MMA Fighting - The A-Side Live Chat | UFC Stockholm, Yoel Romero, Urijah Faber's comeback, Bellator 222, 2019 Hall of Fame class

Episode Date: May 29, 2019

In his first episode as host of The A-Side Live Chat, José Youngs welcomes Alexander K. Lee on the show to answer your questions about UFC Stockholm, Yoel Romero winning his lawsuit, Urijah Faber’s comeback, 2019 Hall of Fame class, Endeavor going pulic and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix Colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking,

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in spin class, in stuffy work meeting, in anywhere but in store. So download the app today and get zero-dollar delivery fees on your first three orders. Instacart, groceries that over-deliver. Service fees exclusions in terms apply. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Hello, what's up, Universe. Jose Young's here with MMAFighting.com. No, Sean did not grow hair.

No, Mark Remondi did not get more handsome. It is I, Jose Youngs, your new host of M.A. Fightings, Aiside, live chat. Joining me, Alexander K. Lee. Been on the show before. Alex, how you don't? I'm very good. Sorry, I was just retweeting this historic show, the historic pairing of Jose Youngs and Alexander K. Lee,

the new faces, the new generation, I feel, of MMA media. we've gotten a lot of questions about that, so I'm sure it'll hit them going down. But before we start, I know we normally start at 10 a.m. Pacific time, like 1 p.m. Eastern time. But there was some Vox Media prior scheduling conflicts. So we had to bump this to an hour later. But next week and moving forward, we will be start at the normal time. But this is just a one-time thing. It just so happened to be.

It was my very first time hosting this. So, but without further ado, because this is not our show, this is your all show. So we're going to jump into the comment. Second, first, obviously, we're going to answer the green questions. You know the drill. Go on Twitter, use the hashtag the A side, and we'll hit your questions. But, Alex, first question, your eye favorites comeback. What is the point from our friend Trumbo?

Hey, guys, good morning and good luck on the newest version of the live chat. Sure you'll kill it. Thanks, guy, or gal. a hard time seeing the purpose of to your eyes comeback he's 40 which is really old for the lower weight classes his style and skill set seems antiquated for at least the last five years and i doubt he has any chance against the elite of the division he seems to have plenty of money what is the point alex last week we there was hinting obviously he was on the m a hour that uriah favor hinting at a comeback. It was later announced that he'll be fighting Ricky Simone at USC Sacramento, his hometown.

So to answer the question, what is the point? Does he have enough money? Should he be fighting? He is a new dad, Alex. Your thoughts? Okay, we'll get to the matchup, the specific matchup with Simone later. That is a strange one. I'm not sure I can explain that one. But first, why come back at all? Well, I tweeted something the other day. Also, the first time I was on the show a few weeks ago, I wanted people to know that my mission statement is, is MMA is supposed to be fun. That's the most important thing. I know it's a business. I know we cover it.

You know, we know all about the ins and outs of the business the way it has to be. It's not always pretty. But it is a sport. It is entertainment. It's supposed to be fun. And I think having guys like Uriah Faber fighting in their home, close to home in Sacramento, that to me is fun. Now, I know, again, you know, fighters staying past their best before date, that's not so fun. And, you know, again, there's examples, BJ Penn, Chuck Lydell, that come back.

I wouldn't call that fun. But in general, I'd like to think that soon we can find some sort of balance where maybe guys like Uriah fight once a year if they're able, if they want to, you know, if everything, all the medicals check out. At any time, like the UFC comes to Sacramento or somewhere near, you know, California region that favor is very popular in. Imagine if George St. Pierre fought once a year in Montreal, something like that, you know. It's someone when I mentioned this the other day, someone replied to me, well, you know it's just going to result in some really ugly matchups. and, you know, promoters not necessarily looking out for the fighters' best interests. But again, I'm an idealist. I'm an optimist.

I like to think this idea could work, you know, even kind of relates to the Legends League that people are always talking about, either in like Bell Tour or UFC. But generally, just speaking about Yeraya, I think, you know, he's not quite ready to let go yet. He's still in fairly good shape. He trains all the time. Obviously, he's the head of Team Alpha Male. So this seems harmless other than the fact that he's fighting a legit future contender who could maybe really hurt him.

But other than that, you know, he loves it, and I think it's good for the fans, Sacramento. And a comment underneath is said he had an interview with Dan Hardy where he basically announced this. And I haven't watched that full interview yet. He said he's looking to raise capital for new business ventures. And this was the quickest way to do it is putting his name out in the limelain. Is that a smart decision fighting to grow your businesses or just fighting because you like to fight?

man i don't know how much money you know yuraya's made fighting i imagine a pretty good amount just based on how often he's fought how high profile his fights were but you know for most fighters we know even a lot of the guys who are main main card mainstays they don't always make the most money so i hope that that's not primarily the reason i'm sure it won't hurt i'm sure whatever sponsorship and you know uh set whatever salary he happens to get because uh i don't think that's smart if he's just coming back and things and, you know, his plan to just use that money to whatever business ventures he plans to get into. But again, I don't know the state of his finances.

Maybe he knows he needs X amount of cash and he's working at that deal with the UFC and that'll fund, you know, whatever he plans to do next. So but just doing it for the money seems ill-advised. And my take is like your eye has always been one of those fighters that he has a lot of businesses, whether they succeeded or failed. Like remember they had like MMA, like university like a few years ago. whatever and then he had like the form uh which was like a clothing company i think john jones is actually one of he sponsored like john jones during his career uh it doesn't surprise me i it is a little

it's weird to me because his fight against brad picket his last his actual retirement fight in sacramento was such a good send-off like he beat a fellow veteran in his hometown he got the the like people where i remember watching that and it went to a decision obviously and with 10 seconds left the fans in the arena were like counting like 10 nine like these are the last 10 seconds we'll ever see your eye of favor in the octagon ever again and he did say on the m m hour that he has a little bit of foam fomo fear missing out uh so maybe he just really wants to be a part of the ESPN era maybe this is just a one-off he wants to see if his body is landed but he is a new dad too uh you always hear like especially cowboy before his fight in uh denver that all fight week he's like nothing's new this child

hasn't changed anything and then he actually fought And he completely won 80. He's like, as soon as the fight was over, I only wanted to see my new chop, my new kid. So you have to wonder where his head's at, but I'm not one to tell fighters when they should hang it up. Well, before me, I just want to say, there's a quote from the Tom Cruise movie Cocktail where one of the characters says, everything ends badly, otherwise it wouldn't end. So I hope that's not the case here. Again, it has been the case for some fighters in the past, but let's hope that Uriah has more success in his comeback.

And moving on, next question from Grebs 77. Yowell Romero's court win against supplement company, your reactions. Do you think more lawsuits will follow? And then right below it, $27 million is a lot of bread. Will Yowell fight again? Well, and to set the scene, Yowell Romero, he won his lawsuit against. I can't remember the company off the top of my head. But basically, he filed a lawsuit for like a tainted supplement.

And he won, and he's receiving $27 million. So obviously he's not just receiving just a giant all that money right away. Like it's obviously like they have to figure out how he's going to get paid. But he won the lawsuit. Your thoughts will more lawsuits follow? It's just a turning point in this whole tainted supplement debacle that we've seen in the last few years. So the company is called a Gold Star Performance Products, which with a name like that, I'm so disappointed that they would be involved in any sort of chicanery that would get

fighters in trouble and result in them taking this massive lawsuit hit. You know, I think, again, I'm no legal expert, but I think as a lot of comments I've seen, which I agree with is that the likelihood of getting all of that 27 some million, doubtful, doubtful. I don't know, I don't know, again, the finances company, but if they can't afford to take that hit, you know, they're going to declare for bankruptcy. And it's very likely that UL receives a fraction of that $27 million. Now, what a fraction of that is, how much of a fraction, whether that would be enough to get him to contemplate retirement? I doubt it.

