What the Heck, Episode 66: Ciryl Gane, Jake Hager, Eric Nicksick and Sarah Alpar

On this week’s episode of What the Heck, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck speaks with UFC heavyweight Ciryl Gane (5:15) about facing Derrick Lewis in the UFC 265 main event for an interim title on Aug. 7, talks being aware the interim title opportunity was an option prior to stepping into the octagon with Alexander Volkov at UFC Vegas 30, not feeling bad for Francis Ngannou, thoughts on Lewis as an opponent, and Jon Jones.

Bellator heavyweight and All Elite Wrestling star Jake Hager (20:12) discusses the amount of fun he’s having in his professional wrestling career, what he took away from his three-round slugfest in his last promotional appearance, officially throwing his name in the hat to fight Fedore Emelianenko on Oct. 23 in Moscow and why he deserves the fight over other options such as Alistair Overeem, Junior dos Santos and Josh Barnett.

Eric Nicksick (34:58), the head coach of Francis Ngannou, gives his thoughts on the interim title fight between Lewis and Gane at UFC 265, discusses what it could mean for the current UFC heavyweight champion, a possible silver lining leading to Jon Jones, the latest on Aljamain Sterling’s comeback trail, Miesha Tate’s upcoming return to action on July 17, Dan Ige, and Justin Jaynes betting his purse at UFC Vegas 30.

Finally, UFC flyweight Sarah Alpar (56:08) previews her upcoming fight with Erin Blanchfield on Sept. 4, talks making the move back to 125 for the first time since 2015, what she learned in her octagon debut loss to Jessica-Rose Clark, why she started a GoFundMe page, Jake Paul making a donation, and more.

The audio-only podcast can be found below, on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and Stitcher.