MMA Fighting - Bellator 290 Post-Fight Show | Reaction To Fedor's Final Fight, Bellator's CBS Debut

Episode Date: February 5, 2023

Bellator's debut on CBS has come and gone, and the career of the legendary Fedor Emelianenko is officially over, and it wasn't the happy ending most #MMA fans were hoping for. Following Saturday's Bellator 290 event, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck, Shaun Al-Shatti, and Jed Meshew react to Emelianenko's first-round TKO loss to heavyweight champion Ryan Bader in the main event, Bader's classy response to how it all played out, whether or not a fight with Francis Ngannou could happen, how the card performed as a whole, Johnny Eblen's stock after a fantastic performance against Anatoly Tokov to retain his middleweight championship, Brennan Ward's sensational finish of Sabah Homasi, Lorenz Larkin's knockout of the year contender, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Shaun Al-Shatti: @ShaunAlShatti Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew 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

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Welcome to the Bellator 290 post-fight show here live on M.A.fighting.com. I am Mike Heck. That is Jed Michoud. That is Shaheen Al-Shadi. And as you can see, at least with myself and Jed, I am not wearing a bathrobe. Jed is wearing a shirt. I'm sure. So that means the MMA gods do not shine upon Fador Emilianenko.

No cigar for Jed. That means that what we expected to happen in the main event of this card is what was kind of guess meant to be. Ryan Bader finishes Fador Emilianenko in the first round. Fador's career comes to an end. He had a moment with the legends. his walkout gave me chills, but in the end, Ryan Bader gets the job done. And Bellator 290, the CBS debut for Bellator is officially in the book.

So gentlemen, Shaheen, I'll start with you. How would you grade this effort? CBS, big deal. They got a lot of hype behind this thing. It seemed like the media was all in on it. The fans were getting in on it. Did this thing live up to the potential that you felt that it had? Did it live up to the potential?

It's an interesting question, right? Because it had the potential to be just like something magical. Like, right? We could have just had some magical, incredible moment. Felt pretty unlikely. Ultimately, we got what we, I think, most of us expected. If they were just going past fail, I would say this is definitely a pass. Like this, the first fight was perfect matchmaking, the Homasi fight,

Brennan Ward fight. Like, if you were trying to introduce an audience on CBS to your product, you put two all-action guys in there and hope they go to war. and that's exactly what those two dudes did. Johnny Eblen had a chance, I think, to become a much bigger name tonight than, you know, he is right now. I don't know that he accomplished that, but he certainly looks like a guy who is a top five middleweight in the world. Like, that dude is incredible in the ways that he is getting better every time we see him. And then the main event, you know, you said it.

Walkout was cool. The Legends lineup was cool. I wish they would have done that beforehand, but even afterwards, that was still a very cool way to send off an all-time great. made me sad, didn't make me as sad as it could have, and certainly didn't make me as sad as, you know, some recent ones that we've had of this, like a Shogun. This Shogun made me significantly more sad than whatever this was tonight. Ultimately, though, you know, we didn't get the magic moment that we wanted.

I would say this whole show still was a success for Bellator in the end, given the product that they had and sort of the platform that they had. It just, it could have been a lot cooler if we would have had that one gift from the I don't make gods, you know. It wasn't meant to be. Jed, on BTL, you gave this card on paper, like an 8.5 to a 9, much higher than New York Rick gave it, but did it live up to that number for you? If that was your gymnastics scale, did it hit it? Not quite. I'm giving it a B minus. Look, nothing super bad happened. So that's, that's very important here. And they did, that card was exactly what I thought.

it was basically. I got a little bit rose-colored glasses, hoping that Fador might do some things, but it was exactly what I thought. Or it was like, oh, okay, they are a decently well-run,

competent mixed martial arts organization, so they know how to mostly do things right, and they're not going to get, like, they're not going to have the elite XE egg on their face in a horrific way. But that can't be an A, because what did they gain from, this. I mean, do, do any, does anybody believe that they made new Bellator fans tonight?

I would be hard pressed to think that that is the case. I am certain that the people who tuned in because they already know MMA, they know Bellator, they didn't feel, they didn't leave feeling bad, because I certainly didn't. Look, Johnny Eblen, that fight was a little bit better than I thought it would be, but it still, it was also exactly what I thought it would be. We all knew that. We all knew the Ward Hamasi fight was going to be nuts. That was really good promotion, really good matchmaking, and it delivered in every way. And we all kind of saw the ending coming, even if I talked to myself into hope, and it's the hope that kills you, Mike.

We all know this. But it's just like what we didn't gain too much from this. So that, that like just puts it at a B. And I'll give it a B minus for some of the other, it gets some points tocks for some of the other snafus. the this maybe isn't bellator's issue but the paramount was not a super intuitive thing to do so i missed the first half of ward hamasi because i literally couldn't give my paramount stream to work um and also like you know the undercard having a 30 minute gap between between the lorenz lark and elbow

finish and before we started on cbs seem very very dumb the post limbs are still going on right now for being honest. And we talked about this off air, and it is the, it's just Bellator, every time, every time they are going to Belator so hard. They were flying through the prelims.

They were, they were getting new dudes into the cage before guys had left the cage in the previous fight. It was awesome. The pacing ruled. The fights were delivering good performances. And then they just kind of did the Bellator.

thing. And it's their heart's in the right place. And I've said it a million times, but it is the best analogy for me. They get the ball downfield and they can't put you into touchdown. This is an organization of field goals and no touchdowns to be had. There was another one tonight. Nothing bad happened. They're coming away with points.

And that always helps. But they are not getting seven. This is a full three points. So look, we have given Fador his flowers for the last couple of weeks. and he deserves every single kind word that we said about him. And I don't really want to harp on how that night ended. I want to talk a little bit more about Ryan Bader, Shaheen, because I got to say, he was in a tough spot.

