MMA Fighting - TUF Hang: McGregor vs. Chandler TUF 31 Reaction | Ep. 11

Episode Date: August 9, 2023

Alexander K. Lee, Conner Burks, and E. Casey Leydon react to Episode 11 of The Ultimate Fighter 31 on TUF Hang, which goes live on YouTube every Tuesday at 11 p.m. ET/8 p.m. PT/4 a.m. IST immediately following the conclusion of TUF 31. Watch the show on YouTube: https://youtu.be/jGcCMNYP1Kg Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Follow Conner Burks: @ConnerBurks Follow E. Casey Leydon: @ekc Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, 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 reprise 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, What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?

The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. 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 Cudullian 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, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now only from Audible. We're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.

What's up, everybody? Welcome to episode 11 of Tough Hang, recapping episode 11 of The Ultimate Ultimate Fighter, Season 31. Connor is back. I am back. I mean, I was really never gone. Your host, Alexander Keeley. And, of course, our other hosts, I shouldn't say other, everyone's favorite co-host is also back from his trip to Dallas, Texas.

It is G.C. Connor Burks back in the building. Yes, back from Texas, baby. Don't mess with Texas. Feels like we got the band back together. It feels good to be back here. I'm excited. GC, people saw me with the proper 12 and the dolls in the back. So thanks for letting me stay at your place while you were in Dallas.

Everything went fine. after all the plants were watered. I took care of it. I'm back up now in Canada. And of course, we were joined by producer E. Casey White. Wait, before we start,

I got to find out if Connor's a true Texan yet. So stars at night, a big and bright. Deep in the heart of Texas. Deep in the heart of Texas, there it is. From the second you started that, I had no idea where you were going with that.

No one did. No one did. Casey, you're not a true Texan, but I appreciate. you got the mug. You almost make the Buckees. You almost make it the Buckees.

It's tough. I tried it. All right. If you want to know the behind the scenes, I was really willing to do it. It was 40 minutes each way from my hotel in Dallas. But then I checked the Uber and like an Uber one way. It was like $62.

So I was just like, I'm going to go ahead and pass on Buckees. Next time I'm down here, I'll rent a car and make the special to do it. You take the Uber to Buckees and then you go on the side of the road and get a right back. Hitch hike the way back. Texas is where you're hitchhack. That's a true. It's a true experience, yeah. It is, that is a flat state.

That is a flat state with a lot of open highways. Yeah, Buckees is, you don't visit Buckees when you're in the city. Buckies is something you visit when you go from like Houston, Dallas or Houston or Dallas of San Antonio. That's when you go to Buckees. That's what it seemed like. That's what it seems like. So next time I'm in Texas, that's what I'm good.

There you go. Casey, you of course have roots in H-town, Houston, right? How many different places are you from? I swear, I have done many shows with you, sir. And I swear every now and then you're feeling like, oh, that guy's from Wisconsin. Like I've lived in Wisconsin. Oh, yeah, I've lived in Montreal for a couple. How many different places are you from, Casey?

You are from so many places. Born in Florida, raised in Mississippi. Yeah, born in Florida, raised in Mississippi. Mississippi? The Mississippi that went up against Louisiana today? Yeah, I'm from the Delta. Jason Knights from southern Mississippi, but we're still Mississippi boys. Get a little steak in the game.

Yeah. My formative years in Texas and then my adult professional making money years out in Los Angeles. What a man of many nations you are. I swear. You say that out. You're going to bring it up in like, oh, I also spent some time in Topeka. And I'm like, okay. I wouldn't surprise me.

Yes, Mississippi versus Louisiana on this episode of the Ultimate Fighter. The last, the second semi-weight, the second lightweight semifinal, to determine our last finalist for the season at 155 pounds. What an amazing fight. What amazing fight, GC. That's a fun of the season. I mean, absolutely no doubt it was the best fight of the season. Like, it's in arguable.

The fact that I was really happy with it is that they were selling it for a lot of this episode. They were just like, this is a guaranteed banger. We're going to go in there. We're going to absolutely throw hands. If we don't reach, if we go the distance and we don't reach 500 punches thrown apiece, then we failed as fighters in there. Michael Chandler's selling it. Everyone is selling the fight, and then they get in there and they actually deliver.

My first note, Jason Knight, I know he ended up getting finished, but the dude has got an absolute ironclad chin. I mean, it was a body shot that actually was the thing that led to the finishing sequence on the ground. He took some massive shots. He took some massive shots, dude. Absolute dog, both those guys. They stuck to their word, man, and they delivered the best fight of the season so far.

Yeah, he was eating. clean shots to the head. Clean, big, big shots. Like face turning, like big shots. You know that if I reminded me of the first time, the very first, well, not maybe not very first, but the very first pandemic pay-per-view. And we got to see the footage of Justin Gaichi and Tony Ferguson.

Remember that footage of the pop, and like no noise. Loud. Chunk. Chunky, slapping punches. Yeah. Just, wah, like. It was, sorry, it was a point.

There was so much. much violence in that fight that even veterans like Connor McGregor and Chandler were like, dang, dang. These guys have been in wars, especially Chanley. He's been a freaking war. And he was like, whoa, boy, boy. Get into a hospital. Yeah, it's like, as he walked by, as he walked by McGregor, he was just like, Jesus, man,

those dudes were going at it. And McGregor was like, classic fight, classic fight, fight of the season, no doubt. Dana's saying the same thing. I loved how like, as they were going at it, as Jason Knight's taking these huge shots, He's just like, make sure to be like, told you all we were going to bang, man. Told you were going to get after it. Like, it's just like, yeah, dude, you guys are getting after it.

