The Ariel Helwani Show - The Uncrowned Beat | Carlos Prates next for Islam Makhachev, Sean Strickland's contract complaints, more

Episode Date: October 17, 2026

On this episode of The Uncrowned Beat, Ariel Helwani is joined by NewYorkRic, Petesy Carroll, and Drake Riggs to discuss hot topics including: UFC's welterweight title picture, amid reports of Carlos Prates being Islam Makhachev's next challenge (02:34), Sean Strickland's complaints about his pay (10:19), Nassourdine Imavov ramping up the trash talk (33:00), and more.

Welcome to a brand new episode of the Uncrown Beat in this third week of October, 2026. Hi again, everyone. I'm Ariel Hawani here in our New York City studio. Last week, we were focusing on the sweet science. This week, we focus on mixed martial arts. A lot going on, as always, in the world of the UFC in particular. We'll be focusing on the middleweight division, welterweight division, and a few other things in between.

So buckle up, my friends. We're loving doing this show for our good friends. friends over at Amazon Fire TV, another fun one in store for all of you. And a new quartet, if you will. Well, I'm the mainstay, but three new panelists joining us, a new trio, if you will. We'll say hello first to a debutante, the pride of Portland, one of our lead combat sports scribes over at uncrowned.com. He covers M.M.A. He covers pro wrestling. He dabbles in some boxing as well. He's the one and only Drake Riggs, who's kind enough to join us on this Tuesday, evening. Hello, Drake. How are you? Good, man. Just happy to be here. It's obviously a lot of crazy

things going on in the world of combat these days. We just got done with money in the bank for WWE, obviously Strickland Dana, Eddie Hearn, all these things going on. But yeah, just glad to be chatting with the boys, especially on the new beat, if you will, the uncrown beat, the evolution from where we were back in the day. I've been watching since back then. So it is cool to be a part of it. I'm glad to be here. Appreciate that very much. And love the setup as well. I feel like you're about to drop some serious bars on us. We appreciate that very much. We do have the patron saint of the Emerald ILD,

the host of the critically acclaimed podcast, The Crack. Mr. Petty Carroll is back. Hello, Pete. How are you? Great. You know, I feel like I'm becoming a mainstay around here myself. Yeah.

So great to be here. Great to be back. Always a pleasure. Primetime Pete. It's late night over there in Ireland. And we do appreciate him staying up. We also have Mr. E.P. of all things uncrowned, the one and only New York Rick is here. I'm not sure what he's reading,

but he's kind enough to join us as well. Oh, hi. Yes. How are you? What's taking you so long? I was reading to two towers, you know. Oh, what is that? Oh, Lord of the Ring. I mean, come on. Okay. I'm not sure what that's all about. Is that that magic the card? Yes, yes. Magic the gathering. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It is. Card gathering? What is that? Anyway, thank you for putting the book down for a few moments. Great to have you all here with us. There's a lot to talk about, and I wanted to talk about the welterweight division first. Obviously, we know that the reigning defending champion is Isam Mahachab. And when he last fought guys back in August when he beat Ian Machado Gary, he did say to us that he wanted to make a relatively quick turnaround. Now, he has said this in the past and it

hasn't always panned out. Not always his fault. But, you know, there's Ramadan usually end of the first quarter, early second quarter, and that, you know, slows things down for him. But today, this morning, Tuesday morning, we find out via several reports that the UFC is targeting Isam Machacha versus Carlos Prachis January 30th in Toronto. I have heard the same thing. It's not a done deal, but that's certainly the direction they are going in. Ptze, I'll start with you. Right call. Forget about the date. Forget about, you know, the location. Islam Prachis. Right call, or should they have gone with Issa Morales? Absolutely the right call, I feel. Purchase is a guy he's hot. He's hot.

at the moment. He seems to have done everything right to be put in this position. I think we've been talking about it since his last win. He was the right guy to do it. He's looked exceptional since that loss to him at Chad O'Garry. Yeah, I think it's a perfect fight. I think they're obviously trying to get Morales back into a fight too. He's been talking about that. So yeah, I think big things to happen with Welterweight. There's a lot of new guys up around there. And I think Pratchez Martin deserves his shot. What do you think, Drake? Yeah, I mean, honestly, I don't think you can really go wrong with either of these guys. I was on the train of Morales should get the title shot after his last win, but it's become such a,

I mean, I don't know if it's become, it's always been a what have you done for me lately kind of sport. And obviously Carlos Proches has been on an absolute role right now. And so for him to get the fight potentially, again, it's a win-win position, I think, for the UFC. And honestly, probably the best thing for Morales just because of his age. Like, this is not a thing that he needs to rush. And we've seen those situations before where people have been maybe. I don't know if I'd call us a throne of the wolves, but I mean, he's the best guy in the world,

so I guess you could consider it that from where Morales is right now. So I think, you know, there's still plenty of time for him to grow and to become his best self to, you know, fight multiple title fights. He doesn't have to do it right now, even though I think there's a very strong argument for either way.

I don't think there's any wrong choice here in process. I mean, you can't complain about that one. Three for three, Rick? Unfortunately not. Wow. I'm going to be a little more forceful. I think it's the wrong call. And not because I don't like Carlos Proches,

I think he's one of the best characters we have in the sport. I find him highly entertaining. I love every time you speak to him. But my goal with this division, and I think Islam Makachev is uniquely suited for it, is I want to see the best opportunity to unseat Islam Makachev. That is what I'm looking for in this fight. And I believe that Michael Morales has the tools to do that.

