MMA Fighting - UFC Vegas 111 Post-Fight Show | Quickly Turning the Page To UFC 322 After Another APEX Stop

Episode Date: November 9, 2025

The UFC brought another APEX card to the fans on Saturday night, and once again, the lineup had its moments, but for the most part, it will be forgotten about very quickly — especially with the UFC's best efforts for a fight card in 2025 coming up next. Following UFC Vegas 111, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Jed Meshew react to the event, Gabriel Bonfim's win in the main event over Randy Brown, discuss whether or not the stoppage was bad by referee Mark Smith, and Bonfim's head-scratching callout of Colby Covington. Additionally, they talk about other standout moments, Josh Hokit's performance and post-fight promo, the excitement for UFC 322, and much more. Follow Mike Heck: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@m_heckjr⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 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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Welcome to the UFC Vegas 111 post-fight show here on Mbatefighting.com, and that was certainly a card that happened as like when we go back through the wikipedias and the tapologies of the world when you go back through the archives of mhmatfighting.com whether it's five days from now five weeks from now months years this event

UFC Vegas 111 will have officially happened so we can hang our hats on that and those victory drums sound for Gabriel Bonfeme although a little bit of us a little bit of controversy in that main event against Randy Brown we'll talk about that and a few other things that happened tonight because this was a pretty forgettable one if we're being honest but the good news is we are officially on the way to MSG UFC 322 the promos hit hard tonight everything about UFC 322 has just been magnified by what went down

at the world's most famous apex tonight and I have to tell you maybe the funniest moment that I experienced tonight was when they started the UFC post show they showed an outside drone shot of the apex parking lot no traffic getting out of there there was like five cars exiting the parking lot I got a big kick out of that because it was very very quiet in that building but a man who is joining me today I am Mike heck by the way to react to this event vet who will not be so quiet is mr no gray area the hot take kid himself the climber of all climbers a man who surely had a climb bet for a carts of this magnitude jedd how are we doing did you have fun tonight mike tonight's a tough night it's tough night um because look you know

i i hear the criticisms mike i understand them and i do function believe that we are a better product, we are a more engaging product, fans have a better time when we aren't pooping all over things. And so I'd like to be positive. There are some positives tonight and I'm going to try my hardest to focus on those. But of all the forgettable cards that have ever happened, this is right at the top of that heap. We will just, unless there's a fight, you know, fixing scandal that happens connected to a fight here, like a la, you know, last weekend, this will be the last time we speak of this card. We're not going to talk about it on BTL. Ever again. Ever again. Only on onto the next one. That will be the last time this card has ever spoken about.

And that, and like I was a little more positive heading into this fight card than I think a lot of other people were. You certainly were. I liked it on paper better than last. weekends and I you know I do think objectively we got some more meaningful stuff there were several ranked fighters on this card but like one four of those ranked fighters were competing on the undercard which I mean I guess the main card was at least all finishes and there were some there's some things but like it really you know what struck me this tonight might in a way that I don't maybe I've internalized before but never like really came out tonight

is how much my viewing experience for cards that I'm not interested in, which is what this was, right? And I think that that is not even being critical. I think that that is a fair representation of this card to all people. Nobody was telling their friends, Hey, man, you got to check out this fight card this weekend. Even the hardcore fans here with us. And God, we love each and every one of you for being here for this post show right now

and for listening later if that's what you're doing. I think all of you could acknowledge whether you enjoyed tonight or not this wasn't your Saturday was not built around this event right like nobody's was this was I got nothing else to do I like fights you know

I just want to kick back in my recliner I had a long week of work I want to chill out have a few beers watch some some punchies and that's okay there's nothing wrong with that but what struck me Mike is for me and I would bet

and chat if you agree with what I'm about say please let me know because I would bet that it's true it struck me that for events like that momentum of the card is such a big thing for my enjoyment of it and I don't like that never really translated to me but as I look back it kind of makes more sense because this thing just never got out of first gear until the main card when stuff started to happen but by then I had just sort of been already drug down into the muck and so at that point even though the tires are spinning now they're not even getting traction now we're just like we're just here and so objectively cl d marco tullio well it's pretty cool like c ld's on a on a run right now

spinning back fist into a really nasty kale like that was objectively cool and as i was watching it i was still just like not really registering with me man and then you follow that up with the bomb theme stuff and there's a downer frankly i think we'll talk about that fight a little more than anything else tonight i just i could never i could never get up i could never get into it and so uh i do not mean to disrespect any of the fighters on this card especially the ones who got big wins it's not their fault it this was not a this was a real tough watch for me and i i don't know i i genuinely wonder if other people feel this way because it was it really stood out to me of like man some of the stuff that's happening here is not bad right like objectively and i just

can't emotionally connect with it because i'm already over here right now Yeah, and LazyBed kind of laid it out the same exact way I felt about it in these two little things right here. It's shocking an event can have this amount of finishes and still somehow, and still be somehow not very entertaining. It felt like every fight ended and I was just like, oh, okay, that happened. That's how it felt. That's how it felt. And I'm sorry. like that is

that is the building it's the building more than anything else like the commentators were down tonight like this was even a bad night for Paul Felder like even he was down in the dumps like there's no energy to it at all like usually you can rely on fits

and Felder and whoever the third man is they weren't even like into this one like it just was tough man it was tough and for this car to end the way that it for this card to end the way that it did and just such a weird way

was just like icing on the cake and we're going to talk about some stuff like I was looking forward to like jumping on here and being like all right we're going to mic check like every fighter on the card I only have two there's only two one is okay and one is terrible

and then the rest of the card like it was just sad and I'm sure we'll get into it as well this is the one thing I will blame on some of the fighters. Uh, and we'll get to that in a moment. But let's just start with the main event, because I can assure you we're not going to be here that long. Again, this is a card that I can't, I can't assure you of that. We, we say this all the time. Oh, no. We fail. Oh, no. Casey ain't here no more. We are not going to be here very long. I have the control of the ones and twos. I will just hit end stream when we hit 30 minutes. Like, I'll just do it. Um, but it's

all right. But let's get into the made event. Gera Bonfine gets the win. And it's, He had a great first round. He was picking the legs apart. You could tell Randy Brown had, Randy Brown was feeling it, even walking back to the stool, heading into round two. And then we get the knee.

And the knee lands from Bonfeme. And I'm doing social media stuff. I'm basically doing like, I'm basically doing three jobs at once. I have to look for tweets for the pros react. I'm doing social media. Hey, hey, and doing all this stuff.

Don't pretend that that one's a job. Ain't no pros reacting to this card. You can't act like you're doing a lot of work on that one. Dude, it's way more work when no one's watching. There ain't nobody doing. You just got to give up. No, there's no giving up. You have to dig deep.

You got to dig deep because you've got to find five of them. And you have to go through all the social medias. They weren't five. There weren't more than six fighters watching this event. But anyways, the knee happens. And I thought it was a double knockout at first. The way like I saw it out of the corner of my eye. Yes, it was very confusing in that situation for sure.

So Bon, and then I'm like, oh, it's a double DACA. And then I see Bonfim quickly get up and jump towards Randy Brown. And Mark Smith, who by the way, almost allowed Marco Tullio to lose 150 brain cells by not stopping the fight at the time he should have when that fight happened, just jumped in and stopped this one. Randy Brown immediately protests. He goes down. He turtles up, protests, and the fight is over.