And he admitted it. He talked about how tough of a spot it was, the pressure, because not only was he the guy that was fighting Fador in his final fight, but he's a guy who already fought him and beat him in 35 seconds. So how could you do it better? You have to do it again. everyone's expecting him to go out there and just bulldoze him in the first round, which he did. But I thought the way he's, he handled in the aftermath, the way that he put Fador over,

talked about the pressure, was very honest about how he felt heading in. I thought he played this picture perfect. Your reaction to Bader's performance and what I think shined even better was the post-fight stuff from him. Yeah, I mean, he definitely didn't pull an Igor, right, and dance over, you know, a fallen hero. like we saw with Shogun. Like he definitely played the part right in that respect. I mean, that's not a surprise, though. Right?

Like, Ryan Bader, he's not that guy. He's very respectful, man. His whole heavyweight crusade here in Bellator is such a weird one. It's just they're throwing him in against guys like a 40, 50 year old Chuck Congo, Valentin Moldovsky, now 40s. Sean, I have a great stat about Bader if you want it. I know exactly what the stat is and actually bring it in. Let's do it because I know exactly what you're going to say.

and it's perfect for what we're talking about. So the last time Ryan Bader finished a person who was under 40 years old, it was 2018, and it was 37-year-old King Mo. Tremendous. Five years ago is the last time he finished a man who wasn't a few years away from an AARP card. It's the best. I love Bellator. God, I love it.

I mean, he's working with what Bellator has, right? Yeah, that's not on him. You can only fight the dudes on the roster, and he's fighting the dudes on the roster and he's smoking all of them. Like, I would love to have some Francis and Gano in this equation. Or he's holding Valentin Moldovsky down for 25 minutes. Yeah, more or less. So, I mean, Bader handled it as well as I think most of us would expect from him.

Again, the legends thing happening after the fight was, I think a lot of us would have liked to see that beforehand, but it was so very cool. You get that moment at the end of all these legends lined up, sort of celebrating and saluting Fador. It's a little bit emotional. I just got to say, though, like, now that we, have seen this time and time again over the years consistently over and over and over and over again we're doing the same routine right jed because you had said you know you talked yourself into this somehow you talked yourself into like hey we're going to get this magic moment maybe maybe this is the one

where you know the old legend comes back and gets this knock out to finish his career we had this exact same cycle for show gun a couple weeks ago i'm sure we're going to have this exact same cycle next time around for whatever the next guy it's like i just i have an idea that i would like to repose just generally that I think MMA needs. I would like some sort of investor to come to me. I just want to create an MMA promotion where exclusively the only fights we run. That's it. We don't do at normal fights.

All we do are if you're a legend, if you're an Alzheimer and you want to have a retirement fight, you come get us. Come get us. We will find you the bobb-sappiest bobsap that you will ever find in a bobsap universe. And we will just line you up against total absolute hands. And we're going to let you style on people on the way out. And hey, maybe it's so much fun you kind of want to do it again. Well, let you do it one more time.

We'll give you like a fake retirement too if you want. Hey, we'll even like throw fake belts up for all of this. Like Fador could have fought for the heavyweight goat belt tonight in this magical promotion, right? Shogun could have fought for the most violent man of all time belt in this promotion. Like I'm just here to make these guys happy on their way out and maybe give us some smiles on the way out too because it feels like we badly need this. Like I'm getting pretty sick at just seeing these dudes go out on their back or face

down on the canvas or whatever. Like it's just, it leaves us feeling hollow and sad inside. And I think there's a way that we don't need to feel this. We can let these guys have their moment. Like, what's wrong with that? The Heritage Fight League from Jimmy West.

There we go. Like, there is a way we can execute this. There is some sort of rich finance here watching this right now who is interested to speak. Hit me. You get in my DMs. Let's make some magic happen. Come on.

I'm just saying, this is a real thing that we need to do at this point. I love this idea. Jen, I think you'd be a great promoter for this. Sean can be the CEO and do all the deals and you can be the guy hyping this up. Let's be real. I'll be a great promoter for any organization

as soon as someone wants to give me a big bag of money and become the number two MMA worker in the world. Hit my DMs. I'm right here. I got ideas. I don't hate this idea. I don't think I think I would rather instead of having them style on, you know,

like me and you in the cage or whatever, that has a lot of charm to it. Tons of opportunity. there. The thing that really struck me, I mentioned this during the post-fight presser, is like, I don't, I'm still not really sure how I felt about the like

hero send-off or whatever. It landed better than it, better than bad. It didn't go over poorly. It still felt a little awkward because like some of those dudes, Fader has nothing, like doesn't know them or care about them. Like the Barnett, they are friends. They have known each other for years. You could see

them like exchange a real hug. But like, what is Fador have to say to Matt Hughes. He's never met Matt Hughes. He doesn't care about Matt Hughes at all. So it just, I felt a little weirdish, but it's okay. But it did strike me with like, that's how these things should end. Fador should be fighting Josh Barnett.

Like, what's Josh Barnett doing? Fadour should be rematching Verduem or, you know, another old washed guy. Do the old washed guy. And you just have to retire two people. people at a time. Like, Leoto Machito should have re-signed with the UFC, a set it at the time,

and they should have just run back the Shogun fight, and both guys had to retire at the end. Loser and winner leaves town. And that's really what I would have liked to see. And that kind of drove home when I was just like, I mean, I don't think Chuck O'Dell should ever fight again, but I wouldn't have hated it if they were just like,

all right, Chuck, come to Bellator for one. And you fight Fador, like, okay, sure. Like, any of those would have been better. than the Bader thing, but the Bader thing ended up not being that bad. I'm not all that sad about what happened. It could have been way worse. Yeah, it could have been so much worse.