It's almost a shame. It's almost a shame this is on, like, feature in the Altuit Fighter because this is, this is like a top 10, like one of the top 10 best fights of the year I've seen maybe. And obviously, we know, you know, tens of millions of people watch this show every week. But when it comes to doing their fight of the year list, they might like not count it because it was on a reality show, it was taped, you know. So that's why I worry it'll be discounted.

Everyone saw it. I mean, everyone's, it's all everyone's going to be talked about Wednesday morning. But it was a great, great fight. It was actually enhanced by the silence on like the Austin Hubbard-Wosville-Buyves that's what I thought, too. That's what I thought. It was just like everyone's... The opposite of that.

It was totally opposite. Was that last week? Two weeks ago. Two weeks ago. It was enhanced because, like, everyone that was just like, oh, yeah, this is actually pretty cool. We're getting to see it. But all we were hearing was feet shuffling.

And this one, we were hearing, like, massive punches landing. It was, I mean, it was theater, bro. I was not expecting. I was getting a little bit worried that they were, like, jinxing it by how much they were hyping it up. I have, like, notes. I was just like, man, like, they're seriously selling this thing. I really hope that we don't end up flopping because they are such close friends, but it felt like it was like a different energy about it. Whereas Roosevelt Roberts fight with Austin Hubbard, it was like, they were like a little too friendly that like they didn't want to go to war.

these guys were both like jobs on the line. If I lose, I'm just going to prop him up and I'm going to make him look sick doing it. While I'm also looking good because we're going at it, yeah, it felt like a different energy. And man, they delivered. I was a little worried early when they were mentioning like, oh, yeah, just like the other fight, you know, we didn't want, we don't want any of our coaches providing any real cornering. So I was like, why would you remind people of the circumstances around our fight two weeks ago? Like, are you trying to get people to change the channel? Are you trying to scare people?

but yes the two guys did a much better job selling it they were talking about their history they said they used to live like 90 minutes away from each other they were going to fight before they were in the UFC Jason Knight apparently gotten some sort of car accident which may have prevented that fight from happening and Kurtz said he wanted them to both surpass 500 punches each which if this was like a five round fight they might have done it

it was it was so much fun to watch I really I know we're going to probably say this a bunch of times during the show I really cannot believe how many shots Jason Knight he started giving back but he was really getting outworked. And like I say, if it wasn't for that body shot, I don't know, he might have just stayed in his feet the whole time. But can we get these guys $50,000 bonuses?

I mean, what kind of competition do we think these guys are getting for these fights in the show? Do we have any idea? They both got with the extra. They both lost the, or we're talking about the layers, the coaches competition. And they were both on the losing team. So they got nothing extra that week, I guess. Yeah, I would hope.

I mean, Dana had a pretty huge appreciation for the fight. I could see him. Don him a couple of shekels. I like, I want to see Jason Knight in the UFC after that. I feel like that was sort of his plan. He was just like win or lose. I'm going to just go out on my sword and hopefully get a contract from it. But I would love to see him in the UFC.

Jason Knight's a 45er and he actually looks small. He's always fought at 45. And this fight was at 55. Kurt Hallbaugh looks like a 55er. Jason Knight looks like a 45er. That was my impression. And so I hope if Jason Knight does get an actual UFC contract, he can fight at his natural weight class.

So I think that did, I think that did the size discrepancy did hurt night for sure in that fight. He's somehow only 31 years old. How is that possible? I'm looking at Eric, I believe he's been fighting since he was like 19. So he's one of those guys. He has been around for a long time. If it feels like he's been around for a long time, he has been. He just started super, super young and has been in a lot of memorable fights.

And for anyone listening this, if this was your first introduction to Jason Knight, I don't know where it is, but find his bare knuckle fights with Artem Lobov or his first one. If you want to see what you saw in this episode in a bare knuckle 25 minute fight or whatever, how long it is, that fight was basically the equivalent to it in a real fight, but yeah. I have to go and watch that. I've never watched that before. It's insane. And if you find the post-fight pictures of them at the hospital, you would like,

Like, these guys are legit, like maniacs. Just freaking maniacs. I mean, he was comfortable being just completely battered, getting in the ambulance. He's like, yep, I'm good. Yeah. Yeah. He was just like, can I get a mirror first? I just want to see how I look.

Or can you guys take a picture? Let me see how I look. I'm like, man, he's not concerned. He was talking during the fight. What did he say? He said the first time he got cracked. He said, that was a good one. He like, as he was sort of recovering.

And then, oh, at the end of the first round, yeah, I told y'all boys we was banging. Like, he's just taught. He was, so pretty cognizant in there. After the fight, he was just like, yep, nope, I'm not upset. I may have not fought to my best abilities, but what was I going to do? Kurt was like so on point that, like, he just fought the best fight. And I don't know about y'all.

I'm actually kind of glad I was cheering for Kurt in there because of the call with his wife. I mean, dude, I mean, he started crying and everything. He's talking about how, like, big of an opportunity this is. wife drops in like the little the little jab at jason night she was like i mean come on you're going to win it's it's jason night uh yeah you can just tell how much it meant i was really going to feel bad for him if he ended up not pulling it off so it was it was it was cool to see the the emotional guy went yeah he's moving on yeah jason night should calls have been kind of you know all right go i miss you i miss you're great but i don't but you're right there's something about the

when kirk called his wife there was like an extra level of of um of um of uh emotion And I'm glad you felt that too. Yeah, it was different. It was different. It wasn't just, hey, cool. You know, yeah, it was, well done, well done. Jason Knight should definitely get a contract, and it better not be some contender series introductory deal.