I have also seen Carlos Prochis lose. to I amishado Gary. I have not seen Michael Morales lose, despite the kind of ambiguity around the exhibition reality show contest that he had. But I would like to see the 2026 version of Rumble Johnson go in there. To Drake's point, like, it's not a bad option. I think Carlos Pratchez is equipped for the moment, and I think he's going to be great. But I want to see the middleweight. I want to see the light heavyweight cutting down to Walterway in Michael Morales, standing across a miss on Makachev. It might be next, but I think now was the time to strike. It has been a while since we've seen Michael Morales, and I think it would have been a good time to put

him in there. Don't hate the fight if it ends up being Carlos Proch's, but I do think the right answer was Michael Morales. Well, it sounds like they want to do Michael Morales versus Shavkat Rachmanov, who we haven't seen since December of 2024. He fought Ian Gary. He got hurt. He got hurt again. It's been a long road back for the Kazakhstan fighter. And it's a lot. sounds like they want to do that fight on this same card. If Shavkat isn't available, now here's the big question. Do you just put Michael Morales PT as the backup fighter? Or do you try to just give him another fight to keep them active? Because let's not forget November of last year was the last time he fought. And I understand they don't want to screw this up.

They have something special on their hands. They recognize it. But there comes a time where you have to get someone going. You have to get them busy. They have to be active. And you're probably doing more harm than good by keeping them, you know, in that. freezer on ice, I think he should fight. What do you think? Absolutely. And look, to Rick's point earlier, had you asked me on the night of USC 322 when Sean Brady and Pratchez's fight, Leon and Morales, I probably would have said, sorry, the other way around, I would

have went for Morales to do that. It's just that Pratchez kept going. He got a big win since then. And yeah, I think you've got to make Morales fight on this card. I think that's what's best for the whole division. and I love the Ian Gary fight. I know they were talking about it earlier. We were throwing around different reasons

as to why it probably wasn't happening. It is a massive risk for Morales. I think Ian is a very, very difficult matchup for him. But I really, really love that fight. And I think it's, obviously, the Shavkat fight would do the same thing. But to be Ian, I think he pushed Islam really, really close. I think whoever won that fight would undoubtedly be next in line

after the Pratchez fight if that's what they're doing. You know what I mean? So I really like that. I really like the idea of him fighting on the same night. and I think they definitely should do that. My understanding, Drake, is that they're going in a different direction with Ian. Nothing to be reported just yet, but what do you do with Michael Morales? If it's not going to be for the belt, and perhaps if it's not going to be Shuffcut,

meaning Shuff cut can't get cleared and isn't 100 percent, what do you do with Michael Morales? Man, it's kind of tricky because I think that, I mean, at least I'm always a fan of kind of the unofficial tournament set up, right, where they do fight on the same night. I think that's a good way to approach things. And I kind of wish to the UFC would advertise it a bit more like that and, you know, determine the contenders and stick kind of to it. It's a number one contenders match. Like maybe we've seen a couple times in the past, but not so much anymore.

So I think staying active is a good choice. But at the same time, I do think of situations where like, I guess there's only been a few anomalies. You look at Tyron Woodley, right, when he had that gap before he won the title against Robbie Lawler. Not the most similar of styled guys, but still very explosive individuals who could pull off. you know, wins like that after those layoffs. Yeah, if it's not Shavkot, I do like the Ian Gary fight. Again, it's one of those situations where you can't go too wrong with any of the matchups with Gabriel Bonfim coming up. You know, I mean, here's one that I think is kind of under the radar a little bit.

You could throw Euros Medich in there. That guy's hot too. It would be kind of a more really exciting one that is obviously a bigger jump, more risk versus reward for Morales. And then obviously the reward is a lot bigger for Eurro. but that is a really good fight. That'd be a perfect main event anywhere. If you were to do that one off of the card and don't put those ones on the same

like the little unofficial tournament style that I said, I think that's a great main event. If I were booking guys, Ian Gary would be fighting Michael Morales, Carlos Pratchis would be fighting Isamachev. Jack Delamadalena would be fighting Shafkat Rahmanov. I love the idea of that fight, but I don't think that's the direction that they're going in.

By the way, Joaquin Buckley, Michael Malotte, Walterweight Division, that's the main event. This Saturday, I'm not saying any of those guys are going to factor in, but they really want Milot to be in some big fights. He's getting to fight once again in Canada, probably their best Canadian fighter right now. So the welterweight division in focus this weekend. Rick, let's turn our attention to the middleweight division, and the champion of the middleweight division is Sean Strickland. He has been quite vocal over the past, oh, I don't know, five or six days. He is unhappy with his current UFC contract.

To bring you up to speed, he fought for the belt back in May. He agreed to a new contract based on reporting from MMA junkies Mike Bonn. He agreed to a new six-fight deal before that may fight against the then-champian Hamzaa Chamaev. He beat Shemaiv and somewhat of an upset in most people's eyes and is pretty quiet. And then we start to hear some rumblings that they wanted to book him versus the number one contender Nasu Diyahimov in December. They can't come to terms. And now all of a sudden he goes online and says essentially, I'm not happy with my pay. Here's what he has to say.

