MMA Fighting - Bellator 263 & UFC Vegas 33 Post-Fight Show: A.J. McKee Delivers Masterpiece

Episode Date: August 1, 2021

With a pair of entertaining events in the books, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck, Shaun Al-Shatti, Jose Youngs and Alexander K. Lee break down the top storylines coming out of Bellator 263—including A.J. McKee’s star making finish of Patricio Pitbull in the featherweight grand prix finale—and UFC Vegas 33, which was capped off by Sean Strickland’s dominant decision win over Uriah Hall in the main event. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Shaheen Al-Shatti: @shaunalshatti Follow José Youngs: @JoseYoungs Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Hey, we're live, pal. We are live. This is the dual post-fight show for Bellator 263 and UFC Vegas 33. We just wrapped up the Bellator 263 live press conference stream. We heard from A.J. McKee. We heard from Mads Burnell, Scott Coker, Patricio Pitbull as well. And a lot came out of that event in England, California.

A lot happened, despite the card losing a little bit of luster throughout the week. UFC Vegas 33 was very entertaining. A lot of big finishes, a lot of good fights. And if you're an MA fan, you were spoiled tonight. And we're going to talk all about this with all of you as we welcome you to this doubleheader of a post-fight show. I am Mike Kack. We got Jose Youngs. We got A.K. Lee.

We got the man in the myth of legend, Sean Al-Shoddy. He wrote some great features heading into this event. I just realized that I have Sean's wrong Twitter handle. Oh, geez. Look at that. So I'm going to have to fix that at some point. That's funny. No, no, that's good.

If you want Sean's thoughts, just come to my account. We're in lockstep with all of our opinions. Oh, no. So when I tweet something, you could take that as Sean's word as well. Yeah, that's fair. You guys speak free. This is what happens when we don't have Casey producing. Don't say that.

We're on to a great star here. Don't need him. God bless him. He's been doing great work all week on site at Bellator Tuesday 3. Don't need him tonight. Don't need him right now, I should say. We did need him tonight earlier. Don't need him right now.

We just heard from a few minutes ago. So all the Casey Liden fans were, were spoiled with Casey's presence. But, Sean, let's begin with you, man. I mean, you were in a couple of great features heading into this Bellator 263 main event, one on Patricio Pitbull and guys who had competed against him and suffered defeats at the hands of Patricio Pitbull in the past. AJ McKee, his rise, some of the legends of the sport who have seen him, you know, in the gym as early as three years old. To see what Agent McKee did tonight, how do you react to all that? Because that was just absolutely ridiculous tonight.

I mean, my goodness, man, this is just more of the same from what we've seen from AJ McKee's whole career, right? But I really didn't. I don't think anybody really expected he could do this to Patricio Pitbull. This was a true star-making performance. I feel like we used that term really loosely in this sport and in combat sports in general, calling people, you know, hey, he's a star, he's a future star, that was a star-making performance.

Nah, man, this was an actual star-making performance. Patricio Pitbull came into here in the prime of his career as the undisputed greatest fighter, most decorated champion that we have ever seen in Bellator and AJ McKee this whole week this whole week I've heard people make comparisons to this week to UFC 194 in a couple different ways of just sort of the way that it felt in the air of this young upstart guy coming up and we've been waiting for this fight and these two guys have been sort of staring at each other across the room for a couple years now and it's kind of the culmination of all that and it really did feel like it sort of had that same UFC 194 vibe obviously that was McGregor Aldo

And man, the way it play out, I mean, to do that to Patricio Pitbull in less than two minutes, and I understand the stoppage was, you know, people, some people have complaints about the stoppage, but that fight was going to end one way or another. AJ McKee might be, I'm not, I'm trying not to be too reactionary, and this is a big might, but by the end of his career, we might be talking about this guy as an all-time grade. This is really somebody who grew up his entire life in this game. He might be the first fighter that we have seen fully who was doing this. from the very beginning, right?

Like he was three years old on the mats with Rampage Jackson and Tito Ortiz doing this. His whole life was really leading to this moment. And the way that he handled the tournament, the run that he was on through this tournament, making short work at everybody. And then the way that he handled tonight,

it felt as though he just wise beyond his years in terms of the way he handled the pressure and the experience of all of this. Just incredible, man. Honestly, just incredible. AJ McKee might be the best featherweight in the world and he I don't know if I'm willing to say he'd be better than like a max Holloway but he is certainly in that conversation and he might be the best non-UFC fighter in the

entire world I think he probably is it's an interesting point AJ McKee certainly feels he's the best featherweight in the world even said he thinks he's the best pound for palm fighter in the world right now and you know when you have a performance like that you could definitely put him in those discussions AK but Sean was talking about like star making performances I don't know about you, I felt like AJ McKee was a star the second he walked out, him walking out to the perfect song, nothing but a G thing, everybody in the entire arena was wrapping it out, place went banana, as Paterson used to say back in the old WWE days. I mean, he just felt like a star right away just from the opening seconds. He walked out into that cage and he, you just felt

something big was going to happen. Like this, this had big fight UFC pay-per-view appeal to it. Did it not, like from the second he entered that arena? Mike, I got the perfect song for you. Tell me something, girl. Are you happy in this modern world? A star is born, boys. A star is born tonight. People got that reference.

