MMA Fighting - UFC Vegas 106 Post-Fight Show | Reaction To Michael Morales Destroying Gilbert Burns

Episode Date: May 18, 2025

Michael Morales put the entire UFC welterweight division on notice as he ran over past title challenger Gilbert Burns in the first round of the UFC Vegas 106 main event. At just 25 years of age, the sky seems to be the limit for Morales, and he has all the time in the world to reach the top of the division. Following Morales' sensational performance, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Jed Meshew react to the main event win for the surging 170-pounder, where he could go next, and where things went wrong for Burns. Additionally, they react to the bonus winners, Jared Gordon and Luana Santos getting passed over for the additional $50,000, Patchy Mix signing with the UFC and stepping in to face Marlon Vera at UFC 316, and more. Follow Mike Heck: ⁠⁠@mikeheck_jr⁠⁠ Follow Jed Meshew: ⁠⁠@JedKMeshew⁠⁠ 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

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for Michael Morales, the rising welterweight star in the ultimate fighting championship. He just absolutely Merck's Gilbert Burns in the first round. This fight was not really competitive for even a second. Second Morales hit Gilbert Burns. Gilbert Burns looked incredibly uncomfortable. Burns ended up getting a takedown that lasted about three seconds. and the second Michael Morales got back to his feet.

You could see it in Gilbert's eyes. He knew the end to his kneeer, and boy, was it. Michael Morales just unloads with big shots. Herb Dean just chose violence. He just wanted to see Gilbert Burns apparently get really hurt because he took a lot of unnecessary damage there. But Michael Morales out 18 and 0, biggest win of his career. He gets it done in the main event as we welcome you to the UFC Vegas 106 post-fight show

here on MAAfighting.com. Thanks for joining us. And joining me to recap this incredible event at the most incredible venue to watch fistfights, the one and only Jed Mishu, Mr. No Greer himself. How are we doing, Jed? Do you feel like your soul is alive after watching 11 apex fights? It's not just the most incredible event or what a venue. It's the mightiest, Mike.

The mighty apex once again reared its head. I will disagree with one thing you said, though, Mike. I don't think that Gilbert Burns was out of that fight when Michael Morales hit it. I thought he looked out of that fight during the opening presentation, right? Like he was smiling on his way to the ring. Everything. I was like, I was laugh blogging. I was like, honestly, Gilbert Burns looks like really happy to be here.

This cool, good vibes, good energy. And the minute Joseph Martinez started going, I, you know, armchair psychologist could be stone wrong played out that i'm at least look like i'm not totally stone wrong he looked sad like he didn't want to be there like he this was a man facing the gallows and he knew it and that fight played out exactly like that it was much less a fight closer to an execution credit to what gilbert burns has done in this sport uh he's had a fantastic career may still continue i'm i'm not trying to retire the guy though i'm sure we'll have that conversation but i thought before he even got hit. I was very, very confident in this fight in general, but looking at their body language,

I was like, okay, so I know what's about to happen here. It's probably not going to be pretty. I knew in probably the first 45 seconds what this fight was going to look like, because the way I kind of saw was, all right, the way Giller Burns wins this fight is he has to, he has to run Michael Morales over in the first two minutes of this fight. He has to go all, all in. All in. go for the gusto, hurt him, get him to the ground, and just get them out of there quick. Because the longer this fight goes, the punishment is going to come and is tough and as durable as Gilbert Burns has been throughout his career, the way I saw it was the damage was just going to build up and then there was going to be a mercy stoppage in round four.

We got the mercy stoppage in round one. And like you said, it just didn't seem like Gilbert really wanted to be there. I mean, it was just seeing him come out and kind of get into kickboxing range than Michael Morales. I was like, oh, this is not a great idea. I thought he's going to be much more aggressive out the gate because of the dangers Michael Morales presents and kind of gave Mike the fight that he wanted. And what a performance from Michael Morales.

So coming out of this, Jed, what's the biggest takeaway for a guy watching Michael Morales climb the race? I know this matchup was favorable in your eyes. You felt like this could be a quick night at the office for Michael Morales, but comparing him to the Jack Delam Adelanas of the world, comparing him to the Ian Machado Garys of the world, comparing him to even the Carlos Procheses of the world who got the Neil Magni fights and got some main events

and got some big fights along the way. How do you view Michael Morales compared to some of those guys at this point in Michael's career? So I'm going to give you a bad answer to this because the answer is not really about tonight. Because I learned nothing from that fight. I was hopeful that maybe we'd learn something, but it was so one-sided.

It was so clear that this was, again, I'm not trying to get on here in disrespect. Gilbert Burns, who had a fantastic, has had a fantastic career thus far. You can just go look at his recent resume and see he is not what he once was. You know, now a four-fight losing streak. Even his most recent wins have all. come against similarly aged opposition, probably no longer at their peak.

This was, this was just always going to be an uphill sled for him. So I didn't like learn too much from Michael Morales other than that, you know, first main event, the moment wasn't too big for him, delivered. Seems like a good kid out here. Always love the shout out mama, you know, that's right here in the heartstrings. But I had more occasion to think about this, frankly from y'all. listened to the preview show as I was doing stuff this weekend, Friday and Saturday I was driving around through the old preview show on. And, you know, on the preview show, you guys got a question

or somehow the topic of conversation was turned to, is he going to fight for a title one day? You know, will he be champion? And, you know, you guys debated it. And I think you both aired on the side of, I wouldn't bet on it because Walter Wade is so impressive right now. It's on the come up. change over happening. And I thought about it. And I have nothing to change my opinion after what we just watched. I think he will fight for a title. I don't know if he'll hold the belt, but I wouldn't put it past him because he's so young.

