[music] Hello and welcome to The Hammer. I'm your host Dave. Join us always by my good friends. Greg, how's it going guys? And of course, Steve. Hey. So you're listening to us live at 93.3 CFMU, and you can also find us on the web at thehammermma.com, as well as on iTunes, as The Hammer. So feel free to check us out. Maybe subscribe to our shows. We'd appreciate it. It's free. It is free. So with that being said, we've got an interesting show for you this week. We've got some news and some previews and reviews. Yeah, all sorts of stuff. The timing is a little strange this week because we're on the air on Wednesday nights. We have the ultimate fighter, the new season of the Ultimate Fighter starting a week today. So we're going to preview the card now because by the time we do our show next week, we'll admit it. Yeah. Yeah, so let's go forward with the show. We're going to start with some news, maybe some news. And Steve, what do we have in the news this week? All right, not a ton going on this week, but Vidor Belfort, it's called James Tony for a boxing match. Not a smart, Justin Garbage, what are you going to say? I think it's Garbage. I mean, Vidor thinks he's a better boxing than he is because he's been in a professional boxing match. But he's only been in the one. And I mean, like, to my mind, now that the boxing MMA debate has been settled with MMA winning, there's no way that Dada's going to say in one of his guys to a boxing ring to get pummeled by James Tony. Yeah, to put his credibility if it is. To get boxing in one bag. And to get boxing money because it's going to be a boxing pay review. I mean, did boxing get a cut of the last UFC pay review? Well, not only that, but like-- James Tony got a big cut. Yeah, well, exactly. But even with that being said, if you're going to send one guy to go take on James Tony in a boxing match, I don't even know Vidor Belfort's the guy you'd send. Yeah, Vidor Belfort, he's a good striker for MMA. He's got fast hands. But I mean, in terms of if I was going to pick a striker to take on James Tony in a striking match, Vidor is known to be wild and undisciplined and vulnerable to counterpunching. This is not the guy he picked against James Tony. Regardless, it's not going to happen anyway. Yeah, so-- So he just has asked because he doesn't have a title fight anymore, and he needs some pub. Well, he's going to have something to do because he's been on the shelf for now a year and a half, two years. The guy-- he's a professional fighter. He hasn't been paid. He's an exclusive contractor you've seen and they've been not given the matches. Now, he does have a number one contenders match, likely, against Yushin O'Kami coming up. But, I mean, that's time away, and that's after a year and a half. And that's-- he's going to get his show and win bonus, but he's definitely not going to get a cut of pay review. Guy's got to eat. Yeah. Although his wife is a famous celebrity in producers, I'm sure she's probably-- she's original for the both of them. Oh, fair enough. Good for him. Yeah. UFC has changed their minds. We were talking a week or two ago about if they want to start a New Year's Eve tradition, like they have in Japan, where they have a card on New Year's Eve. Hoping everyone will stay home, drink, and buy it. Didn't work last year. Yeah. Well, they decided that it's not going to be New Year's Eve. It's going to be January 1st, the Saturday. Which way? It's only going against one bowl game, which I'm not sure which bowl game that is. But it's a much better idea. And the original plan was Anderson Silva versus Chelsea. Sonnen would take place on that card. Anderson Silva won't be healthy in time, so they'll need the new main event. Silva versus Sonnen 2 will be in February now. I'm looking for that. January 1st, I mean, everyone goes out on New Year's Eve, but on New Year's Day, everyone is kind of in recovering. Yeah, you've been sitting around a hangover all day, and nothing was. I recovered for multiple days after New Year's Eve. But UFC coming on at 10 PM, you'll be ready for it. I'd like to hear the hangover, yeah. And no one's going out New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, night. Yeah, particularly because if you're working, you may have to work the second or the third. It's not like I think it's really open. This is kind of strange. Kendall Grove announced that he's going to be fighting Damian Maya at the ultimate fighter 12 finale in December. It's a bit of a step up for Grove, wouldn't you say? Yeah. Considering Maya just came off a win, too. This will