I don't need to explain it. This was everything that I feel like, where do I go from that? This is everything. Good at everybody. We need to point out that it's like 2 a.m. It is. He is very tired. I'm curious. This is everything that we said. We discussed like all kinds of scenarios that could have come out of this

Bell Tour 263 main event. And a lot of them were positive. We said like, oh, if Pitbull won and it went this way, if it was a close competitive fight and it went this way. Like these are snares that still could have been good. You know, there was worse case where if there was like a no contest or if Pitbull beat him in definitive fashion. and then ended up like running off to to the UFC in the next three months.

They got, I think, what is the best way that this tournament could have ended? It was, it was a, and it was kind of what I expected, where I said we would get a, we would get a finish. We would get one where it wouldn't make either guy look bad. I think it made A.J. McKee look great. I think if you're a pit bull fan, you can kind of go with like, oh, you know, he got caught. He got caught. He got hit by a head kick, kind of followed by an uppercut and then the guillotine choke. So, you know, there's still a sellable second fight probably at 155 pounds.

But if you were just putting all your kind of all your, all your, you know, apples in the A.J. McKee basket, man, you were rewarded. You were rewarded in the greatest possible way. Like you said, from when he came out to his performance to how he handled himself at the press conference, this is a guy who maybe he never, you know, we're not saying he can become like a Connemer, Ronda, Rousey, Brock Lesnar-level star. but is this a guy who can lead a company who can take a company like Bellator to another level? I definitely think so. I think there's a quiet charisma about him, a confidence. There's an in cage charisma, which I think is almost as important as anything else, the way he fights. You just look at him.

If you would never, if you had never seen him fight before and you just saw him fight tonight, before he even threw a punch, you would look at him and say, this guy's a big deal. This is someone I'm going to want to keep an eye on the future. And then he delivers the way he does. And now I hope people will dig deeper into his story. If they read stuff like Sean's feature, go back and read those, read everything people have written about him, listen to what he said at the press conference. It was a great, great, great outcome for Bellator and for Asian McKee. And I won't sing again, but I will repeat that a star is born tonight.

I have to add, too, just really quickly jumping in. I mean, we talk about tournaments, right? Like Bellator doing this tournament was very ambitious from the beginning. You have 16 guys out there. It was a really stacked lineup, but going back to tournaments, even back in the Strike Force days, like there are a lot of ways tournaments can go wrong, right? We saw this from the very beginning. These two guys sort of on opposite sides of the bracket, the way this was playing out,

it's like, man, if you could have drawn this up, Bellator could not have asked for a better way this tournament played out, right? Like this ultimate result is literally the best possible outcome that Bellator could have hoped for. And when do we ever say that about tournaments, something that has 16 guys. being able to be executed this cleanly and really, again, just leading to this sort of result where they're getting this big showcase, this fight, this whole night had a big fight feel. It was very obvious that Bellator was the main attraction here this weekend over the UFC. And to see A.J. really come through in the end like this, just an unbelievable tournament the whole way through. And again, like, when do tournaments ever play out this cleanly and this perfectly?

Like Bellator and Scott Coker and all those guys have to just be over the moon right now with how this played out. Absolutely. I mean, look at the 205 pound tournament. They, they were like, you know what, we're just going to throw Yolramaro and Rumble Johnson in the first round. We're just going to get this thing out of the way. We're going to make sure this fight happens. And then what happens? We lose YOLomero and we still don't get it. So yeah, you're absolutely right about that. How big of a star can A.J. McKee be Jose Young's like, if you're Bellator, do you just send him on the Bellator private jet to, I don't even know. I was going to say Regis and Kathy Lee. I know that show doesn't happen. Isn't around any.

more about like Kelly and Kelly and Ryan Seacrest or whatever like do you just take him on the national tour right now and just get his face in front of as many eyeballs as possible at this point? I tell you what? You definitely have to make him some sort of backstage interviewer at Jake Paul Tyron Woodley. I mean, how many people watch that fight?

Like how many people are going to watch that fight that don't even like combat sports? Like as much as everyone hates Jake Paul or they, I don't want to say hate like, they dislike him stronger, they have some opinion or another. A bunch of UFC fans are getting, and I said this on the preview show, I don't know anyone that watches just Bellator. I don't know if they exist. I know a ton of people who watch just the UFC.

