LUKE THOMAS *LIVE* | CONOR McGREGOR is OUT - ALEX PEREIRA is IN! | Live Q & A

e e e e e e e hey and we're off hey everybody look at my gross hotel room how are you uh my my name is Luke Thomas this is episode I think 208 of my live chat how are you doing now couple uh housekeeping notes we normally don't go at this time we normally go at Thursday at 3 p p.m. Eastern but I am on the road as you can see in my awful well actually my hotel room is quite nice but um we're here I'm on the road in Las Vegas Nevada it is uh Friday the June 14th 2024 and we have a lot to get to we have UFC 303 news we have UFC Saudi Arabia changes we have I mean all Connor's out pratka and peda are in Whitaker still in hamzad is out Ram alisov is in plus there's a new co-main plus there's a new feature fight with Carlos olberg we have that in all of your questions to get to so first things first let me say I apologize for all of the changes in the schedule I don't really have great options about when to do these when we're on the road so I think and I know I don't know we'll get the I don't know if we'll get the normal audience that we do for this for the live broadcast so I I am super appreciative of everyone that has showed up here today shown up here today and um let's get this started shall we so thumbs up if you're watching on YouTube hit subscribe it's free I don't know if we'll get any paid questions but if we do we'll do that at at an after an hour of the free analysis so to speak all right so with that out of the way let's get this party started right it is going to be a a fun Friday for you here in Las Vegas let's go as a as a reminder if you are a member you get videos I don't put anywhere else plus you get to contribute to the live chat for free all right so let's turn this off and let's get this going now before we get to the first question let's talk about what happened yesterday so I was at I was actually paying my dues yesterday when the news came down from UFC president Dana White that Conor McGregor was out of UFC 303 well Connor and Chandler out out of UFC 303 so that fight is off it is off the main card it is off that event entirely they're going to put it at a new date I don't believe we have a date yet for that but it is been postponed so those two are still supposed to fight and still linked together the new UFC 303 card is going to be a light heavyweight title fight between Alex peda and Yuri pratka your co-main is now Brian Ortega versus Diego Lopez which is an absolutely incredible [ __ ] fight um and then it was supposed to be initially Jamal Hill and Carlos olberg um but now it's actually going to be Carlos olberg and Anthony Smith so you could argue at least on paper I mean you're losing Connor there's no real replacement for that but the card itself actually got better Carlos alberg versus Anthony Smith to me is actually a pretty intriguing fight again all of this is happening on short notice so you don't really know what you're going to get but that seems reasonably intriguing Brian Orga versus Diego Lopez is absolutely ridiculous that's an amazing action fight top to bottom and pratka and Yuri I don't see how that could be bad I mean again you're getting guys on really late notice we just don't know what kind of condition they're going to be in and that should like mitigate things a little bit but in general that's a absolutely phenomenal fight so let me just say something first up front for yui for all the guys who stepped up late but for in particular for Alex poda to put his title on the line on what is it two weeks notice two and a half weeks notice at this point B basically two weeks notice at this point is absurd you just don't see guys do stuff like this in boxing so I really really really really hope he got a bag for this he's been touring Australia and my understanding is he's been training this whole time but you know just the the most unenviable of circumstances to go and have to do this in is absolutely ridiculous and giving a a rematch to a guy who was the former Champion himself who they have history with you know this is this is like incredible levels of athletic courage yes aided by the fact that he probably did get a bag for it which he deserved served but nevertheless ridiculous truly ridiculous so that's the first thing I'd say also for Robert Whitaker on the Saudi Arabia side which we'll talk about in just a second to go from hamat shamayev and then on a week's notice to take aalis scare off I'm not saying those are equally the same kind of challenge but those are both formidable challenges and then for him on a week's notice in the main event no hesitation to go from X to Y is kind of absurd but let's start the conversation if we can on Conor McGregor so um Ariel haani reporting that he had an injury Dana White in the video announcing that Conor mcgreger was out referenc that he had an injury what he had we don't know so cards on the table I still don't I have to just say what I said which was I was very skeptical that the injur okay so this this changed a little bit this week but initially I was very skeptical that injury was the full explanation not that he couldn't have one but that that was the full thing that was going on now of course we don't really know what the injury is is it an orthopedic injury I don't know um some people had surmised he might have had a really bad cut which is why they thought maybe it could have healed they didn't want to show it to Chandler so they canceled the press conference and then they thought it was going to heal and it didn't work and so that's a plausible explanation I don't know what it is and so that kind of informs the Judgment my initial skepticism was around the idea that in virtually every other sport when you have access to doctors and medical facilities and training or or you know equipment and resources and everything they they usually have a pretty quick idea about how this goes they don't really take a lot of time at all except in really rare or difficult conditions that are highly unusual is that what we have here I don't know I don't know but the idea that it's I mean if Ariel's reporting it and then Dana White is saying it between the two of them they don't really get along they don't see eye to eye on things but if if there if that's the case then I certainly under no position to challenge that so that hypothesis certainly does not appear to be correct I still am kind of curious to see what in fact the injury is and why they took so long to kind of figure out the recovery time because that's usually the part right like whatever the injury is and whatever you may end up having they typically have a pretty quick sense of recovery time but okay that didn't happen here for whatever reason that hypothesis is incorrect I also sort of additionally hypothesize that if it's not the injury that maybe Connor's kind of holding him over a barrel for something else um that's not something that ever made made its way to the public so you know it is strictly HP hypothetical in in the argument that I'm making we could only go with what has been released in terms of information to the public which is a Conor McGregor the the the status of which we do not know the likes of which we do not know and really the recovery I guess I we don't really know I mean I don't think they're postponing it I think later this year certainly I think um maybe maybe late summer early fall uh is the time I think they're going to try and fit that in because the window on that is going to be a little bit hard to time based on other previous um scheduling issues so we should acknowledge that I'm I'm hopefully this is serving as a sufficient acknowledgement of some of the hypothesis that I was issuing don't appear to be bearing out but okay with the information that we have what does it mean again so I don't want to like double down on any kind of mistake if but I will say this without really knowing the extent of the injury excuse me me pull this down without knowing the extent of the injury it's very very difficult to just make any Claim about when Connor will be back what kind of condition he'll be back what does it all look like it doesn't sound like if it was a tremendous injury if they thought he could still make it two weeks so it doesn't sound like anything like super deal-breaking about the future of his career although by the time he comes back he will be 36 years of age so that's not great you know you're losing more time uh I don't let's just say this probably today is not the juncture to make a claim about what this means for Connor's future other than what we already know which is that no one has really ever come back and yes they've won fights after this injury you know the the likes of which he is attempting has not really been done he's had an enormous amount of time off all of those factors are still kind of in play but the particular nature of the injury Without Really knowing what it is we kind of just have to take it day by day and see what happens so that fight will be later I still feel bad for Chandler but if they're still going to be able to make it either late summer or early fall then I'm not gonna say alls well that ends well but it's hardly any kind of disaster in that sense although certainly for the UFC fans who paid money to go see him for international fight week I'm guessing that the change in the the card is something of a of a boom to them but there's really again there's really no replacement for Conor McGregor as a box office or you know an event that you can't really substitute that out so in Nevada if there's a main event change the commission mandates that the promoter has to offer refunds if you change the main event so we'll be curious to see how much there's a drop off I don't think it will be much because it's already International fight week and as I just mentioned they made a [ __ ] sick card at least on paper they made a sick card out of it so we'll have to see there um as for the card itself UFC 303 again I would love to know what the injury is and why they had such difficulty I mean again part of the reason why they went to the the public late was they were trying to solve the other end of the problem