Ep 302: After a Week Off UFC Returns with a Fight Night. All the Latest News.

Episode 302: After the holiday weekend, UFC is back with a Fight Night. Nate Diaz says he's ready for UFC return...could Conor McGregor be far behind? All the latest news. 







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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, everybody, welcome back. It is MMA After Hours.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
I'm Michael Carlisle, joined as always by Micah frankl.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Micah, how you doing, man, I'm doing well.

Speaker 3 (00:12):
I mean a little bit recharged. We had some fun,
fight pass fun this weekend and I'm ready to get
back to the UFC.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
All right.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
I came to a decision over the weekend. I think
it's wonderful that UFC gives its employees all these holidays off.
I think it's wonderful that they're what six, eight ten
weekends of year of the year when they're not having fights.
I don't care anymore. They have to have fights every weekend.

(00:41):
You can take off Christmas weekend.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
I'm good with that.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
The weekends without UFC, and there really aren't a lot
of other options, which makes it even worse. They really
dragged for me, and I realized it's not all about me,
but to me, it's all about me.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
Micah and I need UFC.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
I needed every single weekend, whether it's APEX, whether it's
a fight Night on the road, whether it's a pay
per view, I gotta have my UFC.

Speaker 3 (01:09):
Here. Realize you're gonna start off the show like this,
I said, we were gonna do this later. I think
we're gonna do this now.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
I know it's it's not doing anything. I'm just telling
you the weekend sucked. We have to have UFC every weekend.
That's all that They's just a statement.

Speaker 3 (01:23):
We don't have to have UFC every weekend, but we
have to have entertainment every weekend. And that's where it's
kind of changed to, we need to have UFC every
weekend because well, I can tell you LFA and shout
out to guys like Joselito Santos and Juan Pablo Rivera

(01:44):
who are gonna have the opportunity with their nine and
eleven and Ozero records to have a real shot on
the Contender series. But when you're talking LFA, THEFFC eurie,
it's not the same kind of weekend when you're like, hey,
the UFC is taking off. They're giving their employees the
weekend off, and this wile promotion Bellotour or this wile

(02:08):
promotion Strikeforce is gonna go all out to take advantage
of a ufcless weekend. I'm saying it's not a bad
thing that the UFC is so big. I'm saying sometimes
we need variety, because when one promotion takes a weekend off,
it's such an eyesore for the entire industry that it's

(02:30):
a little bit boring.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
Well, with all due respect to every other promotion out there,
the industry is a one promotion industry. It's UFC, And
I think that's what you were alluding to.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
Back in the day.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
If there was a UFC weekend off, well, you had
Strike Force out there. If you go that far back,
you had Bellatour. More recently, you don't have any of those.
So if UFC is not running, and the closest number
two and it's just different enough to be different would
be BKFC, and they're not running it, right Like, there's

(03:06):
a huge drop off if you're a combat sports fan
as far as what's out there to tickle your fancy.
And I'm not crapping on LFA or anybody else, but
all due respect, the number of people that I'm sure
watched LFA over the weekend is so incredibly minuscule that
it doesn't even register in the grand scheme of things

(03:27):
on the radar. So yeah, I think to your point,
it's a one promotion industry for all intents and purposes,
and when they take a weekend off, there's no one
there to fill the gap.

Speaker 3 (03:40):
Well, know what five pass numbers are, and those would
be interesting once because not to divert from the topic,
but real quick, we talk about like WWE Pro Wrestling
after ours and WWE does USA here in the United States,
and they have Netflix, and you have Peecock, and you
have CW and you have multiple platforms where their product

(04:03):
is on, and even they have shows that globally are
on different platforms. Well, fight Pass has the exclusive rights.
So I'm not saying these would be like television or
crushing numbers. I just they might be slightly better globally
than what we're thinking. Because there's only one place to
watch the fights. So if it was a closed circuit

(04:25):
local one, yeah, one thousand people are watching it locally
if you know it's just in Texas. But when Ala
Fe gootes to Brazil and you got guys from Peru
and Argentina, I could imagine that you're seeing decent numbers
for UFC fight Pass of twenty thirty thousand people. No globally.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
Hell, now, there may be a card here or there,
and I don't know the numbers, so I'm totally speculating,
and I could be just as off on my assessment
as I believe you're off on yours. Who knows, so
we're both just pulling numbers out of our rumpuses.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
Here, I would.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
Say, on any given LFA card, I'd be shocked if
they're getting more than a thousand streams. Now, the problem
with that number, well, why the hell do they bothered
to do it? If that's all they're getting, They being well,
why does fight Pass take those fights? So maybe I'm
wrong on that. I bet those numbers are hideously low. Now,
there could be pockets sometimes, like you said, if there

(05:26):
are a lot of resilient fighters on a card here
in America or here that it's just not accessible for
the Brazilient fans, you may see a spike on some
of those.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
But I would be shocked, shocked if they pull anything
close to what you're saying.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
And maybe I'm wrong, and maybe it's a lot higher
than what I'm saying that, maybe it's somewhere in the middle,
but I'd be shocked if they pull anything that resembles
what we might think of when we think of a
decent streaming number.

Speaker 3 (05:57):
Sorry, I didn't mean average. I met card by my applies,
I mean when you do have a guy from this country,
that country. I believe there are spikes in their age
out of the promotions. LFA consistently against the most numbers,
and I know they were way down from the Access
TV days that they were a better draw when you

(06:18):
had the Access TV fin nights because you had multiple promotions,
you had the lead and show with Bo's routin, so
you had so much marketing in there. I do believe
the numbers are down. I just met on a ufcless
weekend and on a weekend where they're in Brazil having
a card where they got guys from multiple countries something
like this. They drew a little bit better than what

(06:39):
we would expect. But it's more of the just it's
not a disappointment in the UFC. It's just a lack
of variety because if they were to run fifty two
weeks a year, you said it, their employees deserve time off.
And even when it was the Zoofra brand, even when
WEC was running on a ufcless weekend, it was a

(06:59):
different for an office and different people having to do
the heavy lifting.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
Right to that point, and you brought up our other
podcast per Wrestling After Hours, real quick, and we won't
bore you guys who aren't into wrestling. But this past weekend,
you had WWE doing a Saturday Night's main event. You
had aw doing a pay per view in the Phoenix,
Arizona area. You had a WWE NXT event on Sunday,

(07:32):
I believe, and you had a couple of TNA Wrestling
events as well Saturday and Sunday.

Speaker 3 (07:39):
Yet WWE Round four Days concurrent in Tampas. So as
far as sports entertainment, Memorial Day weekend, there was that
huge and that there was that variety, and you saw
it from multiple different companies with their multiple different ways
of promoting and presenting. And I almost think it's not
that I don't think Apex cards are bad. I think

(08:03):
the Akpex cards kind of feel like they're repetitive to people.
And that's just more of what I wish. Like when
we had Scott Kroker, when we had Bijor and rem Meet,
even if as US a community MMA, we still had
those forty eight events a year, forty four events a year,
you got some different feeling. But I think that it

(08:25):
wears on the MMA audience that APEX fight nights could
be interchangeable.

Speaker 2 (08:30):
Almost maybe, but I would have slept my mama for
an Apex fight night card on Saturday.

Speaker 1 (08:38):
I ain't gonna lie.

Speaker 3 (08:41):
You're not wrong, You're not wrong. I'm just kind of
saying I understand the size of an LFA and a Fury,
and I understand their position. But I know that Bellatore
was never gonna or Strike Force was never gonna challenge
the UFC. And it's not about that. I just kind
of wish when I walked up to my MMA buffet
it wasn't. Everything's UFC, and and that feels such a

(09:04):
demand on the UFC almost. I just want a little
bit of variety. I love pizza. Sometimes I need to plane.
Sometimes we'll throw a little bit of pepperoni on there,
but just to always get the same dish, right.

