MMA Fighting - Between the Links: UFC 259 Fallout, Petr Yan's DQ Title Loss, Edwards vs. Muhammad, More

Episode Date: March 9, 2021

Mike Heck hosts the BTL title match between MMA Fighting's Jose Youngs and The Body Lock's Matthew Wells as they react to the fallout of UFC 259, Jan Blachowicz's successful title defense against Israel Adesanya in the main event, discuss where Adesanya's stock went following the fight, Amanda Nunes' next move after submitting Megan Anderson in the co-main event, Petr Yan losing his bantamweight title to Aljamain Sterling via DQ and how fighters, fans, and certain members of the media have reacted to it, a look ahead to Saturday's UFC Vegas 21 event headlined by Leon Edwards vs. Belal Muhammad, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow José Youngs: @JoseYoungs Follow Matt Wells: @MrMWellsArt 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. Live from MMA Fighting Studios, this is Between the Links. And now, your host, Mike Harris. The iconic voice of Esther Lynn welcomes you to a brand new edition of Between the Links here on MMAfighting.com, a special Tuesday edition because there's so much to discuss coming out of UFC 259 this past Saturday night in Las Vegas. We had three title fights, two of the champions retained. We have one new champion, and we all know what happened there. So let's talk about all of that and more, of course, for those watching right now,

we want you to get involved with the program. Give us your thoughts on the topics. Let us know how you score these rounds, as we have ourselves a good old-fashioned BTL championship matchup. So let us introduce the players involved and get to our first topic. First, the Challenger, the number one contender. He defeated a very game, Alex. Kay Lee last week on the program to earn his opportunity from the Body Lock MMA. Mr. Matthew Wells.

How are you, man? Welcome back. Thanks for having me back. I am well prepared for this matchup today, I believe, against the so-called champion. Just don't illegally need me in the head, okay? Introducing the reigning, defending, undisputed BTL champ back from a very busy trip in Las Vegas. tremendous coverage as always. The host of the A-side,

the man with the sickest shirts in MMA media from MMAFighting.com. Jose Youngs, how are you, sir? Well, sorry. I'm setting my fantasy basketball team, much to the, as Casey Liden suggested, I should probably do all this right when we got on there.

So if you have any fantasy advice that you need, direct it all at Casey Lydden. He's the man to do it. But anyway, I'm glad to be here and actually defend my title. No sick shirt today. solid black. All my six shirts are in the wash. Fight like fight weeks are a little longer.

Got to spread out the six shirts. But yes, thank you for having me. I called out Matt. He's here. I'm glad we're getting this done. Been wanted to challenge this cat for a long time. One of my good friends of the business. No illegal stuff. Just straight and narrow. We love it. Love the sportsmanship. This is good stuff. And let's get right into this. We'll start at the top of the bill. Round of applause for the sportsmanship. Let's start with the main event for the UFC light heavyweight title, Jan Blyovych earns a five-round unanimous decision to retain his title.

He hands Israel Adasanya, his first MMA loss. And this incredible run for the legendary Polish power, Jan Balehovic, continues on. So, Jose, we're going to begin with you. What were your thoughts on Buhovych's performance? And also the scoring of the fight, because all three judges gave Balehovych for the five rounds. Two of them gave the champ 10-8 rounds in the fifth and final round. what did you think of the performance the fight and the scoring overall um well the scoring i think the scoring it is what it is i think at the end of the day the person that everyone in the media

room thought one one whether you have a disagreement with the scorecards or cards are not is another is i think irrelevant at this point because it's not like it was a robbery it's not like the score cards gave announced the wrong winner so i had a two to going into the final round and i did think yon won the final round i thought yon just did exactly what he had to do. He just made it an uncomfortable fight with Israel-Aisani. He was like, regardless of what the commentary said,

watch that fight muted because I actually watched that. Usually I try to watch the fights on mute, especially when on the there, it's usually muted on in the back anyway because they're interviewing fighters. But for this one, they turned the audio on. So I actually got to hear the commentary. Regardless of what Rogan and D.C.

and everyone is saying, Yombollahovic checked a lot of kicks and they weren't wobbling him as much as D.C. and rogue like i'm pretty sure they had israel itla sani up 10 nine before the fight even started i'm pretty sure yambollah which was rocked from every single faint he threw which is nonsense yonbo hovish did exactly what needed to do he made it uncomfortably got in close he used his weight to control the fight and he checked a ton of kicks from israeli as son so it wasn't like he just beat him up he didn't beat his ass he just beat him in a fight and then mixed martial arts competition he won three rounds to two and he got to keep his belt

and that's what champions do. They do what they need to do to win, and they don't take any unnecessary risks. And that is what Yon did. Deserving champion, deserving winner, did not agree with the score cards, but at least they got the right winner right. What did you think of the fight, Matt?

What did you think of the scoring? Did it go the way you had scored it on Saturday? So it did not, because initially I actually scored this fight for Israel out of Sonia, much to the surprise of a lot of people out there. I think on MMA decisions only, seven of the 30-ish media members or so scored at Friday, Sonia. Initially, on the first watch, I had rounds one through three for Izzy.

Four and five clearly were Yan rounds. But I watched the fight again this morning, and I leaned for that second round for Jan now. So I would have had it 48, 47 today for Jan Blahovich. And even on the night of, I wasn't mad at the decision. It was a close fight. And even Izzy kind of talked about it after the fact where he was like, you know, I looked up and it was the fourth round. It just didn't feel like a lot of significant action was really happening.

It just felt like two guys were out there kind of flowing with each other. And it really didn't feel like there were very many big moments in the fight. So I'm not mad at the results. I thought it was a good showcase for both guys. I don't think either guy looked bad in this. They both looked pretty good. And I think it was an opportunity for Jan to really solidify his position as the light heavyweight champion. And I think he did that.

you know it wasn't the most exciting performance in the world you know if you were a casual viewer tuning in for the first time but i think he showed a lot of people that he is going to be a problem for a lot of people ever since he you know he hit this switch and all of a sudden became a guy that's just like you know what i'm done losing so i'm here i'm the champ now and everybody else is going to have to deal with it i can't hear mike uh this is this is the truck chiming in mr heck can you turn your mic on Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me. Rookie, rookie mistake.

So I apologize for that. But to kind of build on what you just said, Matt, you know, with Blahovich, fighting Adasania, biggest name he's ever faced, maybe we'll ever face in his career at this point looking at the structure of 205 right now. I thought the late round strategy, it was kind of what I was looking for early in the fight, but I thought in terms of getting the win and beating Adasanya, as you guys both alluded to, I thought he did everything right. He gets a huge win.

And we talked last week about whether or not he would get that Adasanya rub. in victory, Matt. Did he? Like, do you think his stock rose immensely coming out of Saturday night? Immensely, no. I think it's just like a steady rise, you know, like a, like your average, I guess, like 10%, you know, five to 10% jump on the stock market on the Monday morning.

You know, just a nice little increase. It wasn't anything astronomical like, you know, a GME. But I think it's a good, it was a good showcase overall because he went out there and proved that a guy like Stylebender who a lot of people thought was just going to go out there and style on him, myself included.

I don't know, there weren't very many people in media picking Blahoves to win this fight. A lot of people thought Izzy was going to be the quicker guy going in there and just, you know, being able to put together combinations

and possibly catch him with a hard counter to, you know, really rock his world. And he actually did that at one point, but wasn't able to capitalize on it for very much. But I think it was, again, it was just like a good, a good showcase for Jan saying that, hey, I am one of the best in the world. Look at what I can do against the guy that everybody said was going to come in here and,

you know, become a double champion. And he really just shut all that talk down. And now everyone has to look at Jan as that guy, is he really going to hold on to this belt for a long time? You know, with the impending matchup against Glover Tashira. I can still see people picking Glover Tashira. A lot of us just habitually pick against Jan Blahoeh. And I think a lot of that is due to his early stumbles in his UFC career. We really have to look at what he's done for us lately.

And what he's done for us lately has been pretty impressive. So it's time to get on the Jan Belhoves train, I think. What do you think, Jose? Matt saying stock increased 5 to 10 percent for Beulhovic. Are you with that number? You think it's more than that? That's probably about right. He didn't take any massive leaps with this performance.