He is 25 years old. This kid is, I won't pretend that he's one of my guys, right? I have liked Michael Morales, but I haven't stumped for him in the way I stumped for a guy like Joel Alvarez for years or whatever. Like he's just a guy I like because he is fun, fun and talented. The fact that he is so young, and if you made the point, he might not even get to fight for a title until 2027 without the division stacked up right now. That might be true. He'll be 27 in 2027. Like, that'll be a okay.

And a guy like Carlos Protest who has caught the imagination of the world right now is actually pretty old. And he kind of needs to make hey right now. Jack Della has obviously just won the belt. He is a young man, 28. He could potentially rain for a while, though. I think, as the Machetev presents serious problems. Ian Machado, Gary, I've always thought could have a very successful title reign if he ever gets there. You know, Shavkat's a little bit older as well.

I think Michael Morales might be really well positioned. Maybe not in the next two years to get the belt, but in the next four years, if he keeps adding, keeps improving, you know, doesn't have anything major befall him and just works his way up, the classical way, the Marabhavailishvili way, to get to the top of the division, kind of just chips away. I think he could be in a really good position. I feel confident this young man will fight for a belt one day, and I would not at all be surprised if he held UFC gold at some point before his time is done. He's incredibly talented. I mean, the foundation is there.

And like you said, he's only 25. He's getting, he's in there with wily veterans. I mean, this is good experience, even though he's getting pretty much easy wins here against some guys who have been in main events and been in big spots throughout their career. I mean, Gilbert Burns was 30 seconds, less than 30 seconds away from becoming a UFC champion at one point. Had Kamar U.S. been hurt, almost got a finish,

didn't end up going his way. But Gilbert had some great wins along the way to earn himself a title shot. So where do we go with him? Where do we go with Michael Morales? We'll be doing Otno tomorrow, and I'll have that decision to make. But slowly but surely,

he's going to climb the ranks. Wellterway is just a log jam right now. There's so many contenders. Mike's going to need some things to happen, some fights to take place, some results to go into the books to kind of open things up as he tries to make his ascension

up the divisional ranks. But what's next for him? So looking at the UFC rankings, Gilbert Burns is ranked number eight, which almost always for the UFC means that on Tuesday, Michael Morales will jump up from number 12 where they currently have him ranked to number eight That puts him one spot below Buck walking buckley two spots below ian machado gary kamar usman right in front of them obviously buckley and usman are fighting

Gary is the backup fighter potentially it just was the backup fighter don't really know what's like the welterway picture got real muddled real fast with the inclusion of is a machochev obviously getting the next crack, Jack Della taking the belt. So a lot of balls up in the air. If as they're juggling this all out, he would slot in against one of these guys above him, I think that would be fine, right? Like if it was a, okay, Ima Chado Gary is going to need to fight. Buckley loses to Usman. They're going to do Usman versus Balal.

Shavkat is waiting in the wings for a title fight. Brady's there. You could slot him in and any of that would be fine. I wouldn't be opposed to us taking a slower hand. with him and just saying hey young kid a lot of people popping off at the top of this division right now maybe let's just continue to build deora stephen wonder mucky this is your bellywick not mine i don't know if he has booked that feels like a fight that stephen Thompson could at least feel like he's got a chance in because it will primarily be a striking competition and another opportunity for michael

Morales to develop, get a big name. Guy certainly passed his prime and maybe an opportunity to sort of grow that star more as things sort itself themselves out above him in the rankings. Yeah. He's in a weird spot. It's a little tough. Maybe Jeff Neal. He's just real, really cloggy right now.

Jeff Neal's also fun. Wouldn't hate Jill. I wouldn't hate MVP, honestly. Wouldn't hate that. I mean, it's a tougher fight stylistically, but. Problem is, you might mess around and, like, win a really awful decision. Like, just the worst fight you've ever seen.

But, I mean, do you defeat him Leon Edwards? Do we go that high, that quickly? I mean, Leon is not a position to say no to anything right now. That would only be terrible because they didn't do Mazadol. He can get it. He should do it, right? If he, if Michael Morales gets the call, hey, Leon's up, he should jump at that opportunity. That would be the best thing he could hope for.

If I'm the UFC, I genuinely just might not want to do that because suddenly I've got six people who are all right in the mix. And I need to sort this out a little better than I have right now. But wouldn't be terrible. I use this phrase all the time for the lightweight division. I'm going to have to start using it for the welterweight division because it's so fun now. no wrong way to eat this Reese is Mike throw a dart there's almost no bad answer here maybe Colby takes it actually I don't think

Colby should go anywhere near that I don't believe Colby should or would go near this man yeah so yeah Jeff Neal's a good one Leon if they don't do the Mazadol fight which what are we doing here just do the freaking Leon where it's Mazadol fight MVP's interesting Ficente Lucke who's he fighting Holland right Yes

This is correct Newark right 30316 Yeah Maybe the winner of that It's one of the two coming up That would be fine as well Yeah

That's fine That's probably the most likely I would say That feels most Like what the UFC would look for At this point in time But again Just nothing

Michael Morales is fun Winsie not been in a fun fight No wrong way to do it The only thing I would say, man trains in Mexico, they're theoretically going to Guadalajara, though now that whole weekend has now turned weird, but assuming the plan is still to go to Guadalajara, let this man get out of the freaking apex, put him in front of a Mexican crowd. I know he's Ecuadorian, but he does train in Mexico. Let's have that happen.

Don't really even care who it's against. Any dude will do. Yeah. He should be fighting. he should be fighting on a pay-per-view or a travel fight. Throw him on the freaking Nashville card.