I got to be honest, unless things change with the UFC, I'm kind of over it. McGregor makes $30 million to fight for 30 seconds, and they don't want to pay us a fraction of it, contemplating just going to 205, knocking out my contract and scrapping with Jake Paul, that sounds fun. He's had a whole host of tweets since then as well, but that's the gist of it all. And the UFC isn't going to let him go. The UFC isn't going to just let him walk out of the company and fight someone like Jake Paul. And so how do you feel as though this is being handled by Sean Strickland? Is this the right way to do business with the UFC or do you think this is going to bite him in the behind?

I don't know that the UFC will view it as the right way to do business, but it is the standard operating procedure for Sean Strickland. This is the nature of the game. Back in February, I believe actually on the same exact day that Connor Ben was announced as signing with Zufa boxing and all the speculation around the $15 million number came out. an interview with Complex came out in which Sean Strickland basically said we're not getting treated well as fighters and if they want to replace me they're going to find some guy who's willing to do my job for 10 and 10

and I'm out and there was some real like honesty and some real clarity in those statements and at the moment I felt like hey maybe something's changing here maybe these fighters like Connor Ben coming in on these huge salary purses coming in a high number purses for Zufa boxing is going to

change something. Maybe the MMA fighters are going to look at this and wake up. And it seemed like Sean Strickland was somebody who was looking around the landscape and saying, hey, this is not fair. But in the time since then, he went on to then fight Fluffy Hernandez. He went on to then sign a new deal, fight Hamzaa Shemaya for the title. And it seems like nothing has changed, right? The same kind of patterns have repeated themselves. And the unrest that he had and the, him speaking up in February, was then silenced on this specific topic, not on everything, certainly. but on this specific topic and now he's kind of rerunning

the same type of thing and I don't know how much success he's ultimately going to have I can't imagine that the UFC is thrilled about it but at the end of the day I do think both sides are just going to arrive at a middle point where they do good business.

For the UFC it is good to have Sean Strickland as your champion because he's a very popular fighter he knows how to sell fights the fight against Hamza Tcha Jamev was one of their most viewed and highly anticipated fights that they had in the calendar year

and he's going to do what you need a top-level star to do. And then from Strickland side, he just does not have options. There is not an option. You just signed this massive new deal. There is no exit clause. You have to fight out this contract. And we have seen this numerous times with these UFC fighters. I think he was just kind of throwing a Hail Mary out there,

hoping that it would kind of get some attention. But I don't know that the end goal that he had in mind was really going to be achieved at all. it kind of feels like much ado about nothing at this point. Now knowing what the contract status is, ultimately, I think cooler heads will prevail. I think it'll be a moment where Sean Strickland turns around and is like, ah, I was in my feelings, guys. And then we get back to status quo. And I think he defends his title against Nazardini and Mavov.

PT, you know how this game works. We've been covering it all for a very long time. He's not the first to complain about his pay. He's not the first to take it public. I do wonder if the UFC just sort of chalks this up to the, you know, the price of doing business with Sean Strickland. Ah, he's crazy, we'll figure it out, no problem. He does seem quite upset and he does seem quite serious with his threats,

but ultimately I think it goes nowhere. What do you think? Yeah, I mean, that's been my feeling since this story came out, since Bond put out the six-foy deal situation. If this is his position, if he's like, well, until this is sorted out, I'm not going to do anything. It's really just like, you got on a foyer to vacate the total. You went through it recently, the amount of title vacation,

seeing if you are not going to defend that belt, they're probably going to take it off you. And again, to Rick's point earlier, this isn't the first time. And in my experience, I haven't covered this for a very long time, I know the UFC don't like it when people talk about them like that. And sometimes it can be very small things and it can almost seem petty that people would reach out about it. But I wonder if they've already been on to him and kind of said, like we've obviously talked before about whether UFC ever tried to intervene in Sean Strickland's just general way. of being, you know, a press conference and things like that, but I won't be surprised if someone

reached out already and instead he's turned his eye towards someone else. Someone else I appear to be talking to right now. I feel like that was a massive swerve there. I mean, we talked about this with Eddie Heron, when Ben Whitaker was on your show, it's much easier to just be like, yeah, what about that guy though, huh? The enemy of my enemy is my friend. That's what it feels like to me here. I think he's kind of retreating slightly from that statement. I'm sure we'll find out whether he is taking that position, whether he fights or vacates. But as Rick said, we've already seen this before. This is not the first time he said it. So I do, I do expect him the fight, and I don't really expect this to grow bigger legs than this than it already has. It was a

big outburst, but I don't think it will go any further, if I'm honest. You know, I didn't consider that when you talked about, you know, deflecting the angered to someone else, didn't cross my mind. But what do you think of that? Honestly, like, honestly, like we've seen that before. It's much easier, right? The UFC, some people in that office don't really like you are. I don't know if you know that. Wow. Wow. Wow. You're really hitting me. I think it's a lot easier. I think it's a lot easier to be like, oh, yeah, actually my focus is now on fuck this guy. Of course. You know what I mean? I've been there before. I guess I didn't put two and two together, but you're 100% right.

It does feel like a bit of a retreating and a bit of a, as you said, you know, enemy of my enemy of my enemy is my friend or enemy of my enemy of my friend is my enemy. Anyway, Anyway, I get... One of the other. Yeah, I get what you're saying 100%. And listen, my stance yesterday or Monday was he is underpaid, all fighters are underpaid, but there's a big difference between his situation and say a famous one like Francis Inganus because he just signed a contract.

