MMA Fighting - TUF Hang: McGregor vs. Chandler TUF 31 Reaction | Ep. 3

Episode Date: June 14, 2023

Alexander K. Lee and Conner Burks react to Episode 3 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/vReKVdEnNGY Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Follow Conner Burks: @connerburks 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 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 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 is up, everyone? Tough Hang is back.

This is our third episode of the season, M.A.fighting.com's instant reaction show to season 31 of the Oldman Fighter. I am one of your co-host, Alexander K. Lee, as always, joined by the wonderful G.C. Connor Berks. Let's go. Tough times in the Brewery household. You don't have to wear it every week. You don't have to wear it. You know, I've paid $100 for this, man.

When am I going to wear it once this season is over other than when I'm going to hoop at the wreck courts? Like, I got to get the mileage out of this. I've gotten a few tweets off with it. I wear it on the M.M.A. hour. I mean, I'm going to make sure I get my money's worth. despite our team being 0 and 3 so far. I was going to say,

you better hope things turn around in the show. Otherwise, folks, when we're busting your traps pretty hard down at the pickup. And, of course, a producer extraordinaire, Casey E. Casey Line is also joining us. There he is. Tough super fan. Guys, we are, like I said, three episodes in now. It does three fights in. We just saw Austin Hubbard win a pretty convincing unanimous decision over Aaron McKenzie.

I would go as far as, say, lopsided. McKenzie had some moments. but I would say Hubbard definitely took it. And as Connor mentioned, that's now 3-0 for team Michael Chandler and the quote-unquote veterans will kind of get into explaining why I put air quotes about that in a second. But GC, I want to get your thoughts first on, again, you're still relatively new to the Elton Fighter. Our first decision of the year, we had two first round finishes to start off. Now we have a decision.

What do you think? How did you feel about the two-round format? How did you feel watching this kind of pre-taped decision? play out on TV. What do you think about it? Yeah, so I was hoping that with our first decision, we were going to get the sudden death round three. Unfortunately, we didn't. I had it 2018. I don't feel like that's controversial at all. I agree with you. I think this was a pretty lopsided decision here, especially after Aaron McKenzie got dropped in round one. I thought he was going to get finished there, honestly. I don't hate the two rounds, especially when the tides are

are rolling like that and obviously they have to keep it concise for the show. Yeah, I was okay with it. I was okay with it. Nice to see them leave round one for the first time. Yeah, I don't know if we needed to see more. Like, I was the opposite of you. I was true. And I saw how much time was left in the episode.

I'm like, oh, gosh, are we getting a full? It's going to be two rounds, two even rounds, sudden victory. And Connor McGregor said after something to the effect of like, if we had more time, it might have gone differently. I assume he meant, like more time to work together before the fight. That's what I thought. That's what I thought. Okay.

Not another round. I'm crazy to be like, yeah, we had another round and this would have, this would have ended differently. No, I think he was talking about training. Yeah. It was just, listen. And again, I want to say McKenzie landed some good shots, but Hubbard, great chin, very experienced. I'm trying to see Hubbard in his career. He's never been knocked out, so never been chaoed.

McKenzie was the tough one, dude. Yeah, that's true. He took that huge, he took that huge upper-cutting. But then the knee, like I thought he was definitely going to be out. It was bleeding like crazy at the end of the first round. And then survived the five minutes in the second round as well. I mean, it was, I was like, wow, we're going to get another first round finish here. And I don't like to cheat with like how much time is left.

Like you can kind of get a sense of what was happening. I thought he was going to, when Hubbard was on top, I thought he was about to finish him in the first round. And then we were going to get into some drama with the Timor-Ville fight. that got mentioned at the very end. Because the whole episode from like 10 minutes on, I was wondering, I was like, all right, what are we doing with that Tamir fight? Like, are we going to mention that or now?

Yeah, I'm amazed they don't do the cliffhanger. Because you're right, this would have been the perfect if they'd gotten lucky with the time, not lucky with time, but had the chance with the timing working out. This would have been the perfect time to do kind of like a cliffhanger thing. Like you end with the Timor, Trevor Wells,

like, because they teased it on the next episode of the Ultimate Fighter thing. Like, there's going to do some weigh-in drama. Like, are they going to do a catch-hander? rate, are they not? And that discussion should have started at the end of this episode. And then you do the cliffhanger. You do a classic reality TV cliffhanger. Will Tim McGregor agree to a catch rate? Or will Timor have to cut down to 135 pounds again? Find out next. And again, I know they kind of did that because they teased it, but I think you're right. It would have been nice if they

showed us just showed us an actual segment on this episode. And then you wrap that segment on the next episode. But I'm not a reality TV producer. What do I know? They're pretty tight with there they're scheduling. I had to say a couple notes from the fight. I thought it was some great referee work by Mark Smith. He was staying active, telling him to work, told him to watch the digits at one point when they were in the clinch, called out a fence grab.