So I know there are some people that didn't watch Bellator 263. Unfortunately, they missed out on an absolutely fantastic magical night. I'm sure they're going to tune in to watch Tyne Woodley fight. And I'm also sure there's a whole demographic of people that are going to tune in to watch Jake Paul fight. You stick A.J. McKee there with his belt. show that that clip show all his highlight show his swagger that he has put his face everywhere that's step one and from there the sky's the limit with this guy man i mean i don't think he said he had no bad answers at the press crimes everything he said i was captivated by he has mike

and i don't know how much you watch american football aka but sean and mike do you remember when like there was like that search of like two years where clinton porters was like much must watch television unlike his sure post fight scrums where he would just like he was a fantastic football player, but you needed to know everything about this man just off of his scrums. That is the vibe I got from him. I just see this colorful character with all these belts and this bottle of champagne and this comically large $1 million check. And I go, I need to know everything about this individual.

So stick him in front of everything you can and he'll do the rest. He's not a guy you need to train for the media. I only watch Canadian football. So for and for other CFL, I'll say, I'll say, Milt Stiegel. I think that we'll say Milt Stiegel guys. That's for my CFL fans out there. Sure. You guys know what I'm talking about.

I'm so good. That's a name. Winnipeg Blue Bombers legend, Milt Stiegel. Great, great, great quote, great quote all the time. They're going to drop Doug Flutie's name. I mean,

a lot more people to know where you were going with that. Only person or is, you know, you guys know. Anyway, sticking with fights. I think going back to you, Sean, on the flip side,

you get Patricia Pitbull, who handled this loss with complete class, complete grace. At first, he felt like the stop, was too soon. After watching the replay, he realized his arms started to go limp, didn't have as much of a problem with the stoppage. So two-part question, A, your thoughts on how Patricia Pitbull handled himself after like really his first true finish loss of his career. And then B, Captain

Eric Albericine kind of playing the villainous manager role in a way and, you know, kind of having his fighters back saying, you know what? Why are we doing this in the Challenger's hometown? We should be doing this in Brazil. Does he have a point there? Not only Patricio Pitbull's first, like, lost by stoppage of his career, but really his first actual loss since like 2015, right? Because the Benson Henderson won. That was just because of an injury. Like, that wasn't a real loss in the real way. So he hasn't, this guy hasn't lost in a really long time, man. All we know from him is winning. And I thought he handled it perfectly. He was classy. As you said, he didn't really argue with the stoppage much in the post-fight press conference.

He answered everything, you know, family guy. He had his son there. And I don't know. I thought it was a really good showing in terms of a post-fight press conference from Patricio. I do understand where Captain Eric is coming from with a lot of the points that he was making about, you know, we're coming in here. We're sort of in enemy territory. We're the two-division champ. We're the Bellator goat and we have all these things already stacked up against us.

But that's kind of just, I mean, that's just what comes with the territory, right? Like I think Casey mentioned it on the post-fight press stream where it's an American company. Like, this is, unfortunately, for PIPPIL, is an American company based in America. They're not going to go to Bel, or they're not going to go to Brazil anytime soon. So all those demands are, not even demands, but requests, I would say, for the rematch. That's not going to happen. Like, I'm sure the rematch will happen somewhere in the United States. So I definitely understand and sympathize a little bit with what Captain Eric and the pit bull team were saying.

But unfortunately, that's just part of the part it comes with the territory, right, when you're the champion of an American promotion like this. where else can you have this fight AK? I mean, I just felt like it was so big in that arena. I just felt like the only place to have this fight. And I get it's AJ's backyard, but you can't have this fight in Mohegan. You can't have it in South Dakota. You just can't. Like MSG?

Brooklyn? You'd have to... I hope you're not for smirching the good name of Uncasville, Connecticut, Mike. A place that is that has embraced you and it was almost like a second home to you. I'm just saying you can't have that fight. that rematch in that building.

Tonight wouldn't have felt nearly as big if it was anywhere else. It could have been in Vegas. It could have been wherever else. It would not have felt even close to as big as it did, just being in the forum and being in L.A. Well, it's a good compromise, A.K.

Oh, just go to... Can they go over... Can they go to the UK? I guess I don't know how long. When's the next time they're going to be able... They're going to the UK for MVP limit too. Oh, and Moscow. Moscow too, right? And they're going to go to Moscow for Fadoor's last fight. So they're traveling to

Europe. I mean, split the difference. There you go. Take it overseas. I don't know. That's again, if home field advantage is such an issue for coach Eric anyway, not necessarily for pit bull himself, then yeah, do it. I mean, I'd say this somewhat flippantly because I agree. I think you have to keep in the U.S. messing with the time zone. This is a huge, huge fight if they fight again. So the time zone difference is a lot to ask, I think, for our fans. And so I would not do that. But, I mean, it's an option. It's an option. It wouldn't be my first option. But, yeah, otherwise, there's really no way to avoid any sort of home field advantage for H.M. I think, again, if anything, you double down, have it somewhere in California again.

He's the A side now. He's the A side of this feud. You can have it at the Sapp Center, I think, just because of Scott Coker's history there. That's an NHL arena. They've had a million historic strike force, strike force and cards there. So you could do it there. How far is L.A. from San Jose? It's far. You're not going to drive there.

You're taking a plane. Okay. All right. I've never been to the West Coast. It's like if you lived in Massachusetts and you had to go to like, I don't know, South Carolina. Damn, that far, huh? California is a large state. California's big, man.

