MMA Fighting - TUF Hang: McGregor vs. Chandler TUF 31 Reaction | Ep. 4

Episode Date: June 21, 2023

Alexander K. Lee and Conner Burks react to Episode 4 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 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 2 Ghosts in the Machine.

Available now, only from Audible. That's right. Welcome back, everyone, to another episode of Tough Hang, M.A. Fightings' official reaction show to season 31 of The Ultimate Fighter. You guys just finished watching episode four. We've definitely got a few things to touch upon. especially some news more revolving around the show and the star of the show Connor McGregor then maybe what happened on the show itself but we'll get to all that in a second first let me introduce my wonderful co-host G.C. Connor Berks.

Okay, how we doing, man? Still rocking the blue proudly, proudly. Proudly. O' and four, baby. Even given the circumstances, still rocking it. And producer, extraordinaire, E. Casey Lyde. Rocking the pink. He's right in the middle.

He's not taking aside. Undecided. I'm Switzerland. Yeah, listen, Team Blue might still turn around. So obviously, everyone, before we begin today's show, the big news surrounding Connor McGregor this past week were sexual assault allegations that were brought up in relation to game four of the NBA finals in Miami between the heat and the Denver Nugas. This happened at Kasea Center in Miami.

You guys have seen the stories right now. M.A.fighting.com, if you're not aware, Conner Greger right now, accused of taking a woman into a washroom and doing some pretty terrible things. I don't really want to talk about it on air. It's all on enmafinding.com. Really, you can probably read about it everywhere. It was maybe the biggest Emma story. I should say maybe it was definitely the biggest Emmy story of the past week.

So of course, this affects the Open Fighter 31. It has to on some level. And it definitely is going to affect our programming, tough hang. How much? Well, listen, obviously, Conner's the start of the show. We are still going to talk about Connor a lot. If you've seen the previous three episodes, We've done a lot of going, you know, what did Connor do this episode?

That's sort of a major point of discussion. And this week wasn't really any different. If there was any change to the editing this week, it would have surprised me. I think there were still plenty of Connor McGregor stuff. And so the same with us going forward. We're going to discuss the on-screen persona, the on-screen character that we have been, that we have been seeing again for the past three weeks. In this business, I think we all know, you have to separate character and personal lives

from the fighters that we enjoy and watch in the cage. And Connor McGregor is no different. We knew this before the season started. Connor had a pretty long rap sheet. This is not even his first sexual assault accusation. So again, we want people to know, of course, where, where. And if you see us, you know, joking about Connor, talking about his character on the show,

it's not in ignorance of the allegations that are against him. And those should be taken very seriously. But as far as we know, again, this thing is still under investigation. I have heard that the show, again, will proceed as scheduled, of course, no change in broadcasting every Tuesday night, 10 o'clock Eastern Time on ESPN. Again, will they edit the episodes? I have no idea, but it doesn't sound like there's been any changes. UFC's release statement, Miami-Hage release statement.

Again, look all that stuff up on MAAfighting.com. But just want to let you guys know in advance that, of course, we are aware. But we still got to talk about the con man, the star of the show. But the stars of this show, so at four, titled, what is this? Casey, can I see the heart, soul. and brain were definitely Trevor Wells and Timor Valib who got a ton of camera time. We just saw Belive defeat Wells by what I thought

was a pretty convincing two-round unanimous decision. Hunter Brooks, I'd love to get your take on the fight that we just saw. All right, so in my opinion, it was the best fight so far, especially because it went the full two rounds. And I was hoping, I was hoping that we were going to get the third round. I was hoping maybe some of the judges would have scored round one for Trevor Peak. But alas, we're still waiting for that third sudden death round. Trevor Wells.

Trevor, he said Trevor. I think is he fighting this week? Yes, he is fighting this week. What did I say last week? Two weeks ago, I said Lando Vanada. Lando Vanada. No, no, no. I thought we were going to get the third round.

But you mentioned it last week, A.K., the time is starting to mess me up a little bit. Now I'm watching. Now I'm realizing, as they're making it. their walk. It's like, all right, we have about 18 minutes left in this episode. Like, maybe we'll get the third round. But like when Timor took his back in round one, I was like, oh, he's not going to get the finish here because we still have time to kill in the episode. I wish I didn't do that, but I like can't help myself and realize where we're at in the time left in the episode. Yeah. And I think even for me, I still wanted to convince myself. I'm like, oh, man, is Timor going

to get this choke? Like, are they actually going to do something with the format here? And maybe there or some other drama they need to showcase. So maybe they tricked us by putting the fight around, again, the 25-minute mark, which is where a fight would go if it was going to go to a decision. But I hoped. You see, I hoped that they would mix it up, but they didn't. Credit to Trevor Wells, fights out of a tough situation. Yeah, I thought he looks decent in there.

