MMA Fighting - BREAKING NEWS: Dana White Announces Jack Della Maddalena vs. Islam Makhachev, Shevchenko vs. Zhang, More

Episode Date: August 29, 2025

UFC CEO Dana White announced a number of big fights, including Jack Della Maddalena vs. Islam Makhachev for the welterweight title as the main event for UFC 322 at Madison Square Garden, along with Valentina Shevchenko defending her flyweight title against Zhang Weili in the co-main event, as Zhang officially is vacating the strawweight title. Following the major news, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and E. Casey Leydon react to those massive fights, along with Leon Edwards vs. Carlos Prates on the MSG card. Additionally, they discuss Virna Jandiroba vs. Mackenzie Dern for the vacant strawweight title at UFC 321 and other additions to the promotion's return to Abu Dhabi, White saying the White House card is a go for next July, and much more! Follow Mike Heck: ⁠⁠@m_heckjr⁠⁠ 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

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Mike Keck here from MAAfighting.com reacting to some massive news from UFC CEO Dana White, the UFC teased that the big boss was going to be hopping on social media. Sometime today to make some big announcements. And so many hours went by. I saw somebody tweet out, now I know how Tom Aspinall felt waiting for John Jones. And that's kind of how it felt for all of us. We were waiting.

What is Dana White going to announce? We had ideas. We weren't really sure what was going to go down. And then Dana, while on an airplane, goes live on Instagram and announces a whole bunch of news, a whole bunch of title fights, and some other stuff as well. And we'll run down all of these announcements in a matter of seconds.

And the big one, we had a feeling UFC 322. It's going to be at Madison Square Garden. The world's most famous arena. It's usually their annual trip for the November pay-per-view. It has a date, November 15th. Yesterday, we confirmed one fight on that card, Aaron Blanchfield versus Tracy Cortez 2 going down on that card. We're wondering, what was the main event?

What else is going to be on that card? Well, Dana announced three more fights for UFC 322, including the main event, which will be for the UFC Welterweight Championship of the world. There you see the graphic right there. Jack Della Madelana, fresh off of his victory over Bala Muhammad

at UFC 315 in May. He will defend his title against the former lightweight champion, Islam Makachev, who vacated the title in lieu of moving up to welterweight. That fight is a done deal. That will be the main event for UFC 322. In the co-main event,

as of right now, we do not have a UFC strawweight champion. Zhang Wei Lee has vacated her title. She told me prior to the fight against Tatiana Suarez that this is going to be it. If we're up to her, she's not fighting at Straway after that fight against Tatiana Suarez. Well, Zhang Wei Li gets her wish. She is moving up to 125 and she will challenge Valentina Shepchenko for the women's flyway title. That is the co-main event for UFC 32 at MSG. in New York, New York.

Also added to that card, former UFC welterweight champion, Leon Edwards, is back inside the octagon looking to stop a two-fight skid. His opponent, Carlos Prochis. How about this? Carlos Prochis gets his wish. He wanted Leon Edwards, and Leon Edwards, he shall have at the world's most famous arena,

just a massive fight for Leon, massive fight for Carlos Prochis, a win for either guy is absolutely pivotal right now, as they want to get back into title contention. That's for Leon. Projust wants to get himself into title contention. So the 322 news kind of falls a little bit into UFC 321. That's the Abu Dhabi card, the second October pay-per-view.

And we know what the main event is. It's Tom Aspinall versus Cyril Gan. We now have an official co-main event and a second title fight for UFC 321 because Zhang Wei, like I said, no longer the Straw Wei champion. we will crowd a new strawweight champion at UFC 321, a rematch for the vacant belt. It'll be Verna Janjarova facing McKenzie Dern for the vacant strawway belt. That's the co-main event for UFC 321. Also made official for this card.

Big scrap in the bantamweight division. Umar Nurmaga Madov is returning to the octagon for the first time since losing his title fight to Marab de Balasvili in January. his opponent, Mario Batista, fresh off his win against Patchy Mix at UFC 316. There you have it. Those are the big fights that were announced. Dana made some other fights official,

but we already knew those. The Jilton Almeida, the Jilton Almeida full-coft fight was made official. The Rackich-Bers-A-Conna fight was made official, but we already knew that. We already had that. We already confirmed that. So that is the big news.