There's a reason. It looks like so small. There's a reason they want two states with NorCal and Soco. That makes a lot of sense. So that's the main events. We'll see what happens. There's there's a lot of doors that could be open. We could do this at 55. I feel like AJ McKee, his 145 pound run is done. And I don't blame him. Like there's no big challenges for him

anymore. He just slayed the dragon, so to speak. So back to 155 he goes or up to 155 he goes. And I'm excited for the rematch. It'll be a very intriguing stuff to see the build when it happens, where it happens, so forth and so on. So, uh, well, hold on. Let me let me cut it real fast. Does everybody on this call, do we all agree that that should be next, right? Like the running this back right away, immediate rematch at 155. Because I'm seeing a lot of pushback from this online, which is surprising to me. Why? Because it feels like this is the most obvious next step.

Like there is already a story here now. Like this, I would be fascinated to see how AJ looks at 55 and how they do this again. I agree. And they should put Patricie versus Peter Quilly too as the Coleman. So if Patricie wins, they could just do a third pit bull fight with a different brother. There you go. I mean, what else can you do? You're going to throw AJ in there?

with the winner of J.J. Wilson versus Adam Borch, which would be, which would be like a fine fight, but I mean, it's fine. It's not even not in this. No, I'm not talking about I like it as a martial arts fight, but there's no way they should do that next if they're trying to make an AJ Mackey a star. Right. It's just, you know, maybe make that like an interim title fight or something. And then we can have some fun from there. Make a little mini-term. Unless they're just like, hey, Aaron Pico, come fight AJ McKee, which they would never do either. Right. And I don't want to see that. I don't think they would fight each other anyway.

What else stuck out to you? I thought the cold made of it was fantastic. Really good fight. One of the best fights of the year between Emmanuel Sanchez and Mads Brunel. Mads Brunel gets the win. 3027 scorecards, absolutely egregious and ridiculous. I thought one of the big sour notes from this card was the judging overall. I thought there were a couple of pretty awful robberies.

I thought Alara Joani got robbed. I thought Brent Premis got robbed, even though that wasn't a very exciting fight. And the 3027s for Mads Bernal were just awful. Like I have no problem with Mads Brunel winning that fight, but 3027, come on, man. Like that's just brutal, absolutely brutal. So that's like kind of like my sour puss takeaway of all this. But aka outside of the main event, what Aege McKee did, what was your biggest takeaway from this Belator 263 card? Well, I was, I wasn't watching as closely, as you guys might have been.

I was also monitoring. And so actually, you should say, having to cover for our site, U.C. Vegas 33. But as I told people before, of course, we live in the modern age. You should do everything you can, your power to watch both fights. So, I mean, you know, the big takeaway was, man, the Nomagometevs, the Magomerov families just delivered. It was everything you, we talked about how tough Mani Morrow is. And I'm not, and we're not changing that. If anything that makes Uzman Nurmahmetov's finish of him even that much more impressive that he was able to run through a guy like Mani, who is, again, is the tough out.

So Ouzban is going to be, I think that the other name, I would assume that most people are going to be talking about a lot of hype coming in, even more hype coming out. But again, I wouldn't also sleep on Megamad Sharapov, who had, I would say, a easier opponent, as it were, and took care of business as he did. So that part of this card really worked out well for Bellator. As we kind of discussed before the show, if their goal was to have that one big main event up top and then kind of lift up all these other prospects on the show, then things worked out. Again, it's a bit of a nice if by Lara Joran had got that decision against Finesse Porto. Chris Gonzalez ran into a very experience, a much more experience going to Yamauuchi. So maybe it's not Chris Gonzalez's time yet.

But other than that, a lot of the prospects showed out. So I thought that worked out really well for Bellator on this night. Sean, what would say you, my man? What else? What was like outside of the main event, what was your biggest takeaway from this Belator card? Yeah, I echo what AK said. How, how wild is it, how similar Zabit's brother looks to him, right? Like, you could, you could have showed me various angles of that.

And be like, oh, yeah, that's Zabig Magamu Tshripov. Like, it's really crazy. Even down to the frames, like, they're both so lanky and tall for the weight class, but so skinny too. Like, I don't know, it's very bizarre to watch. But, man, Coach Khabib out here just killing the game right now. He's out here in contention for Coach of the year pretty soon. He's another undefeated night for him, 3 and O.

And it really does feel like there is a Russian-slash-Dagostan invasion going on in Bellator right now. Like, these dudes looked like killers. I don't know how to pronounce the name of the one protege of his that got that knockout punch on Daniel Carey. But good God, man, that thing was sick. So all around, I agree with AK. I think it was generally a very entertaining card. The Manuel Sanchez-Mads-Bernel fight, I thought it was a great fight. it did leave a sour note for me because I did score that Sanchez 29, 28.