I don't care. Throw him against somebody that people know. It doesn't matter who. It doesn't matter if they're ranked. If Holland, it could be Kevin Holland in any way shape of court. Yeah,

just throw him in there with Kevin Holland. Like, just get him out there and get him fighting. Get him another big win. Have him do it in the next eight weeks, if possible. get right back on the horse let's get this guy over

let's get him in front of more eyeballs and then once they go to Guadalajara throw them on that card put them in a big spot give him a big name Jed have you seen bonuses yet I haven't Mike I have here's the fight I want I've decided and I don't think

they'll do it but they should because it would just be a ripper and a half Carlos Prattis just just do it yeah Stone Cold Bangor that's the most fun way can have and I've decided let's have the most fun. That's, that's my official ought no say.

Carlos Prattis, anywhere with the crowd, don't care, you know, what venue, as long as it's the venue with people at it and not the apex. All right. Hey, I don't think anyone's going to complain about that. When I got a great deal on a great gift at winners, I started wondering, could I get fabulous gifts for everyone on my list? Like this designer fragrance for my daughter. It's just $39.99. How could I resist? This luxurious will throw for my sister. This gold watch for my partner? A wooden puzzle for my niece? Leather gloves for my boss?

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Black Friday. IKEA, bring home to life. Bonus guesses, Jed. We were talking about this a little bit off air, but, you know, in the green room. And I, as we muddled through it, I think there's not going to be a fight of the night. I think I've settled on.

They're going to do four performance bonuses. I will say four performance bonuses go to Michael Morales, Gabriel Green, Jared Gordon, and Luana Santos. Wrong on many things. Wow. Michael Marous is the only correct answer you had. Fight of the night. It was awarded.

Costa Erosa gets Fight of the Night. If they're going to do a fight of the night, that was the one. Denise Gohams gets the one. the other bonus. Not Luana. Come on, man. Like, you've got to give it to Luana Santos. First Americana ever by a women's UFC fighter.

Like, come on. When you have a history making submission, come on, man. And it's a women's ban on weight. You need this. You need this division. You need someone to break through. He had a great performance. You get a very rare submission that does not happen all that often.

I think the most previous one before that was when Alexander Romanov was a minus 17 billion favorite against Chase Sherman and he hit the Americana and that was freaking forever ago it was like four years ago was the last time we saw an Americana in the UFC and then we get the first woman to ever get one would have been nice to see her get a bonus

but Denise Gomez absolutely smashed Elise Reed so I get it but Jared Gordon not getting a bonus Ted. Jared Gordon one shot at a dude and I'm gonna stand on business for Gabriel Green because that was sick because it's not that he face cranked him it's that the face crank came almost immediately after like an actual real honest to God

triangle was locked in like if this were a pay-per-view Joe Roger would have been screaming his head off that that's it that's deep is locked in he's going to tap because I even thought that shit I was like damn Gabriel Green is he is cooked he does the slam locks an even tighter finally works his way out and then just immediately gets to the back and finds a fake face crank like 30 seconds after that. That was a sick, like, all-around sequence and deserve to be honored. I think they got this wrong. But I feel like we've been saying that a lot on these post shows this year, Mike.

I feel like they have not done well with bonuses this year. It's been a little weird. Getting fight of the night to like the worst fight on the card has happened many times. So that didn't happen here. Shout out to Costa Neroza's great fight. And we did lose one fight. We lost the penultimate fight. not long before it was supposed to happen, as a matter of fact,

Hadolfo Bellato and Paul Craig scratch due to a medical issue on the Balato side. So what they were saying on the broadcast was it's either going to be rebooked for the May 31st card, which is you go see Vegas 107 or it's going to happen on the pay-per-view in Newark on June 7th. So something to look out for if you were really looking forward to that fight. but the other big news to come out of this, Jen Michoud, it is official. We're just kind of waiting. We kind of figured this would be the case, but Patchy Mix is officially a UFC fighter. The last ever Bellator Bantamweight champion granted his release from the Professional

Fighters League earlier this week. I believe this is on Tuesday, if memory serves it correctly. And rumors began to circulate. I believe it was reported on Wednesday. that the fight was signed sealed and delivered. I am told that is not the case. Discussions were going on. It's not to say that that wasn't going to happen,

but from what I was told from a couple of different sources, late Thursday night into Friday morning is when the deal was done. Apache Mix is in the UFC, and he will fight Mario Batista on the main card at UFC 316, Newark, New Jersey, June 7th, and UFC is putting this guy everywhere. the post show with Karen Bryant, who I don't, I mean, she had a tough time. I think even knowing who Patchy Mix was for being honest, but Anthony Smith and Alan Joband

talked to Patchy. They obviously know who he is, put him over in a big way. Patchy seems very, very confident, Jet. He's in. I'm going to run dudes over. I'm going to get to that title fight. Two, three fights. I'll be there.

I'm going to finish Mario Batista. It's the Patchy Mix show. This is what it's going to be. obviously the signing we saw coming but stepping in mara batista three weeks time this fight's going down a plus matchmaking here i'll give it an a plus it's quite good um given the circumstances i think that this is a really good intro for him my only quibble and this is a nitpick is patchy's saying two three fights going to get to the title I would like that to be faster.

I think most fans should want that to be faster, not just because we like patchy mix, but because I got to tell you, I'm not that enthused about the Marab de Vallesvili rematch run here. Like, I don't need to see the Piotrion run back. He might deserve it. We might get it. Super, I don't frankly give any crap about this

Sean O'Malley fight that we're about to get that I strongly suspect will go exactly like the first one. And so patchy mix is a new guy, right? Like we know that we've been talking about shows recently. Corey Sandhagen, we kind of want to shock on him in there. But it is a little hard given he has the loss of Peirrean. So one fight, windstreet because of the Umar thing. That would really be us just making something happen because it's new and different.