I mean, this guy should be getting paid at least 50 Gs just to show, if not more. So hopefully that happens. You know, this needs me to my first question in the show, guys. I wanted to ask, this is something we mentioned in previous shows. And anytime, you know, you do a reality show, there's going to be this drama. You're the drama of someone getting eliminated and they have their story and it affects you. But I think the problem with this season is, as touching as those stories are, is that there's no counterbalance to it.

We're not going to get the opposite where we're like super, super happy for the guy who wins the show because of what I just mentioned. We know they're just getting back to the UFC where arguably a lot of these guys should have been all along. They probably should have been cut in the first place. So now these sob stories at these consolation prizes They're just bringing me down They're bringing me down I don't know if you guys feel the same way

GC where are Would you rather they didn't necessarily keep showing like Oh man this guy falling short And it's it's it's bringing me down Yeah I mean I've been saying it all all season That like you you kind of had this This more of an emotional connection to these fighters than your typical you know apex card this week

weekend. And yeah, it's, you do have the connection. I mean, I like that they showed. I mean, I think it's, I think it's part of the show. It gets you a little bit more invested in it. Yeah. Casey. Yeah, you have to, you have to fill the lows if you're going to want to fill the highs. But I'm saying, what I'm saying? What's the high? What is it? What's going to be the high? That's my worry. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know you're saying. Yeah. Even Kurt Hollibah, like he, like I said, Kurt Hollabot should be making $100,000 for this win. I have a feeling he probably is not going to pay $100K for this win. Oh, I can say with a hundred percent certainty. He did They paid $100,000.

That's a fight of the night. That's like if that's a UFC, you know, Vegas 79, fight of the night winner. Oh, yeah, fight of the night, 50K bonus, no doubt. No doubt, no doubt, no doubt. This is like, and maybe a finish bonus for Halliby. He might be walking home with 100K plus his show money plus his win. It just, I know we're got, you know, if we ever talk about the Delta Fighter again, this is going to be something that comes up.

You know, I don't know if we're going to do another season next to this. So thank you everyone for watching Tough Hang. It's been fantastic. But it's just hard. It's hard not to think about now in the current UFC climate. It's a discussion that's been going on for a while. It's not going away the fighter compensation thing. But I get it.

It's not something we need to harp on all the time. GC on a more positive note, Team McGregor technically undefeated or say no losses like four straight weeks. Yeah. Yeah, man. The blue is back. The blue is back, baby. Come on.

The blue wasn't really here. The blue wasn't really here in this episode. Though, I guess we could say two years. back. Who is back? And then wait for Rico to pull it off. I also, I just want to give an update. We got all the matches correct for the semifinals. I still have this note here.

Our predictions, though, we are 0 for three. We thought it was going to be Jason Knight versus Roosevelt Roberts. Oh, yeah. It's going to be Holliba, Hubbard. And then we thought it was going to be Vali versus Rico. So far, it is Citona. and we'll see next week whether or not RICO makes it.

But if they stick to what we're thinking, what we've laid out, 292 finales, is that still up in the air? I don't know. You've been pushing this horror. You guys been saying, having RICO be one of the finalists

in Boston makes a lot of sense. I thought they announced it already. I think they did. And I think it's going to be in the prelims. It's going to be in the prelims. Yeah. Oh, they must have been watching. Maybe.

They must have been watching Tough Hang then. Definitely. And I don't know if the card is finalized. but from what I saw, someone put something up and it was like they would open the card. Oh, no, maybe not. I see another thing listing prelims is the first set of the TV. They're like on the middle of the prelims. They're not like the open fights, but they're right.

That's fine. They're not the main event prelim. I got no. I got no. It makes sense because we're sitting at, we're only sitting at 10 fights right now. So yeah, that's for sure. And we don't know if there's going to be other. Get current.

All right. Like Roberts versus Jason Knight or something. something like that. We don't know. Yeah. But what a run. RICO wins for Team McGregor. The first semifinal doesn't have any McGregor fighters in it. So technically, Team McGregor couldn't lose. Rakitona jumps over to Team McGregor for the first Phantom 8th semifinal gets to win. This week again, no Team McGregor.

So four in a row. Plus, we'll jump right into it. Conn McGregor wins the Coaches Challenge. The always lovely Coaches Challenge. Now, guys, we were talking about this before the show. I think we all had a bit of a different read on it. I overall enjoyed it. I'll get to my reasons why in a moment.

GC, what were your thoughts? Yeah, of course I enjoyed it. It was something different. It was a switchup. They at least added a little emotional, a little fun to the show. No love for Brooklyn Ren, I have to say. Dana White, Bruce Buffer, and Ring Girl from Michael Chandler.

No love for the Great Brooklyn. Shout us to Brooklyn Ren. Michael Chandler, as somewhat revealed in this trivia thing, has said he's not really, And Casey you alluded to this last week. No, just in general, a lot of fighters are not like hardcore MMA fans. Like they keep track of their teammates, their division maybe. Maybe.

But overall, they're not like as avid as they're not watching 44 fight cards a year, right? They're probably watching some of the pay-per-views. Smart. Smart. Normal people. Normal human beings. Yeah. They're smart.

They watch the main card. You know, they don't, yeah, they're not getting there for the first fight. Yeah. I would be surprised if Chandler could name any of the ring girls. So I don't think it was like a slight towards Brooklyn, Ren. It's maybe a slight towards Green Girls in general if you want to take it that way. But I don't think he could name any of them. The Chandler-Ren beef, if it comes to fruition, know that it started here.

Know that this started here. Don't do that. No love loss between Brooklyn and Mike there. Second, have to say, absolutely loved the Bruce Buffer. It's bath time. That was all time. I bet that I'm going to go ahead and say that that kills with the grandkids, that that's an absolute moneymaker when you're putting the grandkids to sleep.

