn't get to watch that fight. Like, okay, well, um, Thanks for letting us be here, Mike, and wheat smells great. Take care. Weat smells great. Take care.

But all right, as always, this is the A-Side Live chat. This is not our podcast. This is your guys' podcast. So leave a question in the comment section of the post. It's been tweeted out. It's sticky it at the top of the site, or you can use hashtag the A-San on Twitter. Of course, people are probably listening to this after the fact. You can always come and ask questions and then listen to it later on.

You can use go on Twitter. You can go on the site. It's going to be on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitch, or Google Play, all that fun stuff. by Anthony, we're going to get right into it. From Grin N, long-time commenter. What are your thoughts on the upcoming fight between Corey Sanhagen and Frank Yeager? How do you see this matchup unfolding if Edgar isn't victorious? What does that signal for him and his career?

So, yes, Anthony, this week, it is official. Frank Edgar will make his long-away to debut at the 135-pound division against Corey Sanhagan. I believe at UFC Raleigh, not in the main event, in the co-main event. couple things to unpack there i remember when frankie first dropped down to 145 he immediately fought josie aldo right away and then he came up short and then he fought charles olivari and i believe was the co-man event of uccd un62 that was the anderson chris widen in the first one uh but now he's dropping down to 135 pounds there is a lot of high level marquee ban on weight fights in the pipe war in coming up we got josie aldo's fighting marlorese we got uriah favor uh fighting peter yon um dominicruz is floating around

out there. Alza made Sterling just went under the knife. Now Frankie Eggers is there at 135. Hensler Hutto, still recovering. But what do you make of Frank Yeager's future 135 pounds? His shot against Corey Sanhagen, and what happens if he comes up short? What does that say for the answer's future inside of the

Octagon? Matt, I was definitely surprised by the Corey Sanhagen fight. I like the fight. I think from a technical standpoint, that's a fun fight. That's a fight that I will have a lot of fun trying to dissect and dig into the X's and nose of it. obviously has a lot of divisional relevance.

The only thing that shocked me was that Corey Sanhagen isn't exactly a marquee name. While guys like us respect him, the people out there listening to him in chat right now, they respect Corey Sanhagen, but he's not a name that strikes some casual interests.

Like, Frankie might be able to. So I figured when you, like, the way you framed it leading into the question was perfect. Like, when he dropped to 1.45, his first fight was against Jose Aldo. Like, his fight was against the greatest feather weight of all time. Now, I would

think, with that in mind, I would think that they would have given him a more name value guy, which I thought the Al Jermaine Sterling fight was perfect for that. You know, Aljo just seemed perfect, but obviously, you know, his health issues have

delayed that potential matchup. Now, as far as if Frankie doesn't come out victorious, man, I'm not really sure if we can make a whole lot of it because it would be his first fight at abandon weight. We don't know how his body reacts to that weight cut. We haven't really seen him cut weight before.

We've seen him just kind of walk in as is. This would be his first time cutting weight. Maybe he needs a second go-round to optimize his body in that division. But, of course, if he loses, he's not exactly

the youngest guy in the world, and he's fighting one of the best in the division. So it might signal the end for Frankie Edgar, but I say we still need one more to be for sure on that. Yeah, like you said, I love this fight. Surprised by the matchmaking, surprised that the card is being placed on

because we do have that big card in January. We have that big card in February. And to put it, not believe, it is the Raleigh card, if I'm not mistaken, right? I'm not making it out of. Yeah. We have supposedly that Houston card in February, supposedly have that big Conne McGregor card in January.

Maybe Frankie doesn't want to fight on the same card as Connor McGregor if they're not fighting. Who knows? But I love the matchmaking. It's just, it's, I've always wanted to see Frank Yeager versus Dominic. that's been in the pipe dream of mine ever since they remember they had that championship champions um like gathering they had all the champions up on stage yeah it was for that that international fight

week before the gs psalts shield's pay-per-view and frank edgar and dominic cruz the city right next to each other they didn't look that much like dominic cruz looked like the same size as him so i've always wanted that fight corey san hagan is on record saying like dominic cruz is his idol and he kind of mirrors his fighting style off of dominic cruz so maybe this is the next best thing i don't know I wish it was a five-rounder. Maybe Frankie wants to see how his body reacts to actually, like you said. This is really the first time we've seen him cut weight. He would just walk into the Octagon, 155 pounds, cut maybe eight or seven pounds to fight a 145,

and now he has to actually cut weight to 135. I spoke to him. I don't know if you had a chance to speak to Frank Edgar at the Dominance MMA Media Day, but I asked him point blank because he wants to fight. Yeah, I got to speak to him there too. He wants to fight Connor McGregor. That was what he wanted to do at any weight, 155, 145, 170, 165. He wanted to fight Connor McGregor.

I asked him, is there a timetable you're going to have? Because if you want to cut to 135, I'm sure you're going to want to actually go through the whole process and not have to bulk up to fight Connor and then immediately cut to 135. And he said his timeline was probably going to be around December, November. We're now pretty deep into November. Thanksgiving is right around the corner. So the announcement doesn't surprise me in terms of when it happens. The opponent surprised me and the card surprised me.

But I absolutely love this fight. yeah I don't but I again I want to see how Frankie looks before I can make a prediction on that one yeah I agree man we we gotta we gotta see something to kind of know what to make of

of his potential future ban and weight run so I'm all in man this is like I said this is a fight for the people who really like fun right this is this is not just okay a sexy name on the billboard although the Dominic Cruz fight that yeah that that's that sounds

That sounds fire right there. I wouldn't mind that one either. And the fact that the champion Henry Suhudo is still on the shelf recovering from, like, believe it was shoulder, elbow surgery or whatever, and he's traveling all over the world doing fan Q&A's, guest fighter spots, this and that. Like I said, I named all those Bannonweight fights coming up. Like if Joseo Aldo wins, he said he's going to wait for Henry Sehudo. Frank Edgar wins.

You imagine he'd want to fight Henry Suhudo. And then I spoke to Cody Garbrand at Dominance. He wants to come back in March, so then you're going to throw his name into the mix, two, you're eye of favor. Like him, like, the band-in-weight division is fantastic right now, and the champion is hurt, and there's so many, like, Al-German Sterling should fight for the championship. Peter Yan should fight for the championship.

Josialdo. Like, Matt, if Marlon Moraes goes out there and beats Josie Aldo, what happens? He's not fighting Henry again, so the band-wee, we could do a whole episode of the A-side just on the Bantamweight Division. But of those, all these matchups, this is a part of the question, but I'm curious to get your take. Of all those matchups, I said, which one are you most looking forward to? and if I had to choose one name,

if you had to choose one name to fight Henderson, who are you choosing? I got to go Aljo. Aljo just, I like the technical improvements he's made as of late. I mean, the big knock on him before recently was like, yeah, he could kick, he could wrestle, was like this weird hybrid style.