probably be the main event to that show. Well, they're looking for something for Maya to do, because he's in a weird place in the division now. He's a top-ranked fighter, but there's no one for him as a dance partner right now. And then Kendall Grove, as much as he's coming off a loss to Munos, he had won a couple of fights before that. He's a good guy from an ultimate fighter that they're going to put on that card. Why not put him with someone? And these are two guys that are best known for their Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, so it's actually kind of an OK style match up. Yeah, might actually be exciting. Not with that being said. I mean, like, Damian Maya is going to destroy it. Oh, Damian Maya is going to destroy it. In a Jiu-Jitsu match against Kendall Grove, I wouldn't be calling out Damian Maya for Jiu-Jitsu match. That's not what I'd be doing, but-- I think this will just be good career rehab for Damian Maya. Yeah. Carole Parisian is coming back. I'm actually excited to do the UFC. I'm actually a little bit disappointed. Dana said he was never coming back after his previous issues, but-- Yeah, he has different types of issues from some people, though. He has, like, nerve issues, and he has some drug issues, as well, but things like real confidence in nerve issues and mental problems, which-- He didn't punch a guy after the bell. Yeah, like, Paul Daly is cut for life, because he punched somebody after the bell. He punched the organization. But Carole Parisian, he's not really very stable. He's not very stable, yeah. Well, I mean, when you have a guy who's mentally unstable and has flaked on a couple different cards-- Which he has. --in his cost money. You feel it on the same day off a card. But it's not like this is Lesnar no-showing. Yeah, that didn't affect the buy rate in any way is what you're saying, right? Yeah, but Carole, when he was no-showing, was actually on the main card as part of the event. He wasn't in a really a match. And they were like, oh, well, let's call. Let's go to an open casting call and get an amateur fighter in here to take a spot. This was a guy who was on a mean, advertised card against an opponent he had called out. Yeah, he messed up for sure. But I still say, no buys were lost by Carole Parisian not being on-- And I'm not taking this point of view. I'm just sort of throwing it out there. But he had a mental health issue. How about somebody losing not showing up for a fight because they have a knee injury? I mean, in a lot of ways, I mean, this is a health issue. It is true. And if he's better, if they believe in him now, maybe-- Well, yeah, they had to have gone through some psychological testing, and he's had to have done some rehab. I'm sure the guy has rehabilitated himself to some degree, enough of a degree that Dana will let him come back. I think Dana does his homework on guys. I agree with that. But I mean, the thing with-- if you have an injured knee, you can go to a doctor and get that fixed in a couple months. If you have a mental health issue in as much as you're not stable enough to fight professionally, that's not something you fix in a couple months. You know, that's the years of therapy and counseling. It's not like he tried to kill someone in the ring, though. I mean, he just no showed. Oh, he didn't try to kill anyone in the ring, but he's always had an issue with not having the nerves necessary to fight. And I mean, I all but guarantee you that as this fight gets closer and closer, carapriaging being carapriaging, his nerves will go again. It's very possible. And I mean, even if he managed to get through this fight, there's still a fight after that. So he's still got his contract. I can guess like, well done for getting Dana to give you another shot again. After the times you've wasted the shots you've had previously before that, after you score one of the shots before those, but I mean, I'm personally, I feel that Dana that carapriaging does not have the mindset of a fighter. And I don't think he ever will. And I don't think he ever there's anything that to be done about that other than to say, you know-- Not the shark fights with you. We love you, but Paul Daly is waiting in shark fights. Don't keep him waiting. So you assume he's going to miss this fight? I assume that either he comes into this fight, has a very desultory performance, and goes out blaming his nerves. Or it comes into this fight, wins in a desultory fashion, and falls apart in his next fight. But he's going to fall apart eventually. It is Caro. I like-- like with my Strike 