I bet he goes back to that one a lot. And then, yeah, I mean, ice bath. I'm sure they got another sponsorship in for whatever brand that was for the ice baths. Always making money, baby. Always making money. Got to love the hustle. And yeah, I thought the questions, they weren't brain busters or anything, but, you know, who was entertaining enough?

And Team McGregor, all of them essentially lost their fights and they got some extra money. Yes, good for them. Because I think a lot of the vet, I was going to say, I'd say I think a lot of the vets hopefully will end up getting signed. I don't know if a lot of the quote unquote prospects are necessarily going to get signed. But we'll see how that goes. Sorry, Casey, where are you saying? Oh, the one part of the question part I did like was when, uh, what round did Conner Lose to Habibah.

He's like, Carter's all following. He's just like, uh, jerks. He's just like, what is this? Some of them they made.

Some of them they made way too obvious. Like, it was just like, what is Michael Chandler's record in MMA? It was like, 11 and 2 and 20 and 23 and 8. It's just like, all right. And then another other one was like,

when was McGregor rookie of the year? And it was like 2000, 2013 or 2023. It's just like, I mean, if you have it, Even just like one ounce of common sense, those are, those are obvious. Even Chandler's like, what, is Conrad like 48 or something?

Like, if you. McGregor's laugh in the cold tub was all time. I mean, we got about 15 belly laughs from McGregor because he was so cold and uncomfortable. So that was good. Yeah, that far, it seemed almost unnecessary for them to be in the bass, but I guess visually you just had to amp it up somehow. Casey, we were saying for the show, we wish you, you were saying, you didn't feel the cold.

It wasn't coming through for you. I want to see them dump ice. I want to see an ice bath, not a cold water bath. Right, right. Because ice and you know it's cold. I just don't know what I don't know. But I think,

I think they're proving for the brand. They're proving for the brand of tubs that it stays cold. I thought you could feel it going into the last round. I think you could tell McGregor was like, all right, dude, I'm done with this. I want to give it out. I thought for a second,

I thought for a second he was going to miss the last question. They were going to get forced to a round four and like they were both going to get pissed. Yeah, this needed a commercial break. This needed a, this needed a, this needed both guys, like shaking and the McGregor, like, oh, that's it, I've had enough. And, like, almost standing up and then they cut to a commercial break. And then it's like, oh, no, okay, okay, I forgot.

Yeah, yeah. I got to cut it out. You just wanted to stretch it out. Pointless tease into it, a four-minute commercial break and then him just sit back. Well, this ties. I like this. I like this. You got the producer mind here, A.K.

That's how the drama on this show works. For any who's watched all 11 episodes, that's pretty much how the drama. Oh, is this going to have to have. to make weight. Oh, yeah, he just made the wait. Okay. Oh, cool. Well, we're just...

Oh, Brad, man, is Brad, what's going on? He's, he's hanging out with the other team. What does that mean? Ah, it's okay. We're cool. He's getting on the bus. He's getting on the bus. We're going to talk about...

Ah, it's going to talk about... Drama on the show. They finally did something in this episode, which I've been really waiting for the entire season. It's involving the trivia. I don't want to move on from the trivia yet. Oh, okay. Let's get done for trivia. Sorry.

Okay, Casey, write this down. Don't forget it. We have tendency to forget things on the show. It would be my fault would we forget it. Write this down. Make a little producer note in your producer notebook.

Yes. I had some problem. The other reason I would have wanted to extend it is because they skipped over the best part of the trivia. The tough specific trivia? Because I was playing along at home. I was playing along. So to tell people that there was three rounds.

The first round, general UFC history. Round two, tough trivia. Round three worth double the points. And I thought huge advantage for Chandler here, trivia about the other person. because I'm like, Chandler definitely knows pretty much everything about McGregor's career. I mean, he's just so famous.

I'd be surprised McGreg knows anything about Michael Chandler's career. He didn't even know he'd been in championship fights. He's been Beltor. So they skipped over the tough stuff. I was furious. They showed like the first question, which is when did like Bonner and Griffin Bonner one happen? And that's it. And they're like, oh, I guess we don't need to show ultimate fighter questions.

And like, I would have crushed it. I would have because I went, there were seven. That would have been your forte. Hmm? That would have been your forte, man. That's what I'm here for. I guess I didn't put two and two together. They were like skipping along and like the scores were higher.

And yeah, so we didn't get. So they finally sped through the boring part, which we want to complain about. And they did it during the cut. Like we can't do it during a fight, but we can do it during. Yeah, we can do it during this. The part of the two stars are actually interacting. Let's get through. Why everyone is here to watch the show.

Why we want to see that? They also didn't realize to have. halfway through that when you do these trivia things, you have to have people both reveal their answers at the same time because otherwise, once the first guy gets an advantage, he can just see what the other guy is going to say and then answer the same. It doesn't matter whether he's right or wrong because he already has a one point advantage. So it doesn't matter. So they realize it's halfway through. Now, and then also having the final round be each guy answering questions individually also would have fixed that. But still, my complaint stands, it seemed very silly at first when they're like,

but they were cold. They were cold, though. 1024 ice plunge bass whatever the brand was a shout out keeps you keeps you nice and cool yeah doesn't need ice added to it doesn't doesn't need ice added to it casey and viewers by the way if they did show the tough trivia on whatever the ufc's deleted scenes show whatever crap that is that i refuse to watch uh this time i will watch it if those tough trivia questions wow wow listen to you let me know in the comment stoop to the deleted scenes guy i watch the deleted scenes every week i'll let you know. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Let me know. But I did get the question wrong. I thought Carla Sparza was the first tough champion. Oh, I think Carla too. I told it. I told him got

Julipania was the first one. I got everything except I got everything except Chandler's TK.O wins. I did not get that. The last question, I did not know the answer to that. I was off. Casey, what was the, sorry, what was the point you brought up earlier? Oh, yeah. So one thing I've kind of complaining about this whole season is like, okay, we have all these fighters and they all live in a house together, but yet there's literally no house drama the entire season, which is fine. They didn't get drunk in a fight. But they started out this episode, awesome.

