MMA Fighting - UFC Vegas 113 & BKFC KnuckleMania 6 Post-Fight Show | Reaction To Mario Bautista, Andrei Arlovski's Main Event Finishes

Episode Date: February 8, 2026

Mario Bautista delivered the goods in his first UFC main event, while Andrei Arlovski became a BKFC world champion in his first opportunity to capture promotional gold. Following a very busy Saturda...y in the combat sports world, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Jed Meshew react to UFC Vegas 113, Bautista's impressive performance against Vinicius Oliveira, where Bautista goes from here, the rough watch that was Rizvan Kuniev vs. Jailton Almeida and the state of the heavyweight division, and more from the UFC's return to the newly-branded Meta Apex. Additionally, they discuss BKFC's KnuckleMania 6, Arlovski's dominant title win over Ben Rothwell, the good and the bad from the promotion's annual bare-knuckle extravaganza, 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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Starting point is 00:00:54 If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or the gambling of someone close to you, please go to conicsontera.ca. podcast network. There are the victory drums. No, they're not the horns, but they're the victory drums. And they sound for multiple people. They sound for Mario Batista. And they sound for Andre Freaking Arlofsky, who about 15 minutes ago just became the
Starting point is 00:01:40 BKFC heavyweight champion. He beat the hell out of Ben Rothball. I just don't know what other better way to say it. He battered, bloodied up, and then got a doctor stoppage win. over Ben Rothwell, Andrei Alofsky, just continuing to do the damn thing. He's just, maybe he is the goat, Jed Mishu. Maybe he is the goat after all. He is joining me as well following a double header of sorts on this Saturday night.
Starting point is 00:02:08 Jed, how are you, sir? I'm good. My audio's getting real wacky, so dealing with that. But yeah, look at the sign, Michael. Andree Lovsky is my goat. Like that UFC card is a weird one We're going to talk about it obviously And if you're watching currently
Starting point is 00:02:27 Thanks for frankly sticking along with us It's 1 a.m. almost on the East Coast And that you know This is not a memorable UFC card But it's pretty fun There are some really good performances And then BKFC was just sort of like It was a very nice way to end the evening
Starting point is 00:02:46 Right you go out to a good Not a great dinner but then you're like you know what i'm not going to do the the dessert here let's just stop it like dairy queen and get a blizzard on the way home and then that's what bkfc felt like day in the night yeah you know you know what it is what it felt like what bkfc was was perfect example jed i went my kid had a had a golf team practice at 11 and then we had a tea time at 1220 at a place just down the street. So drove down the street, got to the tea time, and my son was like, I'm hungry right now. I want chicken figures of french fries. I'm like, great, we're teeing off in literally nine minutes.
Starting point is 00:03:28 You need to get a hot dog or something. So he got a hot dog. And yeah, it took them forever to like ring in the hot dogs and close out the bill and have a sign it. But at the end, Jed, we got to our tea time eventually. And then the hot dogs were delicious. This is what BKFC was tonight. The pacing was terrific tonight. For BFC standards, it was the worst I've ever seen from them. But the fights were good. I mean, we went to a bunch of decisions. There's some good matchmaking. Charles Freaking Bennett got a knockout win in the year of our Lord 2026. I still can't believe that's a sentence I'm saying. Andreelowski is a world champion and a major fighting promotion. I guess all is well, but I didn't think we'd be starting this post show just shy of 1 a.m.
Starting point is 00:04:16 So apologies for that. I was on BKFC duty. Normally they paid- BKFC killed us. We would have done this post show two hours ago. I know. Definitely. You see wrapped quick, man.
Starting point is 00:04:26 Yeah. It's usually not like that. I thought, you know, Batista would be done by like 1115. And then we'd just be getting into the main event. We weren't even close, ladies and gentlemen. But I mean, the timeline kind of worked out because by the time Batista wrapped things up,
Starting point is 00:04:41 like that was when BKFC's main card started. Three-fight main cards. So not like this long. protracted one. But like, you know, two of those fights were actually the fights I was the most interested in. The feature bout, there was like some entry again. But so it all kind of worked out. If you were watching fights, like if you're, if you're playing today was I'm going to
Starting point is 00:05:03 wake up and watch fights, you basically could have been watching fights from 9 a.m. Almost unchecked until whatever time it is now, minus 30, right? So that's a long day of fighting if you stuck and watched it all. I did not. I didn't see. I saw a lot of PFL, but I didn't see some of the very early stuff. So, and it's still been quite a long day. Yeah, I didn't watch any of PFL.
Starting point is 00:05:29 I saw some clips. But yeah, well done to everybody involved, especially if you watched all day. But Jed, let's start with UFC Vegas 113. What will you remember most about this car? What is when you close your eyes and think UFC Vegas 113, what's the first image that pops into your head? That's a good question. I think the answer is going to be Mara Batista,
Starting point is 00:05:54 which is curious because he's Mara Batista, you know? But like that is, I don't want to give him short shrift because I have been critical of him in the past, and I'll continue to be critical of him when I think it's fair. But like this was an unequivocal, awesome performance from him. You know, he looked like the guy who, who was very exciting before he kind of fell off for a couple of fights there. And when he's not getting tackled by Umar,
Starting point is 00:06:24 he can still just be one of the seven or eight best guys in his weight class. Some news has come out. Loke Dog was apparently wildly injured heading into this fight. Plus he cut 50 pounds. So like, you know, maybe if you want to be critical, you can look at that. But, I mean, Mara Bautista ran right through his ass, like ran right through him. and when you're the last guy on you know you're the guy on the poster you're the last guy in the show to walk you know he was the betting favorite but there was at least a feeling that
Starting point is 00:06:57 it'd be better if loke dog won this right and he's like nah homie i got this and so i think there's some other takeaways that you could have looking back on this car but for me the biggest one should just you know to give him the lion's share because he was in the big spot and he delivered it a big way It was a great performance. No doubt about it. There's just something about this guy, Jed. There's just really good fighter.
Starting point is 00:07:26 I think the comparison I made on our Slack channel was he is Tim Duncan. If he gets the ball, he gets a steal and he's dribbling down the lane. He ain't dunking the ball. He is just scooping for a layup right off the glass, just fundamentally sound. But not the first guy you're going to go. up to the locker room and interview when the game is over. Just not a ton of charisma there. There's like no vibes coming from this guy. But, you know, he will never let you down, though, Jed. Like he's not, he won't let you down. He will show up. He won't get arrested.
Starting point is 00:08:03 You won't see him in a negative news story. Sure, he'll, you might be mad at him for fighting Josealdo, which the way he did. But the man's just trying to win fights. This is who he is. He's just a very simple man. I'm going to go. I'm going to wake up. I'm going to do all these things and do everything appropriately. So that's what he is. He is the Tim Duncan of the UFC. And that's fine. Tim Duncan won five titles. I don't think Mario Batista is doing that. If he wins as many games as Tim Duncan wins in a row and goes to championship finals. I don't think he's winning five titles. I'm talking about the way he is perceived. I mean, his energy is, it's, it's, we're talking about it's like, it is wild, how, like, uncharismatic he is.