This was a legitimate prospect versus UFC veteran matchup. Wells 27, I think they said on the show, 8 and 3, Valiev, 32, 18 and 3, 1-0 contest. and I think he was two and one, two and one in the UFC, plus the one no contest. If you want to count a loss, he was two and two. Huge experience gap. It was evidence all throughout the episode, probably in the fight itself by the end of it. Should we talk about the elephant in the room or the pet in the room right away, G.C.? I mean, the only reason I even tune in at this point is just to be able to watch the backstories of the fighters and see who's going to have the dog.

And it felt like for a second we were going to get away with no dogs. I looked in maybe I wrote down on my notes. Timor didn't have a dog. He was with a tiger, I think it was at one point. An adorable tiger. Yes, tigers abstained from this rule. They don't count. And then Max.

Max showed up for Trevor Wells. And it was all over from there. I mean, it was written in the stars. You knew it wasn't going to get a one. That's pretty much why he lost round one. I mean, round one can go either way to me, but I was like, ooh, he has a dog. And the sad thing is, they could have easily cut Max out of the edit. They had to, they could easily cut, because Max, it was not showcased like the other pets.

Shout out to Max, the dog. Max was not showcased like the other pets. It was literally the passing mention as he was sort of introducing his family. Like, oh, by the way, this is my boy, Max. And then they moved on. And I thought like, oh, why did they show it? You notice just a little bit of Max, though, it led to the best fight, the best, you know, with the four or two rounds. So this is true.

There's no point by you guys. Why did you rule out the tiger so quickly, Connor? That is a cat technically. We said we saw the cats last week. Yeah, so I didn't rule out the tiger quickly. I did jot in the notes. Let's see. Timor has tiger.

And then immediately after it, all caps. Max, no, fuck, why, Trevor is dead. And that's essentially what ended up happening. But I can't lie. I kind of like it. I like when we see the dog because then I, have someone to root for because I kind of like this gimmick continuum. Yeah, I, listen, when they showed the tiger, I had the exact same thought.

I wrote, does this count as a pet, three question marks? And then I was waiting for the Wells stuff. And then as soon as they showed the dog and even mentioned his name, G.C., you could have given me plus 500,000 odds on Trevor Wells after that dog showed up the screen. I wouldn't have wasted a nickel on it. That's how I would. You may as well throw a nickel out the window. I would not have bet it even give any, and, you know, again,

Believe was a huge, huge favorite either way. So what did you think of the guy's respective backstories? Did you find them compelling? Again, Believe is a bit weird because he's the veteran side. We've seen him in the UFC. He was kind of like, oh, I can't play. I'm finally in the apex. And it's like, you fought in the apex three times.

You fought in London. Sounds strange. I couldn't believe how excited he was to get back to the apex. Like when he stepped into the cage, he was like, it's good to be home. Like, it's good to be home. And this time he's not getting paid. This time he's not getting paid. I mean, it was cool to see Timor's backstory.

Like a guy like that, like I really knew nothing about him other than that he's good at fighting, but to like see his children, you know, the scene where he's going to the beach with his daughter, everything like that, training at Tiger Moytai. I feel like we got a little bit of his personality. On the flip side for Trevor Wells, man, I said it last week. Like, it makes me feel for these guys, like when he's leaving to go to the airport and he's with his mom and dad. And he's like, next time I see you guys, I will have won the ultimate fighter. We've already seen the dog at this point.

so we know how it turned out. But yeah, it just like makes you feel bad because like he kind of puts yourself in their shoes. Like it's just like he really needs this. He's talking about how broke he is. His gas think is always on E. Always on E. Like it makes you just like,

it makes you just feel for them more when they lose. His phrase, exact phrasing was, I am broke as a joke. So he was, I feel that, I feel that Trevor. Listen,

that we all know. The struggle is real. All right. Broke as a joke. Yeah. And listen, Trevor did better than we expected. I was looking at their records before.

And I thought, like, man, Trevor is, but this is even before the dog popped up. Trevor is toast because he talked about having a long amateur career. And it's not like he was like a standout dominant amateur. It might be a good thing. It might mean he was facing like decent competition. And then as a pro, pretty light work debuted in 2018. The first guy he fought was 1 and 38 at the time.

Then a few zero and zero guys. So, I mean, pretty. And then even his later career, a lot of guys hovering around 500. So it's actually, he actually fought a teammate of mine. His two fights ago, he fought at, what was up next? He fought Ricky Scraps. Actually, I don't know if his real name.

That's his nickname, Ricky Scraps. But they put a highlight. Heinrich Vossmer. Yeah, there was a highlight of him getting finished in the show. So in the gym, we're like, oh, that guy that fought, they got beat Ricky, he's on the show. And they're like, he's a prospect. They were like, he's okay. Oh, wow.

That was the talk about it going in, at least in the gym. You really did not like Wells' chance. of winning this. You saw the dog, you knew, you'd heard about it. You were like this away. Oh, Wells absolutely overperformed this fight. Yes, I agree. I agree.