It was all the fighters were on the kitchen table, and it was Night and Holliba, basically talking about their fight and like, oh, we're going to, what was they just kind of talking about how excited they are about fighting each other at the very opening of the episode? That is something incredibly unique to the format of the show. I wish we, is that the only time it happened all season or was that the only time it was interesting? But like, I just wonder, like, that's what we want to see. Like, oh, wow, I have to, you know, basically try to legally murder this man. But also, we have to do dishes, you know, so.

I thought that was good, too. I mean, the more insight we can see into the house, the better. Yeah, and that's what, so, yeah, we had this situation. We never, they never capitalized on it. And so I felt that was one moment. We got to see something that was very, very. very unique to this situation. And yeah, I just, I like how they started the episode out with that.

Yeah, and it's the quote unquote prospects who are really missing out on this because as much as we make fun of the prospects label, these are guys who are less familiar, not just to UFC fans, but fans who watch. Because if you watch MMA, you know, or Combat Sports General, like you brought up Casey, you're probably keeping up with Jason Knight's BKFC. You've probably at least been seeing him fight. So he's like, he's been around. Like Jason Knight's been around.

So you don't necessarily need to feature him that much in the show. People like him. People like him. But like we saw like land I think it was landin Linden can you know as for example We saw him talking trash like in episode two And that's like all we got to see of him Until his fight day right

And these are the guys who need to get that Like that used to be the great reason to sign up on the show Was not necessarily to get not just to get a path to the OC Like a clear path of OC But because oh you get to show your personality And that's less and less It hasn't been that way for a while It's not just the season like so I'm not just criticized

In season 31 It's been like this for a long time And, you know, I understand it's probably never going to go back to those glory days of like, wow, learning like, learning everything there was to know about Josh Coscheck before he even, you know, had his first official UFC fight, right? Like those were the, when it was really a star making show. And it really feels like they've given up on that now. They don't really care. I thought it feels like no real star is going to be born from this season. No, and that's been the case for a while.

It's been a while. It's been a case for a while. Yeah. And there's way, okay, as much as like that opening scene, whether at the, I think, kitchen table. There's just way too much of them on that kind of black confessional type of look going, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that, I'm going to do this. Like, I don't know, I need like 10 seconds of that. We know, I don't know. I just want to see more real stuff and not just them trying to basically do a promo for the producers there. It feels like that.

It got, I don't know, I felt it was really repetitive real quick, even from Jason A Holliba. Also, you can, you can, to me, you can tell when they've just been like queued up a question. question like, how are you going to finish that fight? Because they repeat the prompt. Like, they're just like, how am I going to finish Jason Knight by second round knockout? Like, it just feels like too robotic. Like, it just doesn't feel natural. Whereas when they're in the house, like they're obviously having fun talking shit, like enjoying themselves. Still, I feel like we've said it since episode one still feel like we wish we saw a lot more of that. Yeah. And did they say on this episode about that? way how much money all the guys got from the trivia did they think they said they said 10k it's

supposed to be i think 10k for each of them right no i think it was i thought it was like 1500 wasn't that much oh the coach gets 10 k the coach the coach was gonna mc mcgregor has the 10k what do he say he says the house always wins and i'm the house baby yeah the bruce proper line rich getting rich i mean the guy was killing it not much mic time for old bruce but he uh you know he made value out of out of the few minutes that he got the guy commits what time is it It's bath time. That should have been the name of the episode. It's bath time.

I have to say probably the best producer moment of all from this season of tough was that we went to, we're leading into commercial break and Bruce Buffers is like, it's bath time. And then we come back from commercial break and we get it again. They gave us the double dose. He hits us immediately again with the it's bath time. That was just absolutely excellent work. I have a question. Was it the same take? I think it was.

I think they were just getting you back up to speed after the four minutes of commercials. I thought for a second, I was like, did I hear a slight, like he held it longer? And I'm like, did they do multiple takes of his bath time? Because I hope they did. Like, my remember was like, please tell me they did this multiple times, trying to get different reactions.

Guys, react to it like, you know, don't react to it this time, this time laugh. Because I don't know. I thought it was something. But it was a great moment. Yeah, because if you caught it before the commercial break, you're hooked. You're like, I'm staying through these ads.

Bruce Buffer says, Oh, yeah, yeah, it's bad time. It's bad time. If by some chance you're browsing to ESPN and then it just came on, you're like, oh, what's going on? What's Bruce Bufre doing? It's bad time. I'm locked in for the rest of the episode.

So you're right. Gold Star for a production team on that one. That was clearly the right move to make. Do we have any thoughts about our first lightweight final, Austin Hubbard and Jason Knight? Is there a guy, I'm sorry, excuse me. Kurt Hollabaw, courtesy. I'm just like everybody else.

I thought Jason Lance went. Kurt Hallibaw, putting on maybe the performance of his life. in a huge, huge spot. And now, Kurt Hollabog, excuse me, he gets to fight Austin Hubbard. I have to think Hollaba will be favored after this performance. We're going to be able to bet on it, too.