Yeah, and I don't know if that's because Fader's already retired once. We already seen this fight, but, you know, it worked out. My, the bigger complaint I have kind of moving forward is like, okay, that was cool. What did Bellator gain? Because, again, I'm not sure they gained much tonight, other than putting on a very serviceable and useful card. And that has plenty of merits.

Not here to say that that doesn't, but I don't think they converted new fans here. They didn't build a new star in Ryan Bader because Ryan Bader is very not interesting. I think as a point of pride on his part that he's not interesting. But, man, credit to him, because he did really handle the end of that as well as anyone could have,

like just picture perfect ending. you know, finite overall. Yeah. Let me push back on that. Let me push back on that briefly when you ask, what did Belator gain? Because I think that's a very fatalistic way to look at this. And maybe just a single-minded in a sense that, like, sure, like,

I agree with you in that. I don't know that there are new Belator fans coming away from this. Like no one saw Ryan Bader Starch, a 46-year-old man. I was like, hey, this is right on my alley. I love this. Let's check in next time. But I do think there is some legitimate value to getting put on that platform, a platform as big as CBS

and performing well enough to say, hey, here is our product. It was a very, it was a solid night. It was a solid product for the night. This is what we can provide just value-wise, right? Like just on this platform, like we didn't drop,

we didn't ruin this moment. Like we pulled through in the way that we needed to pull through. I think that alone has pretty decent value for a promotion like Bellator that is consistently looking for opportunities like this to get in front of more eyeballs.

It could totally be true. I want to see what the, what the numbers end up looking like here because even though they did fine promotionally I think the numbers will dictate that story moving forward much more and I suspect the numbers are okay not a ton of counter programming Fador still probably draws them in but I want to see before I feel confident in that yeah I'm curious what the ratings are if they're under a million that's bad like that's that's pretty bad 1.5 is probably like a win I think they'll probably get close to

to that. That's my, that's my feeling, but. Yeah. And, you know, last thing just about the matchmaking, I, I saw somebody comment earlier, like, why are you praising this matchmaking, but you gave the UFC crap for putting Shogun in there with Ihor, Pretoria? Here's the difference. Shogun didn't say, hey, John Shelby, you know what would be a great retirement fight, that Ehor, Pretoria guy, I heard he's a great dancer so that when he knocks me out, he'll just dance on my lifeless body. He's the duelist, Mike. the duelist.

He didn't you get that? You didn't understand that? They were like, here, here's this dude that nobody knows or cares about. Fador is like, nah. If I'm going to fight out this last fight, like, give me Ryan Bader. And I'm sure Bellator was like, eh, I think we can do something else. And Vader's like, no, if you want me to fight, like, just give me the title shot against this dude.

Let me try to run it back with this guy. And at that point, like, what are you supposed to do? Say, no, just give him the freaking fight. He's frigging Fador. So I had no, I had, like, I felt weird about it, but still, like, this is what the man wanted for his last fight. So just give the man what he freaking wanted for his last fight. And that's what we got. But I'm just saying, just real quick before we go ahead, Heritage Fight League, if this happens, what we could have done, just pitching the Fador retirement idea. Here's my Fador retirement idea for Heritage Fight League. We just have a whole card of Fador versus X, Fador versus Y. Fader versus Z.

We just let this man fight as many times as he wants to and just knocking out as many dudes as he wants to until he feels like pretty satisfied with his work that night. Like how about that? Like you just go to an all you can eat buffet. You go to the country harvest buffet of fight cards, my man, Fador. And you just have yourself a time. Have yourself one last party.

And, you know, like let us all kind of feel good about this. How much fun would that be if Fador had knocked out like his third guy in the last 30 minutes? And then the fourth guy walks out and he's just some big fat guy. And we're all just washing this on social media. Like how much. fun would the escalation be until it's like, yeah, you know, like I think we've seen enough. Like, we would really enjoy this.

I'm just saying. That would be pretty crazy. Unless we get like a Danny Lafever moment and then it will be the saddest thing that's ever happened. It's a deep cut. No one watching this knows what that means. And I don't care. Oh, man.

Last thing before we move on. The real goat. Daniel Lefevre is. Last thing before we move on. At the press conference, which by the way, golly. that was a long press conference. Ryan Bader gets up there and he has asked about Francis and Gano. He keeps saying over and over again,

I want some new blood. I want some new blood. So he's asked about Francis, completely no-sells it. And then BTL alum Josh Gross brings back up Fador, asks some good follow-ups to try to be like, but why? This could be like the biggest fight you could have.

And he just pretty much no-sold the entire thing saying, look, if he signs a contract, cool. But other than that, like the fight doesn't really tickle me. but in reality, no fights at all tickled me because as soon as I leave this building, like, I'm just going to shut the MMA world out altogether. Shaheen, how did he handle this? Because I was very happy with how he handled the Fador stuff,

but the Francis stuff, I was kind of stunned. He just completely no-sold it and then just completely no-sold the sport altogether as well. I mean, it was basically the most Ryan Bader way you could handle that situation, right? Like that is who Ryan Bader is. He's not here for your excitement. He's not here for your game. he's going to just kind of do what he did cash is 150k and go home happy uh i would say and i think

jed jed maybe you were the one who said this on our slack channel of uh yeah ryan bader at one point did fight rumble johnson and that didn't really go well and francis ingano is just kind of a much larger rumber rumbull johnson so i would assume that ryan bader's probably not super stoked and excited for the potential francis and gano fight if that happens but also maybe his i don't know but i'm just saying i think there's probably a reason as well he's maybe trying to no-sell it and not build it into something. I think that really what has happened is one time in his life, Ryan Bader was interesting.