On top of that, Dana White, very slyly, at the end of his Instagram Live said, by the way, White House card, done. It's happening. So it appears July 4th, 2026, the United States is 250th birthday

on the South Lawn. The UFC will have an event at the White House. Dana White says details to follow in the next couple of weeks, but it looks like it's a done deal. That's probably why Dana had such a long day. That's why he was on an airplane. So there you have it. Those are the big announcements, the big fights.

And I don't want to talk to myself here. So let's bring in the man that myth the legend, Mr. 3024 himself, E. Casey Liden, and let's get this man's reaction. And a friend has just walked by as well. Perfect timing for that segue. And the double screen. Casey, we just ran it all down there. Let's start with the big one. It's right up there at the top.

Jack Delam Adelaide versus Islam Makachev headlining at Madison Square Guard in November 15th, UF, we knew this fight was coming. We kind of figured it would be on this car. But now that is locked. It loaded, signed sealed, and delivered. Your reaction, how pumped are you for this fight? Finally, that's all. Just finally.

I think we've all just give us the freaking date so we can start planning our trips because this fight rules. I think, you know, we've accepted Islam's going to 170. I guess we kind of moved on from that. And so many big storylines are going to happen from this fight, you know. Is Islam going to be the double champ? Is he going to lose? What does he do if he loses?

Do you go back to 55? It's great. It's great. This is what MSG is all about. This is what the big, the big MSG card is about. And this is a legitimate, legitimate, legitimate paper review main event. I love it. And it's always nice. And obviously, as we get closer to the day, we'll discuss, you know, what it all means and who knows? Maybe the peeps when we bring them in, they'll want to ask about that as well. But I love when another title fight is made, and it leads to two title fights. because John Wei Lee, we kind of saw this one coming. She's done as the Strawaway champion. She's now the woman's flyaway.

She's now going to battle for the women's flyaway title against Valencia to Chivchenko, obviously a huge fight. But that also means Berta John Giroba finally gets her opportunity to fight for a title. And she'll do so against Bikensie Dern. I believe Dirk is Dern the last fighter to beat John Joroba? I don't have topology up, but it's, we know Dern Peter. Yeah, who gave you? Yeah.

was car and it's just her and carla right and car like that kind of nice look it up but yeah that was that was that was a weird one yeah um yeah but durn this is this is the fight to make this is uh i'm happy verna i've been kind of following her career since i first saw we're fighting in invicta and uh yeah durn can finally live up to all the uh the hype that we all kind of were waiting for so uh that's a great fight i'm just happy these fights are made i think we've all been just kind of waiting for it. I don't know why the UFC strategy, but dropping it now randomly on a Thursday night on a plane, why they do that, but here we are. Yes. That was very big stuff. Yes. Yeah. Was Dernan as far as that's, it's their only UFC losses? Is that correct? I believe so,

yeah. Okay. So yeah, it's just, just a massive fights here. And what about Leon Edwards versus Carlos Pratchez? I mean, this is a big opportunity. Leon kind of teased that he was going to be on this card. I kept saying, I put out a video of like sort of building this card what it should look like if Leon's going to fight. He should just fight Jorge Mazdal. Like, what are we waiting for? Let's just do that fight. That's just a fun one to talk about. But yeah, Leon's getting Carlos Prachis. What a big opportunity for Carlos. It's not Ian Gary. It's it's Carlos Pratchez. Man, you know, I know you're big on the, you know, the post-fight interview and I'm like, yeah, whatever. But hey, I got to give it to you. Prochis did it. You know, he caught his shot.

got the knockout, called the shot. I mean, this is perfect. I mean, if you would have got like a three-on decision over Jeff Nill, I mean, maybe he gets this fight. I don't know. I doubt it. But just the momentum, it just was right there. And yeah, and I guess, is this a good fight for Leon Edwards?

I don't know yet. I mean, to me, the Mazelot fight was the fight to make for him, but we're here now. I mean, honestly, of the options, this is probably the best one he could realize. get right now because he wasn't going to get like he wasn't going to get like a neal magni or a wonder boy or anything of that nature he was going to get a tough out and it was between two guys it was between ian machado gary and carlos prachis to me i think gary's probably the tougher

matchup for him and proches a little bit older a little more seasoned if you will and i think stylistically this is a more winnable fight for leon as opposed to ian machado gary but but still a tough out, man. I mean, this is kind of the position he's in. He's dominated by Balal to lose the belt. Just got run over by Sean Brady in an incredibly impressive performance in March. I mean, one of those types of fights where I'm super interested to see what he looks like because you sure, you can go out and get knocked out and you could take it as like,

I just got caught. But when you just get run off the road like that for the entirety of a fight, and then a mercy stoppage from a guy like Sean Brady who just ran him over, man. It's hard to come back from that. Like, that's what I've been saying about Roman DeLise since the Anthony Hernandez fight. Like, how do you come back from that?