You are actually going to be able to bet on it. I cannot wait until you talk about this on No Bet's Bard. You're going to have... Did you see Hubbard's face on the end part where they kind of... They showed Hubbard from his fight from a week ago. I assume a week ago. Hubbard, like, as boring as that fight was of Roosevelt,

Well, Hubbard's face was messed up. Like, that fight was, I think, way more violent than it, way more violent in the actual cage than it actually maybe looked to us. But, like, Hubbard's face just as messed up as Hollaub's face and Jason Knight's face. I was just going, whoa, dang, unless he fell down upstairs. In between fights, I don't know. Training, training accident. Someone opened the refrigerator into his face. I'm sure that happens a lot on the show.

If they happened even one time and they didn't show it, then that is a, yeah, that is production. My thoughts on it are I'm excited. Like a Halaba has now made a fan out of me. Like I'm looking forward to his fight. Like I think he's going to deliver in front of the Boston crowd. And yeah, I'd probably say I'm cheering for him too after the phone call home. I think I'm a Kurt Holliba guy going into UFC 292. Maybe a little look at the under.

I mean, he seems to have an affinity for violence. And he's going to force Hubbard to fight. Hubbard is not going to be able to do what he did. in the first lightweight semi-final. So, yeah, I'm looking forward to it. It's a great story. It's hard not to root for them. I was just, I was trying to remember.

Yeah, seven dogs. He's got seven dogs. And he beat me allegations time after time. Let's go. The king that was promised. Not guilty. Y'all got to feel me. Kurt Hollabaw.

He was 0 for 4. I want to say it's in two separate stints with the UFC, I think. I want to say it wasn't one run. Yeah, he had one. Strike. He came over for. from Sue's part of Strike Force. O for one in Strike Force, then 0 for one in the UFC

goes into the NBA worlds in this for a bit. Come back to the UFC. Three super tough fights. Howany Barcellos, Shane Burgos, Tiago Moises, over three. So it would be an amazing story if he got his first UFC win and that happened to be in the ultimate fighter finale. And how old is he? 36.

36. He's the second oldest or second old's guy on the show, I want to say? Kerr Halaba, if he wins this will be, I didn't see this coming into the season. but like I thought of all the the lightweights like I was like Kurt Harba he really doesn't deserve to be in there like every other lightweight I thought just on their on who they are and their quality just as a fighter right then at the moment I thought all of them could be back in

the UFC the lightweights and Kurt Harba was the one like that's kind of weird and man he proved me wrong he proved me wrong and I he wasn't even even his um who did he fight to get even into the semifinals who was it that? he fought? He had the company. Oh, I was talking about Hollabon, right? Holliba, yes. Who did he fight? Lee Hammond. Yes, Lee Hammond. The number one, young gunner.

Lee Hammond was brought in to lose. He was brought in. Lee Hammond was not supposed to lose that fight. Yes. And, like, Kerr-Hawber was not supposed to beat Jason, I, I feel. And, like, he's going to go to the finals. And I'm picking him to win this whole dang thing. Give me some dog odds on Kurt Holliba at 2.92, I'll take him. You said there's no stars that were made from this. I don't know.

If Kerr Holliba has a great performance in that final, the final fight at 2992. $2.92. I don't know how far he goes, but man, this season, as far as the actual contestants, could be a big success. For me, personally, because I'm super impressed by Kerr-Holabarab, considering what I thought of him coming into this season. Halaba beats Hubbard, book him as the backup fighter for Makashiv Olivaire. What a story that would be. That's sort of what I was alluding to before, though, was like, it's a great story. But again, I don't know what the ultimate fighter contracts are anymore.

It used to be they were billed as seven-figure contracts. And the caveat being at seven figures, if you win at least two of your three first fights, and then you would get three more fights. you would hopefully get, it's like a supposed to be a nine fight contract, which in total is worth somewhere north of $1 million. But as the ultimate fighters kind of got less successful, not everyone was hitting that nine fight mark or necessarily winning those fights. So they weren't getting their win bonus either.

So the supposed seven figure contracts really turned out to be maybe low six figures, if that, if they stuck around that long. Again, I don't know what the deal is now. Maybe it's more. Maybe there's more guarantees. I'd be very surprised that that was the case. because I was just going to bring up, and it isn't necessarily the U.S.C.'s fault, Juan Espino, because I was thinking as Kurt Hollebaugh, the oldest Ultimate Fighter winner,

should he go all the way? Juanisbino was 38 years old, heavyweight when he won the Ultimate Fighter 28. He was older. He is older. He is older than Ultimate Fighter Season 1 winner Diego Sanchez. That's how weird that was. So if you want to know how weird the show is producing future stars. He's older right now?

Well, yeah, well, yes, he's older. Yeah, he's older than Diego Sanchez. That's crazy. That's crazy. It's silly. It's just silly. He's either older or younger by like two months or something like that. It's just so dumb.

They're essentially the same age, but that was forever again. Yeah. And he only lasted three fights. Again, not the UFC's fault, had some injuries. I mean, shockingly, a 38-year-old pro fighter had some injuries in his career and did not compete again after three fights. So, again, just to bring it back, I hope whatever hounds Kurt Hallibos should he win the show or Austin Hubbard.

Let's give Austin Hubbard. love too. Yeah, come on. Come on. You gotta give us. This is a Hohloba program. We have to be clear. You need some sort of, you need some sort of Kurt Hullabaw jersey now because if Rico

De Shulah doesn't make it, knock on wood. Knock on wood for you, Connor. If Rico de Shula doesn't make it, I don't know what you're going to do on fight night. You're going to have to. A cutona. Yeah, Ketona. Come on, man. Have a little respect.