I think whatever money he gets, it'll be, you know, huge for sure. And I do think other fighters would be wise to consider their options based on this verdict. How much successful they have, again, it's going to depend from case to case. But, you know, for YOL, I think he will fight again. I don't think this is the sort of thing. He loves fighting. He loves fighting and competing. I think he still wants that UFC title.

So, yeah, good for him for whatever money he can make from this, but we'll definitely see him several more times inside the octagon and what do you think about him actually winning the lawsuit i mean like you said this is basically just like a fancy i owe you 27 million dollars like he's going to get a very small fraction of it but at the end of the day he did win this lawsuit is how like now going forward say fill in the blank like has a tainted supplement lawsuit right away like there's now precedent that they can win these lawsuits yeah and again for a lot of fighters I mean, I do feel some, I always feel bad for some of them that, again, the people before this, who either hadn't considered this option or maybe they had poor representation, or their cases

were just, you know, so different that they, you know, couldn't reach the same conclusion that Romero got to. So I don't know, I'm talking about, if we're talking about the court of public opinion, I don't know how much, how much this is going to help fighters who get into this kind of trouble. For example, look at Yowell. I mean, Yowell, even before he got into trouble, just because of his insane physique, you had a lot of people questioning stuff. Obviously, Michael Bissing made a lot of cracks about it.

He's a rival. So I think Yowel said that, you know, he's very happy. It's not about the money. He feels vindicated and he's innocent. But sadly, the stuff was still in his system. And there are fighters who are going to have things in their system who, you know, that excuse may not be as truthful. So how much does it mean to win in the eyes of the fans?

I don't know if it changes things. I think the people who thought he was dirty might still feel that way. And I think the people who thought he was mostly innocent will still think he's mostly innocent. And I actually think it's not going to sway everyone, but I actually do think in the eyes of the public, this might actually benefit him. I mean, he took this company to court and won. Obviously, he's not going to get all the money. We've said that before. But in the eye, the optics are they were proven wrong.

He was proven right. Like if you just don't know anything about law and you just see he won a court case against a major company, I think that that does a lot for his public, how the public views him. And he is fighting Paulo Costa later on this year. He is returning. I'm sure we're going to get to ask him a lot of questions about that, whether he received any of the money, whether he wants to keep fighting. So I obviously can't speak of whether he'll fight again, but I bet in August he's going to get asked that a lot. But moving on, Alex, another interesting big.

business question. Endeavour going public from our friend Ted Bear. When might this happen? What do you expect to learn about the UFC? Well, Dana continued to Dana, would you invest? So Alex, WME, ING, Endeavor, whatever you want to call them. They did go public. I did read through that giant like that giant like booklet they put out like laying out their business plans. Not just for the UFC. This is everything because they are this massive media conglomerate. They are the parent company of the UFC. They bought them from the Fritita brothers for like the $4.6 billion, whatever, a few years ago. And they did lay out some potential risks as most, as any smart businessman will do. And they brought up like possible, possibly being sued for like long-term effects of concussion, like possibly like collective bargaining. Like being sued. Like there was a lot of risks that they laid out in this, like this booklet is public, not like you can go and read it for free. But your initial reaction for the endeavor and basically the UFC going public because Dana said maybe for those of you who don't know that, someone asked him, would the UFC ever go public? He basically said not as long as I'm president.

Doesn't seem to be the case. Well, you know, Dana says a lot of things. And maybe he believed that in the time he said it. I don't think he's going to voluntarily step aside or that his role will even change that significantly. he's he's a good he's a good figurehead uh i know people don't think so uh i know certainly we in uh you know in the journalist side of things have our frustrations with dana white but you if you want to talk about someone who is uh front and center of the company and takes a lot of the heat and takes a lot of the flack he's very good at that uh you know whether again whether uh whether you

believe he is responsible for a lot of the woes of the company it's maybe a matter of opinion it might be a matter of perspective, but he is good in that job. And I think regardless of whether they're changed to going public, I think he still can perform that role fairly strongly. So, and he'll adapt. He'll adapt. He's adapted before. You know, he's adapted as the company has grown. This might be a big adjustment for him.

But no, I don't think we see Dana White going anywhere, not based on this anyway, not just based on them going public. And what do you think because a lot of the, for years, people have wanted to open the books of the UFC? Now that they're public, they're going to pull the curtain back on the UFC a lot. So basically, what are you hoping to learn about the UFC now that we can, we can open these books? I don't know. It's so much, I mean, obviously, if we could learn more about those individual contracts, goodness, that would be helpful.

I mean, you know, there's rumblings, there's rumors. There's people who have accidentally put out the contracts and fight agreements on social media, which they weren't supposed to. So people have kind of glimpsed them. but it's never been, you know, like I said, never been made public. So now that everyone can see them, I hope, if not just for the fans, but I hope the fighters, I know they see the contract, but I hope they can, I don't know, I just want to, I guess more for the fans, that everyone can see, you know, the circumstances that these fighters and their management

are dealing with. And again, maybe they already knew, maybe they didn't. But I hope it opens their eyes and sees that some of the practices that the company is going, you know, undergoes are not ideal for the, fighters or the product. That said, the UFC, you know, they've kind of been involved in a lawsuit, a pretty big long lawsuit. I think the antitrust lawsuit over the last few years. And I feel like that's actually, and now that they're going public is a good thing, is giving them a chance to sort of examine themselves and kind of figure out, okay, what do we need to change?

What do we need to possibly hide? You know, I don't know, that's not very ethical, but what do we need to, uh, fudge, you know, what can we fudge? What do we need to fudge? So when this goes public, people see it and aren't quite, you know, aren't alarmed, or what's, you know, that's going on. So in a sense, yeah, that kind of worked out for them. They're probably a little more prepared to go public than people will expect and to have their numbers and things revealed. And I'm very fascinated by this story, but it just happened. Like, they're still in the early stages. I'm sure Dan is going to ask this by everyone. I'm sure going down the road, we're going to talk about us a lot more. But it is the early stages. Ask us again in a month, and I bet we'll have

even more questions. Well, maybe we've learned more. But me personally, I am very excited to follow this story. But moving on. Can I stop pretending I'm smart now that I have knowledge of real world things? Don't sell yourself short, Alex. You're a smart guy up there in Canada. Wow. Smart enough. All right, moving on.

If you want to talk UFC Hall of Fame, please discuss the ridiculousness of having two current fighters in it from our good friend, my first question from Matt the Dunk. BJ Pan and your eye in favor are both active fighters now. That means that 50% of the modern era wing is still competing. I like to think that this is one of the reasons most North American sports with a quote, real Hall of Fame have a five-year waiting period. It also makes sense to have cooling off period to make sure that five years after retirement, a resume truly stands up and we're not inducting someone based on the emotional high of a great retirement fight.

Thoughts on the above. And do you think, do you ever think, and they will have a real Hall of Fame. Now, before we get in, I am a huge baseball fan. Like, that is my favorite sport. And baseball has obviously made exceptions for the immediate induction. Roberto Clementi is the one that comes to mind. He tragically passed during a car, a plane crash,

and he was, like, immediately inducted in the Hall of Fame. That seems to be the exception. But there is that five-year waiting period. And during those five years, a lock-in change. Like, you saw, like, the steroid era. Like in those, like you see public, like when Barry Bond's retired, he was not well-liked by the media, by fans, whatever. Five years later, his numbers are starting to go up. But, Alex, do you think there should be a five-year waiting period?