Speaker 2 (09:19):
Using your buffet analogy, Right, there's one meat, there's one potato,
there's one vegetable, and there's one drink.

Speaker 1 (09:26):
That's your buffet. And look, that ain't UFC's fault. I mean,
it's just hell. It's nobody's fault. It's it's just it is.

Speaker 2 (09:34):
Unless you want to blame UFC for being so much
better than everybody else, and no other company can sustain it.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
But I mean, you can't fault somebody for that. It's
just it is what it is.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
And in a mythical world where there was still a
Belatour or hell, even still a strikeforce, one of those
companies would have looked at the calendar and said, you
know what, We're gonna do one of our bigger cards
of the year this weekend, because we're going to have
the weekend to ourselves and we're going to give the
fans a reason to watch, even if we're their third

(10:06):
favorite MMA promotion or second favorite MMA promotion and they
check us.

Speaker 1 (10:11):
Out when they don't have other options.

Speaker 2 (10:12):
We didn't have that this weekend, and really any weekend
when there's not UFC Now, the a lot of those
weekends there's boxing to take up the slack. If you're
into boxing, boxing doesn't fill that void for me. And
so yeah, if there's not a UFC going on, a

(10:33):
UFC event going on on a weekend, there's a big hole.

Speaker 3 (10:40):
And I think that is part of the success of
BKFC has been being a familiar alternative, how they grabbed
MMA veterans and familiar names, they have a familiar, in
your face aggressiveness towards promoting their brand. I think that
they were familiar enough to an MMA promotion with enough

(11:03):
just straight up action that fans were able to tune
in and build some kind of relationship towards the product.

Speaker 1 (11:12):
Yeah. No, I think you're right on that. And again
it's nobody's fault. It's just it makes for I love
my family. I didn't want to spend the whole time
weekend with my family. I wanted to get away and
be able to watch something.

Speaker 2 (11:29):
Now, look, being a pro wrestling fan, and I realized
that's not an option for everybody because not all MMA.
I think they are more pro wrestling fans that are
MMA fans than MMA fans that are pro wrestling fans.
So you know, maybe you can't use wrestling to you know,
balance that out.

Speaker 1 (11:47):
And I realized that.

Speaker 2 (11:48):
The WWE products in UFC all under the same umbrella,
the TKO banner.

Speaker 1 (11:53):
So you know their response will be, well, yeah, we're
taking the weekend off, but.

Speaker 2 (11:57):
Look at what we got going on WWE wise, with
Saturday Night's main event, we got the NXT event. This
company we work with, TNA that they've got stuff going on. Hell,
what one of our wrestlers is going to go win
the TNA title this weekend, And that's great, but it's
not like to the point you were bringing up back

(12:19):
in the day when you'd have a Strike Force.

Speaker 1 (12:21):
Or a Bellator or whomever.

Speaker 2 (12:23):
It's if UFC is not running, most anything else is listen.
I'm actually surprised BKFC didn't do something try to do
something big this weekend. They didn't, and that's fine, I
get it, but it seems like that would be a
missed opportunity when there's not UFC going on to to
really try to put your best foot forward with a

(12:46):
kind of a stack card and give fans who are
looking for something, whether it's fans who regularly check out
your product or just occasionally, if you don't have other options,
there's a better chance they're going to go over and
at least try to sample your product.

Speaker 1 (13:00):
It feels like that would be a missed opportunity.

Speaker 3 (13:03):
I understand what you're saying from the corporate perspective. I
have not talked to anybody with BKFC, but my belief
is we're doing a couple of days in Dubai with
doing Italy with a plan here by the end of
the summer to possibly do South Africa and Australia. I
think that they targeted a break for their core staff

(13:26):
because they still are a relatively small unit, So I
think they targeted about a four week span where they
can give everybody off before they say, hey, guys, we're
going to hit the ground running and your families might
not see you for a while.

Speaker 2 (13:39):
No, and look, I get that, but it's not like
UFC not running this weekend just came out of nowhere.

Speaker 1 (13:46):
You could have planned this out better, done.

Speaker 2 (13:49):
The break the weekend before, done the break the weekend after,
or a couple of weeks after, and just targeted, you know,
whether it's shifting a Dubai event or when we're going
to or something. If you had the foresight, you could
have worked around that and still accomplished what you're saying. Yeah, No,
I think you're right, And that's one hundred percent why

(14:10):
BKFC didn't have a card. You could have shifted some
stuff around and not had to have done it at
the last minute, because again, it.

Speaker 1 (14:18):
Was no surprise that there was going to be no
UFC this weekend.

Speaker 2 (14:21):
You could have planned it out better and tried to
do something that resembles a showcase event of some sort.

Speaker 3 (14:31):
The biggest surprise from BKFC actually, to me recently, has
been an increased number of events on Saturday nights. And
I'm not just talking about on Saturday nights where we're
having a fight night for the UFC. I believe at
three point fifteen we had a BKFC seventy four the

(14:53):
same night from Salt Lake City. I believe that BKFC
seventy six and possibly seventy are also set for Saturday
nights that are going against at least one of them
is going to go in against a UFC pay per view.
BKFC seventy five that we have in Albuquerque is going
to be on a Friday night, But it's more surprising

(15:14):
that they've invaded that Saturday night market because it's not
like you need to completely bow down to the UFC.
But again, when you go back to the lack of
a bellotour and the lack of the success from all
of the fight pass promotions, to me, their success on

(15:35):
Friday nights, I thought was a good idea. You were
starting to be that alternative for combat sports fans, and
I thought it would be a bit harder to go
against the UFC rather than just keep operating on your
own night.

Speaker 2 (15:50):
Yeah, I don't think it's a matter of bowing down
to UFC, but you're not doing yourself any favors with
those And look, I realize they're gonna times.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
You're just gonna have to do that.

Speaker 2 (16:01):
And look, you can run Fridays, you're gona run Saturday
afternoons whatever.

Speaker 1 (16:06):
But MMA fans by and large, and.

Speaker 2 (16:10):
I think this is a problem PFL has one of many.
But your conditioned to that Saturday night, So I mean,
I do get it, but I.

Speaker 1 (16:18):
Agree with you being a little more a lee.

Speaker 2 (16:22):
I don't know if you want to go against the
fight night all right, I still think you're gonna come
out on the losing end, but not as bad. But
even just a halfway decent UFC pay per view, you're
going to lose out big time trying to go head
to head against that you just are, Which is why
again I would have tried to when I'm scheduling out,

(16:46):
not even shift stuff around, because again all this was
well known in advance. But when you're scheduling it out,
try to maneuver and look, maybe they did, and it
just wasn't gonna work out. What we got to be
in Dubai here. They don't want us on this date.
It has to be this day, so that means we
have to do this on that date, and then that
screws up our plans to take a week or two

(17:06):
off if we try to run something Memorial Day weekend.
So maybe it just wasn't possible, but I would have
done everything I could to try to schedule it out.
So when I see this date when there's no UFC,
I cannot just run a card for the sake of
running a card, but run something that's going to generate
some buzz and hopefully some eyeballs.