Because I think like one of the last, like I think on the preview show, maybe I said depends on how he would win. Because a win is a win over Israel-Assani. It's the first loss he's ever had. And if you really look at Yombollah, which is past few fight, he's beating everyone that John Jones was supposed to fight and beat. Like if Luke Rockhold would beat him, if Jacques-Rae, I'd beat him, if Dom had beat him for the interim title,

if Corey Anderson had won. Like, he's taking out all these guys that were supposed to be the next contender, and he's doing it impressively. And then he gets Izzy before John, and he beats Izzy. So he's clearly in the top 10 of the power. for pound ranking if that's what we're talking about like a hundred like that's the stock then that's the massive leap but in the eyes of the fans i don't think he's going to be this big pay-per-view draw like he might not if he fights he might not be in the main event uh well i mean he would have to be the

main event for uh if he's the higher weight class of 205 probably but they might try to stick him with a lot of other champions maybe another title in the in the co-main event just just kind of bring in those fans i don't think he's one of those fighters that you can put just his title fight on the top of the card and it will bring in a lot of eyeballs i might need to bring it they when i need to put the bannamike if they book a if they book the glover fight and they want to book the yon alger main as the co-main event to bring in eyeballs they'll probably do that but right now i don't think yon did enough to kind of cement himself as a one title fight on a card fighter but a win is a win he beat a guy that everyone thought was going to be the greatest fighter of all time so and and like he said

israel ad as sonya has to remember that fight for the rest of his life is the first time how many ever lost. So, yeah, stock rises, but not astronomically. Let's talk about Adasani, Jose. I mean, obviously, this one stings, his chance to make history was put on hold. He'll go back to 85 where he has a slew of challenges there because there's no shortage of guys that he can fight that are interesting. The performance, both sides, Adasania, especially very technical, but the way he handled the loss, Jose is what really stuck out to me. It was incredible. And usually stocks fall in a loss, but did the way he handled himself in the aftermath sort of negate that in your opinion like when you look at at sanya stock did it rise did it

fall did it stay the same uh definitely rose i think uh probably again not leaps and bounds and like like yon did because he won but i he definitely rose the way he handled because like for everything we knock connor mcgregor for like we always talk about how he handles his losses like he loses and he's like fair play to the guy he beat me i want that rematch is he didn't call for the rematch right away he said he's going to go back down the middleweight and see the light of the land and he's He even said, like, who do you want to fight Darren Till? But even he said, but he might not be the most deserving. So even he's accepting the fact that he might not get the Till fight.

So, again, just like Jan, he wants to fight the No one contender Gloved Chair because he earned it. Israel Adasana is a great champion in the middleweight. He wants to fight the next guy. And I think a lot of people did not like Israel Adasana for the way he handled the Paulo Costa win, maybe how the fight against Yola Romero. They just, it rubs people the wrong way. I think this really opened the eyes to a lot of people where they expect him to be sour grapes and the loss. And he lost.

He didn't get beat up. And he even said, if I'm going to lose to a guy, I'd rather lose to a great guy like Jan who has a great story himself. So he's a fan of the sport. He likes the guy that he lost to. So all fair plates of the guy. I think he did a lot to change a lot of opinions in the eyes of fans with the way he handled his first professional loss. And commendable, commendable, honestly. What do you think, Matt?

I thought he handled it better than expected for me because he showed up to the post-fight press conference just with a smile on his face, really. And with a strange air of confidence, you know, it really didn't feel like when he showed up to that table and sat there, it didn't feel like he had just lost a fight. It didn't feel like he just lost his opportunity for, you know, to become a double champion.

Didn't feel like he had his first professional loss. he showed up with like an air of confidence about him and almost you know a humble a humbleness about it too like he just showed up and you know it just didn't seem like anything was bothering him but at the same time he was real appreciative of yon which i really liked because you know he said that if he had to lose to someone he was glad it was a guy like yon and so obviously the respect level is there there wasn't any trash talk or anything like that and i think it was just the better part of martial arts that we don't always see is when two guys just show up compete

and then they can shake hands and hug at the end of the day. We see that often, but to see it at the highest level and in title fights, it's really special. I think that that surprised a lot of people as well because a lot of people like Jose was kind of touching on there, they see Izzy as this overly cocky dude who I guess along with that,

they don't think that he also has that ability to recognize his shortcomings, which is not true. Because I've always kind of pegged him as a guy that's, yeah, he's going to go out there and play to the crowd. I think he knows how to get attention. But I also think along with that, he knows the realities of where he is as a fighter and what he needs to improve on. And he's always kind of talked about that, you know. That's one of the main reasons he didn't jump right into a fight with John Jones. You know, he was like, I'm not ready yet.

You know, let me let me get my skills to where they need to be. and then we'll go that route. And, you know, like he said, in the immediate, speaking with Joe, or with Joe Rogan, rather, you know, he said, you know, he dared to be great. It just didn't work out for him. And we'll go back to the middleweight division and rule it with the iron black fist.

So that's what I'm looking forward to seeing him do, man. And I really did appreciate just the whole, the whole vibe that he was putting out at that post-fight press conference, man. it seemed like this is a guy that a lot of people can get behind whether you think he's too cocky or not. I mean, I don't see how you watch that and you're not a fan of the guy. Last thing on this, and Matt, I'll kick it back to you because, you know, last week in this show's history, we like to play the Wittiff game with fights like this. Like, what's better for business? What's the best result overall and things of that nature?

Had Israel Adana, one, we're looking at John Jones. Let's book this thing as soon as possible. There already, Izzy was already talking about maybe doing it at the end of the year. in December. John Jones was tweeting during the fight that's doing it in December. To me, especially after what happened in the Bannamway title fight, which we'll talk about next, I feel like the karmic MMA rhythm went back to a positive place on Saturday night because neither guy took a big hit in the reputation department. Jan gets a big win. Is he still a world champion? And 41 year old Glover Tashira is finally going to get his title shot this year.

So with all that said, was this the best result overall, Matt, seeing the pieces? fall into place. It was the best result if you don't like toxic trash talk leading the main events of your pay-per-view cards because if Izzy won, I could imagine like if he knocked out Yon and immediately got on the mic and started calling out John Jones, yeah, we would be looking at all sorts of toxicity on the timeline right now from both of those guys. So yeah, in that respect, it's kind of cool that everything's right in the nature, everything's calm. We get the divisions kind of reset, you know, let's get a goal over his title shot before he retires.

So I love that that is going to happen now. And yeah, it's more so let's get back to competitiveness versus the overt trash talk driving all of our main events, at least for the short term. So now as he goes back to 185, he's going to fight the number one contender there. and we see how that all shakes out. So I do like it that we're back to a little bit of calmness, at least for the very, very short term. It will pick up, though, after I think Izzy goes and gets another title defense at 185.

If that does happen, we can see him starting to slowly, you know, ramp that stuff up again. Jose, we love fantasy matchmaking. Adasania versus Jones was fun. You know, quarantine Adasania, likes to get after Jones and vice versa. But I feel like, and we could still see that at the end of the day. But right now, I feel like things are right in the world, you know, with the way this played out

and how these divisions will move forward. Was this like the best result on Saturday for all parties? It's best in terms of the divisions, that's for sure, because now Izzy has to go defend his title in his division and Glover finally gets the title shot he's been clamoring for since he lost to John Jones in Baltimore so many years ago. So it's best in terms of, and like I, I, I agree with them Matt said. Like, I don't, there are certain things I don't like brought up in trash talk.

Like some trash talk I get, it sells the fight. Like Sterling and Jan did the best of their ability to build that fight. But I don't like people bringing up religion, politics, or family. And Jones and Izzy brought up two of those things in religion and family. And I was not here for it. I did not enjoy that whatsoever. Yes, it drew a lot of eyeballs. Yes, it brought a lot of heat to that rivalry.