And what do you think about your eye of favor and BJ Penn, two Hall of Famers still competing? Man, an MMA, real, the word real, that's one of those words with like, deserved. When people say deserved, that's another word in MMA that I feel like is very malleable, unfortunately, and in some ways, not applicable to anything. So what is a real Hall of Fame? I don't know. So I'll go from last to answering the last part to the first part. I can't imagine, will there ever be a real Hall of Fame? The question is, who will pay for it?

Yeah. That's the question you want to ask. Who will pay for a real Hall of Fame? Who will oversee it? Because in North America, I mean, unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it. get it. Dana White and the UFC are the kind of the purveyors of of uh, mMA history in North America. I probably that's not the way it should be, but that is the way it is now, at least in the eyes of, uh,

the general public. So, you know, their Hall of Fame to a lot of people is the quote unquote real MMA Hall of Fame. Um, having active fighters is a bit strange. I don't know what you do with a guy like BJ Penn who I think technically retired his first retirement was definitely more than five years ago. Uh, he just didn't stick to it. So I don't know if that's the UFC's fault. Faber is sort of an odd one. Yeah, they could have let that simmer for a while. But again, really, it's, you know, as far as how silly is it to have active fighters, really the timing is just based on who can they get, who is, as people always say, who is Dana White's friend? And on the timing thing, I want to say, like, I saw

someone asking, why didn't, why didn't they induct George St. Pierre this year? And it's like, they already have names this year that they're inducting. They'll save that for next year. So it's really just a scheduling thing, as silly as that sounds. They really just want. It very much reminds me of the WWD Hall of Fame. Yeah. Like we need one big name and then a couple. And then there's like tears where and in the eyes of like you said,

the fans like that's probably like their go to Hall of Fame. But there's no like physical building. And it's all like WWUFC. No one votes on it. They're just like induct into all of fame. It's not like the baseball and football and basketball hall of fame where the media members vote. And then if you if you don't get in that year, your peer on the ballot next year.

And then I think it's like 10 or 15 years of being on the ballot. If you don't make it, then you fall off. Or if you get below a certain threshold, like say you get below 5%, you just automatically fall off. Like, and then you see Jim Rice where it took him the entire time, like 15 years to make the Hall of Fame when a lot of people thought he should have been a first ballot Hall of Fame. That's another story. But I do wish there was just an MMA Hall of Fame. Like then you could bring in pride. You could bring in like the WEC, you could bring in Strike Force.

You can bring in all of these guys. But like you said, who's going to do it? Because in professional wrestling, there are a lot of Hall of Fame. There's the National Hall of Fame. There's like the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame. There's like the Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame that was created in like 2002. So there's a lot. I wish they would all be under one group.

But the UFC Hall of Fame is pretty much as close as we're going to get to right now. Because like, MMA is as an organized. sport like the UFC is not that old. Like baseball is hundreds of years old so they can go back through the annals of time and have all this rich history. The UFC does not, obviously, strike force is no more. WC is no more. Pride is no more.

But I would love a physical MMA Hall of Fame building. I don't know. I don't think we're ever going to get it, especially because like the Hall of, have you been in the baseball of fame or anything like that? Never been. So if you go, they obviously have wings of all this like old, like you can see. Babe Ruth's real bat. You can see Michael Jordan's real shoes. Like you go to the boxing Hall of Fame. You can see Muhammad all these gloves. Like if they do an MMA Hall of Fame and

they put everything under one banner, like you're going to have to get these things. I don't think the UFC is going to give an MMA Hall of Fame. Like these are the gloves that ends the Silver War when he front kicks for his Griffin. Like no, they're going to keep that for themselves. So I don't think we'll ever see it, but I would very much love it. Because I love going to all of those music. They are museums. I love going to them. Yeah, I mean, that's certainly the hope. And I just wanted to add that, again, you know, the names going in this year. I think just to name three, Bisping, Rich Franklin, and Rashad Evans.

So, yeah, so they're pretty much loaded as far as inducting people this year. And then they run into the same problem that the WWE has. And I'm sorry to keep bringing that up. But when someone has an issue with, say, Vince McMahon, they should be in the Hall of Fame, but they're not. Like Owen Hart should be in the WWE Hall of Fame. Frank Shamrock should be in the UFC Hall of Fame. But because they have this negative relationship with Dana White, they are not. So I do wish there was, say it's just the UFC, whatever.

I wish it came down to more than just one person saying, yay or nay. Like put it to a vote. Yep. Anyway, I'm going to get all heated. I can talk about Hall of Fame Trevor. But moving on from LFMWA, XUFC, XUFC fighters turn champs versus current champs interesting list of hypothetical matchups based on ufc fighters who left the organization that captured gold in other promotions versus current uc champs of their division heavyweight bader

versus dc phil davis former champ versus john jones they were teased before davis got beat by robes i was like that fight musasi versus a d'assi versus attesania or i guess the wittaker in there too obviously mcdonald versus kamaru horaguchi versus sehudo so they didn't really ask a question whether we thought win or lose, but of those, so I'll ask the question, of those fights I named, which one would you be most interested in seeing play out? Oh, I mean, okay, just looking at it, I think Musassi Adasana. I don't know, that's probably the obvious answer. Right.

Yeah, I think Musassi, Adasana. And then secondly, I guess, Horaguchi-Sahudo. How about you? I like to see Gagar Musaysi versus Robert Whitaker. I mean, he is technically the champion. doesn't have interim tied to him. Horiguchi versus Sohudo would be awesome. That could be two different weight classes, too.

That could be a flyweight. That could be a champ champ versus champ champ in a couple weeks because Horaguchi is obviously fighting Bellator for Darren Caldwell's title. He's the rise in the risen champion. And then Sehudo's fighting Malam race for the Bantamese. So that could be champ champ. That could be awesome. And obviously, DC versus Bader at heavyweight, I would favor DC.

Obviously, I think DC could be one of the greatest heavyweights ever. If he had stayed his whole career, he'd probably be. be the greatest heavyweight, but he didn't want to fight his teammate. I'd say Bader D.C. is probably second for me just because we were supposed to have that happen. And that is Champchamp versus Champ Champ Champ. Bader did win that Grand Prix. So I'd probably say Musassi versus Izzy slash Whitaker and then Bader DC for sure.

Plus, Bader's an ASU guy. Always watching fight. Phil Davis is a little bit of an odd choice. I get the theme is that they have to be ex-UFC fighters who became champions and other promotions. I would have that fight, UFC 172 in Baltimore, when Phil Davis, the whole media day was talking about, he was fighting Rumble Johnson, who was coming back from his World Series of fighting run after he got cut for, after losing to Vitor Belfort and his whole weight debacle, Anthony Rumble Johnson was coming back to the UFC and got paired up with Phil Davis. And all week, Phil Davis only talks about John Jones, who was fighting Glover to share in the main event. And then when they were doing the stare-downs, when John Jones came out to face off Glover, Phil Davis walked out and tried to stare down John Jones at Media Day.

And then he ends up losing to Rumble John. So I remember that very vividly. But we've obviously already seen Bader versus John Jones. So Phil Davis was John Jones. I guess the next one that makes sense. So, yeah. But again, that's the one I would least like to see. Yeah, the Rory versus Usman one would be interesting as well.