And that was part of the deal in terms of getting this title shot, which, you know, it was up between him and Nasradi and Imovov. And he probably agreed to this deal. They give him the new deal. And now of a sudden he had... has buyer's remorse. Francis was at the end of his deal, an eight-fight deal that he signed in the end of 2017, and now he gets all the way to 2022. He beats Stipe in 21. He fights for the belt in January of 22. They want to try to sign him, and he says, no, I'm going to bet on myself.

Sean elected Drake to not bet on himself. And so that's why I don't have a lot of remorse for him, because he took the deal. He takes the title shot, and now he's like, ah, man, I should have thought of this before I took that deal. Well, maybe he thought he wasn't going to win. He thought this was the best he was going to get. I can't understand why after one fight into that deal, he's saying actually, and this was like four months ago, I think I need to renege on this. How do you feel about how this is playing out? I mean, it feels all very all over the place to me. Like, I'm not even sure that he's entirely 100% on where his stances exactly are because what he, he's talking a lot about how at least how it sounds that he can just end his contract whenever he wants.

Like he says the thing about I'm going to nuke my contract and, you know, just go and get this out of the way. And then I'll go off and do boxing and all that. But then we just saw the tweet on the screen about how he said he'll go up to 205 and knock out all these 205, knock out the rest of his fights at 205, which like the UFC's not going to let him do that. Why would they let him go up and just beat all contenders potentially, right? Go up there and potentially beat all these contenders and then just leave like that is just not good business, not how they would do things, let alone have. having him fight for a title. So it's just kind of one big scramble right now, in my opinion. And I think he's just generating noise more than anything because at the end of the day,

all of this is a road to nowhere that ends up with him in the cage, continuing to just, you know, fight as is. We'll have to reassess things once we get at the end of the title shot at the end of his contract. And again, the options are very limited, especially at 185. Like he almost has to defend against Nasrudean right now unless he just gets to use a weight, which will then result in him getting stripped. So I guess that would be one box checked off of accomplishing what he's trying to accomplish. But I don't know.

I think that this is mostly noise more than anything just because there's real no solid plan or idea to the whole thing aside from him pretty much saying he wants to box. That seems like the only concrete thing. But that's not going to happen anytime soon. Yeah. And the bottom line is the UFC holds all the power here. They can cut them at any time. They can renegotiate at any time.

he doesn't hold that power. He can't do that. He can't ask them to do it or demand that they do it, but they have all the leverage. Now, it would be great if someone like Sean Strickland raised his hand and said, I'm going to galvanize the troops, I'm going to bring everyone together and we're going to change this once and for all. But he's not doing that, Rick. He's not doing anything. And how many times have we seen this? I remember Jorge Mosvidal in the midst of the pandemic saying, I'm getting screwed. He went on SportsCenter. I think it was with Scott Van Pelt. It was definitely on Sports Center where he talked about contracts. Like, wow, someone's going on Sports Center to talk about the contracts.

UFC calls them up to replace, I believe it was Gilbert Burns on seven days notice against Kamar Uspin on Fight Island, and he took that fight and that new contract and ran with it. We never heard that talk again. This happens time and again. And so I feel like I'm just watching the same movie all over again, Rick. Yeah, it's an inherently individual and selfish sport, right? The better I'm doing, the worse you're doing, and I want you to do worse because I want to remain on top. That is the nature of these individual sports.

as opposed to a collective sport, a team sport, where it seems like it's a lot easier to get the people to consider their fellow man. I don't know if that's good. I don't have like a moral judgment on that, right? I think everybody should be getting what they deserve. And I think if that's the right option for Sean Strickland and the people that he's taking care of, his family, his loved ones, then so be it. But there is a reality and acknowledgement that has to be made that like,

and Strickland, as I said, pointed this out in February and is not stupid. He is not a stupid person. He knows that if he says no, and if he says, okay, I'm going to do this thing, XYZ, he can be replaced. You don't think that fans would instantaneously move on if Hamza Tshamaya versus Nastradineh Mavov was made. The UFC would move on. The fan base would move on. It would happen extremely quickly as it has continued to happen. We talked about this.

You talked about this specifically with the Natalia Silva versus. versus Wong Tong fight. Valentina Shevchenko is one of their most notable and longest reigning champions, and her belt was a prop for a fight that they needed it to be. They removed that title from her and put it up for grabs for two fighters that realistically did not deserve the opportunity to be fighting for that title because it is Valentina Shevchenko's. Don't get me wrong. I think Natalia Silva should be fighting Valentina Shevchenko, but that belt belongs to Valentina

Shevchenko and will continue to. The same way the strawweight belt in my mind is Zhang Wei-leys. That belt is just property of the UFC. That belt is transient. That belt is just a prop at this point. And the UFC has done a very, very good job of taking the luster and the shine off their titles by just bouncing them around and doing whatever they want with it, establishing Fugazi interim titles whenever they want, this BMF belt that seems to jump around from person to person with no linear structure.

They have done a very good job of devaluing their titles. So to imagine a world where all of a sudden Sean Strickland takes some, the principled stance and they go, you know what, you're right, or he has some kind of point and we're not going to do this. They're going to strip him so fast as head's going to spin. And he knows that. And so I think as we've already kind of concluded, it's much ado about nothing. But yeah, I don't imagine that this is going to be the galvanizing force. I will say this, though. Sean Strickland has the potential to be somebody who can do this, not in this capacity, not by just being like, I'm not going to fight and that. But I think fighters,

really like Sean Strickland. They see him speaking and they believe that there's some kind of truth to power being spoken. And he also has that effect on fans. And he has the ability when he's coherent, when he's actually focused on the topic, when he's not doing a thing where he's just like, ah, you guys, when he's actually speaking about these issues, he understands this game at a fundamental level that many people do not. And he has the capability if he wanted to try to rally people,

to try to talk to people about these things. but it ends up being couched in these other things, right? And I don't need to go into what the specifics of some of the other diversions that he takes are. But I do believe that one day, if there was a world, Sean Strickland could be a good ambassador for something like this. He is somebody who people tend to gravitate toward and go, that man speaks for me, whether you like him, whether you don't. There is a fan base that agrees with that.