Wasn't a fan of it personally. So I'm looking forward to not having to deal with that as a lot. a fan. Obviously, as reporters are going to report on it the best as we can, but as a fan of the sport, didn't want to see it. So I'm glad Glover gets the fight. I really want to see Robert Whitaker rematch Israel-Asonia. I think they're the two best

middleweights in the world. If he gets to Paulo Costa, like I think he will. I think that's the fight. That's obviously the most deserving, but if Darantilla wins, it'll probably be Darantilla which is a fresh matchup. So for the divisions, it's great. We just keep rolling on. We don't get the George St. Pierre dreaming where he wins, and then all of a sudden,

we're like, oh, we have a vacant belts. And then all of a If Joan, like if Izzy had gone up to heavyweight, he has two belts, and he has to vacate one. So a big fan of all these, the Gloverd-Yon fight is an awesome fight. And then the Izzy versus one of these middleweights coming up is going to be an awesome fight. I don't want to say it's right with the world because if he won, he won. I don't want to say him losing is the right thing to do or the right thing that happens. I just think in terms of competitive fights, this was the best outcome for the divisions, not necessarily the champions. because if he's in one, he's going to make a bunch of money,

which at the end of the day, they're prize fighters, and you should make as much money as possible if you're going to get punched in the head for a living. So for Izzy, it's the worst case scenario. For Jan and the rest of, for Jan, it's a big, it's the best case scenario because he beats the guy that's a money draw right now that we're talking about, can he be the next Conne McGregor?

And then for 205 and middleweight, it's without a doubt the best scenario. So it depends on which, which angle you take. Good for both guys. Good for Glover. because what a crazy week that must have been for him too. Like he's the backup guy. Comes out of UFC 259 is one of the big winners for sure.

And a lot of people are like, oh, we got to, you know, Glover's going to be on standby. He's going to be waiting and, you know, impatient until these guys get into the octagon. But I think even beyond that, those 25 minutes were gut wrenching for him. But those last two rounds probably made him feel pretty good. Now he's going to get a title shot.

So we go from the biggest storyline heading in to the biggest storyline coming out, the first point of this championship matchup goes to Jose Young's on the board. It's one to nothing. Great, great battle. And we still got three more questions at least to get to. So let's get to the biggest story coming out of Saturday night. We have a brand new UFC Banimoyt champion. It is Al Jermaine Sterling. And not in the way anybody imagined it would happen. Because as everybody knows by now, late in the fourth round, Piotrion drills Al Jermaine Sterling with. an illegal knee deemed intentional. And after several minutes of Al Jermaine Sterling trying to recover, not one, but two check-ins with the doctor, it was deemed that Aljo could not continue.

Jan was disqualified and lost the title. Matt, we're gonna begin with you before we dissect this little further. What was your reaction on Saturday night, watching this knee land and the unfortunate way this fight ended? You know, we were on our live stream over at the Body Lock and I immediately said that was the dumbest move I have ever seen in any championship fight

in the history of the UFC. The way that he had Aljo framed down with his knee down on the canvas, waited a solid six seconds, seven seconds before throwing this knee and then acted surprised. Listen, I don't care. Like all the talk has come out,

you know, after the fact about, oh, his corner told him to throw it, and then he checked with his corner before throwing it, and then he threw it, and he didn't know the rules. They're told the rules in the back, you're a professional fighter, you're a champion. How do you not know the rules at this point,

especially when it comes to the downed fighter rule? Like that's one of the biggest ones. That's usually a hot topic that they discuss in the back before every fight because that rule in particular changes from city to city. So you have to know that one in particular. It's just wild that Yon didn't know this and that he actually just, you know, even at the end, held his hand up like he did something good

when Bruce Buffer was doing his thing. Just absolute madness all the way around. And I cannot stand a single one of you people out there. You hashtag MMA fans that want to claim that Aljo was acting. Go get a friend of yours to hit you upside the head with a bat while you're not looking and tell me how you feel. All right. I can't wait to dive into this further.

But Jose, just your initial reaction because like Matt just said, we've never seen anything like this in a UFC title fight. How did you react in the media room to this knee and Alge are becoming the champion in that manner? Oh, man. So when we're in the media room, we're usually sitting and we're watching from the TV,

but I had to stand for this one. Like me and our good friend Oscar Willis, we're like, I can't stand for this. I got like, I mean, I have to stand for this. I can't sit down. So we were like, like, like on the edge of like just like this fight is awesome this fight is insane we were so it was such a good fight up until the

illegally and then as soon as it happened we both just threw our hands up in the air it was just an absolute travesty and I agree with Matt I don't want to hear all this like this this this actor main sterling or best actor goes to al Jermaine Sterling or he was trying to get his way out like do you got hit in the head illegally rules are rules you can't take a third strike in baseball and be like you know what I think like you can't just stay up to back you struck out it's a it's the rule they are there for a reason like even alzerman strong said it two years ago like how far do we have to go before you before the breaking the rules is a loss like

are the rules actually just break the rules as much as you can without getting caught that's nonsense and for all this we talk about like oh low blows need to lead to a point deduction eye pokes need to lead to a point deduction oh you've worn the guy four times or holding the fence and you haven't taken a point away like these refs are terrible and then as soon as there's an actual disqualification loss for an illegal blow everyone is up in arms over this it's probably because they didn't like al germane sterling which is ridiculous because he's one of the best fighters and one of the coolest guys in the world in in the sport peter yon is also awesome and he's also a phenomenal fighter just had a complete brain fart in there and through an illegal blow it is so unfortunate because

as we said in our preview show and as i'm sure matt said in anything he's in any of his pre-use shows or last week on between the licks this fight was everyone's potential fight of the night and was shaping up to be that until this illegal blow i they have to do the rematch man like nothing else is acceptable in my minds that fight ruled up until it up until it happens i get why people are upset about alger main posting stuff and everything but like he said like what am i going to do say tell my friends not to like they were they came here to watch me fight, they can do their thing if they want to with me. But Al Jermaine left the

title in the Octagon when he walked out. He didn't even want it. He also said he thought it would be a no contest. I think that's maybe why Peter Pioriorian held his hand up. Maybe he thought it would be a no contest too and he get to keep his belt. Turned out to be a DQ. At least the rest are going this route. Because if it was

a no contest, we'd be having this, the argument would be, should it have been a disqualification and then it probably would have even big a bigger controversy because Al Jamean's turn on, I should be the champion because I got a legally need. This is the worst case scenario right now, though. I pray they run it back. So there's a lot to unpack with this whole situation. And part of, and part of me just like, it sucks going down this rabbit hole because you just, it's dangerous territory. But I always think about like,

what if Aljo was okay? They would have probably taken two points away. And if Aljo won the fifth round, it would have been a draw. And this is a completely different conversation. So there is a lot to unpack with this whole thing. First of all, Jose, I want to talk about the aftermath because Sterling wins the title. He wasn't happy about it. He does the post-fight interview, which I spoke with Eric Nixick last night. He sort of walked us through how that all went down. And he was like, no, he's not doing a post-fight interview.

So how he got in that seat is beyond me. It's beyond him. He doesn't even know what happened there. But, you know, listen, he had a lot of friends and family come out. They're all proud of him. They want him to hold the title in photos and call himself a champion. And since Saturday night, a lot of heat, a lot of negativity has been thrown in his direction from fans, media members, even his fellow fighters and Bannam weights.

I'm just curious, like, outside of the whole actor-main Sterling thing, just the overall thing with the photos and Maraub posting photos, like he's not posting photos with him carrying the title. Like, what have you made of this reaction and how a lot of people have, I guess, turned on Al Jemaine Sterling here for something that wasn't his fault? It's the same people that don't like Israelada Sanya. And you can look into that as much as you. you want. I'm not going to say it because we all know what I'm trying to say.

Al Jalerman Sterling didn't do anything wrong. He did nothing wrong. People are just mad that, hey, I'm sure there's a group of people. I think even Henry Suhudo said the same thing when he apologized. He was upset in the moment because he was upset the fight ended like that, and he was upset that Al Jermaine Sterling looks like he was fine when it looked like he wasn't, when he was like writhing in pain inside the octagon. And then he was, you know, apologized. He's like, I was just, it was the heat of the moment. I am confident there people like that too that were just upset in the moment and now that it's kind of the dust is settled. They're like, all right, it wasn't an illegal blow. This whole conspiracy thing where

he was not hurt is stupid, like stupid. Like I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear best actor anymore. The dude got hit in the head illegally. Like that's the end of the story. He lost, he won because the guy broke the rules. That's what happens. You win of title fight. You're you get pot for steroids, you break the rules, that's a loss because you broke the rules. Like Peter Yan didn't take steroids, but still lost because he broke the rules. So should it have been a no contest? No, it should have been a disqualification because Dems the rules. Like that's it.

