On this episode, Fitz welcomes producer and jiu jitsu purple belt Spencer Shackel to the show. The guys recap Thanksgiving weekend and then look ahead to a massive fight night at UFC Austin. What's at stake for Beneil Dariush in this week's main event vs. Arman Tsarukyan? Is Bobby Green the next Jorge Masvidal break through fighting star? Fitz also tells a couple of fun Jalin Turner stories as he steps in for the co-main event on short notice.
The guys then talk about the fluidity of the middleweight division with many top 10 contenders not having fights booked and what match-ups they want to see in early 2024
On this episode, Fitz welcomes producer and jiu jitsu purple belt Spencer Shackel to the show. The guys recap Thanksgiving weekend and then look ahead to a massive fight night at UFC Austin. What's at stake for Beneil Dariush in this week's main event vs. Arman Tsarukyan? Is Bobby Green the next Jorge Masvidal break through fighting star? Fitz also tells a couple of fun Jalin Turner stories as he steps in for the co-main event on short notice.
The guys then talk about the fluidity of the middleweight division with many top 10 contenders not having fights booked and what match-ups they want to see in early 2024
Alright, welcome back to another episode of Fitz Nation episode 153, I believe, and it is a new era as we close out 2023. Something I've been thinking about over the past couple of weeks months maybe is that the interviews are great and if you like the interviews, fear not, they will be a part of the show. Today, though, no interview fight. Talk about UFC Austin, about some recent breaking news, about fun topics in the world of the UFC and MMA, and maybe other things. If we get to it, I want to bring on producer and production assistant who's been helping me out with the show. He's a huge UFC fan. I believe he's a purple belt in Jiu Jitsu and he's going to be helping me out, kind of bobbing up the questions, if you will, and somebody to like echo topics off of and ping pong back and forth. His name is Spencer Shackle and he joins me now on Fitz Nation. Spencer, say hello to the people. It's great to get a camera on your face. What's?
Speaker 2:going on. Everybody Happy to be here, very excited to join the show. We're going to talk a little UFC, aren't we Fitz?
Speaker 1:There we go, Okay. So what's the Instagram at BJJShack? Is that right At BJJShack? Yes, Okay.
Speaker 2:Purple belt. Purple belt in Jiu Jitsu. Rca Jiu Jitsu in Las Vegas. Shout out.
Speaker 1:Yes, nice. So he was on the UFC Fight Pass team. He has moved on. He lives in Tennessee now and one day he's going to open up the best Jiu Jitsu training facility that's ever happened in the world.
Speaker 2:That's not a surprise. That's not a surprise. Yeah, yeah, that's the goal.
Speaker 1:There we go, but huge UFC fan, so we're going to have some fun. We're going to talk about UFC Austin. We're going to talk about the middleweight division and what matchups I'd kind of like to see, and I haven't really thought too much about it. I'm going to kind of go on the fly, but obviously we just had a main event announced for early 2024 from Dana White involving the middleweight division and there are so many fresh possible matchups in the top 10 of guys that aren't matched up. Spence, that sounds good. How was your Thanksgiving?
Speaker 2:First of all, I mean I feel like we should recap. You know holiday yeah, I'm sure, like everybody else, got to spend some time with the family went down to New Orleans, spent time with the in-laws Nobody got in any fights down there, which was nice. How about yourself?
Speaker 1:Nobody got in any fights. Is that like a thing?
Speaker 2:Sometimes Some families are like that. Sometimes they throw fits.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Never know what the in-laws you know, yeah, so we kept it simple here. Obviously, there was like no UFC event. It was good to. I love the UFC schedule with ESPN now because it's like no Thanksgiving event, and Christmas and New Year's is our off season. It's really fantastic from a family perspective and from just like a life perspective, and you get to sit back and watch football and watch hockey. And I'll tell you, though, my son has a Thanksgiving break that's like a whole week long. When you were in school, spence, did you do Thanksgiving break? It was like Wednesday through the weekend, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, pretty much that Same for you.
Speaker 1:So yeah, like I think we had a half day on Wednesday and then it was like long weekend, right. So yeah, he was like he was done His school last Friday. They're like see you in a week. So by Thanksgiving you're like driving yourself a little nuts, you're dealing with the kids like all week, all day, until getting a little cold out you can't go to a pool and stuff like that. So it was good to get them back to school. And I know you're young, spence, and you don't have kids, so you'll find this out someday, god willing. But it's crazy, man, like I feel like for the last four days I was counting down until I could send them back to school and then, sure enough, I dropped them off. I'm seeing them walk across the street. He's eight years old and I'm just like, oh man, I miss him already.
Speaker 1:He's like he's barely out of my eye line and I'm just like, ah, I hope he never grows up Like these are the days you know. So it's just one of those constant struggles Anybody with kids, you feel me on that. But yeah, it was a good holiday. And here's another thing, Spence, that I'm very proud of. I weighed in today less than I weighed in on Thanksgiving morning.
Speaker 2:Cool. Not many people can say that fits.
Speaker 1:It's a big accomplishment in FITS 2.0. Anybody who's followed me on social media a little bit knows that you know, like the health and fitness, it's like that constant struggle for all of us. Safesaud gave me a weight loss challenge last year around this time and I hit it, but it was all results based right. Like I had to lose 15 pounds in like a month and I did, but it was just like that's not the way to long term success. So this year I've kind of crept back up and whatever. So I didn't have any sort of bet with him, but I was just like safe, I need to fall in love with the process again. Like I need to figure out how I'm going to eat and lift weights again. More importantly, instead of just like starve myself and go for walks as much as I can, like almost like a weight cut. So I'm feeling good about that Spence.
Speaker 2:Is that you didn't get on that Dana White 72 hour water fest then huh, so I didn't do that.
Speaker 1:I have talked about doing a fast with one of our people on our production team, RJ Clifford, who actually is on SiriusXM and he's the stage manager on the UFC weigh-in show on Fridays. He's a funny guy right, and he's talked about wanting to do a fast like that three and a half days. I think that'll happen at some point, I just don't know when. And I said the road would be a perfect time because I'm not around the family and the kids and we sit down for dinner each night. But at the same token, is like going out to dinner on the road, Like I'm going to Austin this week. Great restaurants I'm a UFC staff employee. Swipe that UFC credit card. That's one of life's great pleasures once you can get that expense report, whatever right To like, go out and enjoy things and not pay for it yourself out of your own pocket.
Speaker 2:So also, you don't want to be that guy that you show up. Everybody else is eating food. You say, hey, I'm actually doing something right now.
Speaker 1:I can't, yeah, like hey, you know what I'm going to keep it to bone broth. Thanks. Thanks for the offer. All right, awesome, let's get into this UFC, let's get into. Here's what we're going to do Spence. We're going to call this segment the big story. Okay, the big story is what we're going to call this segment, and obviously the big story this week fight fans for those listening along is UFC Austin.
Speaker 1:It's the biggest fight night of the year. That's the case. There's no question that it's the biggest fight night of the year. When you look at the card, up and down, main event lightweight division, benilde, darius, arman, ceruchian. Co-main event, bobby Green, jaylin Turner stepping in because of the Thanksgiving breaking news and then you have some very, I would say, high stakes and fun fights. Before that, rob Font, davison Figueredo, the former Flyweight champ, moves up to the Bantamweight division. Kelvin Gastelum moves down to Welterweight to take on Sean Brady, who I haven't seen in a while Now. The biggest fight night events previously to this this year, probably. The thing is Spence I'm going to bring you back on here. The thing is in retrospect like this is clearly the biggest fight night event of the year, correct?
Speaker 2:I would say so yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was kind of racking my brain to think of before Nashville in August. Had you already moved to Tennessee by that point?
Speaker 2:Had moved to Tennessee. By that point, nashville does stand out in my mind, though. Yeah, nashville was big, it was on.