It was almost like, almost reminded me of Phil Davis kind of the way he would approach a fight, but his hands have looked a lot better lately, a whole lot better. And I'm just very curious to see what his wrestling matches up against Henry Sehudo's wrestling, what that striking looks like, what the physical dimensions of their bodies looks like against one another. Like, Aljo is definitely one of the more athletic guys at Bannonweight as well. So I want to see how that plays out against an Olympic caliber athlete. Like there are so many little things about Aljo versus Sehudo that make it very intriguing to me.

And then from a personality standpoint, they're two probably the most outrageous personalities in the division as well. The buildup of that fight will probably be a lot of fun too. And let's not forget, Rob Foncel's fighting Ricky Simone. So there's another bantamette you can throw into this chaos. I know Al Jermaine Sterling has always really wanted to fight Cody Garbrandt, but very badly I spoke to him backstage in the U.S. Phoenix. He's like, I don't care if Cody Garbrandt wins or lose.

I'm fighting that guy next. So maybe if Cody wants to come back in March, Al Jalz remains healthy again. He wants a three-round fight coming off surgery. Maybe we booked that fight finally. Because like I said, there's so many Bantamway fights all in this two-month span, and maybe Al-Ramein has fights one more time

before fighting for the championship. Don't hate that Cody Garber and fight whatsoever. The history is there. They don't seem to really care for each other. I spoke, did you speak to Cody at that meeting a day? No, I didn't dig Cody there. But he seemed much more, like, relaxed and even keeled than angry Cody

we've come to know before his fights. did you do a little so maybe we see different Cody Garbrandt who knows uh but again i said we could do a whole episode on the bantamway division but we're going to move right along from long time commenter lodovic few good things from ufc sa palo i don't even want to think about the whole card but charles olivar and randy brown certainly delivered where do you see their positions in their divisions and what's next for them thanks as always so yes anthony walker i don't know if you saw any of uc south paolo it was kind of a grind it was kind of a grind it was it felt like work it it felt like worked for one of the rare times it was it was work it was work uh i can't imagine this seems to be like

since the espn deal kind of came came into fruition there hasn't been a lot of uh duds i should say of pacing and this feels like it's been going on forever because you remember the fox era where cards could take like unfortunately seven hours long we didn't get that with the spn this card felt like it took forever to finish and then the main event uh there were obviously finishes but there are also a lot of decisions like the Jacare and Jan Blockovic's fight and those first few fights on the prelums. But Charles Oliver submits Jared Flash Gordon. I believe it moves him within one away from tying Cowboy Soroni for most stoppage wins in the history of the UFC. I believe Charles Oliver might have the most submission wins all right, like submissions,

wins in general, picks up another performance of the night bonus. I believe it's his fifth or six win in a row, all stoppages, all bonuses, blah, blah, blah. Randy Brown goes out there. Who did Oh my God. I blank on who he just beat. But wow, this is going to drive me absolutely. Warli Alvis? Yeah. You beat Worley Alves, right? No, that was out Krause.

That was, no. No, Krause can not be. No, no, Crosby, Sergio Morais. Yeah. They fought over. He already beat him. Yes, it was Worley Elvis. Yes.

So, anyway, two, he submitted him after, I thought that was a low-key, pretty impressive performance, kind of got not pieced up, but not, not. He lost the first round. He definitely lost the first round. Sure. Came back and submitted. Worlaiva is in enemy territory. He calls out Michael Keisa. I don't think he gets that fight. But we'll start with Charles Alivara. What did you think of his performance? I can't, I don't

believe Jared Gordon was ranked going into that fight. Like I said, Charles O'Levare is on this very impressive win of stoppages and bonuses calling for top 15 opponents. He wins. He calls Al-Connor McGregor. He calls out Habib. He calls out Paul Felder, the last man to beat him. What did you make of his performance? And where do you like to see him going forward? I mean, his performance was excellent. It was absolutely excellent. I really want to see him fight a top 15 guy now at this point you have to like he's smashing everybody and and he hasn't seen the the second half of the second round in a very long time like he's he's just bulldozed through his last six opponents all finishes the last two being knockouts you know

you see his hands improving you see like he his his very well-noted issues on the scale have seen dissipated like he's he's making weight consistently like there's really no knock against this guy There's no reason why he shouldn't be fighting in more high-profile matches at this point. You got to give him a top of team guy. I mean, you talk about a guy who beforehand, like, you think about the Cowboys-Soroni fight, you think about what's the one where he, I think it was Cubs Swanson, where he took like that body shot and he doubled back and just fell kind of randomly. He had like that weird stoppage against Max Holloway where he got hit in the throat.

So you've seen him falter on. these odd sequences and striking. And now you see him timing these right hands with expert position and putting Gordon out. Like, dude, like, with the last, the Nick Litts fight, the last one, didn't that, that finishing sequence start with a head kick? Something like that. Yeah, like, you got to give this guy something. Like, you know he's going to be exciting.

You know he's going to, he's going to fight for a finish. He's kind of a weird dude that's entertaining to just watch. those glasses look pretty cool go in there man get him a top 15 guy so looking at the lightweight rankings right now some matchups see is la machochev is out there Alexander Hernandez is sitting there at 1415

Charles Oliver is 13 Gregor Gillespie's 12 I mean that's a really fun fight if you like grappling because I don't think Charles Oliverer is really faced an elite wrestler and Gregor Gillespie hasn't fought a high level black belt yet but I don't think Greg Gillespie's coming back anytime soon after that

head kick knockout to Kevin Lee Anthony Peders and El Welterway, Etton Barbosa, Al-Iquinta, Kevin Lee, Dan Hooker, Felder. I mean, the Felder fight is fun, but Felder probably won't take that. So of all these, and then the top five,

like Cowboy will probably fight Connor, Gachy's going to, there's no way he fights Gachy, and then Ferguson, Porre, Habib, none of those guys are going to fight Charles Giver. So of all of these names, I mentioned, who do you like? I mean, I like the Charles Oliver

maybe Dan Hooker fight in that, that New Zealand car, that offling car they just announced. Maybe that'd be a fun one. Kevin Lee, Den Hooker would be a, good one. Aliaquinta Charles Olivera. I like the Gregor Gillespie fight. I just don't think it happens. Kevin Lee said he walks

to fight Islamakachev in Moscow of all places, so who knows? But of those names I mentioned, who do you like Charles Olivera facing? I kind of like an Edselmargoza fight. Just for the pure style of it. That would just be the

weirdest matchup of guys who have wilted under pressure in different circumstances. Just see what would happen. It just seems very combustible. But if we're going to go with the old Joe Silva, winners fight, winners approach,

I'm going to echo the sentiments of my homie Ben Duffy at Sherdog, who is high on a Kevin fight with Charles Oliva. So I'll go Kevin Lee. That probably makes the most sense. I like that fight a lot. I know if Kevin Lee really wants to fight Islam Machev just because of the ties to Habib, maybe he,

I think he's going to want to try and to catapult himself closer to a title fight by beating Habib's friend and quote-unquote brother. But I'll watch Charles. I'll always Oliver fight anyway. I'll watch Charles Oliver fight a door. I know I use that expression a lot to fight but exciting cat. I really... The door on tough. Dude, that's that door stairs, no chances. But another guy that this question asks is Randy Brown, big win over at Worley Alvers.