Well, I think you come back by fighting stylistically, maybe the opposite fighter you could possibly get from Sean Brady and maybe as Carlos Pratchez. I know not 100% opposite, but as far as top level, Walter weights, it's about as far as way as you get stylistically, I think, from Sean Brady. So, yeah, man, what a big fight for Leon.

If he loses this fight and especially he loses his bad. Yeah. That's just, yeah, I don't want to go there yet. But, yeah, that's tough place. Yeah. Absolutely. And then obviously we touched on Dern and Gensuroba. That's obviously a big one.

But Umar Namaga Madoff returns. A lot of people felt like he was the uncrown champion heading into the Murab to Wallis really fight. Rob said, no, I'm still the champion. He's not going to beat me. And he did not that night in Los Angeles, California. And now he comes back and he fights Mario Batista, who is on a nice run right now. He had the Jose Aldo win, which did not get him a lot of fans.

But then he put a thumping on patchy mix in his UFC debut. And I think Mario kind of got over a little bit with that victory. And he wanted the UMAR fight. I wish he said it went on the mic and, like, really called for it, but it didn't matter because he's getting it anyways and he's getting it on a pay-per-view. There, this, there were talks about maybe doing this in the Vancouver card. I had heard rumblings that maybe that was going to be the main event, but it was just a matter of that fight was kind of in the works for a while, but it's just a matter of where, where was

it going to be? It was it going to be in Vancouver. And then as the days progressed, it seemed like more and more that this is going to be at UFC 321. And here we go. What a massive opportunity for Mario Batista. And your thoughts. on Mario being the bounce back opponent for Umar after losing his first fight. This one, I don't know. Maybe just because I'm just, I've never, okay, we all know Mara Batista is a very good ban to we know it. It's just hard to be excited about seeing Mara Batista.

And that's just me being kind of just like, hey, blood and guts. It's like, like, you know, just bleed type of fan sometimes. But Mara Batista, he's really good. And I just need to come to terms of that and just be excited for the fight. Because obviously, Um, it's just an incredible fighter. Um, I, I mean, I didn't think it was going to be more up. I thought it was going to be more competitive. You know, I think he had a broken arm in the fight.

So yeah, I mean, Umar, he's still clearly a top guy. What he's going to see if he is still a top guy. Or maybe Omar Batista, maybe the whole time he was the best guy. We just didn't know it. So, uh, it's a fight that makes sense. And somehow I think it'll be. really oddly competitive and interesting when they actually fight. Yeah, it's, what a weird career to spend from Arir Batista.

Steps in on super short notice. Do you remember who his debut opponent was? I have no idea. Corey Sandhagen. How is that, how's that for a debut? Like a week's notice, he fights Corey Sanhagan, gets tapped in the first round. Then he gets a fight of the night. His second fight against Jinsu Sun wins it.

And then finishes Miles Johns with a nasty flying knee. And then gets knocked up by Trevin Jones. At UFC 259 gets knocked out by Trevin freaking Jones. It has not lost since then. Windsor over Jay Perrin, Brian Kelleher, Benito Lopez, Guido Canetti. And then the competition just got better and better. DeMond Blackshare at UFC 292, then Ricky Simone, then Josealdo, then Patchy Vicks. And now he gets Umar and Amaga made off.

To me, this is, this is perfect matchmaking. This is the fight that needed to make. The only other way I would have gone with this is like, if Sean O'Malley, she's like, yeah, I'll fight that dude in Abu Dhabi. That would have been pretty sick, but I don't think the UFC was going to put him in that position. So I think this is perfect. Let's see if, if we mark can bounce back and if Marr. And I think the UFC probably feels the same about Mario Batista as most of the fan base does. All right.

This guy is good, but at this point, we just got to throw him to the wolves and just see how good he. is. And if he wins, then they got something there. They know this dude might be fighting for a belt. Who the hell knows? It's always amazing. Those fighters are just kind of sneak up and they just, they might lose a couple of fights in the early in the UFC career. We just kind of dismissed them. And all of a sudden, two years later, we look at their topology page and it's like seven greens in a row. And we're like, oh, crap. You know? And like that's just a wonderful, fun part about this sport. Like you just want, like you want to retire and make, oh, every fighter sucks that loses. But, you know, it's MMA.