Your thoughts. on the stoppage and we've seen replays we've heard people talk about it etc were you okay with the stoppage was this a fine stoppage was this a bad stoppage where are you with this i've shifted my opinion uh in real time i was also a little confused and thought it was a double knockdown then immediately as i thought that was a bad stoppage uh i've watched a billion times now i think it's fine it's not to stop it i wouldn't have made the stoppage um but don't think it's awful i understand it certainly because if you go back and watch it the the difference maker to me is at the at first blush i thought that he was he jumped in early because he

frankly i thought he was letting it go and then jumped in after randy brown like clearly had woken up and instead no like it just took like he was clearly trying to stop that fight the moment the knee landed and brown went back and his eyes when the back of his head and was functionally not home anymore and it just took him a minute to get over there and that is a totally reasonable time to make that stoppage the fact that brown hit his head and woke up doesn't invalidate that effort i always am on the side of letting one more shot happen because i i don't think one more like one more strike is you is very unlikely to be majorly damaging in like a super long-term fashion it's never good to get punched in the head of

all but this isn't boxing whereas a standing 10 count and you're going to take a hundred more shots like one follow-up shot i mean frankly part and parcel right the tullio stoppage objectively he should have stopped that one one punch sooner i didn't i didn't even think twice about it i was like okay yeah like clearly watching this it shouldn't and that does make it weird that he let that one go and didn't let this one go the one extra punch but ultimately i don't think the outcome was changed. I think, you know, Bonfim would have landed some shots and probably finished that fight. And I do think it's a perfectly reasonable stoppage to make, given the knowledge he had at the time. It is a bit tough for Randy Brown to have woken up, right? And,

oh, I woke up and I could at least functionally defend myself. And the speed with which he got up to protest suggests that he may have actually even had a chance to, you know, survive the oncoming barrage from Bonfim. But he ate in need. and his eyes rolled back in your head, you can't really be that upset with that stoppage in the aggregate. Yeah, this is one of those, I feel like we've had a dozen post-fight shows this year where our answer is kind of the same.

Wasn't great, but it wasn't the worst we've ever seen either. I'm fine with it either way. I do. It's just not, it's not how I would have stopped it, but I don't have an issue with the stoppage at all after watching it again. I do think if Mark Smith is not the referee

for CLD, Tullio. I think that fight maybe goes on for a little bit longer. It's just, it is really a weird two pack to watch those two. They are so, the reactions are so different. Like, and maybe it is that one informs the other. Like, it is perhaps exactly as you're suggesting

that Mark Smith, like, went back, saw the replays like, oh, I should have jumped in there one, two. Tullio took one too many. And so he was just a little bit quicker this. time to jump in and make the save as opposed to letting seeing the outcome uh it didn't change i don't think it changed the outcome totally fine stoppage yeah good win for bonfeme we'll touch on his call out which he has i mean if there is literally a are you i we need to talk about it i'm interesting i'm interested okay please give your bonfeme if you guys missed it

Gabriel Bonfeme, and he's been doing this for a while, passionately called out Colby Covington for a fist fight, which in any other organization is a sensical, meritocratic matchup to make. But this is the ultimate fighting championship. There is zero. I mean, I don't know what number you could realistically use, like, a whole number less than zero. But if there was one that existed, I would use it right here. But your thoughts on this call out of Colby Covington. I'm mostly just kind of, I'm curious, you know, this is, this is your thing.

This is the thing you specialize in. I broadly think that it's a bad call out, like in the big picture, because it's very, very, very, very, very unlikely to happen. But there are two things to note. I have, and I've, I've voiced this opinion at other points in time as well, I give some credence to repetition, if nothing else, right? And that has, it's become his schick in a lot of ways. And so I think it's really, really stupid and terrible when Joaquin Buckley calls out Connor in a fight that he's never going to get. I would have thought it was a lot funnier and at least like more palatable. he just did it every fight and i do think it does like add up to something to because like

who else is going to call out i don't know that'll be for you to decide uh so there's a part of me that at least has some respect for like committing to the bit because you know me mike i'm a man who can commit to the bit i write for him fighting it's a great website uh but like so there's that piece of it but then the piece that i'm interested in mike and what i want your opinion on it. What jumped out to me, again, I don't think this fight will happen because I just don't think there's a universe where Colby Covington fist fights him. Like, why would Colby choose to do that?

I don't know that Colby's ever going to fight again. Maybe, you know, he does. And I don't know. But what was interesting to me, Mike, is usually he makes the call out and then we're like, okay, cool. And I would say, honestly, I had a bigger issue with Gabriel Bonfim not knowing when to cut it off because he just kept go like he went back to feldor two separate times to get more mic time he's like buddy they're playing you off the stage you got to get out of here bro um but felder went back

to him and asked because he did the hey here's me talking through the thing and this is the finish i was going to kick the calves i knew it open up the knee and colby covington quit running uh brazil Viva Brazil or whatever and instead of Paul Felder doing the Daniel Cormier, you know, the job to be like, hey, great win, give it up for Gabriel Bonfim. He was like and what would happen? Gabriel,

if you got that fight. Trying to sell that fight more. And so to me, I don't know, I kind of took that to be like, maybe this is something the UFC is at least interested in and they're going to try to give him an opportunity to put it over in a way that maybe

appeals to Colby. So am I crazy? Is that something? Here's what I will say. Because I think there's probably some people out there who agree with you. And normally when a post-fight interviewer follows up, especially something like a collar. Somebody's in their ear, right? Somebody's in their ear.

Unless it is a guy who knows how to actually do post-fight interviews and ask follow-up questions. Paul Felder is the best post-fight interviewer, the UFC has ever had, by the way. And I, the history of the company, Paul Felder is the best post-fight interviewer that they have had because he asks questions, he listens, and he asks follow-ups. This is not Bisbing or D.C. who are verbatim asking questions that are being told to them in the headset. Paul Felder has talked about this before. It's not that he goes rogue, it's just that he's good at this. and what I think happened was this is him saying wow this is not a fighter begging for a bonus or trying to like lay out a sob story this is a fighter

only the second fighter only the second fighter tonight by the way who actually had a call out like a somewhat of a call out was gabriel bonfeme and this is felt like being like oh my god something like kind of maybe interesting is happening right now in these post my interviews. Let's expound on this because I haven't experienced this feeling the entire night. So I think it's more to that. Now, if Bisbing, if Bisbing was holding the microphone or DC was holding the microphone, I would, I would tend to agree with you more that this is the producer saying like, okay, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go. This is great. This is great stuff. Ratings are going to go higher. We're about to get a boost. Keep this thing going. But Felder is,

Felder's just really good at this so that's how I get that's how I look at it but I am going to guess I believe there's something to it not that again not that this fight's going to happen because I don't know what it would take to get Colby to do it

but I will also say this Mike and I don't want to make you talk too much about this because you have a wonderful program called on to the next one where you will talk all about what comes next for Gabriel Bonfine but We did talk about this a little bit in the buildup to this. And I even had some questions about it on the mailbag stuff this week of like,

what's Bonfam do if he wins? Is he going to jump into the mix of the young hungry dudes? It's like, no, not really. Well, to wait, it's got too many dudes already at the top of the table right now. And he didn't even have a convincing win over Wonderboy. This win, I know there is the controversy. It's certainly a better win. And like you said at the top of the show, right?

Kobe Covington does make sense historically in the way that you know, this sort of thing would normally happen I'm going to this is a hot take Mike I think it might could happen I think it might could happen because I don't know who Colby would fight

if he's going to keep fighting and maybe he doesn't and I think that's possible but I got to tell you I will be pretty surprised if he isn't fighting at the White House card. Yeah. And it's not going to be against him. Who's he going to fight at the White House card?

He will fight. He's going to fight somebody. Yeah. There's three more reasonable choices in the world of how Colby views things, how Donald Trump would view things, and how Dana White would view things in the matchmakers.

One, man. One, Stephen Thompson. That I think is the favorite. Okay. I think that's, I do think that is possible. I'll give you that one. I think it's the favorite. The silver medalist is Gilbert Burns. I think that's, I disagree entirely on that one.

Why? Two guys who literally are out of the title picture, but have relevant names and have fought for belts. Fight makes all the sets of the world. I don't think that makes sense for the UFC. Like, why do they care about booking that fight? Right. But if they're going to book Colby against like a Brazilian fighter that is ranked at Welterweight, they're going to use Gilbert Burns and not Gabriel Bonfee.