I thought that was great stuff by him. I'm still a little bit thrown off when they announced the winner. It's just the referee being like, and the winner moving on, Austin. But he doesn't even say his full name. I love how we're just on a first name. this and we're announcing winners. But yeah, other than that, I mean, pretty, pretty one-way traffic for Austin Hubbard. It looked close in the beginning, especially when Aaron McKenzie picked him up and just slammed him

down, wasn't successful with it at all. But it looked like it was going to be much closer. But yeah, the vets are having a ton of success. Hubbard's take down defense was sensational. There were some times where he was, I thought he was like tipping over almost onto his back, but just has enough, like, balance and agility to spring up. And I mean, that's a veteran. That's a veteran right there.

He's probably been taking down many times early in his career. And, you know, maybe those days are over. But Casey, I wanted to ask you quickly, would you have given 10-8 to Hubbard in round one? Actually, that's one of my notes. I would have no issue for 10-8. Yeah, I had 10-8. Could easily be in 10-A. I'm a big half-point guy, so 10-8.5.

Yeah. So no issue. And second round was easy 10-9. It has to be a 10-8 because you can't score those rounds the same. But yeah, the point being it was one-way traffic. McKenzie, is that his name? I don't know. McKenzie looked, I mean, he held his own for a couple of minutes,

but then once it went downhill, it went downhill. And good on him for being tough, tough. But there it is. Well done. Yeah. But, yeah, if you, if you, come out of a fight and we're just talking about how tough you are. That means you got your buck kit.

Usually, yep. This was Austin Hubbard. And he had to go to the hospital. He had to go to the freaking hospital. Yeah, the closing shot of the episode was an ambulance. He got the worst beating of the first three fights, the guy that went to the decision. He got the worst beating. So, yeah, not a good night.

Not a good night for Team McGregor again. It was tough. And, yeah, not a good night for Team McGregor. That was the number three evaluated O'Connor-Megger fighter out of four fighters. Austin Harbor was number two on Michael Chandler's team. So yeah, Michael Chandler's team cruising 3 and O. I want to get into a little bit of their backgrounds because this whole episode, there was some of McGregor stuff, we'll get to in one second.

This whole episode really was just the fight. It opens right on talking about the fighter backgrounds. And like we said, we had a 10-minute fight plus commercial break. So, yeah, it really was just a whole episode. We learned this was the strangest prospect veteran matchup yet for anyone who's kind of, I don't know, has not been paying attention to our previous episode. or just is this the first episode you're watching. Yeah, it's very strange because prospect is simply defined as the team with guys who have not

fought the UFC and the veterans are guys who have fought in the UFC. But this leads to walking things like today. You have 34-year-old Aaron McKenzie, the prospect against 31-year-old Austin Hubbard, the veteran. Austin Hubbard does have a few more pro fights, about seven more pro fights. But get this. They both made their amateur debuts in 2012. They both made their pro debuts in 2015.

So they have been in the game, maybe, you know, different amount of fights. They've been in the game for the same amount of years. One of them is a prospect. One of them is a veteran. It's just getting silly. I think at this point we just have to accept that the veterans fought in the UFC, the prospects have not. I don't have to accept this.

This is silly. I'm going to point this out every week. They call them prospects. They're not. It's veterans versus dudes who haven't fought in the UFC. Yeah. I guess that's new guys that have been cut from the UFC, guys that haven't been cut from the UFC.

That is such, it's just such a weird designation. And then like, I mean, I was going to say, I'm surprised we didn't lead with this. I felt like it was the biggest news. Aaron McKenzie. Not just one dog, multiple dogs. And two cats. And two cats.

So here's where I was wondering. I actually wrote that down. I have all caps, all caps on my notes. Like it takes up three lines. I was writing so frantically. Oh, no, Aaron McKenzie has dogs. No, he's going to lose three dogs, two dogs. How many dogs is it?

And then later I write cats. Could cats potentially be the antidote to the dogs? Does it level it out? And that's how you get to win. But no, if you're showing your pets, you're losing the fight. Oh, and three so far. Oh, and three so far. Nate Jenerman's three-legged dog.

Mando Gutierrez's adorable, what was Mando Godier's dog? His adorable dog that he took everywhere. Was it asked me, was it? Harley, Harley. Shout out to Harley. Shout out to Harley. Was McKinsey also wearing a hat during a lot of the show? Was he one wearing the little? Oh, he was wearing that black flap room, which by the like the full round like sun hat.