Starting point is 00:08:55 Not that he is a bad dude. Like, he's never said anything that's been off putting, but he's never said anything that has made me, like, remember it at all. Or, and not even remember it, like, right? Because there is, I use this quote all the time, like, from Oceans 11 when they're talking to Linus. Like he's got to like you and forget that you exist the moment you leave his sight. He doesn't even have that. There's no like, oh, I like that dude. It's like he fights.
Starting point is 00:09:23 Sometimes it's quite exciting when he fights. It's always very good. It's always high level. But like as soon as he starts talking, like his post fight speech was not, he didn't say anything bad. Like he didn't, there's nothing he is doing that is wrong. But it just, it's not. He is a void of charisma. Scientists should study him because it makes, like,
Starting point is 00:09:51 I've never seen this before for someone to be this just like forgettable. And again, excellent fighter and seems like a really good dude. It seems like a very nice young man. It doesn't do anything wrong. But, man, like, I don't know what to do about that. have some ideas but I don't think he'd do them so like it's it's tough because as good
Starting point is 00:10:19 a fighter as he is he's gotten a crack at the top and he's come up just a little bit short and if you're a guy like that the UFC's just not really going to get behind you in a way to give you're going to like this is the Leon Edwards road you can walk it
Starting point is 00:10:34 but he's going to have to win like 10 fights if he can't find a way to connect outside of just giving good performances and maybe that's not fair maybe some of you at home are like, well, he's very good. That's what should matter. You know, if and butts and nuts, we'd all have a Merry Christmas. Like, you have to find a way to connect with the audience.
Starting point is 00:10:54 And he also hasn't tried. I want to be like, he hasn't tried a gimmick or he's just himself, which I like to respect. But you got to do something to get over. And he's not doing it. He kind of tried after the Jose Aldo fight. I don't remember that at all because I black hold that. He tried to be a heel and just no one cared. I remember it would really hurt him bad.
Starting point is 00:11:16 At least a good effort, I guess. He walked up to Henry Suhudo at an LFA event and tried to call him out and have a moment. And Henry's like, dude, you just had the most boring fight I've ever seen. I'm not fighting you. And it was just like, oh, that's not good. I love this, this because it called it a stupid basketball analogy. And then he compared the guy with no personality to the guy with the most personality in the division, which is Marabda Walsh, really. the guy who dives into ice frozen ice and dances around and sings and yells and screams at press conferences
Starting point is 00:11:46 has a good time has a vibe to him there's vibes all over maraub may not like his fighting style but mara brings vibes he's the most vibes in the division he brings some some level of vibes so yes i like i honestly just really want to talk to mara batista for like an hour just like a grab a drink with him because like nobody is that like nobody's boring everybody can be an interesting person interpersonally right like i've never met that's actually untrue i've met very very very few people who just had nothing to offer in like this sort of a communicative way um they exist but like very very few and the ones i have are not like excellent at something right like so that he's excellent at something.
Starting point is 00:12:36 So I know he has personality. He just doesn't come through in any noticeable way here. And that's tough because you want to be able to connect to fighters. And he makes it very difficult. I don't think he's trying to. Just one of those guys, you know?
Starting point is 00:12:52 Yeah. He called for a rematch with Corey Sandhagen. Apparently at the post-fight press conference he was asked about Song Yudong and he was just like, nah, dude, he lost. Let him sit on that one. I ain't fighting him. That's bad. That's a bad call.
Starting point is 00:13:05 It's terrible call. He's not really going to have a say in this matter. And to be, to be frank, Jed, I think he should want Songue Deng. Yes. Because the fight he's going to get is not going to do a hell of a lot for him. Because I think, just to give away my aunt to the next one pick, he's fighting a hobby. Like that is the fight they're going to make.
Starting point is 00:13:25 They're going to try to eliminate one of those two guys who are fine fighters, not the biggest personalities. But one of these guys has tested. to kind of leave the title conversation. I think that's the fight the UFC ends up putting together. I don't think the San Hagen fight happens. Yeah, I mean, San Hagan is not going to give them any play, so it's not going to happen unless they run out of options.
Starting point is 00:13:48 San Higgins pushing for a mallet. And look, I see you guys in the comments acting like we're bozos. You might want to live in a world where, like, personality isn't, doesn't matter. Go to PFL. PFL don't matter. Pyrs. I don't matter. P.F. I got, I'm just telling you the truth. That man is an extremely good fist fighter.
Starting point is 00:14:09 So was Balaamah and Leon Edwards. And it took them 10 straight fights to get a crack at the title. And they're not being any other options. That's the world you're in if you're boring. I'm not saying be Colby Covington. Never be Colby Covington. But like, if Mario Batista is, if this is who he is, like genuinely, at any point in time.
Starting point is 00:14:33 I don't think he would have friends because no one would choose to hang around someone who just is a perfectly fine person takes nothing off the table but brings nothing to it. And I am certain that he has friends and family and loved ones. So he has a way to connect with people and it doesn't come through. And he's got to figure that out
Starting point is 00:14:54 because if not, it's a long, lonely road to walk in this game. And that's a tough career to have. you were in it for a short time. It's way better. It sucks to be Josh Hokit. It's better to be Josh Hokit to Mario Batista. That's just a fact, man. We just watched Diego Lopez fight for a frigging title.
Starting point is 00:15:13 Again, a week ago. You're telling me personality it doesn't matter. Mozart Vloy of and Lorone Murphy would beg to differ because they just had to watch Diego Lopez fight for a belt. You know what I know what the UFC did instead of letting either of those two dudes fight for a belt? They're telling them to fight each other so one of them can be out of the conversation. It is very important. David Sandy, what the fuck are you talking about?
Starting point is 00:15:35 I am trying to big up this man. I want him to succeed because he is a good fighter. You gave him his name back. I didn't give it back. He took it back. I don't give him anything he takes anything. Like, I don't, y'all just living in fairyland. Like, I don't.
Starting point is 00:15:53 We threw out meritocracy years ago, but we really threw it out when Justin Gagy and Diego Lopez, well, the first two dudes to fight the belts this year. Like, I don't know what to tell you. That was a, like,
Starting point is 00:16:07 I can't talk about that performance that much because what is there you say? He beat the shit out of Loke Dog. Wasn't competitive. Just wasn't. And that's awesome. It's sick to see him get finishes again. That's dope.
Starting point is 00:16:19 Now let's figure out a way to make you matter so you can fight for a belt one day. Jose Al though had no personality. U.S. a UFC record of 14 and 9, but you think he's the goat. Jose Alto had plenty of personality and he had vibes. You're, you're lunatic.