Patchy makes his new and different. And if he can get, if he had got to come in and enter and fight Peirderion or something for his debut, then the next fight. No doubt about it. It's Marlisville. Really. Now he's going to, I think he's going to beat Mara Batista, and it'll be a good intro. Then he will, his next fight will be a title eliminator against somebody. But I just, I would like us to do this faster because Patchy Mitch, Mix, Rocks.

I think he presents a really interesting challenge for the current champion and mostly presents a new challenge. Not somebody I've already seen Marab do the Marab thing too. If you could do it to Patchy, that'd be incredible. I don't know if he can. Love to see it and hope we get it very soon. I think it's a superb matchmaking because we are going to know everything we need to know in this one fight. Either he's going to go in there and just put the boots to Mario Batista, which is going to put him over gigantically with the fan base,

or we are immediately going to see the UFC ceiling on Patchy Mix if he loses this fight. If he loses to Mara Batista, the road to a title is going to be a lot. It's going to be a long one for him. And you know how the fan base can be. they can be fickle, and especially when you're coming over from another organization, especially when people have been saying, oh, if this guy comes to the UFC, he could be champion. You go out and lose your first fight to Mario Batista. You get looked at sideways, and that's not a great place to be when you're trying to climb the ranks in a very deep division.

So a loss is catastrophic here, but a win is huge. The stakes are very, very high for patchy mix in his UFC debut. and he could come over looking like an absolute friggin rock star if he goes out there and gets a finish on this main card in Newark, New Jersey. So let us bring in E. Casey Leiden. Let's get to the questions. We'll get to as many as we can. We are a little short staffed tonight.

So this can't be an hour and a half post-fight show. Not for this card. I'm sorry. We just can't do it. I want to be clear. This can't be an hour and a half, not because we're short-staffed, because there's nothing to do. No one cares about anything.

this can't be an hour and a half because come on guys do we need to spend 90 on this yeah oh if we go an hour and a half it would be like 85 minutes on other stuff yeah yeah so uh yeah we're not going to let's rifle through some of the stuff we got all right I got some super chats um all right uh Derek the dad um wanted us to know oh he's going to see Chris Cyborg box all right all right somebody's got to see it enjoy Chris Cyborg um doing things. Oh, I just realized we might, we could possibly get Chris Seward

versus Holly home in a boxing match. Who knows soon? Maybe. Do you say that with hope? I would say that with despair. We might possibly get that. That might be an event I am forced to work. Next question.

Enjoy. I believe Scott Coker is promoting this guy that she's boxing on, but that's all I know. I don't know if she's boxing. Still out here. She's being a legend. Is she fighting in the States? I have no idea.

Yeah. I think she's in California fighting. No one told me. All right. Thank you, Derek to Dad. RS 40. This is a good night of fights. Morales will be champ one day.

How far away is he? Arsler, Nersulton, called for Bo. He's four and no middleweight. How do you see that matchup? Were you pressed to dovali? I mean, RS 40 knows how to get the money's worth. Devali is very good. It was terrific matchmaking.

Connor Matthews is a perfect debut opponent. Get her get got kind of guy. We kind of mentioned the Morales thing. How far away is he going to be? Nersault at Rubev. Tough fight with Dustin Stoltzvist. A lot of people thought Stoltzvist won that fight. He definitely gave Rudesabai of a much tougher fight than people thought he would.

And then Routzabaiv called for one bow-bohed-Jed. You'd think this is possible? and if so, how does this fight go? I think it could happen. I wouldn't say it's likely, but I don't hate the call out, right? Like, that's the thing that is possible. It's the biggest name that is reasonably possible

for Nersult and Uzabaya to actually get here. I know he is 4-0, but that was not the world's most inspiring performance. Like, I don't know, maybe he could get, like, a ranked guy. Like, he could get, maybe he could get, like, Avis Magamatov, but I think that, the bow. I mean, frankly, we're just seeing it right now, right? Like, RDR got, RDR beating Bo was much better for his career than beating literally any other person outside of like a top

three middle weight. And so this is potentially reasonable, right? Bo is going to need to take a step back. I think you can look at Ruzabayev and say, okay, probably is not going to like put the hurt on Bo could maybe let Bo get rounds in to develop. And the only question is just is that the sort of matchmaking they want to do because I think Ruzabayev fits a lot of roles for what they would look for but for the name value there's just nothing attached to Nershleton Ruzabayev at this point and so like if Bo does lose it's just really bad to lose to somebody that has no name whatsoever functionally so that would be the blocker but I think that it's a little ambitious and probably the right call out for him

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Save on insurance by switching to Bel Air Direct and use the money to fix your car. Bel Air Direct, insurance, simplified. Conditions apply. I like the callout. He's got zero percent chance getting this fight, though. Zero. Probably less than zero.

If there's an actual real number that's less than zero, that's the chance he has. of getting it. But I do like the call-out. Like, it makes sense. It's something like in a, in a PFL world could happen, but not in a UFC world. Bo Nicol is going to fight Mikhail Olegzechuk in his next fight. Like, that is what they're going to do.

They're going to give him a guy who is terrible take down defense or will get knocked out the first time he has hit. Like, that's who Boe Nichols going to fight. Somebody like that, maybe if we're going to go for like a more of a. a veteran type guy, maybe like an Eric Anders type, but that's what we're looking at for Beau. We're not looking at Nersulton Rootsamaya for for Bo. Although I would like to see that fight.

Like I would like to see Bo tested in a fight like that, but we're not going to get it. Real quick on your callout criteria. Why do you like this? I'm not, I'm not. Why do you like this call out when you know he's not going to get the fight? Because I thought we kind of hate that. Just kind of care.