He said a post-fight press conference that he wasn't involved in, and he just starts chatting shit to Daniel Cormier. It was the one time this man has ever been interesting, and then that fight didn't end up happening. And so his heart got broken. And, you know, it's like when you, when you, you know, you know, you know, lose the love of your first love. You're never the same,

and he has never allowed himself to be interesting again after that didn't work out for him. And so he's just like, I don't really care. Whatever, it doesn't matter. You guys pick somebody, it's fine. Because, yeah, the fortunate thing is, it was a Bellator Post-Fite press conference, so no one is going to see that he is boring,

because, come on. What are we expecting the viewership numbers there to be? So, yeah, it was just Ryan Bader being Ryan Bader. You know, it is what it is. He's a pretty good fighter. He doesn't care. That's okay. That is okay.

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Seems like Johnny Ebblin cares, though, because this man put on a performance, beat the hell out of Anatoly Tokoff. I thought the first round was real close. I thought Tokhov was looking good in the second. And then Eblen dropped him with an elbow. And just the tide of that entire fight just shifted in his favor. And then he just went on and did Johnny Eblen things for the next three rounds. And that fight was not competitive the rest of the way.

So great performance. Sean brought up something that I felt was like Johnny Eblen was the guy on this card that could have just been shot to the mood. if he had, and the performance was great, don't get me wrong, but if he just dump truck took off and put him away in the third round and then cut a great promo afterwards, like this guy would have gone to a different level. And he's in a good spot now, no doubt about it.

But I don't think he got to that star level because Scott Coker said at the press conference, I think Johnny Evelin became a star tonight. Jed, I don't know if that's necessarily true. I think his stock. God love Scott. I love him. No, I think his stock grew amongst the hardcore fans. but that's kind of it, and that's good.

But this could have been so much bigger, right? Yeah, and we talked about this beforehand. That was the thing. Like, I gave this card a high score because there was potential. Now, a lot of things had to break right, and the more likely outcome was what we got tonight. I think these were the most predictable sort of top end outcomes here. But there was a potential if something broke right for things to really go well.

And that's actually a pretty, that means the card's pretty well designed. right like your floor is relatively stable but you do have a high ceiling even if the likelihood of getting that ceiling's low and it's just sort of what it was for johnny eblin he has never been a huge finisher uh tokov is incredibly tough and as that fight was going to wear on even though he wants to showcase his striking realistically it's he's going to go to the thing that he's best that he's going to wear tokrop down that's what it is i have no idea but i strongly suspect that that did not, that people may well have turned the channel given there was a pretty big break after the Hamasi Ward fight into that one and then that fight, well, it had some moments

and it was certainly a good fight if you are a invested MMA fan. If you're just somebody flipping through the channels on CBS, that's probably not one that gets you. And I'll dock him some points because he's trying. He has some personnel and you can see it at moments, but you just got to know where you're at you're on CBS my guy if you come out firing you know fuck or whatever fuck shit or whatever it is

they're just going to mute you for the first two minutes of what you're talking about because it's CBS and so then you're not getting over at all so he had a great performance he is going to be a top five middle eight I think in our rankings pretty unanimously and

but this is where it becomes a big problem for him because that was the biggest platform the best opportunity he's going to get to ascend and he couldn't pull it off and that's sort of to be expected but but that's a missed opportunity certainly and now he is going to face the other side of this coin which is okay well he didn't a crossover into mainstream success stardom and that's probably not going to happen but he leveled up he showed that he's an unbelievable fighter he is still competing in bellator and that really puts a roof on how far the broader mma audience

is going to be content to elevate you because Tocove, by my estimation, is the best fighter he could have fought. He already beat Musassi, got Tokov. Fabian Edwards is okay, but he may or may not beat Musassi. And then where is Eblen going? The middleweight division in Bellator is not robust. You know, Luke Rockhold may be signs. Maybe you can get some mileage there.

Maybe he moves up to 205. But it's just tough. This was a big opportunity for him. And I don't think it was for, lack of trying. I think Toe Crop is just a tough dude to look great against and to kind of deliver. And so he's just here. He's a damn good fighter, top five guy in the world.

He's probably never going to get the respect that the deeply embedded M. M. M.A. fans will have for him. I just watch Adam Fuget just beat the hell out of his opponent. Oh, did he? Great win. Yeah, just elved him into an oblivion. So good win for him.

Big, an upset. Not a lot of people are giving him a chance. No one will. Yeah. And he gets the job done. So well done. Shaheen, there's one thing I also thought he was missing. And it's been kind of a divisive thing,

but I felt like he should have called out Luke Rockhold after this win. Because Scott Coker said Luke was going to be invited. We're having conversations. And I get it. Like, same thing with Francis. You don't want to get too excited into the man signs on the dotted line. But I feel like, especially with the relationship that Scott Coker and Luke Rockhold have, that fight makes a lot of sense.

Now, is Johnny Eblen like a minus 800 favorite in that fight? Probably. But Luke is still a big name. And at this moment, realistically, this is the biggest fight he could possibly get. Because fighting Gayguard again is cool, but he probably beats him again. Fighting Fabian Edwards, I don't think does a lot for him, if we're being honest. But fighting Luke Rockhold, it's start making kind of a fight, right? Like just beating a name like that, Luke's going to get on the mic during fight week and pump this event up and say some weird things and people are going to get excited.

I felt like he kind of missed the boat there. What do you think? I mean, that's fair. I think that's fair because obviously that would be the biggest possible opponent out there for him to fight. I don't know that there's a ton of interest in like a Gay Gar-Mussau rematch, which would probably be the second toughest thing he could get thrown into. That was a pretty one-sided fight. I will say, though, I mean, I'm not going to pile on Johnny Eblen in his performance because I came away from that. incredibly impressed by what this man has become,

incredibly impressed by what this man did. And also he was set up to, sure, this was like a big opportunity where he could have potentially, you know, really increased his brand and his stock in a way that I think would be pretty profound. But the thing is, like,

this isn't professional wrestling. And he was in an incredibly difficult situation with the man standing across from him because Ante Tocov has been in Bellator for like six years now, and he has just not lost. Like he is, when he joined this promotion, I assumed at some point he was going to be the middleweight champion.