I don't know how much luster Rory has lost with, you know, again, going out to fight Musassi, which was just probably a mistake. And then kind of a, pardon me, kind of a, I don't want to say, you know, disappointing, but, you know, not his best performance, you know, to put it nicely against John Fitch, a guy who I think a lot of, a lot of people would have predicted he would just run through. But no disrespect to Fitch, just given where they are in their careers. And how good, I think people still think McDonald is. But after that, I think you'd see a lot of action coming in on Usman. I think a lot of people would pick Usman. Now, would I, you know, maybe it's the Canadian bias, Jose. I'm still a believer in McDonald.

I still think he'd be able to pull that one out. But that, you know, that Uzman, he's on a hell of a run. I agree 100% with you that Roy definitely lost some luster fighting to a draw and his post-fight comments. And that obviously, so you're only as good as your last performances. And he lost, he got. he got like destroyed by Gayguard. Obviously that was middleweight, but that's still fresh people's mind.

And then his next fight, when he could erase that memory, he fights John Fitch to a draw, and then basically moves on in the tournament due to a technicality. So I agree with 100% that Roy is definitely lost luster. But I think if Rory is 100% sharp and 100% of focus,

I think he could be any well to wait on the world. I think he's one of the best, he's one of the most talented fighters. But at this point, you have to be alarmed about his comments. But yeah, I 100% agree. with you. The Neiman Gracie fight will be very telling as to... I agree. And a lot of... I was at Belator in in Chicago recently and a lot of people I asked that, Neiman Gracie is the dark horse to win this whole

thing. And Josh Thompson even said that he's not even the dark horse. I would favor him to win this whole thing. Because I asked him, I go, should MVP versus Lima, basically the winner of that, should they be the favorites? Now that Rory is like fought to a draw. He says, Neiman Gracie is my favorite. So, uh, if he can get past Neiman Gracie in, Not even in emphatic fashion, but just actually win against the guy, his fellow fighters are picking to win the tournament. I think that's going to do wonders for his career. But moving on.

From our friend, the big squish. Is this as big as the UFC gets one bona fide global superstar across the entire roster at the top of their game earned around 1 million pay-per-view buys? Or can it get bigger still? Now, this is an interesting question because I asked Sean this. That one million pay-per-view buys was the, like, the gold star. This is what, like, when you, if you hit it up, if you go over a million, that is a milestone. Like, that's obviously like the Brock Lesnar's.

I think Rashad, did Rashad rampage do a million buys when they were, they were beefing back in the day? It was close. Yeah. George St. Fierrez, Conners, Ron is like, these people get a million buys. But that is the old pay-per-view model. Now that you have to do, you have to go on ESPN Plus to buy. I asked Sean this. What do you think?

in your mind is the new gold star. Like to me, we both kind of agree that in the early stages, like 350,000 buys on ESPN Plus is going to be a huge win. And before that, that obviously wouldn't be a big deal. But can it get bigger? And what do you think should be the new gold star? This is my question. What do you think should be the new standard for milestones and pay-per-views?

You know, I feel like Sean and I discuss this as well when I made my A-side debut. It is, and I feel like it gets asked every week as it should, because I think we're still very early in the ESPN Plus phase, and the metric, as the results come in, again, they didn't sound very promising for the first couple of shows that have been on ESPN Plus. It does seem to keep moving the goalpost, so definitely one million, one million buys on ESPN Plus

appears to be unreasonable. Very unreasonable in the early. No, it's 250,000 too low. Well, I mean, I hope they're using some other method of tracking, like viewership numbers as well for their free cards because I mean look one championship they said they had what I think 500 million people or something

watch you know the one of their show recently so you know I would I would hope being somewhat facetious but you guys said around 200,000 I still think gosh that one million number it sounds so nice but it's just nearly

untouchable now I'm willing to say half a million you know I don't know, keep things around and do I think it's possible if they find the right star? Because we haven't seen, you know, we haven't seen Connor McGregor in the ESPN Plus pay-per-view era. So there's your measure right there. How many can Connor bring in? And I think for him, maybe over half a million even.

And then after that, we'll see, you know, how many of the second tier. You know ESPN wants Connor to fight on that paper. I think that I agree with you that when Connor fights, whether it's a main event or coma intervention or whatever, like that will be the true test on how success with the ESPN plus era can be. Because now that Brock Lesnar Quincourt has retired, like whether that's true or not, like there's obviously the Romlings. Like he wanted a bulk like some, like a flat sum because he wasn't going to get the

pay-per-view points. I think you're right on the money with that. Like when Connor, whenever Connor fights again, that will be very talent. And I bet you know ESPN Plus will probably like, imagine. having Connor on just regular ESPN, not even a pay-per-view. Like, that would crush rating. So, but I know Connor wants to get paid. But answer this question, can it get bigger?

That was like his main thing. Like, where do you think the UFC? How big do you think the UFC will be in a few years? It can always get bigger. So many of the moves they've made, I always feel like as far as building a fan base have been counterproductive. I mean, going as far back as to, pardon me, going as far back as, to when they made the Reebok deal.

You know, it was a time when I think some of their stars were starting to fight less frequently or were aging out. And what they needed at the time was to build new guys and have people come out with their personality. And then they suddenly said, nope, you're all wearing black shorts or white shorts or gray shorts, whatever it was at the time.

And essentially killed that. Now I know people will say, well, how come their profits keep going up every year and they keep making so much money? They're a great business. They're really good at finding new resumes, new uh i just completely lost new uh what's the word i'm looking for uh streams revenue i'm sorry current new revenue streams and and capitalizing on what they have and so even when it seems like

i hear people telling me all the time oh i don't watch ufc anymore i don't know people who watch ufc they know how to get as much money as they can out of the audience they have and levers that into tv deals and streaming deals and um so how much can get bigger is a business i mean the sky's the limit. Fan base-wise, I hate to say that it's that it peaked like 10 years ago, because I don't think it has. But I understand why it's hard for some people to see it ever reaching sort of that exciting, you know, in this period. I don't agree with Dana White often, but one thing that stuck out on me years ago is like when Anderson Silva lost and Chuck Liddell had retired a few years before that and you were losing a lot of your, and Tito Ortiz left and Raina Kittor and him had that

big falling out. Like, what are we going to do without your big stars? And he's like, we can always make new stars and then all of a sudden ronda rousy and connor regger popped up so uh the ufc always seems to find their way out but uh yeah i'm not i'm not too concerned about the uc going anywhere how big can it get being on espn is a huge deal for them like having able to show fights and talk about fights on the the mothership of sports networks uh it's not it's not a bad thing but moving on all right mma fighting's direction going forward morning gents looking forward to the new version of the A side. Jose addressed this a bit last week, but how is everyone in the company handling the

departures of Ariel, Mark, Shaheen, Chuck, Dave, etc.? And then he asks, he goes on farther, but like, I'm sure there are some things you can't discuss, but any light you can shed on the situation. And be greatly appreciated still a loyal listener and reader here. I'm just curious. And I will say, wherever Sean and, like, wherever Sean and Chuck are going, they're not going to, they're still going to be covering MMA. So they're not leaving this landscape.

If anything, they might create more, their departures have created more opportunities. Like, for a perfect example, I would never be hosting this if Sean was still here. And I wish he was because he's one of my close friends. But we're not going anywhere. M.A. fighting isn't going anywhere. We're still going to be, we're still going to work hard. I think we have the best staff in the MMA media. And I'll let you answer.

Give your take in a second, Alex. But I said this last week, I'll say it again this week. We're not going anywhere. We're still the best site. I think we have the best staff. Esther Lynn is the best photographer in just sports, not just MMA. Casey is by far the best videographer. Danny, Jed, Mike Chiapetta is still here.

