BTL | Alex Pereira Delivers Again At UFC 307, Pennington Robbed vs. Pena? Plus, UFC Vegas 98

**SPEAKER_2** (0:40)
Live from MMA Fighting Studios, this is Between the Links. And now, your host, Mike Peck.

**Mike Heck** (0:55)
The iconic voice of Estreland welcomes you to a brand new edition of BTL. Happy Thursday to us all, and a special shout out, positive vibe sent to our great listeners and viewers in Florida and the areas impacted by Hurricane Milton. It's been a crazy couple of weeks for sure. On that end, Mother Nature has been pretty pissed off, and hopefully today's show can help take your mind off of all that. And obviously, as tough as that might be, we're going to transition into the program because we got ourselves a barn burner today, my friends. We put a bow on UFC 307 We look ahead to this weekend, maybe even a little bit of next weekend as well. So let us introduce the combatants first. You know this man, Mr. No Gray Area, the hot take kid, the Baron of Boop and the president of the Khalil Rountree Blood Booger fan club. He is the great Jed Meshew from MMA Fighting.

**Jed Meshew** (1:47)
Hey, buddy, one of those disgusting things I've seen. Hey, Mike, you probably hear my voice a little under the weather, but we persevere because, you know, it's BTO. I have I wasn't on last week.
I missed it. And we got a lot to talk about, including the Blood Booger. So hey, happy to be here, guys.

**Mike Heck** (2:07)
Yes. So it's a BC for filling in last week and joining us from Salt Lake City, Utah. Yes. The home city for UFC 307 this past Saturday, but also the home city for Friday's Karate Combat 50 event. He's an analyst for the UFC's on Sirius XM Fight Court and 10,000 other things these days. Let us welcome to BTL for the very first time, the great Din Thomas. Dean, how are you, my friend?

**Din Thomas** (2:31)
I'm good, man. I was able to escape South Florida. My area did not get hit too hard, so I'm happy about that. But first, I got to say, I'm a fan of Jed Shumentu already because he got the Woodley Lawler poster behind him. Yeah, Woodley Lawler behind you.

**SPEAKER_6** (2:47)
Yeah, I got you.

**Jed Meshew** (2:48)
That was the first event I ever covered live.
I live in Atlanta. That was the first one I ever went to live. It's not the first one I ever went to. It's the first event I ever covered live. So I keep that poster as, you know, it was the start of my career. It was fun.

**Din Thomas** (3:01)
Well, for that, you know, Atlanta is dear to my heart because Woodley won the belt there. I was with Woodley for that. And I had to drive to Atlanta to escape the hurricane so I could catch a flight out of Salt Lake City.

**Jed Meshew** (3:13)
We're great for that. We're good for escaping hurricanes. Except Khalil, Khalil actually kind of got us, but Milton stayed in his lane.

**Din Thomas** (3:22)
Yeah, I see that.

**Mike Heck** (3:24)
Yeah, at least same same down here. My parents are in the Villages, which is like in between Orlando and Tampa. And they got hit a little bit, but not too bad. But for those who did get hit.

**Din Thomas** (3:34)
Oh, wait a minute, wait a minute. Mike, your parents live in the Villages?

**Mike Heck** (3:38)
They sure do.

**Din Thomas** (3:39)
Oh, man, you got some freaky parents because I heard about the Villages.

**SPEAKER_6** (3:43)
I heard about the Villages.

**Din Thomas** (3:46)
The Villages is where I want to go when I retire.

**Mike Heck** (3:50)
OK, so I've heard I've heard those things, too. My parents joke about those things. And if they are part of that conversation, then I have no idea. But they just like to drive around golf carts, play golf, have a couple of cocktails and go to bed at 9 p.m. They live in the...

**Jed Meshew** (4:09)
That's what they tell you. Yeah, that's what they say, Mike. You don't know what to do.

**SPEAKER_7** (4:13)
Let them live their lives.

**SPEAKER_6** (4:15)
It's like a ditty party over there from what I hear.

**Mike Heck** (4:20)
You're a bunch of sick pricks. So, let's get into the wonderful world of MMA and let's talk UFC 307 because it took place this past Saturday night in the good old SLC. There were a lot of talking points heading out of it. Not the most all time thrilling card, but it certainly wasn't a bad card and it was capped up by Alex Pereira and Khalil Rountree just beating the hell out of each other for the UFC Light Heavyweight title. Great cherry on top of the Sunday and Pereira expands his case for Fighter of the Year with the brutal fourth round knockout of Khalil Rountree now 3-0 in 2024, three title defenses, three finishes. And the rise of Alex Pereira is just plain ridiculous. So Dean, I want to start with you because we've seen these meteoric rises in this sport. We've seen a lot of stars being made over the years. We've seen lightning strike at the right time for a certain fighter or two out of nowhere that led to big things. But what Alex Pereira has done and continues to do, have you ever seen anything like this in all the time you've spent in the combat sports world?