And it took them a lot longer than I expected to really get to a position like this. But that is a difficult man to fight on any given night. Nonetheless, like a night like this where there's so much pressure and so much eyeballs on it. Like Johnny Eblen came out there and dominated that man. And really, like, I think put a real statement out there for, sure, maybe not casual audience. But for hardcore people who understood what they were watching and understand how good talkoff is, like Johnny Eblen's a problem, man. That dude is gas tank is out of control.

frankly. I don't understand how he was still going as hard as he was, like pushing as as he was in the later rounds with the pace of that fight. Like that man is a legitimate, legitimate problem. And I think if you were to just put him up against Alex Pereira, like that's a competitive fight, man. Like that's a really interesting fight stylistically and just generally in a lot of different ways you can look at it. Like if you look at the top five in the UFC right now, right, the middleweight top five. You got Pereira, Adasania, Whitaker, cannoneer, Vittori, and then Brunson. I don't know if you want to count the champion in that top But I mean, I think Johnny Amblin fits pretty well with everybody in there outside of maybe an Adasania and a Whitaker, right?

Like that is a, that man is really, really damn good. And I think we are still only scratching the surface of how good he's going to truly be, like whatever his final form is. Because he is someone who, again, every time we see him, he's much more impressive than it was the last time. And I don't know, man, maybe this wasn't the performance that, you know, new fans are going to be following Johnny Eplin. But this was definitely a performance where MMA fans, hardcore, M. A fans who realistically made a pretty big chunk of this audience, you got to come away impressed by that man. That dude is legitimate as hell. Yeah, he will be my number four middleweight in the February rankings. He will be my number four guy. He will jump. I think I've met six

now. He will jump two guys and he will be number four behind Whitaker, Pereira, and Adasania. And the Pereira fight's interesting, Jed, because I would favor Johnny Eblen to probably win that fight right now, but there are holes, and Johnny knows there's holes, because he's, what, 13 and 0 now, but still, he hasn't been doing this for very long. He's just been very active and just work in everybody he fights. But there are defensive striking discrepancies that I've got fighting a dangerous striker like Alex Pereira could expose pretty violently. Like, when he throws those big shots, he leaves his head right down for a big knee or a big kick or on big nasty uppercut.

He does that a lot. But he's gotten away with it against a lot of these guys. But he'll clean that up. That's the scary thing about this man, because if they fought a year, 18 months from now, that's a whole different fight in my opinion because Johnny's will probably fix that. But yeah, I mean, for the hardcore fans,

what Johnny did tonight just prove that not only is he the best middleweight in Bellator, but he can hang in some way, form or fashion with all these top dudes. I mean, just to even jump in, sorry. But like, Tocoff signed with Bellator in 2017. John Ambley hadn't even debuted in MMA. At the moment Toccoff signed with Bellator.

Like, when you say he's new to this, like, that is an, that is an understatement. Yeah. You're being generous. This man is incredibly new to it. Yeah. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Yeah, he's a problem, man.

Like, what we've seen so far, I mean, this dude is a natural. Super natural. A really good. I pick him to be Piede Paheta tomorrow. And he, look, he is not going to be totally outclassed by anybody at this point. And he is going to continue to develop. He is so young in this. I think that he would definitively lose to Izzy and Whitaker at this moment in time.

And that's also the list of every M.MA fighter that's not named Alex Paheta, basically. So it's okay. but I think both of those guys have way too much polish on their game right now for him. You know, 18 months, two years, maybe that changes. But he's a top five guy in the world of this weight class for sure. Based on what we have seen and to some extent, the stuff we've heard about him for years, ATT is a damn fine gym and everyone there speaks glowingly about him. and he has performed in the cage up to that level.

So, yeah, you can take nothing away from his actual in-cage performance. There were nothing bad happen there, you know, outside the same things you see developmentally from everybody. So great performance. He is, I don't know if you can build around him just because he is a little older and I don't know how long you can, you know, he is not A.J. McKee or whatever in that regard. But this guy's probably going to hold that belt for several years at this point. in time. Yeah, he's going to have a hard time finding somebody who's going to get a match him up good. So yeah, getting him in there with a Luke Rockhold. It's just going to boost his stock a little bit. He'll probably finish Luke and that'll be a huge win on the old resume. So

one guy's stock, I think probably rose the Mosheen is Brennan Ward because his story is incredible comes back, fights Sabahamasi. That fight is everything we thought it was going to be. It was just a bloody, violent massacre between those two dudes. And then Brennan just lands a big shot. It kicks him in the face, drops them, and then just beats the tar out of him until the fight is stopped and gets on the mic and cuts a fun promo. And freaking John Claude Van Dam leaves his seat and comes in with the shades on.

And they have this awkward handshake. Should I hug them? Should I fist pound a moment? But still he got the photo with JCVD. Super cool moment. He was great at the Post-Five press conference. They got something with this guy. do they not?

I mean, they have the same thing they've always had with him. Like, I kind of wish the J.C. VD thing would have just been a running theme throughout the rest of the night. Like, I wanted every winner to just call him Jean-Claude so we could just have this repeated moment. Maybe he would understand whether we're going for hug or handshake by the end of it. No, bro, you got to get Jeremy Piven in the cage at some point. What if Fador was a big entourage fan? And instead of hugging Chuck Ladell, he was just like, hey, I see Ari Gold is in the front row. Can we get him in here?

be lovely. I'm kind of just into like, let's just from now on, whoever we see Cage side, like celebrity-wise, can we just have the fighters invite them up, like pick out who they want to come up in the cage for their post-fight interviews of like, hey, you know, hey, there's Shaq. Can you come in here, Shaq?