4's guarantee, I guarantee you that within the next 12 months, we will be reporting on, oh, and Caro Praisian has gone crazy again. He's back to using. He's back to no showing events. He's back to not going to press conferences. He's ditching aerial hole on. He's not taking calls from Dana. The only person he's talking to is his drug dealer, Rita. [LAUGHTER] Yeah, like-- Yeah, he's the Lindsey, he's the Lindsey Lohan of the UFC. There's only so many flops your career can take before you get exiled to the celebrity of life, whatever the real world. This should be his last strike. Yeah, there's only three strikes in your out of the US. This is his fourth or fifth. I mean, I'm done with Caro and the stories to me. I have nothing more to comment on it. Keep in mind, though, 12 months, and we'll be telling you stories about him doing coke off on some Spanish dude's bod. [LAUGHTER] You can tell that story. [LAUGHTER] It's going to be exciting to talk to you. I guarantee you that that's OK. On that note, I think we need to move a lot of the news. On that note, UFC ref, Eve Levine. He made some comments this week that he said in the press that Josh Koshchek was afraid to stand with Paul Daley and that there's-- because he's got such-- if he stand up, there's no way he built a knockout with GSP. Oh, there's a surprise. Koshchek responded, and I actually kind of agree with this. UFC referee Eve Levine is clearly not suited to be a referee after his rant of personal attacks and opinions on me as a fighter. It's supposed to be his job to look at a fight on bias. How can anyone trust this guy to fairly referee any fight ever again after his comments? He will never ref one of my fights again. Oh, yeah, for sure. I mean, technically. I agree too. And also, I mean, it's not like Eve Levine is a perfect record as a referee. That's fair. Well, but with that being said, I mean, Eve Levine is not the first ref to say, oh, this is what I think of a guy's fighting style. John McCarthy has done that as well. And Herb Dean was a professional fighter himself. Predicting upcoming fights. And I don't like it. I don't like it either if you were refing that match. If I thought he had money on the match and he was refing it, like Pete Rose, and by all means. But he could be refing the match. And he could be refing a Koshchek fight in the future. He's refights from now. But I mean, at this point-- Koshchek would have to lobby to get Eve Levine taken out of the match. But-- Lesnar did with Maza Gotti. He could still be assigned to those fights. There are fighters that have said, hey, this guy can't rough my matches. As Lesnar has done with Steven-- They should have to do that. You really want to make a habit of that? Yeah. But it's a dumb thing to say, and he shouldn't say it. It is a dumb thing to say. He should have said it. I'm just saying that-- I don't have a problem with him so much with him saying the commenting on a fight that's already happened. That's a matter of history. But saying, there's no way he's going to be GSP, as you're a ref. Just leave it alone. That's-- I mean, that is an issue. But as far as I remember, he did not ref the match with Daily. I believe that was Josh Rosenthal that ref that match. And as far as I know, he hasn't been tapped to ref the match with GSP or Koshchek because that match isn't his monster on the road. But it's in Montreal. And you know he'll be one of the refs there. He might be one of the refs there. And you actually just don't choose the refs there. That's a championship match. If anyone's getting that match, it'll be Dean, or it'll be McCarthy. I think the sets of bad trusts, though. I've got no issue with commenting on past fights or a matter of records. But this is just a dumb-- I'm saying a ref can have an opinion. There's, you know, it's a sport that keeps yourself publicly. Of course, everyone's going to-- you know, if her dean knows if he thinks Lesnar's going to win or not, he's not going to have an interview about it. And also, it's not like the athletic commission. I mean, you'd like to think that they would rank the refs based on quality. But according to them, all refs are created equal. That's why Mazagadi still has a job. Fair enough. Joe Loson and George Sutteropoulos have just been signed for UFC 123 in November. Nice. And this, in addition to being an awesome looking fight, should-- honestly, I mean, this is going to put a guy into the contender zone. Makes perfect sense. Sutteropoulos has been just below the cusp for a while now. And as far as Loson, he means he needs to be in there as