Yeah, to the point where like, maybe because my expectations were so high on Timor, I actually scored a round one for Wells. I don't know if that's just crazy or more because the expectations are so lopsided, the fact that it was competitive. And that first round, maybe that's why I gave it to Wells. I'm not sure. but back to Conner's point earlier, it's like, man,

this is a game show. This isn't real. This is your exhibition fights. Just go to round three. Just go to round three. I don't, I don't know. I'm not,

I'm not saying Wells wins the fight, but Wells, he earned that shot to get his butt kicked for another five minutes, basically. And I think that was my biggest disappointment in the episode, is that we actually had a chance to get a real,

real dog fight. But we did it because they have fake rules and they enforce their fake rules. These are real rules. These are real exhibition fight, reality television fight rules. All right. They're real. They're real. As real as reality gets anyway.

I wonder if Ricky, excuse me, Ricky Scraps had won. Would he be the guy on the ultimate fighter right now? Dude, that's how that's how the sport is. Man, wouldn't that be crazy? When that one fight, you lose that one fight, and just who gets that call the next day. And that's just how it goes. And the other thing I want to say, I was talking about records. I mean, Timor, like if this had happened on a fight night card,

Timor would have been, I would think, like a minus 600 favorite or something. Oh, man, I feel like it might have even been more. Like you mentioned, I looked through Trevor Wilson's topology beforehand, and I was like, wow, this guy has a tall task in front of him. And I agree with a few cases. I mean, he outperformed, man. And I was shocked at how much of a fight he put up. Timor has wins over Harani of Arsals, who I think we just saw a fight in the UFC.

Beck Bullitt, Magam got off. Or he was supposed to fight last weekend. Yeah, he beat Chris Gutierrez. Current top 15, like UFC Bantamweight contender, Chris Gutierrez, back in the day. His first loss, I think he's the first guy to beat Chris Gutierrez. And basically, did I read between the lines? But when they had Dana kind of talking about Timor, Dana basically said, oh, he's really good, but we have we have a lot of dog of stanies that's what it was it was something to that effect there was

a bit of like we have a lot of them so you know we could lose one basically he didn't say that directly but that's what it kind of sounds like to me it felt like to me it felt like to me on these like previous guys that have been cut when he's talking about him he sort of gives like a brief explanation of why they got cut like you know they lost three in a row you know now we're giving him another chance i was kind of hoping he would dive more into the timor thing like the guy went two one and one in the ufc was fighting high level competition his last loss was the Jack Shore, I think. And it's just like, I would have liked to hear like a brief explanation of like,

here's why we cut him and here's why we're giving him another chance. Yeah, he kind of just said like, oh, you know, sort of a shit. You know, Timor feels like he didn't get his shot this first time around. And, well, you know, we don't know why. And it's like, you should know why. It's your company. That's your job, man. And it's not like, the weird thing is it's not like Timor had to fight his way back.

He has not fought anywhere since the Jack Shore fight. That was last March. And he just, so they're essentially like, they could have just. That makes it even weirder. I thought he had fought somewhere. I thought, oh, he must have. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah.

Did not fight. Was just not resigned and now, oh, we're bringing you back. But we were bringing you back. When was that fight? When did he fight? Jack Shore? March? So, like, 12 months ago.

March. Oh, yeah. Okay. 13 months. I'm sorry, 16 months ago. 16 months ago. 16 months ago. So really, not a long time.

So 60 months ago, but they started filming this, what, six months ago? February, February, February, March. So it would have been a year. It would have been a year since his, since he parted ways. Yeah, so yeah, okay. What's the point? I don't know. What's the point of all this?

I honestly couldn't tell you. I honestly couldn't tell you. The pre-in-low show built around to bring back Timor, Timor to the UFC. I thought this is a cover-up story just to bring Timor back to the UFC. Yeah. Listen, Trevor Wells almost to mention that because he really did not look bad, except for, you know, the second round.

One note that I did have, from one max, the dog, to another max, if I wasn't mistaken, I think I saw Max Crosby in the background watching the fights. Obviously, NFL player Raiders defensive lineman that's always at the UFC fights, but he's even at tough fights. I'm almost 100% sure I saw him in the back watching the Timor fight. Did you check his socials after? Did you check his socials? Did you see if he did any Instagram story?

Okay. I would believe it. Yeah. Why would? Listen, this is like a, it's kind of a weird VIP thing. It also could be like one of those things you just show around to friends, right? You know, he's Dana's and I'm sure a lot of the officials in the UFC are friends with a lot of these guys, a lot of these athletes. Oh, hey, like you're in the area.

Like, yo, come by. We're taping. We're taking the ultimate fighter. Come watch a couple of fights. So let's see if he pops up in the background of some of the other fights because, like, we've been talking about. They've definitely filmed some of these, like on the same day. I guess we just have to accept at this point. Connor is not ever going to be in the corner.

And he's not at the way. It's just not a thing, right? He doesn't come to the corner. He doesn't get in the cage in between rounds. And he just kind of roves. Yeah, he'll never be at the wands. I don't know if we want to transition to it, but he didn't even show up for the catchweight meeting.