Have a little respect. Perfect world for me, Rico and, and, and Holo are the ones hoist in the trophies come August 19. if it's uh do you consider uh rico versus again should rico advance do you consider rico versus brad to be mcgregor versus mcgregor i say no yeah no if rico wins mcgregor will have a champion yeah and it's since uh cavernor is going to be in catona's corner you know what it's true it's it'll listen i'm i'm not starting the conversations i've just been hearing murmurs on the streets have been you know the rumor mill is working some are potentially saying mcgregor greatest coach

in tough history i mean i'm not saying it. I never said it, but rumors are, rumors are saying this blue team is the most successful team in tough history. McGregor will be insufferable. I don't know if Connor knows this, though. For the final fight at 292, this isn't like, this is now back with their original coaches and their original camp at home and stuff. So it's very, and that's why I all, I all, I understand why these are exhibitions because you don't have a true train. camp these aren't your coaches your weight cut is kind of weird you're in a couple of them two rounds tell them two rounds yeah so i get why they're exhibitions but the final fight will be a real

fight because it's a real camp real amount of time all that stuff so um it's going to be different too yeah um because they're going yeah they're back of their original coaches so um i don't know that that could be good or bad who knows but um it'd be interesting or if or maybe even they switch up camps like, Hullabawg goes to Florida and trains with the Kilcliffe. Is that where? Or is it? Yeah, yeah, Kilcliff, yeah. I don't know if he's doing that or not.

I mean, possibly. But it's just for con, because they haven't explained that in the show yet, that the actual for the final fight camps are different. Yeah. Will McGregor definitely be in Boston for UFC 292? No. I think Chandler's there for sure. Yes, no doubt.

Yeah, he'll be there. So you're, oh, wait, so, Connie, you're firmly saying he's not going to be there. I don't think so, but is this where they pull the hood over all of us? And they fooled us this entire time. And then after the final tough fight, they bring in McGregor and Chandler, and they do a face-off. Ah. They bring out a little mini table and they sign the contracts in front of us. Wow.

And it's 10 December. Not only do we get the fight, we get the fight in 2023 as well. And everyone has to, you know, eat some crow on that. Well, let's get it. We cover this every week. Again, penultimate episode. We're one episode away from the finale, guys. Where are we?

Where are we on our, how optimistic are we that this fight is going out? I'm out. I think I'm officially out. Yeah. I was out of episode too. Yeah. Yeah. But now I'm like, if you just look at Twitter, it's just like, nah.

It just does not. It doesn't. It almost feels like, it almost feels like Chandler is. is accepting that it's probably not happening now. Well, you know, so just give if people didn't see some of the latest Twitter hullabaloo, Connor McGregor, was asked by a fan, why is the fight with Mike Chandler not interesting to you and Connor McGregor with a quote tweet. I'll do what they want.

No prob. I don't think they want him no more, though. There's loads of juicy fights around and my return date is my return date. I never gave an F about who it was ever. I'll fight anyone. I'll even fly them to me, ask Malignagi, fly, flown in and. Bet around. Beat around? Bet around? I don't know. And Chandler said something like, this dude, I remember when his words held an immense amount of weight, just tell the truth.

So there's some, you know, he's trying to keep it alive. He's trying, guys. He's so desperate. He's like, please fight, please. Connor, what about honor, though? Did you think about what people would think of your integrity if you don't take this fight? He's going to laugh at you, Connor. He's too far gone into the stratosphere, man. It's, he can do what he wants when he wants to. He's talking about Floyd again. And like he said, bro, his return date is his return date.

I mean, whenever he comes back, if we're not going to get the Chandler one, let's just do Nate Diaz at UFC 300. Let's just hold off till next March, next April. And let's just do McGregor Diaz 3 at UFC 300. I still think Chandler should hang on. If I'm Chandler, don't book a fight. I agree with that. I agree with that because, I mean, who knows?

Like his, his opinion, his Twitter fingers change as much as the weather. In a month, it could be, you know, it was always Chandler. Like you said, the fake out, 292, the fake. Oh, McGregor's here, Chandler's here. Always bringing it in. Dana White is pulling out a pen. There it is. Connor McGregor putting pen to paper.

This contract is signed. It's signed. We're getting the fight in December. Oh, Connor jabs the pen into Chandler's forehead and signs it with his blood. Oh, that's going to be crazy. Yeah, little bellator tick. I hope. I have not given up.

I know you guys are both at a zero or close to a zero right now. I'm still how about like that. I wanted to believe. Six or seven. Is it the fight you want though? Is it the fight you want? Yes. Yes.

It would be exciting as though, man. I don't really want to see the McGregor-Ga-Ga-Chi fight. It's just like, Gachie feels like he's at a different point in his career, where Chandler feels like he's here to put on fun fights. and I think that fight would be a ton of fun. Yeah, it's a cool. McGregor is not wrong.

There are a lot of cool fights all for him. If they made McGregor Chandler, I'm not going to go like, oh, darn it. We never go. Come on. I mean, of course I'm all down for that. You put the BMF belt on the line at 170

and the match is made. But Chandler has earned this. He beat him up on the show, seven to one. Sorry, sorry to keep bringing it up. Seven to one on the show. Possibly might have all,

all technically team Chandler finalists, depending how this last band-in-weight semifinal. And Chandler, he actually, he really cares about his fighters. He really cares about coaching. I think so. He's really sincere. He's really sincere. I felt that.

Like, Conner's just like, all right, how can we incorporate Stout into this? You know, but for Chandler, he was actually, you felt every time he was talking to his fighters, afterward, everything, like, this was, these are real moments. And I do feel bad for Chandler. He got suckered into this and thinking he was going to get the biggest fight with his life. Whatever his next fight is, he'll still be exciting.