No, I mean, it's not like, it's, It's not that it's like unrealistic. It's not that it's unrealistic. Like it makes sense from like a merit perspective, right? Like Bose coming off of a bad loss. The hype is sort of off the track right now. Rizabayev gets a win. I think pretty much any middle late that is not ranked should call for that guy.

Like Bo, like it gets you in the headlines. Like it's a sensible callout. The UFC is just not going to, it's not because they think like, Oh, Bo will kill this guy or Bo's ranked higher than this guy. It's nothing like that. It's that the UFC is going to book Bo Nickel in a way where they are trying to get him a win. And I think the UFC looks at Nersault and Rizabayev is a guy who could beat Bo Nekyll. And I don't think they want Bo Nicanel to lose right now.

And if they're going to have him lose to somebody, it's going to be to somebody. And I mean this with all due respect for Nassalter Rizabayev. Ruzh Ruzoviaf is not a guy that the UFC looks at and says, this guy is going to sell out internet. This guy's going to headline a fight night for us someday. He's going to headline a road show. He's going to fight for a title. You know what I mean?

Like a win over bow nickel for Rizabayev, he's not fighting Robert Whitaker in a main event, Abu Dhabi with the win over Bo Nicar like they did with RDR. You know what I mean? They have to kind of look at the bow nickel booking for both guys, what one can gain with a win, whether it's Beau or the opponent. And I just don't think Roots Abyev's like a guy they look at and be like,

dude, if he beats Bo, we could shoot him, we could strap the rockets to him. You know what I mean? So I think they're going to try to match up favorably towards Bo to try to get him a win, but against a guy that they can at least sell is dangerous, if that makes sense. Fair enough. Just wonder. Yeah, it's just a weird. It's just a weird one when we talk about like callouts and what makes sense and what

doesn't. When do you have a guy like Bo? No problem. Cool. Thank you, RS 40. $10 super chat from Stephen. Boys, pack a porter. I think Donnie D may be in the naughty corner at PFL.

Six, 12 months. Do you think Don will still be the face? Also, do you know the starting salary for fighters higher at PFL than UFC? It's different. Don's not the face anyways. Don has not been the face for probably since the last town hall. with me. They were just like, okay, you're not the face anymore. And they brought Jonathan Coachman in to be the face of the organization. PFL, I swear to God, guys, I have reasonably

priced. I am a reasonably priced young man. And it cannot be worse than the choices you're making. Can't be worse. I perfectly. I perfectly. sensible consulting fee if you don't want to be in the face of your organization. Yeah. Tough scenes. Starting salary for fighters, is it higher at PFL?

That's a hard question to answer. I honestly have no idea. PFO does a lot of kind of one-fight contracts. It's a very different business model. They also do stuff like PFL MENA, which is just like how are you factoring that in? The undercard fighters at PFO Mena are probably not making the 10 and 10

contender series contract but no god no it's just and i bet like fighters that are competing in the in the the tournaments are probably making around that but what's different about like the pfl pay structure is like paul hughes is getting rich over a pfl which he would not be getting rich at the ufc like they're paying him exponentially more than the ufc would so him Dakota, even like Kayla when she was there. I don't know for sure, but I would guess Kayla was probably making more money in the PFL than she is in the UFC. And that's not like a big stretch.

A fair amount of money that that is true. Yeah, that's not like a big stretch for me. But yeah, I mean, I don't think they're paying, I don't think they're signing fighters and paying them like 20 and 20 and 20 out the gate, if that's what you're asking. But yeah. Are we assuming patchy mix? I mean, unless he wins the title, but right now, he probably has to take a pay cut to come to the UFC.

Oh, my God, yes. Okay, just, no, you know, we know that. I don't know if everyone else knows that, you know. I bet he is making, and I have no insights whatsoever. I bet he's making. He's probably taking a big pay cut. Yeah. I bet he's making a third of what he made with the NFL would be my guess.

Yeah, I was going to say at least half, but I was being positive for your, I was are more realistic. But the potential money could be bigger. But yeah. Yeah, especially, yeah, especially like the rumor in innuendo that like Scotty Cokes and company like kind of boosted all these fighters before they made this deal. Which is kind of why PFL is like in this weird position they're in now. Coils and pill the shit out of PFL's incredible move.

Sure did. Sure did. For an incredible move. Just, yep. Chef's kiss, man. Jeff's kiss. If you have to get just a So we're clear, that's entirely

PFL's fault that they apparently couldn't read their own contracts. Jesus. This is just so mismanaged from the second Don Davis how little it would cost you to get me on staff and solve a thousand problems for you. The second Don Davis went into the Vox Media Studios and sat down with Helwani after this deal. It's just been so much.

bad man everything's just been so bad oh every fight yeah we we got all these contracts and we're going to make sure every single fighter on the roster gets fights everyone's going to remain employed all that stuff and it sounded so good and none of it was true so tough scenes buyer's remorse if there ever was they should just let all these dudes go man they should just i wonder what things would look like if they never made this deal Yeah, I don't know. That's still probably worse. This at least was good press for a little bit.

You had one cool event. And again, the thing is they didn't pay any money for this deal. So it's fine. They bought it in equity of their stock that is worthless. So like they paid monopoly money for it. So it's not like that bad. But the PR this year has been awful. Yeah, the name, but not like, it's not like the fighter's contracts where like

already signed sealed and delivered they still had to pay that money well only to the fighters of fought though but they got the value of the fighters of fought all these other ones they said okay well patchy you can leave so it's fine yeah tritio it's not great and it's not strong business but again minister of fun be in me we'll work out a salary y'all need to be fun you're deeply not fun all right it's just sad but patchy makes us fun and I hope he's going to be fun. I know that Mario Batista doesn't always like to be fun, so

we'll hope that won't happen, but yeah. You know what? I just realize I'm really scared because I'm a big patchy mixed guy and I'm pretty sure I haven't ranked. I shouldn't be. He'll be fine. He'll be fine. He's going to be Mara Petitia. I know, but like I'll say.