No, he sent, was that one of his coaches? Who was that guy? I never know who that guy was. It was one of his coaches that's like Ben with him. I don't know if he's a doctor or something like that. But I thought that was crazy. That one, Connor didn't show up. They didn't even have a phone call.

And then the coach is just like, Connor says he wants it 135. And Chandler's just like, no, we're not doing 135. That's ridiculous. We'll do 144. And he's just like, listen, man, like this is between you and Connor. Like, I don't know what you want me to do. It's just like, send Connor. Put Connor on the phone.

Like, what do you mean? Like, this is between me and Connor. It's not between me and you. And then as they're getting up and leaving, Chandler's like, all right, we'll do 144. And he's just like, oh, 135. And he's like, what the fuck is this? Master negotiator. Yeah, like, what is this guy?

Yeah, this guy comes in and he's like, 1.35, we demand it. It's between you and Connor. Like, let me cough between my weight things. I was just like, what is this? And then I felt like the agreement of 142 was just Connor being like, I'm not bending the need of Chandler.

Like, I'm not going up to 144. Just take a couple pounds off. So it feels like I did some negotiating. Yeah, we won. We made Timor cut that extra couple of pounds. Like, we really stuck at home. I felt like Connor's team or Chandler's team, or Chandler's team

would have been happy at 140, but they went 142. Like they even went above it. They're like, first of all, 135 is not a negotiation. 135 was the original way. It's like,

well, we, we proposition 135, the original way. It's like, what? That's not how it works. I also feel like, all the conversation

that happened in Connors' team where they were like, let's try for 135 and at worst, we'll do 140. I feel like the exact same conversation soon as happened for Chandler and they're like, let's try 144 and at worst we'll go to 140. I don't know why they didn't just agree on 140 in the first place. But that whole negotiation between Chandler and random Connor coach, like I just thought that

was just so ridiculous. I mean, yeah, I like how he when he left the room, he did cough 135. And that's that, that was the cherry on top. How he's just like, we demand 135. It's between you and Connor, man. Like, I'm not here to sit here to do anything. Don't shoot the messenger. I wish it was a camera on the other side of the wall when that guy.

I left. And after he cops and he walked away, he just like, got him. I got it. I got it. It's got it. It's not really one 30. I also love that they're like 135, no negotiations. And then the very next scene, it's just like, all right, Connor said I'll do 142.

Like it's like, I liked Michael Chandler being a geek and being like, we already talked to Dana and the executive producer. So yeah, don't worry. Like, listen, I'm like, oh, classic, classic Chandler. He's like me. He's a rule follower. Hashtag Rules rule. And he's like, uh, I went through the. proper channels. I don't know what you're talking about. I've talked to the people that matter

about this decision. But yeah, man, how anticlimactic though was all that. I mean, we, like we said, they could have taxed some of it. They could have stretched it a little bit. They could have tacked some of it on to the end of the last episode. We talked about that on the last Huffang. And, you know, at least made it seem like there was some, there was really no drama. It was incredibly anticlimactic. And you're right, they just landed 142 and that's just what happens. And the fight goes, neither fighter seemed particularly, particularly worried about it. Like, I think believe is smiling and happy the whole show so far we haven't seen anything of him complaining wells didn't seem like he was so like oh yeah yeah let's try and he was just like nodding along

with sort of the machinations of his team and it was listen that that's what's it that's the drama on this show boy that is uh it's not great stuff i did think it was kind of funny the old dude on connor's team when they were discussing it behind closed doors they like he's like let's do 135 and like i just thought it was funny that they're using subtitles for him even though I could perfectly understand what he was saying. Like, Timor has a much heavier accent, and they're not even subtitling him. Yes. The old guy gets the subtitle.

I didn't even realize they were subtitles for. Yeah, that's good. I was going to say, I'm glad they didn't subtitle Timor because they have done that for, you know, pretty much many fighters who don't speak English in the past. But yeah, it's weird. If you were going to do it, Timor probably needed just a little bit of hell. And there's nothing wrong with that. English is probably his third language or something. But yes, I've seen it before.

for other fighters. It is, if you go through past seasons, it's kind of really inconsistent who they do and don't. I think Amanda Nunes, they had her with sub tells before. Maybe this is when her English wasn't quite as good. But even that, I remember that season, I was like, I don't think this is necessary. Like, okay. Anyway, I thought that was a bit strange. As we said, guys, our usual Connor coverage would be a little bit, a little bit muted. By the way, and I forgot to mention to the top, remember last week, guys, when I was like, boy, isn't this show great rehab for Conner's like public image, based on all the dumb stuff he's done of it. That aged really well.

That take aged really well. So again, I don't know how they're going to handle this going forward as far as editing the show. Maybe he did talk to Chandler and they edited it out. I don't know. But I didn't get the sense that that segment was changed. I don't think they've touched it. I almost feel like I feel like everything might just be in the can at this point.