like they have this injury they can't figure it out let's sort of get the other fights on the other end part of that I think delayed it maybe a day or two but in any case I'd be curious to see what the injury is and what the timeline looks like and why it all went out the way that it did but sorry for another time my hypotheses not withstanding um as for the card itself I I don't know what to say about it in the sense that what you're going to get when you book Fighters even ones this good even in matches this good what it's going to mean when they're coming in on short notice but let's just say this even if they weren't coming in on short notice like a yeari or the main or co-main let's take the main and co-main right for UFC 303 whether it's the light heavyweight title fight or the featherweight fight in either of those cases especially in the co-main event you you've got nothing but action Fighters you've got straight up hardcore action fighters in every way they were going to go For Broke certainly again certainly in the Diego Lopez and Brian Ortega fight those guys go for broke no matter what so I'm not again I'm not here to speculate about whether or not there will be a difference I tend to think that on balance the shorter of the camp you know the more you could have a difference in how the fight ultimately looks but that one was going to be a gunfight no matter what I'll say that Anthony Smith taking on Carlos olberg is an interesting one because Smith probably is not going to want to stand too long with him and if he does it probably could go badly but Smith getting a nice win where guys make grappling errors you saw in the VOR patrino fight if guys make grappling errors around them he could still have some tricks up his sleeve to make them pay so that might be interesting to see if he can get something there also um isn't it kind of weird right that like Jamal Hill was going after Alex paneda this whole week the leadup to the last week and now he's out and P is headlining that card it's like it's a tough way to make a living man um so I have high hopes for the Coan event even though it's on short notice I still like that feature fight between olberg and Smith because I think that's a little bit better of a it's a little more incremental for olberg and it's a great test for him and it's also a great opportunity for Smith to steal some Spotlight if he can get the job done I think I would favor olberg I think most people would but that could still go a lot of different ways the main event is interesting to me of of course because it's a title fight it'll be five rounds hard to just know what you're going to get in two weeks two weeks notice now yurri pachka probably has been training this whole time reports are that obviously Alex has been training this whole time that's an action fight too no matter what like both of those guys in particular yui like he's really not known for anything but action decisive action in your face the whole time and so the in that sense the two weeks orever however you want to really make the frame of when they're really getting ready for the final action it won't trip them up that bad but the longer that fight goes you would have to imagine it will play some kind of role in ultimately the outcome right or at least the chances go up that fatigue or a lack of proper game plan or something could affect it the fact that these guys had this is a rematch in the main event though also somewhat mitigates that to an extent it's also not the same situation as like uh what we have with Islam and vul in the rematch where one guy was training the whole time in Camp for a fight and then the other guy's just coming off the couch real late both guys appear to be sort of like in a looser training mode they all they both fought each other and then they're going to meet obviously um June 29th so it's a little bit different in that sense where you're going to get two guys who are one doesn't have a decisive advantage in terms of preparation at least that we think o um over the other one so that's going to make it interesting I I tell you what dude that 303 card is all of a sudden really really really good there's some real depth there now if you go further down the card obviously you know it's going to be something a little bit different but I'll say this dude enormous respect to Yuri prashka for taking this fight absolutely outrageous amounts of respect for Alex poda taking this fight dude Alex poda has what 12 fights how long has he been in the UFC Alex peda let's see let me pull this up how long has this dude been in the UFC it's just absurd what he's done he is speedrunning one of the most ridiculous careers I've ever seen so he makes his way to the UFC in 2021 late 2021 too November of 2021 he beats Andreas meles Bruno Silva sha Strickland then he beat Izzy has a rematch loses to Izzy okay in this point he's already middleweight champion then he beats bovich becomes the champion uh proot or was Braska I can't remember anymore no it was Braska beats him then beats Jamal Hill took that fight on short notice too by the way and then takes the year prashka rematch for UFC 303 absolutely ridiculous middleweight champion in how long some some some absurd amount like less than you know two two two and a half years two and a half years middleweight champion light heavyweight champion headline with a first round knockout UFC 300 here he is taking a short notice fight at UFC 303 and delivered highlight reels all the way through with the only one really not being that with one he lost to Izzy which is still a highlight and then the bovich fight which is a little bit more of a grappling contest you know relative to the other ones and then the rest of it is just M's flying knee Bruno Silva was a good fight it was a decision Sean Strickland you know the story I he punched his lights out in the fifth round bovich was the one that didn't go bratka round two he finished him off and then he had Jamal Hill and now this one dude the guy is putting together one of the most absurd kind of anytime any I mean's it's almost like the cowboy resume except he's winning titles ridiculous ridiculous you just don't see things like this hardly at all so I really really hope that all the guys who took this fight on short notice they get some serious compensation from it in the case of UFC Saudi Arabia which will be next weekend or no yeah yes yes next weekend 22nd something like that um yeah that's right you're losing your main event with Hamza chamaya who appears to be very very ill again don't know what he has don't what to make of it I've seen some folks speculate that you know uh well there's been plenty of speculation I don't know what the situation is that he has or what caused it so let's just see what the story is there it appears to be that this guy wants to do a lot in the sport but has been hamstrung by any number of issues putative Visa issues um illness issues he obviously had a horrible bout with Co back when I forget what year it was but the guy was taking pictures of him coughing up blood blood in the sink and you know it was he thought he was going to retire from the sport don't know if that's playing a role here either but either way he is out his momentum has clearly been slowed over the years this was a guy who we thought was going to be the next big thing when he took wi back-to-back weekend fights on F Island he was just running through those guys and then the leech fight he looked like he was incredible we thought he was destined for Great Stuff the Gilbert Burns fight the whole nine yards but he just really hasn't been able to maintain a steady Competition schedule he's had any number of issues that have slowed down even booking fights you know the one he was supposed to get last minute ended up being Holland that was fine but that didn't really do much for him in the end there's just been a few obstacles to really maximize and reach the potential that he we think he could get to that seems quite possible but he has been tripped up uh any number of times trying to get to the Finish Line on that uh terrible situation I certainly would not wish any kind of violent illness on anyone let's see what happens with him I don't know what to say for Robert Whitaker this is a dangerous dangerous thing this is not I mean the case of Alex peda putting his title up I wonder if the UFC would do him a solid if he lost if they book a third one you know just because it's so risky what he's doing I guess we'll have to see but for Whitaker man to get back to the title like it's you you have no room for air and the Hamot fight was interesting because you thought man if he can get if he can stop that hype train he can do anything he wants after that you know and Alice Alice scov doesn't have that same kind of hype train and I'm not going to say is as dangerous I don't think that's quite I mean ultimately he could be but we we don't know that right now certainly a formidable opponent certainly a formidable opponent that's another really tough assignment on really short notice man that's [ __ ] brutal that is brutal you've got so many guys here that keep like you just look at the UFC schedule and you know it's consistent it's almost every weekend and obviously not at the pay-per-view or the elite Fight Night level but it is almost every weekend the amount of resources you need to keep that going the amount of Manpower you have to have to keep that those trains on the tracks and including in bouts of prestige Main Events including big names and including very short windows in which to find replacements like I just have never seen another fight promotion have to deal deal with what they deal with and pull off what they can pull off of course it helps that they have virtually all of the best guys in the universe in their stable but by itself that wouldn't be enough there's kind of both in people and people always say this too they're like oh Alice scov is taking this fight or year he's taking this fight or Alex is putting his title up because they got a bag and certainly that is a huge motivating factor I really in no way am I trying to dissuade this but I really don't think that's the full answer