MMA Fighting - BKFC 41 & UFC Vegas 72 Post-FIght Show: Did BKFC Have the Best Fight Card Of the Weekend?

Episode Date: April 30, 2023

MMA Fighting's José Youngs, Steven Marracco, and E. Casey Leydon react to Eddie Alvarez's thrilling split decision win in his BKFC debut, Chad Mendes' retirement, Mike Perry's strange TKO win over Luke Rockhold, Conor McGregor's appearance inside the BKFC, and more.  The three also look back on Song Yadong's fifth-round KO win over Ricky Simón in the main event of UFC Vegas 72. Follow José Youngs: @JoseYoungs Follow Steven Marrocco: @MMAFightingSM Follow E. Casey Leydon: @ekc 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

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking,

What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer,

but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster, the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose

to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now, only from Audible. We're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Hello, everyone. This is not Mike Heck or Jedmishu or A.K. Lee or any of the other rag-tag group of misfits

you're used to seeing slash hearing on anime fighting's post shows. They're all off doing God knows what, So you have the, you have the taped together post fight show panel, I guess you could say, of I am Jose Young's. Of course, you recognize my voice from anything about fighting, the former RIP, the A-side live chat and other obviously BTLs and all that kind of sorts and stuff. But joining me, Steve Morocco, one of the deputy editors, editor-in-cheats, whatever you want to call them. I don't know your exact title of M-A fighting. You watched a lot of fighting without gloves tonight, so we'll get your reactions to that.

You haven't been on one of these in a minute. Welcome back. And of course, Casey Leiden on the ones and twos. He also watched a lot of fist fighting with kicking and without kicking, with gloves and without gloves. So without further ado, let's get into it. Let's kick off with what I guess most of the combat sports world is talking about. And that is BKFC 41 in Denver. Or is it Denver?

Broomfield, wherever it is Colorado. It happened in Colorado. Mike Perry fought Luke Rockhold in the main event in a fight that when they announced it to me, felt like it was a fever dream. It was not. The fight actually happens. There were no gloves involved. Something weird happens, and we were trying to figure it out before we went live. Luke Rockhold motioned to the referee said something was wrong with his mouth, his jaw,

whatever it was. The referee waved it off. Mike Perry remains undefeated. He gets the TKO win over Luke Rockhold and then called out Conradger, Donald Soroni, a whole bunch of other people that were sitting at Cade side. Cardinal McGregor held a BKFC title. He faced off with Mike Perry. Lots of things happened.

So, Stephen, what is your immediate reaction to what we witnessed in Colorado? It was fun. I mean, what can I say? It was, you know, there was all this stuff, Connor McGregor being in the building, you know, calling out the bigger names, this is the way that they build themselves. This is, you know, having Connor in the building is big for their brand.

It helps them build brand awareness. And I think that's what they're trying to do. attract the bigger talent to show the to show the world that there could be a legitimate competitor. They've stayed in business this long and they appear to be trending in the right direction. You know, whether the business can actually sustain it is the long-term question. But yeah, I mean, it was just a fun. The pacing was really good. The fights.

If they weren't finishes, they were exciting decisions. The co-man event was great. and then the main event was a little bit weird but I wasn't necessarily expecting anything different with Luke Rockhole given where he's at in his career and what I've seen from him in the past what two years in the fight back that he had with Costa and then tonight and all the hijinks before so I wasn't necessarily shocked that the fight didn't end

conclusively yeah it wouldn't be BKFC without some sort of tom foolery. I'm glad you brought out the co-main event. Eddie Alvers picked up the split decision win over Chad Mendes and a fight I think most people considered to be of all the fights this weekends. That one generated the most buzz post fight on social media. It was obviously a hell of a fight.

You put Eddie Alvers and Chad Mendes in any sort of combat sport. It's going to be a great fight. Eddie Alvers had two knockdowns. Chad Mendes had two knockdowns. Chad Mendes came out strong. Eddie Alvers finished strong. And then Chad Mendes announced his retirement. Eddie Alvers declares this is going to be the future combat sport.