Where do you see him going forward? He called out Michael Keisa. So he wants to test his jiu-jitsu against Keisa. I don't think that fight happens. Maybe he could get the winner. I know Vicente Lucke's out there. Vicente Lucas coming off that loss, Stephen Thompson. He's sitting at 13. but he wants to take some time off to kind of regroup after that Wonderboy lost. Gilbert Burns really wants a fight. I don't know if you follow him on Twitter. It seems like every card, every injury, anything happens.

He's like, I'll do it. I'll do it. So Gilbert Burns versus Randy Brown. Just book it. Give him both what they want. Yeah, just do it because Gilbert Burns was calling on Francis Ngano like a couple days ago. So let's just keep Gilbert Burns alive. Let him and Randy Brown fight.

I like that a lot. Yeah, so Gilbert Burns, high-level black belt. Randy Brown wants to test his jih Tzu against a high-level black belt. There you go. You're welcome. You're welcome, Sean Shelby and Mick Maynard. We just did your jobs for you. Moving right along.

From Eduardo Brano, what's next for Jacqueray? Should Jacqueray go back to 185, retire, take another fight at 205? So, as we kind of mentioned in one of the last few questions is Jacqueray Soza, his fight against Jan Blackwood. It's not the most exciting. not the most if you're if you're one of those fans that's like you're the only one in your friend group that really likes mMA and you invite all your friends over and they sit down and they watch this fight this is what you like to watch just a couple of guys pushing each other i'm sure you've had that experience i've had that experience uh same thing with boxing when you watch any floy may where they're fight people go this is the best boxers for all i'm like yeah look he's not getting hit at all like they just want to see clanging and banging guys inside that ring or octagon but uh jacqueray came up short said that any close fight, he's guaranteed he's going to lose because he never gets those the Kevin Gasselm fights up there where he came up short. I mean, he lost to Robert Whitaker

pretty definitively, lost to Jack Herr Manson, and now he loses to Jan Blakovitz in his light heavyweight debut. What did you make of his performance, and what would you like to see Jacques-Ré do going forward? I mean, I don't see any point in going back to 185. I don't really think there's much for him in that division. I don't, I mean, in 205, I mean, it's a thin enough division where you might be able to pull a name out. You know what? Let's run it back with Luke Rockhold if Luke Rockhold decides that he wants to keep fighting. Sure.

You know, that was a great fighting strike force. And I don't mind seeing that one again. And it's two guys who probably should be looking toward other avenues to the next chapter in their lives. Yeah, throw it together. That's fine with me. Maybe even, maybe even Chris Wynke. lineman okay uh just a just a middleweight fight a light heavyweight yeah pretty much that's that's sort of what i'm thinking of like that um i now i'll put this in proper context because that was a

really really boring fight and i say that as a guy who is a staunch defender of woodley thompson too yeah that was that was that was that was woefully bad um for and for yon blakovitch man what terrible timing to to to have a fight like that the the the performances he's been putting on, the exciting fights, win or lose that he's been in lately, for him to now get this main event against a marquee name

and to fall short in the entertainment department so far and barely win the fight at that when you're at the end of your career and you're trying to get that John Jones sweepstake money. It's just kind of not the best timing. But for Jokkeray, yeah, give him a middle weight who's also moving up. Yeah, I'm just looking at the rankings right now.

Jacques Re Suza is sitting there at 15, even though he's 0-1 in the division. The guy right above him, Nikita Krilov, Misha Serkinov, Ilar Latifi's moving up to heavyweight, Johnny Walker's there, so I don't think he'll fight any of those guys. So maybe they want to just do the obvious Jacques-Rae versus Krilov fight.

I mean, I'm sure they'll go back to Brazil sometime soon. Maybe they want to go back to Moscow. Maybe Jacques-Rae gets tossed or in St. Petersburg, wherever, gets tossed somewhere over there. Who knows? But not the best performance from Jacques-Re-Souza, especially because we're going to be. You see a lot of these middleweights going up in weight, like Tiago Santos, Anthony Smiths,

these guys that are finding new life at middleweight, and then they go on this run and they get these title shots. But what I was, I spoke to the, I was speaking with Pizza Carol about this last week with these middleweights going up. It seems like Chris Wyden and Luke Rockhold, when they went up from middleweight to light heavyweight. If they had won, there's no question they would fight John Jones next. There's no question. Chris Wyman and John Jones have always wanted to fight. Luke Rockhold has the history with DC's talking the good talk and Chris Wyman. Same thing.

Those two guys lost very violently, like quick. And all week, all the questions were, well, when you win it, you're going to fight John Jones. When you win, they're going to fight John Jones. Can you remember anyone asking Anthony Smith or Tiago Santos to those questions when they went up to light heavyweight? Because I can't. Absolutely not. They went up there with nothing to lose. I believe Tiago Santos, it was a short-notice fight.

and then he won so impressively he just stayed in the division. I can't remember who he beat, but he just went on this tear. He had that crazy Jimmy Manuel fight. He beat John Blokovitz. Was it Eric Anders that he pieced up? Yeah, Eric Anders. Yeah, and Anthony Smith was a journeyman before going up to light heavyweight. He was a guy who nobody ever really thought of as anything but like a prelim filler.

You know, he had like a filth in that, Bellator. He just wasn't a guy that anybody was watching, and now, you know, he goes up a weight class and he's something to tangle with. And these, and those two guys didn't have anything to lose. They went up and no one thought they were going to fight for a title. And all of a sudden, they've strung together a bunch of Uber impressive wins and they're fighting for a championship. The opposite was with Luke Rock on the Wyven, where maybe, I can't speak to what they were thinking about. Maybe they did look past their opponents. I know Luke Rock will look past John Blockovitz, because we interviewed him at UFC 239,

and he's like, come on, guys. I'm fighting Jan Blockovitz. Like, come on. Like, who am I actually? Like, he lost to Tiago Santos, who was a failed middleway, and then he's calling out Anthony Smith and this and that, and you saw what happened, got his bra joker, and jaw broken in the second round against Jan Blockovitz,

who's not historically a knockout artist, and then Wyman gets, uh, K-O'd by Dominic Gray's. I don't know what Jacques Gris-Oz was thinking. I don't know if you read our piece that, that our own Gareme Cruz had where Jacques Ray was like crying on his way to the gym before his last fight. He was he felt depression and he he didn't know if you wanted to keep fighting anymore. Like he felt like he the joy of fighting left him and he was dry.

It was before his uh, uh, Hermanson fight where he would be like driving to the gym and he would have like tears rolling down his cheeks and this and that. And I'm like when I hear that, I'd never like telling fighters to hang it up. Unless it's like after a bunch of crazy chaos. But if you're crying on the way to the. gym and you can't get your head on straight when you're about to go fist fight another human being maybe it is time to hang up the four ounce gloves yeah i think of um some of the jobs i've

had over the years and um as much as i've hated a lot of them i was never crying on my way to work so yeah it might it might be time to look at the next chapter maybe uh maybe he needs to hit up luke and and see if he can get on a model shoot or something but yeah yeah he may not want to be in the cage if that's it that's his mentality right right now. How old is Jacques Ré-Suzza, what, 39, 40?