I understand giving it to Brunel, but I don't understand the 3027s. That to me is just absolutely egregious. Once again, I wish we could get some level of accountability from judges because I would just love to ask those two judges. Can you just explain to me what you saw? Just explain that round one, how you're scoring that from Matt's Brunel or any of this. But of course, we'll never hear from them. So that doesn't matter. But altogether, man, I thought this was a really interesting and pretty fun night.

And AK mentioned Gote Yamaiuchi, too. He is sort of there, Charles Olivera, in a weird way, in terms of Bellator. And it was fun seeing him sort of explore the striking game a little bit and get his second knockout of his career, too. So all around, great stuff. Coach Khabib, killing it. And I think Bellator really did well tonight, man. What do you think, Jose? What's your silver medalist in terms of storyline?

It's Habib Therino. That's got to be the answer. Like it has to be like they dominated they're dominating the entire game in Bellator and the UFC so that's my answer I can't add anything else than what AK and Sean said I thought AK was gonna go with Jordan I'm gonna win ski Not getting a win ski no as I tweeted it was it was it was Jordan I didn't win ski It was very sad Good fight Brian Moore looked really good tonight and keeper Crosby

Yeah good for Georgia Corcan Yeah. Yeah. James Krause, his new prospect and Kiefer Crosby takes the owl. But fun card, really good. Kudos to Bellator, well done. Let's turn out over to the other channel, UFC Vegas 33. Again, a card that had just been taking a beating all week long and several weeks

for the last couple weeks even. So many co-made events had fallen out. We lost almost two more fights. And then one came back and we ended up with, Just an interesting card. It was really exciting. A lot of finishes and really interesting scraps. In the main event, Sean Strickland closes the show with a dominant five-round decision over your eye hall,

a.k.a. This is your event. This is the one that you covered. You watched. You watched this fight every second. Your biggest takeaways from Sean Strickland's victory over your eye hall tonight. Man, F the haters, especially us in the media, crapping over the overcars like this all the time, taken away from these fires. It was a great card. I couldn't have been more wrong, literally more wrong about anything that happened in this card. I picked one fight correctly. It's not important to which one.

And I'm not even proud that I got one. I almost wish I'd gotten them all wrong just for the hell of it. I do have to say our picks. We have a picks channel on Slack on MMA fighting. And oh my God, it's a car crash in terms of UFC picks here. I don't know that we could have replicated this bad of picks if we tried. There was a lot of ups. There was quite a few upsets.

I've got to look at the odds close again. but I believe there were quite a few upsets way more than your average UFC cards. So we can't be blamed for that. But I was wrong about the quality of the card. Not that I thought it would be terrible, but I definitely was, you know, like a lot of us in the media,

kind of criticizing it on paper, which I still think is fair, but the criticism turned out to be wrong. So that has to be said. I was wrong about Cheyenne Bays and Gloria DePaul. I was like, oh, this shouldn't be in the co-main event. Why is this in the co-main? And Cheyenne Bayes, I think, is one of the stars of this card.

It was an amazing finish. she had the mic skills like mike you always say why she seems very marketable in the eyes of the UFC she hit all those notes tonight so good for her there was a lot of good back and forth fights I thought some of these would be showcased fights instead they were competitive so yeah it was it was a really enjoyable card I still think the beltor card was I guess it was what you were looking for I do think the beltor card from what I saw was was was better at least as far as what beltor wanted wanted the card to be but if you're this UFC you cannot complain at all about how UFC Vegas 33 turned out ravaged by injuries and cancellations.

And if anyone tuned into this card, they had a good time. And if you're the UFC, that's what you promise people all the time. And I don't think anyone who, if you only watched the Vegas card, I don't think you regretted it. I think you had a very good time. Sean, one question we've asked over the last several days on all of our programs is, would the winner of Sean Strickland versus Uriah Hall, would they come out of here and have all of us saying, this guy is a legitimate threat to the middleweight title? And I didn't think really, there's the question right there. Will Sean Strickland ever fight for a title in the UFC? I don't think a lot of people really thought that we would be talking maybe next title contender, but Sean Strickland's been on a

role, man. He's 19 and 0 is a middleweight. He's 5 in 0 on this current run since he went back to middleweight. He looked really good tonight. Uriahall had absolutely nothing for this man. do you are you buying stock and shan strickland right now in terms of title contention do you think he can get to the top of the heap and fight for a title can you see that happening after that performance night man what what a crazy fact that we're even having this conversation right like who really ever ever ever saw this coming uh i i like ak said i was on i was on the belator beat tonight so i was mostly paying attention to belator i have to rewatch a lot of this ufc card it was on kind of in the periphery for me so i i didn't see the fight

too much, but oh my goodness, man, now five in a row for Sean Strickland, four and oh, since he's moving back down to middleweight. And he's just a very bizarre and entertaining guy, like, just in general in the cage, right? Like, he's definitely, like, you can tell there's a difference when Sean Strickland is fighting than when a lot of guys are fighting. And that, you can't say that about a lot of UFC fighters. It is very, you know, generic, I would say, overall throughout the roster. Like, there are very few people who stick out like that. It's pretty crazy, man. I mean, if nothing else, Sean Strickland comes out of this, absolutely proving that he is somebody who matters now at 185 pounds,