It'll be a lot of money. When Chandler was talking to Kurt after and just the washroom after and saying like how blown away he was and like if you fight like this, whatever, kind of trailing off because he just didn't know how to finish that. He was so blown away. But it felt very genuine, like not just for the cameras. It felt like he was like, holy crap, I didn't expect that. Like, I've probably never seen. I've never seen Kurt Hallibuff like that before.

And, you know, an action fighter for sure, but the accuracy and everything, the slipping the punches, boy, you know what? And you know, from like a TV standpoint that felt real because you notice, like, it was, like, you know, you watch the office and sometimes you get these kind of, like, the cameras kind of looking from a distance. So you feel it's kind of voyeuristic, you know. Yeah, it was that. That's what it was. Like, they were kind of in the bathroom. It wasn't like on the set or something that they were in the bathroom. Like, he was like watching his face off.

And the camera was just like, good 20 feet away or something. It was even echoey. There wasn't like a good boom mic there or anything. But so like there's not like they know they may know there's someone filming there, but it's not like they're playing to the cameras. So that there was. No, I definitely don't think they were. You know what I'm trying to say?

Like that's why it, for TV-wise, it felt different. That's why those moments were. Yeah. And we got very few of those moments in the show, but I'm glad we did get a couple. That's all. Yeah. Yeah. It was nice.

It was a nice moment, nice episode. Guys, we're kind of going out in a hideout here. I'm kind of excited. I'm going to be put a Let's get a bang for the last episode Let's get a bang for this episode Are we going to do a tough hang

Post-292 to recap the finale's? I think we should do a post show Right after the finale's wrap And just during the pay-per-view I think we do I know you'll be doing I think you tell Mike You tell my best friend Mike

Mike yeah Mike yeah Tell Mike bring someone in to do the watch party You say I got to step into this other room Because we're going to film a quick No other room. No other room. What we're going to do is we'll have the watch party going. I'll have my laptop set up to the left. We just have to stay on top of the switching. And each time I turn to face each camera, then we can put me in the shot and no one will be any of the wiser.

And we just got to stay on our P's and Q's on the mics and be switching it. But I should be able to make that work. I should be able to do that live. Casey, you've been in production business for a long time. You can make this. It's easy, right? Seameless, the themeless show. Double down. I was born to do this. So looking forward to that. And guys, yes, next week we have our last episode, the second Bantamese final between Rico de Chulo and Cody Gibson. I do want to shout out someone in the YouTube comments

because I was asking a lot during Katona's episode. Has anyone won the show twice? And I mentioned Diego Lima. I mentioned Jesse Taylor's guys who would come close to just making the final. Well, Lima made two finals. Jesse Taylor was to qualify for two finals and won once. And I had completely forgotten about someone who was on the same season as Lima the second time. Eddie Gordon.

Eddie Gordon won, I want to say tough 13 or 14. Shout to Eddie Gordon. One of the worst seasons of the ultimate fighter. This was the Frankie Eager BJ Penn season. Absolutely at this one. Oh, if you thought that there was episodes this season that were boring, you want to need to watch Tough 13 or 14. I can which one was. It is just a nonstop.

No one wants to be there. BJ Penn and Frankie Edgar have. have no reason to want to fight each other again. They're just like, why are we doing this? Cory Anderson did come out of the show. I will say top six, top seven light heavyweight Corey Anderson. Listen, out of the show. You never know he was going to come out of this one.

He was still Beasts in 258 at the time. Yeah, that was his nickname back then, Beast in 258. It's a great nickname. It spends time and space. So shout us to Conan Zina for reminding me about Eddie Gordon on the YouTube comments. People leave comments and leave us your comments on your thoughts on this season. Hopefully I get to read them out. next time. I know you'll only be how to judge the first 11 episodes and obviously the 12th is going

be the best one. Of course, of course, of course. And then the finals, you're going to put it all over and then in the rear view mirror, we're going to be like, was that the best, was that the best season of tough we've ever had? After Rico and Kurt emerges the winners, like the two, the two oldest guys in the show emerged the winners. Yes, that's another reason I'm cheering for it. I want people 35 and over. To win tough this season is similar to the United States presidency. You have. have to be in each 35 years old. Great to see these young bucks finally getting a shot at the UFC, right?

This is fantastic. But yes, that's it for this week, guys. Thank you, Evan, for tuning in. Thank you, G.C. Thank you, producer, Casey. And I'm trying not to get emotional knowing we only have one episode left. Don't try and hide it, man.

Just get emotional. Just don't. It's an emotional time. Let the tears flow. People saw me crying. I can't believe my eyes. I can't believe my eyes are actually being put on episode 11. It's really crazy moment.

I remember episode one. I don't it's like it was yesterday. I don't know if you were here, watched last week's tough hang. I did get emotional reading Cotonas poetry. His, I want to know how I watched it. No sound. I was actually at a bar in Dallas and they had it on. And I was just like, this couldn't be any better.

This couldn't be any better. I mean, my night has been made. When we walked in and Tough was on, I was just like, yeah, I'm going to stay here. I don't care where else you guys go. But this is my spot for the next hour. No subtitles either. No sound. No subtitles.

No subtitles. No subtitles. No. No. Don't know anything that anyone said. I was just there for the vibes. I was there for the moment. Well, the vibes of this show are powerful.

And I mean, I mean, Ultimate Fighter and Tough Hang. So thanks again, everyone. And we will see you next week for the big finale. Bez out. Podcast Network. Unwrap holiday magic at Holt Renfrew with gifts that say I know you. From festive and cozy fashion to Lux Beauty and Fragrance sets. Our special selection has something for every style and price point.

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