I think he's 39. Yeah, so it's not like I'm sure cutting his weight to 185 to not help his future in the UFC depleting his body like that over and over and over and over.

But again, I don't like telling anyone to retire or what to do with their career, but again, if you're crying on your way, someone says, Eduardo Bueno says,

I think Robert Whitaker took his soul. Doc, Doc says his decline has been obvious for a while now, but his last two fights, he's looked like a different fighter. No shame of losing to Jack or Jan. But the way he is fighting, and those two bouts made me think what the hell happened to Jacques

he used to be such a vicious killer, and that was dangerous everywhere. It pains me to see him looking washed up like this. I don't know if he's washed up. It was his first fight at 205, and he's fighting a guy that's already in the top five. So, again, nothing to hang your head at. But you remember that Chris Wyman fight. He knocks Chris Wyatman dead. I mean, people talk about Jacare being this elite jiu-jitsu practitioner, which he is,

but he knocks Wythman dead. he knocked out Derek Brunson in that Charlotte card. So I don't disagree. It's very weird to see Jacare having these boring decisions after seeing him just murder people in the octagon in the cage for so long. But I think it's also too important to remember that styles do make fights.

And just the way these two happen to co-in, coincide with one another, it just wasn't fun to watch. It just happens like that every so often. Yeah, that just, like, you know, for Jacaray to say, like, he didn't experience the joy in fighting, neither did wait Saturday. Cold-blooded.

All right. That was pretty mean. I'm sorry, John. Moving along from S.J.Y. Long-time commenter. Oh, God. I haven't even read the question, but the subject of this question is electrified fences. So buckle in.

Last weekend's main event was a snooze fest. What rule changes could be made to encourage action? I would love to see an electrified fence, but I know that's not going to happen anytime soon. Seriously, other combat sports try to encourage action. EBI has overtime rules, wrestling has riding time and touch falls, kickboxing encourages minimum kicks per round. Glory doesn't allow a maintained clinch.

Taekwondo has different point system, head kick, and body kicks. What are your thoughts? So, first of all, no on the electrified fences. I mean, it would be, would it be interesting. Would I watch it? Yes. Would it bring a lot more eyeballs to the UFC? Without a doubt.

But again... Those eyeballs would have badges. Like, that's not going to get shut. So... The first fight when the first guy is hearts. Yeah, his heart's... He's going to get... Someone's going to have like a heart problem.

He's going to get touched the fence. And then we have our first death inside the oxytown. So no, I don't want to see electrified fences whatsoever. But, Anthony, were there any rule changes that you would want to see in the in UFC or mixed martial arts in general to counteract these quote-unquote snooze fest as SJY calls it. I don't know if it'll be the biggest, the biggest medicine for this sort of snooze fest that Jokkeray and Blakovich was, but one thing that needs to be eliminated from the rulebook,

there should not be a such thing as an illegal upkick that should not exist. if you have your back on the ground, you should be able to kick someone in the face no matter where they are. That's the first rule that change. I don't disagree with you. I thought soccer kicks should be allowed for a long time until I heard someone, what was it compared to?

Like, what if you're stuck against the fence? Like you're pinned against the fence, someone head kicks you and your head like it's stuck. Don't like that. I don't like, I don't personally, care like stand-ups or whatever i don't that the fact that they exist don't bother me i it's like the least of my concerns but i don't if you can't get a grown man off you you shouldn't be you're not going to be champion if ben aske that's your yeah yeah if ben askewarm is just holding you

and like making you slap yourself like an older brother like and the referees like you're just waiting for the referee to stand you up like don't know that's not a champion championship mentality like get up if you can't get up you're not going to win like if that if you're if that fights in jail you have a new dad that's pretty much how it is i believe that's how dana castillo called it when he beat tony ferguson he's like if that fight was in jail he'd have a new father right now i'm like oh god that's a little extreme i think the correct the correct term is daddy okay thank you thank you for that that correction uh one of the comments and reply says pride pride had ropes which is pretty good for pushing the action you couldn't hold your opponent against the fence and didn't want to stay in the ropes because you risked to be accidentally thrown out of the ring.

I love watching MMA in the ring, but I like it as an attraction, like in the Risen fights where they have like some of the fights are inside the ring. I do love pride, but I like the Octagon or the Bellator cage or whatever you or the Cambache cage. I can't remember what they called it, but I like the cage better. I love watching MMA in a ring. I love watching kickboxing and Maitain rings, but I don't. want MMA in a ring all of the time. I like it as an attraction.

Yeah, I'm with you on that. I think the cage, I mean, maybe it's just maybe it's just more more so what we've been conditioned to accept, but I really like seeing a cage. It just feels right. You know, and seeing a ring feels like, it feels fun,

but it doesn't feel like something that should be the norm. And also, also too, like the ring, like the of course you want to keep guys if you're in the ring you may you may not want to hang up by the rope so you don't accidentally get thrown out but that's a humongous safety hazard for such a dynamic sport like it's it's already dangerous enough i don't think we need to add the element of falling out and now the guy who's suggesting the electric fences he's going to like bring in art davies a moat with

the alligators or something next so if you fall out the ring you get your arm bitten off like like no let's just cage is fine i'm okay with the cage one of the comments uh says said, an upkick will lead to someone's nose getting rammed into their brain. Just wait. Yes. I watched the last Boy Scout the other day and yes, totally verified. Wow. Someone says in pride, you can go down, you get kicks in the head. The soccer stumps were cool looking. I mean, we've all seen those photos and videos of Shogun like jumping up and like double stomping people, like passing guard with foot stomps or Mark Hunt did his butt drop on Vandalea Silva, I think it was. So I did it. I did,

ask a lot of fighters at UFC I want to say 226 I asked every single fighter in Media Day like what would you what rules would you want to bring back? Because this was right around when Stephen Thompson lost to Darren Till and he heard his knee and he said he didn't want that Oblee kick to

the top of the knee. All of them Emily Whitmire agreed with Stephen Thompson but every single fighter says yeah just bring everything in. They wanted every single rule allowed Chuck Lowe wanted knees to ground it opponents. That's or knees to the head of grounded opponents. He said that was the big one that really

affected his game plan because he could like take someone down and just yeah just drill their head in with a bunch of knees. B.J. Penn, same thing. BJ Payne wasn't a fan of the people putting hands on the ground and so you couldn't need them, which you saw John Dotson do. I can't remember which fight, but is one of the first few years. B. J.Pen doesn't have too many restrictions when it comes to fighting in general. So let's just like not take his word into account. He does, uh, Killeo Roundtree obviously was like all about soccer. kicks if he has a soccer kick win. Even Brad Tavares was like, yeah, soccer kicks should be allowed. And I don't know if you remember, Brad Tavares got knocked. I think it was the Sets Spasinski

fight on tough. He got like head kicked. Yeah. He won by like DQues. He's like, yeah, of course I want them because I won that fight by DQ. Israel Adasanya was like absolutely. Even Gokensaki was there. He was like, of course, it's a fantastic technique. And if Gokensaki is one of the best kickboxes of all time, if he thinks they're good to go, they're good to go. But again, Emily Whitmire, Stephen Thompson, I believe, were the only fighters that didn't want that sack. Even Dwayne Lugwood was like, he gets it. He gets it. He gets it.