there's there is there is something of a next man up kind of belief in MMA that's partly I think playing a role there's also a kind of like an ethos among these guys like when they say anytime anywhere anyone I don't think all of them mean it but I definitely think some of them mean it some of these guys mean it Whitaker being one of them where they they really are just far more tolerating of personal risk or loss in order to make things happen for themselves in ways that other combat athletes aren't like we I interviewed this guy yesterday Elijah Garcia he's fighting on this card on tomor what day is it today Friday he's fighting on this card tomorrow Garcia is and when he he had an upper respiratory infection on fight week for his last one and I asked him oh the commission didn't clear you he's like no the commission cleared me I just decided would be bad for my career you know and I I don't have any issue with that I think it's actually a pretty smart view of things but what I'm trying to say is like the guys in MMA man they just don't do that they don't do that and again partly sometimes it blows up in their face like we saw with vul Tak in the fight against Islam the second time but as we've already also explained that situation is very much unlike many of these where you're the guy you're going up against is also coming in on about the same kind of notice as you and so you don't have that same kind of asymmetry and preparation but nevertheless that culture to just step up late and see what happens at their own risk I don't know if it's always going to work out for them in fact we know we know that it won't but it keeps the sport moving um in a way that would just basically be impossible but for yes extraordinary Financial incentive and then all I mean that's the that's that's how you make money in the UFC right seriously pay-per-view points and then last minute replacement fights that's how you get big bags in the UFC and I I really hope that everyone that we've talked about here today gets all of those and more they are highly highly deserving of it um to put it quite mildly so all right with that in mind we haven't gotten to a single question yet which I am terribly apologetic about but we should probably do that now so let's pull this up if we can and let me refresh this so I don't get the worst version of it all right let's see here [Music] uh well this one is not really about that hold on let's see okay we can do this one let's see all right Pull It in boom there we go okay hey Luke I noticed in your recent let me pull this up like this all right Luke I noticed in your recent interview concerning the case against doping I noticed you received a significant push back by some in the comments debating between the efficacy fairness and morality of anti-doping there was however one topic that none of them brought up they never do uh oops excuse me the idea that the athlete should have the decision or at least some kind of say in doping policy It ultimately just struck me as this weird comfortability people have with giving the majority of power and wealth to a small handful of individuals who contribute very little and expect the athletes or workers who produce the value to have no say yeah this is pretty common this is pretty common I mean the basic answer on this is I I don't understand what is wrong with the Pro Sport model of anti-doping which is you have the you have the league or the the business entity that wants to have certain standards in place for whatever reason social insurance you know uh Keeping Up Appearances or maybe they just believe in the value of anti-doping that ultimately can be up to you to decide but then the athletes wanting to have their rights protected and you know a certain uh uh you know basically just a series of protections of their rights and interests and then the two groups getting together and then working that out and then coming up with a policy that everyone enjoys now this is a function of uh you have to have employees and then you have to have you know um ownership and then they come together and then everything is sort of solidified in in the collective bargaining agreement but like this model clearly [ __ ] works it works in all the major sports leagues it works every time the fans don't seem to mind the the league doesn't seem to mind the athletes don't seem to mind again they're all working out a deal here to make it all seemingly better now that doesn't mean that every one of those versions could be good but I don't understand what the problem with that is it this is a clearly more workable model you get some measure of anti-doping That's supposed for for f for folks who that is important to you get some measure of it while also making sure that the athletes are bought in and have some of their rights and privacy protections covered or arbitration you know exceptions or whatever there's various different things you can build in to make it to make it fair like that seems like a great model people keep thinking what I want is like no rules and just let everyone use and I keep trying to explain this drugs are neither good nor bad they're both drugs I think we should have a more Humane attitude about things I think there's larger perspectives in play that just don't get addressed people are very very comfortable with complete structural in inequities and then want to put up a system of anti-doping enforcement that negatively affects people without resources much more than it affects those with and this is just supposed to be very very normal the point is not to dope to counteract that the point is to make more Humane overall system where the athletes have buyin power and then can make have a say over what rules get enacted and don't that's the point at least to me anyway uh Luke how can you make fun oops let me pull this up here here we go Luke how can you make fun of Viking Rock crowds rowing which I agree is weird when you support cannibal corpses George fiser and his Infamous shooting blood from his [ __ ] line talk about your battles yeah I mean I think there's a big difference between rowing in the audience and then not rowing in the audience because the claim I have about the Viking medal with the dudes rowing in the audience is that [ __ ] weird yeah like the bands are all weird too but that doesn't make me have to do anything does that make sense like you're like oh well the Cannibal Corpse show is weird too yes it is but I don't row a boat dur during it all right getting back to UFC with the UFC 303 Main Event now canceled or postponed however you want to look at it how can the UFC justify the inflated McGregor ticket prices shouldn't fans be able to get refunds and Reby at a standard rate now is that a realistic solution again the Nevada commission has a uh bylaw that if the main event is changed fans are entitled to a refund so you can get a refund if you pay tickets for this you are entitled to one in the state of Nevada that is certainly up to you but getting a pro-rated card um I don't know how that would work I don't know how that would work I I think the refund policy is just better either you want to still go to this or you don't either the UFC the change that they made to their main event is something that you like or it isn't um I think most fans would be pretty happy with it again not to say it's the same as a m McGregor replacement but I think in general most fans would be okay with it um so that's that's that that's the choice that you have here it was supposed to be a $20 million gate as well also I'm just going to say it one more time whatever did happen between McGregor and UFC and the injury and everything else the fact that he is not entitled to a scent of the CH of the gate that that no fighter has well no fighter including Conor mcgreger has ever gotten a share of the gate and they're gonna have a $20 million gate to me is [ __ ] crazy I can't believe that but that's where we are so yeah that's it it's either refund or not but I don't think they're going to PR rate any any any anybody's tickets I don't think it I don't think it works that way let's see uh here we go take on Rob versus alisov so like as a fight itself so alisov has that one loss in Brave to hamzat hamzat knocked him out alisov has very very good uh I think for the most part pretty good takedown defense he's got good takedowns too um we've all seen he's got good neon belly and good Mount and stuff like that got a really good Kamura Jack slack was talking about that this week he was supposed to fight this weekend and then they're just moving him off of a week so I don't know what the travel is going to do to him but that's not much of a change competitively so I think he'll be ready to go I mean listen Alice scov I think has real potential in this Division I I I would probably stop short of saying Championship potential until we see further Evidence if he ends up beating Robert Whitaker I think at that point you can then conclude he's really got Championship potential at that point I don't think there's much else you could say and my wife is texting me ah very good okay good all right let's see here uh okay so I wonder I I don't think he's going to be able to beat Rob standing unless he can keep the clinch or keep him pressed against the fence which is going to be hard to do so this is going to be a tough assignment for Rob it's five rounds I really think it's going to be a question of to what extent Rob can either defend the takedown or stand back up after he gets it defend his back not take too much ground in pound you saw against DDP he was able to get and by the way how did DDP get robbed to the ground you guys remember that he went for a head toss couldn't get it and so they ended up instead of Rob coming over the shoulder they went back that direction remember that he tries to pull them over and he can't so then they just go that direction back with it um and he got him to the ground then he hit him with the toy pass or the the Sal Pao pass where it's just sort of like this sort of pressure pass that goes around and he was hitting him with heavy shots on top you know you would imagine alisov who's got good sombo that means he's going to have