Speaker 3 (17:26):
On my product exactly. I'm not saying stay away and
be scared. Yeah, if I'm mapping out my plan, and
I don't know if you would agree with this, I'm
looking at APEX fight nights as my opportunity for Friday
night big shows, and I'm thinking it's a hairy prospect
to go against even an out of town fight night
and stay away dates are UFC pay per view nights,

(17:49):
just because why are you going to do that? If
nothing else, I would make those Friday night fight nights
and go the other way, have my smaller local cards
on those nights. But I think we're maybe paid taking
a different trajectory. But it's interesting right now that BKFC
didn't throw a card, and it does seem like the
best alternative if you don't have a UFC option.

Speaker 2 (18:12):
Probably and yeah, if they're not trying to seize that moment,
then yeah, you wind.

Speaker 1 (18:18):
Up with a weekend like we had this this past weekend.

Speaker 2 (18:21):
But look, we could beat this dead horse the whole time,
and how we would fix MMA and all that.

Speaker 1 (18:26):
The reality is, it is what it is, and.

Speaker 3 (18:30):
There's no hope. But I could still, you know, go
to Aladdin, grab that man, magic Genie, rub that lamp
free times and each time wish for Don Davies to
get a brain so that we could, you know, at
least treat the PFL like an MMA property. I don't
need them to challenge the UFC. I just need them
to not be an embarrassment. It's a wish, man, it's

(18:56):
a wish.

Speaker 1 (18:57):
No no, no, no, no no, and it's a fine wish.

Speaker 2 (19:01):
I was just going to try to go this week
without bashing PFL because I have nothing against them. They
just frustrate the hell out of me because I feel
like they shoot.

Speaker 1 (19:11):
Themselves in the foot at every turn, and.

Speaker 2 (19:15):
At some point We're probably gonna get into this and
I'm gonna start bashing, but I'm really going to try
not to because I do want them to be successful
and I don't want it to come across like I'm
just a hater, but they do make it hard to like,
at least for me.

Speaker 1 (19:27):
So yeah, no, I hear you. You go rub that lamp,
wait for the genie to come out. Good luck with
all that.

Speaker 3 (19:34):
You guys, go over to kgeminds dot com to get
those LFA two nine results from what they did on
Saturday night in Brazil.

Speaker 1 (19:43):
A ton of.

Speaker 3 (19:43):
Finishes, a couple of prospects that I think you'll be
hearing from later in the summer, possibly on the Contender series.

Speaker 2 (19:53):
You were telling me yesterday, and I just saw it
this morning because i'd kind of forgotten about it. The
Fury FC card from over the weekend and Zach Barrego
that nasty ass ear injury that my dude suffered.

Speaker 3 (20:09):
Good Lord, dude's ear splits apart. I'm trying to remember
who that happened to. In the UFC. We're literally the
lining of your ears. It explodes apart partially from the
uh the build up of the cauliflowery ear and also

(20:31):
an abrasive hit to the ear. It explodes apart. I mean,
y'all like some more in Nard, go check out the
FURYFC event. Shout out to the CFFC events too.

Speaker 1 (20:44):
They had some.

Speaker 3 (20:44):
Grappling and I believe a light heavyweight Lucas Fernandez who
retained his title beating Bellatorvett Christian Edwards. That's somebody also
to be on the lookout for. So I know all
and told you had about probably one UFC event fight
night of people at those three events, but a shit

(21:07):
ton of prospects that you may see in the UFC
from those three cards.

Speaker 1 (21:11):
You might have had.

Speaker 2 (21:14):
Apex fight night crowd worth of people at those events combined.
Maybe that's selling the other promotions a little short, but.

Speaker 3 (21:24):
Dude, I'm talking about probably okay, and maybe I'm overblowing it.
CFFC I think does around fifteen hundred to twenty five hundred,
depending on the venue. I didn't watch it, so I'm
not sure about the size of that one. I believe
Fury is about one thousand and fifteen hundred and LFA

(21:44):
in Brazil. Depending on the territory, they draw really well.
I don't know if it's the richest ticket ever, but
they get a couple thousand people depending on the arena.
They've done ten thousand people in big cities. They done
two three thousand people smaller cities because Brazil turns out,

(22:05):
so that's like an outlier for them, not saying that's
across the United States.

Speaker 2 (22:09):
We do have UFC back this weekend. They are in
the Apex for a fight night. That card's headlined by
a pair of top five women's flyways, Aaron Blanchfield, Mayc Barber.
We'll talk about that card in a bit, but in
as far as Apex cards go, it.

Speaker 1 (22:27):
Ain't the worst card ever.

Speaker 2 (22:28):
I think after the week off, this is a fine
fight night to ease back into before the pay per
view the following weekend.

Speaker 1 (22:35):
But we'll get into that in a bit.

Speaker 2 (22:40):
A couple of things we should hit on, Micah, and
I know you've got some fight announcements real quick because
we can't ignore it. But we won't spend a lot
of time on it because we have the last several weeks.
Another week has gone by, Still no announcement of a
heavyweight title fight John Jones, Tom aspinall, and we're probably
not getting that announcement anytime soon.

Speaker 1 (22:59):
Again, we don't have to club this one over the head.

Speaker 2 (23:02):
But if we're sitting on the edge of our seat
she just waiting for that announcement, we should probably slide back,
lean back in the seat a little bit, find something
else to occupy our time because it doesn't seem like
that announcement's coming anytime soon.

Speaker 3 (23:18):
Didn't have the quote directly in front of me, but
I think Tom Asminal is pretty sure that his next
title fight will be an interim BMF title fight. That
my man is out there working. I don't know if
if he does know or doesn't know what's going on.
I'd really like the UFC's input in this, because there

(23:39):
is the thought and people have brought it up. Why
not strip John Jones? And I'm behind that if the
UFC wants to do it. I just need to hear
the UFC say where they're at on this. I think
most of us talking hats have weighed in on what
should happen, well, what happened? How unfair this is the
Tom Asminal on his prime, the heavyweight division, the necessity

(24:00):
of a big time pay per view market. Just having
the heavyweight title defended seems to be a need. But
I think the biggest need is for Hunter Dana, somebody
of that status to tell us their feeling on what
John Jones is doing right now.

Speaker 2 (24:17):
I wonder, Mike, if the state of the heavyweight division
was just a little bit better right now, that, yeah,
they'd be more apt to seriously consider stripping John Jones.

Speaker 1 (24:30):
So, hey, look the nothing I'm against.

Speaker 2 (24:33):
As a matter of fact, I think I advocated hard
for it last week. But let's say you do that,
all right, This ain't fair to Tom. He's had this
interim title forever. He needs a time of all right,
So you strip John Jones, you're doing aspinall gone for
the vacant title or are you just making aspenall the
champ and having his first real defense it surreal?

Speaker 1 (24:55):
Gone?

Speaker 2 (24:56):
And I'm not knocking any of these fighters, but gone,
Alexander Volkov Pavlovich. I mean, I if there was something
more exciting you could do by stripping John Jones, I
think they would more seriously consider it. As long as
that Carrot's dangling and as long as you feel at

(25:18):
some point this fight's going to get made with what
your other options are. I think that's probably the biggest
reason why they don't seem, at least publicly, to have
any interest in stripping John of the title.

Speaker 3 (25:33):
Another big question which Johnson fighting Tom. John's in Thailand.
We can get to that here in a moment. Palm's
in the UK. The UFC is still moving and do
we know what the hurdle is in making this fight?
What is the snag? Do you think it's location? Is

(25:56):
it date? Is it injury? What could be holding this
thing up so much? Besides I mean, is John Jones
really scared of fighting Tom? Aspitcal Why do you think
could be holding this up?

Speaker 2 (26:12):
I don't think John's scared of anybody per se, but
there could be something to John looks at this fight
as a less than opponent, and me winning other than
just shutting some mouthedy social media fans up, isn't going
to do a lot.