Starting point is 00:16:35 When Joseo Alto walked into a room, people stopped and was like, oh, shit, that's Joseo. There was like vibes around him. The dope thing, like when people just disrespect Josie Aldo, it's awesome because it's just like, oh, I don't have to respect your opinion. You don't know ball. Because go at, like, I go talk to any fighter, any fighter at all. and they get like a hushed voice around Jose Aldo. Oh, that's Jose freaking Aldo. There are like seven fighters in the history of the sport
Starting point is 00:17:09 who carry the respect that dude has. You are nonsense person. People are asking about bonuses. We do have them. We do. Obviously, Mario Batista got a bonus. Fight of the night goes to Mikhail Olegzechuk and Mark Andre Barrio. I don't think a lot of people saw that coming.
Starting point is 00:17:29 I think a lot of people saw Mikhail just going in there and crushing them. The other goes to Yakup Wicklacks, who got the buzzer-beater submission at the end. And everyone's saying the whole Marabu Welsh really Mewan Gafferaf answers after it. I mean, you say it all the time. If you're going to be a grizzly, be a bear, be a grizzly bear. Gafferov and Marab are being grislies right now. Just being just being grizzlies. But those are bonuses.
Starting point is 00:17:58 That's just an incredible bit. I tapped because I thought the bell was over, but you tap before the bell. You tap the old heads. So your ears don't work. That's honestly a great bit. I thought the fight was over, so I tapped. Well, then why he was going to let it go anyway? And also you tap before the bell.
Starting point is 00:18:18 Like, you just tapped, and that's okay, man. Like, you got caught. It sucks because if you hadn't, you would have lost a decision. Instead, if you looked at the scorecards, I believe Wicklitz was going to get it. But, yeah, he tapped. That was, and that was cool, because that was the only finish for, like, ever on this card. All the fights were fun, but could he use more third round chaos?
Starting point is 00:18:41 Well, I don't think all the fights are fun. We'll get to that in a moment. Well, no, before. Up to that, like, in that first six bend of fights. Some fights got bad there, but really the prelims were mostly quite fun. They were. entirely forgetable, but all of them were like, there was drama in all the prelim fights.
Starting point is 00:19:02 Like, I mean, it happened so often that they started making a bit of it on the commentary team was like, the person who's winning the first round, then just lost the second round in like every one of the fights. And you're like, oh, shh. Like, there was, it was, it was quite fun if you were just tuning in for fights. And it didn't matter that none of these meant anything. And if you actually could hear the commentary at different points, because that was kind of a, they got it together by the main card,
Starting point is 00:19:26 but yeah I didn't know it was on at certain points you just felt like their audio box was was incorrect because all I got was cage noise which took some adjusting to but it ended up being fine shout out to Kyoji horaguchi great win great promo beats Amir al-Bazi he's in a tough spot man I don't know what you do with Amir al-Bazi at this point definitely not gonna be fighting for a belt or anything
Starting point is 00:19:54 I don't know what they do with him at this point. We'll get to Risvon and Jailton in a minute. Kill O'Eleg Zayek, Mark Andre Barrio. O'Xeychuk gets the decision. Freed Basharat, John Matsumoto. Very competitive fight. A lot of people think John Matsumoto won that fight. I think he's undefeated in the UFC.
Starting point is 00:20:13 I thought he won both. I think it's a better case for this fight than the Rob Fonfe. I think in both fights, not a robbery whatsoever. Totally fine with you scoring either one for the other guy. I scored both for Jean Monsomoto. and that feels like that might be who he's stuck being, a guy who is going to be a really tough fight for everybody, but he doesn't have enough juice to separate.
Starting point is 00:20:36 So he's going to lose some split decisions to similar level of competition. Dustin Jacoby didn't get a bonus. He got an extra 25 G's for beating up Julius Walker. Daniel Donchenko beat Alex Moroto in a fight that happened. Barono just kind of $2 staked it out of there. We saw the ghost of Nico Price. That was really tough. The Nico Price was really tough.
Starting point is 00:21:03 Nikolai Veritonikov, you can't give that man a bonus for beating up Nico Price. I mean, honestly. I hurt my soul. I think you don't just because of the way the performance bonuses go. Like, Batista deserved it. That was a sensational total performance. And we're glad with the buzzer beater's pretty cool. So, like, that's fine.
Starting point is 00:21:24 But that was a nasty K.O. I mean, it's just bad because it hurts. It hurts. But you don't see a lot of, like, actual standing KOs. Like, Nico was out. Like, he wasn't like, oh, ref jumps in, but he's still on his feet. He was unconscious on his feet, which is pretty rare. So that was gnarly.
Starting point is 00:21:47 It was gnarly, but it hurt. I don't want to see him fight. anymore. I would like it if he decided to hang it up. Yeah. I usually don't like to say that, but in this case, I will say it. I'm comfortable saying that all the time. I would like it if he were to hang it
Starting point is 00:22:03 up. Go ahead for Caitlin Sosa. Javid Bosharat squeaks by the newcomer Johnny Vasquez who took the fight on 40 hours notice. Johnny's tough, man. He's really good. He is UFC ready. He's been UFC ready for a while.
Starting point is 00:22:18 and Javid just got through there. Wong Tong gets the win over Eduardo Mora, Yaquip Wicklex. We talked about that, and Claudia Segula kicks things off with a win over Priscilla Cachewara. With Amex Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too.
Starting point is 00:22:43 That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. Local news is in decline across Canada, and this is bad news for all of us. With less local news, noise, rumors, and misinformation fill the void, and it gets harder to separate truth from fiction. That's why CBC News is putting more journalists in more places across Canada, reporting on the ground from where you live, telling the stories that matter to all of us, because local news is big news. Choose news, not noise. CBC News. But Jed, let's get to it.
Starting point is 00:23:21 Let's get to why we're here outside of the main event. The heavyweights. Let's get to the heavyweights. Jailton Almeida taking on Rizvon Kunev. And in the end, Rizvon Kudiev gets his first UFC win. And there's a lot of talk about Jailton Almeida, Jed. Jelton Almeida coming in. He was asked by our own Giermae Cruz about the backlash he got from the Alexander Volkov fight.
Starting point is 00:23:45 And he was like, well, if I wasn't Brazilian, you guys would have liked it. It was basically his answer. And I was just like, wow, that's, that's something. He's going to come out and do something big. He's got to do something heavy on this card. And he delivered, this could be the worst fight of 2026. Like there's a very, if there's an award for, yeah, if we're doing a, a worst fight
Starting point is 00:24:11 of the year award, this is going to be in the top five. There's no way, no way around it. I don't think you, I mean, Tantana Suarez is about to fight. She is the reigning queen of the worst fight of the year last year with, uh, she did, with Amanda Lemos. That was real bad. And she is about to fight. She is fighting Lupi Godinez.
Starting point is 00:24:31 So she might be okay. But this was, this was tough, man. Like, what do you do after a fight like this? It's brutal, especially on the Almeida side. Mike, I understand that I have a bit of a reputation. As someone who speaks in hyperbole, and as someone who's known to cut a take or two. I'm trying to decide if this is a take or if I genuinely believe this, but I tweeted it afterwards, and at least part of me genuinely believes this.