Let's go have a moment with Shaq. That'll be fun. But no, I want to do that if it's fly weights, because seeing Flyweight stand next to Shaq would be incredibly amusing. It would be a good time. Brennan Ward is Brennan Ward, right? Like that may seem like very stupid analysis, but this is what this man has been doing his whole entire career.

Like, he's been in Bellator this long for a reason. And it's been really fun to see this like Brendan Ward Renaissance that we've sort of seen over the last year or so. You don't realize how much you kind of miss the all-action guys, like a Brennan Ward when he's gone until he comes back. But yeah, I mean, this was, I said it at the top, but this was perfect matchmaking.

Like every, all of us, as soon as we saw this fight as the opener for a big moment like this for CPS, it's just like that's chef kid. you cannot do that better. That is perfect for the moment, and these guys delivered. That was a tremendously fun fight. And the more Bellator wants to put Brennan Ward in our face, like obviously, I'm going to enjoy it. I love how he went from a title shot to moving up away class

and cutting Galton Rasta. Like classic New England welder union guy callout. I loved it. I loved it. It was very much the best. But great performance from Brennan Ward. I think they got something with this guy. And let's just keep chucking them in there,

main card openers, fun fights, and just let him go in there. and do the thing that he does best. But last thing, and then we'll take a couple of questions. Lorenz Larkin, Jedmishu, violent knockout, gets the job done. And Shaheen posted a question in our ranking Slack channel. Have we been just not getting this guy enough credit? Have we been just underrating Lorenz Larkin?

Because the guy hasn't lost in a really long time. My response was, I really haven't. But the problem is he just hasn't stuck around a weight class long enough for me to actually rank him because he was at 170. Could have been the number one contender. It was like, nah, I'd rather fight in Japan, misses weight. And then he has a couple of fights at 185.

We think he's going to stay there. And he's like, nah, I think I'll go back to 170. And then he fights to a draw or has the no contest. And then he just obliterated this guy tonight. What a performance. Have we been underrating Lorenz Larkin? Was this a y'all must have forgot type of performance from this guy? We haven't been under rating him,

but it maybe was a y'all must have forgot. I think at one point I had Lorenz Larkin ranked because, you know, I think pretty highly of Andre Koreshkov I did a couple of years ago. But yeah, he did the, he fought Hafeel Carvalio at Middleweight and then just sort of, and then when he comes back, he's not fighting like huge marquee names, but even when he left the UFC who's on a good run,

this dude is undeniably like a top 20 at top 25 at the worst welterweight. It's just been sort of a weird career path for him the last few years. And so, yeah, I do think this is a y'all must have forgot because like i kind of did i i forgot that he was capable of doing something like that that aggressively violent uh it was awesome so good for him he may end up getting ranked off that and kind of what's been going on and welterweight has some opportunities there let's let's phrase it like that but yeah uh i'm i would like to see loran's larkin fight some of the better names that bellator has to offer at this point that would be a great

great idea for all involved. Is it time for Lorenz Lark and MVP? Because I thought, I feel like like six years now. Can't do it. We can't have MVP fight people who are good. I'm fundamentally opposed to him fighting anybody who can actually fight back. The last time that happened, Logan Storley held him for 25 minutes. It was awful.

We can't do that. Lorenz is not going to do that. Lorenz is not going to do that. That's the fight. I know. No, Lorenz Larkin to knock him out. That's what we're supposed to have fun with MVP. we, come on, come on, we can't be doing this.

Also, maybe MVP just tackles him. You remember when MVP turned into a frigging wrestler against Paul Daly? That was sick. No, MVP gets to only fight people who are bad. That is the only booking I accept for MVP. We can do, you know what would be sick? Let's Lorenz Larkin, Brennan Ward, let's get that going. Sign me up.

Now you're speaking my language. I got to say, like the arc of Lorenz Larkin, has to be one of the most bizarre arcs of like a post-UFC free agent that I can remember, right? Because if you if you remember back to his UFC run, like that dude became a monster pretty quickly at once he dropped down to Welterweight. He went four and one and he was one scorecard away from when that split decision to go five and oh. Like he was looking like a wrecking ball.

I think his last fight was like Neil Magny and he was the underdog. Yeah, Neil Magny. He was the underdog. He was the underdog. And he just destroyed Neil Magny. Like you look at his UFC, the last UFC run, he had those victories of it. aged incredibly well, right? Like Neil Magni, Santiago, Ponsonibio, and Jorge Mazzadol, all those dudes are still very

relevant at 170. It's tough to beat Tumenov. And that was the one one where he's one scorecard away with the split, right? Like, it's, like when he left the UFC, he was a, I think, top nine, top eight welterweight there. And he lost those first two fights at Bellator against the actual good names at Belator, Paul Daly. And I think was it Koreshkov at the time?

I'm pretty sure it was correct. No, he's Lemo. He beat Kyrushkoff. And then he just kind of like fell into this weird void for the last like six years, five years where he has just been fighting Rando dudes for the most part, right?

Like he's not fighting the actual names that Belator has at either of these divisions, the 170 or 185. Like he's just kind of floating around and getting these, you know, maybe he would get a Kreshkoat, but it would be past the point when Koreshkov was sort of that guy. like,

Riz-Larkin has had a very strange run in Belator, and I think it was very easy to forget about him because he fights somewhat infrequently. And again, it's always kind of just buried on these cards where he's not a focal point. Like, he's not a centerpiece to any of this,

which is kind of weird because he's so fun. Like, he's such an active, entertaining stand-up knockout guy. Like, the knockout tonight, man, was like, we're going to be talking about that at the end of the year, maybe, like, in terms of the knockout of the year ballots. Like, that's going to get some honorable mentions,

at least. Like, that was pure violence. Like, it's puzzling to me that it's taken this long for Lorenz Larkin to give us some sort of, oh, yeah, like, Lorenzark is awesome type of moment. And maybe, again, that's just sort of the way that Belter has navigated this guy's career is a little strange. But hopefully this is a wake-up call that, like, I want to see Lorenz Larkin in some big spots in Belter.