The fan backlash is not surprising, though, because these are the same people that were like, oh, Anthony Smith should have taken the high road. But then people are arguing he shouldn't take in the high road. So no one's going to be happy across the board, but I'm pretty confident that people are mad that Al Jamein Sterling one for a very specific reason, and it's the same people that hate Israel out of Sanya for whatever reason. It's nonsense. It's absolutely nonsense, but it's not surprising.

It's honestly not surprising. At the time I was surprised when I was seeing all this backlash, but then I sat there, I'm like, it's MMA fans. Why am I, like, why? They're going to be mad for no reason. And some people obviously change their minds and stuff, but it is what it's not, it is what it is. It's unfortunate all around.

Matt, what have you made of this backlash towards Sterling? Not just that. Like even Ray Longo, we're seeing him do interviews with different outlets. And he's saying that he's gotten more hate over this than anything that has ever happened in his entire coaching career. It's just wild to think about. But, you know, what have you made of all this? Even like guys like John McCarthy and Josh Thompson saying different things, like what have you made of this whole thing? It's insane because as Jose has kind of touched on here already, rules are rules for.

for a reason. And we can talk about the grounded knee, you know, the grounded fighter rule as a separate thing. But at the end of the day, if you illegally strike someone, you are supposed to lose the fight. At the bare minimum,

like at the bare minimum, you're supposed to get points taken away. We saw a point taken away quickly for a cage grab just last week. So what is supposed to happen here when you have seven seconds to think about throwing an illegal knee and you throw it while the guy is still

grounded? I don't care if it's a title fight. I don't care if it's the first fight on the early prelims on fight pass. An illegal strike won that devastating. If the fighter cannot continue, you lose the fight and you lose your title. And we can also make a case, why does he get an immediate rematch for throwing an illegal strike in a title fight? That's a question that we can also ask. But at the end of the day, you cannot fault Al Jermaine Sterling for being on the receiving end of someone breaking the rules.

If that's the case, any champion or anyone that is losing a fight in a marquee spot, you know what, I'm just going to go ahead and just start kicking them in the junk repeatedly, just until I get that DQ. You know why? Because I won't lose my title according to some of you, some of you hashtag GEMA fans out there that don't believe that that should be part of the rule set. No, that's just not how it works. If you do illegal things, you have to face the repercussions,

including losing the fight and or losing your title if that is what's on the line. I don't fault Al Jermaine here. You shouldn't be going after his coaches. Because what did his coaches do? They weren't out there saying, Aljo, stay down, stay down, take the title. We saw none of that. It wasn't, that was not the case. The doctor came in, Mark Smith handled this situation perfectly.

If you go back and rewatch the clip at 41 seconds, right when Aljo's knee hits the ground, Mark Smith is right there, he says grounded and points. He's like grounded. six, seven, seven seconds later, Peder, Pedrigan throws the knee. And here we are, everybody just outraged at Al Jermaine Sterling for being on the receiving end of an illegal strike. Like, he didn't do anything wrong there.

The only thing that you can fault Al Jermaine for is, I guess, just not being tough enough to take a knee that he didn't see to the side of the head. You know, he said that on his YouTube video that the reason why he didn't, you know, respond as well to that, is because he didn't see it coming. Like he didn't have an opportunity to brace himself or kind of roll with it or anything like that.

He did not see the knee. And you can watch the replay. His eyes are looking straight at the canvas because he's in his mind, he's thinking, I'm in a safe spot here based on the grounded fighter rule. But no, Pettya Yan doesn't know the rules and he's a championship fighter.

So sure, let's pass the blame on the guy who got need in the head. It doesn't make any sense. So I'm glad you said what you said to begin that statement, Matt, because there has been some debate on where this should all go. Like, it seems imminent that we're going to see the rematch. And right now, there's a glaring hole in May.

There's nothing on the books for that pay-per-view. So I would assume that's what the UFC will try to target. If Aljo can be cleared, that seems like perfect world scenario, but who the hell knows is going to happen. But there are some folks out there who think, you know what, Jan lost. He got Dekued. He made a huge mistake. He lost the belt.

Maybe he shouldn't get a rematch. Maybe we give Aljo T.J. Dillish. let Jan fight somebody else earn his way back. Personally, I couldn't disagree with that sentiment more because I feel like losing the title, losing money, he loses pay-per-view points in the rematch. I feel like that's enough punishment, especially since he was pulling away with the fight in the fourth round.

In your mind, do you feel that there's an argument to be made against the immediate rematch? Is that for me first? Yeah, that's for you. I'm sorry. Okay, yeah, yeah. No, absolutely. I mean, there's definitely an argument for it. You can talk about it because, again, like,

if he really did this maliciously, which I think he did in the moment, like I said, you have seven seconds to think about what's happening in there, and that's an eternity in an MMA fight, right?

Especially when you have control of the situation. You have your opponent essentially like in a lockdown position. You have every opportunity to think about what you're doing there. You know, if you go back and watch the film again,

you hear someone from Yon's corner say, punch, punch, just punch in English. And then apparently that was translated to him and then I don't know if something got lost in translation because you also see Jan kind of look over real quick and I guess acknowledge and then he throws the knee. So there was a lot of stuff happening there,

but at the same time at the end of the day, you're the fighter, you're supposed to be in control of everything that's going on there. So it's illegal and it's intentional. I don't like the idea that you know, you can't ask the question of, yeah, you did something very illegal in a title fight. why should we put you right back in a title fight?

So that's a very valid question. And I would like to see that argument being brought up more. At the very least, you know, you do the rematch. But yeah, that's something that you have to consider, man. Like, how do you not know the rules at this level? You're at the top of the division in the biggest platform in MMA. Doesn't make sense. Jose, you seem to be chips in the middle on the rematch.

Do you see any argument to be made? against the immediate rematch, maybe go a different direction? No, I'm all in on the rematch, honestly. Like, I am 100% in. There, obviously, what Matt said is true. Like, he broke the rules. Why reward that? Like, if you sign a contract that says,

you cannot eat green jello for the seven weeks leading up to your fight and you eat green jello, that's on you. Is the rule stupid? Probably, but that's the rule. Like, that's just how it is. So I get it. You don't want to reward. award someone for breaking the rules but i also agree what you said lost the title loses pay of your

points doesn't get it doesn't get his win bonus all that kind of stuff has he been punished enough that's another conversation he was winning that fight like he was pulling away like you said like the beginning of the fight i think henj de hoot broke it down perfectly when he issued that apology too that algerman just came out like real hot guns blazing and you can't sustain that over five rounds yon sustained his his output going into that final round and he was clearly pulling way. So I think if it was reversed and Al Jermaine was clearly winning the fight, like if he was up like 4-1 or 4-0 or something like that, and then the illegal blow happened and he won, I think there's no way you do the rematch because Al Jermain was about to win anyway, but I think Al-Ramein was on his way

to losing that fight. And I think that's why people want the rematch. And I also want the rematch. Also, I don't want T. G. J. Dill is trying to skip the queue if they are going to do the fight, it's San Hagan Al-Alermain. But we already saw that fight. Al-Germain put him to sleep. I am pretty confident Al Jermaine would take the rematch too because he put the belt down in the octagon. He even posted on his YouTube channel saying like, if we run it back, I hope it's better than the first and this and that.

So I'm 100% in on the rematch. And this will give Dillishaw and Sanhagen time to throw down maybe on the same card, maybe on a fight night before and after, so they're on the same timeline. But I am all in on the rematch, but there is 100% an argument against it just because Piotrion broke the rules

and you shouldn't reward people that break the rules. but I think the vast majority, including both fighters and the most important person in this scenario, the president of the company, he wants that too. So I'm all in on the rematch. Also, it's just a good martial arts fight. Like, that fight was awesome. I'll watch those guys fight a thousand times

and I'll never be bored. Yeah, I think it's going to do bonkers business too. And listen, give me five more rounds of that, maybe more. Yeah. Maybe more. I wouldn't. I wouldn't be, yeah. If they want to put it on the main event of Figurato Moreno 2,

I'd be fine with that too because then Henry Sehudo can just be looming over the entire card because both of his belts are on the line. And it's like one of them was a draw and one of them was a DQ and now they're both on the same card. Like I'm all in on it. I'm all in on the circus. We're going to talk about one more thing. One more dangerous thought that I've had with this whole thing is like sometimes when these things happen, we revert back to a time that had happened before and the result of that.