Yeah. The post-fight interview with him when he was wearing the hat and his face was just like, dude, his face was brutal. I see why they sent him to the hospital. Yeah. So pets, you get beat up. hats. Hats aren't going to go. Oh, you're not. Okay. I didn't have me confusion with the hat data. But yeah, oh and three guys. Oh and three with fighter. As soon as they showed it, I'm like, oh, we're going to we I know we're going to talk

about this. And I'm a new. It's the biggest storyline so far of the entire season. I totally get to that, but he was like, no, let's talk with actual fight. I'm like, no dude. But yeah, Connor, you were correct. You were correct. And G. C, I'm with, see, I'm a cat guy. I'm a big cat guy. So I did think, so I was ready in the in the event. Yeah, no surprise to see him. In the event that McKenzie won, I was going to say, well, you can thank the cats for that. I think the cats offset the dog factor. But no, now we're just talking about pets in general.

Yeah, pets in general. It's not going well. They got to stop showing. I don't know, stop showing them or it's just, it's rough. I mean, at this point, like the tape has been made and you're just going to have to live with it. I'm really curious to see how this continues to trend because it's gone from something we have to watch to something that you can't not mention if we see it moving forward. I'm so like I'm anticipating it every time like are they going to show this this fighter's pets and only one it's weird each time like is it just convenient that each fighter like they've been matching guys with pets are they are they are the other guy not showing their pet or something because I imagine a lot of these fighters don't have them I mean that's what it could be now not only is this like this is a huge storyline I mean it's going to absolutely explode this is going to be something really really real if we get a Chandler fighter shows his dog and he loses the fight Then we know.

Then we know. I think we already know, but then it turns into like, this is crazy. Like, this is absolutely crazy. We need to start finding out what actual UFC fighters have dogs. And then this could become a huge investigation. This is going to get some no-bets bard play. This could get some no-bets bard play in the future. Who knows? Who knows? Who knows?

No, pets, barred. Keep an eye. No, no. Or pets should be barred, maybe. Yes, actually. Speaking of Chandler. Next week, Timor Valle, he was like, I hate puppies. He's going to win.

It wins my first round flying me. Oh, no. We're talking about Chandler, Michael Chandler. Again, not zero interaction between him and McGregor this week. So that you were planning to have a second one of the week. Who didn't show up for the way ends for the third straight week? Again, we will say someone, I don't remember if it was in the YouTube comments or someone mentioned us on Twitter or someone to end me.

I can't remember. It's possible that some of these way-ins happened on the same day because I don't know, I don't know if they actually do a fight every week. It might be, there could be weeks where they did two fights, but they just show them, like two fights in the same day, but they just show them, break them up until weeks. You know, you guys know a lot of production. You know all about movie magic. So it's possible that some of these wayans are showing are like two fighters. They're not having a fight a week or they're having multiple fights a day. We just don't know.

I would not surprise me if there was some weeks where they had two fights. Okay, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie, if I'm not mistaken, McGregor was wearing the same suit as he was during the Landau-Vanada fight. Right. A mando-a-mando fight, Mando. Yes, yeah. Did I say Lando-Van-A-Lando.

He'll be on the next ultimate fight. He'll be on the next ultimate fighter season. Don't worry with that. Sorry. The Mando fight, if I'm not mistaken, it was the same suit. McGregor is not the type of guy to wear the same suit, especially during one season of tough. Also, this is besides the,

the point, but I've just been kind of interested in the timeline. They showed a clip of the fighters watching the UFC fights. They were watching Jordan Wright versus Zach Pauga, which took place on February 18th. That kind of gives us an idea of when this was happening. Also, McKenzie was jogging on the treadmill right before he left, and you could hear in the background countdown for UFC 284. So this was all going down in February. It looks like they were leaving maybe the first week of February, then we're already getting into the fights, you know, mid-February. So I am under the belief that these are not one fight a week, that they are doing multiple

fights in a single day. Yes. Yeah, they have to be. They have to be. So we don't know. We do, it does look like since we've seen three fights already, I would think they haven't done three fights in today. So McGregor probably has missed more than one way in, but I don't know if it's three

way in. I don't know if it's one way in. I would guess at least two. but we'll see going forward. I have to wonder now, was this part of his contract that he doesn't have to do it and also that they're also

don't make a storyline out of it. Again, I'm just speculating. Who knows? Maybe my episode four. Part of his contract was not to actually coach. It's the way ins. What kind of coaching can you do with the way ins, Casey?

He wasn't jumping in. Michael Chandler is there. He wasn't jumping in into the cage between the rounds. Like Michael Chandler, as soon as round two ended, jumped in and it was just like just in case,

By the way, like the way they're doing with Connor kind of this roving coach. Yeah. That is completely like illegal. Like the coaches have to stay in the corner. And so McKinsey has his coaches in his corner and then an extra coach in a very expensive suit. Moving around the Hococat. Yeah. G.

And there's still O in three. G.C. I think he mentioned this last week. He's doing. Yeah, he's doing like he's at BKFC like he's yelling at Eddie Alvarez or something. Like he's just like he's in the audience. not actually part of the coaching team? My favorite clips were when, like, the two fighters were up against the cage

and you can just see McGregor, like, faintly in the background, just moving side to side, like, screaming. It was, it's great. Well, he had, listen, he got plenty of camera time this week. I think that I'm glad that they're putting so much emphasis on it, because, look, he's the draw of this season. It was a big deal getting him back. With respect to Michael Chandler, again, whatever, good coach.