Speaker 1 (26:29):
For my legacy.

Speaker 2 (26:31):
I suppose it's possible there's some sort of injury, but
I feel like John's always been pretty upfront about injuries
and stuff. But look, John said in the past. I
won't six months for this fight. I've got this other
stuff I want to do. I'm gonna do this Russian
Ultimate Fighter thing in Thailand since the other coach left.
I don't know what the hell's up with that these days.

(26:53):
I'm assuming it's still going forward. But so I can't
completely answer your question, and it could be a little
bit of all those things, but I don't.

Speaker 1 (27:03):
Think it's any one of those things, if that makes sense.

Speaker 3 (27:08):
My best speculation is that they cannot see eye to
eye on the financial terms of this fight. I think
that the last thing we heard from John Jones publicly
was again that you need to back of damn truck up,
give me that fu fucked you money. And I don't
think that is the offer coming from the UFC. And

(27:29):
if financial terms are what is negating this fight from happening,
I don't think any of us have a right to
talk about any of it. It is John Jones prerogative
to fight for the amount that he feels he is worth,
and like you said, at that point, the UFC sed
to strip his damnass so they could keep this going.
If he's not willing to fight for what they're only

(27:51):
willing to offer, and I think they are both right
in that standpoint. Offer what you're gonna offer, and take
what you feel you were really worth.

Speaker 2 (27:58):
I think money is probably the least of the issues here.

Speaker 1 (28:01):
Now. I'm not saying that that there's not.

Speaker 2 (28:03):
A gap, because there could very well be, and most
of the time when we're talking about these situations, it
does come down to money. But Dana White is nothing
if not a shrewd negotiator and keeping cards close to
the vest. If they were that far apart on money,
Dana ain't spending it now, and to be fair, he

(28:26):
hasn't done in a couple of months. But Dana's not
spending fifteen minutes at a postfight press conference arguing with
himself about how John Jones is the pound for pound
best fighter in the world and he's the greatest thing
ever and anybody who thinks otherwise is an Idiot's Now,
he may not be trashing John, but he's gonna low
key how great John is, because the more you say publicly,

(28:47):
the more the negotiation favors John. I don't see Danas
sabotaging negotiations intentionally or unintentionally by going on and on
and on about how great John is. Does that mean
money He's not a factor. Money's always a factor, And
even if there's other issues that are bigger, those issues

(29:10):
could be fixed with more money, right, So yeah, I'm
not discounting you.

Speaker 1 (29:14):
I just don't think money is the issue.

Speaker 2 (29:16):
But it's also it'd be very foolish to say it's
never an issue.

Speaker 1 (29:21):
Because it is always.

Speaker 2 (29:23):
Even when you've agreed on terms, money's still an issue
because you all, there's no fighter that says no, no, no,
this is a more than generous offer.

Speaker 1 (29:31):
Give me less.

Speaker 2 (29:33):
Even if they say a fighter says this is what
I want and they say yes, then all of a
sudden you're like, shit, I should have asked for more money.
I need to come up with some other issues to
get them to throw more money at me. So, yeah,
money could play a role. I think it's more of
John wants to train for a certain period of time.
I think he knows he's going to have to do
this fight unless he's retiring, But it's not something that

(29:57):
excites him really legacy wise, and honestly, the longer you
draw it out, the more interest is going to build
from fans, and conversely, maybe makes it a little more
exciting for John because the more you dangle the carrot
in front of the fans and the more they want
this fight, then it does maybe become a little bigger

(30:17):
for John's legacy because you're building up aspinall to be
more than he is by not even fighting it and
just everybody demanding.

Speaker 1 (30:26):
All you're screwing time, You're screwing time.

Speaker 2 (30:29):
He's got to get given the title fight, unify the titles,
or strip John. A lot of this is probably nothing
more than very shrewd promotion.

Speaker 1 (30:38):
By doing nothing.

Speaker 3 (30:41):
You could sell me on we saw John Jones surreal
gone in Las Vegas, and I could be sold on.
Dana White thought we got away with one. Maybe even
something did happen that time. We're not bringing John Jones
back to Vegas. They've always been a way to a year.

(31:01):
They were always going to wait a year, so they
returned to Madison Square Garden. It was just always gonna
happen that way. Also, I lean towards the money thing,
because unless you really knew it was gonna be a year,
why else do you go coach a weird Russian reality
show across from Nate Diaz in Island. Besides for money

(31:24):
one and two. If you're the UFC and you get
when that these guys would even entertain working together on
a reality show. I fired DC and chall Sutton asap
and we have them are Ultimate Fighter Show.

Speaker 2 (31:43):
All fair questions and all fair points. I think let's
assume you're right. The plan was always going to be
we're not doing this fight until we're back in MSG.
And look, you may very well be right on that.
That's actually very sound. All right, well, how are we
going to keep dragging this out? You got to keep

(32:04):
it in the headlines because you don't want the fans
to fall asleep. So all right, John's interested in doing this,
let's nudge him that way, and then people will get
talking about, well, John's.

Speaker 1 (32:17):
Ditching Tom, he's ducking Tom. He doesn't want to fight Tom.
Why aren't we getting this fight? So again, the hype
for the fight builds.

Speaker 2 (32:25):
By not doing anything getting closer to the fight. It's
actually very shrewd free publicity. And if everybody deep down
knows what's going on in help, maybe even Tom knows
what's going on and he's just playing koy.

Speaker 1 (32:42):
Because this is how you build more interest.

Speaker 2 (32:44):
You don't just say all right, it ain't happening until
November in MSG.

Speaker 1 (32:49):
Whenever they're back in MSG. I'm not even sure off
the top of my head.

Speaker 2 (32:52):
But right so, everybody just sits back and doesn't talk
about it, and then you have to start building interest.
It's ready to fight. Everybody wants to see, really the
only fight to make it in the heavyweight division. Right now,
Let's dangle that carrot and then pull it away or
move forward and make you take two more steps to
reach for the carrot, and then we jerk it away
again and make you take three steps. It is also

(33:16):
entirely possible that this is nothing more than we know
when we're gonna do it. We just ain't telling everybody
because the more you talk about it, the more people
want to see it.

Speaker 1 (33:25):
And when we finally do announce.

Speaker 2 (33:27):
It and put tickets on sale, we're going to sell
it out in no time. And then people are going
to be dropping their pay per view money like it's
going out of style just to see this fight. So
you're really building more interest in it by continually moving
the carrot, if you will.

Speaker 3 (33:45):
I don't really want to compare in UFC to MMA,
but I want to believe that you can look at
what Turkey Alokesh has done. The You Sick Fury one
build up and the Bivol Better BF one build up,
those were huge. The rematches the build up was not
so big. They dropped these movies that were the incredible commercials,

(34:07):
like Fight Week to remind everybody that happened. But they
had the first event and because they had the automatic
rematch clause, basically those nights they were announcing when the
rematch was, so it seemed like from the end of
the first night to the rematch, all promotion was done.
This has been the opposite of that. We didn't announce

(34:29):
when the fight was even though we know it, and
now we're able to keep you begging for it and
keep it fresh in your minds versus it's booked and
it's an afterthought.

Speaker 2 (34:41):
We just said we were going to spend a lot
of time talking about Jones aspin on.

Speaker 1 (34:44):
We just spent ten minutes. Maybe maybe we'll move on now.

Speaker 3 (34:49):
Real quick. We do have PFL in July editions AJ McKee,
Ahmed Magametov and Corey Anderson goes to Heavyweight versus Dennis
go Those were your PFL fight announcements.