I want to see him against an MVP. I want to see him against the dudes who actually matter in these divisions. Because he very well, to me, is probably still like a top 15 welterweight right. now. He's done nothing to lose that title other than the fact that he's just kind of like been aimlessly wandering around in this whole, Bellas were seen for a while. So whereas Larkin

to me was one of the MVP of the Knights, like that was tremendous. Yeah, good finish for him. Good finish for Chris Gonzalez, too. That was a nasty knockout against Max Roshkov. Good fight there. That fight was a lot of fun and then you lend in the big shot and put him away. So I'll take a few questions and then we'll get on out here. Doho Choi's about to fight. So we don't

want to miss that. Oh, shit. Dead serious. They gave that fight to Nikita Mikhailov? Yes. I can't believe. I legitimately walked away as like, oh, Darren,

Caldo I won. Cool. Wow. I am just now looking at this. Yeah, the judging was a little suss in the first couple of fights. A lot of people thought

Alejandra Lara won against Deanna Asa Jaregova, but I don't know. That one I didn't feel as bad about, but I felt a cold one. So Joseph Bozabas, asks, was that the right card to debut on CBS? Fans and fellow fighters are upset.

They didn't get the Cinderella ending we all wanted. Jeanne, was this the right card to debut on CBS? Do they lay it out the right way? Was this putting the best foot forward with what they had? I mean, you know my thoughts on, like, you throw Fador to fight where he could have won and then we could have really had a celebration. But also it's like, it's Fador, if he's only asking for a title fight,

and he's not trying to fight Cairns. Your hands are kind of tied there. Also, they tried to make the co-main event much more fun with the Yoel-Rabrero Nemco fight that would have been, for whatever it would have been, it would have been interesting. Like, right? Like, that would have, Yo-L. Romero is just a bizarre man who creates very bizarre scenes, and that would have been very cool to watch. So they tried.

Like, ultimately, this is sort of the best that they had to work with, considering the guys that were available. Like, I think for the most part, this was the right move. And they did do a very, we get on Bell-Tor a lot about promotion. why are you not promoting these cards, really? But I feel like they made a concerted effort to tell the Fador story in a way that at least should have translated to some level of the audience of just imparting upon people how important this guy was and what a big moment this was.

So I think this was the right card for the most part. Jed? Yeah, it's the same criticism I had going into it. This is the best that they could do with what they had, which I think it's fine. I think it also speaks to maybe if you know, doing the CBS thing maybe have a bit more foresight because this really would have been

a good opportunity to start the lightweight Grand Prix to get Aegee McKee fighting on CBS the start of this or hell I know that maybe this bungles up your other plans but like do the Danny Sabatello

Halfian Stotz fight here like that really making the most of this belt or this CBS spot with kind of the future stars and the big personalities that you have. But, you know, taking that criticism aside, they did the best what they can. It's still a success in a passing grade by any measure.

You put Danny Soutelo on CBS, and they are hearing zero words of anything that that man says. Like, that is getting bleeped out immediately the moment that man talks. You don't need to hear that man talk. You just look at the hair. That's all you need. For those wondering what happened in the post limbs, four decisions.

Neiman Gracie won. Jalon Bates, big win over Jordan Alugos, Splitty. I have to go back and watch that one. Isaiah Hokit got a unanimous decision win, and Yusuf Karakaya got a unanimous decision win as well. So those were the post limbs. This question came up a bunch. We touched on this a little bit,

but I guess we'll focus a little bit more on it. Jed, I'll start with you. What was your thoughts during the Fador retirement moment with all the legends? I know it didn't feel as yucky as we thought it might feel considering how we all thought this fight was going to play out. But in the end, pretty cool moment, would you say? Again, it was fine. I thought that there was a high potential for this to be awful,

which is why I like the idea, but I was very, very concerned about the execution. Just because, like, if Fador does get slabbed and say he's down and out for a few minutes, that just is a whole different thing and it's all pretty bad. He didn't, and the way it worked out, it landed okay. it still felt a little weird just because like most of the people up there

he has nothing connected with other than some ephemeral sense of unity based on time period but like he never fought Chuck Ladeau I don't know if I maybe he had been around Hoyst Gracie before but I can't recall why you know like Josh Barnett and Dan Henderson

made sense and Randy Couture made sense because that's the one that got away but they were like Matt Hughes has nothing to do with fatal or in his story. So it's still, I would rather them do that than do nothing because that is at least a cool idea of honoring a legend doing something like that. And it didn't go bad. So I'm totally okay with it. There are some just absolute grumps in the comment section. Oh my God. Get some sleep. Turn your TVs off. Oh, I want to shout out the comment section, though, because there are a couple of people in here doing

God's work. I agree. I agree. So by that, I mean both sides because there has been an ongoing conversation about Fador being the goat. And by conversation, I mean, it is literally one side saying he is not and the other being like, you're stupid. And that has been going on since the post-fight press conference, the same people just

doing, there is no depth, no nuance to the conversation. is just like he is you're an idiot and it rules the commitment these people are showing i respect you guys both sides i listen i'm i'm i'm with wTF for the most part uh he's oh no he's an absolute imbecile but i respect he's the one wave in the flag more than anybody though but i respect his commitment to do yeah exactly you can't just keep fighting some dude who is just going to be like no no it's a bum you just got to give up man at some point value your own time but god i respect the effort out there from everybody uh she he what did you think about the the phaed or send up uh i'd rather hear more about this frankly uh no it was good it was

the same thing that we've already said a couple different times right like i think beforehand would have been nice uh there was a good chance this could have gone a lot worse it didn't i'm happy that it didn't. Some of the lineup was weird, but I'm here for trying to make things interesting and different. And that was interesting and different in a way that, you know, felt nice in the moment. Like it feels nice to see sort of the end of an era all this generation there. So I thought it worked out. Yeah, I thought it was pretty cool. Again, I would have loved the aerial idea. Just take them all at the beginning, give Fade or like the beginning wave before you go to the opening promo, whatever you're going to do to start the card. But yeah, man.