So you touched upon it briefly, Stephen, what did you make at the Komen event? It was obviously one of the more thrilling moments we've seen in BKFC in quite some time. I thought Eddie was, so he started slow. It was kind of actually close to my prediction. He tends to start slow and tends to get clocked. And he didn't, I think he was the first one to get dropped, if I'm not mistaken, right? Yeah, he got dropped in the first or second round. Right.

So essentially we're watching an Eddie Alvarez fight. Like he starts slow, he gets dropped, and then he comes back on strong, shows everybody how tough he is. I actually thought he lost the fight, but it was, I had it 47, 46 the other way. But then again, I don't have any problem with that scorecard. And I think that it was kind of a classic Eddie Alvarez fight in the way that he, the trajectory of the fight tended to favor him as things were going later. He picked up the pace. He adjusted to Chad's the way Chad exploded into range, and he started using his best weapons and measuring distance a lot better. It was kind of interesting watching him adjusting in the ring to what Chad was doing, which was kind of one note in many respects with the way that he closes, distance, ducks in and explodes in with those overhands.

So I thought that Eddie was a real pro and got the nod this time around and now, I guess, moves on to his next thing, which, you know, they can leverage him while they've got him. They've got a bunch of UFC stars on the tail end of their career. Let's, you know, put him in there with somebody big, try to try to build someone else. Casey, I'll bring you in here. Obviously, you've watched Eddie Alvers and Chad Mendes throughout their MMA careers. what did you think of their performance without the gloves and without the kicking and all the other fun stuff that comes with MMA? It was freaking awesome. Yeah, it was.

It was just, it was just freaking awesome. Yeah. This fight does, it doesn't take anything away from their MMA careers at all or doesn't like raise it or lower. I don't know, they're standing in their careers as MMA fighters. but they just, I hate saying it, but like the fans won tonight in terms of that fight. It was just, it was fun. They both looked very, both those gentlemen looked much more comfortable in there than Luke Rockhold.

How about that? Luke Rockhold just, Luke Rockhold going, oh, this is very different from mixed martial arts. Eddie Avers, I knew Eddie would be fine in there, even though he's never technically done this professionally. And Chad Mendes, we've already seen him fight before in the in the, I don't know, Bar-Nuckle circle. But just both gentlemen looked great. It was a super competitive fight. I think it could go either way, but it's Baranokel, I don't think it really matters.

It's almost like pro wrestling. As long as this is entertaining and we felt both men just put it all out there, which I completely think they did. Just a win. And it made up for the bit of anti-clamatic ending for the main event, which is going to happen in a bare-knuckle fight. Weird things happen with the Ferreira Becker-Rong. We'll talk about that later, I guess, the Ferreira-Bek-Rawings fight ending in an unfortunate cut. And then, you know, the main event ending really before it kind of got to take off. But the co-main event made the night and just terrific fight.

Five rounds. So exciting. I loved it. I love to Anna. Happy trails, Chad Mendez. So then I'll ask both of you this. Realistically, no crazy fantasy matchmaking. Who do you think Eddie should fight next in BKFC? It could be someone unsigned that's floating around.

It could be someone on the roster. I don't think there's a wrong answer, obviously, because it's BKFC. What's the fight at? 165? Yeah. Kevin Lee? He's back in the UFC. He's back in the UFC.

Uh, man, free agents. That's tough. I'm not super familiar of the roster, but if we're bringing in something. Yeah, I mean, Mike Perry? Why not, Mike 170? Mike Perry. I don't know. I mean, if they want to do the Cowboy Soroni rematch and, you know.

Cowboys, if Cowboy wants to make a few bucks, I would like to see Cowboy versus Mike Perry. I would like to see Cowboy versus a great rematch. actually with Eddie Alvarez, because that was, of course, Eddie Avers' first fight in the UFC. Clearly, that wasn't the best Eddie Averas, and maybe we got the best cowboy, you know, of that night and that night. But, yeah, they can get cowboy in there. You know what, but...

How about the rubber match with Aoki? What a dream. That'll be... Yeah. Boy, let's get the rematch with Cowanjiri going in BKFC. Let's just have him go back to... It says have him go through his entire gamut of rivals he's having. We match Gilbert Melendez and BKFC.