He gets Stephen Thompson's argument, but it's a fight. Just don't kill a human being. That's all pretty much everyone was saying. I remember when John Jones first introduced that to like the general MMA world and I think it was against Rampage. Rampage was saying he's had like permanent knee

issues as a result of that fight. And then you remember this, I want to say it was at 239 was it where was that the Santos or was that 235 uh for which one

Tiago Santos was 239 yeah so remember at I think it was like toward the end of the fourth round or beginning of the fifth when Jones did like that ridiculous like jumping sidekick aiming right for Santos's knee and Santos like got out of the

way at the last second like that's just evil that's that's evil, legal but evil. Especially considering looking at that fight now Tiago Santos basically blew both of his knees out in the first round and now he's getting obli-kicked by John Jones like God.

And not just obliate kick. I mean that was like Jackie Chan, you know, cinematic style except I'm going to aim to the knee. So that was me, bro. Someone in the YouTube comment says MMA should happen in an empty swimming pool. No thank you.

Or it was the basketball court? theory that Joe Rogan wants. Oh no, no, doesn't he want it in like a football field with no gloves or anything? Yeah, something like that, like just some big open field. Just add weapons. Or what did, uh, what did someone at, I remember I was at a press conference and someone was asking all the fighters like, what would you think of a 10 minute round, like a 10 minute first round, which I like, uh, George St. Pierre was like big in favor.

And Vandrelai Silva was like, let's just fight to the death. I was like, of course you would say that. But moving along. From Jay Store on the on the on the and again people just doing it now you can leave your questions on the site You can leave your questions in the comment section on the site you can use hashtag the ace on Twitter. I will get to Twitter I promise But for now we're on the site from J store our crossover rules the way to market a crossover fight Interesting part of the intrigue with May Mac was whether Mayweather was still had still had at age 40 after two and a half year layoff Fans seem to accept that may fighters will win MMA matches and boxers will win boxing matches given recent buzz about crossover

fights is a rules mix up what these fights need to sell. In my view, the rules don't need to make perfect sense. They just need to give the median fans something to speculate about before fights. What sort of rule set would you propose for a boxing MMA crossover? Interesting. So I believe this has happened before. Isn't it? Didn't, uh, Shinne Aoki have a fight like this where he fought like a kickboxer? And I think it was like dream or pride. I can't quite remember. But like the first round was kickboxing. And then the second round was, was, was grappling. We've seen like K1 do some things like that.

And then also, I mean, really the Ali-Anoki fight was sort of like that, where they took away a lot of rules that we would consider essential now. I mean, I'm not mad at it because if we're already getting ridiculous to the point where botches and MMA fighters are challenging each other every other day in these completely nonsensical matchups, okay, let's, the rules can be not well. Like, all right, whatever. I would say maybe you take away, if you take away leg kicks, that would be something that could benefit from.

Maybe you take away certain sort of takedowns. Maybe you have limited clenching like K1 might have where you're allowed, you know, three seconds to throw a knee or something like that and then the clinch breaks up. You could do things like that to mix it up. I don't know who would want to do that, though. Like what, unless you get a crazy amount of money. you just, you're back, like, I can't, I cannot remember who Inoki fought, but it was like, this high-level kickboxer, it was like the first round was, but then this fight was such,

was so fascinating because the first round was going to be straight kickboxing. And the second round, I believe, was MMA. So in kickboxing, obviously when you fall, you get separated. So Inoki was just, or Inoki, uh, Shiniya Yoki was just throwing his himself around. Like, he would fall down. So he would, and then the ref would stand it up. And you could see everyone getting pissed because the Aoki is doing this thing as being like the bad guy. of M.A. where he'd like throw a jumping side kick and then it's like fall down or he would

like trip. So basically he just did everything he could not to kickbox this guy. And then right away in the second round he like comes out. He's like I'm gonna take this guy down and the guy just like knees him in the face and knocks him dead in like the first 30 seconds. So I remember that fight because of that. So we'll get maybe we'll get crazy moments like that or but who knows I would like to see it's just hard with takedowns man. Like you can make just a gentleman's agreement not to do takedowns But I don't know if there's because then if there's no takedowns, it's just kickboxing. You know, maybe you have a...

Yeah, I mean, maybe you can take away like clinch takedowns, like, you know, take out like judo tosses or something. Yeah. Because that's one of those things where, like, if you don't know how to break fall, you're getting messed up really bad. Like, that's a very painful thing if you don't know how to break fall. So that's something that, like, a striker would benefit from just knowing that they're not going to get their ribs cracked.

because they don't know how to slam their arm perfectly perpendicular angle when they hit the floor. Or you'll knock themselves out like Jared. Was it Jared Brooks that knocked himself out against Shorty Torres? Yeah, I was also, I think, Ray Minard knocking himself out also. But that was a wrestling take down. But yeah, yeah, you understand the point there. So I would, I mean, I'm okay with it because it's such a ridiculous situation. It's like we can't, we can't like,

have these these forcical fights and then get mad at the rule set and then and then get mad that something farcical is happening around it because it is a farce in general so all right go go sell it full on 100% farce let's do it and didn't uh tim sylvia and who is it um who did he re mercer ray mercer that too well yeah he had that em they had that gentleman's agreement right where they weren't going to kick it was just going to be and sylvia broke it in the first two seconds and got got his head cracked as a result oh god but But I can't think, like, maybe the clinching thing, maybe you could limit number of takedowns.

I don't know. It's just hard when you limit, like, when you take MMA fighters. Like, I know even Demetri Johnson said, I'll fight Floyd Mayweather, and I will only punch. I promise you I will only punch. So, again, I think it's going to have to be a gentleman's agreement type thing. I don't think anyone is going to allow, unless they just make a new hybrid sport.

Like, what's that fight that? Oh, man, what's that? Like karate combat or something like that? What's going on now? God, it's good. There's like head butts are allowed. Oh, that way. The death way, yeah. Unless you just create your own martial art like that,

where head butts and all that, like Seth Buzinski just lost to, oh my God, I can never pronounce his name, but he just lost, and maybe you just create your own sport, and then that could attract people. But I don't like new rule sets for exhibition fights. Like, if they made Maymac, like, oh, clinching is allowed in, and elbows are allowed wouldn't like that especially when you have Connor would just destroy if like clinching with elbows is allowed that fight would have lasted maybe around because he would just tear through floy mayweather oh of course of course but you know but as far as a gentleman's agreement goes

there's no gentleman when it comes to money uh that it'd go right out the window with big dollars on the line so if it's not in the rules it's not illegal so hey you're going to get that money yeah you're telling me the winner gets more money so con they make a dome of agreement not to kick and Connor McGregor doesn't just come out there and throw a crazy spinning wheel kick to get on the highlights across the world and make more money. Come on, guys.