I think I haven't ranked at 304 and I would just have a hard time putting Mario Batista. Like up there, but I would have to. Not only this, Casey, but frankly, Patchy makes his fighting for all of your other Bellator stock as well. Because if Patchy gets run over by Batista,

we're going to have to revisit the Tafik Musayevs and be like, Shobli, out of the ranking. Shabli. Hey, hey, dude, PFL, release Shabli. He's fighting for all of them, Casey. He is the avatar of fellas.

Tor right now. Does Shabbling know how much, how much, like how much we talk about him? Because there can't be one other MMA podcast out there talking about Shabbling this much. No. There's no chat.

All right. Thank you, Steven. Slito. Who the fuck at Jared Gordon by round one K. No, one. That was nasty, man.

That was a vicious knockout. But he, He didn't remove the hand. Like a little left hook or something. He just came right up at top of it. It was wow. Wink. Yeah.

He caught him. And Tiago Moises is one of the best defensive fighters in the division. But not, not tonight. Not tonight. Jarrett was ready for him. That was just vicious. No bonus. I think Tiago Moises might be past it.

I know he's not that old. But he's 30. But he's been fighting. hard fights for a long time. Just can't I won't throw him out quite yet because you know he won the fight before this but Jared Gordon not exactly a dude who won hit or quitters you historically and so this was this was my first like red flag because I've I've liked Tiago Moises for a long time just like never going to be a title contender you know borderline top 15 certainly a top 25 guy just

like the standard bear for why I love lightweight and think it's so great is like Tiago Moises is so good and not remotely a top 10 fighter. This was my first like, okay, my ears are pricked up for next time. Got to see how he goes off this. Yeah, I think we'll find out more as this next time. But yeah, just credited to Jared Gordon. Just, yeah, small gloves, hit hard. It's best strategy.

Thank you, Slito. Terrence, ooh, 1999, super chat from Terrence, never it. Damn, Terrence. PFL got Bellator fighters for free. No, UFC, did. PFL giving up all these fighters is worse than Luca to the Lakers.

Also, Mike, you comment about the Knicks earlier was petty. It's like me getting beat up and saying, my bro will be you. What do you mean? What do you mean? They're going to get run by the Pacers. So what? So what?

Listen, Knicks fans can have this one. I know, I see a lot of people on social media. like giving the Knicks fans shit for celebrating. I'll give them some shit because the majority of their fan base were cheering and screaming happiness when Jason Tatum got hurt and ripped his leg to shreds. I saw Knicks fans, heard Knicks fans celebrating this. And you're an asshole for all of this. But here's the thing.

Keep this same energy if you lose to the Pacers. Okay. You're acting like you won the entire thing. thing by beating the Boston Celtics. And it's a terrific win. It's a great series, huge upset. It's like historic sports upset. But you ain't won shit.

You're not even in the NBA finals yet. You got to beat the Pacers. Go beat them. Go win a title. There you go. Then celebrate all you want. But you don't celebrate a quarter final win. What the hell are you talking about?

Like, gritty win? I gave him credit. But you're an asshole for celebrating Jason Tatum going down. and I know not everybody did that, but more people than not from Nick's Nation celebrated Jason Tainham getting injured. So I got no love for it for Nick's Nation as the fan base. You beat us, congratulations, but you better beat the Pacers.

Are you never going to hear the end of it for me or anybody else? So go get him, Tiger. I wish you luck. I'd like to now share possibly one of my hottest takes of all time. And I recognize that I am wrong, that I am incorrect here, but I can't shake the take. It's in me. I don't have an issue when people celebrate a player getting injured in these circumstances. You shouldn't like then throw a parade the next day.

But like as a man who has followed tortured fan bases as a thing, I get being like, Not, not the, the emotional reaction is not. Jason Tatum's career might be forever altered because that's not fandom. The emotional reaction is Jason Tatum might be out, we're going to win. I don't care by hook or by crook, we're going to win. You know, if they're up the day after doing like edits and being happy, I get it. That's, that's super shitty. I don't, and I'm not here to tell you it's good.

shouldn't celebrate it, but I won't begrudge somebody for in the moment being like, hell yeah, that man is on the ground. He's not coming back for game six. Like I, I understand that feeling. I don't like that. We do not. I do not endorse one of the hottest takes.

That's a pretty hot take. I understand that I'm wrong too. Again, I preface this with both of those things. Go get him. Go get him, Knicks fans. I have no idea if they're going to beat the Pacers. I don't think I could tell you a player on the Indiana Pacers right now.

Like I'm happy for like Action Bronson, like our good buddy. Like, you know, I'll be happy for him. He wasn't out here like dancing on Tatum's grave like the rest of them. He wasn't out there talking shit publicly. He just goes on the Instagram story, high five in the players, sitting courtside. We're in the Knicks stuff. respect you you you hope to see action you know cash it on a championship but that's like the only one i'm rooting for i did see the celebrations and stuff and um saw some really nasty stuff at outside

of the arena it was like it was bad but i honestly thought they were in the finals i didn't realize it was just i know that's the thing i said oh wait when you when you mentioned that they had to go against it doesn't make it worse yeah oh yeah they're too definitely makes it worse you need eight More wins. Yeah. Eight more wins. I honestly thought they were in the finals. I'll say,

hey, finals. That's a celebration. But yeah. It's insane. Be better, Nick fans. Be better.

All right. It's a human reaction. Don't celebrate it for days after. But in the moment, heat of battle, it's a human reaction. I understand it. Or at least like fake it.