You, of course, we're not going anywhere. Well, first of all, I disagree. We are going somewhere. We're going up, Jose. We're only going up. Now that we've shed the dead weight, like a former host of the show who I won't name, But we've now shed the dead weight. This rocket ship is finally more aerodynamic than ever.

It can finally rocket into the stratosphere. Of course, I'm kidding. I have nothing but love for all the guys. Like you said, we can't say where some of them are going, but, you know, where they're going. Trust me, they're going to keep producing incredible work, just as we will here at MMA fighting. So follow us, follow them.

Like I keep saying, MMA is fun. This is a good thing. You know, for the fans to have more options, more stuff to read, We're going to have new talent coming in. More people, you know, fresh voices, getting a spotlight. It's super, super exciting. That said, that said, I should admit that I am planning to leave for all elite wrestling. I am.

Yeah, I did sign an exclusive deal with AEW. I will be joining AEW in July. So it's a, you know, I haven't wrestled before, but it looks pretty easy. We were in Vegas. We were all in Vegas this past weekend. Look, yeah, I think it'll be fun. They said, they said, whatever, they'll throw me around, drop me in my head, a few times.

I'd rather you'd be in Suburban Street Fight. I know this is M.M.A. I know some of our viewers hate when we talk about wrestling. Can you just very briefly explain to them what Suburban Street Fight was? So Suburban Street Fight is a wrestling promotion where basically it's wrestling with no ring. You're just out in the elements wherever you are. And there was a show in Las Vegas, A.W. Fight Week, and I went with a couple of M.A. Fighting.

Emmy Fighting Staff. And it was basically we were in a bar. of a concert venue or a roller rink or whatever it was a small bar i think the capacity was like 500 600 people that was maximum man it was on the top floor and we walked in and the wrestlers just wrestled amongst the fans it'd be like being at a concert and they're just being a two wrestlers fighting each other in a concert like security was like move move move move and then like the wrestlers would drag each other through the crowd throw them onto like uh the cat like there was like a area like if when it is a bar that's like for bottle service and they're like wrestling on the bar and wrestling

on the stage and jumping off ladders like i got real nervous because the it was the ceiling was so low and there were a lot of ceiling fans there so i was terrified for them but uh that to me was one of the most unique experiences i've ever experienced so if you're going to do wrestling i would want to spend one 100 percent support your move you're you moving to suburban street fight uh guys if anyone wants to see pictures of what jose is talking about you can go to esther's account at all elbows on Twitter. She's got a Facebook album with a bunch of pictures as well and then some highlights on Twitter. Let's relate that to our last question. Could the UFC get bigger? Yeah, what if they got rid of the octagon, Jose? How about that? What do you think? All right, Joe. That seems to be like

what we want to fight on a football field. That seems to be like go-to, his go-to suggestion. I don't think I've heard that one and I'm not sure why that would be appealing. But I'm just saying, I agree. What if they had a fight in a pool? Look, it's a movie. It's a fight in a pool hall. Guys are pushing guys, you know, you can't escape. It's like you're trying, there's no, you know, all those guys, those shifty fighters, defensive fighters. No, no, no. You got to just get pushed back into the center of the circle and just brawl. So basically, hardcore, the hardcore championship from the WWW of yesterday.

One million buys. One million buys. Honestly, if Connor McGregor fought Jose Aldo in a street fight, for sure, a million buys. Two million. honestly honestly probably anyway moving on one championship is super sketchy right and i wanted to strategy added a lot of use from hardy har har har head honcho chaturie city dog out here making putin moves oh okay overturned the past weekend results he doesn't like keeping the way in process clear his mud creating onerous agent certification systems blocking Mr. Jack Slap for pointing these bits and pieces out.

Say what you will about Uncle Dana, but he always allowed even the biggest stars to lose. Am I just a biased consumer of an American media or is there something very off about one championship? This is an interesting question. Some of the stuff I wouldn't compare him to Putin or anything like that. But the weighing process is definitely murky, them weighing in like behind closed doors and not seeing the results. That, to me, I wish we would see that. I mean, Sean and I touched upon this a little bit. But, like, am I biased American consumer?

Like, even their biggest stars lose. Like, Eddie Alvers and Sage Northca, they lost. Like, Sage Northca broke his face. He might not ever be the same again. But I'm curious to hear your take on this. I missed the last one championship fight, but I don't think it is, the way in process is definitely the one that stands out to me, for sure. So just to very quickly explain the one of the comments, in the question about overturning one of the past weekend's results.

So they're having a kickboxing tournament. And in the semifinals, Georgia Petrosian and Petrochumarokat, Pachindi, I'm sure I butcher that, but had a fight. And it looked like Petch Maracott won. And it was later overturned. Something about his clinching. His clinching was illegal, his clinching technique. And it seemed to be fishy because Petrojan was one of the favorites going to the tournament.

And it looked like they wanted to have him as one of the finalists. So again, I admit, I did not watch that fight closely. There was another great fight. There's a couple of great kickboxing fights on that card, but I did not watch someone closely. And also, I feel like my knowledge of kickboxing clinched legality is not top-notch. So I can't say for sure how fishy that was. I guess they're saying combined with everything else.

The way in process, like you said, is an odd one. And I could just be like, you know, Luke Thomas for a second. I'll just say, you know, all you donks out there that are saying that, oh, one fixed weight cutting, where's your proof? You know, they're always coming at me with a fixed-weight cutting. Where's the proof? I couldn't think of any other Luke Thomas. Oh, how much do you lift?

How much do you lift? He doesn't say that, but it's like, I'm very strong. I can't grow a beard, so I apologize for the poor Luke Thomas impression. But, yeah, I don't like, sketchy, I think is a little unfair. And like you said, sort of the Putin comparison is a little unfair. The agent thing is wild. I can't wait to see how that plays out. I'll get me my next question.

Like, Malki Kawa, I think he said on Twitter, like, what are they, like, how are they going to not allow me to do my job there? Like, he has some, like, he's Demetri's Johnson's manager, correct? Yes. So, like, how are they not going to allow? Like, are they saying, like, oh, sorry, Demetri's Johnson. Like, your manager doesn't meet our standards. Like, they're not going to say that.

Like, I feel like there's obviously going to be exceptions to the rules. And I do remember that now that you mentioned, the Petrojan's overturning, I wasn't aware that was one championship, but that was very weird. But like you said, I am not up to, I'm not up to standard on clinching and everything. But I wouldn't call them super sketchy for use. But there's definitely some red flags that I wish they would clear up if that's the proper term. Yeah, and I know I remember Bloody Elbow did a good kind of deep dive on sort of how they were financing because everyone was wondering, how are they paying for all this insanely rapid expansion, without any sort of clear like, you know, pay-per-view model or like who are their sponsors. And someone did a deep dive.

And there's a lot of investors. So, you know, we were talking about the UFC business before. One has a crazy amount of private investors right now. And again, so we don't know. how much they're fudging the numbers. Again, we kind of joked about the 500 million views or whatever they said they had from one of their recent shows. I'm sure they have a very strong viewership. The 500 million was a bit much. We can't disprove it. But again, I say, you know, use your own discretion, I think, when looking at that kind of data. So we're going to jump over

to Twitter now because I know Sean and Mark would go almost two hours, but we're going to try and condense it a little bit moving forward, especially for the first episode so we can grow. But I'm jumping to Twitter. Our good friend, Dan Shapiro, has two questions. Could a big finish on Saturday be Macwan Americani's ticket to finally getting a fight in the U.S.? Seems like the UFC likes to groom a lot of foreign fighters in their native markets for bringing them to places like Vegas for big fights? Macwon feels due for the next step.