Remember that? I'm taking a bag. Remember that whole leading up to Maymac? People were like, I bet Connor throws a wheel kick right away and just misses Mayweather on purpose. I was like, what are you guys talking about? That's not going to happen. Well, I think they put it,

I bet he would have done it, but they put it in the contract that he would lose, he would lose like a million dollars every time he tried something like that. So if something like that isn't in the contract, there's no monetary penalty why not you know you're already dealing with a complete theater of absurdity so all right pulled a gun back as our own estuile

corrects me letthe way isn't a create your own sport it's a burmese sport and I wasn't saying lithuay was a creative sport I do want to correct that it was just like now it's it seems to be more popular than ever kind of kind of right now I didn't want to I know people in the comments actually are going to really come after me I wasn't saying it was oh naughty Jose I know I know people hate me enough already but I got my crystal seer for positive energy as always don't trust the guy with friendly hair that's the general rule I have I can't wait for USC 230 245 fight week is it 245 yeah Mike Perry is going to be at that media day it's going to be my first chance to

interact with him I'm sure he'll love the new color I mean the comment section right now absolutely people calling me all sorts of things but very long question from Marty from Nebraska on the site it's very very long, so I'll try to condense it. The topic is the present and future of Brazilian MMA. Hello, friends. For the last years, we saw the beginning of the end for a whole generation

of Brazilian stars. Anderson Silva, the Nogare brothers, Vandali Silva, Vitor Belfort, Leota Machita, who just fought. Shogun Hua, Fribuze over Doom, Damien, Maya, etc. Some have already less, and the rest of them are one or two fights away from retirement. That's fair, because, like,

Machita just fought a good fight, Shogun just fought to a draw. A lot of people thought he won. Maya just submitted Ben Ashken sent him into the retirement. Anderson is still fighting, but I guess the whole, like he's going on this long tangent of the next generation was hyped so much, didn't deliver like Cloudigodalia,

Thomas Alameda, Charles Olivero, Walgari Alvarez, et cetera, et cetera, don't move the needle according to Dana White. Johnny Walker, Tiago Santos, Paulo Costa, the only fighters remaining with some chance of becoming a big star, but I don't see them winning the belt at all. I don't know how far Amanda Nunes can go

in terms of star power. The worst is that this is the first time ever that I don't see young prospects inside or outside the UFC. Without our results and push from Globo, the interest of MMA is quickly dying in Brazil. The Card in Sao Paulo had zero media interest outside of our MMA bubble. Remember, Coker making promises about a Bellator car in soccer stadium in Brazil. That is virtually impossible these days. Sorry for the long post, but my question is, what can the UFC do to change the situation? I think they have main events.

Main event names for one or two more years like RDA, Junior Dos Santos, Glover de Chiro, Johnny Walker, Tiago Santos, that's not enough maybe they could bring big fights even without brazilians just to bring more eyes to the sport fans booed jacquer a saturday so they aren't dying for their countrymen like they used to fascinating question i know our own gierre cruise would probably have a better answer to this because he lives down there in brazil but outside of charles oliver well he mentions charles oliver and the next generation being hyped and not delivering like we just had this long question and answer about charles alver should get a top 15 opponent he's one of the more exciting fighters in the division but Johnny Walker

stumbled against Coramson and he might have been the next big star of Brazil. Paulo Costa should be fighting for the championship next if he wasn't injured in Tiago Santos. A lot of people think he beat John Jones three rounds to two. I get a lot of like one, two, five, I think it's the rounds that they scored for Tiago Santos. But I don't see a lot of these up-income

Amanda Rivas is great. She just had that big win over McKenzie Dern. Claudio-Gadale is still there. It's not like she went away. Can you think of any? other names? I can't, off the top of your head, of these Brazilian prospects that we should really be paying attention to down the road? Really? I can't think of too many. I mean, Johnny Walker was the obvious name, but they just saw

what happened on him against Cory Anderson, so we know a certain step-up in competition wasn't going to vote well for him at this point, but I can't, and I think that's a big problem. That's a pretty big problem. I mean, there are still some very relevant Brazilian fighters. I mean, outside of the UFC, you've got the Pitbull Brothers still doing that thing. That's true. Patricio is a dual champion in Belvoir. And let's not forget Douglas Lima. Douglas Lima as well, yeah.

So there are definitely some Brazilian guys out there. But as far as the new ones, I don't know. We just, I mean, this is a problem when you have oversaturation of cards. When you have a card every week. I mean, this is the first weekend, UFC free week in what, like 12 weeks or something like that? three months or something crazy. Yeah, it's just crazy blitz of UFC actions. And when you have this many cars,

you don't have the chance to really dwell on a great performance that a young Brazilian fighter put forth. And by the time you get to a Sao Paulo, you've got a pretty watered-down car that doesn't really move much, much interest. So yeah, maybe if you had a few less on the schedule, yeah, maybe you take some of the bigger stars that aren't Brazilian down to Brazil for big fights.

I mean, that strategy worked very well at UFC193 in Australia to bring Rhonda Rousey there. So you can try that, and that can boost the little life into the general fan base. But the thing is, like, in Brazil, you know, and please, any Brazilians in the comments going to correct me up wrong, and gerald may tweet me if you think of wrong on this one, but MMA seems to be something that's so rooted in their culture due to Brazilian jiu-jitsu. I don't think it's something that's ever really going to go away. maybe it doesn't maybe it isn't appointment viewing for everyone

like it it might have been for like the Anderson versus the Edoor fight or something but but hey it's it's in the fabric of their culture so it's there to stay I've heard that the Reebok deal really did a number for Brazilian fans' interest because

back then you would see all the Brazilian players that have their own shirts so like fans would support that and all but like remember venom and all those those the like you saw like the bony's boni hats and like leonado mchita or something yeah and then like leona machida and shogun would have like head and shoulders on their their hat so they were getting they were getting sponsored and they were really getting pushed into the mainstream uh as the as these at these superstar athletes and then the reboc deal kind of did

away with that so maybe uh businesses weren't getting behind them they couldn't like fans couldn't go out and buy like oh i like anderson silver i'm gonna go buy an anderson silver shirt now i'm gonna go buy a shogun who a shirt now and so on and so forth uh so i've heard that has kind of that's done a number on fan interest in mma down there in brazil but like we're talking about superstars like chris iborg is from brazil it's like yes she's in bellator but and amanda nunes the greatest female fighter of all time is Brazilian uh she once she beat rickle pennington in brazil if i'm not mistaken. I think that was her last fight in Brazil, but she lives in America and she's on her own social media supporting the U.S. women soccer team over like and Brazil is in the World Cup.