Speaker 1:ABC and then Jacksonville was supposed to be a big one. It was on ABC. The thing is, then you build the fight cards and some cancellations happen and you don't get the main events that you want. So in retrospect, nashville looking back, we won't remember Nashville because Corey Sandhig just took down Rob Font who was in on short notice for 25 minutes. It wasn't this big, fun, exciting matchup. Jacksonville was Josh Emmett, ilya Toporia, so you have Toporia's kind of rises like all right, he's going to be next at Featherweight. Before that we had Kansas City was pretty big. Max Holloway, arnold Allen was a domestic fight night, whatever. But the cards were not loaded like this.
Speaker 1:The way that the UFC schedule sets up is every fall when college football starts we kind of go to ESPN plus we're streaming. We don't get a lot of linear TV time. The world is into college football and NFL season's going full swing, so it's very tough to like break through on a Saturday for a fight night. Pay-per-views, different story. So what happens now is first Saturday in December for the entirety of the ESPN deal to this point has been our memorializing Stuart Scott night. Right, Jimmy V foundation gets a benefit.
Speaker 1:Stuart Scott foundation, the late sports anchor died of cancer. We shine a light on people in the UFC world that have battled cancer and pay tribute to that. It's our you know, mma or UFC fights cancer kind of benefit night and as a result, it's on big ESPN because college football season is down to fewer games, the conference championships are coming up and we just stocked the fight card big last year I believe Orlando, stephen Thompson, kevin Holland. It feels like a pay-per-view right and spends this a big weekend for me because this will be, I believe to this point in my career, the highest profile fight night I've ever done, probably the highest profile UFC broadcast I've ever done.
Speaker 1:Because of you know the yeah, because of the depth of the card. I mean, a lot of people have commented it's throw a title fight on top of this card and it's a pay-per-view quality fight card.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'd say so. You got former champions all over the card. People have contested for belts headlining main event lightweight division. That's a really, really big matchup with two guys that have been there for a long time at this point Moving up of Davidson Figueroa to the Bantamweight division something that people wanted to see for a long time but he's just been going back and forth with Brandon Moreno at Flyweight for a little while. Yeah, you got Sean Brady on the card, kelvin Gastlin moving down to Weltsweight. It's a grid stack top to bottom, yeah it's awesome.
Speaker 1:So I'm going to focus in on the lightweight main event and then I want to. I want to tell a couple of stories about Jaylen Turner and then get a gist of Bobby Green as our, like, austin preview. So here's the deal. Spence and interrupt me if I'm wrong, please do. But there is a top level of mixed martial arts. There is the highest level of the sport and then there is the highest level of the promotion. Do you know what I'm saying here? Those guys that are world-class fighters, world-class athletes, all of them are world-class. Let's be honest, there are like two categories sometimes top level of the sport, top level of the promotion, and when they come together, magic happens. When they come together, magic happens when they come together. Sean O'Malley, with an army of gamers and fans and teenagers and all of that stuff, youtubers, pink hair, all of that he wins the championship in that fashion that he did. That's when you get the magic. That's when Conor McGregor happens. That's when John Jones rise to that level of prominence as a top level fighter, who's a needle mover, who's a lightning rod in terms of love him or hate him or that sort of thing.
Speaker 1:Armand Serukion and Benilde Darius are world-class fighters. They are top of the heap, top of the sport in a division that is loaded with major, major talent. They're not top level of the promotion, which is working against them from the title race, but it's still a very compelling fight and if the UFC knows how to do one thing, it's to promote an event and make it a big deal. When you got a guy like Armand Serukion, who's not going to register with the common sports fan but more to lose in this fight, I think that's the bigger question. It's going to be a great matchup. It's two guys that are pretty well-versed. Benilde has shown that he can bang, but he's a standout grappler. Serukion has shown that he can do everything. He's very much that modern age of mixed martial artist where he's like just I mean what he did to Islam Makachev to get fight of the night on like two weeks notice in his debut at 23 years old. I mean I think it's like world wants to see that fight again. I think at some point More to lose, though this is a big fight for Benilde Darius. I mean this is huge.
Speaker 1:He fought Charles Oliveira with the win streak that he had in Salt Lake City. He was the betting favorite if he was in that Leon Edwards position where, if he won, he just, you just couldn't deny him anymore. He'd have to fight for the title because Islam was looking for a fresh matchup and this is a win streak against 여편. You know Charles Oliver turned him back and eventually, you know, earns the rematch in Abu Dhabi. Make no mistake, benial Darius would have been an Abu Dhabi to fight Islam Makachev if he were to get past Charles Oliver in that fight.
Speaker 1:He's 34 years old, he's off of a loss and he is the type of guy that every Buddy within the UFC world that's been around, that knows the game, that has respect for the sport. I feel like they love Benial Darius. I feel like they really he's one of those fight. It's a fighters fighter. He's got a lot of respect because of how he carries himself, because of the way that he fights, his abilities, his time in the game. So Benial Darius has Everything to lose here. Spends that, safe to say. Arman Sarukyan. He's had some ups and downs. I think you can make a case that he beat Matash Gamrat and you know he could be on the cusp of that title shot in the top five of the division, but the result is what it is. So now he's punching up as an eight fight and four, I believe, for Darius. But Benial Darius, I mean, I think it's all on the line for Darius here, I think it's, I think, like the make or break moment of his career, you could say, is coming this weekend you're exactly onto that.
Speaker 2:It was one of those positions where the UFC just was looking for the next guy for Islam Makachev. Benial was right in the cusp of that and if he had gotten a win over Charles Leveria, would have been in that slot. But they're not exactly rushing him to a title shot because, you're exactly right, he's not the top guy in the promotion, even though he does deliver with everything that you want him to in his fights and he is your favorite fighters favorite fighter. Benial Darius is that guy. But when you look at the common matchups that these guys have had, you look at Mateusz Gamrat and you see that Armin Cerukian had a close split decision loss to him. You see that Benial Darius was able to beat him pretty soundly at UFC 280.
Speaker 2:Now, when you have these two guys coming up together, you can look at that common opponent and say, alright, benial Darius is a little bit older within the vision he's a tried and tested name. We know that we want Armin Cerukian, who had a very close Lost to Islam Makachev early in his career. We know that we want him coming up. What's the best thing to do here? Maybe have him fight a guy that has is on the later end of his career and has been tested in that way and see if we can get Him to a title shot. So you're exactly right. But Neil Darius does have a lot to lose in this matchup, and While number one contendership might not be exactly on the line in this one, just because there's kind of a log jam at the top there, right it definitely is.
Speaker 2:There's going to be a lot of movement after this match, regardless.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I mean for for Benial Darius, who was an eight-fight win streak that was halted by Charles Oliver and he had won. He was at that point, like I said, just could not deny him anymore. My question now is, with that loss to guys like that, so, so damaging in terms of their title chase, whereas other guys got like Kobe Covington right, he, you know loss you get him one big win, it's title shot. We saw that with Jorge Mosserdahl. You get him a win title shot because they're so promotable. They carry such, they carry such a lot of weight in terms of promoting an event and and fans and in stock and crossover appeal from people that may not buy the pay-per-view. But Jorge Mosserdahl is here and, as my friend Nick Pete says and I think he borrowed this quote from somebody else this is a sport that lives and dies on pay-per-view buys and if you're one of those guys that can move product and you are going to obviously have a little more equity within the company.
Speaker 1:So for Benial, to me that's the biggest storyline this week as far as the main event goes, is that it is all on the line for Benial Darius if he wants to retire and be able to say he fought for a championship and Want a championship. He needs to win this week. I don't know if he can overcome Two losses. I just think it's gonna need to be another four or five fight win streak and then you got a wonder Much in the way of Tony Ferguson. Once you hit 35 and over and you're in a division like this, that's just loaded. I mean, look at, look at Saruky, he's 20. What's Saruky? 26 years old? 27 years old at this point.