pretty good wrestling and sort of traditional style plus trips and throws to accompany that where these guys can go and they can switch between the two modalities relatively easily compared to most Jiu-Jitsu are wrestling guys they've got both it's going to be a real test of that for Rob and I would imagine that was probably something he was already kind of looking that although hamzat is a little bit more stra traditional straightup wrestling he he's less about trips foot sweeps you know uh throws of that kind it's it's a slightly different kind of game so I would still favor Rob to win I think Rob on the feet with his ability to cover and Escape is going to be very valuable to him it's just a question of how much he can fend off being taken down for the duration of that bout it's always more complicated than that too but that's a basic idea all right let's see excuse me why do you think there's a weight cap on the heavyweight division in the UFC shout out to Emanuel yoro people ask about this fairly regularly I'm not sure why they just want to keep some kind of a limit I mean I realize they don't really do it in boxing but I think for MMA they wanted to there used to be I remember icon Super Brawl or icon sport which sorry Super Brawl became icon sport which was like a sort of a mid- major Hawaiian promotion they used to do super heavyweight fights a Strikeforce that in the early early early days did like a bob sap 300 plus super heavyweight fight I think he fought Bob sap f for cor me if I'm wrong fought Yan Norte I might be mispronouncing his last name they did Super heavyweight fights there's not really much of a market for it there's not really much of a um a real weight class upon which to pull Talent it just doesn't really exist so the 265 thing I think was kind of seen as establishing some kind of order around both who can be in this weight class as well as putting up the appearances of what you're talking about is they're having these huge enormous guys it sounds kind of fun to us and we live in a different era now but I honestly kind of feel like they wanted at the time to put a limit on how big a freak Show fight could even be like you know these guys who are 300 400 lbs that's sort of a thing that they wanted to like close off in terms of the regulatory power you can get a super heavyweight fight if you want there is a weight class for for that it does exist but um I think they wanted to keep a lid on what the appear you have to remember like so much about MMA regulation is not just about what is safe and not safe and what they thought was good and or bad but what what things looked like the 12 to six elbows and why was a problem it's like how it appeared to everything else and so this the appearance of having these like enormous humans who could do you know potentially irreparable harm to one another just seemed like something they wanted to avoid all right here we go well the fact that so many fights on UFC 303 being booked on short notice affect the quality of the fights especially if guys haven't been fully training not complaining by the way give me Brian or versus Diego Lopez in any form over Mar Myra Bueno Silva fight I don't see how it doesn't again we've kind of talked about this at the top of the show I don't see how you can book fights that late and expect them to be just as good as if you had not booked them late however one more time the fight between Brian Ortega and Diego Lopez is an action fight those two guys it was always going to be an action fight it can only be an action fight whether or not they have the prep to go over the long distance certainly that is going to be in question that is relevant but that that that one just has you know if that one goes long then you can start to ask questions about it but I kind of feel like one of those guys is going to get the better of the other one like two squirrels in a bag kind of a situation it's the main event and obviously there's higher stakes in the main event considering the title is up for grabs um as I stated previously you don't have a situation where there's asymmetry in prep or one guy was in Camp and one guy wasn't both guys are sort of coming out of just regularly training to get this fight together so it's not the same as vul and and um Islam too but yes it just has to play a role uh if it goes longer now listen if these guys just Slug It Out in the first or you know does it change their strategy hey let's Slug It Out in the first and second because there won't be a fourth and the fifth that could play a role too it could it could potentially even make these guys even more accepting of risk so the question is do you get a better or a worse fight I don't know it depends how long it goes there is a possibility and I tend to think listen in general when you get short notice fights like this I think it in in general in general it tends to make what a fight could be something a little bit less than that however there are also exceptions to that rule where you can get a fight on short notice and it actually increases the action because guys are like [ __ ] it I don't have a I don't have I don't have the gas to do this late anyway might as well just frontload all the offense and then see what happens from there that happens as well that can that's a thing you can anticipate in certain cases this could be one such case all right I'll give you what I can can on this one there we go can we get a timeline on when we can expect all the things we love back with MK boy I wish I had one since the return of MK it's felt like a lesser version of its old self especially after being promised something that had never been done before yes I speak for many people when I say that having three shows a week made our lives a lot better yeah yours and mine yours and mine guys let me just be very clear about this we didn't ask to take this show off like three days a week this was not our call this was absolutely not our call and um at the time in which I believe that things were going to be a bit different we were dealing with a different set of information that has now changed and this is the point too like guys like oh give us an update and I'm like and same thing with this um you know well not the same thing as the McGregor thing but folks wanting more information without us really being able to effectively say now we have a MK show today that'll be at 3 pm that's going to be like a regular MK show we're going to preview all the UFC cards blah blah blah all that fun stuff so there will be one on for that um in terms of the other stuff I mean I know people don't believe us but like we are literally having meetings about this every week to try and plan some of the stuff out to get it moving so my understanding is on some of this stuff in particular for like a second day we should hear something you know in the next month or two something like that um it's just a process that we got started once the transition happened got got stopped dead in its tracks and we had to go to a new one and that really kind of just slowed everything down to a degree that we' never anticipated I mean the shit's hard the shit's hard like you know we haven't even fully gotten control of all of the uh the channel yet like we have we have to we have control of it but not every part of it and you know it's hard to explain what that means but trust me it's [ __ ] true like that part is still being processed by the by the by the lawyers in the transaction like we're still waiting on that and they wanted us all to wait until that was processed we wouldn't even be doing shows right now so like the whole thing is it's just been I mean if you're imagine if you're frustrated imagine how we feel um imagine how we feel so we are trying we're not actively not looking for a second show or more of this kind of stuff we absolutely are we absolutely are um it's just a question of getting everyone on board with the same idea here's what the plan looks like here's what it's going to cost blah blah blah and those steps are being taken but they just move so goddamn slowly it just moves slowly I don't know what else to say it just moves slowly um we're trying I I don't know if that matters to anybody me saying that but we're trying all right I'm going to skip this one let's see oh here's a here's a great one poon is everything that hamzat was supposed to be I mean that's a little unfair to hamzat but poon is every this person is saying poon is everything that Hamza was supposed to be sort of sort of he's not exactly like an assassin in that sense although he kind of was for a little while but it's more just a he's you know what it is man he's the he is the best Big Game Hunter that maybe I've seen in the amount of time he's been in the UFC just a big game hunter Big Score Big Score Big Score didn't get that one big score big score big score all the time and doing it in ways that are either dramatic by because he's stopping people in the first round dramatic because it's stopping people in the first round on short notice stopping people in in just these brilliant ways of the execution of his skill he's such an Inc incredible Big Game Hunter and I I don't know how it's going to go for him on at UFC 303 but the fact that he's so willing to go for these big scalps these big hits these big opportunities and more often than not they hit for him is so rare so ridiculous you just don't see stuff like this hardly at all man a special special special guy um and the fans love him he doesn't really engage in a lot of Trash Talk unless people come at him first but he's got this kind of and we all there's jokes about it online I'll just talk about Aura what does Aura mean dude the guy's got Aura times a billion um what a what a boon it was to sign a guy like that and I know people were like you know kind of upset like oh you know they they didn't give him a lot of wrestlers on the way up they kind of fast-tracked him on the way to Izzy they did they did and I didn't have any problem with it the guy has you know he's kind of older I'm I'm sure exactly how old he is 36 or so something like that and they're kind of moving him along pretty quickly I what I don't know what the problem with that