He's winning on the show. You know, congrats to him, and he's certainly got a personality. But this is the McGregor show. And we got a couple of moments here. I want to talk about, of course, there's a moment where he meets a young man who makes, who made custom McGregor action figures, which is great. And then, but I want to talk about when, earlier in the episode, McKenzie kind of had this weird body injury. And I'm going to read out Connor's advice to him.

I wrote this down. I quoted it. So Connor tells him how to deal. He says, close your eyes. Feel where the pain is. put your hand right on the pain. Feel yourself grabbing it out of there and it going literally there. You can feel it there.

It's no longer here now. You can actually feel it here now and he's like making a fist. Really, really feel it. And then you just get rid of it. Anywhere in the body as many times of the day, maybe there's a little bit left. And then I got to go back and do it again. Really feel yourself taking the pain, whatever the pain is,

condensing it into a fist like a little pebble and throw the pebble into the ocean. Plenty more fish in the sea. That was my very first-notice. the sea part. Sorry. I didn't get the fish in the sea part. I don't think it got away from him, Casey. It got away. Okay. Yeah. Fish in the sea. Like what? I don't know. Okay. I was hoping you could explain that. Not only was this my very first note for the episode, but Aaron McKenzie also was kind of like, what the fuck is his dude? He did not engage. He did not engage. He just kind of looked at him and then he was like, there's plenty of more fish in the sea and he's just like, nice. And then it just cuts to the next scene. It was, it was a little awkward. It was a little awkward. And again, if you're McKenzie,

you're like, I'm in serious pain here, bro. Just like, just let me, I just kind of go, I'm going to go to see the doctor, you know, whoever the, I'm going to try it. I'm definitely going to try it next time I have any sort of pain. I'm going to go to the dregor, and I'm going to try and pebble, fishing in the sea. I am going to give it a try, see if it works. McKenzie, that's just the way his ribs look, because when they first showed it, I thought we were about to lose another fight because I thought one of his ribs was, like, actually protrude. rooting out. Like I was, I was pretty worried for a second there, but I guess that is, that's actually just, that was his ribs look. Yeah. So, hey, hey, listen, we asked for Connor,

we got Connor. It was just like last week, we liked him giving the advice. It was, which was, again, all over the place, kind of the scattered advice, which I think if you listen to like parts of it, it sounds like it makes sense, but then when you put it all together, you're like, what is this guy talking about? But, yes, that's, that's, that's, that's a record, rare stuff. One quick thing I thought it was weird, too, at the beginning when they were actually showing some coaching, which I liked, but they were showing coaching that had no actual it didn't connect to the actual fight.

They extensively went to, here, here's how you catch a low kick and then counter. So I was like, ooh, this is foreshadowing. He's going to catch one of Hubbard's low kicks and pop him. There was none of that. It's just, all right, cool. We're just doing a drill. I thought they were foreshadowing as well.

I'm actually kind of glad that they weren't foreshadowing because last week one of the fighters predicted, maybe it was two weeks ago, one of the fighters predicted that that the Chandler fighter would win by a flying knee and then he ended up winning by a flying knee. Yeah, Lee Hammond, yeah, that was cool. This week it was just a lot of, oh, this guy's really, both guys, both guys are the same story. Oh, they're really, really, really, really tough, really well-rounded.

It's got a lot of heart. And I'm like, I don't think this is foreshadowing any. Well, I mean, we saw McKenzie's heart. Before I get to the second Conner segment, actually, Casey, while we're talking about some of the training and sort of the grappling, I want to get the undefeated fighter insight. I saw a Hubbard using a cravat a lot to counter some of McKenzie's like grappling tips against the fans and also on the ground.

You're trying to kind of open them up on the ground using the ground. I don't see a cravat a lot in MMA or maybe I'm just not paying attention. Did you notice that? Is that something you practiced a lot that cravat? I mean, there's lots of wall drills you can do. I just thought when I was just watching it's, okay, they expect McKenzie to do a lot of wall wrestling and try to take him down. So it looks like that was primarily their

Whatever their one-week training camp for this guy That's I think that's pretty much all I took that Yeah I just haven't seen that often in the UFC Maybe again maybe I was not noticing G.C what did you think of the second big McGregor segment This was previewed on the last episode Him meeting him meeting a fan who makes cool custom action figures And then there was an exchange an exchange of goods

You might say Yeah the exchange of goods was the exchange of goods was I mean, impressive. I mean, to pull out a wad of hundreds that large from your, I believe, was he wearing sweatpants at the time? That was huge. Pull that out of your pocket is, I mean, that's just like big baller moves. You have officially made it. The kid's reaction, like his mouth just completely just draw, jaw on the floor was great. And I mean, I think it's cool, dude. Like this kid has obviously put in work to these action figures.