What's he doing? Dude, Gilbert Melendez with those, that would be wild. I never even thought about watching. But that's kind of the magic of bare knuckle. I know. That all of a sudden they'll put these fights together. And at first you're like, what? And then like a week later, you're like, oh, this is a fight.

I have to see it. I don't know why, but I have to see it. Like, when I was watching Chad Mendes and Eddie Avers go at it, I'm like, no, we've talked on hundreds of podcasts. I never once remember us going, man, we got to see Chad Mendes Eddie Arvarez's fight. But yet we saw it tonight and it, I mean, I don't want to say, I don't know, I'm going to get too excited. But like, that was, that was one of the best bare knuckle fights, one of the best fights we've seen in a while. I mean, I would argue, I haven't seen them all, but that was the highest level bare knuckle fight I think maybe has ever existed in the universe.

I'm just going to throw that out there. as far as as peer of martial artist fighters. It was just fun. It was just fun. I'm kind of rambling, so I'm just by the event. It was just a wild thing. I think we're just desperate for fun. I think that's the lesson here.

That's the takeaway. Like whatever BKFC does, they tend to tap into our audience and get us engaged because while these matchups may not be realistic in the real world, they're fun when you put them together. You know, when you don't give them, like, clearly you give Chad Mendes some space to grow out. And you put him in there with Eddie. They were like, why didn't these guys ever fight? Because they were in different weight classes.

I mean. Right. But with the shackles off, so to speak, there's a lot. There's room for all this. And there's tons of aging vets that need to make money and want to get a raise. And that's what BKFC is here for at this point. And I mean, just like, just the fact that we're so overjoyed by this event just speaks also to like what was going on in the other end of the MMA world. Like how how stale everything has become, you know, with with the UFC cards and how terrible that card was on paper.

And I didn't watch it, but like you guys can, this may be a segue here. In reality, was it as terrible as it looked on paper? It was, it was the main event. was very good. Outside of that, it was a lot of, it was a lot of early pre-limb fights on like a pay-per-view. It was a card filled with,

it was a contender series card. Wow. If we want to jump to the UFC card real quick, yeah, it was, it was, we'll get into the UFC in a second. I want to close the, yeah, I want to close the BKFC talk. I'm going to ask both of you

about two different fights. Stephen, I'm going to start with you. Of course I have to ask you about Ben Rothwell's fight. Obviously, it was a, Corner stoppage, if I remember correctly, he's cornered through in the towel, Josh Copeland. It was how he survived those rounds is beyond me.

That dude was taking absolute mauling by Ben Roth. What did you make of that performance? Again, I thought it actually went pretty close to what I expected in that Copeland is a smaller guy who would have a little bit of speed on Ben. Ben was very predictable in the way that he moved in, and so he got clipped an awful lot. But Ben actually did some really intelligent stuff. Like in the midst of his sort of plotting attack,

really threw Copeland off at a couple of points. And one point in particular, I remember it very clearly, he hit him in the transition. when Copeland was circling off and Copeland didn't see it and it rattled him. And then Ben immediately closed a distance and started to turn up the pressure. And I have talks with Ben a lot. And I tell him, you know, you're at your best when you interrupt people's rhythm. When you punch on the brakes, when you don't give time for people to set up,

when you hit people when they're not going to expect, when they don't expect to be hit. And he did exactly that. And then from there, the guy is just so big and so brutal. And his fists are such lunchboxes. And the rule set allows him to collar tie. That's just going to be a rough night for anybody, you know?

So very impressed by what he did. Also very happy to hear that he is going to hang it up. with the next one. He called out Belcher. Sorry, Belcher. Yeah. Great.

Another, now who won't watch that amongst us? Who isn't super psyched for that? That's a super fun, bulked up beefy, beefcake, Alan Belcher, you know, against a legitimately huge Ben Rothwell. Great.

I love it. Is Belcher a Milwaukee guy? He was a Mississippi. He's a Mississippi. But he trained at Rufus for it. I think you did. Yeah. He definitely did.

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by region. See app for details. Casey, I'll go to you. Women's Flyweight championship fight. Christian Ferreira defeated Beck Rawlings, Dr. Stoppage. Didn't quite know what was happening until it happened. Christine obviously looked very, very good. There was a lot of animosity going into this fight.