Like, things happen and people come back. They get better. Marab, Marab lost his first two fights in the UFC. Jack Delamana lost his first two fights as a professional fighter, you know, just it's cool. So that's what I mean, like, I'm not excited about that fight, but it makes a lot of sense. It just makes sense. And when I know when it happens and they start, you know, punching each other and all that, I know we're going to be excited, but, um,

It's just, yeah, it's just, I, in my head, I just don't believe Mara Batista is like one of the best Bantam weights in the world, but he just proves me wrong. And that's just, that's fun. This is like one of those rare fights where it's just like, I wish you could fast forward to the fight being over and then we could talk about the aftermath of it because that's just going to be the most interesting part is like when it ends. Because who knows? Like, we don't even know if, I mean, if Marab's still champion, Umar probably isn't getting a title shot this quickly. maybe he will, I don't know. But if Corey Sanhagan somehow, like, beats the hell out of Marab and finishes him, winner this fight might get a title shot.

Mario Batista could be starting 2026, getting ready to fight for a title, which is insane, considering how people felt about him after the Josealdo fight. So massive opportunity for Mara Batista. Somehow, some way, we spent more time talking about Mara Batista versus Bada Magna than any of this, any other fights on the slate. But we figured the peeps are going to come in with some terrific. questions. Yep, yep.

So let's throw it to them and get their reaction to this massive news that we waited all effing day for. All right. What do we got here? Sorry, I haven't got a chance to look at the comments yet. But I got to tell you, you know, people, someone asked me on the question of the day, like, what do we grade the UFC so far in 2025? And I said, if you take business out of it, it's probably a C-plus.

But obviously, with business in it, with the gates and the money and the $7 billion TV deal, they sign you have to bump that way up but yeah this the next three paper views are frigging great as they look right now like 320 is awesome 321's like a real good and 322 looks massive like that this feels like an msg card because we haven't felt that in a while we had yeah sure we had john jones last year but he's fighting stepe and no one gave two shits about that fight except for John Steepa and Dana White. And then the year before, which is kind of the weird one with Yuri and,

and Pereira. And then we had to do the interim heavyweight title fight because we lost John Jones and Steepa. And then we got Tom Aspinall being the interim champion for the most amount of time of any interim champion in the history of the company. So this feels big. This feels like we're back. It feels like MS.

And I love it. I like it. Yep, love it. Oops. Oh, I don't think. Uh, Joseph asked, do you guys know when Harry's, Harrison versus Nunes will happen.

I don't know. I mean, the cool thing about the Paramount thing is it creates a debate on like what will headline the first event. And I kind of feel like this would be a damn good one to headline the first event. January, the first numbered card on Paramount, it's a pretty damn good fight to put at the top of the bill. But I think this all kind of depends on. I think we need to see what headlines 323 first. and then we'll sort of have a better gauge. Because who knows?

That could headline 323. We don't know. Or which, what is 323? That's the December pay-review. December, okay. Is there a city for that? That's going to be in Vegas. That'll be in Vegas.

Okay. All right. I, uh, what, what were you expecting today? Was this, were these basically the fights you expected today? Was there anything you were like, oh, bummer.

I didn't get that one. I mean, I think I probably expected them to run off more. Like, we got a lot. Like, I'm not complaining here, but three title fights. Yeah, I mean, we got, we got three title fights. We got the main event for 32. We got the call main for 322. I thought maybe we'd get some 323 announcements.

Maybe we'd get Volk and Lorone. Maybe we'd got Ilya somebody else. I mean, I don't know. Maybe Pants and Ban would have got announced. Guess not. But it's okay. we still get time for that, which kind of leads to this question. Any updates on Tuporia versus Patty, Justin Gaitier or Armin?

I got to tell you, Jed made this incredible Pokemon comparison, like off the top of his head on BTL, and we posted it all over our socials, and people were like shitting all over it. Like, it wasn't fun. Like, have fun. I thought this is an incredible, like an incredible, incredible job. Some of Jed's best work. It really was. It was fan frigging task.

but people were just kind of dump it on on Instagram, but no update yet. I don't know what's going to happen. Who the hell knows? That's kind of been like the big talking point for us today is like, who's Tuporia got a fight, especially based on Dana was about to break some news. Could we get the Tuporia fight announcement for maybe 323, but we didn't get it? So nothing yet. Again, they could save Ilya for Paramount.