He's proud of them. And then to be able to sell them to one. one of the guys he's created them for is a moment that he's never going to forget. Like that as long as that kid lives, he is going to tell people that story about how cool it is. And then he got to be on tough too for it. So I mean, like he made the kid's day. He made the kid some money. And honestly, it seemed like McGregor was like really happy with the action figures.

Like he was talking like pretty passionately about him. He was really excited to bring him back to his kid. If you can see right above me here, this, this McGregor pillow, when he came in. in studio for the MMA hour, we had one of these. And he was just like, Ariel was like, you can I have it if you want. He's like, really? Like, really can I have it? Like, I'm seeing my kids tomorrow.

They would love this. I would absolutely love to bring it back to him. And he took it. And then like he's posting pictures of it, like getting on to the private jet with them and everything. And he took it back all the way to his kids. So like, I actually believe this is something that like he loves giving his kids like cool toys.

It's hilarious that they're always of him. And yeah. So I thought it was a cool moment, man. Make the kids day. make McGregor happy, make McGregor's kids happy. It was a nice little touch. Yeah, I think it seemed genuine enough. And like you, young Samuel Romero had two McGregor figures.

So you had the business. I see you got the business on one side. Oh, yeah. Then we got here. There you go. Yeah. Who's in the middle? That's Michael Chandler.

What are we doing here? Like, you can't tell that's Michael Chandler? Who do you take it to the middle? I actually cannot tell. I mean, come on, man. Michael Chandler is right here. There's my autographed jersey right there. see Iron Mike signed it for me.

Oh, wow. Gregor signed that one too. Yeah, man. I mean, I'm pretty big on the tough memorabilia, as you can see in my house. That's huge. Getting really off track here, I have to say, this is the first time we've seen you in wherever you're at right now. I have to say it looks great.

Oh, I'm in plant daddy mode. Yeah, plant daddy. My girlfriend's plants. She's the one who takes care of them. It looks fantastic, man. It looks great. It looks like good vibes. It's much nicer than my,

brick wall and alcohol. No. No, I got to get some proper up in the background and then and then we'll be set. One more thing with the action figures. What was the third action figure? Did you guys see that? No,

no, no, yeah. Casey, did you see that? There was the third one. I know there were two McGregor ones. I missed the third one. There was two McGregers at the end that kind of showed all the, all the figures.

I assume Sam might have brought other fighters to, but we just saw the two McGregors and then. There's one in the middle. I think it was like a Matt Riddle, current WWE star and former, UFC fighter, Matt Riddle. He was on the Ultimate Fighter, yes, the Matt Brown season. Yes, he was also in the Ultimate Fighter.

So that was interesting. But again, these are all customs. So he might have just been using Matt Riddle's head for something else. But if anyone out there in the comments knows, please let me know. I thought that was so strange. I swear it was a Matt Riddle, who again, is now a WD wrestler and not a out-of-fighter anymore. But yeah, it was a nice segment. This show, I think, has been pretty good PR for Connor McGregor.

other than his fighters losing, but I mean, it's not really his, you know, but otherwise, they've shown a lot of good aspects. How has it been good PR? Because something like this. So listen, compared to the headlines he's been making. Okay. Okay. In comparison to not being in trouble. Criminal?

Yes. Yeah. He's because GC's right. This came off as a very genuine segment. And I think there is that, I don't think he's just putting on a show. I think there is that part of him that is like really flattered and like blown away that someone. someone would take too much time. I think he does care of most of his fans, things like that.

So they're showing the best sides of him. And that's a really good reason for him to do the show. If there's anything he's getting out of it, there's a lot of, I feel, like, image rehabilitation. I'm not selling people that they should love Connor McGregor after this, but if there's any, there's people, probably people out there still on the fence who are like, watch this and like, yeah, maybe he's changed. I can't wait to see McGregor fight again.

I'm back on. I'm back on the McGregor bandwagon. So it's possible. I like the, it's possible. Singing in the beginning when he was talking, like, we're getting to do what we love, you know, be happy to be here, singing while we work. So I guess there's been a couple nice moments.

How did you feel, G.C., I can't remember if they did it last week. I think they did, though, that it's just like immediately, we kind of talked to a little bit. Now that you've, you know, you've obviously got a good feel for the format because it doesn't really change. It just launched right into the fighter stuff. We did see McGregor because he was training with them,

but it's really right into the fighter stuff. I'm surprised they don't do like a bit of a cold open showing like something funny that happened in the house or something funny that Connor McGregor did or something inspiring that Michael Chandler did. It's really right into it. Do you think that they should, they could do a better job of like, you know,

really pulling, pulling the viewer in once they, you know, once those credits roll? Yeah, I mean, of course. Like I want more McGregor. I want more Chandler. I want more stuff from the house. I want more behind the scenes. I want more drama.