Yeah. But he did one thing this week. Brought in the MNF, NMF, NMF, NIC, NICS, Stephen Thompson, again. I mean, I think you're about to say the exact same thing I'm going to say, Casey. I don't know. Go ahead. Go ahead. Like, Connor posts all these Instagram posts with it.

Like, it's like really exciting and everything. And then he's on the show for, what, 90 seconds, two minutes maybe? And then it's just over. And from a fighting standpoint, it was the most pointless thing for, I felt bad for Wells. Because he mentions, after he loses the fight, there is a quick quote of him in the, in the locker room saying. Man, I wish I got some more grappling training. Yes. I was doing footwork drills of a karate bro against,

and I had to fight Mr. Wrestler from Dagestan, you know. I was like, I was like, when they were doing these karate drills and these footwork drills, I'm like, this is the worst waste of time for Trevor Wells right now. The biggest thing that I'm thinking, I mean, it's cool to learn, but like that, like doing, working 45 minutes on,

on Wonder Boy's footwork drills is going to have no reflection on your performance. Can you imagine? Can you imagine if they were drilling, take down the fence and they're like in the middle of it? They're like, oh, guys, guys, Wonder Boy's here. Sorry, we got to do the Wonder Boy segment for the show. Can we know we got to put aside the takedown defense for now? We got to do like 30 minutes an hour with Wonderboy. And if you're well, it's just like, cool, but all that.

That's what I was thinking. Like, I was thinking. I was like, man, like this is cool that they get to work with Wonderboy. But at the same time, what is an hour going to do? Like it feels like if you're going to see any, you know, pay dividends from this training, you're going to need weeks and weeks with him and like private one-on-one stuff. Like this whole just like, I feel like that's like, you know, a class you could, you could go to his hometown and take it as gym for $150 or something. Pretty much it was. Yeah, that's pretty much it. Yeah, that was my, so that was a note I made actually right at the beginning of the episode.

This was even before Wonderboy showed up, obviously before Trevor lost the fight. I was like, how much work could they really be getting done, especially these. since we know that they're fighting pretty frequently. I guess they had some time to work out before, but I think once the fights start, there's maybe like three or four days between fights or something. Each fighter probably gets me a couple of weeks between fights, but I don't know how much improvement this could be really be doing,

especially for the veterans who I guess are just in there to get reps and whatever and maybe again get their name back up as they go back to the O.C. But even the quote unquote prospects, I don't know how much they can be benefiting from this. Like, Casey, you would, can you imagine working and improving on this environment based on what you've seen? It seems pretty flimsy, right? No, you're not going to get any better.

Basically, it's just getting you in the right headspace and making sure you're in shape. As far as actual fighting, your actual fighting skills, that's 99% set by the time you get there, essentially. And it makes sure that coaches just direct you in the right game plan. Essentially, you know, or you find a wrestler that's, you know, work on our wrestling. that's you know don't bring a karate expert in here right now that's what you should you know

that's what you expect yeah and and listen i wonder like great take down defense i want to believe that is something that maybe we just didn't see on camera but before anyone in the comments goes like oh you guys are missing this great stuff on what's that like tough after i don't know they have a show that's with like unseen footage unused footage from the episode or something else i'm not the only after tough show well this is the only one that matters but i heard this like a bonus footage show guys i'm not going to watch that i'm sorry i know i'm a hardcore tough guy but i have my limits and frankly if that stuff was so good what another show why is it not in the episode why do i these viral social media clips of these Connor and and michael chandler exchanges it's just like put it in

the episode i don't you got an hour a week from me already at late on a tuesday like let me get the good stuff there don't make me go to your damn youtube channel please They see, please, G.C. You're supposed to be the do-eyed, optimistic one. We're only four episodes in. You can't turn on the show this quickly. You got to bring that positivity. Yeah, yeah, look at you. He's already complaining about the show. This guy sounds like me. The remote's getting harder to click on the old ESPN at 10 p.m. every Tuesday. We got six episodes left, buddy. We got six episodes left. No, no, I have breaking news. I have breaking news. We have eight episodes left. This is a 12 episode season.

This is not a tour. Yeah, it ends on August 15th. Oh, boy. And I think we have to do August 15th. Yeah. And I think we have to do a watch party for the finale, right? If it's not a paper, I mean, if it is a pay-view, you're doing a watch-per- If it's not a paper-view, I think we've got to do a watch party for our boys.

I mean, at that point, the payoff, yeah, yeah. Yeah, we'll do it, we'll do a watch party for sure, but. Let's go for the boys. But we only do it for the tough fights. We only do it for the tough fights. Yeah. Of course, of course, of course. We just booed the other fights the whole time.

One other important thing, Connor McGregor did this episode was actually said the episode title. Guys, we have a rationale for the episode title. There it is. Let's go. Put that on screen. Heart, soul, and brain. The first episode called a notorious return. Obviously, made sense.