Starting point is 00:25:05 I don't know if I'm over that 50% threshold to say this is my genuine stance, but part of me does believe the U.S. should just get rid of the heavyweight division. vision and this is the fight that made me think that like i know it's a joke constantly but as i was watching this fight i was like ostensibly these are two of the seven best heavyweights on planet earth just get rid of it let it let it go away we can bring it back they got rid of a lightweight a million years ago you know they they were like fine one draw there was one draw in a title fight that shouldn't have been a draw and they were like we're done and they just scrapped lightweight and they brought it back like three and a half years later.
Starting point is 00:25:49 And now look at it. It's great. Maybe that's what heavyweight needs, Mike. We need to let it go. And if it loves us, it can come back if it gets 10 good fighters in it. Because it is an abomination. Like, Jilton Al-Meda and Rusvan Kouniyev are supposed to be top 10 guys, like, are allegedly top 10 guys. And I'm like honest to God, Tim Sylvia.
Starting point is 00:26:21 Like if you ported Tim Sylvia from 06, 08 into the cage, he probably beats them. And Tim Sylvia is not like a historically great heavyweight. It is. It's incredible. Like I also tweeted this in all like every sport gets better. Like that's what happened. Every single sport gets better over time because you get new tech, you get new tech sneaks, you build on the backs of the people that came before you. It is a ladder up to superior because you don't have to learn the things they learned.
Starting point is 00:27:00 You get better nutrition, better training, except MMA heavyweights are worse. This is in the history of athletic competition. MMA heavyweight is the only thing that has gotten worse over time. it is stunning. I mean, I guess arguably Women's Bannon Way, too. But like... At least the Women's Bannamway fight was great
Starting point is 00:27:23 tonight. That was a fun one. It's bad, but like, it's bad as all holistically. But this is just like, it's so bad, man. Like, this fight was so... If the UFC came out on Monday
Starting point is 00:27:37 and we're like, we're cutting both of them, how shocked would you be? Like, you'd be surprised. Would you be like, I cannot believe that they chose to do that. No. No, they cut Martin Boudai who... Yeah, exactly.
Starting point is 00:27:53 Say what you well about Martin Boudai. He was not in a fight that bad. He was not in a fight like that in any of his wins. You probably don't remember a whole bunch of Barton Boudai's fights, but they weren't that bad. They just weren't. All heavy weights are Martin Boudai now is the thing. There used to be some Martin Boudais
Starting point is 00:28:12 because like the barrier to intrate MMA is very... low so you could just be a big physical dude and kind of fight some but now it's just all martin boo dies can we just can we just can we stop with the gable steveson teeth cutting at this point just pull him off the the the mexico fighting championship card and say he's fighting at the white house like get on instagram and just say we have we've signed gable steveson he's fighting at the white house that haven't fight before then it is fight him fight fight tomorrow jes very bro Broadly speaking, I think that all MMA prospects are rushed. The nature of the beast is that you try and,
Starting point is 00:28:52 is that they learned all the wrong lessons from John Jones, and the UFC's only method to promote anybody is to try and John Jones them and just run them up as fast as you can. And oh, if it happens, it okay. And if it doesn't, then they go to a plan B. Or it's like, you should probably just build fighters long term better. The exception to that is Gable, Steven because this division is like horrific.
Starting point is 00:29:19 It's so, so bad. Like, who cares? Just bring him in. You don't have to give him a top 15 dude immediately. So let him wail on dudes every two months in the promotion. And at the end of the year, you can give him a ranked guy. And he will mow down everyone in the weight class by then because it is just a travesty of a weight class. Just get him on there and just get him wins.
Starting point is 00:29:43 A tape of goatee him. for the next three UFC fights. Just give him the worst guy you can find and just let him get a highlight real. That's what you do. This comment, I just want to, we should clarify, King Josh,
Starting point is 00:29:57 they could have signed Rico Verhoove and they chose not to. No, that is not what happened. Rico said, no, I'm going to go box instead, which to me, I don't know this. It was put out there by Hunter Campbell
Starting point is 00:30:08 during his testimony in the antitrust case this past week. He was absolutely, He said Rico Verhoeven. He goes, we offered, try to get him to fight a UFC 324. He chose to box instead, which meant they probably offered him something with money that was way lower than he's fought in in a long, long time. So, and that's kind of another problem why you're not going to get like very popular heavyweights because big athletic heavyweights. It's the biggest reason why heavyweight is bad.
Starting point is 00:30:38 They're going to go play other sports for more money if they're athletic and can play those sports. If you were a big dude. I, man, I miss this when it happened. My favorite thing that happened this week, Mike, is I have spent, I don't know, however long he's been in the UFC, so 2009, however long it is, telling everybody that John Jones is actually not a great athlete,
Starting point is 00:31:01 like, comparatively. Because he's not one of, like, the best athletes that's ever competed in MMA. He's a plus athlete. Like, I've spent, like, he's the runt of his family. and like if you want to psychoanalyze you but that's probably why he is the way he is because his brothers are massive and athletic
Starting point is 00:31:20 and I assume just beat the sin out of him every day until he grew up and went to college and I was like what are you talking about he's the greatest fighter of all time he's an incredible athlete you're stupid and then the fucking clip of him getting cooked on the football feels like yeah that dude's actually
Starting point is 00:31:38 not a great athlete but MMA sucks shit And so he looks like a Martian because big dudes that are athletic don't play in this game. They play in other ones and Dwight Howard's old like Dwight Howard is 610 or whatever and
Starting point is 00:31:55 just cooked him. Like he's not. That was my favorite thing that happened this week because I was like, oh my God, finally the mouth breathers who are like actually he's the greatest athlete. No, he's arguably the greatest fighter. which makes it more impressive that he's that good a fighter while being the worst athlete in his family.
Starting point is 00:32:17 Unbelievable. Great stuff. All right. Let's get to you guys. Get some super chats. We're not going to be here much longer. It's 121 on an apex night. Yeah, we're not going to be here much longer.
Starting point is 00:32:30 Hey, I'll be here forever to talk about Andre the Goat Arlovsky. Andre the Goat Arlovsky dropped at least 47 F bombs in his post-fight interview. But it was a great message. at the end of it as well. So good on. I mean, I loved how like Cyrus Feet. But he kind of nailed it.
Starting point is 00:32:47 I also love how Cyrus Feas is like, there's this guy, this, the Cuban assassin. Are you ready to fight him? And Andre, first of all, has no idea who this guy is.
Starting point is 00:32:54 And second of all, I was just like, dude, I need to go home. Like, I just fought five seconds ago and you're throwing me a name. Like, stop it.