is he has a limited window left in the sport make use of it they they are and the best part is here's what's kind of interesting is they sense the Izzy stuff and they may have a future about and who knows but he's just kind of kept on forming his own legacy anyway doing a similar kind of thing like big opportunity go big opportunity go big opportunity go constantly doing it now beyond the scope of his rivalry with with Izzy which was probably the biggest impetus about why he got signed to begin with is not did they know he was going to be able to do all these kinds of things for him when they saw him I seriously doubt it it's hard to expect this of any fighter of any fighter of any possible fighter it's hard to expect something like this and then here we are remarkable really One of a Kind truly one of a kind and him and him and Yuri don't have to engage in any kind of real back and forth I think in order to get the fans excited again what that does from a commercial appeal standpoint in terms of The Wider like obviously as good as that fight is short notice notwithstanding it's not going to reach them to the Casual Consciousness as far as Connor is in terms of sales but for the fans who are plugged in I think given the circumstances I haven't seen anybody complaining I really haven't I think there's a lot of people who are more just kind of like what does the future hold for Connor oh by the way this is a great replacement and then just calling it a day uh in terms of that something you important you left out when discussing the topic Joe Rogan wanting all fights restarting on the ground the next round was there's no possible way to replicate the exact same position they ended in as well as the same strength each fighter was using the exact moment the round ended I'm not sure if they even want rounds like they want the a lot of I'm not sure Rogan maybe this way maybe not but a lot of the people who are like oh I don't want you know walls or whatever and you know no no standups these are also people that just don't want rounds they just want the fight to go until it's over and again that's one way of fighting that's one way to do it I don't think it's a very commercially viable way to do it but it's a way you can do I mean people who want that it's like I don't understand you had something like that in the early UFC days where there weren't standups go watch those fights they're not that awesome relative to the modern ones anyway they were novel at the time but they're not a they don't they don't they don't hold up a lot of them don't they don't hold up so I don't quite see what the fascination is with like this more unadulterated form of fighting it just seems like a a rule set that gets you less interesting action someone's asking where do you rank Bobby knuckles in middleweight history well by virtue of being champion and then defending it a few times he will go down as one of the better ones um it's hard to say exactly where he would go at middleweight obviously Anderson's going to be first is he's going to be second with a bullet and from there there's some debate about where would you put Rich Franklin where would you put um it was Pride but where would you put Dan Henderson for a little while also he had one you know um where would you put Luke rockold who had it in Strike Force and who had it in UFC kind of a question so you would have to kind of figure it out from there but he certainly is top five top five for I think for Robert Whitaker First Team all dog you can say that with without the slightest degree of hesitation but yeah um pretty pretty remarkable where he's at and if he gets back to it I mean if he was if he won a title again I mean I'm not sure what you're saying at that point that point you're really working with something very special very rare very unique telling you guys man MMA fans of which I count myself as one spoiled dude like you just don't see stuff like this in other Combat Sports not not at this level like you just don't you don't see people taking on this kind of risk this late I mean it just it even for big bags it doesn't happen they don't do it they don't do it um so everyone like oh the bag explains it the bag explains a lot of it not all of it so yeah all right okay let's go to this one if Alex beats Yuri again and olberg can get through Smith do you think that they will give olberg a title shot yes if that's the case how do you see the match up between Alex and olberg yeah thanks um hard to see how alberg would beat a full Camp POA at 205 you know with his chin being compromised I think at 185 it's a different fight but this would not be that case this would be 205 so you know olberg is fast he's got fast hands he can explode in and out of range he can find the target very quickly um but I think between P's leg kicks and sort of some of his better counter punching that would favor him however you know we've talked about it before he keeps his hands like this like kind of out in front of him like this uh and it makes him a little bit more hitable he he usually gets around it by just having real careful management of Engagement and range and that has been that that does that does the majority of his defense but like do you ever see him like slip and then throw over the top or then weave and then throw you don't see that kind of stuff you just kind of see him be out of the way sometimes he'll cover up frame a little bit but you don't see him doing like super slick defense that's really not what he does it's more just a function of like when to go and under what terms that that that does the majority of his defense or putting guys on the defense with his fainting right so that so now you don't have to have as much defense because they're acting too too much on that so I would still favor p p to win a contest like that um Albert's just not beating anyone of that caliber but he is getting better he does present some interesting challenges I mean let's see how he looks against Smith which is going to be a different fight obviously Smith's going to fight very very different than poon would ever fight um I would give alberg you know some respect to potentially it's one of those questions where if they fought a 100 times how many would each win and you know I don't think Bon wins all of those I think he wins the majority of them which one are you going to get on that day we had a conversation about this too like if you flip a coin a coin so like obviously this do basic probability right basic probability if you flip a coin what are the odds that it comes up heads 50/50 same as what if it was for well if the question was how many times is it going to come up the odds that comes up for tals it's 50-50 right you have a 50-50 shot every single time you flip that and if you flip it a 100 times in general you're going to get closer to 50-50 in terms of the spread all over so the point I'm trying to make here is we had this conversation where imagine something was not like that or imagine something was you had a one in 100 shot right a 1% chance to get something maybe maybe it's the time that Sarah beat GSP so when Sarah beat GSP let's just pause it that he had a 1% chance to do it just because you have a 1% chance to do it doesn't mean it happens on the 100th try it could happen the first time or the second or the third or the fourth or the fifth it doesn't have to happen at the end it could happen at any point in there so I would still favor potato to win I'm not saying that that that um Carlos only has a 1% chance I'm merely pointing out even if he doesn't have a great chance it could just be that one on that night with small small mistakes can cost you pretty big especially for a guy who's not like super defensive like defense is not the forward part of his game offense is the forward part of his game with good overall range and defensive uh uh awareness but he's not got super slick defense and so he can be hit for that reason man good question good question if Diego Lopez wins in a convincing manner such as his past couple of fights is he getting a title shot next man he might um I have to look at the rankings here let me pull the rankings up for uh featherweight now obviously Ortega is coming in on this Jesus Christ what the hell is this there we go so at featherweight you've got yir was sitting at four Ortega at three you've got Max at two and then vul at one and you've got Diego Lopez sitting at 14 so you got three versus 14 so by the way we haven't said anything about it you got to give credit to Brian Ortega for taking this tough ass fight Brian Ortega is at three he's giving a short notice opponent at 14 a crack at him that doesn't happen super often either that's a big deal that's the first thing I'd say second thing I'd say is um he might now it gets kind of complicated because if Max is gonna fight Ilia you still have vul waiting around there for a potential title shot and so if Max wins they might do an immediate rematch hard to say if Max wins does he then fight vul if Ilia wins does then he fight vul I mean it's hard to say you get a title shot when you've got ILO vul and Max kind of all in that space and you're still looking to resolve several of those permutations it's difficult it's difficult to say you can get that but I I would say this if he goes in there and convincingly beats Brian Ortega it is possible he could jump the queue but more than that I think what it would probably get him as a number one Contender fight and I don't know how that would work either like would they would they make vul fight him would vul take that fight would would he would he just just take another one because he wouldn't want to wait that long right because you you're still going to have to figure out what's going to happen with Alex and what's going to happen with Max and where that's all going to play so it there's just a little bit of a log Jam at the top to guarantee a title opportunity but he'll take or take his place whatever that is worth and that's worth a shitload all right here we go Luke with a big Bo so you can see Luke with a big boxing weekend with benovitz fighting I noticed in my Mexican community in Washington where the cashiers speak only