Speaker 2:I'm thrown there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then like these other guys, like Gamrat, like we mentioned you know, and Jalen Turner's on his way up. I don't. I don't think we've seen the last of him. There's always gonna be, especially in a division like this, just a litany of guys 25 to 32 that are just Son of a bitch to deal with Hop alpha Z, you know you just it's in that division.
Speaker 1:That's not friendly. Once you hit that on on the other side of the peak, once it slips on the other side, it's a not a friendly division to try to navigate. Heavyweight different story. Light heavyweight different story, right, those bigger weight classes. But so for Benial Big week, love the guy, looking forward to seeing him this week because he's just the most respectful down-to-earth dude ever. Did an interview with him on this show, spence, on Fitz nation. I think it was like last year. Yeah, he's dry. His wife was driving him around in his Tesla. We did the entire episode.
Speaker 1:Classic car episode, but it wasn't like the I'm in the parking lot after training, it was. I'm driving around Southern California and, you know, since he doesn't live in the sticks, able to keep reasonably good service for the entire. So thank you, benial, for joining me on that. Now, on the other side arm, on Saruky I think, just just an exciting guy. Like I said before, you're seeing the next wave of MMA fighters and he's a big part of it guy that's good at everything. Joined the UFC at 23, wasn't in over his skis. He's had some big wins through the early part of his career Fight of the night against Islam Akachev and his UFC debut on short notice.
Speaker 1:There's a lot to like about Armand Saruky on he's he's. He's got enough of a personality right. Like I think he's still finding himself. But like speaks English. You know what I mean. Like, like these guys from Kazakhstan and and from Russia that don't speak English. They're fighting an uphill battle, you know, and song you don't is learning to speak English. Jung Wei Lee is learning to speak English. I think they understand the crossover appeal. That's the miraculous thing to me about Charles Oliveira. He's become a guy that will sell pay-per-views. Doesn't, doesn't really speak English.
Speaker 1:Yes, you know, I like he would have been a worldwide megastar if he spoke English. Kind of Jose Aldo was in the the earlier years of MMA where it didn't matter as much, but now it certainly matters and An arm on suit guy speaks English. He's got a bit of a personality, he's got a little bit of a dry sense of humor. That I think.
Speaker 2:In the post-fight interview he was talking a lot of smack to the top of the division and it's just. It just wasn't continued online. It didn't continue the week after the fight. It was a few days. People had some headlines about it but it just wasn't a big enough splash with the wind that he had to really get over in that way. But Armand Sarrouki and definitely can hold his own, similarly to Islam Makhachhev, in that way.
Speaker 1:Yes, I was just gonna say very much like Habib and Islam in terms of it's like a. It's a dry. I Don't know if it's a sense of humor, but it's just like a. It's just like a no bullshit confidence. Yep it's a no bullshit confidence. With a bit of broken English From that accent, that to American sounds kind of badass, right. It kind of sounds like John Malkovich and rounders, just like send me location no, number one bullshit.
Speaker 1:I've next for title like it. You know it works. It can work. So Armand Sarrouki on if he wins. You know he enters the fray and you know that Chandler's gonna sit and wait for McGregor. Like you said, there's a bit of a logjam. Islam's got the belt. Who knows what's next? Is it gonna be gachie? Armand has a case for Islam because of how they fought the first time around. So great main event what do you think? What do you think? Spence? You think it's going five.
Speaker 2:Well, let me ask you this Armand Sarrouki is a minus 300 favorite in this matchup. Does that make sense to you? Is that a well thought-out line? I there's no, you know uh yeah, fight cat well, that leads me to believe he'd be a minus 300 favorite over Puneel Darouche.
Speaker 1:I mean. So let me state a disclaimer of okay, I can't. You know. For some people that ask I can't bet, right, ufc staff employees can't bet, turns out now UFC fighters and whatever. It can't bet, so Take nothing I say with anything. I have question lines before, though, like when Korean zombie was plus 700 or something plus 500 or something, against Alex Alexander Volkanoski. I'm just like dude zombie, like he's a big swinger, like he connects whatever, sure enough. Like Volkanoski should have been a minus 900 favorite, right, like he just dominated that fight. There was one recently what was the one recently where I was just like gosh, is this too big of a favorite? Proof that they all blend together what happened recently? And somebody was like minus.
Speaker 2:It's like too much bone. Nickel was no. No. It's like on the MSG card.
Speaker 1:I can't remember anything. I used to pride myself on my memory and I really just I'm not good at it anymore, but In terms of certain things like that, there was a recent, there was a recent fight, whereas if somebody was like a oh oh, paul Craig, paul Craig, I thought, was too big of an underdog.
Speaker 2:He was a dog in that fight, yeah.
Speaker 1:Brandon Allen was like minus 450 and I'm just like dude. Paul Craig's like it's been an Underdog. He's one as an underdog. It's got a pretty good strength of schedule up a weight class. Now he's at 185. He's one and all. He was an underdog to Andre Muniz, finished him, got a bonus. I was like man, you're getting me three to one on Paul Craig and, sure enough, brandon Allen goes out there and makes us all, makes me look like Are you an idiot? I, you dominate better everywhere. You know embedding experts that I talked to Yanni and Nick on UFC fight pass. That hosts a show that just like Like Brandon Allen's better than everywhere. You know it was higher, now it's lower, like it's kind of a deal right now. I'm just like, okay, well, sure enough, that's how it looked you know.
Speaker 2:So what are they seeing on Armin? Do you think I Think they're seeing?
Speaker 1:I, I think it's. I think it's eight, seven, eight years younger. Whatever it happens to be, I think you, I don't know Darryusha it's. Also, there can be over corrections. We talk about this all the time. There's over corrections in the betting market based on last results, right Like.
Speaker 1:I don't know how Yanni the Greek and Nick feel about this, but they might say Darryusha was just a favorite over Charles Oliveira. The betting market was determined that that was okay because they didn't swing it the other way and he was on an eight-fight win streak. And then, because of one result against one of the best fighters of all time and certainly that one of the best finishers in UFC history, you're just going to swing them all the way when he's higher ranked and whatever. So maybe they're saying there's a deal on it, but I think they're looking at a well-rounded, hungry fighter who probably should be on more of a win streak without that split decision.
Speaker 1:Loss to Matoush Gamrat, armand Sarukyan. His win streak would be Olivier Oban, mercier, davi Hamosh, matt Favola, christos Yagos, joel Alvarez. The split decision to Gamrat beat Damir Izmugulov beat Joachim Sova. Now the thing with another storyline here is for Armand Sarukyan strength of schedule not in his favor, not his fault. I feel like a lot of guys haven't picked up the phone. A lot of guys haven't said yes. So this is a big proven moment. I think they're looking at faster, younger, a bit more explosive and athletic and I think they think it's his time, like he is the real deal and it's time for him to back it up. That's what I think they're seeing on the main event.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know those knock on Islam Makachev for a while is that he didn't have the strongest strength of schedule until he got to a title fight and held onto it two times against Alexander Volkanovsky.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Same thing happened to Kamara Usman, by the way. A lot of people just didn't want to fight him. I remember in St Louis in 2018, kamara was already on his way up, but he hadn't like he was coming off of knockout win over Sergio Marais, but he tended to win by decision, so nobody was super impressed, but also none of the contenders really wanted to take their chance on him. He fought Emil Meck in St Louis. That's when he said the famous like that was 30%, because I think he was sick and people took it the wrong way or whatever. But like Kamara Usman should not have been fighting Emil Meck from Norway at that point in his career. He was very like. A year later, he was the champion. So Armand is one of those guys. A lot of people have not wanted to take their chance on him. In the words of Michael Chandler, I'm talking about a big money fight against Conor McGregor, not a fight against a guy with a silent T at the beginning of his name.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:So he's just, it's just. You know it's a tough business to carve your path in, and even tougher in the lightweight division. All right, Spence, we're going to move on. You got went nearly a half hour. I think we're off to a good start on fight preview, I think so. Yeah, I think it's fantastic, I'm having fun.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna have much more of this card to get through.