Speaker 2 (35:02):
Oh see now PFL trying to show me how it
was worth it by BELITORI, well, we're gonna fight Cory
Anderson now after all, Okay, I got youa what.

Speaker 1 (35:10):
Other fight announcements have you got, Micah?

Speaker 3 (35:13):
And on the UFC side, we have the debut of
a Swede with a name that made me take a
second glance because it's Andreas gustuson Okay. I almost was like,
did that say alex O the way? Okay? Andrea Ascus Okay,
all right, all right taking on Trevan Giles. That's May

(35:33):
thirty first, June four, eighteenth in Atlanta, Philip Rowe versus
and Loosa. We also get Paul Craig versus Rodolfo Balato
rebooked for the fin Nite in Atlanta. UFC Baku on
Juke twenty first, we have Cejoin Okay taking on Oben

(35:55):
Elliott and mutabk or Obayev welcoming to FEKF to the UFC.
Whusaphai if you might have seen in Bellatore and in
the PFL, he was probably featured in both seasons last
lightweight tournaments. Terence mckenne versus Lava Bortchev is added to

(36:16):
the UFC three seventeen card. At Adabet Gutier and Roberto
Volentine have been added to the July twelfth card. UFC's
three eighteen on July nineteenth, that's Jimmy Crue versus Marcine
Procneo and Carly Judas versus Nicole Harley. Also Kyler Phillips

(36:39):
versus Venisius Olavera Are ranking in the weldweight division is
on the line, and that one August second we get
Nick Klein, Andre Pouuleva and a huge one. I really
like this one. Interesting matchup. August ninth, UFC Fight Night
in Vegas, Anthony Hernandez is gonna fight down against Roman

(37:01):
the lead saying you also get Isla Lucianda versus Angela
Hill and Eric Andrews versus Chris Leroy Duncan on that card. Plus,
the UFC three to nineteen card has announced Tim Elliott
Hi Asakora. I know we had commented before and speculated
that possibly Asacora could have been one and done in

(37:23):
the UFC, but he does look to have a second run,
and I think this might actually be the second opponent
he's on for this date.

Speaker 2 (37:31):
Interesting interesting U morobdlash Philly is Sean O'Malley coming up
next week. Morob, as he has been known to do,
took to social media showing off his latest injuries leading
into a fight. This one a gnarly looking toe injury.
I know this is something Mike gat that Dana White's

(37:53):
been a little critical of Morob about in the past.
Why does Morob feel this knee to let everybody know
going into a fight what his injuries are.

Speaker 3 (38:05):
Be different, be unique, be honest to yourself, don't be
like everybody else. Not everyone is TJ. Dillashaw one wing
walking in, not everyone will. We'll go in already injured,
and then afterwards said I did it for the money,
like O'Malley. I mean, marab Duwalish Philly tells you I'm
the walkt wounded and this is the way life is.

(38:27):
I can understand from a promoter's perspective that that is
a nightmare and that is not the object that we
want to be portraying. But marau Duwalish Philly from you know,
stealing a man's coat and donning it himself to smacking
more asses than I think I have in my entire life,
and that is just on his championship celebration parade. I

(38:51):
think he does it the Morab way.

Speaker 1 (38:53):
And look, I'm not going to be too critical of it.

Speaker 2 (38:55):
Because we all hate when we find out after a fight,
well almost out.

Speaker 1 (39:00):
Because I had this and I went in and I
just gave it my all. We all hate that.

Speaker 2 (39:05):
Or we see fighters with the gnarly staff infection soars and.

Speaker 1 (39:10):
Whatnot, like oh no, no, no, I'm fine, I'm fine.

Speaker 2 (39:13):
At some point during that fight week weigh ends, if
nothing else before, somebody's gonna notice, damn Rob's foots fucked up, right,
But there is also that oh, let's not tell my
opponent all my damn injuries so they know what to
go for. This one would have probably been known anyway
but before the fight.

Speaker 1 (39:35):
But I do think it's a.

Speaker 2 (39:36):
Fine line and shutting up and not telling everybody your injuries,
but also not going out of your way to be secretive.

Speaker 1 (39:44):
When you should have pulled out.

Speaker 2 (39:45):
Now, I don't think Morob has any inclination desire to
pull out of this fight, and it certainly seems he's
not going to.

Speaker 1 (39:53):
But yeah, it is kind of a fine line, isn't it.

Speaker 3 (39:57):
There's the fine line. I mean, it's not like he's
emulating the necessity to pull out a handgun to use
for self defense against tight downs. I mean that seems
like it's an absurd over exaggeration from Barana fight. I mean,
no one's that crude. Oh you didn't see Seana Malley's

(40:18):
video the other day.

Speaker 1 (40:19):
I don't go out of my way to watch seannam
Malley videos. Now.

Speaker 3 (40:23):
Yeah, literally, uh, sprawling brawling with a handgun in one hand.

Speaker 1 (40:28):
Well, I mean, you know, if you want to work
on your your weekend, you.

Speaker 2 (40:32):
Put something in your dominant hand and that forces you
to use the weekend.

Speaker 3 (40:37):
I think it's more that's literally what he's gonna need
to stop morap. That kind of stopping power is what
he's gonna need.

Speaker 2 (40:43):
Yeah, yeah, no, no, no, no, I yeah, I'm sure
that's not what he was doing, but yeah, you're you're
probably closer to it to being right.

Speaker 1 (40:50):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (40:50):
We mentioned Nate Diaz earlier Micah apparently walking off of
The Ultimate Fighter or Russia Show whatever whatever, or he
was coaching John Jones. Nate also says he's ready to
come back to UFC if there's a fight there for him.
He's also gone out of his way to talk shite
go about bo Nicol Justin Gatchee and this new generation

(41:14):
of fighters. He says he's done it fifty five, but
he'll fight at one seventy. He'll even go up to
one eighty five. I think there's a place for an
ideas in UFC in twenty twenty five. Certainly, should everything align,
everyone would love to see that that third McGregor fight,
and maybe we get there at some point, maybe we don't.

Speaker 1 (41:38):
But what do you think.

Speaker 2 (41:38):
About the news that Na Diaz is interested in a
return to the UFC.

Speaker 3 (41:45):
Beautiful news, wonderful news, a reality show that I guess
my only thought process is I wish that we would
have had Jones Dias on that show before Sterling Yon.
Just the fact that Diaz could have got to this
epiphany quicker and then the place that he was needed,

(42:06):
the spot that should have been his, would have been his.
Because as much as we want McGregor versus Diaz, and
that's a great carrot, it out there and we can
make that anytime. The Smoothe King Center, the Dustin Ployer
retirement fight, a welterweight fight long talked about, We talked
about a one sixty five. Could this be the start

(42:28):
of the super lightweight division or was that the original
pot for the BMF title fight? Dustin Ployer Nate Diaz
would have been the best fight to headline the pay
per view in New Orleans. I'm sad we're not getting
that one because that would have been the best spot
for him in my impression, justin Gachee not a bad

(42:51):
second place because I don't know, and you maybe may
like this idea, but Ian Gary Nate Diaz just doesn't
do anything for me at this point.

Speaker 1 (43:01):
I don't think it does anything for Nate. Yeah, I
would agree with you on that.

Speaker 2 (43:08):
It honestly doesn't help Gary either because he's looking up
in no disrespect to Nate Diaz whatsoever, But as far
as getting Ian Gary where he wants to go, I
don't think that really helps him.

Speaker 1 (43:21):
So yeah, I would actually agree with you on that.