I think it felt very one side with Christine. Beck seemed to just be all about the business. What did you think of the fight and the stoppage? I thought it was a great fight, honestly. Beck Rawlings, I think, held her own. unfortunate ending but that's how

with bare knuckle you're going to get lots of cuts that's just the nature of the game unfortunately her cut was in a really bad spot but I did have Ferreira up two rounds but it was two competitive rounds and Rawlings was in the fight I thought both women did a great job

well mostly Ferreira did a great job promoting the fight and kind of getting the animosity and that's just how she is Beck did her thing but I think the ladies held their own tonight and it was unfortunate that we kind of missed out of maybe three more rounds of awesomeness. But yeah, Ferrer is great.

She's much like Mike Perry seems to be made for this. Yeah, that's what she said. BKFC has their current champions. They have a crop of individuals who it just seems like they are. They got Lorenzo Hunt. They have Luis Palomino. They got Mike. Well, Mike Perry's not a champion.

Mike Perry, Christian Ferrer, just and Bertaine Hart, just built for this. sports talking about who Eddie Alvish fight, how he has not fought Luis Palomino, at least signed a contract to fight Luis Palomino at some point in their careers, is wild, considering how many of those Belator tournaments I think Luis Palomino was in

and his two insane fights with Justin Gage, you're just still top of my list. Do we even talk about freaking Connemar Greger? That's how I was going to end to segue into the UFC. To segue into the UFC, Conner Greger, not only was Conner, not only was Connor,

not only was Connor McGregor there, he showed up right before the ladies title fight, Shadowbox the entire time, entered the ring, held the belt, faced off with Mike Perry, screamed, I've never retired, I'll never retire,

I fight you too. And then said all respects, and then they interviewed Connor McGregor. BKFC interviewed Conner, what a world we live in. What a world we live in. Steve, what did you think

the circus. When you saw Connor there, I was pretty much just counting down the time of one BQIPS. He was going to try to get a microphone on it. Oh, yeah. I mean, if they didn't call him there or pay him some sort of appearance fee in the first place, you know, that wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.

But, you know, if they didn't, hey, great, as I said, brand building, great publicity. Connor McGregor, the ambassador of famous fighters, you know, your show giving you the rub shouting you out you know giving you this moment uh can only help uh can only help build the build the sort of circus but um yeah uh it it's kind of like when connor

started crap at bellator remember the the entire when he was when he was wearing the bear suit with a bear suit if if when he jumps the cage if you look at the oh oh right it was literally the head of a bear, but it was like a hyper realistic bear. It looks like he had skinned a bear and made it into a hood. So yeah, exactly like that. But the point is it all just became about Connor because it has to, you know, this is the way you build your brand. And man, again, it just completely insane, but fun and kind of like it's not predictable. It's not, not like the UFC's product, which is so predictable at this point. So these are the things for us who watch this stuff, week in and week out.

It's like a breath of fresh air. Casey, what do you think Dana White and Michael Chandler are thinking right now? See Connum Greger running around to BKFC ring. Well, I'm sure Dana is playing blackjack with a YouTuber right now. And someone's handing the phone. He's like looking at it. I'm sure there's a camera on him. There's a camera on him.

Yeah. It's, I mostly want to kind of focus on Mike Perry and just like, what a freaking start. Because Mike Perry made that moment, too. Mike Perry just had an awesome fight, just won. And it was Mike Perry that brought Connor in there.

And you brought Connor in there in a friendly kind of way. It wasn't like, let's fight. It was more, you know, they were going to get each other's face, you know. But you never had, it wasn't that kind of. energy, oh, a fight could break out any time, which is good. I'm glad the card didn't need that. I'm glad bare knuckle is, I'm hoping they're definitely trying to get away from that type of energy, I guess. But just credit to Mike Perry for making that happen. Credit to Connor for grabbing the moment. Congratulations on Connor on his championship belt. It was a great performance

from Connor. Just, man, but yeah, but I think Stephen really hit it. Just, just, but I think Stephen really hit it. it's fun. Like I said, I didn't care the Mendez-Alvarez fight. I don't think anyone really cares who won the fight because I'm pretty sure these guys aren't paid on a win, a show win-button. It's just a flat fee because they're professional fighters.