Starting point is 00:33:03 Going home to hang out of my family and then we'll talk about it. Thank you, BKFC. We're out of here. Like, read the room. that's all yeah it was but but i mean he beat the beat the crap out of ben rothwell which i wasn't really sure that was going to happen i didn't look at odds but i would have just sort of assumed
Starting point is 00:33:22 rothwell was going to be the favorite in that fight he was like minus there are only like four sports books that were actually like carrying bkfc odds and rothwell on average was like a minus two 30 favorite yeah and that sounds right to me yeah uh and then as soon as the fight started was like oh okay well he's just going to lose like i do almost a meat that Rothwell is losing. I was like, I don't know. One, Andro Lovsky and Bear Knuckle seems to have a better chin
Starting point is 00:33:48 than he's had in a long time, which is wild. And two, like, he's just kind of his... Because all the fighters of Bear Nuckle aren't very good, right? Like, they're all, you know, Bear Nuckel is a new sport. Nobody really knows things.
Starting point is 00:34:06 He, like, his kind of old man veteran game, works incredibly well. He boxes. Yeah, he just like knows how to work the edges. And when he was walking out, I sat there and was like, man. Like he looked like every construction worker I've ever
Starting point is 00:34:24 seen who like before they get to the job site, you know, like they've got a couple coffee. And they're not like, there's no pep in their step. They're not like sad about what's happened or like damn it. But you, there's a resolve like, yeah, probably gonna go break my back.
Starting point is 00:34:39 a little bit today. It'll be okay. And like, that's just his face. There's no, like, I've fought for 30 years. This, for 30 years, this has been that man's profession. All over the world, all sorts of dudes. And just like, yep, go, like, he has the most punching a clock face I've ever seen a fighter have. And he just walked out there and was cool.
Starting point is 00:35:05 And they started the fight. And then he just beat the shit out of Ben Mothwell. Took his belt, was happy for like half a moment, was like, yeah, that's not bad for 47. I got at least one more year in me. I love doing this. Yeah. It was great. He's so smart.
Starting point is 00:35:22 It just, it turns out that if you can box and throw a jab, like, you can win BKFC fights. And you can win him pretty cleanly. And that's what he did. He was just, he just threw a quick jab. That's all he did. I mean, he landed some combinations too, but for the most part, he just jabbed him to death. And then anytime Rothwell got close to him, he would just jab him and then push him against the ropes until the referee separated him. And then he would just jab him a bunch again.
Starting point is 00:35:46 And then they would just rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat. And it's just mangling his face. And then he tagged him one with the right hand in the middle of it that like really cooked him. And once that hit, I was like, oh, he might actually just kill him. But then the- that was in the second round. Yeah. The second round, he hit him.
Starting point is 00:36:04 And like the only thing that held him up with the ropes. Ben Rothwell got straight held up by the by the cage or the ropes or whatever as he fell back. It is, Andro Olavsky is like, if combat sports in the way we watch them, not just boxing, right, but like MMA and Bear Knuckle, they're going to exist in the way that like other sports do, Mike, you know, like in 30 years when the six people who do this. are sitting around on their porch, doing the guy thing of just naming old guys. Like, let's just name baseball players. Androlovsky is going to be an all-star of like the, you remember that, dude? Yeah, he's the Mark Lemke of, uh, he's just like one of the greatest prize fighters of all time. Like, shockingly accomplished, right?
Starting point is 00:37:00 Like UFC champion, now he's a BKFC heavyweight champion at 47 years old. A million fights. He's been fighting since 1999. Before them, he's fought in two millenniums, still just kind of out there, doesn't win them all, but gives you a good enough effort. Has like a bunch of unique records that are never be touched in the UFC. He's all over the heavyweight record books in the UFC, and there's not a soul alive who's getting near him. he's like we've done this bit on this show before he is like third all time in UFC fights
Starting point is 00:37:43 and every other person that's remotely on that list is like 170 pounds or less he's the only human alive who's going to have 40 UFC fights at 265 pounds and it's just he's such a remarkable career that no I just don't think people will respect enough and then I love because it's real weird. He was probably never the best, I mean, not probably.
Starting point is 00:38:08 He was never the best heavyweight in the world. But man, he has outlasted every single one of those two. Good on, Andrea Arlowski. He's the best, man. The MNBs, you guys rock, look forward to the show so much. They're like, hang with a great group of friends. Love that. Love that.
Starting point is 00:38:28 We love you, too, buddy. you can be in our great group or friends group anytime Armand another amazing weekend for combat sports on the super weekend hashtag gopats Mike hope you all get another one it'd be nice it'd be nice and if they don't it's okay because we weren't supposed to be here anyways and if we get one it's going to be the vict it's going to be the best if we win tomorrow I got to tell you
Starting point is 00:38:51 the tears of unfathitable sadness that are going to fly down from the nation if they win it's going to be incredible I got to tell you, Mike, you know I've been supporting of the Patriots this whole this whole time and I still don't have a dog in this fight Pat's fans are doing their best to get me to root against them
Starting point is 00:39:10 with that exact line It's how funny, baby, I love it Because every one of you are saying that Because you're emotionally hedging Like you're not just willing to be like, yeah, we want to win Because it's hard to get here And we don't know like, yeah, we weren't supposed to be here We're here.
Starting point is 00:39:27 And we don't know if we're getting back here. And so we got to win it because it's not for long. You never know what's going to happen. But every Pat's fan is saying the same thing. And I'm like, you're cowards. Own it. Stand on your corner and say, we're going to win and it's going to hurt if we lose. And none of you are willing to do it.
Starting point is 00:39:46 And it's bothering me. It's bothering me. I mean, yeah. Stand 10 toes down for your team. Don't really need to, which is nice. That's why the pressure's off a little bit. Ernesto, first to share, now Coonief, heavyweight is booming with talent. By the way, I had way more fun.
Starting point is 00:40:05 I thought of the years, frankly. I had a lot more fun watching Talas and the Sharers fight than watching Jelton Almeida and Coonnev's fight. But, dude, Rizvin and Cooniev got popped, like his career arc, he got popped for all the steroids. Every steroid on the list. All of the things that end in. he got popped for at PFL. Left PFL as a result. The UFC's looks at that and I was like,
Starting point is 00:40:34 you can come to Contender Series, that's fine, gives him a squash match, he squashes the dude. They immediately put him against Curtis Blades, loses a very competitive fight, and then they're like, fine, take on Jailton Almeda. The one thing Rizvan Kunev does extremely well is defend takedowns. And they're like, let's put you against the guy
Starting point is 00:40:56 whose literal only offense is take downs. And predictably we got that outcome. And now we're Sven Kudiev's. This is going to be ranked number six in the OEC's heavyweight division on Tuesday. Unbelievable. This is just fold the division, man. Fold it up. We don't need to do this.
Starting point is 00:41:15 Where the daytime Aspinall's eyes went into the back of his skull due to the Cirogan's fingers, just said, hey, man, we're good. We had to run. No more heavyweights. I was guilty of multiple skin care crimes. Two counts of sleeping and makeup. One count of using disposable wipes. I knew my routine had to change.