well. Oh, yeah. This is going to be a really exciting fight. I'm going to enjoy this thoroughly. And then we move on to something I'm not really too pleased about. We got Todd Duffy, let go this week. It's a shame, because he had a lot of promise. He had a very promising athletic build. But I mean, in his actual fight with Russo, with Russo, Mike Russo, he did not impress. No, he didn't. He got knocked out. He had impressive technique. He just couldn't knock the guy out. He didn't question technique, but I mean, he got beaten in a very embarrassing fashion. And he's been-- after both his fights, he went out injured. Yeah, that's true. And Dana White's comment was that Todd's an ass. End quote. So I guess Dana's not a big fan of Todd Duffy. Well, Todd, after his fight with Tim Hague, when he knocked Hague out in the seven seconds, he had a kind of a very cutting interview after that. And I think people gave it a lot of focus. They were like, well, he's a huge guy. He's got huge potential, even if he's out injured with his back. Now he's coming off a knockout. You can't really be talking about us. But whatever Todd Duffy, I mean, I'm sure he'll be back in prelims at some point. Didn't he have a fight with Madison that he pulled out of? He got fired. That's why he's on the fight. Yeah. USC has been really gunning for the China market, the Chinese market. And so they signed-- the WC actually has signed Taekwon Zhang, who's from Beijing. And he's going to be the first guy to ever fight in a Zufa company, so UFC or WBC, who's actually from China. Cool. And 16 to 0, he trains with the China top team. We'll see how they do. I mean, I don't know what kind of-- China top team has actually had a very, very good success with training Olympic contenders, which is normally a very, very good indicator. I mean, if he has a good basing in wrestling, it's always a good start. He's got a good heads up, and he does have a good basing in wrestling. And his striking is not too bad. I mean, he's obviously a lighter guy, so they tend to be very well-rounded in general. But we can expect that if he's the first guy that Zufa's bringing over from China, they will definitely give him every opportunity. Yeah, he must be something. And if he's training with Chinese top team, he's going to have the right support structure. Now, with that being said, I believe Chinese top team still uses rings rather than cages. So there's always an adjustment for the Asian fighters that are coming over when they're getting used to the cage. But I guarantee you that Chinese top team will be grabbing everyone who knows how to fight in the cage and saying, let's help prep our fighter for this. Well, he's going to be our Yao Ming. He's going to be the guy that carries the flag into this. Although he's in WBC, not UFC. So I mean, it's as small as hell. Well, you've got to start with somewhere. But I mean, he's a smaller fighter as well. I believe he's competing in 135. We'll find out soon enough. It's September 30th, so on the upcoming WBC show. And well, Dave called it not that long ago, fighting entertainment groups, who is a company that owns K1 and Dream. They mentioned in an interview with MMA junkie this past week that promotion needs new investment money badly if they're going to continue past this year. Promoter Sataharu Tanigawa. He's trying to raise $230 million, claiming that it will be a declaration of war against the WWE and the UFC in Japan and in the Asian markets. Michael Kogan, who's FEG's US rep, he said, are you asking me if we're going to be in business after Dynamite, which is their New Year's Eve giant master show? And he's like, I don't know. Well, there you go. As I said, there's only certain ways that companies tend to fail. And the second you hear about companies mis-advertising, you can be sure that the next thing is the beginning, not paying fighters, which was the next step. And now they're looking for investment. They're looking for a white knight to try to bail about all their business. It isn't going to happen. There's no one with $230 million who's going to invest it in Dream. It's just not-- the return on investment is not going to equal $230 million in my opinion. No, there's no way. And even if it does, that's still not going to keep it afloat for-- I mean, honestly, a $230 million profit in, let's say, a 10-year period, UFC might probably do that. But that's not a common thing for much martial arts. $23 million is a lot of profit. I figure Dream's market of profit is probably maybe a million after a show. No one's investing for 230 shows