And I believe that the fighters are part of that. But I don't think that this is the point. I don't think that this is the inflection point. I do think this is more of a selfish pursuit of a guy who signed a long term deal and it's like, nah, I want more money. Oh yeah. I mean, that's his whole gimmick. He's currently tweeting about joining a rally in Alberta in their effort to separate from Canada because the whole gimmick is fight the power. He knows nothing about what's going on in Alberta, but he loves the idea of sticking it to the man. Is it possible, Pizzi, in an era where the UFC

will tell you like, oh, we don't know about Josh Hokit, the controversial heavyweight fighting at MSG for the heavyweight title. We don't know about how all this is going to pan out if he's a heavyweight champion in an era where Bryce Mitchell will say controversial things and Sean Strickland will say, and they'll continue to reward these people. Is it possible that we make a big deal about this? But the UFC's like, yeah, yeah, whatever. February, you know, 13th, there's your date.

Go on your way. We love this sort of thing. It all makes dollars. It all makes sense. I mean, look at the things that he said about Muslim people, about Hamza's family leading up to that fight and no one bad at it and not. is it possible that they just view this as like Strickland's gimmick, basically, for all intents of purposes, and no one really cares or gets upset about it?

Yeah, I've been thinking about that quite a bit since this happened. Are we actually giving them too much credit that they're kind of watching what he's saying and saying, oh, yeah, like, you know, we say we don't like them, but let them at it. I just don't think they give a shit. I just don't think they care. I was listening to Rick speaking there about the titles being devalued, and I don't think anyone could disagree with that, right? I think the title is the way they've just been passing them around.

have a no champion be dethrone to create a new champion for many different divisions. I think it's really, really, it's just taking away so much intrigue from these divisions. My question would be is, have they purposely devalued these tools to take away for their leverage? It's obviously, as you, as you pointed out today on your show, that used to be a big thing, right? If you were the champion saying this stuff, that meant a lot. And now all of a sudden we have Aspirals vacated, Jones vacated for Aspinall. Zhang, as Rick just pointed out, and then, of course, Valentina Shevchenko, like, are they absolutely, like, it would make no sense, right, if you think about it for a promotion to devalue their belts. But actually, are they doing it to take away further leverage from these fighters?

Who we've talked about for years, deserve to be paid, deserve to have so much more than they get. Is that their actual mover? I don't know. I don't know. I think that might be a little conspiratorial. Yes. What do you think? Okay, so what do you think of that, Drake?

But I mean, they just don't give it shit, though. They don't give it. There's no importance of these belts at all anymore. No, of course. And it's, sorry. When you were saying that, Ptsey, I was just thinking about the heavyweight division and how, like, the title is completely meaningless right now. Like, it's been just ruined by everything that's happened since Angano left.

But at the same time, you know, we've heard the champions come out. Like, Jones retired. The UFC didn't necessarily take that away from him. They weren't going to take it away. Dana was promising the Aspenol fight. then Aspinall, of course, eventually gave it up himself. And then here we are. So I don't think that they forced these in every situation.

Obviously, we have seen it. And heavy was just the example that my mind went to right there. But they don't care, but it might be a bit of a stretch where you were going. I'll say it. I do think that that is the goal. The goal is to take away the leverage. I'll go so far as to say, they actually don't even care about wins and losses anymore, as evidenced by the fact that Michael M.

When did they ever? was winning fights in the UFC and they were like, fuck off. Like, I just don't think that the UFC cares about results anymore, even from their champions. Because they can move this trinket however they want. And it really just becomes the thing that they put on the poster. It is no longer has the value that it once held. And I think they kind of maybe have read the tea leaves on that. They've accepted that reality to the point that now they're making decisions that you would think they'd have some shame about.

In a normal world, you'd go, man, they're really going to do that? They're taking away Valentina Shepchenko's title. That makes absolutely no sense. They're doing John Jones versus Stipe Miochich instead of Tom Aspinall. This makes no sense. Don't they have any shame? And the answer that they've continued to give us is absolutely not. Absolutely zero shame.

And I think they've recognized this pattern and are now actively leaning into it. Sean Strickland would be stripped tomorrow. Sean Strickland would be stripped tomorrow if he was just like, I am not fighting now. If the fight with him and Naserdini-imabov, if they were trying to book that for right now, If they were trying to book that for two months from now, a month from now, let's call it, they would strip him instantaneously. There's not one part of me that thinks that they would let him hold that title. Oh, Rick, it's not until the fight starts, remember?

Yeah, exactly. Then you're not champion until the fight starts. Meanwhile, Cyril gone is, I mean, the whole thing is, the whole thing is a sham. But yes, this was a, it was initially a play to remove some leverage from specific fighters, and has now become a play where they've removed leverage from all fighters, because now the titles don't even mean anything. It is a, and not for nothing, there's no paper viewpoints anymore either. So the titles mean even less.