Speaker 3 (43:25):
Who are there any names that we're missing? Like, I
don't even know if there's a real welterweight. I got
one name and this is just me pulling out straws.
I don't know if there's a welterweight on the roster
that i'd really want to see Nadaz fight, But I'll
throw one at you Carlos practice. Okay, I don't know

(43:46):
if there's anybody else that would just be inviting enough
to stand Tobay Bang to trade to appropriately hype up
the fight. I don't think the Covington hype would be fun,
but I don't know if the fight does anything. I
don't know if the usman chemistry would be right with Diaz,
and a lot of the guys that are ascending are

(44:06):
too young to really be a compelling name versus Diaz.
Is there a fight that we haven't mentioned that you'd
want to.

Speaker 2 (44:14):
See, Well, it's one that Nate threw out, which is interesting,
I think, But Max Holloway, I think that would be
a fun fight. Now you're obviously not doing based on
Nate's words, You're not doing that at one fifty five.
You could do that at one seventy. Look where Nate
Diaz is at now, at this point in his career.

(44:36):
You're looking at making fun fights, and I do think
there are some of those out there. Geychie would be
one if g was willing to go to one seventy.
And yeah, again, you're always should McGregor ever come back,

(44:56):
That fight is always there. You don't have to call
for it. You don't have to dangle that carrot. Like
we were talking earlier. That's always gonna be top of
mind for everyone. But there's no guarantees that fight ever happens,
because we don't know the Connors ever coming back. And
you know, there are other fun fights you can make
out there. Bo Nickel might would be interesting, although I

(45:22):
don't know what that does for Bo. But if you're Nate,
you're looking like, all right, he ain't gonna wrestle f me,
and he probably also ain't gonna bust my scar tissue
open thirty seconds into the fight. So I'll take my
chances on the wrestler. And maybe that's a good idea
by him, maybe it's not, But I could see why

(45:43):
he would go out of his way to talk a
little smack to bow Nickel see if he could drum
up some interest there. I do think there's some possibilities.
I don't hate you. You said protests, right, I don't
hate that fight at all. I think that that would
be a lot of fun as well. There are definitely
fights you can make. Nate Diaz an UFC can.

Speaker 1 (46:00):
Still make money off of each other in twenty twenty five.
No doubt about it.

Speaker 3 (46:06):
I would not have ever thought about a bow nickel fright,
Nate Diaz if he was not calling for it. And
as bo is, like nine fights in getting his feet wet,
just looked not great against our dr. I think we're

(46:28):
just having a couple of beers and chuckling about that one.
I think we're not really entertaining that fight. I don't know,
I don't know. I don't like that one. There's just
a whole lot not to light there and to just
get all focused by Yeah, Tapoori.

Speaker 2 (46:43):
It was another name that Nate is so interesting, that
Nate like I've done it one fifty five and he
calls out all these one fifty fivers, but he acknowledged
that Tabori is smaller than me and I ain't going
back and one fifty five, So that one probably is
not gonna happen.

Speaker 1 (46:59):
And honestly, Ti Poria is looking to win titles.

Speaker 2 (47:01):
Right now, so even if that was something that interested Elia,
that one probably not happening either.

Speaker 1 (47:11):
Like I said, he did mention Holloway.

Speaker 2 (47:14):
I could see that and depending on how things play out,
and maybe there's that BMF belts on the line again,
who knows, But yeah, overall that there definitely fights you
can mate with with Nadez.

Speaker 3 (47:27):
There are definitely fights you can make when Atis. I
just it's a little long in the tooth. I mean,
where to him begging lightweights to go to Walter wait
because he doesn't want to make way. Maybe a couple welterweights.
It's a U and it's a dwindling name once, it's
a dwindling list of names once dust employer retires. If

(47:51):
that does go through, I mean, then there's one less
name on the list. So it's good, but it's a
move I wish you could have came to like a
year ago.

Speaker 1 (48:00):
Yeah, look, here's what you're doing, man. I think you're
you're planting the seeds. Whether it's after.

Speaker 2 (48:07):
The new TV deals announced and all of a sudden
Connor seems a lot more interested in fighting, or whether
it's when TKO boxing really gets up and going and
Connor's like, well, I don't know if I can.

Speaker 1 (48:22):
Fight anymore, but I can damn sure box.

Speaker 2 (48:26):
I think ultimately what you're doing not that DS or hell,
maybe even McGregor for that matter, won't have a fight before,
but you're starting to lay the groundwork for that third
McGregor DS fight, whether it's a UFC fight or a
TKO boxing.

Speaker 3 (48:40):
Fight, got to take a long, deep breath and exalt
for gonna get back on that roller coaster.

Speaker 1 (48:46):
Not really, it's a very easy jump.

Speaker 2 (48:50):
I mean, whether you like it or not, no matter
what you think about TKO boxing, one of your first
big cards and you hypothetically you're throwing mcg and Diaz
in a boxing man.

Speaker 1 (49:02):
I mean, I I'm not saying I'm clamoring for it,
but it ain't that hard to imagine.

Speaker 3 (49:07):
Well, well, one thing, it's not that hard to imagine,
but also how sure are we that everything is swimming
in still the world of TKO boxing. Dana White has
been adamant about his unliking, we'll call it disdain, this
pleasure of big stadium events, and now appears that after

(49:31):
Perky said that Dana why would be the promoter of
record for Canello Crawford and it was going to go
in Vegas the day before the Guadalajara UFC No Che card,
that's not the case anymore, different promoter. It's still big venue,
different city though though to prior commitments for Allegiance Stadium

(49:54):
and not as much talk about Dana White. Do you
think he Ko boxing in the state that it was
proposed to us with those three gentlemen still gets launched
in that vision.

Speaker 2 (50:11):
Yes, But if the answer is no, ultimately, I don't
think Dana's.

Speaker 1 (50:16):
The odd man out. And maybe I'm wrong on that,
but too, if you're.

Speaker 2 (50:26):
If you're TK, if your endeavor, if you want to
do this, Dana's the only one you have to have now,
depending on your grand ideas, maybe their reasons to have
the others, but.

Speaker 1 (50:45):
Dana's the only one you need.

Speaker 2 (50:46):
And while I think Dana fights tooth and nail on
the stadium shows UFC wise, he's probably at some point
with the boxing, if you're doing big fights like this,
going to have to relent and just accept the fact
that we're gonna have to do a stadium for some
of these boxing. I also, other than a few of

(51:08):
these one off events, I don't think.

Speaker 1 (51:10):
That's what Tiko boxing is gonna be about.

Speaker 2 (51:12):
Anyway, though, I think it is going to be more
of an arena sized thing. But yeah, I don't think
Dana wavering on that at all.

Speaker 1 (51:21):
But there's also.

Speaker 2 (51:24):
Sometimes that with the boxing side, if you're gonna be
doing a Canelo fight things like that that you're going
to have to relent on that one.

Speaker 3 (51:35):
I had seen unboxing acts that people I pointed out, well,
didn't Turkey at some point say hey, I'm gonna stop
making announcements. We're gonna have Dana being the guy at
the head making announcements and Turkey can't help himself and
make announcements, And just kind of speculating, could there be
holes in that relationship and maybe all three parties aren't

(51:58):
seeing eye eye. So I question if what we were
pitched exactly, not Dana getting involved, not Turkey doing his
own crazy thing, they might end up being two different things.
But I wonder if we ever get what was there pitched,
And I don't know then how that affects the possibility
of a Das McGregor, Like if we got TKO boxing
and it all goes swimmingly. I don't know if that

(52:21):
increases or decreases the chance. Maybe heck, it decreases the
chance because Turkey's money had all these boxers and now
if it is just a nit con Dana White thing,
maybe that does increase a ds McGregor in the ring possibility,
because now it's like, shit, this is our ready made,
already connected guys that we have to launch our first event.