Starting point is 00:41:37 So I switched to Garnier-Missler water. It gently cleanses, perfectly removes makeup, and provides 24-hour hydration. Clear away the evidence with the number one Missler Water worldwide by Garnier. The secret to Charlotte Cardin's captivating eyes? Panorama Mascara by L'Oreal Paris. level bristle brush catches every lash from inner to outer corner.
Starting point is 00:42:02 For panoramic volume with lashes that are so fanned out, eyes appear one point four times bigger. See life in panorama because you're worth it. Shop L'Oreal Paris Panorama Mascara on Amazon now. They booked the Cyril Gaon fight. You did the wrong thing. Spencer, howdy boys? Loving the Kioji UFC comeback.
Starting point is 00:42:24 I'm wondering who are the top three Japanese MMA fighters of all time? Is Yushinawami the best UFC fighter? No. Kyoji's probably the best U.S.C. fighter. Maybe not, his first run. If you're talking about who are the three greatest Japanese, if we're just three top Japanese fighters of all time, because Ushu Sakarabu is one and it's not competitive,
Starting point is 00:42:50 it's just not even close. Usiore Kami has an argument due to be the best Japanese U.S. C fighter. I don't know if I would go there. Or greatest, probably best. Best is Kioji. Koji is a much better fighter than Yushin was.
Starting point is 00:43:08 If I'm just picking the three greatest of all time, it's Sakaraba, Kid Yamamoto, maybe Mark Sakurai. That third spot's pretty open. Yeah. Gomi. I feel really,
Starting point is 00:43:26 gomi. I never like Comey as much as others, but Comey's obviously accomplished whole shitload. I feel really confident in Sakaraba, and I personally am very comfortable with putting Kid. Yeah. Because I think Kid was the best featherweight on Earth for like three years. And it was just the man.
Starting point is 00:43:44 No, you want to talk about a man who had vibes? Kid Yamamoto. If you don't know who Kid Yamamoto is, go Google him. And don't look at his UFC run. It was past prime or whatever. We don't need to talk about that. Go look, go find some highlight videos
Starting point is 00:44:01 as a kid Yomoto. Norfumi Yamamoto will add the juice. He has so much juice that his family who are not very good at fighting are still leaning into that. Shout out to also the OG Grabaka Hitman, Misaki. Dude, I mean, that's a good choice.
Starting point is 00:44:21 Yeah. Top three is tough, though. I think Mok Sakra is probably actually the third answer because mock soccer is very, very good for a while. But I think you, Sakaraba, everybody who knows what he'll be, he's absolutely on the list, if it should be one.
Starting point is 00:44:38 The rest of it, you know, there are a few names bopping around there. If you're just talking UFC dudes, though, there haven't been that many great Japanese UFC fighters. Sakarab is in the Hall of Fame, but he is almost explicitly in the Hall of Fame because of what he did in pride.
Starting point is 00:44:54 Yeah. The UFC was just like, but he also won a tournament, and he's cool as hell. Let's put a bed. That was basically their argument. He was like he won one tournament, which was weird when it happened, and he's awesome, and everyone loves him. And nobody was upset by that. Nope. Lazy Bed.
Starting point is 00:45:13 No, I-155 is so good. We can't do anything else. It's a great way, class. Somebody just threw in chat, and I can't see it now. Cala Luna is a really good choice as far as like a complex. Japanese UFC fighters. Oh, for UFC, yeah. Just for like straight UFC.
Starting point is 00:45:32 You would not be overall, but it's really a choice for like that's a good shout thing. Yeah, I mean, they're also just a whole ton of them. Go watch some early JMMA. Oh, I mean, also shit. I got really sexist. Actually, if we're just talking greatest,
Starting point is 00:45:53 Magumi Fuji is with Sakaraba in the top three and that should not be in dispute and then the third spot is whoever you're putting in there because Magumi was well the truth. Yeah that's good show. Shout to Akiyama too. That's you want to talk vibes.
Starting point is 00:46:12 That dude had vibes for years. Not just days. For real vibes. Chase, since the great heavyweight division was on display tonight, do you think it's possible? won't see an undisputed heavyweight title fight this year. Now I'm just thinking about vibes like ganky pseudo.
Starting point is 00:46:29 God, the vibes of ganky man. I'm sorry, what was the question? Since the great heavyweight division was on display tonight, do you think it's possible? We will not see an undisputed heavyweight title fight this year. It's incredibly possible.
Starting point is 00:46:43 I would say no. No, I think we will see one. It may not involve Tom Aspinall. That's the thing. I don't think they're going to strip Tom Aspinall. so I think it's possible. I also would bet that Tom Aspinall fights by the end of the year.
Starting point is 00:46:58 See. I wouldn't bet my life savings on it. I wouldn't climb with it. But I would bet that he fights by, I mean, it's February. It's the beginning of February is a long time. So I'll bet he does fight. I do think there is going to be a heavyweight title fight before he fights, but I don't think they're going to strip him.
Starting point is 00:47:18 I think the optics are just too bad on that. and so they will just do an interim heavyweight title fight between Cyril Ghan and Alex Perra. They could do that, or they could just do the whole, hey Tom, let's write up a joint statement and we'll say like, this is your decision. And you look like the hero that you want this division to move forward so that you can come back. Tom, they come to you. Don't do it. I would laugh. I'd be like, no.
Starting point is 00:47:48 strip me or don't. that you put on your YouTube channel. You record that call and you put that shit on YouTube. Go ahead and strip me. I think I'll win the court of public opinion here. But if you don't, well, that's fine. But if I'm him, I ain't helping you for shit. And if I'm the UFC, I'm not even.
Starting point is 00:48:06 But it's going to pay me. And if I'm the UFC. And the UFC is winning the public opinion conversation right now for some reason. The UFC is winning. I see it all the time. So maybe they don't do this. Because if they do do this, then the sway goes back to Aspedal. Shout out to you, Clayton.
Starting point is 00:48:24 Appreciate you. Spencer, why did I ask on BTL but overslept? Who's higher pound for pound all time between Islam and Volk? Volk is up 8 to 6 in title wins, but Islam beat him twice, and he's a two-division champion. Volks higher. Okay. Wokes higher. Why?
Starting point is 00:48:43 I think Volk is, for me, Volk is clearly in the top 10 greatest fighters of all time. I think Islam is in the conversation. I don't, he's in the top, I think Islam is definitely in the top 20 and probably in the top 15. And you can make an argument that if he retired right now, he's in the top 10. But if he retired right now, I would not have him as a top 10 fighter of all time. The winds are revoke are great. That's awesome. But as I say, all the time for various other reasons, that doesn't mean that you are historically more significant.
Starting point is 00:49:19 or accomplished more, it means you beat that dude. And that's not, it's not nothing, but it is not remotely the most important thing when we're factoring in longevity and greatness.