You're as a champion of the UFC, you're not even entitled to any more money. The whole thing is Fugazi. The whole thing is a sham. The whole championship structure of the UFC no longer exists. And there's good and bad to that. The good is, hey, we could just make the most fun fights possible. We could just do number one versus number 15 if we really, really thought that would sell on paper, you know, that people will watch that on Paramount Plus and across the world elsewhere. but the bad side is the meritocracy

and everything that we kind of like got into this sport for and made this actually a sport is now gone. It has gone way more toward the Carney side and away from the sport side. Yeah, there are... The fight is not to give a shit. The fans not to give a shit too. This has happening so often. Like,

Ira, you were asking, like, what side do you think the fans are on? I don't think they actually care anymore. I think this has just become power for the course for them. Oh, there's going to be someone else with the belt. They might get on our fight. Fuck it. I don't disagree with anything you guys said. I just wanted to add that there are 11 champions in the UFC.

Five of them won their belts via a vacant title fight scenario, meaning they didn't beat the champion to become a champion. And I think that devalues the belts. At middleweight, Nasradi and Imov is, in most people's opinion, the number one contender, Drake. And last week, he stormed Sean Strickland's gym to try to find them. He went to the UFC headquarters to try to find him. He eventually did.

Not much happened there. but there were some who thought like, this is a little bit strange. I mean, you guys did fight about three years ago and Sean's never really been someone to back down from a fight. Do you think that he did that to just get some hype and buzz surrounding him, or do you think that he was actually looking for a fight because he was frustrated this wasn't being made?

No, no. I don't think Nazarene's that dumb because I don't think that would have been the smartest move to try and do it. And, I mean, just the way that it was all filmed and set up, it looked very, very planned, in my opinion. otherwise they wouldn't have filmed it. So just all of that was, I think, a smart move to generate the buzz. I don't think he was actually that annoyed or angry to go after Strickland.

And I mean, the video cut off right when he was storming, right? Am I forgetting? No, it did. Yeah, it did. Okay. So, like, we didn't even see what happens after that. He probably had his halt right away and they go on that. You don't think they were both in on it.

Do you? Like, you don't think. No, no, no. No, no. Okay. No, I think that part, that part was legit. But now it was just set up to generate some buzz. And, I mean, I'm sure he is frustrated that the fight is not happening.

the moment. And so he's kind of feeling a little bit more desperate. I mean, even with Strickland potentially out of the picture, can we even, should he feel like he will get the next shot? I'm not even sure that they still want to put him in the title shot with how long it's taken. I wouldn't feel that comfortable. You just took my next question. Let me ask you that question. What do you think? I mean, I'm probably, I'm probably 50-50 on it, honestly. Like, I think he 100% should. I don't think there's really a debate in terms of meritocratically, you know, should he get it, but we don't live in that world. So he definitely needs to start doing more things like this.

And I don't think it's too comparable to somebody like Armin. But look at what Armin's done, like completely turned everything around in his favor in terms of how he's viewed by the brass. So like, this is a good step in the right direction for Nasrudean. Not the most exciting fighter in the world, but a very, very good fighter, obviously. If it's not him, I mean, maybe you wait for, this is a bit of a bit of a bit of, wild card wait for the pie for nickel winner throw them against homzot i mean that'd be perfect if if bo nickel wins that

fight you want to tell me the UFC would not jump on that after all the talk that bow has done since he started i'm just giving you ideas that is a crazy one i'm not sure about that one maybe what do you think about that one ptt well what do you look what are you saying who else would fight for the toil you'll be just throwing these things out here

put a bit away behind what is saying humza i'ms up here rematch oh uh jir i don't know about that what about chamsah comes on the name, I think. And no Imovov. Well, that to me is the either or. Yeah.

Right. And I do see there being a scenario where they say, okay, February or March, we need this title fight. And maybe they say, you know what, we need a big fight. We need numbers like we got back in May. We don't know what those numbers are, but I'm assuming it would be bigger than an Mimov fight. Like, yeah, you're right, Drake. I don't think it's a foregone conclusion that Imov is next.

I think right now, for December he was. was next, that doesn't mean he's next for February. And that goes back to Rick's point. Like, it's, it's all just about timing. There's no ranking system. There's no rhyme or reason. It's which holes can they fill at which time and what makes most sense for that. I mean, if they have a deal with Abu Dhabi and Abu Dhabi says they want Hamza, they'll send those guys over Abu Dabby. And that's kind of a bummer. Okay. Can I hit you with another conspiracy theory? Right. I don't know why I'm failing this way today. Yeah, yeah. Let's do it. I'm here for it. It's coming at me.

It's good. Any chance, right? You have seen new, strictly that already told them. I'm not interested in this, right? This is way before he's going online. He's telling him, he's telling him. They're ringing him off and they're like, here, mate, you know what you need to do? Get a camera crew.

Head over there and pick a fight with this guy. And make everyone care so much about this that he has to say yes. What we saw was, his failed attempt to do with that, what we saw was strictly come out afterwards saying, well, that was their last roll of the dice. I'm not doing this. Once again, I am going to say, absolutely, yes, that's exactly what happened.

Come on. By the way, not only do I believe it may have happened, but I don't think it was a failed attempt. I thought it was good. I thought it was good. He's not fighting him. If he didn't find him, then it would have been not as nothing. Yeah, I'll say this.

No, but I mean, where we're at now, that was, the goal of that would be to make the fight happen. We're not in that situation right now. We see this. We see this happen a lot recently. Alex Pereira all of a sudden piping up and being like, yeah, yeah, I'm next in line for the title. These things are not accidental.