to recoup their investment. OK, yeah. So let's go for it. All right, that looks like all the news. I think we're going to take a look at the Shark Fights Show coming up September 11th. Yes, actually two shows coming up. So Shark Fights is a new US promotion debut in September 11th. Oh, this is like their 11th or 13th one. They're 11th or 13th. Oh, I love this show actually. No, 13. So in any case-- How could I have missed such a promotion at Shark Fights? They're not well-known, but they do have some talent on it. They've got some fairly big name. They've imported Karen Durbadian from the W.C. after his being let go from there. They have Brock Larson on the main card versus Tarek Safidin, Joey Villsenior, and Danilo Villafort. But their big draws are in the welterweights Paul Daley, fresh from off not being paid and from the UFC Impact FC, or so the Australian New York Impact FC, will be taking you on George Musvidal. His hope will be that he gets paid. Not mine. I hope he gets screwed here too. So could you be making his return to take on Houston Alexander in light heavyweights? That'll actually be an OK bout. So could you like to try to mix it up with guys? That's what everyone said about Kimbo and Houston Alexander. Yeah, well, I mean, it's Shark Fights, so you can expect Alexander will circle a lot. As I stated before. And then Keith Jardine will take on Trevor Prangley in the main event. So the Dean of Mean makes his Shark Fights debut. You guys think Jardine can win that? He saw like a billion-fight loose streak, but-- I mean, it's Jardine versus Prangley. I think the only losers will be whoever watches this one. You know what, though, honestly, Jardine, when he's fighting someone who's not better than him, then it's usually a pretty good fight. The guys he's lost to are all pretty good. Yeah, I mean, Bader, a lot of guys have loose debater. In fact, the minute you have, no girl's brother is probably going to lose debater, but that's for another show. Well, and then we go forward to the ultimate fight night coming up on next Wednesday. Yeah, but tonight, that's what we record this. And unfortunately, because it'll be coming on after our show, we're going to preview it now so that we can do it. So the prelim card for Ultimate Fighter Fight Night 22 will be Brian Foster versus Forrest Petz, Anthony Woldeberger versus-- Forrest Petz. Great name. Great name. Tell me if I'm a Forrest Petz. Anthony Woldeberger versus Dave Mitchell. Timus Drywall, best known for receiving a devastating heel hook from Paul Harris, makes his return against Dave Branche. Now, that's a very big name. Dave Branche has a distinction of being the most 1960s looking fighter I've ever seen. However, he is a very good striker. And Drywall likes to strike too, so-- I think this would be all right. That'll be all came up. Branche was good to go in that last fight. He just got beat by Gerald Harris. He got powerbombed on his didn't he? Yes. Gerald, he's a good submission fighter. He went for an interesting submission. He tried to fly an arm bar, and Gerald Harris powerbombed him out of it. Yeah. He caught him against the case. Yes. He jumped up trying to grab an arm bar or a triangle choke from a standing position. And he got smashed. And he got smashed. Yeah. Eve's Edwards takes on John Guderson, Jared Hammond takes on Kyle Kingsbury, and making his return, Rich Antinito, a veteran of the last season of Ultimate Fighter, will be taking on Ruffale and Natal. Antinito is-- Not the tennis player, Natal. Yes, the other Natal. The other Natal. Antinito is a guy who was not defeated in the last season of Ultimate Fighter and got put out of it due to injury. He got a fight with Jamie Yagger and Beatham. They do have high expectations for Antinito. So keep an eye on this one. If he wins it, you'll see him on main cards or spike TV cards soon enough. Yeah. If he wins it, he's going to spike. Spike TV wins maybe 2-3 there, and it'll be on main TV. So then in the actual main card, Ross Pearson, a former winner of the Ultimate Fighter-- Yes. No time he's fighting again. That's one of your favorite fighters, Greg. Yep. Not just because of the last name. Actually, I do like his fighting. Yeah. Well, he's a good fighter, and he makes his return to take on Cole Miller, who is wins over Junie Browning, Leonard Garcia, and Jorge Grigal. Oh, lost Grigal. Grigal. He's lost to Ephrinus Guerrero, but Ephrinus Guerrero is a very good smothering wrestler. Pearson is not. Pearson likes to box. So this will be a stand-up war. I do think Pearson will win. Then Jim Miller, who