Starting point is 00:49:34 I think it's Volk right now as well. I just think his resume is a couple of defenses where he's absolutely in the mix, mix, but Walter way defenses. Yeah. And I think just think Volk's resume is better. Like, he's just got better wins, man.
Starting point is 00:49:48 Like, and it's no disrespect to Islam because like, it's not, again, and I say this all the time, it's not his fault that the resume is what it is, that the names on it are what they are, because he was booked against other top guys who did not fight him. Like, he should have fought Armand Serrucian last year.
Starting point is 00:50:03 It's not his fault that he didn't. He should have fought Benile Darius multiple times before fighting for the belt. Not his fault he didn't. But he still stayed on the card and fought whoever the UFC put in front of him. So it's not his fault that the names aren't as shiny as Volks. And I know Volk has some repeats as well.
Starting point is 00:50:21 Beating Max Holloway three times is pretty darn impressive, especially the third one. That was one of the greatest performances I've ever seen. And then you can look down on some of the other title defense. He's supposed to fight Max the third time. Ended fighting zombie first. And he beat the shit out of zombie. Like that was a perfect game.
Starting point is 00:50:38 That's a fairly weak title defense, all things considered. It is what it is. Yeah. Ortega win was good at the time. Do people incorrectly think Volk is the greatest, featherweight of all time. He's definitely the second greatest featherweight of all time. Isamakachev is probably the second greatest lightweight, but he's definitely not the greatest
Starting point is 00:50:56 light weight of all time. So his all-time great case rests on being probably the second greatest light weight of all time. I think I'm comfortable putting him there. And like he just got another belt that he might lose immediately. We have no idea. And like if he retired right now, him getting that belt is a little bit. than George getting the middleweight belt, but not a lot better than George getting the middleweight belt. So it's just like thing. If you're tired right now, he's not a top 10 fighter all the time. And Volk, I think Volk very obviously is to me.
Starting point is 00:51:34 Okay. Yeah, I'm with you right now. Let's see what, let's see it is on can do with these next couple title defenses. I think Volk is the best fighter of this generation. And that's the thing that I need people to understand because they think I hate Volk. and there are parts of me that dislike parts of Volk's career. But mostly they have pitted Volk against Jose Aldo. And Aldo's resume is he is a more significant and important figure in this division.
Starting point is 00:52:05 Volk might get him. That's not it. But it is not to, I have never once been like, Volk sucks. I think he's one of the 10 best fighters who've ever lived. I think he is the best fighter of this generation. Full stop. Jed's dislike for Volk has nothing to do with. his fighting. Jed's dislike for Volkadovsky.
Starting point is 00:52:21 I absolutely love to watch Volknobsky fight. He is an incredible fighter. Jed's, I'm not going to say hate you. Some of the things he said. Yeah. But mostly I just like everybody's counting me out. Everyone's picking him. I'm the underdog. Dude, you're a minus 250 favorite. But oh, but everyone's counting me out. He did that so often. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:52:39 He did it have to the Diego fight. Oh, I just loved to went out there and proved everybody wrong again. What are you talking about? And no, well, one person picked Diego Lopez to win that fight. And the thing is like I understand that mostly that's a me problem I recognize that I could just not care about that
Starting point is 00:52:57 I can't it's not how I'm wired the other side of the coin of that Bob that like actually sometimes I think about and just gets me in like a stew is okay if your energy is that I don't love that but that's your energy
Starting point is 00:53:13 keep that same energy when you lose and everybody doubted you and then come out and be like, the haters were right. They got it this time. They doubted that I could do it, and I sure didn't. Score one for the haters. If you came out like that after I'd have been sick.
Starting point is 00:53:30 But that's not. Like, it's actually, I kind of think I beat Islam, and I took that fight on short notice. Yeah, but I was saying that that was stupid and that you were going to lose. And I don't get credit for me being right, but you get credit when you're right, but you don't give credit when you're wrong. And I dislike that energy.
Starting point is 00:53:48 So, just say it. We said in every show, and Volk even said it himself. I signed the contract. I said I'm not even just going to beat him. I'm going to finish them. I'm going to go out there and finish them. It doesn't matter if it's on short notice. Isn't at that point you got to keep that same energy.
Starting point is 00:54:05 You got to do the thing. You can't dare to be great. You can't do the Jamal Hill thing where it's like, I wanted Alex Perea to win the light heavyweight title. It was the greatest day of my life because I knew I was going to be a two-time champion because this guy sucks at fighting and I'm going to go clobber him and then Pereira turned him into a meme for life and it was like I dared to be great I recovered from this injury all that stuff is just like man it's a pretty tough one just go out there and he still does that like come on man just be like yeah man he got me like what could I say he beat my ass what can I tell you more super chats uh I'm gonna put one more car oh no we have one more And then I want to put one more comment up.
Starting point is 00:54:48 I have one thing I want to say before we get out of here. Why do so many people overlook D.C. being in the top 10? He's not top 10 fighter or all the time. Fair enough. That became like a thing in the height of his career, which I always considered ludicrous. But, you know, he's a popular dude. And he accomplished a lot. He's not top 10 fighter of all time.
Starting point is 00:55:13 He's a light heavyweight champion. I'm comfortable calling him like a valid light heavyweight champion because I do think John Jones should have been stripped but like he was never the best light heavyweight in the world which is why his heavyweight title was so significant and so awesome right like because he finally had a title that was unencumbered by any asteris and then he lost his next two fights at heavyweight and if he had retired right then probably ages a little bit better
Starting point is 00:55:44 but he then lost twice to Stipe. And, you know, if you look back, he's got some very good wins. His career was remarkably short in terms of high-level MMA because he came to the game very late. He accomplished a lot. But if Alex Pereira retires tomorrow,
Starting point is 00:55:59 he accomplished as much as Daniel Carmey has accomplished. And Alex Pereira is not in the top 10 fighters of all time. Alex Pereira might be in the top 20 fighters of all time if you retire tomorrow. Well, that's just like, shorter careers are going to be harder to reach that level anyway. And there are some fairly major issues with Daniel Korme's sort of all-time resume. Again, when you start to look at the number of people involved,
Starting point is 00:56:28 it is not a slight to say he's not a top 10 fighter of all time. There are a shitload of fighters that have been doing this for 30-some-odd years. There's nothing wrong with being one of the 40 best people to ever live and do something. It's pretty damn good, in fact. All right. Last thing I want to put up. I thought this comment was a good one from Matt Love Scraps. PFL needs to be free on YouTube like BKFC. This is brilliant by BKFC for doing this.