Spanish I feel like that we're all ready we're all ready for Benitas to become a star and backing him to take over once Canelo retires is this the same feeling you're getting in Vegas and this person writes excuse me so I can see here sorry by the way I am Mexican and and I'm feeling we are ready to make the switch okay uh dude I cannot overstate how much the fans Love David Benz here online everywhere kind of hard not to in your face walk you down Demetrius Andre oh he's too slick he gets finished off in what six seven rounds whatever it was Caleb plant went the distance but he got bombed on towards the end of that like the guy has a ridiculous like the most action friendly boxing style that you might ever see just a a wall of a human who walks down with maximum Force his opponents ridiculous hand speed combination punching volume punching overall good power on top of it unafraid of difficulty unafraid of contact and just kind of swallows it all in the process of beating opponents yeah dude he's like impossible to dislike and I I think that the the F the Mexican fans like the you know canelo's kind of like avoiding this fight whether you want to call it ducking or not he's not taking the fight all this time David benitz is just growing his Legend growing his Legend growing as Legend now at 175 taking on vosic here on tomorrow absurd what he is what he is trying and I I think he'll win that fight I mean that fight is not so difficult for him per se but you even heard vosic yesterday doing media saying he admitted admitted that David benovitz dominated him in sparring and dominated bival and dominated better beef like he just put it on all these guys so to me it's like you're just dealing with somebody who is in a very rare position whether they know exactly what their abilities are they have complete confidence in them they still work incredibly hard all the stuff about missing weight on the scales that's all behind him all action Style Walking you down no doubt about it you were going to get your money's worth with David benitz I think the Mexican fans are already in transition Canelo is gonna be hard to let go of because he's one of the all-time greats not just for Mexico but for boxing more generally he is a special talent as well but you know if he's out there taking fights against Edgar buronga or whatever and he's not fighting like David benitz wants all the smoke all of it all the time fight fans are just naturally going to gravitate to somebody like that it's inevitable oh this was an interesting one I don't know this gentleman so I can only say so much but what are your thoughts on Seth Daniels not respecting the the tap during a technique demonstration and putting that girl to sleep then deciding to post it like it was funny you yeah that was a weird one Seth the angel app I don't I think this is the fight to win CEO which fight to win is a great product by the way uh from what I can tell anyway and as an ADCC organizer and I like Mo jassam a lot I think he's under a lot of pressure that he did not expect um it's a tough situation but I don't understand how that clip ever made it to air the one you're referencing where he goes for this sort of like triangle um like at this backside triangle and he puts her to sleep first of all he calls her a [ __ ] tells her like why are you tapping it's not the chok's not even tight yet and then puts her to sleep and then was like yeah I thought she was being a [ __ ] but it turns out she went to sleep it's like dude that's the one you leave edited out it's the one you leave edited out like Jiu-Jitsu technique I mean he's you know obviously he's gotten pretty far and and knows a lot about it but I just feel like if you trying to make it accessible to the masses um calling your female training partner a [ __ ] tapping to a choke that actually ended up putting her to sleep is exactly the kind of image you don't want to show to the world if you can at all avoid it but the fact that like that is sort of I mean he must have seen it and thought this was funny and cool and then thought it was a good idea to put it in there I mean I would calls into question some judgment issues about uh understanding who the audience is and what kind of product you're supposed to be presenting to them look I've noticed you you used to keep your daughter on the live chat every once in a while a year or two ago but haven't in recent memory is she at an age where you prioritize her privacy or is it just about producing a standard of content how you manage being a public figure yeah I don't want to put my family on this on online unless they really want to and she's five and doesn't really you know it's fun when they're one or two and you know whatever but she's going to grow up in a world where they're going to be online all the time and everything you put out there's going to be there all the time and not I'm not going to do anything to her that would be in any way exploitative but she should get the right to decide you know when she wants to be online not not say I wouldn't put her on one more time or something like that but you probably won't be seeing a whole lot of her anymore on these streams just because she's getting older and I like to keep my family private and out of view and I like my life in certain ways like my family life anyway I like that part out of view and out of the public and yeah I think most people could understand that you know do you see any uh here let's see let's see it's a good question do you see any long-term repercussions from Connor's withdrawal Connor spelled wrong from this fight will the UFC or the fans ever trust him again um yes yes they will yes they will I think it's Connor is the biggest star that the sport has ever had and we're at a stage where it's not clear what he's got left but it doesn't appear to be a lot but it's not clear that it's nothing either and the thing that I've learned over the years is that passions for the sports top Stars they die very slowly very hard it is clear that there's a lot of people who are very frustrated with this situation yes that part is impossible to deny that part is clear it is clear there are people who certainly have a fair degree of skepticism about what could be left that is true that's also very true um however the idea that people are ready to just walk on him and they won't trust him ever again I don't buy that really at all um I think when they sell tickets I don't know if it'll be can for let's say they book them for whatever 306 307 whatever whatever day they end up booking them back on are they going to do another $20 million gate for that maybe maybe not I don't know but it will do well it will be a big hit on pay-per-view it will do well at the box office like it would take it would take an enormous amount even from what you've already experienced for there to be like a substantial decline in Conor stock in that way so I don't think his stock is what it once was there there's there is some the guy's been gone for three plus years there's that but um and you know canceling the the thing and not like just leaving the fan base in the dark for a week probably didn't help things but I just I I I've seen a lot of Fighters who are really really really popular figures have ups and downs that you thought would be very determinative in their popularity and it wasn't like oh that that's that's going to hurt them for real and it didn't um and I'm not gonna compare they're very different things but I'm not going to compare Connor to Kimbo Slice but Kimbo Slice is a very illustrative example where like dude late to his runs people didn't give a [ __ ] they still just wanted to see him and this was after he took years off of MMA and he went to boxing took years off of that too like he was just [ __ ] around in his early 40s they still wanted to go see him they still wanted to pay tickets to to go and take a look at him was it what he was drawing at his Peak no but it was still pretty substantial I I don't buy that people would just like you know oh this was the s that broke the camels back with Connor people are expressing skepticism online that is true when it comes time to like buy a pay-per-view or purchase tickets if that fight is listed I tend to think it will still do still do very well in ask me in two years you might get a different answer [ __ ] ask me in a year you might get a different answer but for right now no oh good question um I was there last night now that you've been to the sphere could the UFC cover the Apex in LED screens and create an immersive experience no if the cards are going to suck they might as well happen on the moon or whatever okay guys I went to the sphere last night and you know me I'm pretty skeptical and jaded and jaist in this world but um it's everything they say it is and then some it is incredible it's incredible first of all it's easy to get to any place there because of the nature of how it's built right so like there's easy entry and exits the inside is so beautiful and spectacular and just so modern and fresh and vibrant um there's tons of people to help you get to your seats right so like they were they were very friendly very accommodating very easy to work with and then on top of it like the seats we had we were in the 300 section so we were on the sixth floor and there wasn't a bad seat in the house dude it was the graphics were so overwhelming that I literally got nervous for like not nervous but like uh like I got whoa one of those things like I had to look down at my phone so that I wasn't like you know losing my balance or something even seated it is so however good you think it is it's better I've never ever ever I've been to like iMac shows and people like you got to see this thing in IMAX and then you go look at in IMAX and like it's definitely better in IMAX but I didn't need to see it in IMAX no dude this is this is not that this is much much different there's a so we saw um I guess they're called dead and Company this is like what's left of the Grateful Dead which by the way is not my music at all but they start out the the the the backdrop looks like it's this mechanized back and it begins to open and open and open and open and then