Like I want to get to know these guys. better. I want the good moments. Just being the fighters this week, I felt was definitely less entertaining than last week episode. And respect to both guys, McKenzie and Humbert, but like,

their personalities don't fly off the page if I'm putting it nicely. I don't know if, I don't know if that's being mean, but... No, I mean, they don't. Like, they have good stories, especially the Hubbard stuff, it's nice to see a guy win, especially after I think he lost his brother,

his wife lost the child during pregnancy. He carries around the ashes of his brother on his necklace. He's talking about, you know, the financial hole he's been put in from going to training Colorado and getting cut from the UFC. That's why I enjoyed that part a lot. That's actually the part, the reality show part I want to see more of the,

as far as the vets. Like, I was there and then I'm not there and how that kind of devastated in my life. And almost, it kind of implied that it kind of financially ruined him too. That he said, basically, I'm broke and now I work for my, I work for my father-in-law. Yeah, he had to move to Colorado to train with elevation, yeah. Which I think is a pretty bad indictment of what it being a pro fighter is really like, even though, how many fights that Hubbard have in the UFC? Like four or seven.

Oh, seven. You fought seven times in the UFC. and then once you're done, you're completely broke. I mean, that's just... It's crazy, man. You know, I'm trying to say here. So I enjoyed that part, that bit of actual reality. I thought that was actually the best part of the episode for me,

as far as actually learning something about the world and the fight world and stuff. I'm almost surprised they would show it because... Me too. Me too. This show is... About how broke fighters are. Yeah. And this show is...

this show, especially the vets. If it was one of the prospects, I'd be like, okay, this kind of makes sense. This is a vet. These people are fighting to get into the UFC and quote-unquote change their lives. This guy essentially said, I've been to the UFC, and it was great. It didn't really change my life. I'm back at Square One. Yeah.

I did the walk seven times into that oxygen. Bruce Buffer said my name seven times, and I'm freaking broke and working for my wife's dad. I'm in drywall. It's a little surprising. It kind of makes you feel bad a little bit. Yeah, absolutely. Whoever, especially, you know, Aaron McKenzie, too. Like, it's not like he's, like, doing unbelievably well.

And he's constantly talking about how much of a struggle this has been and how his family are the one that have pushed him through it. And, like, he's trying to obtain that success. Like, it kind of makes you feel bad for, like, whoever ends up losing, whoever ends up not getting the shot. And there's still a world where Austin Hubbard moves on and then ends up not winning this and doesn't get back into the UFC. But, yeah, man, it's, it really is, like,

because, like, that's, he's doing hard work, too. Like, it's not like he's back at an office job making, making $150K a year or something like that. Like, he's grinding for every dollar he's making, man. It really does kind of make you feel bad for him. And again, a guy with his experience, this is the other troubling thing about the vets is they just shouldn't have to jump to the UFC back of the UFC. Like, if they went back in the regional scene, one two or three fights, won a regional title, there's just be signed.

Like, you guys just get new contracts. Like, making them go through the show is just ridiculous. But that's on, hey, this is this is, this is, this is, this is, is reality v this is this is how they want to do it uh again people can say they're getting free exposure i don't know if i love that argument so much but uh that could be uh that could be how you know how you sell people on this but real quick i want can i think a quick note of one part of the show i do not like i just think is extremely boring and just pointless is when they show there was a couple minutes of screen time they go to i think it's right before they're

walking to the gym for the fight day they go to all their roommates and teammates to kind of sell them on how good they're how good mackenzie is or how good hubbard is bro you just met the guy like a week ago your roommates is like you're you were forced to live together like i don't i don't that doesn't mean anything i don't you get that impression too like i'd rather hear from the coaches chanler or connor or the fighters themselves i don't i don't know it was just kind of pointless and they do it every week mhm j c i don't know how you feel about that yeah i mean the the the formula exposes itself more and more every week It seems like.

It feels like by the time we get that episode. It's only week three too for you. That's what I'm saying. I feel like by the time we get the episode eight or not, I'm just going to be like, all right, here we go. Cue the roommates talking about what they think of the fight and take the walkouts now. Like it's just like you could almost produce it yourself. Yeah, I mean, it feels like it's going to start to get old after a while.

Like I feel like I'm almost kind of looking forward to the first round being over. We already know all the fighters' backstories. And then we can really just get heavy into the fights and heavy. into the drama of the house and I feel like it's going to get more contentious as the days go on and just give me more, give me more McGregor and Chandler too.

Like now I'm not banging on the drum. Like we need more McGregor and Chandler. GC, trust me, actually, yes, I hope that's the case, but I'll tell you something. Traditionally, this series actually gets, I don't say, not worse, but maybe less compelling as it goes on

because, yes, you're right, at some point you do know the fighter's stories and then they don't have a lot to show. And then at some point, they start doing two episodes of, two fights an episode, which sounds cool on paper. But again, if you want to, we have so many outlets for watching fights now, it doesn't quite have that thrill that it needs to.