is only lost in the UFC, takes a goes to Gray Maynard, takes on Gleason Tibbo. Now Gleason has B. Uno Anir, but he's struggled against top competition, like Gileard, Joe Daddie, Stevenson, and Tyson Griffin. He's lost to a lot of the more elite competition he's bought, but both of these guys are good all around wrestlers. They've got BJJ. They're just these guys. Don't want to die. Gleason Tibbo has a tradition of choking against top guys. Miller, although he's not well-known yet, he's becoming a top guy. I pick him to win this over Tibbo. Now Tibbo does have a very solid wrestling game and a very solid build, but I don't think it's enough to carry him. They're well-rounded enough that I think it'll be an interesting fight, but I think Jim Miller's got it. Yeah, I agree. OK. So wrestling expert Ephrinus Guerrero makes his return to take on submission specialist Charles Levira. Levira is coming off only five weeks ago, an incredible submission of the night, Triangle Choke. His game off his back is extremely good, but Escadero's got a lot of wrestling, and he doesn't get put out by submission very often. What do you think this guy is? Well, I think this is going to be a clinic. This is going to be fine for sure with everything. I don't know if it'll be fine for the night, because it'll be a lot of groundwork, in my opinion. Yeah, there's going to be a lot of groundwork, and there's going to be a lot of wrestling. And I honestly think all of the areas going to put this away early. I think he's that good off his back. He showed it last time. I think he's getting lighter the night. Being that good off your back, though, doesn't necessarily work too well against a solid top control wrestler, which is what Escadero is. I think Escadero-- But he's good enough to counter it. True, but I do think that Escadero is going to be able to take this fight by decision. I think he's able to stay out of submissions and smother Olivia enough to take the fight to decision. Olivia area does have a great submission game off his back, but his wrestling game is suspect. I think that he will not be able to stay out of the shots and the top control and the side control that Escadero is good at. It's possible. I'm still going to call Olivia, though. But we'll agree to disagree, and we'll see what happens when we call the results of the fight. And then in the main event, Nate Marcourt makes his return against Winsor Marpala Harris. This is moved from one of the August cards, because they really needed a main event. And I think it's a pretty solid main event. And I think Marcourt was originally way back supposed to fight Zicara, and then it got changed to Paul Harris. Marcourt was forced to schedule the fight Alessio Zicara, and he pulled out due to the death in his family. They're looking for someone to give Marcourt a fight, and apparently they're trying to punish Paul Harris because of his brutal heel hook. Marcourt will punish you. If you let him punish, Marcourt gets a crap idea. So I can't wait. Marcourt's awesome. And it's been too long since he's fought. I mean, his last fight was Sonnen, right? Yes. And I mean-- He has to get himself back in the title contention. He does. And I think he will. That being said, Sonnen was able to punish him on the ground. And Paul Harris is a ground fighter as well. Sonnen was able to control him on the ground. Marcourt punished Sonnen from the bottom. Like, yes, Sonnen won the fight. Sonnen was on top. Sonnen worked, and earned it. But Marcourt made hamburger meat out of Sonnen's face. And-- And one of them is Paul Harris. Paul Harris-- Paul Harris. --was a Marcourt. Paul Harris is not Sonnen. He does not have the work ethic and the size. And he has submissions. That's true. But I-- Marcourt's taken this. Your call? Mark-- it's got to be Marcourt. Yeah. I'm going to have to agree. Marcourt has a really good wrestling game. I don't think Paul Harris can take him down as easily as he thinks he's going to. And Marcourt is an incredibly good striker. Paul Harris likes to think he's got good Mai Tai. Good Mai Tai, as Damian Maya learned, does not help you when the other guy is an extremely good counter-punching boxer. I think that Marcourt takes this one by grounded pound. Probably a second round. Yeah. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. It should be good. And immediately following that-- Comedic following that is the launch of Ultimate Fighter 12. This one is extremely interesting to us because GSP is going to be taking on cost check. Now, there's a lot of new fighters here. There are some fighters who tried out. This will be lightweights. Yeah, on all lightweights-- All lightweights? --they've brought in, I believe, light heavyweights and lightweights. But I guess maybe they just couldn't find enough-- Because they couldn't find enough good lightweights. So it's all lightweights. However, for lightweights, they found enough good ones that they turned away. Jason Guida, Cleggio's brother-- Really, again, yeah. --Charles Crazy Horse Bennett and Mike Button-- Probably for the best, yeah. So I mean, they definitely have a good cast of lightweights that they think have got a lot of potential. And I'm looking forward to this because I may be the only Canadian cost check fan, so-- Yeah, in fact, for this fight. I think-- I like cost check, but not against GSP. Well, GSP has got a really good team assembled here, including Phil Nurse, best known for helping coach Team Rampage or Team Rashad to victory over Team Rampage. Cost check has decided to go for a very rustling, heavy team, including Daniel Cormier. I think his strategy was going to be to get a lot of top control decision fighters. Yeah. He's going to try and win this, I think, quick. He's going to try and be GSP. Neither one's going to work. Well, GSP brings that camp with him. He's going to have some well-trained fighters. But a lot of it, too, is going to depend on the picks. Yeah. I think-- I mean, you never know who's going to get what these fighters are capable of, and you have to look for that. The coaching will only take you so far. Well, Team Rashad had really good picks. Phil Nurse knows how to pick them. Yeah. GSPs-- he knows how to listen. I think the GSP's got a good eye for fighters. Cost check-- he is a trainer for AKA, so he doesn't-- he's got to give them a grasp himself. Every one of these guys who trains with GSP and his guys is going to be a better fighter just from getting to train with such a high profile guys. Oh, yeah. And we're getting close to running out of time here, but it seems like we have a few minutes. We got some reader mail from Hitman Clark, who wanted to know our instant rematch is becoming a problem. Does Chael Sonja really deserve an immediate rematch? Yes. Absolutely. Well, actually, I'm going to have to disagree. I do think the instant rematches are becoming a problem. You can't have the same guy in the title hunt for more than a year. If you can't win the title, you've got to move them out. Yeah, but Chael Sonja deserves a rematch. Well, here's why I think the difference is. Shogun got the instant rematch because there was extreme judging controversy, and many people thought that Shogun won. Chael Sonja-- even Chael Sonja knows that he lost that match. There are other guys who want to fight Anderson Silva, notably Veed or Belfort, but also Damian Maya and Nate Markhart. Sonja lost the match fair and square. I think he needs to go and have another warm up match, another title contender match, like you'd expect, and moving another contender. But don't you think people are going to want to see Sonja and Silva, too? I agree that people are going to see Sonja and Silva, too. But they don't need to see it the next fight. Anderson Silva, as much as I wanted Sonja to win this fight, Anderson Silva won the fight. He won it fair and square. What's going to make your company more money, though? Silva Markhart, Silva Maya, or Silva, Sonja? Well, but the thing with Silva, Sonja and II is going to make money if it's the next fight that Silva fights or if it's the fight after that. I don't think so. You've got to struggle with the iron taut. What if Silva develops a new rivalry with the guy he fights next? Well, I mean, Silva has an extremely good rivalry going with Damian Maya. Maya wants another crack at him. What I'm saying is you can't constantly give the same guy a shot after shot or for shot if he loses. You've got to start moving other guys into the pitcher. Well, there's been Silva, Sonja, and there's been Shogun Machita. Yes. And that's the two that are big ones. And Pan Edgar. And Pan Edgar. I see you take this on a case by case basis. And I don't see an immediate contender on their horizon for Silva. And also, Lidell and Coteur fought three times. Yes, but there was fights between those three fights. But then they fought two back to back, though. I believe it was-- The third one, yeah. I mean, it weren't all three, one, two, three. I believe it was the initial fight Randy Coteur won and won the title off of him. Lidell fought a tune-up fight after that, and then fought Randy Coteur coming back off as an injury in a