No, I think they are. I honest to God, my, my thought here is like, okay, maybe we can get some juice out of somebody by killing Colby. I don't really give a shit if it's at the White House. They don't care. They don't care about Colby winning at the White House. Donald Trump doesn't even really like him. Like it's not like you got to do him in a service. Which leads me.

I think the Wonder Boy one's real. That totally makes sense. I don't, I don't buy burdens at all. Which, oh, that's definitely in play. Uh, number three is a rematch with Mossadol. That's just do that. so i think that's true or like i can see that they've been dana's been really not interested in a horrid hospital so i don't know i can see wonder boy i'm saying i think this has some ability to happen

just because colby's not really in a position to call shots and colby will want to fight at the white house card and so they can make him fight kind of anybody yeah but are you going to put gabriel bonfeme on the white house card sure he's just a dude he's a random dude dude you're turning this you're you have promised this is going to be better than you have c300 and we're going to do this doesn't matter i mean it does it's going to have connor and john jones the rest of this car does not matter this is car does not matter they put colby again i wouldn't say it's a 20 percent i don't think it's zero i would do i would do michael kiesa over bonfam honestly god mike malott might malott would be better but i rod i i actually i run

be better i actively don't think they'd book mike milot because i don't think they would care about bonfine beating colby i don't think they want a canadian dude to be colby i think don't trump would not like a canadian fighter to be colby at the white house i mean but they like mike malon he's a knelt guy he's got the sponsorship going like they might i just i'm looking at this thinking they're i could buy tom i could buy wonder boy i think they're going to sacrifice him on the white house long and I don't know who like that because it's what he's going to be and like who else are going to be like it could I guess be you know I shot like it could be somebody else but like because Colby's not going to fight Gabriel Bonfine just like an apex card he ain't doing that but he wants to fight the White House they can kind of make him fight whoever I think this is like a 5% or to happen I think that's very generous but that's good okay if I end up being right Listen, we spent 12 minutes on this, which means you did a good job. If I end up being right, we're going to clip this, and I'm taking a victory lap in June.

What we just did, just discussing a Gabriel Botby combo, we did, like, that was more interesting to the entire event right there. So we did that. That is more memorable than what we watched at the apex tonight. And I feel very strongly about that. Support for this show comes from Odu. Running a business is hard enough, so why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other? Introducing Odu. It's the only business software you'll ever need. It's an all-in-one fully integrated platform that makes your work easier, CRM, accounting, inventory, e-commerce, and more. And the best part, Odo replaces multiple expensive platforms for a fraction of the cost.

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Available now, only from Audible. but here's here's what i you know i'm just gonna i i think i'm just going to get right into this jed i mean we we've already we've already kind of brought it up is it uh joseph morales oh no no no no no no uh hold that one second it's time it's bike check time we are here episode two uh here on the bike check with mike heck baby let's go bike check with bike heck uh we're talking about the callouts and things that were set on the microphone and that's going to lead us to like honestly the other biggest takeaway that has come from this event uh which is something that jed led to but here we go uh let's start with with gabriel

bonfee um let's give it a grade let's make it official again good performance it was a good win he does go get the finish uh obviously he was a it was a little questionable but it's not like it's not like a robbery stoppage by mark smith despite what jed said and and he made a compelling case that's the lawyer in him the call of colby covington was terrible there's zero chance this fight actually happens and i am i am on the same boat as a lot of other people that colby needs to fight or just be taking out of the rankings at this point uh and i do think he will probably fight he will probably fight at the white house he will not be fighting bond theme and because of jed actually making this an interesting segment uh i was going to give gabriel

bonfeme an f not like i wasn't even an f minus like steve garcia uh but i'm giving him a d minus and you could thank jed bishu for giving this a d minus and then the yeah yeah and then the other callout that i will talk about is of course josh hoakit with the obviously the great win gets the knockout does it quick like literally the first punch he lands the fight was over uh and i said something kind of similar in our slack channel that like this is not going to go very well for himenez because he's not very good and hoka goes out there and cloppers him and then he gets on the mic and does the the memorized nursery rhyme thing and i i have to say like i i dug it like it was fun it was It was kind of on point.

It was a little long, but he's done way longer promos, so he's getting a little bit better. The call-out of Walter Walker was really good, and I thought to myself heading in, because I had, there was zero chance that Jimenez was winning this fight in my eyes. I figured Hokka would finish him quick. And for Hokka to do the right thing, there were two names to call out, one of them he got. and it was Walter Walker got an immediate response and the thing I think that really took away from this was this wasn't like a cringy one it wasn't in bad taste

he didn't say anything horrible and got the dude's attention a guy who's kind of hot in the heavyweight division right now so a minus for Josh Hokka especially after doing what he was supposed to do and Jed we talk about this all the time these apex cards if we're going to make him a little bit more palatable, you book fights like this. This is, this is WWF superstars, baby. This is

the Undertaker against Barry Harrowitz. This is a squash match. This is a squash match. The second they booked it, the UFC knew immediately this is squash match. They got everything they wanted here, and Hokka did the right thing with the callout. The problem is that someone actually that kind of tweeted this out is he kind of has like the chale like mannerisms, but he comes off like Colby and that like isn't as likable as he could be

there's something a little off about it but this is way better than the contentious series one I've complicated thoughts about that statement which I don't know that I would have unpacked

I think Josh Hokit is a good lesson for other fighters I don't agree with the statement that he has the Chale thing. He's just Colby, and we'll see where that shifts, right? Colby, Colby politicized himself. And I frankly think it was a really good career move. I've

written about this for our site, whether you stand on his politics or not, Colby Covington and Kobe Covington was using the Chale Sun and Playbook, and he was never good at it because he is not a performer. And that's just the fact of it. I, I am not here to be mean to Colby Covington because I don't need to be he is a bad performer chale used a pro wrestling playbook and it was stale at times like so not everything chale did landed but chale has natural charisma he has always had natural charisma and chale i've been following this sport back back before chit anybody knew who chale was back when chale sucked and was on the regionals and when Shale was getting tapped in the WBC. I was following the sport.

And Chale did not get over despite being like a very solid fighter, not a A plus fighter, but like a B plus kind of guy. And he never got over until he adopted the pro wrestling stuff. And I don't know whether this is like he had he had writers and stuff. Like he had people help him do this. But he can pull it off. Right. Like it is the difference between watching like an actual actor act and like a high school student's drama performance, right? Like somebody who's, and that's it. Like Colby has no natural charisma and no ability to make the stick work. And because he couldn't do the jail stuff as well, he then pivoted into more of a political

alignment to just graft onto that fan base. And I think that worked really well. Oket clearly looks like he's going to make that push at one point in time. I think he has a little bit more natural charisma than Colby, but I do not believe he really has natural charisma in that fashion. He actually does. Like, honestly. He's got more than Colby, but like, maybe charisma is not the right word.

I, he's not a natural performer. It was very clear that he had rehearsed his post fight. And I'm fine. I think the post fight was solid, right? But he, it's hard to do that. And he didn't, he didn't dazzle with it. right but it didn't matter and that that's the thing that i want fighters to learn from like there's one thing that like we're talking about all the time on this show and that people

will give me flack for and you know there are some criticisms right you've such a limited opportunity to to stand out to to advance yourself and it is advancing yourself because like yes man you can be steve garcia that's a that's a hard road to walk baby It's a hard road to walk. But if you can find anything, and it doesn't have to be good because there's so few of it in the sport, don't everybody be Connor McGregor, but find your own way to turn the dial up to express yourself, to be more expressive in any capacity. And you can be Josh Hoket, who maybe has a little bit of charisma, but mostly what he had was a plan, right? he's like, okay, I'm going to go on contender series and I'm going to do this thing

and I will stand out. I will not say the name, but we were talking to somebody earlier this evening. It was like, is Josh Hokit, that dude off contender series who did X? And like, I, you know my stance, Mike. Not all publicity is good publicity.