Like John Jones didn't land that knee against Anthony Smith and Anthony Smith didn't continue, would we be getting the same backlash for Al Jermaine because he couldn't continue? I kind of wish in a way that that moment didn't happen because we have nothing else to look at. It would just be like, this is the first time. We can move from there, be a different look at history and MMA in these types of situations. So again, dangerous rabbit hole to go down. But the last thing I do want to discuss on this is the process in how this all went down. The knee lands, Jose, Aljo's badly hurt.

The referee's giving him time, calls the doctor. in, then the doctor leaves, then the doctor comes back in, and the fight is stopped. It's a DQ, the title changes hands. This process seemed like it took forever to get to its conclusion. When it comes to like how it all went down, how we got from knee to new champion, how this is all handled on Saturday, how could this be done differently? Can it be done differently? I think it took a long time because as we all know, when a fighter gets low blow, eye poked, illegally hit. You get time.

You get time, like, what, like five minutes, but they even put the clock up on the thing now. So Alzemanel was going to take as much time as possible, and they brought in the doctor twice because it's not a cut, it's not like a low bow. This is your brain that he's looking at. Like, they don't want him to go out there and take more brain damage.

So I am not in favor of expediting the process whatsoever. I want all precautions. If that takes 10 minutes, 10 minutes it is. I want a guy to go out there 100%. I don't want them to say like, oh, it's four minutes and 55 seconds. We have five minutes. I didn't get to a decision so the fight continues. No, I want them to be 100%.

We all know. We want like Casey Leiden has said it a few times. Redundancy is at its best. If it takes three doctor checks, go for it. I want him to be 100%. And it takes three doctor checks to decide that he's not 100%. So be it. Because I don't want a guy to get hurt just because of Dr.

Rush is his job because they're running out of time. So did it take a long time? Yes. Was it the right decision? Yes. Did the doctor need to go in there twice? Yeah. If you needs to go in there a third time, I'm all in favor of it. Just as long as we get to the right decision and someone doesn't take unnecessary damage, I am in favor. I am all in on as long as it takes and as many, as long as the doctor needs to be in there. Is it fun for the broadcast? No. But again, this is the guy's brain we're talking about. Right. And I'm, and I'm, and I'm, I'm with you on that. The fighters' health and safety comes first and foremost to completely get that.

So Matt, just kind of going back to the conversation with Eric Nixick's coming up this afternoon, you'll find it on our YouTube page, it was really interesting. But one of the things he said was, one, once the doctor comes in, he felt like the doctor should make that decision right there and then. Like if you feel if there's a shot, if there's any doubt that this man shouldn't be able to continue, the doctor should just be like not feeling it, fights over rather than delay the process. And that's fine to get to where we are.

The other thing Eric said, which I thought was interesting, was the referee making a decision on the fly. Like in the NFL, if there's a call, if there's a flag, if there's a pass interference, if there's something that needs to be challenged, the referee makes a decision, then they can go to replay and either keep the decision or change it based on what the referee ruled at that point in time. So I kind of thought that that was interesting and then you could build upon that using the replay. But with how this all played out, is there anything we could do differently here in your eyes? Did you feel like this was fine? Um, the main thing I would do differently is take the responsibility of the decision away from the fighter in that, in that moment.

Because you should not be asking a fighter, do you want to continue after you just got illegally struck in the head like that upside the head with a with a knee? Like we're talking about concussion, you know, we're talking about concussion like things here. We're not talking about you, you got kicked in the junk. Like can you like, do you need five minutes? Like, you know, only you know like how much that hurts you. Like there's no real. measurement for that, right? So that's fine.

But we're talking about you got neat upside the head when you weren't looking and you can't even stand right now. Like we got people propping you up. You sit up and then you laid back down and said, no, it's better when I lay back down because, you know, like my world is still spinning right now. So you take that responsibility away from the fighter to make that decision. Like especially if he's showing those sorts of reactions to everything that's going on. do your thing as a doctor assess the situation.

If you think that that fighter should not be continuing based on concussion-like symptoms, then yeah, call the fight. Call it. Don't let the fighter make that decision because the fighter, nine times out of 10 is going to be like, I'm going to go on here. I'm fighting for victory here. I'm not going to just take the easy way out.

And it disgust me that so many people think that Aljo did that here. It's so disgusting. It just shows you the level of intelligence of a, the average MMA fan. I'm fully on board with take it out of the fighter's hands. Let the doctor make the decision. That's literally why you call the doctor in there, I would think, right? It's not, I mean, we're not, like Jose said, we're not assessing a cut.

Like, is it too close to the eye? Will he be able to see? Is the swelling too big on this hematoma, like on the top of your forehead? Like, no, this is a concussion-like thing. The doctor is supposed to be the expert in that situation, the one that's thinking with a clear mind, with the medical, you know, background and expertise. So that should be 100% the doctor's decision.

In this case, I thought that they did handle it pretty good, though, in terms of length of time and everything like that. Mark Smith did a fantastic job. So all in all, I think it was handled pretty well, but in the future, that's how I would change it. It's a great point. We'll see how this wild story plays out. In my eyes, from a fan's perspective,

I'm excited to see these guys run it back for potentially five more rounds. Now they've been in there at each other for nearly 20, minutes, but we could talk about this for another 30 minutes. But we move ahead to the other storylines of UFC 259. The point for round two goes to Matthew Wells has tied things up. That was a great round. Excellent point about taking it away from the fighter. It's another point Eric made as well.

But let's move ahead to Amanda Nunes, who retained her featherweight title. She dominates and stops Megan Anderson in just over two minutes in the co-main event of UFC 259. mom nunez is a bad bad lady and she stole all the momentum in that fight with the very first punch she landed made it look easy as the betting line suggested so Jose let's discuss the glaring question coming out of this win and this dominant run for amanda nunez okay where do we go from here because we get juliana pania she wants that fight now that holly holmes out of their scheduled matchup in may that's there the rest of the top six we got germane derandini who told me

at the end of last year that she would put her career on the line for one last shot at Amanda Nunes. We got Arina Aldana who lost to Holly Holm. There's Aspen Ladd who's been out with an injury. And the only fighter right now in the top six on a winning streak is Yonakunitskaya. What do we do with Amanda Nunes now, Jose? I mean, as soon as Giuliana Payne called her out on Fight Island, people were like roasting her and all this stuff, like, oh, you just lost a GDR. And this is like, you're not going to get what you don't ask for. And at least she's making a fight with Amanda. Like we're talking about this fight because like what you just said,

of the three title fights that happened on Saturday, very few were talking about Amanda Nunes. Like if you look at our YouTube numbers, like Yon, Izzy, Dana, the other Yon, they're all getting these big numbers in terms of views. And Amanda was getting good numbers for a champion, but it's not that she's not this, she wasn't this big draw on Saturday.

that's probably because everyone just expected her to run through Megan Anderson. There was no heat. There was no storyline other than, oh, the storyline was Amanda Nunes just had her first daughter and she's got, well, she didn't have it. She's a new mom and she's fighting. That was the story. At least Juliana Pena is bringing some heat to this fight because against Holly Holm, there was no heat.

Against GDR, there was no heat. Rakell Pennington. Like the cyborg fight was interesting because it was champ versus champ. And Amanda Nunes had the Ronda Rouserowder story for U.S. 207. Oh, U.S.C. 200. She's fighting for the title against Misha Tate. There's no, like, we talk about what makes a good, like what it makes this big champion. And you need a dance partner.

You need a big dance partner. Like Anderson needed chale. Like Jan and Aljo would now be tied together. Like T.J. Dilshaun needed Cody Garbrand and vice versa. Henry Sehudo and Colby Compton kind of made it their own stick that you're captivated by their character. Mananunas is not that. She's just a really high-level fighter, and she needs someone to bring the eyeballs because she's not that type of fighter. Demetri's Johnson probably needed that, and it should have been that with Henry Sohudo.