you see like at at eye house eye level the roof kind of of the hate Ashbury District of San Francisco and then it slowly begins to pull out pull out I'm talking slowly but it's moving slowly where now you can see the whole city now you can see the whole West Coast and it's got graphic detail now and by the way the it goes so far around you that your entire field of vision is the sphere like you have to turn very far back to see it because like turn to your left to your right it's still there their Graphics are still behind you right it's they're past your head and behind your the line of sight so it's your entire line of sight and then it goes up into outer space and outer space and outer space and then it went zooming through this like this this fractal geometric Maze and then you ended up in the Pyramids of Giza in Cairo in Egypt and then they would put the you know the shots of the guys jam baning on the back of the pyramids and then it would Zoom to something I mean dude it was it's so overwhelming you cannot believe it and it's hard to explain unless you've seen it but it's I it literally [ __ ] with my depth perception it was so incredible so I'll say this I don't know what the UFC has in store for that and I can understand why that is a difficult undertaking but if they do that one right that that's going to be one of the most memorable experiences of anyone's combat Combat Sports going like life they have the they have the potential to do something incredible with this I don't know what they're going to do but the sphere is as advertised man that is one of the coolest things and you guys know me I don't like giving Vegas any credit that place is ridiculous ridiculous worth every penny all right um I don't know if we have any paid questions if we do I'll get to those now I appreciate everyone who showed up today just the same thank you guys all right Luke happy Friday whom will fight first of ever again Connor or Hamot probably Connor probably Connor Connor can at least fight in the US you know what I mean Conor at the sphere would be I'd be a big show it'd be a big show I don't know if they're going to do that I don't if it makes sense but it I cannot overstate to you how ridiculous the sphere is people always make it out to be like oh it's like this you know looks cool on Instagram dude whatever however cool it looks on Instagram it's way better than that in person way better with the 303 original Main Event scrap will UFC offer refunds on tickets yes as I indicated yes or will they enforce a subject to change no refunds policy no no they have to if the main event changes in Nevada they are required by law to offer refunds yes is it true that Las Vegas has a consumer law ensuring refunds if the main event yes it does that doesn't apply to just subject to change thing yes that's true again if they lost the co-main event that'd be different they could lose five fights on the card that would be different but if they lose the main event in Nevada they have to yes Super Shredder says do you think this is a net positive for the UFC it probably still is a record gate and now they still get to sell another Connor fight yeah yeah it is yes I think it's I think it's exactly that you got an arguably better card and you're still ostensibly going to get Connor later now if you never get Connor later it's a trade down because you're just not going to sell as much but it's possible yes yes that's how crazy that what they pulled off is nine fights in 35 UFC pay-per-views one in 3.9 the [ __ ] is motivating him can't just be money and Legacy because all fighters have those without the anomalous result nine fights who are we referring to here nine fights in we're talking about Alex um money Legacy the desire for combat belief in self any of the above do you think this is viewed as yeah we this one already with Connor being out who could have seen this coming how screwed is Chandler for waiting two years for nothing or is there a bright side I'm just going to say that I really hope it's still possible that um we still get him this year if it was if it was still possible that he could have fought within three weeks how bad could the injury really be right that's very speculative but something like that saludos Des bot what's up dude I'm actually from Mexico but I'm in a work trip in Columbia is there any hidden gam you suggest to visit or a good restaurant you recommend yeah you know what there is let me find it for you I got a good one hang on yep Santa hanana gastro bar Santa hanana gastro bar they've got ridiculous food there Santa hanana gastrobar cannot go wrong cannot go wrong all right have you seen bisbing rant about Ariel and if so what are your thoughts of him going off when in fact Ariel was seemingly 100% right the whole way I did not see it what did he say I did not see his Rand about Ariel I'm sorry to hear that he's got some anti anti- aial Vendetta but uh no I didn't hear it I didn't hear it now now I'm curious tell someone tell me what he said because I didn't I didn't see it also where did he say it Austin writes how many people do you think will get screwed out of their money trying to get a refund from ESPN plus so they reached out to me I haven't fully told you guys this they reached out to me I'm waiting to see if everything that they have done for me works and I don't have the answer to that yet because we have to have a couple of events go by butth they reached out to me it you know it took a you know I had to Rattle the cage to get their attention but I got their attention so I guess it worked out in the end I'll let you know how that one goes Jackson writes UFC most likely isn't revealing a Conor injury as to not give an advantage to Chandler or in a current future fight knee ankle hand yes um I can I never was confused about the idea of them concealing injury to here was my here was my argument I was never really confused so I understand concealing the injury my point is when injuries happen with in other sports for whatever that's worth even when they have to go from you know regular team to specialist they usually have like 48 72 hours of evaluation to make a pretty clear determination about when they can get back and this one was kind of up down in and out and by the time it was in by the time it was off then back in then off again once it was like they they they were starting to get Negative again I was like okay I even tweeted about it I was like oh okay well then this this is looking like an injury when it's that case but I guess I still don't fully understand oh we wanted to wait a couple days to see how it goes but like it turned out that they did know it wasn't I mean you know what I mean like in the end whatever injury he suffered Saturday or Sunday in the end they ultimately couldn't go forward with the fight so like whatever diagn whatever prognosis they they came up with then about his returnability was probably correct it didn't actually get better just waiting more time which is why the whole thing was a little bit confusing to me so I get the part about like oh you got to cancel the presser so that some if he has a cut or you know some other kind of injury that they don't want reveal exactly what's happening but I guess I still am confused about what injury it could have been that the initial prognosis about recovery was wrong because it looks like it was probably correct I don't know Michael says I speak for myself and anyone else who is just happy MK is back sure we missed three days but I was worried we lose it all together yeah you and me both kid one day beats none trust me guys guys the more shows we do the more money we make so like we have a big incentive to do more shows it's not like we don't trust me we do the way our funding works right now we how can I say this we have to restructure how we're funded in order to do that and we're in the process of doing that but that has taken more because we we thought like so if we get restructured the way we think we're going to and we're able to add stuff we'll get to like a certain look that would be pretty similar to the old one and again we'll we'll change some of the shows up over time but it would it would have been not much of a change in terms of the frequency anyway what we were doing before um I thought we were going to get that that initially and then everything Switched at the last minute I can't do anything about that like [ __ ] like I'm sorry but like I don't know what to do you know I don't know what to do does Jamal Hills comments about his lost to poda concern you they remind me of reyes's comments after Jones we all know how Reyes has performed since then a little a little I mean on the one hand I don't think it's a big deal that a fighter had like extreme confidence in himself and really wants one back to the point where you think that they're delusion that to me is not a big deal um but like blaming the thing on the ref and everything not I don't think that that's going to get him to the position he ultimately wants to be personally if Alex beats Yuri again could this be the perfect storm that results in Jones versus Alex happening [ __ ] yeah yeah yeah there're now if all ber goes out there and starches Smith maybe they'll want Pon to fight him anc's kind of always sitting out there I guess we'll see what happens with him too so it's hard to say but yes I think if Jo my who the [ __ ] knows what Jones is gonna do he's gonna fight Stipe presumably win and then I don't know because what if Curtis blades beats Tom and then which case whatever but let's say this if even if Tom wins but like no guarantees then either if Tom loses then for sure he won't do it he'll just go to 205 and then fight um or maybe go to 205 and fight poon or make poon rather come up to him yeah he wouldn't go to 205 what am I saying they have two he had poon come to heavyweight yeah yeah I think he would probably want that I think the fans might want that to be honest with you so Tom's got his work cut out for him what do you make of Bal comments regarding DDP essentially he says DDP is not good and that he and Island would roll through him is he you mean how do you see those fights playing out I don't I think B's got