which is I don't think anything that we would have thought, we would be saying, you know, in 2018 when this guy was kind of just a middling middleweight who you look back on his lot, or I'm sorry, middling welterweight, but if you do look back on his losses, like the losses were to some really top, top level guys like Camaro and Panza Nibio and is Alescu Santos. So, I mean, maybe this was here the whole time and he was just getting bad matchups and the weight didn't work out for him. But it's pretty crazy that we have reached

this place with Sean Strickland, but we have certainly reached it, man. And I'm really curious to see how far he can push this. He's 30 years old. He's really in the prime of his career right now. This feels like the run for him. So, man, I mean, we've seen this type of thing before, like a Matt Brown-style guy just coming out of nowhere who's going to be a contender all of a sudden. I love it every time this type of thing happens. I'm really interested to see how far he can push this. Jose, I don't know how closely you watched the fight. Whole thing, baby. Did you watch the whole thing?

Okay. Was this more, I didn't watch this as closely as you, but I'm just going to go by the different reactions that I saw on Twitter. Was this more about Sean Strickland just being that damn good? Or was this more about Uriah Hall just not seemingly being there? A lot of talk about his mental state, like can he get over that hump? Can he just be there mentally and focused for 25 minutes against a guy like Sean Strickland? And from everything I saw on Twitter and from everything I kind of saw in the fight,

this looked like one-way traffic and it didn't even really at times look like your eye hall wanted to even be in there so what was your what's your sort of gauge on on the fight and and kind of the two different sides of the spectrum i don't know if sean strickland is an all-around better mixed martial arts mixed martial artists than your eye hall i just thinks this is an atrocious mashup for your eye hall like your eye hall needs a lot of space to work he likes to dance around he likes to make a lot of magic in there and throw these like teck and style kicks and kind of catch you coming in sean strickland's whole game game is to just walk forward, tight, and just throw punches for days and he doesn't stop. And then he gets you to the fence and he can take you down and wear you out. It's just a bad, it is a horrific matchup for your eye haul to fight someone that A can take a lot of damage, doesn't give him any sort of range to throw his spinning kicks, his leg kicks. He's like that snap jab that he kind of catches people coming in a lot. He doesn't throw a lot of leg kicks. So it's not like your eye haul is checking a lot of kicks.

It was just a bad matchup. Like, I think Sean Strickland just put together the perfect game plan to just get in your eye haul's face for 25 minutes and just never take his foot off the gas. And like, I can't remember which round it was, but like he got your eye to the fence and then he shot him for a takedown and then your eye haul stuffed it. And then Sean Strickland just broke free and then just kept going. He didn't get discouraged whatsoever. If step one, if he went step one to three and then if four, he had a roadblock, he just worked around the roadblock. and then he eventually got it. He didn't falter whatsoever.

He was just the better fighter tonight, and I don't know if he's a better fighter, like a martial artist, but good luck's like stopping that guy if he's just going to keep walking forward throwing all kinds of punches. And how old are you guys than Sean Strickland is, by the way?

I had to look this up. He's 30. 30. He's so young. He is so young. I'm older than him. He's like one of the few elite fighters that I'm older than.

But he looks like he's way older than he actually is. So I'm interested to see where he goes, moving forward, especially with this big win on his first minute. I hope he gets another 25-minute fight because I like watching the guy fight for 25 minutes and I will add, I hope he never fights in front of a crowd again because I love being up to hear him fight. Yeah, I hope he could stay super active too. Let me just add really quickly too.

What a horrific birthday for Uriah Hall. Today's that man's 37th birthday. Happy 37th, Uriah. Oh my God, man. Again, that's not. that's not going to be one he's going to be wanting to celebrate or remember anytime soon what a what a we've talked about this a thousand times over the years with your eye hall but what a bizarre in just utterly strange strange career this man had like he i'm guessing at this point

it's probably on the downslide like i don't know that he's going to make a title on this kind of felt like some sort of death knell on that sort of conversation right he's 37 he kind of relies on the fast twitch element of the game that doesn't age well unless you're yo Romero. But if you do this guy's a career over like a hundred times, I'm pretty confident that there's at least 20 of them where he ends up a UFC champion at some point. And we just, it feels like we just ended up with the weirdest, worst possible version of your eye Hall's career. It's a real bummer, man. I agree. You know, I like that Jose brought up that shot, like this was the mental aspect of this fight was so, if you could see, you know,

I know we talk about intangibles, but man, if you could actually, you could almost see the different mentalities of both guys being played out, especially when you consider everything we know about your right hall and some of the mental blocks

he's faced in the past when competing. And it felt so, so tangible tonight. And Jose brings up a great point. Like, Sean Strickland, if he failed at something, he made a mistake.

He just go back at it. You could see the gears in his head aren't like clunking around like they are with your riot hall. This is what? Do you remember when we did this exact show? after Kevin Holland lost to Derek Brunson.