So you see these superstars are not even like a man that was like favor in the U.S. women's soccer team over the Brazilian soccer team at times. Probably doesn't look great if you're a Brazilian MMA fan. You see your country and supporting other team. But I think you hit the nail on the head where they need to bring a big event. They need to bring a big event that doesn't have Brazilian. Like, say John Jones fought in Brazil, that'd probably be a very big deal. Or like, Rose Namayunez went down to defend her championship on enemy soil against Jessica Andrade. But yeah, they need something big. They need another big soccer stadium like that Curitiva show where Verdum, Steepa, they had Cyborg made her. Was that her UFC debut on that

card? Was that her second fight? She fought Leslie Smith at like 140. I think that was her second fight. I think. Yeah, and it was like by a cut, and Leslie Smith was not happy. And Anderson Silva was supposed to fight Uriah Hall on that card before he had like gallbladder. Somebody tried to jump Matt Brown or something like... Oh, yeah, didn't Matt Brown fought Damien Maya, right? Yeah, yeah, he fought Maya on that card. Did Jacare fight Vitor on that card?

I believe that was the same card. And then Rob Fon. Yeah, I believe that that was the only like Brazilian versus Brazilian fight on that card, if I'm not mistaken. At least on the main card. um i think another another thing i just thought of too like what what a number of it was at what rose uh lost lost lost title to androge uh two 37 37 and so i think they made a huge mistake with the way two 37 was structured why have anderson silver fight jared cannonere on that card like why not put him in against a name that that would have been sexier that would have it would have attracted more just just

fun attention why have Jose Aldo in there against a young killer like Volcanowski like when you bring the Brazilian stars to Brazil to die in front of everyone you know that's a good way to just stab yourself in the foot

or shoot yourself in the foot sure uh... hey talking about light heavy weights Chris Wyman versus Andrew Silva 3 let's run it do it a third time why not make that like the third the second fight was wonky at the end yeah he won Faren Square but uh and so Chris Wyman three let's book it but I do think they they need one of two things they need a crazy big stadium show that filled with all their

superstars they need and Cron Gracie needs to be on that card. uh gareme Cruz is like he needs to fight in Brazil like he wants that like imagine a Gracie like direct like Hickson's son fighting in Brazil again has to happen they need a big stadium card fill it up with all the Brazilian stars throw Crone Gracie on there or they need need to bring like a john jones or an israel a sanya or someone like that down to brazil to really uh drum up interest for that market because like like this this this uh like this commenter said the interest in sao paula apparently wasn't that big for non-mama media but it was a bad card anyway so wasn't probably wasn't that big for american audiences either no certainly not that

was not a good a good card even on paper it just wasn't really much much there so So no shock that only the MMA media cared, and the MMA media barely cared about it. Well, Garamai Cruz did fantastic work down there, so you can go check all of his stuff on our site and the YouTube channel. He got interviews with all the English speakers and then had a lot of great write-ups with his fellow Brazilians who didn't have translated there,

so highly recommends check out his work. But hopping over to Twitter. From Gabriel Arnottovich, I apologize if I mispronounced her name. hashtag hashtag the A side you can use that on Twitter with the welterweight title fight happening just a few weeks away have we heard any news on Tyrone Woodley seems like since he lost all he talks about all talks of him have gone ghost well first of all it's tyrant there's no E at the end of Tyron Woodley's first name but last I heard didn't wasn't leon edwards hinting that they offered him a fight against Tyne Woodley in the co-main event of that January card yeah that's

what I was hearing I've heard from someone who had a little little knowledge inside of Edwards camp that that was being discussed so um i i like that fight i like that fight a ton i know uh ptie carroll and i talk about that fight a lot as a fight we really we really want to see uh there's a big ufc london card coming up from from what i hear uh rob whittaker and darren till supposedly have agreed to terms via twitter they both want to fight on that card leon edwards needs he's like the man lost in all of this like he's on this super impressive win streak. I believe the last person's lost to is Kamara Usman. He just beat RDA in his first mate event. He's being Gunner Nelson, Cowboy Soroni. He's beating guys that are impressively.

And I think he calls himself like left elbow Larry, I'm named after Michael Bisman because he dominates him the clinch with that left elbow. He needs a card that can get him attention. So if they want to throw on that London card, give him a big name. I know a lot of people are going to watch Darren Tilling, Robert Whitaker fight. So maybe he gets some of the fallout. throwing Ty and Woodley against Leon Edwards in the co-main event on that Conner-Megger card. Perfect. I like that fight in general.

I like how it's a three-round fight. It's a great co-main event for that Conner-Fight because if there's a championship, I doubt they're going to put a championship fight on that card, especially because, like, how can you justify Connor coming off a loss headlining over a title, if that makes sense? So Leon Edwards versus Tyron and Woodley,

I think it's an awesome co-main event for that fight card. Yeah, and for a co-main event for that Connor card it makes a lot of sense because if you can't have a champion in the co-main and make it justifiable we'll put a guy who just lost his bill in there against a guy who should be fighting for a title right now so that that just makes all the sense in the world and then also too from the u.s. standpoint Leon Edwards and Tyron Woodley aren't exactly the guys that the promotion tends to favor so so this is kind of a way that they can kind of kind of kill off you know someone that there is that exactly always in their good graces so uh makes sense on on a lot of

different angles and then other than that like the welterweight like we we talked about the way welterweight division earlier but i think that bmf championship kind of i i love i love that fight didn't wasn't exactly what the u sc needed in terms of like rankings and stuff because mazvdial doesn't care he just wants to fight the guy with the most numbers like i thought before that nate ds fight happened i thought mazre d'at oregon was a great co-main event for uh Colby versus Camaro, and then the winner would fight, the winners of those two would then fight each other for the UFC Welterweight Championship of the world. But then when Nate Diaz called out

Horri Mazadol at UFC 241, I was like, all right, that's the fight. I don't care. Like, I love Leon Edwards, but that's the fight. Like, Horley-Mazel should not be fighting Leon Edwards or not. We should fight. Then we see that fight happen. And now we might get Nick Diaz fighting Horri Mazurl. I'm sorry, Leon Edwards. I'm one of your biggest advocates, but you miss the boat on Horri Mazudal. I doubt the, I bet the winner of the Uzman Covington will probably fight Mazudal

or Diaz next whoever so if Nick Diaz goes out there and beats Jorge Mazudal like how are you not going to give him a titles fight you know? You kind of have to at that point but that fight shouldn't happen anyway that fight should not really yeah I'm yeah I'm just not I don't want to see Nick Diaz fight right now I really don't

you know we've heard things about about him and his his physical condition over the years doesn't sound like a guy who needs to be jumping into a cage right now just doesn't and that that interview he did just

didn't do anything to assuage any of those concerns so I'm okay with Nick Diaz not fighting right now especially when Massadol Massadol should be fighting for the once-way title at this point. He should be aimed for that

if you're Massoudol in my opinion because you're going to get the big money regardless I agree but I he wants that big, big money, that Nick Diaz fight is there. Nick Diaz takes like a year to get in shave, get his life together and all that stuff. Mazurah, I don't know if you saw a member, he said he needed to get his hands checked out. Yeah, his hands were messed up. So both of them.

But I mean, a year? If Madagol's on the shelf for covering his hands and the timetable is there, make that fight. I want that fight so badly. Okay. I mean, yeah, if you're giving Nick the proper time to kind of get himself together, then all right, I'm not as opposed to it. And if it takes a year, right, all right. And then co-main event, Dustin Poreen, Nate Diaz. Big brothers on the card, teammates on the card.