Your thoughts. So Machuan Americani, obviously, I think his name is like Mr. Finland. That is his nickname. He fights maybe once a year, if that. His first fight, I believe, was what, like an eight-second knockout over Andy Ogle. And then he's obviously, he is a high-level wrestler. And he's actually been taking some amateur boxing fights. But it is weird, his lack of activity for being, he is a supermodel in Finland.

Have you ever been to Machuan Americani's topology page? Go to his topology page. His profile photo is basically. him in like a tuxedo sitting surrounded by women like that is that's hit he's so he's a supermodel over in finland maybe he doesn't need the money maybe he just likes to fight maybe to fight or keep his name out there but it is very odd that he's been so inactive and he hasn't fallen the state specifically because he is a good looking guy he has a huge following in finland he's not losing i think he's what four and one five and one in the ufc so will a win

A, do you think it's weird he's never fought in the United States or maybe Canada or wherever else? And what do you think a win does for him on Saturday? You know, I wish I could say I had the inside scoop on this because we have to assume it's something to do with visa issues, right? That is my first thing. Like maybe he just can't fight overseas.

I know there's been a lot of what the Dagestanian-Russian fighters. Like even like Habibu's dad can't fly over to the United States to corner him. So that is my first inclinations. visa issues, but you were saying. I think he's also had some injury problems as well, which if he's kept him away, and it could just be that that has kept him out of the minds of the matchmakers as far as when it comes to, you know, again,

oh, finding a big U.S. card for him to fight on. He might enjoy fighting overseas. Again, I can't imagine to the point that he would, you know, sacrifice missing out on like a pay-per-view or something. But again, we don't know how a lot of these fighters work. So do I think a win will necessarily, you know, make it so that they have no choice but to put on a U.S. card? No, I don't think so. Again, like I said, I feel like there's circumstances, it has nothing to do with his success, is what I'm saying.

Their circumstances we might not be aware of. And I'm not sure what it's going to take, but they do seem to be missing out on a very marketable opportunity with this guy. 100%. He's definitely, he's very charismatic. I remember there was a video on YouTube. I can't remember who posted it, but at the press conference, someone asked him a question, and his answer was literally just a wink and a smile. And then that got so many views over in Finland.

And then there was another one of we had like 500,000 views. It was literally just a video of Macon, Americani eating an apple. And it got so many views overseas. So he's a big deal over there. Maybe they don't want him to fight in the United States. They wanted to grow that market over there. But I don't know. a win, I believe is his second win in a row.

If I'm not mistaken, I think he had that split decision over Jason Knight on the UFC Liverpool. Yep, I just, I see it right here. But he's only lost in the UFC is to Arnold Allen via split decision. So one judge rules that in his favor. He's an undefeated fighter in the UFC. I do wish he was more active. But before we move on, I was corrected.

It is suburban fights, not suburban street fights. So thank you for the correction. Suburban fight. all elbows. Esther Lynn has a bunch of great photographs from that absolutely epic night in Las Vegas. But moving on, another question from Dan Chirot. Jose, before I just want to say, you got me thinking about the wink.

You said he answered a question with just like a wink and a smile. Yeah, yeah. I feel like that doesn't work for, well, maybe it would work for you. It wouldn't work for, when I found in public, when I answer a question with a wink and a smile, one, it either only raises more questions, ones that I'm not prepared to answer, or two, someone called the police.

So like I said, McQuan has something special about him. UFC should utilize that and I should never wink and smile at anyone ever again. Well, maybe if you get an eight-second knockout in your UFC debut, it'll give you a pass. Well, I think we also know how I'm going to end the show, by the way. Sure. Moving on.

Another question of Dan Sparrow. Looking down the road a bit, how do you grade the Bellator 222 card? Rory McDonnellan versus Neiman-Graisi, Jail Sonan versus Leotumachita, Horaguchi versus Darren Caldwell, Plus, Dylan Danis, Aaron Pico, Bandejas. With no competition from the UFC that weekend, it could be a big night.

But did they miss the mark by not booking a Saturday night fight? That's a very interesting question to the timing-wise. I do think a lot of people have asked me, is this the greatest card, top the black main card in Bellator history? It's hard to argue against it. I mean, you've got a very high-level welterweight championship fight. Chale-Sunner versus Liotto is going to bring in the casual fans. I mean, Chale-Sunner is one of the most popular fighters of all time. Leodemichita, former UFC champion, has wins over both the light heavyweight and middleweight Belator champion right now.

They're fighting a light heavyweight. Leotamichita obviously front kicked Franicottor, who is one of Chale Sondon's teammates. Horahoochie versus Colbo, that's promotion versus promotion. Then you obviously have Dylan Dennis, Aaron Pico, and Ricky Bandeha. So it's hard to argue it's not the best Bellator card ever. But your thoughts on the timing of the card and the card as a whole? Saturday is always any better than Friday

So Dan, you're absolutely right about that But as far as great in the card Man, that's a solid day I don't know If you're getting a free card like that Oh, I'm sorry, I shouldn't say free It's on the zone But you know, if you're

The Zone subscriber I don't know if you can do much better than this Like you said, we talked about Just the main card super strong You just said like you guys like Ricky Van Dehaz on the preliminaries You've got the debut of Raina from Risen That's right

I forgot about that That's another Yeah, Bella. That was recently. Yeah, recently added. Hops and Gracie fighting on the prelims. Heather Hardy, Mike Kimball. A lot of hype around Mike Kimball. And Aaron Pico, of course, Aaron Pico and Adam Bortz. Adam Bortz is actually undefeated guy, undefeated Hungarian fellow who could, you know, could be the next guy to put another dent and sort of that Aaron Pico hype trained. Either way, very exciting fight. So, yeah, solid A all around. So good for them. I wish they could have found a way to make it happen on Saturday, but come on people, who do you think you are?

What do you do on a Friday night? Go check out. Go, go hit that DeZone and watch these great guys in action. And it doesn't hurt that it's at Madison Square Garden. I mean, that's like that obviously the most famous arena in the United States. But whether you like the physical arena or not, it has that or about it. But I agree with you. I wish it was Saturday, but this A plus all around, I am very glad.

Is Roy McDonald versus Gracie is the main event, correct? That was just announced, confirmed? That is correct. So obviously when they announced Chale v. Machita, that seems to be the main event. It was kind of on the posters and they were seated in the center of the press conference. But now that Rory has moved on. He's fighting Neiman Gracie in the main event. I love that.

Championship fight should always headline over a gangster versus Leoneumachita. But in my opinion, one of, one up, if not the best bellator cards of all time. I'm curious because I've seen this happen with the UFC where, like for UFC 205 is a perfect example. They had three title fights on that card and they stacked the entire card. And then they had that New Year's Eve card and then they had that Toronto card like literally like a few days, like the next month. They had two pay-per-view. And then they had to cancel the January pay-per-view because they didn't have any fighters. Do you think they, and this is my question, do you think they've used, they put too many eggs in their basket on this card?

like down the road, are they going to be looking for the big-name fighters with since so many are on this card? No, I don't think they'll have that same problem. For one, it's not, you know, it's technically not a triple. You can maybe call it a triple main event, but one of them is not a title fight, you know, it's a three-rounder between Machita and Sonan. Yes, two guys with big name value. But, for the only thing, I think a guy like Sonan can fight fairly often.

He's kind of like that. So that's good. You can kind of book him whenever you want and assume he doesn't take too much damage, which he rarely does, hope that he's available, you know, in a pinch. I'm just going to head to the next card. We've got Musassi and Lavato, finally. Yes. And then Paul Daly.