Like, ooh, it's too bad. That's tough. And then deep down, I don't, I don't think I'm, faking well if I'm drunk at a basketball game or whatever like I'm even talking about people that

were in the arena yeah is it really that ugly online or just out it was oh it was it was it was bad it was better yeah luckily it was like right it was like a couple hours after I played golf with derrick lewis so I was like still oh yeah and like 75% of sleep but I woke up the next morning like pissed at what I had seen so it's all good didn't that happen the same evening I think. Yeah. Yeah. I saw the news.

I was like, oh, I felt bad for you because I knew that. Yeah. Yeah. It wasn't good. Yeah. Well, I'm hoping for a healthy recovery and good luck next season. What do you make it back? He might not play next season.

He might not even play next season. You probably play next season, but not until the end of it. If it's an Achilles thing, it's like a full year pretty much. Oh, it's like, yeah. And it's fucked. For basketball, it's like super bad. Yeah. Jalen Brown's Achilles was fucked up too.

That whole time he's playing through it. But nobody knew. Yeah, it's always crazy. And those horrible injuries and it's just like the most, not mundane play, but just, oh, just a non-contact injury. So I'm just going to go this way off as suddenly. Yeah. Yeah.

Like the Knicks battled. Jalen Bruns is good, man. Like, they're, they're gritty-ass team. Like, I'll give them credit. And they out-coach Joe Muzzi. And everyone knows how much I love Joe Missoula. I think he's one of the greatest coaches ever in Boston. I love his fucking dry sense of humor.

It's terrific. But he got out coach, man. You got out coach pretty much that whole series. So the South is not deserved to win. But it's all good. Go beat the Pacers. Win the whole thing. If you don't win the entire championship,

you're going to hear from me. It's going to be the best. Next. Thank you, Terrence. Super chat from Tanvir. after tonight morales versus the winner of buckley usman geez baller versus shafcott gary versus brady is leon the odd man out leon is the odd man out anyways he was the odd man out after ball ball beat him but now after sean brady tossed him around

and just annihilated him leon is the odd man out of everything so he might have to fight michael brown he's just out he's just not he's just not there he's out he's out he is He should it shouldn't. I mean, it shouldn't be this way, honestly. But he is, he's like in Neil Magniish territory right now. Like it's Magny. He's like Magny, Jeff Neal, Leon Edwards. That's where it's going to be.

Leon Edwards becomes a mid to upper level litmus test for up-and-coming killers at Welterweight moving forward. That's where he is. So. Unless he can, unless he can beat a couple of them and get an opportunity again. Yeah. Also, this would actually stuck for Buckley. If Buckley beats Usman and the response is, hey, you now need to fight a guy behind you. Yeah.

Well, you've won six in a row at Walterweight. Go fight this young dude who's awesome and behind you in the rankings. That would be so harsh for Buckley, man. Has Buckley fought? I'm sorry. Go ahead. Who's fighting Bilal Muhammad regardless of the result. It's matter what happens, he's fighting Bilal Muhammad.

Has Buckley had to find anyone behind him in the rankings and his win streak? I think Colby was ahead of him in the rankings, but I don't know that. He definitely was. Was he? Okay. Yeah.

Then he fought Wonderboy, who I assume was ahead of him. He fought Ruzabayev, who I don't, neither of them were ranked. Right, yeah. I don't think he was ranked. He might have been because he had beaten Luka.

Yeah. Oh, no, he might have been because he had beaten Luka. So Buckley might have been ranking. Oh, yeah, you're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. So that probably was somebody behind him.

Yeah. And I think Buckley would have fought literally anybody. Yeah. He would have fought anybody on that time. Because Buckley definitely would have ranked after he beat Lucke in the UFC rankings. That's basically how it goes. So yeah, Ruzabov. All right, cool.

Thank you, Timber. Is that it? Did we answer everything? Yes. And the Tanvir question, yes. I mean, Gary versus Brady. I think that fight is likely to happen, though. You have to book that fight.

Yeah, I think that fight seems extremely likely to occur. Damn, what, what, what are way snuck up on us, man? Which way popped off. Popped off. Those are, like, like, yeah, like those are all great matchups. And, you know, someone's going to, yeah, like people have to lose. Like, guys who are on big win streaks are going to have to lose. The thing is, Welterway did what Lightway was supposed to do when it was like, oh, here are all the old people.

let's get these new people to kill them all except for a lightweight gaichi and pori and oliver just were like no we we're still going to be here screw you and they just didn't lose to those guys that is yeah that is very interesting though because i did pick gilbert coming into tonight and i basically kind of went the whole you know he's only lost to the best of the best you know i'm still going enough experience but uh nope yeah this is not lightweight it turns out yeah have been, all the old dogs have been getting summarily put down for the most part, well, to wait, which is how it's supposed to work, and it makes the division awesome. Yeah, except in lightweight, but that's coming too.

It's coming lightweight. Eventually, it's coming. It's coming. It's coming. Boy, he's going to leave. Islam did leave. It's just like, how old is back? Shout to the Red Sox.

Shout to the Red Sox. Go Red Sox. Did they come back? Walk off home run. Yep. All right. The Braves are so bad. God. What a franchise.

Shout out to my little brother, Brian, who was in attendance for this game for his birthday with like 17 of his buddies. So shout out Brian Hack. Happy birthday. A couple more questions before we get out of here. Like I said, we could go 90 minutes as long as we don't talk about this card in particular. And we're not. Yeah, we're not. And we're not.