But you know what? Listen, I don't want to be pessimistic. I don't want to spoil your experience going forward. Maybe you'll love it when the competition speeds up a little bit. I can't say. The last note I'll have before we, I think we're about ready to wrap this up. But the last I did want to say, and producer Casey and I were talking about this before the show. GC, what's going on with these episode titles?

Because so if you look and see in the graphic. We've got the episode titles. I'm sure if you look up in your channel guide, when you guys are going to fly to flip around at ESPN, you have the title there. It doesn't like show up in the actual episode. But this episode called No Easy Path, following last week's a hefty price to pay.

Why is this episode called this? You see, what do you think these episode titles? What the hell is going on here? All right. So like episode one made sense. It was a notorious return. Perfect. I just feel like they're just grabbing like

dramatic cliches at this point. Like a hefty price to pay Almost made no sense I really don't know what that meant And then no easy path I don't know I thought like a hefty price to pay Should have been this week's episode Because Connor paid like thousands of bucks

For those always That's one one thing How much do you think he paid? I saw at least a G I think he gave the kid at least a gram I thought he eventually said How about 12 for you? 12 one hundred dollar bills

$1,200? Yeah yeah Okay I mean oh wow Yeah it looked at it was definitely over a thousand It was definitely over a thousand Yeah And for like a kid like that, that's about a million dollars. Oh my God.

And it being from McGregor, too, makes it priceless. Yeah. He might not even spend them. Actually, I would. But yes, that was a hefty price to pay. But that is not the name of this week's episode. This was no easy path, which does, I just don't think specifically applies to anything regarding either fighter, anything that McGregor or Chandler did in this episode.

I guess it's just, you know, in general, to get back to the UFC, it is no easy path. To get there in general. Yes. I feel like that could be episode four, five, six, I don't know. You could name it any episode. Any episode can be named no easy. They should have been fish in the sea. Fish in the sea, we're perfect. What a great name.

If I were to saw that episode title, I'm like, ooh, I got to find out why it's called fish in the sea. Yeah. I was surprised they don't just take him a Grigger, like something he said on the episode and use that as the episode title, right? I wish we were at a point where I was like, I want less McGregor and Chandler. What? Like I'm saying, like, I wish there was so much. I wish they would just knew what the drawl of the show was that they were like shoving it down our throats.

And I was like, I less, please. I want to know more about the fighters. Lesson, you got a tune every week. That shove is coming. The shove, G. That's where we're going to get to that shove, baby. I have one more note that I thought was interesting. Oh, G.

Before you do that, I just say Casey and I were, one thing about the, titles we were joking like this used to be how like the ufc named events they used to be like ufc 65 bloodbath and like it feels like these are unused like they have these sitting in a pile like yeah let's just no easy path or the other the other thing we compared the two was one championship when they sadly stopped naming their events last year and they had like championship of lions duel of elephants when they finally do book connor versus chandler it'll be ufc 295 a notorious return Yes, use it again. Use it again.

All right. Sorry, Cheritjee. What was your last note? No, no, no, no. The note that I had, which is actually funny that I said Lando vanata on the show, because now that I look at it, my notes also say Lando Vanada. I don't know if we can see that. Why was you?

I don't know why. The Mando Lando thing. Oh, yeah, you can also see my Aaron McKenzie note about the dogs. They're all caps. It is all caps. You're right. As fast as possible. Yeah, the Mando Gutierrez.

Mando Gutierrez, yes. Him rocking the hat again. Still, we have gotten no explanation behind the hat other than it just being a hat. I did find it kind of interesting, kind of funny of them talking about their families, like not wanting to come to the fights. I know that happens with a lot of fighters. And Mando Guadierrez's mom finally deciding to come to a fight. And then he said he got his ass beat and now shot.

never come to another fight again. I thought that was that was kind of a funny note. That's tough. That's tough. That is tough, as they said. Yeah, I glad we got to see a little bit in the house watching. Like you said, they watched the ultimate fighter. We said we have to hear from Mando a bit.

By the way, that card that they were, I don't want to say, forced to allow to watch, I guess, was terrible. Was that the Stan Cry Love card? No, this was. No, this was Vegas. Oh, was it supposed? Oh, gosh, was it? This was Vegas 69.

And Moomis. I had to look this up. So means Allen ended up main eventing? No, no, no, no. This was Aaron Blanchfield, Jessica Androzra. So a nice main event turned out to be a pretty compelling and important main event. But the rest of the card, the fight they were watching, Zach Paga, Jordan Wright was. Where in the card was that fight?

Just curious. Which, Paga, Jordan, right? Yeah. That was the penultimate fight. That was the final fight. That was. Oh, God. Yes.