In this sense, it is. Because you have to find a way to break through the noise of 50 contender series sinis. And he did it. And he comes in and he does this. gets a squash match, gets over with it, and, you know, some people didn't care for his post-fight or they're like, it's lame and try-hardy. Yes, that's okay.

It doesn't, a lot of what Chale did was lame and try-hardy, too, and it won't all land. I got to tell you, Mike, not every bit I do lands, but you just sort of keep chopping wood, and it gets you, and maybe he doesn't get Walter Walker off this, right? Like, that may well not happen, but he got a response. I say maybe he does. Maybe the UFC is like, you know what? Let's do it. And if he beats Walter Walker, he's immediately a ranked heavyweight.

And if he doesn't, okay, he got a little bit of shine. And now we can build him a little more slowly, but he's still a person of interest. You have got to find a way in this sport to make yourself a person of interest. Because yes, you can Belaw Muhammad it. You can Leon Edwards it. That is such a hard road to walk. And for every one of them, For every Leon Edwards, for every Movsar Evluev that exists, there are 10 Randy Browns who are like, yeah, pretty solid dude, but he had to win eight in a row to get anywhere, and sometimes you're just going to lose to a dude, and then you're cooked.

Fighters need to learn this, and this can transition into, honestly, the biggest point I want to make about the whole evening, the only thing I think about from this evening is like, Please stop asking for money. Like you, I, God bless Taco Padilla. I feel for him. I wish he had gotten a bonus. One, asking for a bonus is the fastest way to make them not want to give you a bonus. And two, you may need the money. They're not going to give it to you because you're asked for it.

These are no longer the days of Connor McGregor 50G's baby. And this is your one opportunity to stand out at any meaning. way and you got to you have to find a way to do something with it and begging for cash that they are going to be less incentivized to give you is not the way to do it it's super annoying it's it's super frustrating all of it's all of it's bad like i hate all of it and i i straight up like not even making this a fighter pay issue which is a separate thing and everybody probably understands my stance on it at this point i remove that part of it i'm not saying we need to pay fighters more

you need to remove performance bonuses because this has to stop from a promotional standpoint this is bad it has been bad for years because this is the only sport in the

whole widest of worlds that ESPN or CBS Paramount is broadcasting were after what should be a big glorious victory a fighter is asking for a hand out and they're not even asking for a lot this is like a met that there's about to be an f1 race tomorrow and if lando norris goes and wins the f1 race tomorrow he is not going to get on

the podium and do his post-fight interview and say man really glad to get this victory it's huge for my championship aspirations uh i'm not looking ahead to los vegas what i'm looking forward to is trying to get my mom like rent money so can you give me 20k like it is awful to see professional athletes begging for money which is absolutely like it is directly what is happening it's really awful for you a multi-billion dollar industry who's owned by a much bigger multibillion dollar industry for them to be begging for a small amount of money it's not a small amount for you or me right like that would be a huge amount of money for me certainly right but that is in the context of professional athletics 50 grand is is a I don't

don't know that nothing like how show hey itani makes that like one at bat and they're like this would demonstrably help my family get out of poverty please pay me 50 grand it is a horrible look for them and on top of just it being bad promotionally the product is worse because of it outside of that it looks bad casual observers might be like that's kind trashy that this is happening. Then the fighters aren't getting themselves over. You're not building more interesting stars or setting up more fights because Taco Padilla, who's on a great run right now and just had a good win over a dude who blew

weight by six pounds or whatever, he's talking about I need cash as opposed to being like, hey, man, yeah, I'm on this great heater and look forward. So get rid of performance bonuses. They're outdated and stupid. Pay everybody a flat fee. Get rid of win bonuses. Pay everybody a flat fee. kick that fee up from your thing, split the difference, and pay a finish bonus.

Nobody has to ask for money if everybody who gets a finish gets a bonus. They try to finish fights more. Everything's better. And the product is better in all facets of it. It's so hard to watch cards like this because it stands out so much more. Like, it is just straight trashy. And I don't mean that as an assault on Taco Padilla. I genuinely have sympathy for him in my heart.

I think he is a good fighter. this is that is not a a condemnation of him it is a condemnation of the product that a professional athlete is begging for money and this is normalized it like uh miguel what was the who's the dude who's the dude who's the home run in the ninth inning of the uh of the world series miguel rojas yeah yeah doesn't hit doesn't hit a lot of home runs doesn't hit home runs that dude i don't i'm sure he's making a lot of money's nimobie player but he's not show hey otani like can you imagine if after he does that and they're doing his post fight like hey

or his post game like hey man you never hit home runs like this is great awesome thing he's like yeah man it's super great to get this big win hey Dodgers can you pay me like 10 grand so I can get my my car out of

hawk I got to like it's so trashy dude it's so trashy and it's so bad that like Taco like has this heartfelt moment and like talks about this stuff

and then he says and then we know he's not going to get it because he asked for it. Yeah, and that's just sad. That's just really sad. That's the other side of it. It's not the promotional side where it's just like,

Taco's been doing this for long enough. Taco knows people who knows things. You can't, I don't know who told you this was a good idea. This was objectively the worst thing you could have said. If he just went out there and said like, thank my family. It was a great win.

And then like called out Terrence McKinney or something, he would have got a bonus tonight. Without question, he would have gotten one. He would have gotten one over Zach Rees. Good for Zach. Like, he comes in on a week's notice, but being a dude, he's probably not UFC ready at the moment. And that's fine.

But not because Zach didn't call for a bonus. He gets one. As did Josh Hokit, who you knew he was going to get one. And the last thing I'll say about Josh Hokkaid was he is the most memorable thing that happened tonight. Like, he is the outside

of like the begging for buddy he is the like if we're looking at this from an NHL at the end of the game tier he is the the the one star player on this event like I get assure you just kind of after working with Helotti

Ariel Holani the first guest he wants on his show on Monday is Josh Hockett it ain't Gabriel Bonfim he's going to want Josh Hoken on his show on Monday he did the thing that's how you do it CLD gets a got a good win that was nasty great performance for him

he's coming around he's growing yeah that was that was really good man and look Padilla had a that's the thing Padilla had a solid performance and he's you know been an underdog in like every fight and keeps winning him that rocks

and like it could have been that could have been a good moment because I will also blame him that like I don't need to do you heard my thoughts on the UFC on this side of it Taco can't do like you can't do that that's that was straight up stupid

you should know better and he was like pretty close to getting it over anyway. Like you can at let's say like I need that 50 grand for my mama or whatever. But then the second time we're like, hey, what do you want? I want money. Like you could at least try to moikano it and be like, I want money. I'll fight another dude next week.