Connor McGregor was coming back. We talked about the pointlessness of the last two episode titles. I have deprice to pay and no easy path, which again, may have been said during the episode. I honestly don't recall. But this was the first episode, I'm pretty sure that it was said. Connor, I think, was giving Trevor a little pep talk and saying this is how you, this is how you're, you know, you're going to win a fight with your heart, your soul, and brain.

So no complaints, no complaints about the episode title this week, guys. So what did Trevor not use? It was not enough heart, not enough soul, not enough brain? Which part did he not include? I mean, I guess he used all of them. He was just considered the outmatched. If only they had given him more take down defense in his brain, perhaps. I'm going to go, I'm going to have a chance.

I'm going to go brain. So there was a lot of, McGregor is only four. We are halfway home to a clean suite of Team Champion. It's not looking good. All right, so I wish I had saved the evidence for this, but when the show was getting ready to premiere, McGregor put on his story,

it was like a picture of, I think Lee Hammond was one, and it was like, one to watch, and then one other of his fighters, and I can't remember who it was, but it said one to watch, and then the rest, it was just a picture of the whole,

team and it was like they're all ones to watch i wonder if that was like the subliminal messaging that it was like all right these guys are going to win they're going to move on in the season everybody else is going to lose uh i don't know but i know lee hammond was one of them that he was like one to watch so if lee hammond wins that was definitely mcgregor's way of telling us these are the two guys that are going to win the other six are going to lose uh listen if you're the ultimate fighter you got to hope for that hammond is one of the it's like a classic ultimate fighter like this is the kind a person you would normally have a whole cast of Lee Hammond's 5 and 0 27 years old a McGregor protege clearly sure oh yeah I've thought oh did he dirty nasty chalky parlors

and Bellator okay you're familiar yeah oh I wasn't that familiar uh listen okay let's talk about well let me just broadly say I don't like McGregor's chances so far now Hammond does have supposedly the easiest matchup he's fighting uh 36 year old Kurt Holliba, a guy who, you know, had midlinks, not great success in the UFC, 19 and 7. Then we have Chandler's number one, Jason Knight is going to fight Landon Kinones. So we have a Landon and Amanda on this show. I like that for Jason Knight a lot. That's the two remaining lightweight matchups.

Hunter Azure, again, really good UFC guy. Probably shouldn't have even been released. Have we ever seen him in the show at all? As he said one word? That's something I'm going to bring up in a second. So he's facing McGregor's last pick, last, sorry, at least lowest evaluated fighter. Rico de Shullo. And then next week, we have Chandler's number two,

number two evaluated fighter, Brad Cotona, again, UFC veteran, facing Carlos Vera, 35 years old, 11 and 3. I also, quickly, I can confirm Lee Hammond, Bellator 275, fought Jamie Hay as a minus 950 favorite. He won in the first round. I'm pretty sure he was a part of a distinct part of a statement. Was this in Dublin? I want to say this was the Dublin card in February.

of last year, yes. Musasi Vanderford. Oh, I remember that fondly. Oh, okay. So, Casey, remind me to come back to that thing about not seeing Hunter Azure. Okay. But, G.C., I wanted to ask you, so Katona, four years younger, has the UFC experience. They actually have the same amount of pro bouts, Katona 12 and 2, Carlos Ver, 11 and 3. McGregor might not even show up next week to coach against Katona.

Katona's one of his boys. I'm honestly concerned if he's even going to be not even in the corner of there. We know he's knocking me in the corner, but even wandering around Caged side, because Cotona's been training with SBG Ireland for a long time. And I'm really surprised Conner did not try and get him. Because he couldn't have, right? Who's he fighting again? He is fight. Who is Brad Cotona fighting?

Yes, yes, yes, yes. Carlos Cerva. Well, when they showed the, like the clips for next week trying to hype up next week, they did talk about the drama that's going to happen between Cotona and Chandler. I'm sure they're hyping it up and we already saw all the footage from it. It's just going to be like a 30 second thing and they're going to move on. But there was a clip where you heard McGregor and he was like, beautiful shot, Carlos, beautiful shot. So he will be in the building.

That could have been in training. That could have been in training. We don't know if that is actually. The amount of times that man says beautiful shot. I was off. I was wrong with the pants adjustment. It's really when he says beautiful. The amount of times that he says beautiful, if you made that a dream,

drinking game, you wouldn't survive the night. G.C., I need you to put on your No Betzbarred podcast hat for a moment. Give me some odds. With everything I just told you, gave me some odds on this Katona, Vera fight. We already know that Katona won, you know, 12 and 2. The fact that he's won the ultimate fighter, I think, is

huge experience. You mentioned the amount of pro fights that they have. And the fact that Vera is older, I don't think, is going to work out for him. And I mean, do we have any sort of confirmation? I'm looking right now here through his Instagram to see if he has a dog. Just pictures of him at the of the fighting thing. No dog.