Speaker 1:All right, I just, I really want to focus on the top two. Yes, fountain Figueredo and Sean Brady and Gaston I think we'll come back next week and more recap what we've seen. Okay, so breaking news from Thanksgiving weekend Bobby Green was to fight Dan Hooker. Dan Hooker broke the same arm that he fought Jaylin Turner or suffered in the fight with Jaylin Turner. If you ask me my fights of the year, and we'll, maybe we'll do a year end episode in a few weeks and we'll kind of go over superlatives. But on the short list of nominees would be Dan Hooker and Jaylin Turner, no question about it.
Speaker 1:That fight was fantastic. You know, I was watching that with. I was in the front. I usually don't go to the pay per views, but that one was in Vegas international fight week and I asked my boss. I said, hey, can I just throw my credential and go down and watch it by the broadcast table. We said, yeah, no problem, I'm sitting there next to David Goggins, one of my heroes, and we were watching that fight and Goggins was like so impressed, especially with Dan Hooker when he got kicked in the face and he just like he goes motherfucker, ain't that so much?
Speaker 1:I was like, wow, I'm here with Goggins. Trump was 20 feet to the left of us. So Bobby Green, jaylin Turner, so hookers out. A lot of people were pumping Benoit Sondini like, hey man, can BSD turn it around? He just got through Matt Fervole in a first round, or that would have been fun, I think. I think the choice of anyone, I think Benoit Sondini in less than a month, that would have been one of those great MMA stories where it's just like holy smokes, this guy from France comes out of nowhere, he starts blitzing through these prospects, he's, he fights like a bat out of hell, beats Matt Fervole and it can't misfight at the garden, turns it around in a month and fights in a co-main event Like that would have been badass. Right, that was the choice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that could have been the comms out moment where, with the quick turnaround just to catapult him straight to the top of 155 pounds. That being said, jaylin Turner is a tough matchup for Bobby Green, I have a feeling. You know it's. Bobby Green is one of those guys like Ben back and forth been around for a while. He he in my mind, is a 155 pound. George Mosvital. You know he's one of those guys that has all the personality in the world, all the talent in the world. He just asked to put together a win streak and that's going to be pretty difficult against Jaylin Turner.
Speaker 1:So that's exactly what I was going to say on the show. Bobby Green has Jorge Mosvital promotional potential. There's no question about it. He's a fun fighter, he's got a lot of personality, speaks his mind. You never know what he's going to say on the mic. He's a bit of a wild card, even more so than Mosvital because he spits in the air after he wins all over Keith Peterson, just giving him, like you know, the shower and and is like is street authentic? People like the street authentic? Yeah, 100%.
Speaker 2:They love that aspect of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I was walking behind Bobby Green at UFC X this year. I mean the guy probably had I mean, I'm not even joking he had 10 pounds at least of jewelry. On 10 pounds, I mean he's rings on the fingers, he's bracelets on both, he's multiple chains. He's iced out here Like I'm. I looked at him. I'm like he looks like he's weighed down a little bit. I'm like this guy's getting himself a little rock pack workout right now.
Speaker 2:Dude Bobby Green. He was at the fight pass and he is loud and more ways than one. I'll tell you that he's he's a down to earth guy, he's a funny guy and people love him. People love him for good reason he's. He's got the bling and yeah, he could. He could get it done against Shailen.
Speaker 1:And, when you look at it, the potential rise this year. And he looked great against Drew Dober last year. He was tuning up Drew Dober and then just flipped on a dime and that's the power of Drew Dober. So then he goes no contest against Jared Gordon because of the head clash and whatever, and that's so. It's something that I forgot about when Gordon said run it back. And then Felder said I think this is the answer, you know. I think that you know.
Speaker 1:Obviously it's not the result we wanted and I had forgotten about that no contest result from April of this year. I forgot about. I knew that they had fought but, like I said, my memory isn't as good. They all blend together after a while, especially when they're at the apex. And then I was just like, oh, that would be intriguing, the fact that they, you know, fought to a no contest and it was a clunky result and it was controversy surrounding it. But since then Bobby Green goes out and beats Tony Ferguson and then, main event, Grant Dawson. That was the arrival moment for Grant Dawson and he got sparked. That was Mossfidal, to borrow that comparison, against Daren Till. That's.
Speaker 2:Mossfidal and Daren Till.
Speaker 1:So that was Mossfidal.
Speaker 2:Daren Till. Is this going to be Mossfidal and Ben Askren? That's the question.
Speaker 1:If it's hey, if he goes out there and does something gnarly to Jaylen Turner, who's a great fighter, who can, you know, deliver some major Donnie Brooks, you know, then then I think he's off and running and then it's up to the UFC. Do they give him like a main event spot to build an event around at the apex or on a fight night, or you know? Third from the top, pay-per-view card. I think that's where you kind of maximize the Bobby Green. That's what they did with Mossfidal. They gave him Ben Askren third from the top and he went out and he delivered. You give Bobby Green a third from the top and he's been in that spotlight before. I feel like he's been on pay-per-view cards before, but it's just like against Tony Ferguson for him, for instance, in Salt Lake City.
Speaker 2:So say, you have a ABC headline matchup. Would, you put more weight into a matchup like that or something that is featured about on a pay-per-view, something that is like what gets you more, like what gets you more of a spotlight for us forward.
Speaker 1:I think it depends on the pay-per-view card, Like you're talking. International Fight Week third. From the top, I would say that is bigger than I don't know. Abc headline is pretty big, yeah well.
Speaker 2:I've also.
Speaker 1:ABC headline tends to be pretty big. But the thing is about ABC headliners is, depending on the scenario like, in theory I think your audience is bigger on the ABC headliner is network television, so the eyeballs on it more. But like and then I think a lot of it comes down to performance and how the fight goes to but like, what resonates Like, what are we talking about? We're talking about? Are we talking about third from the top on an International Fight Week, like Mossadal Askren obviously kind of broke through and became this viral sensation. Or, like you know, Yair Rodriguez fought Brian Ortega on an ABC headliner in Long Island. Now, the fight didn't deliver, but like, it's very tough to say.
Speaker 1:I'd say you could flip a coin and it's largely dependent on surrounding it. The thing is about International Fight Week and about big pay-per-view cards and I'd actually like to get a fighter on and actually talk to them about that aspect. Would you rather be third from the top on a major card, knowing that unless you really do something spectacular, people are going to be talking about the top two fights More so than your fight? Or would you rather get that headlining spot? But it's not like this sporting event that the UFC is just going to burn all the matches promotionally on, like International Fight Week, Trump's in the front row, Like it becomes one of the biggest events in sports because it's only baseball that you're competing against. So essentially you have the stage on a Saturday night to yourself. We got fighters doing everything promotionally that they possibly can. We got as many celebrities that want to come to the fight in the first three rows and then, like on social media, we just get every single possible shout out that our tentacles can get.
Speaker 1:But it's not your show. Like this summer there was two title fights and then there was another fight. There was Drinkus Du Plessis against Robert Whitaker. Now if you go out and do a DDP did, then you got to say, well, does that carry more weight? Or if DDP was a headliner on a fight night, does that carry more weight? I would. It's very tough to say there's more eyeballs on you on a main event, especially on ABC like that, but I think the fight world gathers in the UFC promotional machine might be more valuable on like one of those major ones. Now you fight in Vancouver on a new Nez Aldana card. There's no question you'd rather ABC headline. That's the game we play.
Speaker 1:It's the game we play.
Speaker 2:It's a very good thing that DDP and Sean Strickland got added to that card. That was going to be headlined by a vacant lightway and vacant van to wait.