I don't like his whole post fight. Again, I am begging you. I won't expect if you are if you are a Taco Padilla level fighter, not in your quality, but in your tenure and the amount of money you're making. I mean this with the from the bottom of. of my heart. This is a sincere offer. Reach out. I will help you work through a post-fight plan. Like at no charge, I will not charge you a dollar to get your career advanced in a better

way than this. Because outside of turfing your chance to get 50K, which you absolutely buried it, right? No chance which you said that. And there were other finishes on the card. Like, you just you took away all the momentum and just made it work. Like you made everything bad for yourself. Because you could have just been like that whole thing should have been like yeah man i'm a professional i am i was an underdog again that's i think that's stupid like the fighters get upset that's a better line to be like i was an underdog again this dude blew weight by six pounds he didn't want to be here i never

miss weight beat his ass and i'll beat the next dude's ass next week if you want to do that because i that's how i get down weight don't matter baby any of that is better than like i need money. No, but seriously, I really need money. I'm not kidding. I need money. Like, you just, you could, that was, it was the worst thing he could have done. Oh, I'm sorry. I don't have any money to loan you. What could I just like have some? Yeah. Like that's, it's, uh, like, the first one's bad and shouldn't happen. The second one is, I, I like, if you're going to say it, just say do more kind of like, I need money. So let me fight next week, man. I got to get paid. That's fine.

uh joseph rouse got the chance to call somebody out it was great performance he also didn't get a bonus um and said told the ufc uh where to book their cards do you not understand at this point joseph this is your second stint with the company do you understand that the ufc is not choosing where they're going anymore love it they're not choosing it the the if sacramento wants to pay them a whole bunch of money to go they'll go it doesn't seem likely. I don't think Cacarmento's coming up with the whole bunch of money to send him there. So that's where they're going. They're going where the money is. They've basically said it in stockholder calls. If you want to pay us a site fee, we're coming. Unless Dana just likes going to

your place. Like he'll go to Boston like once every five years to be like, yeah, I'm from Boston. So we're bringing an event there. But do you think the best just say paying for that? That's why they don't go as often as they should, even though Boston is like one of the hottest crowds they have every time they go there but they ain't paying that's why they don't go so sorry i i would might check that but it doesn't deserve it for being honest urs meditch good win solid performance good knockout solokov probably needs to be done with fighting that was my honest thing i'd take away from that fight it was like okay you're 41 and you sure look like it he looked old today he's very old but medich good win uh no call for him either it was just hey man

I'll fight whoever. As long as I'm healthy, I can beat everybody. Only as long as I'm healthy. That's also bad. It's still better than Taco. It's still better than begging for money. I truly honestly believe Taco had the worst post fight out of the evening. It was pretty bad.

Outside, like, I also think that it's, you know, systemically bad on the UFC. Every choice he made was incorrect. Yeah. CLD, good performance. Like I said, he's growing on me. That's what you got a bonus. the Jamal Emmer's just steadily getting better man

yeah I don't think he's gonna win a bell dude who kind of just has been chipping away rock solid yeah I don't think he's gonna be like a top 10 middle weight but he's gonna be he could make the rankings yeah that's in play for him

yeah I think I think he'd be like the bottom end like the bottom issue of the the top 15 I think I didn't think that was that was the case for quite some time um but i he's showing me something and he could show that he can't be very fun so let's get him in there he had a very very good 2025 there is a non-poly if the pulaya fight is truly one of the worst fights in the history of the middleweight division yeah that's not good

that was bad but he did win it and then you know he got a bonus in his last fight and did he bonus this fight sure he did yeah so back-to-back bonuses like three wins back to back to back bonuses I don't I have not even begun to start the list wouldn't stun me if he was you know a third team all violence guy this year wow back to back bonuses like and three wins like that's he's certainly an honorable mention if he doesn't make one of the three

teams I don't I have to look at I haven't looked at all who middleweight has going right now is the problem yeah it's a weird division Marco Tudio Not a lot of dudes Marco Tullio is in a pretty good place I mean RDR's certainly on it Because he's fought four times this year So like he will make it

But like you know Not a lot of other dudes Fought a lot this year at middle weight So he could make it The Jamal Emers Hyder Emil fight Can like really kind of hurt my soul Because that was the feature prelim And I was actually really excited for that fight

And then you know To every again the most important thing for Jamal Emers or anybody else is getting a win. Get the done. But this was tough. This was not a memorable win, a memorable performance.

Basically the only boring fight of Hyder Emile's career. And really, Jamal Emmers doesn't have a lot of boring ones either. I would have like to see Hyoni Barcellos to Ricky Simone get a bonus because that fight was very fun. I enjoyed that one a lot.

uh barcelos won it and only 19 people got to see alive and boy it felt that way uh it was very quiet the only time the apex felt like there was any life to it was when taco was fighting because there was people chanting taco like taco just brought in the right folks they were they were trying to chant for they were trying to chant for andy brown but he was getting worked over outside actually that's not the loudest the apex ever has ever been Ben was when Calvin Cater beat the shit out of giga chikaze. That was like the Calvin Cater show. He brought a he brought out like all of Boston.

They're all wearing catermania t-shirts. It was, uh, that was, but as electric as the apex has ever been was that. Can I ask you an important question? Uh, what, what are, what are they going to do with Tony Barcellos? Because they kind of hate him, but also don't, right? Like, I don't, I don't understand what they've done is. this fight made no sense to me because he beats Peyton

Talbot which you know should be big Peyton Talbot is the guy they're pushing see that he's about to fight Henry Suido then he gets Cody Garbrand which wasn't a bad it was kind of weird like that that felt like a big name for him and he's old but

okay you're going to give him Cody Garbrant you're giving him a real push then like he's you're going to see what you got with him and he beats Cody Garbrand in Atlanta you know wasn't the best performance ever but consummate victory over Cody Garbrandt former champion and then they're like now fight Ricky Simone like this felt like a huge step backwards in the terms of name quality and so like

I don't what are we doing this dude's old you got to if you're giving him a push push him if you're not stop oh kind of pushing him I don't know what's happening oh I think I think they've I think he's foiled their plans twice so they gave him an unranked guy and you think you think they thought Cody could beat him. So he was the guy Cody could beat. They said to themselves, he cannot hurt Cody. He might beat him, but he won't hurt him. So like there's any.

Yeah. So like, they're like, do we throw Cody in there with Malcolm Wellmaker who might actually kill him? Or do we throw him in there with Hione Barcellos who people know and, but won't hurt him? And Cody had like a decent first round in that fight. And then the wheels fell off. Barcellus beat him and Barcellus also be Peyton Talbot which you know the UFC didn't like that very much so this was the this was the C he lost to an unranked guy except I accept your premise yeah so I think that's how they were they were looking at it now at this point um it's just like all right I guess you gotta kind of run with this right like see how far it can go like they're not gonna like rush it into a title you can't go that far in general but credit to him he's put together quite a good win since who do you lose to

Kyler Phillips yeah but the most recent loss like he's he's shown me more than I frankly thought to see from him he's one of those dudes who seems to be getting better despite clearly getting older you could you could use him to run patchy mix out

of the UFC yeah that's not awful patch you can't beat a you can't beat the 41 year old unrank guy you're definitely out here give him Marcus McGee that would be my pick

for Barcellos? Yeah, let Barcellos get a shot at a dude who's ranked and McGee's coming off the loss. I don't mind that. So defend position. He's won four in a row or whatever over relatively good sized names.

Let him get a crack at a number. Man, this is like, Bandaway's interesting. It's a real weird weight class right now. I mean, Cheetah wouldn't be a bad one. I wouldn't hate that. like sure it's a 50-50-ish kind of fight

because he just physically will do stuff you know this is the thing like chito can lose to any fighter because he might simply not do anything it's such a he's such a strange dude I don't I mean you could do I've never seen a fighter who needs a sports psychologist more

and I can only assume that there's a zero percent chance Cheeto would ever go to a sports psychologist I could be wrong but that feels like thing that he would fundamentally be opposed to like someone said rob fond i don't mind that one that might actually be my choice i think you should give him a guy with the number he's four fight winning streak all against fairly big names yeah give him wrong i think he deserves the number

anyone is fine i actually wouldn't hate mar i don't mind mara batista either but i was like really impressed with batista did against dumar so i wouldn't want to drop him like that far say unless you're just giving batista like because batista would clearly win that comfortably. So unless that's just a get back fight for Batista, I don't, I don't like that. I think if he, if they give him Rob and he beats Rob, then you can go Batista, but that's kind of the road they're going. They're not going to like chuck him to O'Malley or anybody like that. Or maybe. I don't know. Depends where O'Malley's at, but yeah. Nothing quite makes a holiday gathering pop like turning on the music. And if you're looking to set the mood, you should check out

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Cavalcanti one, Hokit one, Goemes one. Apparently Tisha Pennington is teasing a little bit of retirement, but she didn't actually say it. Daniel Marcos is really good tonight. I would have Cavalcanti on their teams. No. No, but AK did have my Buenos Silva. Oof. He had a tough draft, man.