That's how it should be. And it's just fun. I mean, I don't know. I don't know who the bare-knuckle roster is. I can't name the next four people ready to fight Mike Perry or I thought Mike Perry. he's the champion i guess he's not the champion i have no idea but well he does have a belt still yeah yeah like and like i couldn't recognize a lorenzo hunt honestly i've seen a fight but i wouldn't

actually know who he is and but that's not really important as long as i don't know it's just as fun as unexpected uh and it was still it was still more most importantly still high level combat sports tonight it wasn't it wasn't it wasn't trash fighting it wasn't there wasn't slap fighting This wasn't some BS combat sport. It's like they're doing it in there. And like these are highly trained fighters. And so we're getting, we're getting, this is a great thing. Oh, I want to mention too, I did the AK poll.

And I asked who had the better card tonight, UFC Vegas or Bear Knuckle. And with 84% of those 84% bare knuckle had the better card tonight. Mm-hmm. No, I don't think. Yeah. And I don't want to give any way trade, trade secrets, but it reflected in our traffic. Oh, I'm sure. Yeah, so.

I am sure. I mean, I don't know. Yeah, no one's saying Barronucle is going to overtake U.S.C. tomorrow. I think that this is a, you know, bare-knuckle put their best foot forward. UFC put something forward. And this is what happens. And the fans, I think, I appreciated it. Yeah.

It feels like one of those moments where right now, I think about this when I'm at UFC events. Like BKFC is we're real high on BKFC and Belator will do something that we're really high on like the like the initial like A.J. McKee, Pitbull, like the Grand Prix. That just had like the perfect ending. And then the UFC just puts on that pay-per-view in Miami. That's just bananas. And it just blows everything out of the water. But looking at the BKFC roster, there are a lot of names that I bet you would assume are on this roster case.

Like Houston Alexander is on this roster. And Charles Bennett is on this roster. So, yeah, I don't know any of these people. I know a few of them, though, and I want to see you to know Alexander fight again. But anyway, Casey, we'll start with some UFC. We have to talk about the UFC. It was a fight card. It was exactly what you would think this fight card would be,

Song Yidong versus Ricky Simone. And ever a lot of people on the site, not the host, but a lot of people on this site seem to think that Bannamweight is the best fight, the best weight class in all of MMA, maybe even all of combat sports. Well, Ricky Simone versus Song Yadong is an incredibly high-level band-in weight fight, and it was an incredibly entertaining fight. So, Casey, I know you watched it. Stephen said he was on BKFC duty, so he didn't get to tune in.

What did you think of Song Yadong's performance against Ricky Simone? I thought it was fantastic. I picked Song to win tonight. I thought overall, I thought he's a fighter that's improving. And he showed up tonight. Obviously, once Ricky Simone could not take down song, and especially when he did take him down, song got up very quickly.

You kind of knew there was no real chance for Ricky Simone to win. Ricky Simone was going to have to at least really slow down and threaten song with takedowns. He just couldn't, especially after maybe the second round. And it was just pretty much one-way traffic from like, I don't know. With the round, did it end in the fifth round?

When did it end? Yeah, fifth round. Yeah, Song of Dong looks great. Ricky Simone is obviously top 15 bantam weight, but being, like, I'm one of those people. I think bantam weight is the best division worldwide. Worldwide. And a reason I say that is because I think it's kind of important to note

that there's no, I don't, I could be, hopefully I'm wrong maybe, but I don't think there's ever really going to be a true goat of Bantamweight, the Bantamweight division. Like, a guy, like, there's no going to be no who beat, like, well, no one beat him. Like, there's going to be no John Jones, no GSP of the Bantamweight division. I know we had

crews for a little bit, but I think that division is just so incredibly competitive that even though on my rankings, worldwide, I think song is maybe top, I may be the top 10, but I honestly believe on the right night, he could beat

Sterling, he could beat Marab, he could beat patchy mix, but also Patsy Mix could beat those guys too. That's how competitive, I think, one through 12, whatever, worldwide in the Bantamweight Division. That's how good these guys, these gentlemen are getting. And Song and Dong, I think, oh, wait, 25 years old, it's just getting better. And, yeah, it was just great performance tonight from him. And I think people put a little too much, I think people forgot how good Corey Sanhagan was,

because, like, I know commands this fight. One, 100% they forgot. Yeah, you just forgot. Yeah, because I was kind of, actually, I thought Song was going to be the favorite. I was kind of surprised when I saw the line. And it's not disrespect to Ricky Simone, but I just saw higher potential with Song your Dong. And yeah, he got his butt kicked by Corey Sanhagen, but it's freaking Corey Sanhagen, you know?