Speaker 1:They weren't going to headline that fight. They were all. They were waiting. They were looking, they were waiting, they were figuring out who they were going to pay. They were not going to headline Rock Hill, pennington and um.
Speaker 2:Julianna Penya. Julianna Penya. No, no, no, no, it's not Penya, isn't it?
Speaker 1:Well, no, no, no.
Speaker 2:That just shows the magnitude of this fight. Penya's arguing.
Speaker 1:Penya's arguing about how it's uh uh. I can't believe I'm forgetting Pennington and Myra Bueno Silva. Oh, that is right.
Speaker 2:Pennington and Myra.
Speaker 1:Bueno Silva and Penna's like oh, it's a shame that they're putting on that fight.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:They weren't. They were not going to headline those two. That was always going to be a comane, but uh, you know. And then so they figured out that it'll be strickling a DDP. Okay, quick couple of Jaylin Turner stories, just because I've had him on the pot in the past and these are fun stories.
Speaker 1:The way that he got into MMA, right, uh, just there's like two, two parts of the story. He got into MMA, um, after high school, I think he wrestled, didn't really know what he was going to do with his life, Didn't have plans to go to college and didn't have a clear, uh, career path. Shadowboxed, uh, I believe, a couch or a mattress in his garage. Shadowbot, like watched Anderson Silva video. Shadowboxed, thought he was a badass fence because he would shadowbox for 30 minutes and he wasn't tired. And then he'd watch the UFC and he's just like these guys are gassed after 15 minutes. What a bunch of pussies. So, uh, it was a little, a little naive, little ignorant on that. He laughs about it now. And then he was kind of like backyard fight club and he went against a friend of his that had like experience, like trained a little in the martial arts, did well against him. So he's just like, okay, I'm going to go be the UFC champion, like that's, that's just what I'm going to do.
Speaker 1:Now, the way that he actually joined like an MMA gym is he? Uh, a girl, a girlfriend of his, dumped him, got dumped, spent, was heartbroken, right, and he couldn't take seeing her on Facebook, right, the old ex-girlfriend's out having a good time, whatever. He was heartbroken. He was signing onto Facebook to delete his account. Signed onto Facebook, deactivated. I can't handle it anymore. I just got to delete my Facebook account.
Speaker 1:First thing that he pops up when he signs onto Facebook MMA team tryouts happening near him. And so he took that as a sign from God. He said if this isn't a sign from God, I don't know what is says. I'm going to go to these MMA tryouts and see if I can like make whatever amateur team they're putting together needed like 20 bucks and a mouth guard and a cup. And so he got the 20 bucks from his mom, um, but didn't have the money to buy a mouth guard and a cup. But I think the statute of limitations applies here. I think we're good those into sports authority. Jackson Drop lifting mouth guard, cup, ghost MMA tryouts. He's in the UFC. He's in a comane event this weekend.
Speaker 2:Well, for whatever it's worth. I'm sure that he could send some money in the mail to Dick's Sporting Goods or whatever, but that's a great story.
Speaker 1:We're talking about like 24, 95 total inflation. Probably have $40 these days for a cup and a mouth guard. We'll see, but.
Speaker 2:That's a hell of a target ad.
Speaker 1:So that's just. Yeah, that's one of those things, for those are the stories that I just love that this sport provides. I mean you don't you get those stories in other sports. You certainly do rags to riches and you know coming from, you know sharing a bedroom with five siblings, and then you go play football at Alabama. Or you know pick the major school and then you go. But the MMA humble beginnings are quite something. They're very much a rocky story in real life and I think that's part of the thing why we love it. So major props to Jaylen Turner, interested to see what he looks like on the scale and making weight cause. He's just a big body for the weight class and he's missed weight before and so to take the fight on a week and a half notice, I'm going to touch base with him and see how his Thanksgiving meal was altered. Sure it was.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And you know, it's a great, it's a great homemade.
Speaker 2:I think so too. Yeah, I think. Right now Jaylen Turner is a sizable favorite, which is just a little surprising considering that he's coming off on the weeks and a week and a half notice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, week and a half notice. I mean he's younger, he's longer, he's got all the skills in the world. Was Hooker the favorite? Hooker must have been the favorite.
Speaker 2:Hooker was. It was pretty, even money, but slight favorite yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right. All right, let's move on to other headline, spence. What do we got? What did we learn in the last week or so?
Speaker 2:Well, we do have UFC 298 and Anaheim Volcanos.
Speaker 1:Anaheim is the location February Anaheim Honda Center. Haven't been back since in Ghanu and Ghan and that'd be fun. Good location, Don't hate it right. Good stage for Ilya Toporia.
Speaker 2:Southern.
Speaker 1:California market, la market. Volk will carry the promotional load for that event. He's crossed through. He's become every bit of that guy that you can build a pay-per-view event around and people tune in. He's got a lot of respect with fans. Sports fans across the board, I think, are starting to see his name so frequently now and here with the respect that fight fans talk about him. That I think I think it's good, I think it deserved and it's a good market. I'm excited for Toporia to get a spotlight. He's been talking himself up. I think Toporia is a guy who has potential, right Like Spain, new European market, relatively speaking, and major test if he can pass it. And he's got a stage in the Southern California, los Angeles area to do it on.
Speaker 2:You know he's one of the few guys at featherweight that if you mentioned his name in a fight with Alexander Volkanovsky you won't immediately get laughed out of the room, and I think that that's something that definitely carried him to this title opportunity. My question is you know he's coming off of a very late minute replacement fight against Islam Makachev that he obviously did not win, but there has been talk now coming into this saying is it too quick of a turnaround after the knockout I? He has a few months of actual preparation and we know that he didn't prep for that last fight. He couldn't have prepped for that last fight the way that he would have liked to. Is he coming and turning this around too quickly?
Speaker 1:I don't know, man, he wasn't knocked out cold, you know, and we'll get into this in the next year where we're, like you know, kind of dive in on this fight further. I'm sure more stuff will come out. I think you'll see a very, very good version of Volcanoski. I think the intriguing part of this one is that this summer, when it was Volk against Yair Rodriguez I don't know how many people were given Yair Rodriguez a chance there was a chance, it was a fun fight and I think we had seen enough and Yair's a highlight reel and whatever. But like somebody asked me that, just like, ah.
Speaker 1:So what's the deal here? Is this guy, does this guy from Mexico, have a chance? Or is Volk just too good? And I was just, like you know, volk probably just too good, right, like he was. Just he was like a step up. I think there's a lot of intrigue here because it's like a new wave of contender that's been very, very impressive on the way up. So I don't know, at least in my head, I give Topuria more of a chance than I gave Volcanoski, than I gave Rodriguez. But you know, I don't want to spend too much time on that, dive into that as the fight gets closer. But Anaheim was the announcement from Dana, so that's pretty cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, no, it's a great spot. Are you going to be in attendance for that one?
Speaker 1:No, I won't, I probably not. I mean, you never know. Sometimes I get a late call to like go support and do other things and it's not too far away. So maybe, but probably not, Okay, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like that fight. Otherwise, on the news, we got Gordon Ryan injured out of the. Fight Pass Invitational Five. That's a blow. That really is Because that fight.
Speaker 1:Tell me about the Fight Pass Invitational real quick, if you could. About like as a jujitsu practitioner and expert, is it looked at? As I know, they're punching up and trying to make it the events in the jujitsu world, and this one was supposed to have GSP returning and Gordon Ryan competing on the same card, and so this one probably would have been top of the heap in terms of any profile of a jujitsu card event. Whatever, Right.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, that was when GSP was first announced to be on this card. It was one of those things where, okay, this could finally usher the sport of jujitsu into a real mainstream, capturing a lot of the MMA fan base, getting them involved in watching a jujitsu card that has world-class talent on it that they could then become invested in. But then two also seeing one of the legends of MMA compete in a sport that isn't boxing. And I think that Gordon Ryan versus Mason Fowler once GSP got injured he's still gonna be there in commentary Once that was going to be a main event. That is a matchup that Gordon has not had before against a dude who won the first absolute tournament at the Fight Pass Invitational two that was supposed to be setting up, basically a contender for Gordon.