Golly, tough draft. I can't believe nobody had Cavalcante that seems I mean there are only like six options yeah I think some of them might get her this time Marcos you know what Daniel Marcos might have that's the thing he they buried him so like low on the card that like so little happened that I almost like forgot about it dude they buried his entire career yeah this dude was 18 and oh

in the promotion and like in his career and just kept winning and they were just like we don't care he smushed Miles John slept him with that show That was nasty. That was really, really impressive. Yeah. It was a great performance.

Honestly, I think it was his best performance in the UFC. And Zach Rees gets the win as well. Okay. Let's go to the peeps. We're going to rival through some of these. We've seen a couple soups. Yeah,

we got a bunch. Covington, Mazelot, the White House makes sense. Says Thompson. Oh, look, I agree that it does make sense.

I do not. Maybe, maybe some things changed. Maybe the White House has made it change. Dude. The last time. Dana talked about, Jorge Mossball, he didn't, you know, not a Dana

act, genuinely seemed to have no interest in it. And Jorge's been like pushing to return for close to a year now with zero traction as far as I can tell. They let him go box and eight. They were just like, okay, go ahead. Yeah, they're like, dude, we're done with you. It's fine. And then he was like,

I'm on retiring. I'd like to fight. And Dana was like, I don't care. Maybe the White House changes it. I could see the White House being the change. But like, there's never been a more obvious oh he wants back in throw him to leon edwards here's some money we can make money with this and they're just like nah we're good so i don't know uh ars 40 28 bomb feme is really good i'm on the train how about uros betich is he a player 170 he's an exciting fighter i would

give him d rod uh this fight got me a little more on bomb feme on the train than i was previously uh not either of the bomb fiend brothers have really jumped out to me as like super prospects right obviously ishmael's might be cooked um get a really bad week let's just say that ishmael i think his uh his ufc career is over that might might be the end of it um gabriel gabriel's a better one certainly of the brothers anyway and sort of always has been right um the nicholas dollby loss was like okay that's a setback i don't think he'd be Steven Thompson. I know he got the win and good for him. He lost that fight. I don't believe he won that fight. Stephen can be tricky. This fight, I don't think Randy Brown is, Randy Brown's probably top 25 while to wait, right? Like that's sort of his zone. And I, he was beating Randy Brown's ass. Like he, he was working him over pretty good. He was going to win that fight whether he won it when he did or if Randy Brown had recovered and the fight hadn't been stopped, he was going to win that fight anyway and he is relatively young i i think his biggest issue is yeah there he is

relatively young there are actually a lot of that person there are a lot of relatively young high-end welterweights right now and you know if he has that career trajectory where he just gets better over time you know progress is not linear in this sport if he is one of those guys like a Hafeel de Sanjos, you know, like a Charles Olavera. Okay. But like he, of all the dudes at Welterweight, and there are many right now of like younger than 33, he's the lowest on the totem pole. So he's going to have to make leaps and bounds to be a real player.

Yeah. If Gabriel Bonfim wins the UFC Welterweight belt, this might be the most workman-like championship ever won in the UFC because it's going to take him. I mean years before he gets there. People do it. It's a hard road. It's a hard road. But if you're one of those guys,

that'll be great. Yeah. Uncle I have did it. I mean, guys have done it. Guys have done it. What was the other part of that question? Oh,

sorry. Oh, Euros Medidge. Uh, no. Oros is a classic fun fighter. He will be, he will be Walterweight's at eight landware.

Yeah, or it's all done. He can say in the U.C. As long as he wants. They will never cut his ass. Yeah. Because he has been in 20 fist fights and he has never gone to the judges. He is always a good time.

He will win some. He will lose to anybody who's good. Like, anybody who is good, good will beat him. He is not even talented enough to like randomly snipe a win over like a low end good fighter, right? D.Rod would, I would pick Drod comfortably against your espeditch. Yeah, that's the thing. And like, you see this in other way classes, right? we talk about lightweight being the best weight class like you can be a top 40 lightweight and just on a really good night you can randomly get a dub over like a top 20 lightweight um like that is the thing that happens eros medich will never do that like i'm trying to think right now who is who's like the 22nd best welterweight in the ufc right now i have your in my personal rankings right now where do i have euros midditch

I mean honestly straight up He will just never beat Randy Brown He's I have him at 40 I have him at 42 Just behind Jeremiah Wells Who I would pick to beat Eurospeditch Yeah He'll

He just has no ability to beat somebody Like a Randy Brown Who has real like real talent Maybe he doesn't ever Can't put it all together In some ways or is limited But he can beat any of You know

A bunch of middle dudes And he's fun and exciting and a professional fist fighter he makes way he shows up on time he doesn't go to the judges like this that's a dude who will be employed forever he like dudes like eros medich those are the guys like those are the glue guys in other sports when people talk about like yeah man like our left guard he's not going to make a pro bowl shit he ain't never he ain't making an all-star team or anything but like we love that dude he shows up to work and he he's he's played for the Raiders for 12 years

just as a solid starting like that's the dude you can build a you don't build a team around him but you need that guy to build the promotion nothing but respect for him Nico Price had a great run being just an exciting dude who can't is literally the perfect comp

it's perfect on Mike yeah so and that's a good place to be give him Chuck Buffalo I don't think he'd beat Chuck Buffalo but that would be like no that could be perfect the fight will be very fun fight will be a banger perfect Terrence. Is Chanel getting cut? He simped against pay. I don't think he's making a ton.

I think he would be getting cut. I don't know that he, I didn't see that he simmed against pay, whatever. That never helps, but he's lost like six of his last seven fights or something like that. He was probably getting cut anyway. His one win was Jimmy Flick. God love Jimmy Flick. Okay. I'm going to say, as long as he doesn't. if I'm see here's how like if I'm in the UFC boardroom right now like if if on Tuesday they have their matchmaker reading and they're like

should we keep them should we cut them should we cut them they keep Matt I think they absolutely keep match now why because he's not making a lot of money he when he he's going to retire soon anyways and three and maybe the most important Jed he knows how to get got real good he knows how to put talent to die well And he dies really well.

So I think he sticks around. I think if he leaves the UFC, it will not be because the UFC hands up a pink slip. It'll be because Matt is like I'm not fighting anymore. And I'm truly done, which he tried to do and somehow still ended up back. And the UFC was like, okay, come back and fight. And there he was again tonight. So if you can get got well, you'll be around for a while. uh johnny hans cl d has eight fights in the ufc six to two five five finishes uh but no wiki page

i'm guessing you as a sought out advisor uh i believe he's talking to you jed advise him to starwin how that dumb of his manager to not uh have already started one um this is a hundred percent of correct take i i have like i could go start my own like a wikipedia page for me, right? Like, there's enough to do that. It would be incredibly vain and stupid for me to do that. It wouldn't influence my career. It would purely be a vanity play so I could say I'm on Wikipedia. He should do it. It is a significant thing to do for his career. He doesn't have to do it himself, but like, yes, that is a billion percent. Like, you can't be like, I'm going to wait until a random stranger does it so I'll feel accomplished that I know bro like you need to have a wiki

because like nobody is going to take you serious like I got to tell you random fans don't go to tapology I love tapology I think it's an incredible resource and website I've nothing it's getting better at better yeah and they're they're just getting better they are great random people who are like Wikipedia Google like oh man I don't know what that dude let me Google him and there's not a wiki to you like that's what people use and you can do it you could have it tonight like you could do it tonight i'm not going to do that for free but you know i'll tell you to get somebody to do it and they could do it yeah man that it's absolutely ludicrous to not have one we know he knows instantly we know who his manager is so

he's a cage warriors guy we know who's manager is uh yeah how he allows this to happen is unbelievable truly truly unreal but it is what it is is it is the dude is the dude is the lowest barrier to entry to something that's not like super important but tangibly important Chase what is the most enjoyable part of going to fights is the atmosphere the view of the fights or combination

of a bunch of different things atmosphere all day your view is going to suck I've been to a lot of you're going to watch it on the big screen in the middle of the arena that's you're going to watch it most of the time yeah straight up like I've been to a lot of fights I've been in the bleeders I've sat cage side

sitting cage side is fun if you have the means, I always think that it is a cool thing if you have the means to do it once because it is a very different experience than you will ever get at home or anywhere else because it is being, you are next to a fist fight. Like if you've ever seen a fight in real life, it's that.