Starting point is 00:56:55 I don't think they'll do this. If this is like Mike Perry, Eddie Alvarez, I don't think they were doing this. Even if this is Mike Perry, Jeremy Stevens, I don't think they're doing this. Ben Rothol and Jerry Olofsky and the rest of that card, bare-knuckle fans know all these guys. BKFC fans know all these fighters. The casual viewers, MMA fans have no. clue who any of these guys are or any of these gals are for the most part this is brilliant on their
Starting point is 00:57:19 part dave feldman at the press conference said knucklemania six top two million viewers before the main event even started tonight i don't know what metrics he's looking at because i'm looking at the youtube numbers they're they're really strong uh i think right now it's a 247000 for the bkfc stream i knew fubu had their own it was like 150 000 uh two million seems a little high if we're being honest uh especially before the main event starts started. It's a little hard. I mean, like, dude, at the very, at the very opening of the evening, like, right
Starting point is 00:57:50 when it kicked, I turned it on. I'm like 35,000 people on the YouTube watching live. Yeah. Which was, it was a good night. I was, like, wildly impressed because those were the curtains, like, that was the opening fight for BKFC and people were tuned in. They were in, man. Two million is probably incorrect, but.
Starting point is 00:58:07 Yeah, it's over inflation. It's, you know, they said there's over 18,000 attendance. There wasn't over 18,000 people there. They surprised it's 15,000, which is great. And you know the best thing? If you were in Canada or Brazil, you could watch it because it was on YouTube. Whereas the PFL, ostensibly the number two combat sports promotion in the world was unavailable to watch in Brazil the second biggest MMA market in the world.
Starting point is 00:58:34 In Canada, I don't know, certainly the second biggest MMA market in North America and like historically a significant MMA market. And they were just like, sorry, guys. If you're Canadian or Brazilian, kick rocks. It costs. Great work, guys. It costs. Really good stuff.
Starting point is 00:58:53 And on top of that, if you're just like, oh, I canceled ESPN Plus, I want to watch PFL, it costs for one event, just to watch, just to get it for a month. For one event, it costs you half of what the entire year of the UFC is to watch one card. I'll get them leeway on that because that's not their call. But you have to do something else, man. No one's going to watch it. Like, this is, this is everything. They have to succeed this year.
Starting point is 00:59:23 They have to. They have to get eyeballs on them. They have to get a TV deal. They have to get something. And no one's watching them. Nobody. It's tough. It was a decent event.
Starting point is 00:59:35 I watched a lot of it this morning. Those who watch it seemed okay with it. But it is almost impossible. Two watching. High-level fighters fighting on that card for sure. That's great. But if a tree falls and no one's around to hear it, it's tough.
Starting point is 00:59:48 There to see it. Does it make a sound? Or hear it? Like, does it? That's the problem. You need to get eyeballs on you. BKFC, they probably knew. Hey, we do a pay-per-view here.
Starting point is 00:59:59 Probably not going to get a bunch of buyers. We're not getting a lot of new subscribers on the zone. We'll just throw it on YouTube for free. Brilliant. Smart move. It's thrown on the zone for free, too. It's on all their platforms. You can watch it.
Starting point is 01:00:11 Yep. So that was very smart. You could watch it on the BKFC app. You can watch it anywhere. Yeah. Even on a boat. It would be a lot of good things. Even on a boat. Before we get out of here, because we did not almost speak about it all, I would like to note two things about the command event.
Starting point is 01:00:29 One, shout out Kio or Gucci. That was a thumping. I don't think they're going to give you a title fight, but I'd love it if they gave you a title fight. I think that would be joyful and fun. I don't think they're going to, but you beat the soul out of that, dude. That was awesome. And two, I feel very bad for me, Albaasi. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:00:51 Like, that made it not fought in 15 months. And they were like, fuck your jeruguchi, bro. That's a tough way to go. And then he had a long lay out. They had a long lay up before that. And he had to fight Brad and Moreno. Yeah. The Marino one is at least like, okay, you were on a big,
Starting point is 01:01:11 streak, this is your opportunity to climb. And you win this, you can fight for a belt. So there's like upside. If he beats Keoggi, it's a good win, but he's not fighting for a belt. And like, fighting Kiyogi after 15 months off, just
Starting point is 01:01:27 like he was moving in a completely different speed. And he probably would have been doing that anyway, but he's certainly going to look faster when you have a fistful dude in a year and a half. Really, really tough. career arc that has turned in for amira al-bazi who's a very good fighter not a great fighter but a
Starting point is 01:01:47 rock solid competitor and uh tough tough out tonight man because he had genuinely nothing to offer kiojur guzhii i kind of think they might they might get rid of them wouldn't shock me and go fight mahal mahalaiv and brave yeah that's that's what happens that's fine that's it like go fight go fight macaaif man i i i don't know's it If it beats him, they might bring him back. Like, that might be the thing they brings him back. I think it would depend. I don't know what his contract is.
Starting point is 01:02:18 So, like, if this was the last fight of his contract, I would not be surprised if they did not renew him. Yeah. But I doubt they're going to let him go if he's still got fights. They'll just throw him in against, you know, Lonnie Kavanaugh after Kavanaugh loses to Brandon. Yeah, they could do that. So they'll do something like that, you know.
Starting point is 01:02:36 Because, I mean, like, all the guys they want to really put over right now, like already either have big fights to get put over or they've already like surpassed him and don't really gain a lot from beating him uh what is vene you fight steve ursag sure you can fight assu amabaya when alma bi have returns and uh here are good guys that are probably not top six guys i just i'm i'm trying to pull myself in like the ufc's position right now. Like, are they looking at him in a way like he's good, but like, yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I, like, I, it would be kind of ridiculous if they, if they dumped them, but it wouldn't shock me. I don't know they're going to dump him. If he, if his contract was up, they might not resign him.
Starting point is 01:03:25 I'd be really surprised if they just let him go, go. Yeah. I don't know how much money he's making. He has headlined a couple of events for them, so. Like, he can fight Charles Johnson. I don't know. you find like any of these dudes that think he actually hasn't fought a lot of them so yeah who's an up and coming flyway can go fight in the battle of the dudes keoggi beat the shit out of they could do that all right great night for ATT by the way
Starting point is 01:03:54 the boss rots coming up big keoggi doing the damn thing and freaking and jar a lot 47 years old three-time cancer survivor that's got to be like record I doubt anybody's eating cancer three times and then wanted health in the major organization. I mean, we can only strive. You know that.
Starting point is 01:04:19 We can only strive to be Andre Arlowski, Jed. You can only strive to be that, man. We can only strive to be that man. We can only hope. And Andre sent us a message. Ah, man. Said, just believe in yourself. Effing believe in yourself.
Starting point is 01:04:32 F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F. Just throwing down the gauntlet. throwing down hope for all of us. And we respect and love that, man, just for that. Well, that's it, everybody. Appreciate you. On to the next one coming up tomorrow. AK and I will record that in the morning,
Starting point is 01:04:50 so get your match making suggestions in. And then for those who need a break from me, you're going to get it. I'm off all next week. And you're getting a break from fights. I'm very much looking forward to... We're all getting a break from fights. But AK and I will see you tomorrow.
Starting point is 01:05:08 everybody. Have a great night. We love you guys. We love you. Go Patriots. Happy Valentine's Day, because we don't have fights next weekend. Happy President's Day. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.

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