If we got the third fight, it just didn't happen. I am all for the Giuliana Pena fight because, A, it's a fresh matchup. I think Giulia Pania probably should have fought for the title. If Ronor Roszi didn't return at USC 207, it probably would have been Amanda Nunez Juliana right away because she was the next in line. but obviously Ron skipped the queue, which is more than fair because she was the OG of that division. And then Giuliani kind of got strong-arm into a fight against Valentina. These are her words, not mine. And she lost to Valentina.

And then she had her daughter. She got hurt, blah, blah, blah. I'm all in on this fight. It's fresh. There's a rivalry. There's a story. She's going to talk a lot of greasiness. Whether you like it or not is another conversation we can have later on.

I'm for it. I also just want a fresh matchup. I don't want a third GDR fight. Do I want it as a fight fan? Yes, because that's a fun fight. But the UFC's not going to do that. I think it's ridiculous that they did the Holly Home Irrene Adonnet fight on Fight Island.

Irrene Addae should have just got the title fight anyway instead of fight Holly Holm home. I don't think Giuliano Payne should have been matched up to the Holly Olme either. Just give her the fight. Just give her a fresh fight. Like we're giving what? Like people are fighting off of one win, one loss.

Like Alexander Augustin lost to Rumble Johnson and then still got a title fight after Rumble Johnson. and lost to DC. So just make the Juliana Pena fight. It's fun fight. And Amanda Nunes finally gets a verbal sparring partner. I knew Casey going to put that on because he's on Team Pena as well.

Matt, are you on Team Venezuelan vixen at this point? Or is there something else that's up? Because Jose makes a great point about the foil. Chris Cyborg would have been like the perfect one. But obviously the relationship between Chris Cyborg and the UFC fell apart. Chris Cyborg's in Bellator now. So now we're not going to see it. And if we do, it won't be for a long time.

but at this point, 2021, what do we do with Amanda Nunes now? No, Chris Seibord would absolutely be the correct answer if, you know, all things were possible. But it's not. We live in a world of, you know, UFC fighters got to fight UFC fighters. So, yeah, Julianna is the way to go, I think, because, you know, she was set up for that Hollyholm matchup. And obviously the winner that was going to get the next crack at Amanda. So she kind of wins by default here. And I think that, yeah, go ahead and give her her title shot.

The thing with Giuliana Pena, though, she says some things that confuses me. Like, you know, she said Amanda was ducking her. Like, no, like you lost twice. In both times, you probably would have had the title shot after those wins. So I don't know how you can duck someone after you lose your opportunity to set up yourself for a title fight, which is very strange. And then in a recent interview she did when she talked about, you know, having this fight take place on Mother's Day. She also said, let's have it take place on ABC. Like, why would you not call for this to be on a pay-per-view?

Does not make sense to me that she just says some strange things at times. But I think that she is in the rightful spot for this title shot. A win over ceremony is no thing to just kind of scoff at, you know, choking her out. It's a pretty big thing. So, yeah, she's fought better competition than Yana Kuniskaya, I believe, recently and even just throughout her career. So I think she is the best stylistic matchup for Amanda Nunes. Not saying that that means she's going to win or anything, but I think she will provide a different dynamic than what we've seen against

Amanda Nunes as of as of late. Mostly just strikers, you know, which has been one of her talking points. True. Holly, Jermaine, Cyborg, you know, Raquel Pennington for the most part in Valentina. All those are just straight strikers. Yeah, Felicia brings some grappling to the to the, to the, Octagon, but you know, Amanda was kind of doing her thing in there in that fight. So it really wasn't all that much of a challenge.

Sure. Give me Giuliana Pena. Nothing else really makes sense to me. Once Amanda gets through that fight, you can probably set up Yanukunaskaya, and then whoever may emerge, you know, after that, I guess, line them up. I think as long as Amanda Nunes is just kind of hanging around, we're going to find her in these fights that really don't intrigue a lot of people, just because she's that dominant.

You know, like she said after the fight, when Joe Rogan was like, you kind of have you created this problem for yourself, well, there's nobody here. She said, well, that's not my problem. I mean, she shows up, she fights whoever's in front of her, and it's not her fault at the end of the day

that those girls can't compete with her. So let's stop blaming Amanda Nunes for being so damn good. Let's appreciate the goat while we got her. Whichever way we can see her compete, I'm all on board for. Listen, she just pulled off an inverse, triangle arm bar and everybody's just like, yeah. Like what?

That was a crazy submission that she just pulled off and nobody's really talking about it. It's just insane. That's just how good she is. If they do the pain you fight, I'm okay with it. As long as you do GDR versus Holm, we need to see that rematch. That first fight left a bad taste in our mouths. And then whoever wins that fight, if you want to give them one crack at the belt, that's fine. Especially GDR wins.

I'm fascinated by someone willing to put their career on the line. to fight Amanda Nunes. So I am kind of intrigued by that a whole thing. So congratulations, she started to Amanda Nunes. Great win. She did what she was expected to do. The submission was unbelievable. But I do want to shine some light on the rest of the card if I could because, Matt, I want to begin with you.

There are a lot of strong performances on Saturday. We had 15 freaking fights to watch. And outside of the three title fights, I'm curious, which fighter stock rose the most coming out of UFC 259, from when they made the walk to the octagon to when the night ended, whose stock rose the most on Saturday. for me it's one that's kind of flying under the radar i don't see a lot of people talking about this gentleman and go on to the prelims and it's one kailer phillips kailer phillips caught my eye throughout the week um just in his interviews and everything just his whole swag coming into this very very tough fight against songy and dung and he went out there

and just made it look easy against a tough guy man and he looked like man like man this guy's a real contender in this division right now that 135 division is something else it's It's the best. It's been in a long time. I am a big fan of what I saw out of him this past weekend. I'm very intrigued to see what he does next. He's on a nice little win streak there. Again, that division is so stacked at the top, though,

so a lot of interesting things could happen. But the way that that guy just showed up, just had the confidence, swag on 100 all week long, went out there, performed the way he did. I think he kind of stole the show of the prelims for me personally. So like you said, on a very stacked card where a lot of guys, you know, you can kind of talk about in this spot, that's the guy I'm choosing to considering the way he handled himself all week long and the way he went out there and just all but dominated a very, very tough song you don't. Jose, that's a challenger learning his opponent because something tells me you were looking at Kyler Phillips, Arizona guy, had a great performance.

Outside of Kyler, who stole the show for you? Who had the highest rising stock, so to speak, from beginning of the night to where they are now? I mean, the easy answer is a la Machchiev just because he has the Habib name tied to him. But I'm going to say, but I'm not going to take that. I think that's a cop-out. I was off. I'm going to take, I'm going to do two just because they fought back-to-back, both in the same way class. Asker-A-R-A-R-Franse, really impressed me, especially because let's not forget,

Kai-Carf France coming off that loss, a submission loss to Brennan-Roy-Vell. Yeah, he did get Roth for that. but gets a submission loss to Brennawayville and fight Island. And it has to go in there and fight a monster of a blackbell, Andrico Bontarine and not only survives like a super gnarly neck crank, but he goes on there and knocks them out. Oh, let's just not forget that he just, his partner just or his wife, girlfriend, Fiante, I don't know exactly their relationship,

just had their first kid. He's now a dad. And now he has to go back and go through that whole quarantine thing. So he's a new dad who can't go hold his kid for a long time. But he also gets to go back with. a performance bonus and a win bonus. So all in all, not a bad day for Kai Kar-Franch. And Asker-Asker-A-F, anytime you're 30-26 a fighter of Joseph Benavita's caliber,

how can you not be impressed? I mean, what he needed to do is because if Joseph Benavita's won, even he himself said, probably not going to get a title fight anytime soon, if ever again. Asker-A-askroff is risking a ton to go out there and fight someone that is not going to fight for a title against sitting in number three. And let's not forget, he has a draw against Brennan-Morino, who just fought to a draw against him.

figurato so if we're talking about who deserves and who doesn't deserve fights asker askeroff is the next contender at flyweight yes i get the cody garbrand and se hoodo ghosts are looming over the 125 pound division but if those are out of the picture it's figurato slash morano versus asker asker askroff so two flyweight's really yes asker asker off missed weight so it's technically a catch weight but both of those men uh were very impressive in their fights and i think they stole the show on the prelands in my mind i think the correct answer especially after hearing what you guys both said, it's got to be Amanda Lamos.