Speaker 2:And as far as the Invitational goes, it is the owned and operated jujitsu event of the UFC. It's not the prestige of ADCC. It's not accepted to be the Olympics of jujitsu at this point. But if you're talking about the Fight Pass Invitational, you're talking about world-class production being invested into the sport of jujitsu and the ability to bring in guys like Nikki Rod, guys like Nicholas Mergale, guys like Craig Jones, Fleet Pena, Gordon Ryan, the best in the world to compete under one roof, and the absolute tournament that they've been putting on for the last few events has been fantastic. Nikki Rod beat Big Dan Montessuio in this most recent one for the absolute tournament finale in one of the most dramatic arbor escapes that I've ever seen. Wow, that was a. It puts jujitsu on a world stage in a way that there just isn't distribution otherwise for at this point.
Speaker 1:Right right.
Speaker 2:And there's been a lot of conversation getting built up around it, and this event is still a great event. It's got a lot of great matches on it, but not having Gordon on top of the card with Mason Fowler definitely is a blow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it just it takes some of the crossover appeal Like I, you know, like and I'll check it out because I like watching it and TJ DeSantis will announce it and like obviously I'm entrenched in the fight past team so I support what they do. But yeah, like, like Gordon Ryan competing, like I haven't actually, you know, sat there and watched Gordon Ryan yet, but like he made some headlines because he called the way that he was going to win. What was that? A flow grappling. And he was like I'm going to win by this and I'll show you. And he did. And then he's like he's that arrogant, I'm the greatest of all time. But he's backed it up, he's got the incredible win streak.
Speaker 1:So but I will look forward to Gordon competing on UFC fight pass. That will happen. The deal with GSP is still in place, it'll just happen to happen. And maybe they put those two on the first card of next year whenever they can return, so it can make a splash. Also thought it was cool that Anthony Smith fought Glover to share. Like you can get that UFC crossover to see and that exists elsewhere too, but to have it be the UFC fight pass event for that Pretty cool. Rough news that Gordon's out and GSP is still on the commentary team, so that's coming up in December. All right, let's get to the middleweight little grand prix. We're at nearly 50 minutes spent, turns out. We can talk about stuff.
Speaker 1:Turns out, we have a good little rapport here. Okay, so middleweight breaking news last week main event February 10th at the Apex, joe Piper will fight Jack Hermansen in a five round main event. This is very much the next step in the Joe Piper hype train and he's getting the chance to join the top 10. I'm gonna pull up the top 10 rankings. Can you pull up the top 10 rankings, spence? And we'll get that on the screen so you can play a little matchmaker in the middleweight division, cause I think it's there's just a lot of fresh, fun matchups, new names in the mix. So here we go at middleweight. Sean Strickland is the champ and as we go down, so Adesanya says he's gonna be out a while. Spence, right. And then Drickus is gonna fight Strickland in January, right. So we got Whitaker, cannonier, vittori Costa, brendan Allen, hamzachimayev in the top 10, all without a fight. Hermansen's at 10, joe Piper's gonna fight him in February. That'll be a bit of clarity, but that's kind of a 10 to 15 situation for now.
Speaker 1:Robert Whitaker was to fight, I believe, roman D'Elize, right? Wasn't that the matchup at UFC Austin this week? Yep, but there was an injury there, can it no? Or was it? Cannonier was supposed to fight D'Elize Cannonier was supposed to fight D'Elize at UFC Austin that didn't happen. Paolo Costa was supposed to fight Hamzachimayev and Abu Dhabi that didn't happen. And then Robert Whitaker has been out since. He fought Drickus du Plessis at International Fight Week and he got finished in the second round, and that's why GDP is getting the title shot. Brendan Allen is now an entry okay, and Hamzachimayev is off of a win in the middleweight division over Kamar Usman. I am glad that they didn't rush him into a title shot. Just, I think a lot of people would have had a problem with a welterweight beating a welterweight and then fighting for the middleweight title when he wasn't in the top 10. What do we think D'Elize is fighting? Who's D'Elize fighting? He's got a fight coming up.
Speaker 2:Don't believe he has a fight book.
Speaker 1:Let me check this really quick Check out who D'Elize is fighting.
Speaker 2:He was meant to fight Jared Canoneer at one point.
Speaker 1:D'Elize is fighting Nasordini Mavov. That's what I just had to scroll down. So, that's a 7-12, and that's early next year. I think it's sometime in February, and I don't know if it's a main event or not. I think they're still kind of deciding on that, not really sure. Is that correct, though? Spence Fact check? Let me know if I'm wrong on that.
Speaker 1:But I believe that just got announced in Mavov, or it's rumored Mavov is gonna fight D'Elize. What we have is Whitaker, canoneer, vittori Costa, brendan Allen, hamzachimayev you got six names there, spence right and obviously some they could fight down. I don't think Brendan Allen should have to fight down. Gastilum's at 11,. He's fighting at welterweight Sean Brady this weekend. Paul Craig's at 13,. He just lost Chris Curtis. Chris Curtis's got a fight too. Who's Curtis fighting? That's another one I gotta figure out. Apparently he's got a fight in January, I believe on the pay-per-view in Toronto. The question to me-.
Speaker 2:Mark Andre Berio is who he's fighting there we go Mark Andre Berio.
Speaker 1:So he's fighting out of the rankings. The question to me is do we keep the Paulo Costa Hamzachimayev match up together and figure out a date and location, or do we move on from that right now and test Chimayev against somebody else? The other question is Brendan Allen's at eight. Who does he fight? How high up in the rankings do you give him, knowing that they're all fresh matchups for Brendan Allen? Now there's also a factor of Chimayev is a big money fight and a big spotlight. We're going to Saudi Arabia in March.
Speaker 1:Hamzachimayev I don't have no inside baseball in this, but like Hamzachimayev's probably fighting in Saudi Arabia. It's like almost a definite. I don't know how much you'll see Hamzachimayev fight in the United States due to different factors, but so let's say Chimayev's fighting in Saudi Arabia in a high profile spot either a co-main event, main event, maybe on that card, probably not a main event, though probably a co-main event or some sort of featured fight on what's going to be a big fight night card in Saudi Arabia. What do you think? Spence, you put him against Costa over there and try to keep that together. Is that a fight that you want to see enough? Well, you know.
Speaker 2:So Chimayev has fought what Twice in the last two years, both times in Abu Dhabi, and let's just keep that trajectory going forward for the future. The Paulo Costa matchup was originally was set six months in advance At first. It was then broken up to get Iqra'a-Malaskev off a matchup with Paulo Costa. That then got broken up and rebooked with Chimayev. So it's clear that they want to see this matchup with Hamzat Chimayev and Paulo Costa, and that would reveal a lot about Hamzat's chances at middleweight if you put him up against a guy like Paulo Costa. But I think that what would be even more interesting is a matchup between Robert Whitaker and Paulo Costa. Both of them are dudes who have fought Israel, adesanya and lost.
Speaker 2:They are both top tier middleweights and I just think that stylistically that matchup brings a lot to the table. Otherwise I would have Hamzat Chimayev go and fight Jared Kananier. I think if you're trying to legitimize Hamzat Chimayev at middleweight, it's pretty hard to deny him if he gets a win over Jared Kananier. Do you agree with either of those two bookings?
Speaker 1:So Whitaker Costa? I like it right. Yes, whitaker Costa. And then what was the other one.
Speaker 2:I liked Shemayev and Kananir.
Speaker 1:Shemayev against Kananir, nine versus four, and then that leaves Vittori to fight Brendan Allen.