his hands full with leyon so we'll just go from there and for Izzy I think Izzy could be a really tough matchup for him um he so like DDP is there's certainly a more method to his Madness than I once gave him credit for I can certainly admit that but I also think part of what makes him successful is he is a bull he's an absolute tank and he just he will he has a physical style which doesn't say it's not technical but it's much more physical than lot of other middleweights and I think Izzy can often be Kryptonite against a guy like that now Izzy's older DDP is on incredible hot streak Strickland fight wasn't all that entertaining but the overall record is incredible right so I'm not here to dismiss dp's chances but um Izzy I think definitely can win that fight for sure Bal I think that's asking a lot what's up with the tank versus Floyd drama Jesus dude did you guys have you guys been paying attention to this so like out of nowhere Leonard ellerby who was identified at this week's presser as the CEO of Mayweather promotions and was asked by Sha zel about whether he just you know like planed on staying with him and he was given emphatic yes he gets let go they bring in Richard Schaffer in the middle of [ __ ] fight week right and you gota remember Leonard ellerby has good relationships or up to this point had a good relationship with Floyd and a good relationship with tank and because tank and Floyd had fallen apart Fallen apart Leonard has kind of filled the middleman role well now that's gone so he's just gone he was doing media this week and he he was supposed to be on our show yesterday and he wasn't on our show I was like where the hell was Leonard now I know getting fired is where Leonard was uh and then they brought in Richard Schaefer Richard schaer I think's got a good reputation in the boxing world but Jesus Christ like that came out of nowhere and then Floyd you see Floyd yesterday on social media was saying that the tank flight fight was canceled and that people should watch UFC dude Floyd was promoting tetsuro uh Tyra tetsuro Tyra taking on Alex P as the main event this weekend on [ __ ] Instagram Dana White must have been like am I in the Twilight Zone what the [ __ ] is happening here uh their split is nasty and I really really wonder what that means not just for tomorrow but for tanks future going forward I think he has like a he had like a six or seven fight deal I don't know that's going to be a strange one why are they keeping Connor's injury secret is it because he's the Golden Goose I don't remember things similar happening uh I don't know that they have any obligation to specify the nature of the injury once he is typically typically the fighter either releases that information or the fighter gives or the UFC releases it with the Fighter's permission they're definitely keeping it secret here obvious I think the point is to keep channeling in the dark about what it is although I suspect there will be leaks and he'll figure out something but um again I BC was more the guy that was like hey they owed the public something I'm less that and more like what was so inscrutable that they couldn't figure this out earlier and it turns out well I still don't know what the answer is to that I still don't know what the answer is to that if I paid you five bucks would you read this question sketchy white you got your you got your wish buddy Dave says do you think the refund thing in Nevada played a role in how this was handled on the onag again off again reports So Pro well I mean Ariel was just reporting what I think he new but in the sense of we don't want to tell you Connor's cancel till we have another replacement to make sure that we don't have this issue as much probably probably yeah I mean if you just went out and told the public hey Connor's out you probably have like a ton of people cancelling versus hey Connor's out but poon's in that's going to mitigate probably how much you ultimately suffer in the end right jmay may need the May be the news a beat hope you're well look yes I'm okay um I feel bad for Hamot man I don't know what's wrong with him you know that's a tough position to be in to want the smoke and not be able to like get over the finish line now the kadirov stuff I don't know what to make of that you know is it forced is it not it's hard to really know um how old is hamzat how old is that guy let's see here very quickly if we can Hamza currently let's see Hamza 13-0 is currently 30 so he still got some time left in his prime I wouldn't I wouldn't necessarily cash him out just yet but he has affected the first half of his prime I I would say the first half of his prime has not gone according to plan perhaps the second part will um if there's anything else here then we'll call it a day oh we got one more I think oh a couple more uh MMA beat return UBC Chuck and Dan Hardy would be great it' be great if I if I ever did the MMA beat again though I think it should be the original a team if at all possible but I don't know if that's even possible JP says Uncle Dana has successfully pushed away legitimate reporters from covering the UFC no one had anything on this besides aiel seems bad in 2024 dude everything is infotainment all the time now that's what people want apparently that's what's been promoted and not that I'm doing [ __ ] Seymour HS hardcore journalism or anything like that but um yeah it's infotainment 247 don't ask any questions of the powerful mind your own business let everyone smile have a laugh and move on to the next thing which in sports you can do a little bit more of but yeah not great all right this might be there we go Community need to put some respect on Ariel's name journalism and MMA clearly on its deathbed based on the heat he got were people killing him for it oh I guess some people were kill I guess bisin killed him for too yeah I don't quite understand that dude I've worked with Ariel I mean how many people could say they've worked with him I worked with him for a long time not a long time but how long was that 20 six years I work with Ariel long time dude I've seen how he sources his [ __ ] like when was the last time you ever saw Ariel issue a retraction because the report was wrong like never you just don't do that you know what I mean like over the years and I'm good with Ariel now don't please don't Mis understand me but of course over the years it's been known that we've buted heads and I can even look past on all of that and I never ever ever said oh he reports [ __ ] like if he's reporting it I'm telling you there's the CH you know no one's infallible and and there's always a chance he could be wrong but as someone who has worked with him and seen his methodology and seen how he gets stuff you should believe him you should believe him you can like him or not it's up to you I don't care you can watch the show or not up to you up to you but if he's reporting it the chances are it's pretty [ __ ] good now again reporting the injury or not reporting it or whatever concealing that I don't I don't I don't know what to make of that exact I don't don't there's so much about this I still don't have enough information about and so since some of my original hypothesis were not correct I would like to be a little bit more reserved in what kind of judgment we pass but just at least in terms of aiel like dude if he says a fight is booked a fight is [ __ ] booked you know what I mean it's it's it's as close to the gold standard as we have in the sport I don't know if anyone who's got a better record than him in terms of dude who's got a better record you can like him or not up to you who's got a better record of accuracy in reporting news in MMA than him the guy's been doing this kind of thing since like [ __ ] 2009 like you know if you like your show that's up to you if you hate a show that's up to you if you like him as a person that's up to you if you hate him as a person up to you what does the record show in terms of accuracy it's pretty [ __ ] good you you can like that or you can hate that it's a reality your high expertise and honesty for both MMA and B that's very nice of you uh is highly appreciated in your opinion who's the best Striker out of MVP Izzy JDM and sugga I mean they're all very different and how would you measure that Izzy has the best pure striking credentials with all his boxing and kickboxing achievements so you in that sense it's it's him in terms of MMA MVP is wildly different um I would say for Pure MMA striking you know I'm going to be like an Izzy guy no matter what but after that I'd probably put sugar sha number two JDM three and then MVP after that although MVP's Unique Style makes him a little bit different too but I like sugar Shan style a lot D all these gu it's hard to go wrong with any of them but yeah I would probably go if I had to do Power Rankings is hean JDM MVP I know people like oh MVP we go above JDM in your power rankings sure Prime fader walks out of that room with Jon Jones I don't know what that means any picks for this weekend's fight night yes and we're going to talk about those on MK a little bit later I'm I'm gonna give I think Tyra is gonna win it's it's a tough fight against pedz like he could upset the apple c car but I think Tyra's gonna win but we'll talk about the rest of those on MK in about an hour and a half so thank you to everyone who posted I really appreciate it this is an unusual time you can see my messy bed and everything um but I'm glad I got this done thank you guys so much for watching I really really appreciate it as a sort of standard reminder I'll put this here standard reminder you can become a member I'm going to put up exclusive videos and then of course you can contribute to the live chat for free um I can't tell you how much I appreciate this so there'll be a javante Davis watchalong tomorrow javante Davis watchalong tomorrow so we'll watch the co-main event and the main event together do a little bit of analysis on the back end and then we'll call it a day so you can catch me on that right here on this here YouTube channel okay uh make sure I didn't miss anything else that's it all right thank you guys so much for watching I really appreciate it until next time