I mean, my God, what a performance she had. And no one's talking about her. It's so crazy. I think she just, she got sandwiched between two crazy fights. So it's just, you know, awesome fight, but like the next fight was the Brady,

Sean Brady fight, and that fight ruled too. Yeah, agreed. But listen, it's going to go down as one of the more memorable and storyline-filled events of the year. No doubt about that. But we're going to move.

move ahead. Final round of regulation in the lead is the challenger. Matthew Wells is up two to one. We all know Cowboy fans can't keep a lead. And us Red Sox fans love being behind going to the final round. I mean, you're not wrong. You're not wrong. I can't argue with that.

You guys have watched this show. All right, UFC 259. Obviously, it was loaded up. It's a, it's tougher events sometimes to lead. into big cards like that as well as follow up big cards like that, but somebody's got to do it. UFC Vegas 21 goes down this Saturday. As of now,

we've got 13 fights on the bill headlined by Leon Edwards versus Blah Muhammad. We're going to get into that fight in a minute, gentlemen. But Matt, I want to begin with you. When you look at this card as a whole, especially coming out of UFC 259, how would you gauge your excitement level? Pretty excited personally because I love this main event. I'm very excited to see Leon Edwards return to action.

It's been way too long for reasons outside of his control. And not just him on his side, but also on his opponent side. The UFC got married to this matchup against Shamiya for whatever reason. And it really sucks that it sidelined not only him, but also Shemaya for that long. But on the other side, he's fighting Bala Muhammad, who's a guy who's just been so good for so long. And he's just, he seems like he's hitting his stride. I love the fight. I love the match up.

I don't know which or where they end up after the win for either fighter. Hopefully, you know, it would seem like this would set up a title shot for the winner here. But, you know, the UFC does crazy things. And I don't know if either guy will be the one to really kind of knock down the door, you know, from the casual's perspective of clamory for a title shot. But there's other good fights on this card, too, man. Fortis, M.M.M.A., is Ryan Span, taking on Misha Sarkinov. I'm definitely looking forward to that in the co-main event as well. obviously being a DFW guy who spent some time down at Fortis,

very, very much looking forward to Ryan Spann going out there and having another opportunity to pick up the big win. So yeah, those are my two favorite fights on this card. But listen, anytime Angela Hill's competing as well, I'm excited. Same with Eric Anders and Darren Stewart. That's a fantastic fight too, man. So a lot of good fights on this card. Coming off the heels of a fantastic pay-per-view,

this is a damn good, damn good fight night card. Jose, is this like the Monday night raw after WrestleMania? Is that excitement going to sort of carry over? Is this one of those cards for you? Oh, comparing that to the Monday night after. No, I don't think it's that, it's not that stacked, but there are fights that I'm, there are fights and fighters I'm obviously super intrigued with.

Like the Dan Nige Gavin Tucker fight is fun. I'm really excited for Mateus Nicolao fighting Manel Cape because it felt like Manel Cape took forever to make his debut because fights fell out, opponents got hurt, and they, again, like Matt said, like they were married to the Leon Edwards-Jemaiah fight. It felt like they were really married to the Manel-Kate-Pantosia fight, and then that fight finally happened. And it wasn't the fight we were expecting from Minel-Kate.

But let's also not forget, like, Marais kind of laid an egg in his first fight against, who was it, a son-sau? So I feel like Manel-Ka's going to come out here like a bat out of hell. And Mattias Nicolaos, is his first fight back since re-signing, since re-signing with the UFC. He was in Brave. He, like, Shorty Torres. He was going to be in that fight with Shorty Torres. For whatever reason, they brought back all the flyways except Shorty.

Let's bring them back, guys. I think it's time to see Shorty back in the octagon. So there's, and then obviously Charles Jordane, fellow nerd, fellow dork. Like, obviously, I don't play World Warcraft myself. Never played it. But this dude's eyes light up if you bring up anything to do at World Warcraft. And I love talking with fighters about their passions outside of fighting, as I'm sure you all do. And as I know are the guy on the ones and twos, Casey Lydden,

likes to do. And then, June Frye making a return again. So a lot of fun fights, a lot of fun fighters. I wish there was maybe one more big marquee fight. Like if they had had the Ryan Hall Daniege fight, I think it would have been enough to kind of tip this over to being a really intriguing fight night. But the main event, like, I'm not going to lie. This is a main event card and the rest are fun, but everyone's tuning in for the main event. And it is awesome. Well, let's talk about the main event. Madd made some good points about it. Leon Edwards, Jose, eight in a row, hasn't fought since the RDA win in July of 2019. And then we have Bala Muhammad, who might just be the most underrated fighter at 170 pounds,

gets a big opportunity to shake some things up here. So, Jose, I know we touched on this a bit after it was announced on this program, but now we're four days away from it. What's at stake for these two guys, especially for Leon Edwards? Like, if he goes out there and puts it on, Belal Muhammad, will that be enough to get him at the top of the heap and get him in the cage with Kamaru? After the Usman Burns fight, I would have said no. I was pretty confident they were about to book the Mazuradal fight,

especially now that Mazuradal then came out and said, oh, we're fighting in September, this and that. But Kamar Uzman tweeting, like, what did he tweet? Like, anyone can get it. And then Kamar Usman's manager, Alia Abdelaziz also said, like, Mazurah doesn't make the rules. If Kamar wants the fight, he'll take the fight. So I think they were playing the seeds and maybe another direction.

So I think if Leon wins, if he goes out there and just crush his ball, law. It's going to come down to him or Wonderboy. I don't think there's a wrong answer there. Wonderboy only because he might not get it. He's getting real close to that age where he might not fight much longer. I would like to see him get one more title fight. Also, the fans seem to get really behind him. It's a fresh matchup against the chairman because we just, we just went out. We did a whole round on Amanda Nunes. And our answer was we'd like to see a fresh matchup. Same thing if you said with Kamaro. He's pretty much being everyone in the top five. And he has to go all the way down to Stephen Thompson to get a fresh match. So if they want to make

that, that's fine. But if you're talking about it. about who's deserving. Like if he had beaten Shemaya, like if he had been Shemaya probably just because in the eyes of the fans, Shemayev is the uncrowns champion, but we all know he wasn't ranked. He shouldn't have been ranked at welterweight

and he had not beaten a real welterweight yet. Now he's fighting a guy that I think is even, even tougher challenge. Because remember when Joe Rogan was like, oh, Drew Doher's the most underappreciated fighter in the whole UFC? He's probably going to say the same thing about Balam-Mohamed because Joe Rogan has a new

underappreciated fighter in the history of MMA, every single card. Bala Muhammad is a fantastic fighter. Is it enough to get, is a win over Bala enough to get a tell shot? I think he'd have to go out there and beat him in like two minutes, but probably, but for Bala Muhammad,

he just has to look good. Even in a lost, if he looks any sort of competitive, taking a fight on short notice against a top five fighter in the world at his white class, that's a win. So, again, but a win is for Leon, it's going to come down between him and Wonderboy. I don't think it was wrong

answer there. Matt, is this one of those like playing with house bunny type of fights for Bala Muhammad? Like a lot can obviously change for him with the win. And as long as it's somewhat competitive, I don't feel like he loses a lot of gusto here. Is this one of those nothing to lose type of scenarios for Mr. Remember the name on Saturday? I think it's pretty close to that.

But I think it's also, you know, obviously a massive opportunity to really solidify himself at the top of the division. but if he does lose in this spot, yeah, it doesn't hurt his stock too much because he's ranked 13th. A lot of people think that this is a huge jump form coming in already against Leon Edwards. So, yeah, it is pretty much a house money type of situation for him. And that's partially why we also don't think that if Leon gets a win over him, that he won't get set up for a title shot. I will agree with Jose that, yeah, you should absolutely do Stephen Wonderboy Thompson against Kamar Usman next

because of the fresh matchup in age and all that stuff like that considered stylistic matchup as well. We haven't seen Kamaru fight someone as dynamic on the feet like that recently. So that is a huge opportunity to go ahead and just make that. Let Leon and Bilal obviously settle things this weekend coming up. And we can see how that plays out because if Leon does what most people think Leon will do, which is win a five-round decision where he's just piecing, piece and Balal up over the course of 25 minutes, and he's not doing anything particularly spectacular. That's not going to get a lot of people excited.