I mean, we put that graphic out there on M.A. fighting, and I immediately wrote, like, shut up and take my money. That's a card that doesn't need a title involves. Like, yes, the BMF championship of the world is there, but might as well as already said, hashtag one of one. So he's not giving that belt up for no one. So the Diaz brother. They'll just make another one. Don't get it twisted, man. Another belt will be brought, will be trotted out there.

instead of the rock it'll be like Ben Affleck or something who's going to hand it out it's going to be something Mike well okay alright yeah Mike can do it Mike can do it Samuel Jackson Ooh well Mazudal said that he would get the meanest fighter belt like the MMF title

I like that one But we're running up on time So we got a few random questions PECs from Black Aces with a rising Use and Undeniable Performance Enhancing Obtained from Using Crystals So the new USADA organization be built in order to ensure

fighters' safety and keep them this sport and MMA clean. So yes, no, they should not because the power of crystals will live on forever. You know what? Actually, you know what? I heard a rumor, man. Tell me if this is true or not. Supposedly you were

supposed to fight on the undercard of the Smow versus Huali. But Usada said the crystals, no good. Yeah, that wouldn't be fair. I'm not going to lie. Me and my, I don't know if you've watched the show in recent years, but we kind of have Captain Crystal, aka Jared Cannoneer. We're just waiting for him to get on the show.

I don't know if you saw that interview after he beat Jacker Manson. He was wearing a crystal around his neck, and Tyree Woodley's like, what you got going on there? He's like, oh, this is my pyrite. It awards off negative energy, and it really helps me, like, train and this and that. And then you go on his Instagram. He's, like, sponsored by crystals. And since then, like, MacWandamara.

Connie was wearing a crystal at UFC 244 Fight Week. Jairzino, after the fight, after he, he beat Ander Alasky had a crystal around his neck. He goes, oh, maybe it's good luck. I don't know. So, no, they shouldn't be banned because the power of crystals will live on forever. Now people are sending us crystals. They're tweeting at me about crystals.

Longtime listener, Jessica, on Twitter, does a weekly breakdown before fights of like, these are the crystals that every single fight. So no, don't ban them because they will live on forever. One final question. I've been waiting for this. Go ahead. Do you have anything to add to our crystal talk? I was just going to say, like, I'm out here doing the wrong thing.

Instead of looking for the heart shape herb, I should be looking for crystals. No, you appreciate that one. You're not wrong. And if Pizzi Carroll is here, he'd be all about this conversation right now. But last question, I want to end on kind of a fun note from Hefe01. MMA fighting staff actually doing MMA fighting. With Jose Crystles Young's repeatedly threatening to fly over to Ireland and fight Pizzie Scissors Carroll, it got me thinking.

With current and former MAPFiting.com staff, including Luke Thomas A.L. etc. Who would be above 500 and who would be below 500 in a round robin open weight tournament with current and former staff? Well, I would be far below 500. If I had to put my money on who would probably come out on top, it'd be Casey, a cameraman, because that dude trains like five times a day doing all cardio, jujitsu, kickboxing moitzae. So he'd be way up there. If you ever see him like around during fight week and he's not doing anything, he's usually sitting there shadow boxing anyway. Sometimes he comes up and just need. ease me in the ribs. It's not a fun time. Luke Thomas, that dude is huge and he does, he's like,

he's super in a power lifting and jitzy and everything. So I probably put my money on those two. Sean Alshaddy does jihitsu. I've seen him do it a few times. He's, he'd be way up there. Mark, as A. K. Lee calls him, he calls him the Stone Pit Bull of the MMA media. I don't know if you know, uh, Ishi from New Japan Pro Wrestling. He's kind of like compact and built with like, like, like, like no neck and everything. So he could surprise some people maybe, but I would be be far below. Danny Seguro has been doing boxing for a while now. I'm sure he would do great, but I would be, I'd be there in spirit handing out, like, you know how moms hand out the orange peals after soccer games? I would just be handing out like orange peels and crystals to everyone,

being like, good, good job, Luke, good job, Casey. Way to kick that man's head off. I doubt Chuck Menon Hall would do anything. I don't know how Ariel would do. Doesn't seem like much of a fighter, but dress the shirt, I would do terribly. And our new, our new, our new, camera or videographer Alex Aalice would probably kick my ass anyway so there you go but anyway as always this has been the A-Sy live chat and as Anthony Walker knows

at the end of the show you get to plug a little promo, gets to plug anything you want, talk about fighting, talk about crystals. Last week it was my mom's birthday so that was my promo but Anthony the floor is yours whatever you want to talk about. All right cool well you can follow me on Twitter at Aunt Walker MMA the walkout network

my YouTube channel check that out you can find my work on sherdog.com got some good work on MMA on Point as well, that YouTube channel. But this weekend is my baby shower. My son will be born at the end of the year and having a baby shower. And yeah, wish me luck. Pray that I don't pass out because I'm scared as hell. Sounds like you need some crystals in your life, my friend.

I need some crystals, man. I'm still looking for that heart-shaped herb, though. Jessica, said Anthony some crystals to relieve stress in times of his baby being born. She listens every week and she's got your back. Thank you, Jessica. For my promo, why all the hate on Dragon Ball Z all of a sudden? Because I'll give you a second there, Anthony. You okay?

I'm good. I'm good, I'm good. I just didn't expect that. I'm good. Israel Adasadu was on Air Hawaii show and said, what, during his dance, he pulled his spear bomb out of the sky. And in my mind, I was like, I, and then he also did the death note where he wrote Robert Whitaker's name of the book. Of course, you're obviously a huge anime fan, so you know all of this. I don't have to explain to you, Anthony Walker.

But John Jones said comments on the post saying, this is a third-year-old dude pulling energy from his favorite TV show. I can't wait to fight this guy. I'm just like, man, haters. Just haters is hating on all the things I enjoy like crystals and anime. Ow, I sound like a weirdo of it right now. But, and then all of a sudden I see on Twitter, all of these fans are split. down the middle like yeah John Jones go beat that weeb's ass and then everyone's like why is everyone hating on Goku and even Bobby Green is commenting like super

sayans always win uh Roxanne Matafari who's always wears the the sayan wigs is jumping into it uh Alice Sarah's big Naruto fans so let's just all let everyone enjoy what they enjoy if you don't like anime you don't have to Israel Adesanya wants to pretend he's pulling a spirit bomb down a la Goku and Dragon Ball Z or Dragon Ball let him do it. Let's just all coexist and watch what we like. And that was my promo. But for Jose, that's been Anthony. I'm sure he's going to be. Actually, I know he's going to be on down the line. I'm sure I always like talking with him. I hope to see him at a future event. Who knows, maybe we'll do another extra live A-side as Esther calls it. But this will be up on Stitcher,

Spotify, Google Play, Apple Podcast. It's still on YouTube. It'll be on Megaphone. Thanks for stopping by, Anthony. I always enjoy talking to MMA with you. I thought you had great insight. liked your little plug on Al Jermaine Sterling quite a bit. But for this episode of the A side, we're out.