Gallagher is on that card, too, correct? That's right. James Gallagher, yep, and Jeremiah Labiano. And then Paul Daley, Eric Silva, Melvin Manhoeff is fighting. So pretty good. It's going to be in London. These are, we know these names. Like, are they going to, like, but they're going to need a big main event to, like,

bring people to DeZone. Do you think they've used two? many of those names on one card for building the future down the road because like jell and machita could headline a card horriguchi called well could headline a card like ronaldald name and gracey headline a card like honestly Dylan danis whether he deserves or not could probably headline a card because he's so popular and he has like connor mcgregor rubb i don't think he should but he's a big deal on social media and erin pico everyone likes ery pico do you think they put do you think it will hurt that like basically i'm asking main events like yeah they can make big cards

but they're going to be hurting for main events down the road. Right. Did they potentially just put three main events on one card? Well, no, I think, so you said, is it going to make, you know, they need main events to keep making people come to the zone. Really, they need to make people come to the zone once and then hopefully stick around. So I assume that this kind of event is a tent pole or a gateway event, whatever you want to call it, you know, where it's so big, you get people to check it out, they enjoy the action,

and they say, hey, I'm going to keep my subscription. You know, because once you get them hooked, it's, I'm not sure, you know, exactly how the subscription business works, but I imagine getting them hooked is the first thing. And then, you know, you assume a lot of people keep their subscriptions for a few months and hopefully forever. But in this case, like I said, you bring them in. They like the action. They say, oh, this is zone.

Things pretty good. I also like football. I also like whatever, kickboxing and box. Oh, match, you know, boxing. And I mean, Canello is on to zone too. So that's, I bet that's the mass majority of fans are tuning in for Canell. And again, like maybe, maybe they stick around. round for Bellets are coming off of that, but we're going to keep moving on. We have a question

for you specifically, Alex. Well, I'm sure I can answer, but there's some, will your Amero be the only fire to win the big lawsuit for Tate the settlement? We've answered that early. Seems a luxury only well-paid fighters can afford. Also, will the Raptors be the Golden State Warriors? I think the, well, again, like I said, we touched upon the lawsuit stuff already. Yes, the Raptors will be Golden State in six games. As I said that, my throat just tightened up a little bit. But thankfully, it's not me out there playing the game, so I can say whatever I want. I have a lot of faith in the Toronto Boys.

I can't believe I'm saying this out loud. I still can't believe they're in the NBA Finals, but I have a lot of faith in them and then bring that. I saw you this past weekend, and I could tell you were a little on edge, not in a bad way, but like this could, like the reality was setting in for you. Yeah. Yeah. So, but we're going to move on. We're going to wrap this up really soon. we have a question from some jabroney named Shaheen al-Shadi.

Question for Jose. Can you please explain why you believe Spawn to be the best comical character of all time? And there is not enough time in the world for me to describe my disdain for Todd McFarlane's Spawn. I truly believe he is the most unoriginal, worst, poorly drawn, worst written character. in the annals of comic book history. If you look back, there's no, I can't think of one spawn story. Well, I was like, that was a good story

because they don't exist. They're all terrible. He has every power. He's an overpowered buffoon who can do whatever. It's just not good. It's very lazy. And then there's a follow-up question

from another other subroney named Matt Wells, another good friend of the show. Follow up, why is Deadpool so terrible for you? Oh, boy, here we go. Here we go. Same thing. Rob Lightfield, Todd, and Carlum,

1A, 1B, on biggest jabrones in comic book history. They can't draw, they especially can't draw feet. They can't write. Everything needs like knives and lasers and guns and shoulder pads and pouches. Like if Todd McFarlane and Rob Lightfield had their way, they would create a guy who could shoot knives out of their eyes and then like all of a sudden their fist is a grenade. And it's just bad, poorly written stories.

And if you enjoy them, I am sorry. but you're wrong. You probably laugh at shiny objects. You probably laugh at fart jokes. You just, it's there, it is, again, there are no words to describe my dislike for Deadpool and, right, and specifically spawn. They are the worst comic for characters of all time. So thank you, Sean and Matt, and Luke Thomas for chiming in because he's, again, I assume

he thinks Sean is being serious where he thinks I enjoy spawn because everyone, I did host a comic book video show a few years ago and I spoke about this and it was pretty 50-50 a lot of people agree with me a lot of people did not agree with me but for the people that didn't agree with me you're all wrong spawn is terrible Deadpool is terrible I thought the first Deadpool movie was legitimately a decent movie like a movie not a comic book movie like just a movie the second one I was very upset by how they made fun of Shatterstar which is Benson Henderson's favorite superhero which I will never let him forget. He compared himself to Shadow Star and cable.

And I was like, oh, really, God? Come on. Pick a better hero than that. But before we move on, I will make it warm. Let me just say, I would rather watch the Spawn movie again than watch the Deadpool movie. I'm just going to throw that out there right now. That's how I feel about the Deadpool movie. They're making, I don't like Deadpool at all.

They're making another Spawn movie. I'd watch the one with John Leguizamo and Michael Jai White. I would rather watch, if I had to choose, I'd rather watch that. You probably, that's like, would you rather watch Spawn movie? Spawn or Deadpool is like, which one of your hands would you want to get cut off? Like, neither. I'd rather keep both hands and watch a good movie. But anyway, I digress because I could talk about this four hours.

I'll make one last peruse through Twitter. A lot of, few more questions on. Jose, while you're perusing, can I say, we didn't talk about anything in the topic. I'm looking at the graphic. And I'm like, we've got four Alexander Gustafs. Now, look, it's because we got. I was going to bring that up. We got such excellent questions from our readers.

So thank you, readers, for giving us more than enough to discuss. So for sure, it's, you know, it's, it's, I'm blaming the readers. I'm just saying, I'm blaming the readers for having such great questions. So I'm going to, I was going to peruse Twitter one more time before I jump in, Alex, your initial thoughts on UFC Stockholm, especially the main event between Alexander Augustuson and Anthony Smith. We've had, it seems we had that rare weekend off with no UFC card. So it feels weird to me. Like, look, I was like trying to remember the last card.

And I was like, wow, it's been, what, 14 days since the last one. But your initial thoughts on Alexander Guzusson versus Anthony Smith. Man, I think that's a legit, like, could be a top five fight of the year candidate. I don't know if people think I'm crazy. But you have two guys here who are both great stand-up fighters. And also, they both know that they're not going to be close to a title shot. If whoever wins, it's still going to be a few fights away from a title shot. So they can kind of let their hair down, as it were.

So I'm actually really, really looking forward to that main event. I am ecstatic, especially after it's like I always thought that was a really good fight no matter what. I would watch that. And then Anthony Smith was on the MMA hour yesterday. And he was speaking with our colleague, Luke Thomas. And he was basically like, I don't give an F. What happens in this fight? I don't care if I win.

I don't care if I lose. I'm not talking. I'm not thinking title shots. I'm not thinking where this puts me in the division. I just want to go and perform. He wants to hit Alexander Gustafs and as hard as he can, as much as he can. And if he wins, he wins. He basically just says he wants to erase the memory of his last performance from his mind because it keeps him up at night.