And so you can hear more, like punches sound more than they do anywhere else. But it's also the worst view of the fight by far being caged side because you are. closest to the cage and so you're you basically have no good view of almost anything at any point time uh if you're like in the middle like the lower bowl section uh i think that is the worst view of the whole thing because you you have like it's a cage so you're fully impeded and you're just sort of in the vibe upper bowls that's at least kind of interesting um and certainly

like a smaller venue not a ufc necessarily but like uh way back in the day i went to a w event and it was and they're like certainly regional shows have this too like in bars or smaller venues where you have like a balcony area because it's you know in a bar and so the balcony area you are both close and right on top so you're just looking down into a cage then you actually have a pretty good view so your view's going to suck anywhere you go uh it's all about the energy it's about the vibe you you are doing a communal experience at a fight and so you know i i have been to fights alone i think it's better to go with a group of friends in general um you can still have fun and certainly if you are in effervescent personality you can make friends people people start

drinking if you're rooting for the same dude things can happen i've i've had friendships you know or not friendships but short-term things happen that way but vibe and energy absolutely the most important thing yeah i think and like i said i believe was to you earlier chase you just need i think everyone should go to one and if you're going to go to that one like go big And then you don't have to do it again. I mean, if you want to, you can. It's your choice. But I think everybody needs to just go once and experience it.

And then I think as you get older in life, you will realize, and this is for most people I talk to, they would rather save the $500 to $1,500 to $1,500 or more dollars and watch it at home. And now it's like so much cheaper to watch it at home. Yeah, I also, I think the, again, if you have the means, the floor seats are the actual worst view because the floor seats at a UFC event are you are it is floor seats it's like being at your you know your kids recital it is just rows of seats everybody stands up you kind of can't see shit um so you're just looking at the screen but the energy is not the same as the crowd but that is cool in a you're more mobile it's just more of an open space you can kind of linger around and do you. stuff and you can see all the famous people you know you can see all the fighters because they're fighters are milling about fighter you know teammates and stuff that are watching it they are largely in that sort of area so you have more interactive opportunities so if you can do that i think that that's like a fun thing but it is very different if you're trying to watch the fights

like if the thing you want to do is watch the fights i would straight up be like get in the upper deck that'll give you the best to you the only problem with the upper deck is you're around it's the cheapest seats of the house and you're going to be around a bunch of knuckleheads yeah like you're the percentages of you not making it to the end of the night because you got thrown out for getting into a fight with the knucklehead your percentages go up immensely it's true fights happen in the cheap seats they don't really happen anywhere else yeah they ain't going to happen next uh fucking action bronson like sitting in the same row as him people are paying a couple grand for the low seat you know the floor seats

yeah and the energy is still going to be good you just it's just a little more classy down there that's all just a different kind of energy i think every real fight fan should go to at least one just to just to experience it and but like i i would not go to events a lot if i go to them at the exact clip i want to which is a couple of times a year to work them yeah And I truly hope this happens at some point. And I know we pitched this a billion times on this here channel and other shows and stuff. Like, I wish International Fight Week was bigger than it is. And I don't mean for the UFC.

Because, like, I know the UFC could sit there be like, what the fuck you're talking about? We do a fan fest. We do the Hall of Fame and all that stuff. And by the way, I've been to a couple of Hall of Fame. No one goes. I mean, truly nobody goes. It's an empty arena except for, like, maybe a couple of Hall of Fame. couple hundred people who were just like diehard fans or friends and family and stuff like that so

there's no ambiance really to it but the cool part about the hall of fame and working it is like you get to do the red carpet and stuff but i really wish international fight week felt like russolmania like russomedia weekend where like every mma every like weird combat sport event like goes out there and like does a card in that general area that week and there's like other fan fest where it's not just a ufc fan fest it's like an mama fan fest like they could do so much more with this and like even the LFAs of the world who like are on fight pass and have like good relationships to the UFC like they could do events at the the freaking apex like MMA fans would much rather go see an LFA card on like a Wednesday night

of international fight week to go to fucking power slap on Friday like that's what they want that's what these people want and like there's just it's not happening it's it's a little frustrating December would be a good time too Because they have the MMA awards, and there's a lot going on for those December cards. Like, we can, we can, if you do that, you will grow the fan base. Like, you will grow the fan base, not the UFC fan base. You will grow the sports fan base, which if you're the UFC, is great for you. It's great because if they start watching these regional cards and start following these fighters at the regional show,

who eventually are going to get to the UFC, that only makes their experience of being a fan of the sport longer. I don't understand why the UFC doesn't see it. that way i don't i truly don't get it dude i i i a million years ago they did an international fight week with three events and we at the time we're like wow that's kind of a lot and i think it was incredibly forward thinking and then they just nerfed it yeah they just don't do you you could just be like all right it's international fight week you know what international fight week is going to be it's going to be a week of fighting we're going to do a pay per view on saturday we're going to do a another fight card on friday we're going to do three conditions

Tinder series that week and it's going to be and there's going to be all there's a hall of fame on Thursday we're doing contender series on Monday and Tuesday whatever it is just you could blow that out you could make it the tent pole of the year outside of like being a ostensible like oh yes it's the tent pole event of the year of course you could be like no this is the event of the year every year and I got to tell you I think that you should do that because I don't know. I'm an idiot. I don't know things, Mike. I'm very stupid man. I don't think anybody who works for the NFL is like, you know what's stupid? We have one really big event a year. That's pretty dumb, right? Like we should do one a month that people care about. They're like, no, actually,

the Super Bowl is a colloquial term for the biggest thing in the goddamn world in the year. It's the Super Bowl of something. You should do that. Follow the playbook written of like these things. Make one event be spectacular in such a way that they do not do. And guess what they do that whole week? There's something every single day. Dude, they do this Super Bowl.

There's Super Bowl week. And then there's a whole week before it, which is still like kind of Super Bowl week. Yeah. Make it major. The hardcore is the hard course. Get two weeks of fun. Honest to God.

I know this is a joke. Mike, hold on. We'll put J.B. 956's comments up right now. I know that this is a joke. I'm not kidding you, yes. I mean this so sincerely, yes. Dana White can be like, this is our big event. You know, oh, there are celebrity guest pickers on the desk for whatever.

Like, they do that shit for college game day. Every week, a random celebrity from Nashville or Houston or whatever city they're in guest pick. They could be like, all right, it's international fight week. here's the animal i mean they could do this for other cards just for pay-per-views but like here's our desk of michael quiesa and camo oosman and joining us to talk about some of the fights his long time m-ma fan um trying to think of just like random super action bronson or whatever glen powell is here and because this event is so big our ring car girls are zendaya and sydney and like just make it bombastic to a degree that's hard to

reckon with like that's such a better idea than just being like yeah it's international fight week some fights are happening dur and and people say like we're negative all again all chad and i ask or like it's just one simple task i'm giving you gold all you do is try just try just try put forth an effort and you do good things the three i will say this i was already pumped for 322 the best the best the best thing UFC Vegas 111 did was got me more excited for 322 because the pack the promo videos for the two title fights were frigging great they're really really good so I will I will give them that we see where their efforts are there was no effort for Vegas 111 and at least they that's why I call it the go home show like because you use that event to like promote the pay-per-view

that you want people to buy and typically they don't they don't give you that effort they certainly did today. Cosmo says no more negativity. What's your grade for UFC 322 on paper? Let me look at it one more time. Make sure I haven't incorrected. Yeah, this is a three star event. This is Max stars.