Who the hell knows at this point? But I think if you're going to, if you're going to close out this chapter with pay-per-view, you should probably throw Ilya in December if you can. It feels like, yeah, I feel like if anybody's going to sell, I mean, they ain't going to sell. No one's coming close to like Connor numbers. They probably can't even get 500,000 out of anybody at this point. But Ilya probably gets you the most you could possibly get at this point. Yeah.

Ilya Brady, me, Ilya, Patty, I assume. Ilya against any of these guys Think so? I guess we'll save that discussion for another time. Yeah, but again, again, I'm talking like the difference between like 325,000 buys

to like 400,000. Patty gets you like four. Gachi gets you like 370, 360, 370. Armand probably gets you like 325. All right. Which isn't bad. But Tepore is the guy that's going to sell this card.

He's, Patty would obviously help too. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Forrest. Super chat. It's Brian Chase. Thank you, Chase.

UFC saw their first legit chance to get Dern into a title fight and took it. I mean, Casey, you and I have been saying this for a while. Zhang's moving up. This is the fight to make. There's history there. Dern. Like, this is probably the only chance they're going to have to, like, slide Dern into a title fight. Because they have tried.

They have so tried to put her in positions against, like, stylistic matchups that favored her at a lot of respects. And she lost all of them. So now they have the opportunity to do it. Verda gets the chance to get back a loss that kind of surprised a lot of people. And I think, you know, either you just, you throw somebody in who deserves it. And then also you throw in somebody that you have invested a lot of time and money into over the years to try to put her in this position. And now she's here. So yeah.

I mean, I don't know who else you would throw in there. Who else would you throw in there? Yeah, like, Tatiana's coming off a loss. Just, am I forgetting? Am I forgetting a name? Who's Satyana fighting again? I forget. Amanda Lamos.

Yeah, that isn't okay. Lamos has lost a bunch of fights. Yeah, Amanda Lomish isn't the fight. Yeah. I mean, Janjohn, just lost to Verdo, so you can't throw her in there. Tatiana just lost the title fight. Lemosch has lost a title fight. Way, Lee left.

Dern is literally it. Like, she's literally. That's what I'm saying. I don't really agree with, man, this is a legit chance of me for Dern to get it, but Dern earned the shot. She didn't, she earned it. I mean, this isn't like, we're not, she's not Patty Pimlinging her way to a title shot, let me just say, where like it just sells the most.

She's, she's obviously, she's going to sell the most as far as a straw weight, and she has earned it. Obviously, Werner has earned it too. So, but Werner will be the B side in this fight for sure until she's a champion. I mean, she's won two in a row. she beat loopie who is now number six so you can't throw loopie in there because durn just beat her yeah and then she beat the hell out of amanda he boss and finished her like it's a good win that that's that's that's when they gets her there and she's five there's literally like looking at the rankings

right now there's literally nobody else you could put in there that makes any sense do you throw jasmine lucindo into a title fight no you can't do that yet that's what yeah that's why yeah that's why this fight it just make like durn she earned it yeah i mean i know everyone's gonna you know you know you know Oh, he pushed her and stuff. They push her. There are promoters. They should be doing that. But she also got the wins and, you know,

the timing, wins and the losses. She's here. So good fight. I like it. I love it. Actually, I love that fight. One of that. Thank you, Chase.

Another super chat from Chase. With reports of papers being in the dumps, regardless of who is fighting, what do you think Jones versus Aspinall would have done if the fight happened? So say it happened in December. 500,000 probably. Yeah, yeah. Because you have to think about this.

Like the hardcore fan base is going to buy everything. You'll get some of the casuals who will buy it. But for the most part, the casuals aren't buying pay-per-view. They're streaming it. They're stealing it. Which is why we're moving away to paper. Like the only like caught. The only one I would have been super interested in is the Connor Chandler one.

Like what would that have done on payper view? But that of we would never know, but you would think like if they did a million payper view buys, ESPN would probably like write a whole press release about this. Oh, UFC 303 sold a million, 1.2 million pay per views. Like if they hit a million, the world is going to know it. They will broadcast that. Dana will hit up front office sports or whoever he talks to and tell them that they did a

million plus pay-per-views and the whole world will know it. So I just don't think there's anything outside of like, Connor fighting that could get a million. John Jones never did a million. Like even when we got those numbers, John Jones DC2 did like 900,000, which is a tremendous number. That's a great pay-per-view number right there.