And all I kept saying was I felt like Kevin Holland kept stopping at step two in a five-step process. Like he'd get to step two and then he would just stop. Sean Strickland actually completed like every single procedure of a fight. And that's the difference between these two middle-way contenders. Nothing will stop Sean Strickland from implementing what he is supposed to do. He knows what he's supposed to do. He's like, okay, I'm going to do that. Jose, you'll appreciate this.

If you remember, you know, in the money ball book, I mentioned in the movie, but the difference between like Billy Bean and Lenny Dexter, right? It's like they talk about, well, Billy would, Billy Bean would make a mistake. And he was a huge prospect, a baseball prospect once upon time. And he would make a mistake and just just kill him. And everyone says, and Lenny Dexter went on to become an All-Star and they were, you know, coming up to the minor lease together. And they said the difference was Lenny Dexter would F up something and just he didn't care.

He just didn't care. He'd move on and just whatever, go do his thing. And he went on to great success. That's kind of what we saw tonight. And you could say the same thing about Uriah Hall in this fight anyway. You would see him lose an exchange. And just tonight, maybe in some other fights, but tonight specifically, you can see this like the look on his face and his body language is kind of slumped down and drain.

And it's like you said, he couldn't get the space he wanted. And his coroner was getting frustrated. They were doing what they could to motivate him. But this is the Uriah Hall story, amazingly talented guy, very thoughtful, very thoughtful individual. and sometimes that comes back to bite him inside the octagon. And I think we saw that tonight. And I think Sean put it best, this might be the death knell on the, you know,

Uriah Hall will he ever compete for a UFC title narrative. This for me was I was a big believer he would do it. And now I think this was it. Yeah. The numbers, 3823 outstruck Uriah Hall in the first round, 43 to 22 in round 2. It was 18 to 12 in round 3. 34 to 24 in round 4.

Round 5. Sean Strickland outstrikes your eye off. 53 to 26. He had his best striking output, best striking percentage in that fifth round. Sick performance. Yeah. It's a bad man. And he doesn't care who he fights. He'll fight whoever.

Yep. He's a bad man. I'd like to see him. I already have a name in mind. It's a very popular one. we've already discussed this, so I'm not going to be given anything away. As far as bonuses go. To the next one, you've got to tune into honor.

That's right. So he kind of tease this. Jose even tweeted out, I talked about it earlier and to mixed reviews I saw. Bonus is Cheyant Bays and Melsic, Baghdizarian, contender series of alums, both got 50K.

Fighter and I went to Jason Witt and Brian Barbarina, which Jason Witt won. He shouldn't have. Should have been a draw. But again, I digress. The judging should have been a 108, third round for Brian Barbarina.

Whatever. Great fight. A lot of good finishes on this card. Jared Gooden took a fight on like three days notice, gets a first round finish his first UFC win. Yeah, and killed a human being on ESPN. Oh, God. Chris Gritzmacher, Rafa Garcia is a great fight.

Juni Fry gets another win over Ashti Yoder. Zeruk Adishav gets his first UFC win and then Phil Roe, man. Guy's a bad man. There's a hell of a reformance. I know he missed weight, so it kind of like takes away from it. called out in his post-fight press conference what did he call his brother no said he wants to fight tomorrow usman next oh yeah uh phil shoot for the stars man golly listen i like listen i like phil he's good dude good personality could be a star i'm pretty sure his reach is one inch shorter

than alexander volkov who is a six foot nine heavyweight 81 inch reach at 170 pounds for that man he's got to make weight though uh all right Let's go to the peeps. Take a couple questions. There's a lot of them I've already thrown up. A lot of them are just saying like we're wondering how Sean Strickland ever made Walter Waite or how he couldn't how he couldn't put together Welterweight. A lot of people are saying how soon will AJ go over to the UFC, this and that.

A lot of people, a lot of our initial questions were about the stoppage between Pitbull and AJ. Or Pitbull's team, not Pitbull specifically kind of making excuses. uses like the location of the fight and all that kind of stuff we kind of touched upon that. So as the chat was going, I feel like we answered a lot of them. Though I saw a lot of this. Did Cheyenne get lucky with that kick? I've seen a few people ask this in the comment section. Well, let me say this.

I mean, the best answer you say is you have to be good to be lucky and lucky to be good. That's something that she trains. I'm sure that's a move that she's trained. It wasn't even, I don't think it was that. Some people were saying, oh, it looked like it was almost illegal. like not really i mean very clearly depala's hands were off the uh off the ground i don't think shian through the kick thinking that she was going to get disqualified um no i think there was a lot of skill in it so as as with any any high level strike in in combat sports there's a little bit of luck involved

but in that case no it had definitely more to do with her training and um yes people are saying she's lucky i'll say it again guys you got to be good to be lucky and lucky to be good she knew what she was doing and that's why she got that finished it's not it was not just pure luck stop it there's like a big argument in our comment section about whether the kick was lucky or not go ridiculous go back and watch shy and bays is like amateur fights she's back in extreme she's back in extreme right yeah that's the first the first place i met her was at extreme and uh eric nixick was like that she's going to be a monster and the next time i went back he's like i was like where's shayans he go she moved to south africa and i was like okay

Okay, but now she's back, so good honor. She's back. It's thrown out a lot. Chey and Bays is, uh, she's about that life. I will say that. She's, she's, she's a violent woman. So she's, she's good, man. She's got to get her ground game in order as we saw in the Canaio fight, but man,

she is, she is a vicious striker. Yeah, didn't even take the stool. Sean Strickland didn't sit between rounds. He's such a nut, man. He would like, I think after the first round, his coaches didn't even say anything to him. Like, he just. should there. He just wanted to go back on it. It's like when Tony Fergus was like, I don't need a stool.