Whereas you have Stephen Thompson on the other side who's just an easy sell. You just mention his name and everybody's just on board with it. So I think that unless if Leon does just absolutely spark him in the first round, which I don't see happening, I think Bulla is way too good for that to happen. I think we're going to be looking at Leon sitting on the sidelines after this one for a while if he does win. and potentially having to take another fight, depending on how long they're going to wait before they book Usman and Thompson. So it's going to be a harder battle for Leon to make his case.

And Balal is really just free-rolling at this point. He can go out there and make a good showing of himself, even in a loss, similar to how Izzy did this past weekend. He lost the fight, but didn't lose stock very much. So it's a hell of an opportunity for for Bilal to really not only just make everybody remember the name. Yeah, but also have an opportunity to go get a big win. Busy, busy month for the UFC. We got two more fight nights.

We've got another pay-per-view coming up on the 27. Two more title fights. A lot of face punching in our futures as we turn to spring. And here in Massachusetts, we look forward to that. But as far as this matchup goes, the point for round four. goes to Red Sox Nation. Jose Young's ties things up. As we head to the knockout round,

and for those who are new to the program, one question is going to decide at all. They have no idea what this question is for the most part, but they will each have 60 seconds to respond. After that, with the help of the viewing audience, we will turn it over to the judge, the baddestash in MMA media, Casey Leiden, to render the final decision.

So Jose, you are back, you are the champion, and you have the choice, do you want to go first? Or do you want to let Matt get the ball rolling? Is this the same thing as last time? Like, we both get the same question. It's not like door, it's not like red pill, blue pill. Each question is different. You get the same question.

All right. Matt can go first. All right. Matt, so we had one of those red door, blue door questions last week. We had a choice of two. We went a different direction. So we're actually going to hit the one we did not discuss last week. The Golden Trifecta question.

So a couple of weeks ago, we had two title fights announced for UFC 261 in April, and we had a title fight announced for June. So we got Valentina Shepchenko versus Jessica Androge for the women's flyway title. Zhang Wei returns for the first time since the epic battle against Ioanni and Jacek. She defends against Rose Namibunas.

And in June, we got the rematch for the men's flyweight title between Davis and Figurato and Brandon Moreno. So Matthew Wells, I ask you, which one of these three title fights, interests you the most and why. So we're going to put one minute on the clock. Most interesting of these three title fights that were announced a couple weeks ago, your time starts now.

For me, I'm going with the Strawway title fight, Waley-Jang and Rosenomai Yunus. That is just a fantastic fight. Who knows what can happen in this one. It could go either way. I love the stylistic clash in this fight. And it makes, it's just the best fight that can possibly happen in this division where, you you have some contenders emerging slowly but surely.

You also have Tatiana Suarez sitting on the wings ready to come back at any moment. So this really sets the tone for the division in the near future. I love this fight. I love all three of them. But this one in particular, let's see if Waley-Jen can hold down the title for China and continue to rep that flag and, you know, keep the UFC in tune to that side of the globe over there as well. Just the best matchup all around, like I said, stylistically, for what it means for the

the future of the division and all that good stuff. I think that's also going to be the most entertaining fight, even though the flyweight title fight was one of the best fights of the year last year in that draw. There we go. We heard from the Challenger. All right, Jose, same question. We got Chivchenko And Raj, Waley, Damienas, Figgi Moreno 2, which one of these three title fights is the most interesting and why?

Your one minute starts now. I'm also going to say the straw weight title because Zhang Wei Lee Zhang First hasn't fought since last March and the fight of the year. I actually liked Figurato Moreno a little better but it's like there's no wrong answer there. But what was the big narrative we talked about

when Rose beat Jessica Andrage on Fight Island their rematch? That was the big octagon. And now we're all like, well, if it was the small octagon, Rose wouldn't have been able to keep away and Androge could have gone in close and used her power. and grappling and just hit and have a better chance of catching her. We saw that with Izzy and Yan where his, Jan could grab him and control him.

Jane Wei Lee hits like a truck. So if this fight is inside a small octagon, I am so ready for this fight. That is if it's in Las Vegas. If it's in Houston or Dallas or somewhere in Texas and Matt gets to go and I'm there in Texas with him and we get it in the big octagon, it might be a different story because Rose gets more time to walk in a bigger

cage. but I am one percent in favor of Janeway Lee, which is Rosamama Units. Oh, man. We have two guys pick the same fight for different reasons. It's going to make things interesting. So we'll let the comments, the viewers chime in with their votes while we do that. We got this show.

A-side coming up tomorrow, the very special guest. We'll let Jose reveal that coming up a little bit later on in the program once we announce the winner. What the heck is moving to Thursday? This day has been bananas. is I will not have a voice by the end of this day. I can tell you that right now because I have so many interviews lined up more tomorrow. I've actually just texted with Sean Brady, so we'll hear from him as well. And then, of course, we get your preview show on Friday for UFC Vegas 21.

We'll have the pre-fight show, the Q&A, and then post-fight show, all that good stuff as well, virtual media day. So we get a busy week for you here on MAAFinding.com. With that being said, we turn it on over to the baddestash at MMA Media, the judge, the jury, the executive producer, Casey Leiden, who gets to the busy. the strap, my man. Well played, gentlemen. This is a tough one.

It's basically which, which, which, which competitive likes to fight more. All right. I picked a winner. Your winner. And still, Jose Young's. I got to tell you.

I got to let the, I get to tell you. Once the cage-sized, cage-sized conversation came into play, I was like, Rutt-Roe, this is going to get interesting. So Jose gets the victory. Don't fight hard, fight smart. You got to play to the judges. Oh, man, that's what being on the show multiple times, I'll do for you. Size matters.

Size matters. Ah, man. All right, well, Jose gets the victory. And with that, you get 30 seconds to talk about whatever you want to talk about, good, bad, and different, MMA, the A-side guest reveal, whatever you want to talk about, my man, the floor is yours. Yeah, I'll reveal the guests at the end,

but let's, again, we're going to talk about the rules being broken. You break the rules, you get punished. I don't want to hear any of this, oh, Al Jermaine should have stayed in the fight for the betterment of martial arts and this is that, no. Piorter Eon broke through those.

And throw Matt Wells up on the screen with me for a second because I want to get his reaction to this too, at least so I can see it. when someone breaks the rules, like when an NFL receiver catches the ball near the end zone and falls down and it touches the floor and it pops out and he's like, that was a catch. But what are the rules say? Nope, incomplete pass for Des Bryant, Green Bay Packers win.

Then's the rules. You can't argue with the rules. You can argue with it until you're black and blue. 10 years later. But those are the rules, Matt. am I right? Hell no. He is speechless beyond words because he knows I'm 100% correct. But anyway, all that him rebuttal in two seconds. The big guest for tomorrow,

W.W.E's Big E, the reigning intercontinental champion of the world on Smackdown is going to be joining myself and Casey Leiden on the A side tomorrow to plug his new project, our heroes rock i'm not i'll let him tell you about it but if you have questions the stream is already built you can start lining them up there right now he's obviously a really big fight fan he watches almost all of the fights he was on our show before and we had such big such a positive reaction about his knowledge of the sport that i've been trying to get him on for a while but now he has this big project he's working on with another one of ours and matt's good friends andres hale uh andres won't be on but he'll be back on at another time so they have their big

project going on and I'm really excited for that so tune in tomorrow 1 p.m. Eastern 10 a m. specific that's a wrap there you go Matt a tremendous guest this will not be the last time we see you I'm sure any uh any thoughts on mr. Leiden's decision here I mean you know listen I've lost in life it's not the first time I've lost in other sports I've lost in other competitions um oh sorry Sorry, I dip into my Israel out of Sonia bag there for a second. But I respect it. I respect the judges, you know, don't want to upset them too much because I will return. I will return.

I will be back. Well said. Well, that'll do it for the show this week, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you so much for watching back next Thursday to do it all over again. Things go back to normal. Hopefully we don't have any wild and crazy antics to discuss on the program, but I'm sure we will. So for Jose Young's, Matt Wells, Casey Liden, I am. Mike Kack. We'll see you next week right here between the links.

The iconic voice of somebody will take you home. I'm not really sure who it's going to be. But good night, everybody. This has been between the links. I am Esther Lynn. You know this because I say my name when I speak. Thanks for watching. Hit the subscribe button.

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