(52:43):
I don't know if either one of those crazy theories
sound good to you.

Speaker 2 (52:46):
Well, if Dana ain't involved, Connor won't be there either. Hey,
not because Connor is gonna stand by his man, but
because Dana ain't gonna let him out of his you know,
gonna let him go fight.

Speaker 1 (52:58):
He's still under contract UFC. I'm not involved in this.
Hell no, you're not boxing, so we'll see.

Speaker 2 (53:06):
But yeah, I think look your eyes, Turcky's always going
to be talking out of his ass.

Speaker 1 (53:13):
That's just the way that's going to be.

Speaker 2 (53:15):
And you kinda have to say look to a certainly
a lesser degree, they think it's accused of that saying thing,
you know, So I mean it is what it is.

Speaker 1 (53:26):
I think everything's fine.

Speaker 2 (53:28):
I don't think anybody's shocked by talking out of the
ass and things like that. I think the more shocking
thing would be if there wasn't. But my guess is
everything's fine.

Speaker 3 (53:40):
The Nate Diaz waste some of the biggest years of
his most value, the earning potential on the sidelines.

Speaker 2 (53:50):
I'm gonna say no, because I see I totally get
where you're coming from. But here's why I say no,
he did get the Paul Brother fight in boxing. Now,
getting his money is another thing. But other than the
dangling carrot of McGregor at some point, which we're not

(54:11):
any closer to now than we were two years ago
after his last UFC fight or whenever it was, how
many people were there for him to fight and draw
interest that aren't there now now. Obviously you got, you know,
some retirements and stuff coming up, but all those fights

(54:32):
are still there. Also, the old theory absence mates the
heart grow fonder, kind of like we talked a little
bit about with the Jones Aspenhall stuff. The legend of
Nate Diez has grown in his time away from UFC,
whereas if he had taken a couple of losses. Maybe,
while I'm not exactly comparing the two, maybe you're looking

(54:54):
more at him from the Tony Ferguson Lenz than you
are from the legend who went out boxed the Paul
Brother and has done some other stuff here and there.

Speaker 1 (55:04):
But the myth continues to.

Speaker 3 (55:05):
Grow lost to a Paul Brother in box.

Speaker 1 (55:10):
I understand, I understand, and.

Speaker 3 (55:12):
Not to mention, I know that we've talked about. I
was trying to think about how long we've talked about
they can do to the Conor McGregor trilogy fight.

Speaker 1 (55:22):
In March.

Speaker 3 (55:23):
It's gonna be a decade. I know, it's gonna be
a decade that we've been talking about this. And it's
not just long in the tooth. It's not just the
carrot that's been proverbially danging forever, Scott. They will not
resemble the fighters in the highlight packages that are in

(55:45):
lead up. That for me is gonna be probably the
most just disappointing part of it. The older dias, the
injured leg of McGregor.

Speaker 2 (55:54):
Right, But look if they had done this fight the
five years ago, not gonna resemble those two guys either.

Speaker 1 (56:02):
Now you're pre broken.

Speaker 2 (56:06):
Yeah no, I know, I know, I know, but and
and look, this is gonna be the case for McGregor
whether he comes back and has an m M A
fight UFC or a boxing match for for t k
O boxing, And that is something you have to work around.

Speaker 1 (56:22):
But you're building off.

Speaker 2 (56:23):
The name and notoriety kind of along the same lines
of whenever Floyd Mayweather gets a wild hair and is
ready to have another exhibition and get paid stupid money
and and all that. And you can do that once
for McGregor Diaz, and that's probably all they're really looking for.

(56:44):
Unless you're gonna do MMA and then say f it, now,
let's run it back in a boxing ring. Maybe you
could milk two out of it, depending on But yeah,
I mean, you're you're not looking at fights four and
five between these two guys.

Speaker 1 (57:00):
For sure.

Speaker 2 (57:00):
You're gonna do it one more time and whatever happens happens,
and then you're moving on.

Speaker 3 (57:05):
Okay, different topic. I have never wanted to see fights
four and five of any saga, no thing.

Speaker 1 (57:13):
No, of course. But look, Nate Diaz is the biggest name.

Speaker 2 (57:17):
I mean, excuse me, Connor McGregor is the biggest name
you have at this point in McGregor, unless he comes
back rested, rejuvenated, that bionic leg with the metal rod
and all that is superhuman, you're limited in what you're
doing with him anyway.

Speaker 1 (57:35):
So you got to have a dance partner.

Speaker 2 (57:38):
When we talked about Diaz leaving money on the table
and all that, and I brought.

Speaker 1 (57:42):
Up dance partners.

Speaker 2 (57:44):
Dance partners are even less for Connor McGregor and Nate's
the one dance partner that that's going to be guaranteed
to draw interest, even if it is ten years later.
And you're not wrong on that, even if they look
drastically different, even if they wind up being complete shells
of their former selves, there's not another name from the

(58:05):
MMA world for Connor McGregor that's going to draw more
interest than Nate Diz. Even that that long elusive Michael
Chandler fight ain't gonna draw anywhere near the interest. So
that's why that one is always gonna be your dangling carrot.

Speaker 1 (58:22):
That's why I think it's more likely than not we
get it, although it's certainly possible we don't get it
as well.

Speaker 3 (58:29):
Okay, bad prediction. Time Nadaz returns and he has two
fights justin Gaetchee, Max Holloway, Conor McGregor still never comes
back for I don't know what reason. You could put
anything out there and say it just doesn't work out.

Speaker 2 (58:47):
Very possible, and then at that point, Nate's gonna take
us two fights right off in the sunset if he
has a desire to do it. Look, I don't think
he had his Paul Brother fight. I don't know that
Nate has any desire to box again unless that's the
only way you're getting Connor, And at that point in time,
I'm sure he's got all the interest in the world

(59:08):
in it. But yeah, you've at that point under that scenario,
which is very possible, you're looking at those two fights
and then Nate's riding off in the sunset. Yeah, we
got UFC Fight Night this weekend, Michael Whyna say we
got this weekend.

Speaker 3 (59:25):
We got UFC Fight Night this weekend, and we also
have from Jacksonville a bk B event. You're gonna be
seeing Jared Grant in the main event. It's a inter
room I believe they call it lightweight. I think that's
a one hundred and thirty pound terminology and traditional boxing.

(59:49):
So an interim lightweight title fight where Jared Grant, former
BKFC titleist, is gonna be taking on Rwanda Abu, who
was he was a Dutchman fighting out of Norway. Want
to know a big knockout victory. MBKB, you get the

(01:00:13):
son of a legend, Roberto Doran Junior in a title
eliminator versus Rolando die Former heavyweight champion DJ Linderman is
also on the card. Real quick notes for the news
for the locals. On that one, Cody East is going
to be dropping down two hundred and twenty pounds to
take on Jerome Hatch. That one's going to be happening

(01:00:37):
at the July twelfth card in Nashville. So someone gets
knocked out violently in that one. And that's it really
for this weekend, unless you want to check out the
plethora of fight Pass friends.

Speaker 2 (01:00:51):
No UFC fight night at the Apex this weekend. Like
we talked about earlier, pair of top five women's flyweights
before Aaron Blanchfield takes out number five Macy.

Speaker 1 (01:01:02):
Barber in the main event, and that should.