Three Michoulin stars and these cards exceptional. Yeah. There's a, I think, this is in fact the greatest, On paper, the greatest woman's fight ever assembled. I believe that that is true. And the main event is the top pound for bound, or depending on who you're asking, the top pound for a fighter in the sport, attempting to do something historically significant

against a brand new champion with a built-in storyline to it. If he wins, you know, suddenly as the Mokachev is in the 15 greatest fighters who've ever competed conversation. like it's historically significant the co-main event is one of the most historically significant fights ever assembled um and everything else that's in support of it is somewhere between hot shit and pretty damn good as this uh full full bars yeah this is this is about as age you can get in today's modern ufc it doesn't we don't get cards like this very often look at the effort they put forth the last couple is a Madison Square Garden. Brutal.

Like, just brutal. This is what it's supposed to be. This is the best Madison Square Garden card since 205. This is the best one. Yeah. Yep. I would say that's a, that's a great point. And that was the first one.

So this is the best one. And again, so you think on paper, this is the second best one. I think it's the second best one on paper. And again, it could suck. Like, all these fights can blow because you do never know. But I do not, I don't think you can assemble a better card on paper realistically like 300 is the best card ever assembled so you could do that but like

this is as good as anyone could ever ask for from a flight card in my opinion i like if if i'm judging it based on the excitement levels this is the most excited at ben for an event and it's not like one that has to like build up i've been since 300 yeah so yeah uh no notes do that do more of this just do more of this that's all we ask uh you it's kind of sad the best thing about the heavyweight division is the man note is water water that's how effed up it is okay i mean look he's you know what volta walker's doing he's making himself stand out you got to find a way to do it he's found a way to do it good on him yeah he's he's doing the thing uh chase i'm in section three row one

on the floor i've no clue what to expect just going to oh he's going to 32 i say row one is i mean that means you're right at the front. So if you're going to be on the floor, that's one of the better ones place to be. It's a good vibe, man. Just enjoy it. Have as much fun as you can because they are, look,

for as much criticism as I will always levy against the UFC for the reasons they deserve it. One of, I believe one of the major reasons they have been as successful as they are, is they are the McDonald's of fight promotion, right? Like a McDonald's burger is never going to be the best thing that you've ever had

but it has a really high floor. I've never been to a UFC event and I was like this is an, I've watched them but I've never been at one and been like this super sucked. They're pretty good about

creating an atmosphere and a vibe that is at the minimum enjoyable and for an event like that is there's no wrong way. No way for it to go bad. I don't think. Yeah. They look, the UFC is going to go all out for card like they're going to go all for it you're you're going to notice it this week you're going to

experience a difference and yes it's the it's the event yes i i would assume that the paramount folk will be out in full effect like this is the one that they're probably looking at like okay we're giving these people 7.7 billion dollars i'm sure the paramount execs were watching this event tonight and last week's event and thinking to themselves plus with the news cycle thinking, boy, that's a lot of money we're giving them. Are you sure we made the right call? I can assure you the UFC is going to put their like a plus best effort forward next week. And it would not shock me, as I said, I think Dana come Monday morning, we're going to wake up

from asleep, you're going to get ready for work, you're going to make the drive, you're going to pull into your parking space, you're going to go up to your office, sit at the desk, you're going to pull out your phone, open up Instagram, and you will see a message from the UFC, the big boss going live on Instagram later on today. And Dana is going to start the week off with the Iliate Tuporia Patty Pimblen announcement for whatever, whenever this paramount card's going to be. They're going to make the negative press go away as quickly as possible. And that is going to be the start of the week. And then the week is just going to be like pretty wild. Like I think that's what this. This is going to be like the, this is going to be a week where fans who are

just like man this feels so soulless and and i see it with wwee fans right now like there is a time not that long ago that w w is so red hot they were so hot like with the whole roman rains bloodline thing like they could not be stopped and now w w e feels like the ufc feels right now where they're just they're just overcharging for tickets people are still going and paying it but if you watch these WWE shows nothing happens like nothing it is the most boring programming ever and yet they don't care and then every once in a while they'll try and you're reminded why you love this sport there and now they work together it's just one of those things so yes it's a very long post show uh way longer than i thought it was gonna be yeah buddy i told you i want to be i told you

but see now I'm having fun now I'm having fun that's the thing because we will have fun with it and because I could talk for three hours

on anything and here's the other thing here's the other thing because this event was so stinky in terms of like memories and like fallout

like truly normally it's like oh we gotta end this quick so we can go help out on the post fight stuff because we're getting those memorable quotes from Gabriel Bodfeam that is in fact

like honestly God that's that's the truth Where it's just like, yeah, we got to finish. We got to wrap the 322 post show because I got to drive home for an hour. Yeah. And we have so many things like our 32 post show is going to be like 10 minutes. Like, hey, we got everybody needs to get picked up from this. We're going to be writing until 6 a.m.

So we got to get out of here with this one. There's been like four messages in Slack. Everyone's like nothing is happening at this post press. Everyone's like the rest of our staff is like like there are. soundly asleep. Yeah. Like soundly asleep. They're saw and logs and we're here with all of you.

They sent me a message and we're like, hey, write this thing when you're finished this group thing for tomorrow and just schedule it. Good night. It's like, okay. Cool. That was like 45 minutes.

Yeah. It was like almost an hour ago. I'm very pumped for here for 322. I will see it. 32 rocks, man. I'm so excited for that card. Lies. Okay.

Oh. look at him here uh schninkledorf what a name lower upper bull is the move 192-199 elite views from up top uh i mean i in fact if i was going to go as a fan yes i i agree i think you're because you're getting the most into the cage you're not close but it still kind of feels that they're the setup is actually pretty good for making it feel close like you're not like a million miles away uh anywhere you go you will be watching some screen though like it's it is just part of it yeah i agree all right i think we've uh i think we've done more than enough here i concur yeah AK and i were we'll do a little matchmaking tomorrow morning

uh for onset next one that i can assure you and I'm not even joking will be a shorter episode normally we go like an hour we ain't going an hour at this one it just cannot happen uh there's just it's a lot of dart throws coming out of on to the next one for sure so we'll we'll discuss the follow from that we'll get you ready it's going to be a lot of UFC 32 stuff uh quick programming note uh BTL Tuesday this week oh you told me that and I already forgot that was happening uh we're going to literally told me that i was like oh we're going tuesday um the biggest reason why is as i said on the the preview show yesterday uh i drove through the night yeah i drove through the night Thursday night

to massachusetts and i will be driving home like wednesday night into thursday back to south carolina because you got to do watch party on saturday uh so i'll be sleeping Thursday. Like I'll be getting back to South Carolina probably around 7 a.m. And then I'm going to go sleep. Well, that's Veterans Day. Oh, look at us go. Look at us go. I put it in my calendar. So now I won't forget. Yes. So Tuesday is when BTL goes down. And then, you know, Jose doesn't have to be a world traveler this time. He can just kind of walk outside his house and go to Media Day. And plus next week's not as not as full of stuff next week, which frankly I'm excited about. I didn't.

really i even i think i like that jake paul fight more than most and i wasn't looking forward to having to do that on top of everything else so why we baby three two can't wait can't wait yeah no three no jake paul tank davis stuff uh will be all hands on deck for ufc 32 which would be lovely uh so yeah stick with us at may fight you dot com it's got be a great time it's great website So for Jed, I am Mike Keck. A.K's probably on the comments section somewhere telling us to wrap this up and you got it. 85 minutes, baby. You got it, boss.

Have a good night, everybody. I'll see you the book. Love y'all. My DMs are open, fighters. I promise you I will in fact help your careers for free. Call them. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.