Let's keep fighting. AJ McKee will go down as the Floyd Mayweather Jr. of the UFC. I mean, maybe. I mean, he's got to get to the UFC first. I know. Pelotaur is not letting that guy and man go anytime soon, man, I'll tell you that. What does that even mean? Like in what context? Okay.

Maybe it's a weird. Maybe he's looking into the future. Let me ask you guys. I'm going to throw a question out here because this is going to be a question we're all going to have to reckon with next week when we put together our rankings for August. I'm doing this right now. AJ McKee, is he a top two featherweight in the world? Nope.

No. I have Bolkanoffi number one, and I wouldn't put him above Max Holloway either. I mean, that's literally, I have a three. I have Balkanowski one, Holloway two, and McKee three. But like, he's the third best 145 in the world. That's nothing bad to be, you know. I just think he eventually could be. but right now in the year of our Lord, 2021, July 31st, 1134 p.m. Pacific time,

AJ McKee is the number three featherweight in the world. I kind of have a feeling he, I don't know. I feel like he's the number two featherweight in the world right now, and I feel like Max Holloway is the best featherweight in the world. That's where I'm at. That's kind of where I'm at. I think that's what a lot of people, I think Casey said the same thing. I think a lot of people agree with you.

I just in my, because I don't vote for the rankings on the MA Fightings panel. So just in my mind, I default to the champion in number one. Like even if so like Charles Oliver would still be the number one lightweight even though I would probably favor even though I've But I don't vote I don't have a vote yeah I just make I just the UFC says this guy's the champion doesn't make him the best like we know Dustin Poir is the best lightway in the world What are we doing? Come on. We should speak for yourself. We should save this we should save this chat for a possible podcast about our rankings Well we'll have a ranking show your voices shall be heard but I am not here for the Alexander Volcan nor the Charles Olivares slander.

People shout out in the comments. My team Volk boys and my team Dobrox boys and girls. Shout out, please shout out your support for these constantly slandered fighters in the chat. Regardless of who's number one, I still would. So if you want to tell me if Holloway's one, I have no issue with that either. I just think McKee at this point is number three. He could very well be number one. I think strength of schedule has Holloway and Volcanovsky a little higher.

Yeah. Is he on the pound for pound list now? Who McKee? Yeah, for sure. For sure. There you go. He could be a top five lightweight in like a year or two as well. Could be more than that.

Get ready for those. Get ready for those rankings. It's going to be some shakeups, friends. It's going to be some shakeups and the most important rankings in the sport right now. I can't wait. A. There you go. A.K.

Future Grammy Award. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. There'll be plenty more where that came from. weird. This is weird. I haven't, I've never thought of these two fighting before in my entire life. I have no idea what we're talking about right now. Wow. Jeremy Stevens sleeps, AJ McKee.

I have never thought about those two fighting before. What a bizarre matchup. Also, that's just ridiculous. That's absolutely not true. Jeremy Stevens hasn't won a fight in like seven fights at this point. They'll never know. We've gone. We've gone. Let's see what we got one more. A lot of them now are just talking about the, a lot of them now are just talking about rankings. Oh, here you go. Yeah. If McKee jumps up to lightweight, wins the belt, and never fights a featherweight again,

then it is exactly a Connor Aldo situation. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Let's wrap it. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, it's only 2.40 a.m.

We're at. This was that moment. Listen, that's, uh, Azzan, Zaman. Thank you for the comment. Yes. This was that moment, I think, for, uh, for McKee. On a smaller scale, a smaller level. But definitely as far as.

is the fight that took him from from being, you know, a promise of what could be to what is. Beautiful stuff. Yes. I better see A.J. McKee on Good Morning America come Monday or Tuesday morning. Also, Mike, I think a lot of people in the comments wanted you to know that Regis Philman is dead. I know. I know. I know.

I screwed up. Michael and Kelly. No, Michael doesn't do it. Stray hand does do anymore. It's also 3 a.m. for Mike. Let's wrap it up. Give me a freaking break. All right.

we're out here lots of m m m a remember ufc 265 is going down next saturday in houston texas casey line will be in the building uh so we'll have all your coverage getting ready for that this never stops folks the train we might have we might have to move a side to tuesday because we have media day on wednesday oh man so many changes but we're ready for it so for hose for a k for shot i am mike heck good night everybody