rematch. Generally, you'd have to get a win to get your rematch. But in a case like this, I mean, who's next for Silva? Like, right at the top of your head. When you have to have Okami versus Bell 4 for your number one contender, may as well kill some time with Sunning, because people want to see it. And Bell 4-- I don't think Bell 4 is ready for Silva. He's just coming off an injury. He's not going to be a good fight. He's never won at that weight class. Yeah. Sunning, I mean, it's not like, oh, give the guy a rematch. It's, Sunning is the match that makes the most sense right now. Sunning is the match that makes the most sense, and that's why I'm fairly forgiving of this. But I don't like the trend of giving a lot of guys instant rematch. Oh, I'm not a big fan of the trend. You go with who-- I definitely think that B.J. Penn should not have had an instant rematch. He lost this title fair and square. And I think that people considered extremely close. I didn't think it was as close as everybody else seems to. But even if you granted a close match, it was still he lost the match fair and square, and even he admits it, Gray Mayner's been a way of sitting there on a title shot for over a year and a half now. But again, it does come down to what's going to make you the most money and who the fans want to see. Oh, I agree. I agree. And I mean, but the thing is, when you start making that as a decision-making factor, then you're giving me a certain match just to everyone, because the champions obviously have more fans. Like, if GSP loses a cost check, obviously, GSP is going to have more fans than Fitch is. But ultimately, even though I love GSP and I get very bored with Fitch fights, I'd have to say, hey, Fitch is there in the title shot, give GSP his tune up match. He doesn't get an instant rematch. Now, I mean, if he loses in a controversial fashion, like he beats cost check half to death. Cost check goes out on a stretcher. But then they're like decision victory for cost check. Then yeah, if it's actually referee error or judging error, give him the instant rematch. But if it's a legitimate loss, you have to go to the back of the line. That's something that's only a way to do it fair. I think it depends on the fight, whether you go to the back of the line or not. And as I said, it depends on if there's a contender ready. Yeah, who makes the most sense. There was a contender ready to go. And I mean, ultimately, even for Sonnen, there were contenders ready to go. So, I mean, you know, Belfort hasn't fought in close to two years now, because he's been in a contenders slot for the last two years. And I don't want to go somewhere. Yeah, he's injured. And unproven in the division. I think it gets taken on a case-by-case basis. In this case, specifically, that our reader asked a son in Silva, too. It's the right match for right now, but it's not always going to be the right thing to do to an immediate rematch. I don't like rematches, to be perfectly honest. I like things to be fresh. But in this case, it makes sense. It makes sense in this case, but I don't like it as a trend. Yeah, they do have to watch every stretch. When there's three of them in a year, it's a little bit much. You've got to counter that booking. You can't just say, well, BJ pens is more popular than Gray Maynard. So we're going to give him an incidental match. And Gray Maynard's going to have to wait. That's not fair to Gray Maynard. And it's ultimately not a fight to fair to BJ Penn, or to the fans, or to forget. Gray Maynard has earned his shot. He deserved to have it. I mean, he's going to get it now. But I mean, ultimately, if BJ Penn had won that match, Gray Maynard might have been on the back of the bus for another year, as Frank Yeager got an instant rematch. I mean, you have to draw the line somewhere. And I'm saying that as a trend, I don't like it, and they need to stop doing it. There's been exceptional through circumstances for three times that happened. Sure. But you've got to move past it. Yeah. So we're glad that people are sending us email questions. You can go to www.thehammermma.com and send us some questions. Or I'll go to our Facebook, all sorts of places. And next week, we are going to spend the entire show talking about the history of the Ultimate Fighter and all the guys who have-- We actually had an email question about what we could do to fix Ultimate Fighter. So we would do some research to figure out who the Ultimate Fighter has produced and what they went on to do. Next week's going to be an all Ultimate Fighter show. All tough. Cool.