Okay. One quick super chat. Mike versus Ariel, book it between the links NBA edition. look man aerial can have this one you can have it they just better win the whole damn thing that's all I'm saying I don't I don't call you

Arrow didn't poop on the injury or anything like that he wasn't he's not he's not that he's not that guy no maybe he is okay I don't think he's not no no he publicly was like it was tough to see Tatum go down yeah he's the next man you know that's fine no no look

the Knicks have gone through a lot of shit again good on him It's a tough for in my limited basketball knowledge. But when you put this energy out into the world, you just better hope your team wins the entire thing. You reap what you sow. Damn right.

I want to throw us up real quick. This is from our preview show. Are the nuggets still in it? Hell yeah, nuggets. I want the nuggets to win. Terrific. Yokic is the funniest athlete in the world. Like, he's the funniest athlete that maybe has ever lived.

I love him. They got game seven tomorrow. The Nuggey's. Yokic, so were a billion percent clear, Yokic would absolutely be one of my guys if he competed in M. M. He honestly, like, you can't look at him play basketball and not be like, there's a little RDR in that.

He looks uncoordinated and weird. And then he's just doing the most incredible shit you've ever seen. Yep. I love those guys. He's the best. Yeah. He said, you do not look good coming up a bus and you're just... That's the thing.

When I was growing up in a sports fan, I liked the people that feel like, Ken Griffey Jr's cool and awesome. And the older I've gotten, the more I'm like, no, sure, he's a great athlete. Who cares about that? Show me the real weirdo who's secretly a great athlete. That's the guy that for me. Jed, Larry Bird would have been your favorite. Oh, I would, I'm 100% certain I would have loved Larry Bird if I was like a big basketball

fan in the 80s. but I was three. So, you know. Go watch. Just go back. I've seen plenty of Larry Bird highlights and stuff. It's all funny. Talking shit.

And he'll kick the shit out. And he'll beat everybody up. Like, it's just awesome. I'm certain I would have enjoyed Larry Bird a great deal. But yeah. I wouldn't mind like seeing like some sort of top 10 list for every sport of just the guys. I just don't look the part.

You know, just the weirdos. Just the weird guys. I think of guys like John Crick. He was like he was like an elite, elite player for a while John Crook. Yeah. That's amazing. What a name drop.

Kurt, Kurt Rambuss and the Rexpects. Always respect a man in Rexpex. Oh, man. John Craig. Throwing this up. This is in reference to a callback from our preview show.

Casey told me to skip a few. Well, you got to go to one, so it's fun. Hey. Oh, okay. Thanks. Wow. I deserved that. Very good.

Anything else? That made it for your hot take. It's in my heart. I won't change my opinion. And last one, actually. Not about this card, of course. Who next will the PFL give to the UFC? Usman, maybe.

If it's anybody, it's Eblen. Yeah. They can't give up Usman until you do the Paul Hughes thing again. to God, like that's one of the few things that they have that they have to commit to. Eblin, Evelyn would be the guy if they were going to drop any. I don't know that they will or not because who can predict what the PFL is going to do. Yeah, it's probably true.

But who's that one fighting? Oh, Costello von Stenis. Good name. That is a big fighter, but good name. I was going to say. That's a real pro wrestling. Maybe a network name. He still of Von Steenus sounds like a pro wrestler's name.

Yeah, that's a very Vince McMahon name. Yeah, I can see. He kind of looks like a pro wrestler too. Like just a big ripped up asswop kicker, Gagar Musassi's guy. Good fighter. Let's see if you can get it done. Yeah. And just say, let's just pat ourselves on the back a little bit.

Anyhow, as usual, I got to start the long drive home right now when the show starts. Love you on the chat. Mike, Jetty, Kissy, or the Bees Knees. Thank you, Giovanni. Sorry that my Celtics anger came out here. But Terrence's comment was just not true and wrong. Jim Bishu's the goat with three stacks, Jed, three stacks of high society in the emojis. We didn't climb this week because I was off for a couple of days.

and I actually took my I didn't because I did a bunch of other stuff but I did take I didn't do the work would have climbed very successfully I don't know how the Tisha Pennington the wanna fight the over two and a half was minus 360 and I was like that seems have you seen either of these women fight

this is Tisha Pittington only goes to decisions what is happening here would have been my climb would have been one of the easier legs of the climb but alas we'll march on not next week because we've got Memorial Day weekend before we go back to the world's mightiest apex. Is it back at the apex? That next part's pretty good.

Barber. It's a decent. Yeah. It's better. Assuming things don't fall apart. The main and the co-main are good. The co-main's the Gamrot Ludovic Klein fight, which rips. Interesting.

Well, game again, yeah. Cool. Obon Elliott's buried in the prelims. Yeah. A lot of people are based on Chasington won that fight. Yeah, that's a good one too. Banimites, stakes, good stuff. Yeah, that is a much better card than this one on paper.

My favorite. Much better. That's it. And then it's paper view time. And then we're, listen, once June 1st hits, we're out of the apex for two months, which is going to be amazing. But then August 2nd, Apex, August 9th Apex. They're back.

Yeah, they're so back. That's an August. That's a lifetime away. Yeah. We might not even be here in August. A meteor may have come by then and taken us all home. So we'll worry about that in the future. Yes.

Yeah. Next is matchmaking. On to the next one. Ride solo this week on the program. So A.K. is already sending his submissions over that you sent to him. so I'll read those off. I'll read the ones you send me. You can send them over on my Instagram.

M underscore HeckJR. And we'll get your matchmaking suggestions. But until then, everybody, for Casey, for Jed, I am Mike Heck. We went way longer than we thought we would. And that's because of you great viewers. Bye bye, bye, everybody. Good night. I love you.

Even you, Christian Dyer, hater. Hater. Go Pacers. I might ban him just because I can. I'm drunk with power in the chat. Do it. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Unwrap holiday magic at Holt Renfrew with gifts that say I know you.

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