I'm surprised. Why didn't they show the Blanfield Andra? I guess they had to go with what they were commenting on. So, no, that's not true. You just edited. That means when the main event came out, everyone just left. No, that's not. I mean, they were like, I'm dead.

Like, they could, they could get to the right fight. They're like, I'm out of here. No, I bet they were so, like, enraptured by the main event. They didn't talk at all. So there's just like, oh, we can't show this footage. They're not talking. Like, they're not saying anything. I actually remember this fight night pretty well.

It was, uh, yeah, it was pretty bad. It was, I mean, pretty bad as it. Jamal Poghs. Jamal Pogh, Josh Prizian, Marston, yeah, William night. I remember that that Powell, the Jordan Wright fight, too. I mean, it was just, it was just an absolute clench fest the entire way. I mean, the control time. Like, they have a week of whatever.

I don't know how long the footage, how much time, how much they shoot in that house. But like, yeah, that was just weird. They just showed that fight. And then I don't know. I think they showed that because Zach Pauga was on the ultimate fight. Yes. And they were like, oh, that was a rough. And then he went and fought Jordan right.

He had zero takedowns, but man, she got nine minutes of control time. If you want to know anything about that fight. So bad. Listen, this is the toughest term. tournament sports. All right. They called that for a reason. And part of the toughest tournament is being forced to sit through it probably all seven,

all seven hours of that terrible fight night card. I feel, I bet guys were like, oh, okay. So can I go? Can I go work out? Can I go? Like, no. No, we need footage of you guys watching the UFC and commenting the UFC. You do not get to.

No. I miss my family. Can I go to the washroom? Yes, one of our producers will go with you. And then you come right back. All right. So next week, guys, we are getting the Trevor Wells, Timor Valley, Up fight. It looks like they're, again, we mentioned they're teasing some sort of, will it be a catch weight at 145?

Will they just both have to cut down to 135 again? This was supposed to be the episode two fight. But based on the footage we're seeing, it does look like they're going to make the walks. So Trevor Wells, McGregor's number two evaluated fighter and Timor Chandler's number three evaluated, but a pretty big gap in experience here. It looked like Trevor Wells still had a little schmutz there. I'm surprised that the fight's going to still go off. Looked at you still had a little something there. I probably determined it's not, you know,

it's just there, but it's not allergic. It's not contagious anymore. Yeah, I don't know. And also, it looks like we're getting appearance from Wonderboy. Wonderboy, yes. I'm excited for that. I'm looking forward to this. I'm excited for Tamir.

I mean, he's one of the most anticipated fighters on this season. I'd love to see him get back in the UFC. And Wonderboy, yeah. How can it be a bad episode? We could very easily also see Chandler go up 4 and O. Very easily. But hey, Trevor Wells, we don't know. be a big upset i don't know what do you think a believe wells fight would be lined at like

the leave mine oh the os in the oc 400 yeah i'd be up there yeah it'd be up there's like he'd be a minus four minus five easy yeah very big favorite listen at least we're getting a real uh this is a real veteran prospect fight Trevor wells 27 years old eight and three Timor valley of 33 years old 18 and three one no contest so there you go there you go uh DCD all order for Trevor wells Do you want to change colors for a day? I wouldn't blame you. This might not be... Listen, man, you're supposed to be rocking the red and gray for the channel.

I don't have an eye. I'm rocking the best team. The best team of the business right here. Boo. Casey. Oh, sorry. I got caught up in it. No, I like that.

I appreciate it. But yes, that is, listen, that was episode three of the Ultimate Fighter 31. We're chugging along. I don't think the episodes have been bad. Like I said, we're getting... Even GCs, it's getting a little, a little rote already. But there's been enough drama, enough Bazar McGregor behavior that I think we're still having a relatively good time. We've got seven, six more episodes to go, I think.

Oh, is that it? This is only nine episodes? Ten, ten, ten. So six, yeah. Oh, sorry, seven, seven, seven. Seven episodes to go. Yes, yeah. Seven more episodes to go.

But yes, listen, I love the best part of guys doing this show with you and getting to talk tough. I should tell people, you know what? I shall help people leave any questions, comments, of course, in the YouTube. And you can hit up my DMs, frankly, on Twitter at Alexander K. Lee, just as the name suggests, just put the app before it. And send me any questions you have about the show in general. Obviously, you know, we can't really talk about the show live necessarily. But yeah, send questions about the show and any lingering things, things we might have missed. If you can figure out who the hell that third action figure was, because I did not know, definitely please YouTube commenters, tell me who you thought that was.

But, yeah, until next week, guys. Thank you, G.C. Connerbergs. Thank you, E. Casey Lyd. This is Alexander K. Lee, signing off for another great episode of Tough Hang. To the Vox Media Podcast Network. With Amex Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too. That's the powerful backing of Amex.

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