So, I just think if you go back and rewatch that fight, that was pretty one-way traffic for Corey. I feel like, like, Corey just was clicking all cylinders in that fight. And Ricky Simone had just, like, pieced up Jack Shore. So I get, I get, I didn't agree with the line, but I understand why they did that because it's just untrained. Like, people just forgot. Because I feel like by the third round, Song was finding so much success with that right hand that it was just a matter of time before one of them found. And he sat him down twice. I think he sat him down right at the end of the fourth and then right away in the fifth with the same punch.

He started taking over in the fourth and finally, within the last like two seconds, dropped him hard. and then yeah then it was just the fifth round was just and I do I do agree with you I think Dominic Cruz is just kind of

accepted as like the defaults best ever because you have to have someone I guess but I think for a long time it was just kind of like BJ Penn was just the accepted lightweight goat for years

because he just had the title defense record and Benson would climb the ladder and lose and Tony Ferguson never got his title shot Eddie Alvarez I mean Eddie Alvarez

I'm like there was obviously a bunch of others I think Umar's, I think Umar could be on his way to be in the best ever. He's an undefeated dog of Stan. He's very, very talented. Yeah, maybe he'll be that Habib of the Bantamweight Division. We don't know yet, but that's how. Steve is widely considered to be the greatest UFC heavyweight ever because he has the title defense record.

What's the record of Bannway, three, four? Like, if that, because Dom just didn't get to defend it. Like, if the guy who defends it three, four times is going to be the goat. Yeah. Like, just how it is. Yeah. Called out. And then I don't know if you heard.

his callouts he called out Sean O'Malley which every band-o-wait does or Cheaterer he said let's fight again they obviously fought on that first jet when the pandemic had first hit and it was me john morgan and oscar girls were the only media members in this giant venue and we got to have private m-ma and everyone else had to tune in and a bunch of people text me about signing a contract that i we talked to get into that story oh boy that was a good time in my life but uh song one it was very controversial. Cheeto was a very poor sport after that, and he said, let's fight again.

So I honestly think that fight makes sense. As soon as the fight was over, I was like, hey, Cheeto and Song, part two, but making a five-round main event this time, I'm all for it. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here. Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus,

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I got no issues with that. Makes sense. No issues. I thought song won the first fight. I know there was controversy on it. I am aware it was very close and competitive. I still thought song won. But yeah, rematch it.

The bonuses were, unfortunately, there was no fight of the night. I thought the main event would get fight of the night. I feel bad for Ricky Simone. Song got one. Cabo Helio got one. Co-man event, cow. Just keeps getting co-man events. It just keeps on winning.

And he beat the soul out of Michael Olick. That was one-way traffic. Adolfo Vieira looks like he was about to get knocked out in the first 30 seconds of the fight. And then as most Adolfo Vieira fights go, he looks absolutely exhausted. and then chokes out Cody Brunger. And then just burst into tears. And then Marcus McGee, who, Marcus McGee's the guy that took the fight on like a week,

like less than a week's notice, maybe had to be a catchway fight against Journey Newson and choked him out the second round. And it was very much a performance of why weren't you in the UFC already? Like he looks like a UFC fighter. He was clearly the better fighter right out of the gate. Yeah, just, oh, I didn't, I didn't get a chance to see that fight at all.

So McGee looked great. was McGee looks very good. Like he should have not even have been a contender series guy. He should have just been in the UFC. Like Sean O'Malley was, I guess he's an Arizona guy. Sean O'Malley was doing about it.

Irna Alexiva, I think that's the, what's that, the Russian Ronda, whatever it's called. She got a very impressive knee bar, but she had missed weight, so she, of course,

didn't get the performance response. Other than that, a couple sloppy heavyweight fights. Cody Durdon and Charles Johnson was fun. but Cody just kind of controlled Charles Johnson. Charles Johnson has five fights in 12 months. That dude needs to take a break.