But Jones never did a million. He certainly isn't doing it against Tom Asmodal in 2025. It's just, it's just not there. Like, would there be, like site traffic that week would be tremendous. And the build for that fight, like watch party numbers would be off the charts for that card.

But as it translates into pay-per-view, no, I don't think it does anything like life-changing for anybody. But I think, but the whole Connor million pay-per-view sells, those days are in the, those days are in the past. Oh, yeah.

I think, I think the new million, what is maybe 600? What do you think? Five. Five. Yeah. I don't know if anything this year did five.

The only thing I think might have got, might have had a chance was 317. And that was the Ilya Charles fight. Maybe that was 500. But I don't even, I would bet again, I would say if someone was like bet how many it did, I would say it's under 500,000. Yeah. And, and. And, yeah.

And. And, you know, with so few American stars, like, guys like Elia, like Spain isn't a pay-per-view buying market. So it's just, I mean, that's why I said we have, the UFC has these big stars, but not necessarily in pay-per-view buying markets. So. Yeah. They translate to like social media. They don't trans. Yeah. There just isn't a state of white is the biggest star in the UFC.

It has been for always. Oh, always. By design. Yeah. By design. So that's just that's just the way that it is now. So and plus like, dude, it's $85 to buy a fucking pay per view. It's crazy.

And I don't like, it's everyone's like, oh, it's not 85. It's 79.99. Yeah, but when you add the taxes and the fees on, trust me, I have to expense this every year. 85, 47 or something like that after taxes. Like it's a lot of money. You're asking fans to drop a lot of money. And that's why this Paramount deal is so great.

Because now like, just think of like, like, Everyone can take a vacation now. If you bought every pay-per-view, you can now take that $1,100 and go take a trip. You can go on a golf trip with your buddies. Like, think of what you can do with $1,100 now. Yeah. And still watch all the UFC events. It's spectacular.

Yeah. I'm crossing my fingers. Cross my fingers. I'm being very positive by this paramount deal because everything sounds good at the beginning. Yeah. And I think the first year will be spectacular. I think the first year, they'll come out running. They'll come on sprint.

And then we'll get back to reality. We'll have watered down pay-per-view cards or numbered cards and the apex cards will get worse. And yeah, don't, don't you say that. Don't you say that. How dare you? The apex is going away. Come on now. When you say get worse.

Oh, dude. It's true. We can definitely get worse. Yeah. Thank you, Chase. Super chat from RS 40. No, sorry, super chat from Terrence. Hope Dern wins.

Her versus, her versus Roberts would be fun. Are you? Who? Jillian Roberts, Roberts, right? Oh, Robertson. Yeah. Oh, Robertson. Jillian Robertson, yeah, Robertson.

Yeah. Well, I mean, Gillian's got some work to do, but yeah, that would be fun. But, but, but yeah, it looks like the grapplers are, the, the grapplers are taken over the strawweight division. Yeah. I kind of want to see. I always thought Swars versus Dern would be a really interesting fight. So we could get that. Yeah, we're going to get.

Swar's got to get a win. I think, I'm pretty sure Suarez, the UFC likes her. I think one win, she'll get back in the title shot. Soar, maybe. Think two? Well, we'll see. Maybe. I mean, we'll see.

If Dern wins, I think you could probably make that case. But, I mean, that fight with Zhang was not competitive. at all. So, I mean, she kind of laid vague in that fight. So I don't know if there's, she's not like a star. You can't really rush her into it. But who knows? The next like year in this division could get really interesting with the Jillian Robertsons and, you know, tab of the reach, he had a good finish in her last fight, but she's been kind of up and down. Loopy just got a big win. So we'll see what comes of that. So yeah, maybe this is there a little resurgence for Straught weight. Loma.

Yeah. Loma. Alt to fight again, I think. So, something fun. RS 40. Is Pratchez a win away if he beats Leon? I'm picking Carlos via K.O. Also, what do you know about Armin?

Is he fighting Hooker or Patty? Is Pratt just a win away if he beats Leon? Got Brady in front of them. You're going to have Gary. Gary, who has a win over him. Usman. Oh, yeah, who's my... Glaw.

How do you need more than one? No, no. I think he, I think he, Yeah, I think he needs. If he beats Leon, then he is one win away. But this is the fight to get to that one win away. He's in a great spot if he wins this fight. There's no doubt about it.