If you've been around this game long enough, you can see it. Nasserdinimov, a guy who we know nothing about, who says nothing on a regular basis, all of a sudden is storming the gym to go after Sean Strickland. There is no coincidence. There is no accident here. I will say this one was very clearly also selfishly motivated, right? Despite if there was any kind of like conversation with the UFC, to the point we're all circling around. Nassardine Imovov does not know if he will be next for the title.

He has no assurances, no guarantees, there has been no announcement. And the longer Sean Strickland drags his feet, the longer that he drags this process out, the more opportunity there is for Nassardine to not be the guy. And so I think he very calculatedly was like, I need to get something on wax. I need to have this now. I need to have some kind of assurances that the next time they talk about the middleweight title, my name is attached to it. And if it's not Sean Strickland, that's fine.

but I need to already be in the booking. And so there was no coincidence. There was no accident. I think he will probably still get the opportunity. And it's just me logicing this out. Sean Strickland is proving to be a little more difficult to deal with just in general for them. He's always been a little bit difficult to deal with from a wrangling and keeping him in line perspective. But now it seems to be more focused on the contract.

And now for nothing, Hamzaa Chamaev is not exactly, you know, Mr. Availability. He's not the one who's the easiest to kind of schedule and book fights with. Nasradi Nemovov is a guy that knows this is my shot. If they come calling, I better say yes to the opportunity. And so I think a guy like that now is perfect for the UFC, right? The UFC is going to be looking around for the guy that just says, yes, no matter what. Name the date, name the opponent, I'm there, I want to fight for the title. And he's in that good spot.

So I do think Nasardini Mavov will get the title shot. I'd actually be more interested in if it's Homsat versus Nasserdin. If Strickland is the other side of the equation, but I think Nasterdine is the one who will actually be in that fight no matter what. I tend to agree after he stormed the building. He did take a picture with one of the top dogs at the UFC, Hunter Campbell. He had a big smile on his face. And so that would suggest that he seems to be happy with where he's at.

I do remind everyone that not that long ago, Alex Pereira took a similar picture, and we thought that meant that he was going to be, this is the picture that I'm talking about. We thought that meant that Alex, Pereira would be next for the heavyweight title, and in the end, he was not next for the heavyweight title. In the end, it's Josh Hokit, fighting Surreal Gan at Madison Square Garden, main event, November 14th, UFC 335, Pereira fighting Sergei Pavlovich, December 12th, UFC 336.

I bring this up because very recently, Drake, Alex Pereira went online and said, how is Hokit versus Gan for the, quote, unquote, undisputed title? I say, quote, unquote, because Tom Aspinall had to vacate the title, so it feels very disputed, as you just said. How is that above what Dana White has called the greatest female fight in UFC history, Amanda Nunes, Kayla Harrison for the women's Bantamway title? That was the co-main event all the way back in January, the Paramount Plus debut. Of course, Kayla got injured, hurt her neck, and they had to move that fight. And now we're finally hopefully getting it.

The main event for that card was Patty Pimilar versus Justin Gachi for the interim title. I got my feelings hurt when they did that back then. I'm not getting as worked up this time around because they did it already once. And I don't have the energy to get upset about it. Are you upset about it? I've kind of in the same boat as you there. But I had one real quick note about the Strickland stuff real quick, real quick. I think this flew under the radar a lot for people because it was in replies to one of his many internet friends, right?

But he said on September, what was it, 27th here, someone asked him, is it true that he's fighting Emovob? And he said, yeah, we're working out pay now. And this was on September 27th. So it's just kind of funny to look at, in hindsight, after what has happened this week. Of course. He may have thought they were working out pay, but I don't think there was much working going on on the UFC's part. I think he was bringing that up. Anyway, back to Madison Square Garden. Your thoughts on that fight being the Kayla Harrison and the Nunes had a fight being the co-main event to the main event. Heavyweight fight, this is what Alex Pereira brought up just a couple of days ago.

Yeah. No, I mean, like when you really look at it, it's kind of, I think, absurd in many different ways, especially promotionally when they do bill it that way and have been saying that, yeah, this is the biggest women's fight of all time, which, you know, very arguably could be that. I'm not sure I still am in that boat, but it's certainly up there. You know, these are some all-time greats going at it. Obviously, New and as the all-time greats coming back. I mean, there's so much story to this fight that, like, I don't know why you wouldn't feel confident or comfortable in putting it in that spot if it is what you're saying it is, right?

But then it just all goes back to them not really caring. They're going to be fine no matter what. They don't need to sell it that way. Even at the start of the year, not that it mattered because the pay-per-views are gone and everything. But what? Just because of the weight classes, you know, the heavy weights going up top, even though this fight is what it is the very disputed title fight. We'll call it, not the undisputed. But yeah, I was very annoyed by that the first time, like you said there.

I was much more so. but seeing them do it again doesn't surprise me. It's like, all right, well, it would have been more surprised if they would have put it on top now after what we saw to start the year. Sure. It's, yeah, I think it's silly,

but it's not something I'm wasting my energy on at this point. Pizzi's upset about it. I don't give a shit. It's so obvious this is what they're going to do. Do you know what I mean? They don't. That's the reality. I honestly, like,

fan base are more interested in Hoke or probably at this stage. You know, regardless of how you feel about them, we voted him on crowns breakout start of the year he's having every door open them as you say Ariel they're like oh this guy watch out you know we don't know what to think of this guy

well opening every door putting him into the biggest spots they possibly can he generates talking points we know obsessed with social media dana what it is ask him out power slap what's he say over and over again never heard a single thing about a single whatever a slap match that happened ever

I've never heard him talking about it. I just hear him say, the numbers, the numbers, the numbers, Hokeet will give you numbers. He will give you numbers all week. He'll give you numbers from the first time they face off, from just various things he's doing during fight week. That's why he's going with him.