Speaker 3 (01:01:05):
Be a really fun fight, we wonder, and I'm hopeful.
I believe that it's gonna be a fun fight. We
did get the question, though, how does Macy Barber look
because it's been a while. It's six fight win streak,
all of that ascension, but it was a while. Caitlin Schakegian,

(01:01:26):
if you look it up on the records, you're gonna
look at the last name Seerman and you're gonna be like,
who's that. It's the former Shakegian who got married. And
I want to say it's two years away. I want
to believe it was twenty twenty three the last time
that uh or was it twenty twenty four?

Speaker 2 (01:01:41):
It was It's just over a year ago, March of
twenty twenty four, But yeah, it's still been a long time.

Speaker 1 (01:01:46):
Your point's still valid, but yeah, it was just twenty
twenty four.

Speaker 3 (01:01:49):
And a bit more active. Aaron Blanchefield too, again not
to shit on the wind streak of Maverick de la Rosa,
I Lee shake and hebos Blanchfield's coming off of beating
rosemam Unis and she beat Onrodge and Talia Santos and
we already had that. Did Santos beat Sheevchenko? Argument the

(01:02:12):
one losses to Manor Fjord, There's just a different level
of competition and this is gonna be the first chance
and it's coming off of the injury that Macy Barber
tastes this now on paper, Macy Barber I feel like
is the more aggressive, more well rounded striker. But we
saw how Blanchfield was is able to push back use
her physicality against Nommunist. I haven't looked at the betting line,

(01:02:35):
but I'm expecting that we get a slight edge in
the favorite for Blanchefield, even though her best attribute is
taking it to the ground, and Barber has a family
that owns a jiujutsu gym and has been on those
mats all her life.

Speaker 2 (01:02:51):
Blanchfield's actually a pretty significant, significant favorite. She's minus two
forty five, Barber's plus two hundred.

Speaker 1 (01:02:57):
Let me ask you this, Mike four, And in the.

Speaker 2 (01:03:00):
Rankings, can the winner of this fight legitimately call next
against Valentina Schifshenko.

Speaker 1 (01:03:07):
You look immediately above.

Speaker 2 (01:03:09):
Them in the rankings Grasa at three, Fjord at two.
I think, yes, you leap frog both of them based
on recent history, but you still got Natalia Silva sitting
there at number one. Can Blanchefield or Barber legitimately leap
frog Silva.

Speaker 3 (01:03:31):
If Macy Barber blows the doors off Aaron Blanchefield and
it's some craziness. I want to say a seven fight
win streak makes it possible, but I really want to
tell you that way. Lee already pushes everybody. Yeah, right,
that super fight needs to happen, and the winner here

(01:03:51):
is seeing if the UFC wants them to fight Silva.
That's that's the best upside. I think we're gonna get
a Natalie Silva Aaron Blanchfield fight. Though I think that
Aaron Blanchefield has been more consistently evolving, and that's not
too hugely not Barber. I just think there's more evolvements

(01:04:14):
consistently on the Blanchefield side. Not to mention there's a
bit of an injury propensity from Barber.

Speaker 2 (01:04:21):
Yep, and yeah, Barber currently six fight win streak I
went on Saturday, would make it seven in a row.
Your co main event lightweights my two scam Rock versus
Ludwig Klein.

Speaker 1 (01:04:33):
I think this will be a fun one.

Speaker 2 (01:04:34):
Is I hate to call every fight a fun fight,
but this should be a really fun fight as well.

Speaker 3 (01:04:39):
I like this one most on the car. This is
my pick for like my favorite fight that we see scheduled.
Do we have a slight favoriteing Gamro? Is he a
big favorite? What are we looking at on those betting lines,
because I would have this one as almost a pick them.

Speaker 1 (01:04:53):
Yeah. Gamrock's minus one eighty t line is plus one fifty.

Speaker 3 (01:04:57):
So we're not getting too crazy there. You give Gamroth
the respect again. Guys like RDA Physise, Jalen Turner, Dan Hooker,
he's been in there with the big names Klein. He's
got some great wins, though he's deserved this. Unbeaten in
his last seven beat the Brakes off of Roosevelt Roberts,
who is high on Thiago Moyses, very similar games. I

(01:05:19):
think that there's a very specific record Roman wrestling that
Gamroth is able to implement. And I don't think that
he packs enough power behind his punches, is the biggest
problem with him. So we'll see, because I think that
client is actually a little more physical, so I might
be inclined to go with the underdog there, but he
is a really high level, incredible bout.

Speaker 1 (01:05:42):
Yeah, what else to you?

Speaker 3 (01:05:43):
Yeah? The feature fight giving well, I have this totally
out at order, but fromz Brahema versus Billy ray Goff
sticks out to me because I think that they want
to see what golf can do. Seven knockass line wins.
He won his day, he lost a fight, then had
a big knockout, or maybe I got that backwards. Won

(01:06:04):
the debut and then had a loss. So we're looking
to see what kind of prospect we have in him.
Because Brahima is a tough His leather real measuring stick,
so that's interesting. Same thing the light heavyweight division, where
Bruno Lopez goes against Justin Jacoby. Jacoby an incredible striker,
Lopez a three fight win streak coming in on his debut.

(01:06:25):
I love to see where the veterans tack up against
these young guys, so both of them stick out to
me if you like the jiu jitsu. Alan Nassimento fifteen
submission wins halfil Filo two and zero in the uf
or two and one in the UFC. He lost more
to Mukaev, who's begging to get back into the UFC,

(01:06:46):
has fifteen finishes, ten of them by submissions, including putting
a RNC on Oday Osborne, so that one really jumps
out to me. Caitlin Vieira Macy chasone flying under the
radar chase soon though, beat Myron Buenos Sosa also got
the split decision over Dumont one three to four. If

(01:07:09):
there's gonna be anybody after we get through Nunez coming
back and Harrison Chason might find herself in a really
big predicament, so that's a one that means a lot
to her. I think that you got a couple people
fighting for their jobs here. Also, so Kurt Hallaba and

(01:07:31):
the Raiana Desantos, Alice Ardaline fight all of them with
a lot on the line here. Not to mention Marcel
Mineros versus Blaggio Oki. Something's got to give there. Both
think that they're alpha finishers. So that's a lightweight who's
gonna get a little bit of an ego.

Speaker 2 (01:07:52):
Check Prelam six pm Eastern Time, ESPN and ESPN plus
your main card ninety ESPN, ESPN plus anything else before.

Speaker 1 (01:08:03):
We get out of here.

Speaker 3 (01:08:04):
Micah and I might have understated it, but low key
a lot of really good submission artists on this UFC
Fight Night card, So don't be surprised if you see
a lot of club and subs, a lot of getting
right at the grappling. If we're seeing finishes, I'm looking
at chokes and arm bars. I feel like that's what
we have the propensity for. More than not.

Speaker 1 (01:08:24):
Tell everybody how they can keep up with you.

Speaker 3 (01:08:27):
Cageminds dot com all week will be getting ready for
BKFC seventy five next Friday night, the night before the
UFC cards we get the separate nights for the big events.
We're gonna have a bunch of interviews over at cageminds
dot com, cage Minds Combat Sports News on Facebook and YouTube.

(01:08:47):
It's cage Minds Underscore CSN on x, TikTok and Instagram.
That's the other one.

Speaker 2 (01:08:57):
Get the show on X at MMA After Hours. You
can get me at Real Mike Carlisle. We will talk
to you next week for another episode of m M
A After Hours here at the After Hours podcast Network.

Speaker 1 (01:09:12):
Love combat sports.

Speaker 3 (01:09:14):
I have a website for you, cageminds dot com. That's
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