I was like, where do I know is Marcus McGee? I realized that his actual last loss was to one of my teammates, Hoffa. Yeah, and I was like, and that's how crazy and just timing is everything in prize fighting. Hoffa beat him and then winning his next fight, then wind him losing the LFA championship bout. but yet the guy he beat, you know, six months ago is now in the UFC and $150,000. It's just, sorry, I was like, where do I know that name from? Okay. Marcus took this fight on like five days notice because it's supposed to be Brian Keller.

Best wishes to Brian Keller, whatever is going on with you, too, by the way. We don't really know. Oh, Fernando Padilla looks real good. Did he get punished for the weird stoppage? I think that was it. So, Stephen, you should actually go back and watch this fight because I'm curious what other people think of the stoppage because he was beating the soul out of Julian Arosa and connecting with everything between the eyes. Like four punch combo dropped Julian twice to the point where Julian's eyes rolled to the back of his head. His butt hit the canvas and was right up though.

Like it felt like he was unconscious at two points in that fight. and then the second maybe the second or third time he got sort of clipped he was still defending himself but the referee was like that's enough and then immediately protest a lot of people were very upset with the stoppage

because Julian was very clearly mentally there but it was if you see the whole fight it was it was a weird stoppage I hated that stoppage because we're talking about the stoppage I know and that's and because of that stoppage

that is the reason Padilla is not walking home with extra 50K because he was about to get a great, great knockout. Maybe, maybe. It was a good chance. He had hit Julian going backwards. He had hit Julian going forwards,

and he was connecting with everything. But Julian Rosa fights like that, too. I mean, I just, I, unfortunate, and I think it costs, I think it costs a $50,000 because I was like, I was kind of surprised when he told me

he didn't get the bonus. I was like, they'll still give it to my guess, but nope, they don't, they don't, they'll punish you for, an early stoppage, essentially. Like they did, Germain Durand and me and husband lad. Yep, there you go.

I always bring that one up, too. Yep. He is 26 years old, 15 and 4. From Juarez, Mexico. Wow, that's where my mom's from. Speaks perfect English, though. So a guy that can build up. But other than that, Casey, anything else stand out to you

about this UFC card that... She missed weight, but the personality of... I don't know. I can't necessarily. Herna. Elexiva. Her nickname is Russian Rhonda. Russian Rhonda.

I don't know if she's any good or not, honestly, but just a great personality. And I'm going to give her a mull again for the weight mess. I'm assuming she had a long flight. Things happen. I get it. So it was a very sweet knee bar that she did on Eger. But, yeah, outside of the main event, I'm excited. Because it's a band's weight division is so incredibly shallow.

Any sort of light or just newness to it is exciting. So Erna looked good. And she had the, who was in her corner? The guy, Spivak, Spivak goes in her corner. Yep. Yeah, so I guess she comes from a good camp. And, yeah, and Vieira. Is Viera and Bohe, how do you say his name?

Cal boerheleo? Cal bollio. Cal Boheleo? Yeah. Boheio. I like to see that match. I mean, maybe Cal is a little for. Rodolfo Vieira and Boer.

Oh, yeah. I think Cal might be a little first because he hasn't, he's like four. Yeah, he has a last year. Yeah. Once he loses, maybe, though, I had put out, I had put out the idea because he wants to fight this summer. And at middleweight, we need some, we need some new names. I had floated the idea of having him fight Chris Wideman this summer because Chris wideman is coming back this summer four and oh five and no prospect chris wyman needs to come back

that is a yeah that makes a lot of sense actually that's a ufc play classic ufc play is a ufc play i don't hate it like he's he should have a number next to his name like whether it's 15 14 whatever chris wyman wants to come back after shattering his leg i don't hate it his last technical technically kowl's last loss in any martial art was a submission circus one to jail to elmese So it happens. It happens. Fun fact, though, Irna Alexiva was on the YouTube prelim card of Fador versus Tim Johnson. She was.