So that's going to adjust the line. We'll put Brad Katona minus 350 right now. Oh, wow. That's strong for an ultimate fight. Minus 350 for an ultimate fighter matchup is very high. Wow. That's a lot of comments. We've seen Chandler go four and no so far.

And I just I just know next week, Vera is going to get a call from his girlfriend or wife or partner and being like, guess what? We got a puppy. We got a puppy. Oh, no, no. When you come back. Oh, wait, wait. This is actually sad.

Rest in peace, my friends. Oh, no. It appears both his dogs died in 2019. Oh, God. The friendship you gave me. They are finally reunited. So one of them died. The other had died previously.

That's definitely going to be mentioned on the show. So now, yeah. What does this mean? What does this mean? We don't know. We don't know. This is a wait to see again. Yeah.

New territory. Wow. Yeah. Could the mere mention of dogs who are sadly no longer with us continue the trend? It does not look good for Team McGregor. I will say this. O and 5 is a real possibility to start the show. Casey, yeah.

I touch upon a couple more things here. The not featuring other fighters in the episode feels like such a missed opportunity. because, for example, where is Roosevelt Roberts? We've seen his face. He kind of pops up in conversation. Where is he? He wins the first episode as just gone. Nate Jenerman, nowhere to be seen.

Oh, my gosh. Yeah, I actually, like, maybe when they lose, they get much less airtime. Yeah, clearly, yeah, I think so. Yeah. Those guys go home. I, actually, really. Back to your family, man. You have bills to pay.

Yeah, they didn't make any money there. Yeah, it was, it was, to see Timor and Trevor in the kitchen beforehand. It's just like, man, they're going to get into a war. Yeah. That's also, but again, that's just the guys on the episode. Like, we know those guys are going to be featured. Like, it sucks so much for the other people on the show. Because

we didn't know anything about Trevor before this episode, right? There was nothing featured on other than when him and Timor were supposed to fight in episode two and in the cost postponed, we saw them a little bit, but the show does no building of the fighters outside of the episode that they're on. And really, like

honestly, like it's, it's supposed to be reality show, like the other contestants are supposed to be mixed in. It's not supposed to be like, all right, this is the Timor and Trevor episode, and then this will be the Brad and Carlos episode. And like, it's just... That's kind of a problem with the show in general. Like, they're... The kind of concept of the show is like, here's a bunch of badass dudes.

Let's make him roommates now. But like we don't get a... Yeah, like that should be featured more. There should be some sort of... Like Roosevelt Roberts is going like, you know, I got a big fight coming up. But freaking Jason Knight won't do this. the dishes. Like something dumb like that.

Yeah, I mean, that's, I mean, that they're, why have them living in a house? I mean, that's why a lot of people, uh, even media, media, too, like, wind up liking contender series more because we just kind of get rid of the whole, are they good roommates? Let's just find out if they're good fighters and with a little backstory. And honestly, yeah, if you're not going to feature the guys that lost, why not just let them go home? That's part. It's, that's part of reality TV.

Like, you know, you lose the fight. Yeah. kicked off the island you get kicked off the yeah whatever you here's hand over your jersey i don't know right almost cruel that would be great yeah you had to hand over the jersey after you lost and like dramatically walk out well that is the way it used to be they used to pull up the van the van used to pull up the guy would say his goodbyes and go and it's funny because then the teams would become like shorter it would be weird if a team dominated like if there was like four and oh this season back then literally one team would just have half the amount of people on it and the other team would have

full training room the other team just like wow this is yeah and then you have the the in van camera driving away and it's like their thoughts on they used to do that they used to do that a bit i thought i was going to be the ultimate fighter i guess it wasn't meant to be max i'm coming home great yeah i can't wait to see you but but but in the end the whole team thing is always so stupid because silly the guys on the same team well like as much as roosevelt roberts is going to root for who's in the 55 or i don't know car car holaba or whatever You know, there's going for them this week, but next week, F you, we're the only guys left. You know, so it doesn't even matter.

So this whole, like, yeah, it's just, I don't know. I don't want to go, I don't want to go full old school, but I will say if people want to go back and watch, like, the ultimate fire of the first few seasons, the format was a little screwed up. If you guys didn't even know they were going to fight on the show. They were, they were doing all this reality TV show competitions. And then there's the famous Dana White, do you want to be an effing fighter speech when they, when they were finally told. like, oh, by the way, you have to fight on the show. And they rightfully protested saying, like, wait, are we getting paid for this? And this was, this is back in 2005, so nothing has changed.

But the actual fights were a bit later in the season. I think we didn't get our first fight until, I want to say episode, I'm looking here. Episode three, episode three. So the three episodes in for you even got a fight on the very first ultimate fighter season. And then by that time, we'd actually gotten to know the cast pretty well. So you're like invested in it. You're like, oh, I can't wait to see this guy fight. I can't wait to see.