Yeah. I mean, yeah, I'm just looking at the rankings right now. He's ranked nine. Right now ahead of him, Buckley, Morales, Gary, Usman, Edwards, Shafcott. Oh, we forgot about Shafcott. Shot got's ahead of him, too. That's what happens, man.

Like, you just, we, we, you, you, you, you don't fight and we kind of forget about it. I can't forget about. For God. Forgot. Yeah. And I'm like, who? I forgot. It's great.

So Shopcott's there too. Yeah. It's, it's not going to be easy to get a welterweight title shot. Now that Islam's there. If Islam wins the belt, boys, they're going to be real tough for the guys like Brady to get in there and fight for the belt. And, yeah. And you're going to have the loser of the. whoever loses J.D.M. Islam, you know, they're going to be right there too. Yeah.

100%. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. So no. The more I think about it, no. No. The answer is no. What do you know about Armin? Is he fighting hook or Patty? No idea. No clue. Would Armin and Patty be the most shocking matchup? Yes. I'd be surprised. Yeah. Yeah. Armour versus anyone but Patty, I could basically. I'll tell you right now, dude. will, and I put Patty over more than I have in a while. If Patty takes that fight and signs the dotted line to fight Armand Syrucan, I will,

I will put that man over huge. Like that would be just a, that'd be just such a great fight for him. Like him and Gaichi is like a very winnable fight for Patty. Like Patty could be Justin Gaich. Would not, it'd be a tough fight. Yeah.

I don't know if I. Obviously tough. Yeah. He could be just. You see a path to victory. You see a path to victory. Yeah. But Armin is just like stylistically a way tougher fight.

And I would actually applaud the UFC for making that fight as well, the way they booked, they booked Patty perfectly. Like along the way, they booked him perfectly. But to throw him in there with Armin, I don't know, man. I'm Patty. Like, I don't even know if I take that fight. Like, I mean, just look at the position he's in. He's in such a great spot.

He can literally fight Dan Hooker next. and probably get a title shot if he wins. So yeah, we'll see. I don't know. Hopefully something. How far Schaft got out of the title picture? Like, who? Like, we're at that point now.

Well, it's funny because like ever since Hamzat won, it was like, well, if Islam wins, then we should do Hamzad versus Islam. Like, no, that's silly. Why would we do that? How about Islam Shaf? that'd be fun. That'd be a super fun fight.

So I don't know how far he is out of the title picture. He's not, is he number one? He's still not number one contender anymore, right? He would have to, you think he's kind of got the Armin thing where he kind of has to now, even though he is number one contender, he still needs to fight one more time to kind of prove it. Yeah, but he also, the UFC owes him as well because he's supposed to fight for the belt and he could have just sat out and waited to fight Bilal, but instead, because that pay for you was poo,

he was like, now I'll stay on the card and I'll fight Ian Gary, which is, you know, in a couple weeks notice, that's not easy when you're supposed to fight for the belt. They didn't even put like an interim title on the line or anything. He just stayed on the card and fought five rounds against an undefeated guy who was like so far outside of where he was ranked. And it was a competitive fight. He won it and he was hurt and he was dinged up.

And we don't know when he's coming back. So I don't think he's like in as bad a position as people may think he is. He might still have to fight again. But maybe Islam winning is kind of interesting. Because if you can't get Hamzat, why not Shafkat? Another undefeated grappling machine. I hope you're right. I hope the UFC does do right for Shafcott.

Yeah. Although if they book Brady versus Shafcott, I would not be upset about that. that'd be a sick, sick fight. I love the fight, but I also hate that fight because, of course, one of those guys have to lose. And, you know, that means just, I think both those guys are title worthy contenders. And I would hate for one of the losing after a year and a half, two years of their career to, you know, get back up there.

But in a selfish sense, yeah, that fight is absolutely a banger. All right. One couple more before we get out of here. Sure. Winner BSD Ruffy should call it Armin. Why? Why? No.

No. I mean, look, it's a ballsy call-out, but it's like unrealistic, especially BSD. Like, Porre beat his ass, and then he came back and got a win. And then he got beat up by Moikano and then just beat a guy who was like returning to the UFC on like a week's notice it's it's too soon man like this is the best division in the sport you got you got to earn your right you got to earn your spot so yeah they're kind of far away so i mean the winner of that fight should probably call out that's like borderline there'd be like top 12 maybe of a win they should call they should call

chanler like that's what they should call out everyone should call out chandler yes if you're not Chandlery, call out Darius, Gamran. Like, call those guys, though. But you're not going to get. That's the, yeah. And, yeah, Armine and be like, yeah, yeah. You ain't getting an arm. Not happening.