Speaker 2:That's, and you know what Brendan Allen has lost twice in the UFC. That was first to Sean Strickland and then to Chris Curtis, and if you could book him against Marvin Vittori, that completes the trifecta. All three of those guys train at Extreme Couture in Las Vegas and they're all teammates. I think that a real test for Brendan Allen would be against guys who know how to have success against him, and I think Vittori would represent that. I think that it would build up some heat with Sean Strickland, if that's what he's looking for, and I think that that could be a really good step for Brendan Allen moving forward.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't hate any of those matchups Kosta Whitaker, kananir Shemayev, vittori Brendan Allen I don't hate it.
Speaker 2:Spence Now. Is it a problem that Kananir would have to wait until we go to Abu Dhabi?
Speaker 1:Or Saudi Arabia in March. So I mean, he was supposed to be in Austin and he, I think the injury was on his side, so I don't think that's a big problem. You know, it's March 2nd. It's going to come pretty quickly, like all of a sudden we're going to blink, it's going to be the end of the year and then you're talking eight weeks out from March 2nd essentially. So I don't think that that's enough. That's too long to ask Kananir to stay on the shelf.
Speaker 1:I think what's exciting is, like the first six months of next year is going to bring a lot of middleweight movement in a good way. I also something just when Brendan Allen won his last fight over Paul Craig and he looked as great as he did, I think the timeline works and I think the nastiness work. I think it would really help Brendan Allen and his star potential, if he's going to win this fight, to go to Saudi Arabia and fight Hamzat Shemayev. Like, for some reason, I want to see that fight. I think Allen, he's kind of to himself, he's not a big trash talker, but I think he's kind of starting to feel that Like I think he's just starting to be like super confident in who he is and really like buying all the things that he brings to the table as a real contender for the belt, because, like he's a guy again, like like Armand Sarukyan, 27 years old, you know, brendan Allen, I think he's 27. I think he's going to turn 28 years old in December.
Speaker 2:A lot of experience too, yeah.
Speaker 1:A lot of experience broken to the UFC. Young has largely won his way up and earned his way into this spot. The only problem is, like he's eight, should he have to fight nine? No, but like, would you rather fight six? Or like would you rather fight Marvin Vittori on a fight night card and a headliner at the apex or in? You know something like that? Or is it better for his career to go to Saudi Arabia to fight Hamzat Shemayev and get a win on a big, high profile card in what would, no doubt about it, be a massive fight, high profile fight? Maybe they make it five rounds type of co-main event type of thing?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think so. I think it's either for Brendan.
Speaker 1:Allen. But I do like your idea because I like mixing in old versus new in terms of who we've seen at the top of the heat for a while and who's upcoming. So, like Whitaker, costa is kind of guys that have been there and circling, like I don't hate. Yeah, it's tough because like Whitaker has fought Kananir, he's fought and beat Vittori, and then all of a sudden are you asking Whitaker at three to fight Brendan Allen at eight or Hamzat Shemayev at nine. That might be like a little disrespectful to a former champion like that, but again, they're like high profile fights. I mean, maybe the best fight to reinvigorate Whitaker's career, if he wants to be a title challenger again, is to beat Hamzat Shemayev impressively.
Speaker 2:That's something that we haven't discussed here. I mean between those three matches. For what would you think about Allen versus Robert Whitaker? I mean you said that it might be a little disrespectful, so if you're Allen, would you take that over? Hamzat Shemayev fight, for instance.
Speaker 1:Allen versus Whitaker. I like a lot on the road Like you give Whitaker. I don't know when we're going to Australia next year, but we're definitely going at some point, I think maybe multiple times. So Brendan Allen gets a chance to step up and I don't know if it's a fight night headline against Robert Whitaker in the middleweight main event as eight trying to get himself in the top five. And then for Whitaker, you ask him after he got finished to, after all these years, defend his spot in the top five and give the opportunity to one of these up and coming guys like hey, you're going to get the home game. We're going to give you your flowers in Australia. You've performed well there, largely. But now you know we're going to see what's what with Brendan Allen. I don't hate that matchup either.
Speaker 2:I like the idea.
Speaker 1:So I like, I like. I like Whitaker versus Costa, because it's two guys that have been there, done that. Cost is just such a wildcard man. You don't know what you're going to get. You know how motivated he is. Is he going to make way, like, do you put him on a pay-per-view card or do you? He's certainly a big enough drawer. You can headline him. We're going to Brazil at some point next year. I think in the first half of the year he probably could just sit out and headline Costa. Or is he only a pay-per-view guy? Because he's that big of a name and his fights are exciting and he's fought for a title before Chamiah's let's say Chamiah's fighting in Saudi Arabia and the question is do you give him Brendan Allen next to him in the rankings or, more likely, maybe more likely do you give him somebody in the top five to boost him up?
Speaker 1:Right, I almost like the idea of three through five. Those guys that have been around fighting those eight, nine, right, like, give the opportunity to a guy like Allen, who's on a very impressive wind street, and a guy like Chamiah, who's got major star power. Do they get a chance to jump into the top five by fighting a Marvin Vittoria if you're Brendan Allen, jared Canoneer if you're Hamza Chamiah. I don't hate any of those matchups. I think the first one, the first trio that you put together, might make the most sense.
Speaker 2:Well, I like what you're laying out here old versus new top guys versus seven, eight, nine right now, just because I have a feeling that the guys like Chamiah and Allen are going to meet up later on down the road. Anyway, I think if they continue in their trajectory the way, they are right now.
Speaker 1:Very true, don't burn that match right now, exactly, yeah.
Speaker 2:I think that that will manifest possibly in a much bigger matchup later on down the road.
Speaker 1:anyway, yeah, and then like so let's keep in mind too, I imagine, that Joe Piper is going to be the betting favorite against Jack Hermansen. So, like as we're looking on the screen here, seven is Roman Dooliidze, who's going to fight Nasrudini Mavov, eight, brendan Allen. Nine, hamza Chamiah. 10. Jack Hermansen, for the moment could be Joe Piper in another three, four months, and then all of a sudden, like you have a really fun batch of possible fresh matchups between new contenders and veteran contenders. Yeah, yeah, I mean I'm in the middleweight.
Speaker 2:a lot right now. Yeah, middleweight is very exciting right now. And one other one that I'm curious to get your thoughts on this, because it seems like they're taking the I don't know, for lack of a better word Sean O'Malley route with Bo Nickel. What about? What would you think about Dooliidze and Bo Nickel at this point?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't hate that. I mean, dooliidze's got to get through Nasrudini Mavov. I do want Bo Nickel to fight somebody ranked. Like I just like it's time, right. He's been on the roster for a year. He hasn't fought too much.
Speaker 1:He's already saying, like I have better wrestling than everybody I would beat Hamzat Chimayev, so let's throw him in there, right. Like like I think it's time, you know. And like the cards haven't fallen his way in terms of matchups and, like you said, like they're being careful of them, you don't want to throw them against somebody that's going to take the wind out of his sails. But at the same time, like at what point is it time to test him against somebody? And like you got Anthony Hernandez in the top 15. I think Bo Nickel should have his chance to join the top 15. And that's no slight of fluffy Hernandez, but it's just like Bo Nickel, he's a pay-per-view only guy. Like they want him to fight in front of Trump in Las Vegas on the biggest cards of the year. Let's give him somebody. Let's give him somebody here, you know.
Speaker 2:I agree. Yeah, you hear people coming out saying Bo Nickel could beat anybody in the world right now and once it's gone.
Speaker 1:Yo, how about Bo Nickel against Chimayev in Saudi Arabia?