Or you would root for someone like, oh, I hate this guy, but I love this guy. And they're matched up. They really can't do that the way they have the format now because it is so focused just on this episode about these two fighters. This episode is about these two fighters. This episode about these two fighters. The fight at the very end. Yeah, fight at the very end.

Like it's actually mind-blowing how formulaic it is that it's taken four episodes to have a full understanding of what is about to happen. and they have not strayed from it for the last three episodes. Yeah, I just kind of realized I think that's my only, but the only part, every episode I have a little fun is actually when I go, oh, are they going to have the fight in the middle of the episode? No. And then stuff happens after it.

And I'm always thinking that, like, oh, what was it? Week two when they opened up of a fight, but then it turns out the fight gets canceled. So I was like, oh, my God, that's what they did it. Yeah, yeah. I was like, so I thought, I don't know, there's so many different ways. Or like, the show ends. Imagine if they did this episode where like it goes to the cards after round two, and we don't find out who is round three until next week.

That's a cliffhanger. There's no cliffhangers on this show. I want to say that they have done that on a previous season when they get to like the semifinal. I could be wrong. People in the comments roast me if I'm wrong. I want to believe they have done that on an episode where they knew they would be another fight, They had to have another fight right away on the next episode. But I could be crazy.

I feel like this has been a thing, though, that they have tried the Cliff Herring once or twice. And if they haven't, they should because... Right now, it literally feels like it's just like come in, maybe a little fun thing for 90 seconds or two minutes, give a backstory on one fighter, give a briefing of who's going to fight, show some training footage, maybe something fun, like the weigh-in, the catchway drama, or McGregor goes to the house. backstory one guy show us some more training backstory other guy let's do the fight reactions to the fight

hit the credits in more episodes Connor hey more episodes I'm just a second last thing guys well you guys can tell me if you have any other notes after but I do want to I think this has to be asked again we asked this sort of I think of the first episode again given the allegations against Connor that are happening now Connor McGregor I asked before as McGregor chaner happening this year. I can't remember your responses if you're optimistic. Now I'm at the point I'm asking does this fight happen ever? Because we just saw Armand Sarukian win

this past weekend call out. A very smart call out, Michael Chandler. Listen, he might be free for the next six months. So if you can go after him's name in that spot, you go for it. And he's not the only lightweight that's called fight with Michael Chandler. Does this fight ever happen now, guys? Where's your confidence in it, G.C.? I mean, the confidence is definitely taking a hit with everything that's

going on. And no real date or anything in mind. I'm going to say that it still happens. But yeah, I mean, with everything going on right now, the confidence has waned a little bit. I still think it happens, though. Casey, does a fight ever happen? Could you be convinced maybe February, March of next year? Or does it just seem like?

I was very, at beginning the season, I was very doubtful this fight was going to happen this year. I don't think this fight happens. Wow. You think it's just gone? You think Chandler has to move on? Yeah, Chandler's got to move on. Yeah, at the beginning of season, after when I saw the lineups, this fight's not going to happen, and Chandler's team's going to go,

what A to know? Is that the, what is it? I think, yeah, I think that's what you got. Yeah, they might lose one by accident. Someone might slip up in the antipal, but. Lee Hammond is the hope. Honestly, if Lee Hammond doesn't win, I don't know which one of these fights, I would.

I'm going, I'm going. Yeah, and the two round thing, you know, it's weird, but, yeah, but that's sticking to my predictions. Yeah. Yeah. Because, look, the last two bandtonweight fights, It's Catona 31. I'm not saying age is everything, but Catona is 31,

Carl's Vera is 35, Hunter Azure is 31, Rico DeShullos 36. And again, in both those situations, the younger fighter is the UFC veteran. So it's not looking good for Team McGregor. It's not looking good for Conner McGregor right now, frankly. Again, everything's under investigation. I'm not making any assumptions about it. But, guys, our coverage will carry on.

The show must go on as it is. Again, we do. G. G.C. just told me eight more episodes. So buckle up. Make more, baby. Assuming nothing changes with the broadcasting schedule, which it could, again, it could, depending what happens with these allegations.

You will see Ultimate Fighter 31 every Tuesday, 10 o'clock, ESPN, Eastern time on ESPN, excuse me. And then you'll see us. You'll be coming around guys for tough hang. We get this show. We'll pop up 11-chem. In the W column soon. Why, you need that Lee Hammond fight to come around now because it is not looking good.

It ain't happening next week. Yeah, blues going to win soon. Listen, once the dogs stop showing up, the conversation is going to switch from dog curse to me wearing this jersey curse and I'm just the one cursing team of the record. If Vera pulls this off, we are going to have to have a very uncomfortable conversation about whether he benefited from his dearly departed pets again. It's going to be an uncomfortable conversation, but it's going to be one that we're going to have to have. Well, guys, you can look forward to that on the next episode of Tough Hang, possibly us talking about deceased pets. Wow, what a fun show that's going to be. Thank you, G.C. Connor Birx. Thank you, E. Casey Leiden. That is a wrap for us this week. And we will see you next Tuesday.

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