And before we get out of here, oh, just quick comment from Dakota. I like the record to show him a Bulbster guy. Yes, Dakota, you're the band. Yeah. MMA fans, you are not appreciating that clip enough. That was some of our best. And that's off to you too for the graphic.

That was, that might be the best commercial clip of the year. I know, I was like, no, I'm going all out on this. I'm getting all the images. I'm doing it. Wow. Outstanding. Thank you. And last comment from Lazy Bed.

Which of these announcements puts the most butterflies in your tummy? When they're walking out to the cage of the fights that are announced, which one do you, are you going to? be like it's obviously jdm islam i think so although valentina way lee is got to be sick too like both of those will be like all right let's go like i'll be jacked up for the watch party for that for that card for sure i is for me is waley's uh valentina because those are legitimately like jdm we don't know how good he is and the kind of the greatness of you know walter weights you know obviously he's champion right now but in terms of you know overall

We don't know yet. We know Wei Lee's on Mount Rushmore of women fighters. And Wei Lee is kind of right there. And so this is just sick. This is just sick. We've been kind of waiting for Wei Lee to go up a little bit away. Shevchenko, Sevjanko, although not at her prime, is still prime enough, I guess. And she's not washed.

Clearly, she's not washed. but but I think they're fight I think she's fine I think Wei Lee is fighting her early early enough into Shevchenko's you know into her career where we're not going to you know go oh it's a wash

that's it all with Jeffchenko I think I don't know this is I'm super excited about this it could be a Mount Rush the Mount Rushmore spot could be up for grabs here yeah which I didn't really think about if Jean Weiley just beats the shit out of Valentina Shepchenko wins that belt

like she might just take the spot like you could probably make a case to put her there now. That's what I mean. But this one would solidify it. Like, you kind of have to put her there. So that those last two fights are going to, are going to get me for sure. But again, like the announcements didn't really put butterflies in my tummy because I kind

of expected all of these to happen. You know what I mean? Like, I don't think anybody was, I don't think anybody was shocked by any of these fights, to be honest with you. I think maybe like the, if anything like, somewhat shocked me it was Pratjus Leon

even and I wasn't even like fully shocked by that either so I don't think any announcement's like like shook me to the core at all I was just like all right finally like now we know and we felt what happened to Mazvedal? I was like Leon Mazvedal

has just made so much sense I don't know like what happened what the hell are we doing here? So is Mazel just not fighting is he just not coming back to the UFC? Are they saving him? Is this, are they just saving that fight for the White House card? Is that what we're doing?

Is that what's happening here? Are we going to get Mazel Colby 2 at the White House? Is that what's what we're getting set up for? Is that seriously what's going to happen? Because that would not shock me at all this point. Josh Hokake kicking off the pay-per-view or whatever. Oh, my God. Yeah, I think that it was the Leon process because I weren't for process.

that made a lot of sense, but for Leon, I was like, why are you not fighting Jorge? So I just didn't get it. But obviously something happened behind the scenes, money, Mazenah, not, I don't know, being ready, I guess. But yeah, we good.

Anything else to do it? Yeah, I was looking. I saw Josh Hokkaid being rumored for a fight. Oked Verkus versus Lukashki in the works, November 1st, has been reported. I don't know if that's true or not, but that would be a,

that'd be a fight. That'd be a fight. Yeah, that'd be one to get Josh Hockett his first win in the UFC. That would be for sure. I'll do respect to Lucas Breske, but we need the Lucas Brezhkes of the world for this purpose.

So that's it. 11.23 p.m. Eastern Times, time, I'm going to get my ass to sleep. Thank you, Casey, for doing us. Thank you all for jumping on. The patience is incredible because we had to wait all damn day for these announcements. But I think they were worth it. I think there's a lot to be excited about here if you're a UFC fan.

And even if you have felt somewhat let down this year with the quality of these cards and some of the big main cards and the big bite, I think the next three baby reviews are our heaters right now. And then we still get UFC 323 to go. figure out that card's going to look like. So I think we're starting to ramp up here and you're a fan of MMA. That's a good thing.

Thank you very much. For Casey, I am I-M-I-TEC. We'll see you again on Saturday following Misfits Boxing. We'll react to all the craziness because it's been a crazy-ass week over there. Shout out to Jose. Shout out to you.

Good night, everybody. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.