Okay. So obviously that's where you remember her from. Don't have to tell you about that part of card. Anyway, anything else you guys want to say, Stephen, before we wrap up anything, any other names on the BKFC card really stand out to you besides the ones that we talked about? well is lucre raco going to retire is that the thing how do people feel about that yeah is he retiring oh god i hope they don't assume he has a badly broken jaw

assuming that it's like i'm gonna give i'm gonna give luke credit that looks a tough dude professional fighter that his jaw must been severely broken for him to say no moss in the fight is he gonna retire No, someone will throw A slightly smaller bag of money at him And he would take one more Fight, man, I don't know But in fit with punching, I don't know

Anything, anything, could be anything I would like to see him in a high-end grappling tournament I don't know, whatever the ones, whatever I don't really keep up grappling tournaments that much But I know they're popular So hopefully maybe he can get back to his grappling roots That'd be cool But I don't think we'll see him back at Bear Knuckle next.

No. Let's have him just do fun. Let's have him do a weird submission match against Gordon Ryan. Thanks. Let's just do that. Let's just do stuff like that. But it was his jaw, and he did break his jaw against yon.

And it does remind me of when Cub Swanson broke his jaw against Max Holloway. And then a couple of fights later, he had a quick tap. I think it was to Moikano because he said once he felt his jaw kind of shift again, he freaked out and tapped. because you don't want to do that again. The recovery was so miserable. Like nothing was worth it, yeah. So I'm sure I bet.

Luke might not have a broken jaw. It's just the fear of breaking his jaw again. Might be the- Well, you know what? If that's the case, then Luke should kind of hang it up because you can't have that fear and want to be a high-level price fighter,

honestly. You just can't. Like, this is, I don't know. That's part of the game. I bet he goes, he's just going to go into regular. boxing. Remember, he was all gung-ho on fighting the Paul brothers and all of a sudden, next thing

you know, he's fighting Mike Perry. God, I hope not. I hope he doesn't go into regular boxing. Maybe we'll get Anderson Silver versus Luke Rockhold in boxing. And then, or we can get, we can get Chris Wybin, Rockhold 2 in BKFC.

There you go. There you go. I'm just making... Well, on that note. That's that balance with bare knuckle is like how do we have fun without being sad you know so i guess that's what you that's that's the balance they have to find and um yeah and i would say that like they've had plenty of sad moments yeah they've had plenty of guys that shouldn't have been in there plenty of guys that got licensed that probably shouldn't have gotten licensed so i'd like to see them pivot away from that

and like you said walk that line to where we're like okay i'm not fearing for this guy's safety yeah there's a point in time when not like all eyes are on bkfc i don't like now they got to start cleaning their act up a little bit or remember at the beginning when dave fellman like took money away from the fighter in the ring like he took the mic and was like uh he didn't fight with action so we're we're not giving him his win bonus i'm like that's fucked up like you can't do that. It was something like that. It was a gimmick at the beginning.

He kind of threw out there. It was literally in the middle of the, like between fights, he spoke, he goes, fought bad, not giving him his money. I'm like, dude won. Yeah. Can't do that anymore. Yeah. So for a while that like really loved me.

But he did say he wind up giving him the money regardless to the guy, but I think he, I think he thought it would be like kind of a, oh, yeah, but like it just didn't work out. Yeah. But that, but that's like, but credit to bare knuckle. Dude, what was it, bare knuckle 41? I was at bare knuckle one. I can't believe they're at 41. And they seem to be doing well.

Do they count the knuckle manias in this line of 41? I don't even want to think about that. They branded knucklemania. Like we know what knuckle man is. Like what it was, this is number three? I mean, like, bare knuckle, man. I don't, I was at their first. show it was it was cool it was actually pretty well run but i am pleasantly surprised that they're still

thriving and and they are fickle like because i remember for a while they had that weird camera that kept circling i hated it they did it they don't use it as they don't use it there was moments tonight i was like don't do that don't do the revolving camera that's bad but uh hey well on that note this has been Jose. This is Stephen. That's Casey. That's me. I think we'll have on to the next one tomorrow. I don't honestly know. I believe Mike is still on

vacation, AK and maybe Jed. Great. You can go all yell at AK and Jed and then the hour is back on Monday. We'll see you then. Peace. Asa Owego. Happy birthday, AK. It's not my birthday. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.