That's why he's been pushed into the spot. And I think genuinely, I think that the fan base probably care more as well. Also, think about this too real quick. Like, they've done this before with Amanda Nunes. They did it with the cyborg fight. Sure, different situations with Jones and Gustafs as the main event. But like, that fight, in my opinion, was arguably bigger than this one. And they still did it back then, right? What was that, 2018, that long ago? I mean, we've seen it before.

We spent, we spent 30 some a, some of minutes talking about the, the illegitimacy of the belts. It's just rearing its head again here, right? If there were no belts in either of those pictures, right? If it was just Amanda Nunes versus, uh, in the Harris. It's still better, though. That's still a better fight in terms of what they've done. Right, but which one will be on top? Oh, still the heavyweight. It's still the heavyweight fight. And so the only belt in this scenario that has any

legitimacy for me is Kayla Harrison's. That's the one. That's an actual belt. That was one in competition that I care about. That is the belt. Now, granted, Amanda Nunes left that that belt behind. Never lost it. But that was a proper transition, right? She's leaving the

sport. And now, Kayla Harrison comes in and is able to wrestle it away from the women that were there remaining when Amanda Nunes left. This other belt is in high, you know, like is in contention is not an undisputed title. Tom Aspinall was the reigning UFC champion and it never got transferred. And so the legitimacy of the belt would dictate, hey, the only reason that Kayla Harrison versus Amanda Nunes would ever be above Josh Hokit and Cyril Gond is if the belts mattered, was if the legitimacy of these belts actually mattered, it would be on top.

But what we continue to prove, what we continue to talk about is that there is no legitimacy anymore. There is no concern. There is no care for how these things are done. Josh Hokit is going to get up there and he's going to talk that good shit against Cyril Gahn and everybody's going to eat it up. And this is the nature of the sport. I've lost all the energy to like kind of care about this part of it. Like none of us were surprised. I don't know why we would even be surprised at this point.

This is how the business is done. We're going to see a day where a non-year. title fight, that's not Connor McGregor is going to headline over a title fight because it just is what it is. The rules are the rules until they decide to change them. And the rules have completely changed. Can I tell you what's the most interesting part of this story? It's not the fight placement. It's not the card lineup. It's that Alex Pereira has always been that good soldier for the UFC. And he recently signed a very, you know, big contract with them. A multi-fight deal. It's been reported $8 million for a lot of money, seven figures and whatnot.

And slowly but surely, as it always happens, and as it's happening with Sean Strickland as well, you're happy, you're content, you're a company man. And then you start to realize, hey, it's not quite going the way I thought it was going, especially at the end of the career. You start to get disenfranchised, upset, you do things for the UFC, and then all of a sudden you start to realize like, hey, man, I stepped up on short notice for them multiple times. I didn't get this title shot, and now I'm upset, and now I'm going to complain about the placement and I'm going to say that this is ridiculous and these ladies are being

disrespected and they should be promoted more and I'm going to complain about Herb Dean and I'm going to tweet something and delete it. It's just the same old story. That's why when I see the Sean Strickland thing, I'm like, oh, we've seen this story play out. Alex has never, well, I don't want to say never been that guy because he did have that tweet thing about a year ago and then he deleted it and said he got hacked, but it's... He was hacked. He was hacked, you're right. You could talk about like maybe on one hand the fighters who did their whole career and then left without saying a negative thing, without being, you know, sour towards the UFC, feeling some sort of way, and then the vast majority, leave like this,

act like this towards the end. It's just the same old story because you come to the realization, the light is at the end the tunnel, the career is almost over, and what do I have to show for it? Where's the respect? Where, you know, where is everything that I poured into it? When's it coming back to me? And so that's what I felt was most interesting about that. Alex usually didn't, you know, talk like this.

and now you're starting to see more frustration come out of him. That fight is happening. UFC 335 is happening November 14th. As I said, the UFC is back in Canada this weekend. Beautiful, Edmonton, home of the Oilers, of course, one of the great arenas in North America. Next weekend is UFC 333. That's October 24th.

There's also a lot of good boxing on this weekend as well. Big-time heavyweight rematch between Fabio Wardley and Daniel Dubois. Their first fight was phenomenal. Maybe the fight of the year. they're going toe to toe to again. And then one of the most fun fighters

in the sport of boxing, Mr. Sebastian Fondora, a delight at 154 pounds. Also, just a freak in nature. The guy's like

6'7 and he's fighting at 154 pounds. It's a wild thing. He's also fighting this weekend as well. So the fun never stops, but unfortunately

we do have to say goodbye. Thank you so very much to everyone out there for their support and for watching. And thank you to our tremendous

panelists as well. Drake, appreciate you very much. Rick, thank you. Pee, Thank you. I'm Ariel. Thank you all.

And thank you to our great team for putting this whole damn thing together. And, of course, our partners at Amazon Fire TV as well. So once again, for Drake, Eric, Pizzi. I'm Ariel. Thank you so very much for watching. Enjoy the fights this weekend. We'll talk to you next week.