Speaker 2:One of those guys has got to sink or swim and whoever does gets immediately shot to very, very high stratosphere as far as star power goes. The only thing is with that matchup I mean you're saying right now Chimayev is facing issues because he beat a welterweight to get into the middleweight rankings. Now you're having a beat an unranked middleweight. Does that shoot him higher up the card? I don't know if we're talking about who's what the promotion wants. Both of those guys are A-list names. I think that.
Speaker 1:I would love to see that. Honestly, that's me talking out of my ass in terms of that matchup.
Speaker 2:That will not happen.
Speaker 1:I think they'll continue to give Bo Nickel regardless of opponent. They'll give him kind of supportive environments. I don't think they'll send them on the road to Abu Dhabi to fight you know somebody over there to fight Hamzad in Saudi Arabia. They're not going to do that to him quite yet. Maybe they will in the future, who knows?
Speaker 2:Just remember they're all chasing Sean Strickland, oh man, sean Strickland.
Speaker 1:All right, what else have we got here? You know what? Let's go to some list of our mail.
Speaker 1:Let's go to Ask the Fits and we'll wrap up the show on that so we don't take up too much of everybody's day. The reason why it's called Ask the Fits is because somebody sent me a message on Instagram, got in the old DMs and said can I get some? Can I get some tips from the FITs for a first-time MMA commentator? And I was just like, oh, the FITs. And then people in the comments said I like it. I think tips with the FITs is a cool segment name, whatever. So ask the FITs and send me in whatever questions you have. This can be about MMA, this can be about UFC, this can be about hockey.
Speaker 1:A huge hockey fan right Grew up playing my son's playing. Now I'm back at the rink all the time and I love it and Safe Side would give me this Boston hockey sweatshirt. Shout out Coach Safe. So ask me about sports, ask me about life, ask me whatever you want. Slide in the DMs, comment on YouTube, whatever. I tend to see what the interaction is with anybody out there listening and watching and asking me stuff. So ask in all forms. I'm easy to track down on social media and otherwise Spence. We've got a few. Read both of them. Read both of them because they're kind of in the same mind frame. I'll give a quick wrap up on it, but really what I want this segment to be is more like this is your anybody who's listening or watching this, is your permission slip to ask me whatever? Ok, go ahead, spence.
Speaker 2:OK, Ask the FITs. This is Drew Elder from Instagram. Do you have any suggestions for someone trying to break into MMA commentary? I'd love to do what you do. I fought before on the amateur circuit. I was a radio TV major in college and I still currently train Jiu-Jitsu as well. Just curious if you have any advice for someone trying to accomplish a dream of doing what you do. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:There we go. Ok, so that's Drew Elder from Instagram. And then what's the next one?
Speaker 2:We've got Jill via Instagram as well or Gil hey Brennan. I'm only 17. I train and I've been really passionate about it, and I'm at the point where I want to get a job in the world of MMA and do something similar to you. What was your pathway to success?
Speaker 1:All right. So I'm going to put a clip up of this from a previous episode Spence. As you know, I answered this right. I do these three things to kind of start down the path to what I want to do. What would you say? Because you're carving a path a little bit in the media, like you worked for the UFC. You're on the media side. You're not in front of the camera so much yet in calling events, but I got to tell you folks out there, I don't know what it takes. Here's what it took for me to be a UFC commentator.
Speaker 1:It took being an ESPN broadcaster that was looking for a job that got laid off, but I had proven that I was in the upper echelon of being a sports broadcaster, studio host, play-by-play, whatever. That's how you get the audition. You don't get the audition by calling up the UFC and saying do you have any jobs available? Or like, hey, I trained Jiu-Jitsu and I'd really love to call fights, blah, blah, blah. Like you got to have experience, like they want the best of the best. So I always tell people don't be the fan that says I just want to work for the UFC, I'll be a janitor. It's just like guess what? We're not looking for janitors. We don't want fans that just want to be inside the building. That won't be fulfilling to you and it doesn't help our business.
Speaker 1:If you want to be a PR person for the UFC, well then go out and be a badass PR person. Like go be some of the best PR people, person, whatever on the planet. Carve your path up working for a college, small university, minor league teams, all that other stuff. If you want to be in sports PR and then after a certain point you're like, hey, I'm a huge UFC fan and this is my PR resume, then you got a pretty decent shot. That's what you have to be. So that's like my overarching thing is like whatever you want to do, whatever you want to be for the UFC, you have to be world class at that. In the same way, if you want to be a team doctor for an NFL team, you better be a pretty freaking good doctor. If you're a bad doctor that has little training but you're a huge Vikings fan, vikings don't want you. If you don't know anything about the NFL but you're like a guru on sports, injuries and athletic medicine, then that's who wants you. So that's like my simple way for any teenager or any college student or whatever that's like into Jiu-Jitsu.
Speaker 1:We don't want fans like fans help. Like I got like you, spencer, like help that you trained Jiu-Jitsu. We're into MMA, love the UFC, but your skill set gets you in the door. And then your skill set coupled with being a huge fan but there's a lot of UFC fans out there that would love to make their living in the UFC, especially calling fights. I get this question like a billion like this is the question I get the most. So when you're sending questions, don't send in this question because I've already answered it on past podcasts and like here's, but I just wanted to address it because I had these messages and I was going through my Instagram messages over the weekend. But it's like and again I'll put it on my YouTube channel.
Speaker 1:I basically listed three things in the past of like what you can do. Number one is you got to love broadcasting more than you love any particular sport. Number two, you got to go get some sort of training, like kind of formal. Doesn't have to be a four year prestigious university. You don't have to go to Harvard and rack up $200,000 in student loans. You don't have to go to Syracuse Newhouse School of Broadcasting or Arizona State or some of those bigger broadcasting schools. But it sure does help when you go to a program like that and you can cover college sports at a high level and then you can apply it to like the area of what you like the most and then start a side project Me and Spencer yapping on a podcast Like it really doesn't take any extra training to turn your phone at yourself and start making videos.
Speaker 1:Spencer does that on his Instagram on BJJshack. He's starting to make Jiu Jitsu content because he's into Jiu Jitsu. He wants to start a Jiu Jitsu gym. He wants to have a coaching program. He wants to pursue a career in the world of Jiu Jitsu. So he's starting it now because there's no excuse not to. So those are the three things and that's what I got. Spence on those.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, similar answers to the last time, but true nonetheless. Yeah.
Speaker 1:All right, Spence. Hey, can I say this was a heck of a lot of fun. Did you have fun, Spencer?
Speaker 2:Hey, it was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:A lot of fun, this is good, right, thanks for being my co-host. Production help. Spence has been chopping up Instagram reels and TikToks behind the scenes for me for several months now six months or more, something like that. So excited to get the camera on you, spence. I said like, yeah, let's go 30 to 50 minutes and we went an hour, 10 or thereabouts. So we'll work on our brevity maybe in the future, but we'll be back next Monday.
Speaker 1:Here's my hope for next Monday. I'll be fresh off at UFC Austin. We'll recap all the happenings, maybe look ahead to the Shanghai Card. I'll probably have some fun stories from the road and we'll try to sprinkle in an interview I'm calling the event with Bisping and Daniel Cormier. Megan O'Levy will be part of our crew as well and obviously there's going to be a bunch of big name fighters around. I'm going to touch base with Calvin Cater. So next week we'll probably sprinkle in an interview in the 10 to 15 minute length, in addition to our UFC Austin recap, and we'll see how this new version of fits nation goes. Spence, what do you think?
Speaker 2:Sounds like a plan my man have some fun in Austin, everybody.
Speaker 1:Thanks, buddy.
Speaker 2:It was a pleasure.
Speaker 1:Thank you very much. All right, so special thanks to Spencer Shackle, new co-host, producer, whatever we want to call him. I've also talked about before I get too long winded having a UFC fighter kind of join as like a rotating co-host. So plans are in the works, folks, and until next time for Spencer, brendan Fitzgerald's here. Thank you, as always, for watching, listening to FITS Nation, and I'll talk to you soon.