So they fired up Anthony Smith that basically doesn't care. I mean, he said that when he fought Rashad, when he fought Shogun, when he fought Vulcan, like, he just went in, like, I'm going to beat this dude's ass. And that's where he, that seems like where he's at now where he said against John Jones, he got two into a game plan and he forgot what got him to the dance was his words and then he finished it was because I just need to destroy something and I was like all right Tyler Dernan that's a little aggressive but I am very like he sold me on like I was into this fight already but he is so hyped for this and if he wins or loses obviously there's that Luke Rockhold fight out

there I mean if this one thing he spits fire at it's Luke Rockhold so I am 100% sold on this main event for sure obviously neither one's going to get a title shot anytime soon but uh and and someone speak of the devil question just came in for for both of us is Alexander gubernus and loses is that it for him is there any fight flying under the radar i assume flying under the radar means on the actual card itself but uh i'll let you answer the Alexander gocious question oh uh you know what give me a minute here so i know we're running long time here we go uh sorry i just have my own little little rankings here i'd like to take a look at no i don't well first i'll say I don't think he's done.

I know he was saying on the on the M.A. hour the other day, he wants to fight three times in the year, which seems unlikely since we're already in May. He rarely fights more than twice. But I at least like that he is in the mindset to do that. As for what good fights are there for him, gosh, you know, it's a little scary to think that he's entering the part of his career where he has such a name, you know, two-time UFC title challenger,

and that they'll start using him as a stepping stone, you know, to push some of their younger guys. I'm just looking, Light heavyweight is almost as shallow as heavyweight. It's rough, man. Looking at it, like there's obviously the Corey Anderson's out there. We have Dominic Reyes is out there. I know he's, like Corey Anderson's been calling him out.

Volcan Ozedemir is fighting in the co-main event correct against Iler Latifi, but Guston's not going to fight Latifie, their teammates. So the Light Heavyweight Division is hurting right now. I could see rematch is like a Shogun rematch or something like. He might be entering that phase of his career where, again, you just match him up with other guys who have names still, who aren't anywhere really realistically near the front of the contenders line. So it's kind of a grim assessment.

But what I really mean to say is I think he has more fights in him. So if you're a fan of Gustav's, that's a good thing. 100%. And there's just a mass exodus of fighters. And we've actually, honestly, we've lost a lot of fighters, but we've gained Tiago Santos, Luke Rockhold. Like, John Blackowitz is who's obviously fighting Rockhold. But we've seen a lot of middleweights come up.

So if more middleweights wants to make that jump up to light heavyweight after seeing the success, there could be a lot of exciting fights, but maybe not fights that'll get him into the title contention. I don't know how much, like, if he fights a middleweight that comes up. Like Rockhold versus Gus and that was supposed to happen, I think last year before Rockhold's, like, knee flared up. That would have been, that would have been the fight to make in my mind. But Rockhold has his eye sent on John Jones, and then he has stuff, he has some issues with Anthony Smith to take care before he fights. as under guesstam but the card as a whole any fights flying under the under the radar for you oh i was just oh yeah you know it's i think overall actually just looking at the main card uh

well even in the undercard but looking at the main card this is a lot of exciting fighters i know they might not have names that people recognize but daniel tamer is a super exciting guy we mentioned i'm your connie this could be a big breakthrough for him i think mannawa rocich that's uh going to be like the third last fight in the main card has potential to be again good good stand-up battle so and then on the prelims i want to talk about one one name on the prelum that jumps out for me well the fight is stevie ray versus leandro santos is on has not lost in the ufc his only loss to norman park and he knocked out kevin lee like what four or five years ago and then he hasn't fought in three years like he has window of tony martin kevin lee

Adrono Martinez, F. Fren Escadero, and then he fought Norman Park to a draw. Like, it's weird to me because Leonardo Sanchez is not the youngest fighter out there. But it's weird that we basically lost three years of watching this guy fight after getting legitimate victories over high-level opponents. And I'm very curious to see if the sport is passed by how he'll perform after such a long layoff. And then Stevie Ray, I mean, he's just kind of like one of those quirky, fun favorites. It's, I remember what I believe he fought.

Oh my God. I think it was Joe Lozong in Nashville. And someone was like, why are you fighting in Nashville? Like, because he's from overseas. And he's like, I just want to introduce myself to the American audience. Like these are the fight cards, like the national cards, the Cincinnati cards, the, the Boise cards. Like, these are the cards that people tune in, like diehards watch. So he wanted to introduce himself.

And he fought. And I believe he beat Joe Lozon. in Nashville. So a fun guy. He has, I think he has a win over Ross Pearson, too. So I'm very excited

for that fight. Yeah, it's definitely intriguing. You mentioned Santos. He's not the youngest guy. He's actually 39 years old. Yeah, he looks very young. But you're right. 2016, 2017, something like that, correct?

He hasn't fought since October 2016. Oh, my gosh. I'm very excited to see the Octagon again. Our own Guillermo Cruz has written quite a bit about him. So, you know, definitely check our site to see, see Gierme's interview with Leonardo. But yeah, how much he has left in the tank,

whether he will remain undefeated, that's definitely something to watch on Saturday. So we're going to close up here, unless I'll make one last perusal over the UFC Twitter. Comment section, we're good. So I'll kick it to you, Alex. Like always, we will keep it in tradition. We get a little promo.

The floor is yours, my friend. Oh, well, you know, I usually don't have a lot of stuff to plug. Other than interviews I've had done recently, I'll be talking to Tatiana Suarez later today, hopefully. We kind of had featured her recently. But again, she's got that fight coming up. I believe it's next week. Is it UFC 230?

Yeah, 238. That's the show. Yeah, next week. And, you know, everyone knows everyone's talking about her as the next future champion. So we'll see where her head is at as we get close to a fight day. And Luis Pena, I spoke to recently. So we'll have a feature on him too. I know people love the violin Bob Ross.

So that one is still coming. Oh, and I should have stuff coming on Nick. Newell and John Gotti the 3rd who are both fighting at CES this weekend so look out for that guys and I'll leave you with a oh don't do that don't do that you don't have the scruff of at the jawline of Americani to pull that off I gave it a shot Jose hey give it a shot you miss 100% of the shots you don't take good idea but I don't have much say at all this was my first time hosting you were fabulous I hope so man and obviously moving forward we're going to be back on the normal time. I hope you guys tune in. I know I'm not Sean. I know I'm not Mark. I know I'm not

Luke. It's very weird to me that I'm now the host because I remember watching Luke before I was even an MMA journalist doing this and then Sean and Marker two of my closest friends in the game. So it is very weird for me that I am now the host. I don't know who will be joining us. I think we're going to be trying to do a rotation like Sean was doing. So you'll see a lot more of Alex down the road, but you'll also see Pizzi and Danny. Mike Giopeta, I would love to get Mike Giopeta on the show. He's one of the OGs and one of the. the best writers in the business. Makes a lot of demands.

He has a lot of demands. He's a real diva. He's a Yankees fan, isn't he? I wouldn't know. I think he's a Yankees fan. That doesn't make, obviously. Like, you tell him he's the Yankees fan, like, oh, he's probably going to want all of this, like, the red carpet rollout for him.

Whatever. But this was my first show. You'll be seeing a lot more of me, but you'll be seeing a lot more of Alex. I hope you stick around. I had a lot of fun hosting this. It was a blast doing it was on last week. It was a blast doing it. Alex this week. But for I'm Jose, that's Alex. Tune in next week, obviously, to the A side. And then

we obviously have the MMA hour Monday. We got P.C. Carroll, if you haven't listened to his Eurobash, it is one of the best podcasts in all of MMA. He is one of the, he is laugh is just infectious, man. I can't wait so he's back on the show again. You got the MMA beat tomorrow. And then obviously the Stockholm card. I don't know if Pizzi is there. I'll find out. But it's going to be a It's going to be a new, it's a new era of anime fighting. So, but this will be up on everything, Stitcher, Google Play, iTunes, all that after. But for me, I'm Jose. That's Alex, and we'll see you next week.

Hey, sorry?