Again, they should have carried him to. the ring on a litter. Just all of them. Although, honestly, when I saw someone, I was like, I see where we're not doing that. They look and old out there. Some of them fellas looking, looking old. Now you guys have been

emboldened these people even more in the comments section, and this is just, this is... Dude, it's the best. This is really great. I have been watching the comments for the whole post-fight press conference. This has been the exact same conversation. Yeah, it's just back and forth. He didn't fight anybody

good. You don't know. shit. You didn't watch back with his pride. Pride fighters sucked and we're on steroids. That's dumb and not true. He beat UFC champions. It's been the best. It is the same three talking

points just in a circle, just in an absolute circle and neither side is giving an inch. I mean, this is the BTL matchup. We just put comments on the screen. These two people battling it out. It could be the final round, do a little tag team title match. So, Alan Tamm,

just staying on his corner, man. Fador sucks. He fought bums. That's so hilarious. You could be the goat for, or the heavyweight number one for seven years and somehow fight and bumps. Beat every, like, relevant person in that era, more or less. Get out of here with this.

Like, I never thought that this conversation would be divisive at all. Like, even if you don't feel like he's the goat, how can you not, like, he needs to be in every single conversation here. Like, even if you. feel like he's not the most because he i think even you said on damn jed like he's probably not the most talented heavyweight of all time he's definitely he's definitely not he's not the best heavyweight of all but his resume is incredible so it lasted forever nobody does seven and a half years seven and a half years the conversation starts with him and then you have to disprove why it's why it's

not him like that's more or less it like the conversation starts with phaedor and maybe you think it's steep then you have to prove why it's steep at that point like that's if you want to say Kane was like the most athletically gifted and talented. That's cool. But they did, none of these guys did this for seven and a half years. Almost a decade. Holy, like my kid is nine. Fader was like on top for like as long as he's lived for the most.

But not now. No fighter in the history of the sport has done it at the top as long as Fador did. Anderson Silva's run was not as long as Fador's. It's just at heavy weights. At heavy weights. It's not a conversation. No, it isn't. I think we've done enough here.

I'm here for us to just keep the comments section. I want to see how long they can continue this, frankly, because I agree it shouldn't be divisive, but things are going to be divisive. I can't believe the staying power of this. Just two hours plus of just going after it. I know. Different channels, different streams.

Amazing. I appreciate your passion. I mean... Love the passion. A little grumpy, but still, You're standing, you're putting your feet in the sand, you're standing your ground. Can I ask one question before we leave? I love you to think about this.

It is actually sort of back on topic. I was thinking about this during the post-fight press conference because somebody brought it back up to Scotty Cokes. Would Anderson Silva have been a good last fight for Fador? I can't decide how I feel about that. I wouldn't have hated it. I definitely wouldn't have hated it. I just don't know if it's good or not. It would have been, I think it would have been better for business, for sure.

Well, that's probably true. I mean, I mean, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely would have been. Anderson Silva is a star. Either way it ended, I think there's a chance that, I mean, maybe it could have ended extreme sadness if one of those dudes really gets sparked out. That would have still been pretty sad. I don't know.

I just, I wouldn't have hated it. It's better than this, I would have think. Like, I would have rather seen that than this. Well, that's true because our literally, already saw this, so I didn't need to see it again. But I was just thinking about a lot. I was like, I don't know if they could have done that. Ooh, it might have been good.

Fador versus Machita, baby. Oh, Vandalea was always the answer I wanted in my heart. Yeah. If Pride's going to die, let's send it out right there. Like the funeral pyre. Shogun. Bring Shogun in. Or that? That would have been a better idea than Shogun Ihor Patoria.

That's for sure. The duelist, Mike. The duelist. You fired in the air. He fired in the air because he didn't shoot him. It's respect, Mike. You don't get that? I honestly, I'm coming around on the E-Hore thing

because that's going to be my favorite thing for some time. Just how impossibly stupid that man was. He would fit right into this comment section because he would just, he would defend the dancing and he would just stand his ground and know him would buttch him. He would fit right in here. So E-Hard in the air, man. Fire in the air.

You can do all right. duel in the comments section baby but guys we can't do fade or crocop too google crocop he should never fight again yeah it's pretty bad i saw that a lot in the comments is like crocup is good for him to be where he is but that man is never fighting again for very good reasons tusha okay i think we're done uh yeah we're done we'll say do ho choi's fighting i want to watch that yeah they're clinching against a cage right now so i want to watch that so thank you very much. Enjoy the rest of the UFC card.

AK and I will be back tomorrow to do some matchmaking for this card on onto the next one. And then ladies and gentlemen, we're turning the page and it's on to UFC 284. It's on to Islam Lockachshed up. Alex Ska-ovanovsky. Yes. Haven't heard much about it. Okay.

I guess it's not fight week so we don't start talking about things. Well, thank you very much. everybody for sheen. I am Mike Eck. We will be talking about UFC 284, even if the UFC doesn't next week. We'll see you later. Thank you for watching.

Have a good night, everybody. Comment section. Keep it up. Okay. Only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first, there, the last one.

Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes.