MMA Fighting - BTL | Korean Zombie Retires, Rose Namajunas' Debut At 125, Dana White Blasts Aljo & Merab

Episode Date: August 31, 2023

In the clash between two of the UFC's all-time great action fighters, Max Holloway knocked out The Korean Zombie in the main event of UFC Singapore, which served as the final fight of Zombie's career.  On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel reacts to Zombie calling it a career and his legacy, along with Holloway's outing, and what could be next for him after his second straight win. Additionally, topics include Erin Blanchield's win over Taila Santos in the most high stakes contest of this past Saturday's card, UFC Paris this Saturday headlined by Ciryl Gane vs. Serghei Spivac, Rose Namajunas making her debut at 125 pounds against Manon Fiorot and what's at stake for "Thug Rose," Dana White blasting former bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling and his teammate Merab Dvalishvili, and more. Host Mike Heck moderates the matchup between MMA Fighting's Jed Meshew and José Youngs. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow José Youngs: @JoseYoungs 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 reprise 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.

This is Between the Links. And now, your host, my... The iconic voice of Esther Lynn welcomes you to a brand new edition. of Between the Links, thank you for having us on. And listen, I must be honest with the world here. There's a lot going on here in South Carolina. And we got roofers up top. So there might be some banging and clanging.

I'm feeling a little bit rotten this week. We're going to battle through it all. So if I start coughing or whatever, just battle through it like we're going to do. As we introduced the panel this week, let's get right to it. First, he's Mr. No Gray area. He's Mr. Hot Take, the co-host of No Bet's Bar, the man behind Dan, they were good. much more. He's the wonderful.

Jed Mishu. Hello, Jed. Happy Thursday, buddy. Happy Thursday. Damn, I'm tired. We have another dam coming out on Monday. So that is back-to-back weeks with damn. It's been a lot. And my opponent this week was on that damn. So I've talked to him a lot this week already. And I have a feeling that what this dam is about is something we're going to talk about on the program this week. And returning to the show, which I'm very very, very excited about the traveling man for mhmap fighting.com.

He's our boots on the ground all the time. My fellow New Englanda loves the Boston Red Sox. Mr. Jose Youngs, how you doing, man? Sox just aren't doing that hot right now. No, the only thing that's going to, that's worse than the Red Sox right now is my physical well-being because I am exhausted. About to like a couple days away from flying to Sydney too. So it doesn't stop here to have been like, I think.

Are you all excited about today's episode? Mike's sick. Jose is exhausted. I'm not in like the best spot. This is going to be a great one, boys. Yes. This is, I mean, this is what the sports all about. This is the championship rounds here.

We just got to get off the stool and battle through it. And let's just get into it. Let's start with last weekend. Let's start with what you two probably talked about for a couple of hours. We had UFC Singapore. And with that, we saw the final fight of the career, of the Korean zombie Chan Zung. He comes out in round three against Max Holloway.

It's a pretty fun fight through two rounds. And essentially said, hey, it's get or get got time. Zombie unfortunately got got. Then he announced his retirement and the popham circumstance around it. It was an incredible moment, which we'll dive into a little bit more in depth than a little bit. But we kind of expected this to happen. But a lot of reflection on zombie's career, Jose, since. Saturday because a lot of talk about some of the great moments, the great fights, him missing

sort of the prime of his career due to mandatory military service. What did his run mean to you, Jose, as a fan, as someone who works in the space? And what is ultimately zombie's legacy in your eyes? Well, you kind of brought it up at the beginning. I think Jed, and how long was the episode, Jed, like two and a half hours of the Korean zombie talk on this upcoming damned? So if you want my like long-winded answer to what the Korean zombie meant to mix martial arts, you can go watch that because I talk a lot about the Korean zombie because he is my all-time favorite fighter. He's also involved in my all-time favorite fight against Dustin Poir. So the way I wrapped it up, the episode was the Korean zombie is the not a good quote-unquote prize fighter in the fact that no one's going to, there's not people lining up,

pay to watch him win or lose, like, you know, the Chale Sussons, the Connor McGregors, the Ian Garys of the world, where they can sell you a fight on the mic and then they can sometimes deliver more often than not they deliver in the octagon. The Korean zombie didn't even need to speak English. You just tuned in to watch him either kill a man or get killed or just kind of put each other through the wood chipper. The man is never in a bad fight. The man was appointment television.

The Korean zombie ran so Justin Gaci could fly. He was the original all-action fighter. He is one of the top five most exciting fighters that has ever lived. I'm not staying dominant because obviously John Jones watching him fight is exciting. Watching Anderson Silva fight is exciting because they're highlight reels and they're so dominant. But he fits the mold of a Justin Gachie, a Robbie Lawler, Carlos Condit, It doesn't matter who they fight. It's going to be unbelievable.

And the fact that he essentially, he beat Mark Harmonic in seven seconds. And then from that point on, it was main events for the rest of his career, either pay-per-view or fight night. He was the guy that the UFC turned to to fight anyone in the top five and he was going to win a bonus or he was going to fall asleep after getting his clock clean. So the Korean zombie is the original all-action fighter. I think 10 years from now, his career is going to be viewed as underappreciated because he never won the title. Because fighters like Conda and Robbie Lalo, they at least won interim titles or undisputed titles in Robbie Loller's case. Korean Zambia. He had two opportunities to do that.

He just happened to fight the two greatest featherweights of all time in Josialdo and Alex Volcanowski. And then he lost to, again, one of the greatest featherates of all time in Max Holloway. So if not for anything, the longevity of being in the top five of the featherweight division is more than admirable. He is, again, top five most exciting fighters, minute for minute that has ever existed. And what he's done for my career, not in terms of where I'm at in MMA media, but just as a fan, I can't say enough positive things about him. That's why he's my all-time favorite fighter. He ran so Justin Gates, you could fly. I love that.

Love that so much. Jed, look, you just ran a show about this that's going to drop on Monday. So the Cliff Notes version of Zombies' career, what he meant to you as a fan, even before you got into the space, since you've been in the space and what you believe ultimately is his legacy now that he's stepping away. So the Cliff Notes version is, and I talked about this on the show, obviously, he did not mean as much to me as he did to the other people in the show. and to a lot of people, I always appreciated and enjoyed zombie, but, you know, Jose Aldo is one of my favorite fighters of all time, and you can't really have multiple favorite fighters in the same weight class. It just sort of doesn't work like that. And so he didn't have that same sort of pull to me as he did for everybody else or for a lot of other people. But nobody has a bad thing to say about him. And him and with Robbie Lawler retiring like a month. go or whatever. I've been sort of grappling with this idea of their legacies. And I think they're different. Loller won the belt. And that broadly speaking makes a huge amount of difference, right? This is, zombie did never win the belt. And as Jose said, he fought the two best featherweights of all time in his chances. So, you know, don't knock him too hard for that. He's a career that

makes me reconsider the term greatness and what it means and sort of how we approach fist fighting because, and I said this with the Robbie Loller, and again, I've just been kind of forced to reconsider it with zombie because objectively speaking, he's not even a top five all-time featherweight. Like, I don't think that's ridiculous to make that claim. but who like how many fighters had a more meaningful career maybe they didn't get the wins and losses and you know get the belts but how many fighters affected more people's lives than Korean zombie and it's it's a short damn list like I don't know whose career I would rather have would I rather have Max Holloway's career, probably. Would I rather have Chad Mendez's career? Not a chance in hell. Give

me zombies career over Chad Mendez all day long. And I think Chad Mendez is demonstrably a better featherweight historically speaking. And so to me, that's the big things I took away, particularly the deep dive, which is really great, was like, one, his 2011 was unbelievable, like, in hindsight. He had a stretch or he had what probably actually should have been the fight of the year we make the case against Leonard Garcia the George Rube awkwardness and then the Leonard Garcia his UFC debut is a twister a seven second knockout of Mark Hominick and then the fight of the year against Dustin Poirier like there's just like nobody has a three or five fight run like that like this is he's one of like two dudes ever who have had multiple like multiple fight of the year like very very

reasonable contenders so uh gonna miss him i think his exit was tremendous uh i cried um on the walkout like you know got and again he didn't mean that much to me but it was still like an emotionally affecting thing to watch this dude exit the cage with you know 15 000 people singing zombie to him like that's that's it doesn't happen for almost anybody and to me that should tell you more about him than than anything else yeah it was super cool and i and i and I wanted to dive a little bit deeper in that because this, the way this year started with retirements, Jed, was pretty sad because we watched poor Shogun Huah just get iced by a guy that sort of danced over his grave, essentially.

But then it's kind of turned. We got Amanda Nunes. We got Robbie Lawler. I thought Ed Herman and Zach Cummings had a great retirement. You know, we've had some bad ones. And we mentioned the Shogun one. But where does this zombie retirement rank? because yes, he went out in his shield in zombie-esque fashion,

but it was also pretty nasty knockout and then got celebrated as such at the end? Like, where does this one rank to you compared to the Lawler one, the Nunes one, and some of the other ones we've seen in the last couple of years? Number two, I think it's behind only Loller. I'm willing to hear arguments, you know, and certainly the idea of going out on top like Nunes does, that's very appealing. But that was just a weird retirement.

in a lot of spots in part because Amanda Noon is kind of a weird person. But like we didn't know that was coming. We didn't really even have like there were maybe some rumblings, but it wasn't like it. That did not feel like a moment. When I look back on this year, I will not look back on Amanda Neunes's retirement as an event that happened so much as it is a fact of life. Like, oh, that's the year Amanda Nunes stopped fighting. not, hey, you remember the retirement after the Arena Aldana fight that wasn't all that memorable?

Like, it's just not the same. I think there are parts of zombies retirement that were better than Lawlers. And again, he didn't get the win. And I think a lot of people reflexively knocked that. But the win kind of doesn't matter because he went out in like the most zombie fashion of like possible, which which makes it fitting. Like it fits in a really clean way that it doesn't matter to me whether he wins or loses in that fight. Frankly, in the way that a lot of his career was that, like, I don't really care if he wins or loses. I care that he does dope stuff and that it's incredibly fun and captivating

to watch. And him sitting on the stool after the second round where he should have been finished, where Max got too nice and zombie zomboed his way through it. And his corner trying to tell him like, all right, we got to do this. And you could just see him be like, man, I've lost, so I'm going to go out on my sword. And it's what he did. And he just came out and was like, all right, Max, let's do it. Let's see what happens right here, right now. It was incredibly fitting.

And you get the whole, the walk out was incredible. Like, you could see him soaking it up. It felt like a moment. And then the exit was one of the five best moments of the year. So I think it's number two. I feel pretty confident with that. Jose, what was it like for you to watch this all play out, the walk, the fight, the way it ended, and then the announcements, leaving the gloves,

the way he bowed before the gloves, and then just leaving with 15, 20,000 people singing his song, singing zombie on the way out. Like, for you, as someone who reveres zombie, maybe more than anybody that I know, what was that all like for you? And where do you rank this sort of last fight, last hurrah of his career with how everything played out? It was a good, It was top five retirements in MMA. The only thing better that for this retirement would have been is if you won. And I don't really, when zombie fights, I can separate myself. Like I knew that I knew Matt's Hollywood was probably going to win.

I knew Alex Volcanowski was probably going to win. I can remove the fandom when he fights and kind of watch it unbiasedly. And after the fight, we kind of knew what was coming because after he lost to Volcanowski, the fight that you and I were at, I was about 10. feet away from when you know, Alex Volkonowski is asking like, do you want to keep going, like in the middle of the fight because he was putting such a hurt on the Korean zombie? After that, you said, you know, if I'm not going to be the champion, then maybe it's time to hang it up.

I have a lot to self-reflection. And then when Max called him out, I assumed that zombie would take the fight because that's a fight he's always wanted. Max Hollow even said, like, you know, I fought everyone from my generation except for him, even the press conference without Zolkanowski Zambi says if I beat Volkanowski the first guy I want to fight is Max Hollow

because we've never fought and when they made that matchup everyone was like oh this is going to be sad this is going to be that and it wasn't it wasn't the Volcanowski fight like he tried to be zombie he just his body failed him the the ability to fight

through pain which I talked about on the damned episode is kind of what separated zombie from his peers It's he might have been knocked out But his body went into autopilot His body just couldn't do that anymore And that just catches up with you So the second that he got knocked out

I was actually on the train Coming from New York back to Providence Back east and I watched it And it happened and I was like I mean that's it He's going to retire It's going to be a beautiful moment And then exactly, it played out exactly like it did

So I'm not happy or sad I just I think he was the right time I think a lot of fighters hang on A little too long You know maybe they go into Bear Noges or boxing or they get cut and they go somewhere else. I wasn't afraid of zombie getting cut and fighting anywhere else. I just,

the second he got knocked out, he retired and it was, it was the perfect moment, perfect, if obviously he was in Seoul, would have been more perfect, but, you know,

the fact that he got to do it in a crowd in Asia against Max Holloway guys, always wanted a fight that reveres him just as much as everyone else. I agree with what Jed said. Top five, probably top two. I put Lawlers over it.

You know, we got that video package. That was real nice. So, yeah. but beautiful moment all around. Yeah, I thought the commentators did a great job, like letting these moments breathe. I think just everything about these have just gotten much better. And, you know, having it with Max Holloway.

And I think Max would agree, like, we should start this round talking about zombie and what he meant. And I talked a lot about him on the post-fight show. And you'll hear more from these guys more in depth on zombie's career when the damn episode drops on Monday. but Max Hollow is a part of this fight as well, Jose. He comes away with another win. He gets a brutal finish, his first finish in quite some time, first since the Brian Ortega fight. And there's just a lot of fun options for Max Holloway after this win.

There are people who have called in a heck of a morning this week saying, why not just run it back with Volkovsky for a fourth time? Personally, not really a fan of that idea. Dana White said not a fan of that idea. but what would you like to see next for Max? Stay at 45, try to knock off a contender there, maybe go up for some fun ones at 55.

Like, what do you think? I want to see him go up to 155 solely because I think Ilius should be fighting Volcanowski. I think Volcanowski is an agreement. Like he even says, hey, hey, I'll fight Max because I need contenders and I want to stay active. So in this world,

I'm going to assume Ilya fights Alex Volcanowski and then I don't want, Unless Max wants to wait And then if Ilya wins They're gonna give Volcanowski the rematch Maybe in Spain So that's even a longer of a wait So in the meantime

I don't want him to knock off any other feather weights on the rise So I wouldn't hate seeing him go up to 155 Just to Gagee Needs him dance partner for that BMF title I know he wants to fight for the lightweight championship So if that doesn't happen Maybe we could get if Charles loses to Islam We could get Charles Max rematch at 155

If Connor doesn't end up ever fighting ever again. You could do Michael Chandler versus Max Holloway. You could do Dustin Porre Max Holloway 3. I know the Porre has is 2-0 on him but both the second fight. The only reason we don't talk about it more

is because the fight before it was Israel Adisani versus Kelvin Gastilum which is one of the greatest fights you will ever see. So in the meantime I would like to see him fight a lightweight in these exciting fights that maybe don't have title implications but they're just fun and legacy

fights and big money fights for max while the while the featherweight division plays out and if he wants to at the end of it if his body can handle it maybe he drops back down the featherweight for one final run especially if vulcanowski is not the champion but there are just a lot of fun fights of 155 and want to see max hollow it would take jay what do you think because i think if we if we had our druthers it's a dream fight max holly versus jessing geese but gachi obviously wants to cement his legacy and get his chance of the undisputed title against the winner of of Islam Makachev, Charles Olivera. But there's just so many fun fights for Max right now.

And people are still screaming at this point, like, let's do Max versus Ilya right now. Like, no title fight. Let's just do Max, really, uh, I couldn't dislike that idea more right now. Not saying I don't like the fight, but the timing of it just makes no sense. Let Ilya fight for the belt. But what are we doing here with Max Holloway if you had your druthers?

What do you think realistically happens here? Yeah, those people are morons if they're asking for that fight. just a very, very dumb fight. What happens? I honestly don't know. I could see a lot of things. If I had my druthers, and I think the thing that makes the most sense to me,

and maybe the UFC can't come out and say this for reasons that will become clear in just a moment. But Jose nailed it. I've been saying this for weeks now, because we all assault Max going to win this fight. Charles Oliver is about to get dusted up a second time by Islamakov, and once that's done, they should rematch.

calling it a rematch really be the first time they fought because the first fight was super weird right like you know we were all very excited about that fight and then it it ended oddly and that's just where that was so like yeah uh go with that one that's i think that's the most obvious one to me let's get let's get a result that isn't an esophagus injury or whatever the shit happened in that super weird fight a fight would be incredibly fun let's do that I love that idea. Again, there's just so many fun options. If Al Jo wants to move to 1.45, I like that idea. We'll see what happens with Max Holloway. The dude is just, yeah, dude just continuing to put on fun fight after. What's Edson Barbrose to do it?

He's booked. Who's he fighting? He's booked. That's your job. Is he fighting? He's fighting Sudik Yusef, is he not? Well, I don't know. I believe that's a fight.

I watch him fight Edson. If he wants to go up and like, I don't know, what does Armin have a fight? I'd watch him fight on. Armin is fighting. He just got a fight. Did he not? Again. Nothing's been announced.

Edson is fighting. Is Fiziv fighting somebody and watched his shit out of Fizier? Fizade in like two weeks. Okay. After that, that's fine. All right. You just. Just match him up against...

It's Max Holloway. It's not going to be boring. I just don't have any interest in him fighting like the dregs of Featherweight again. Like we're past that with him. Do fun stuff. Yeah. Let's make a wheel with all exciting names

and Max just goes up and spins a wheel in front of a crowd and wherever he lands on that. So he fights next. Let's have some fun with this. So let us move on to another big story coming out of UFC Singapore. The point for round one goes to, I mean, if we have a zombie question

and don't give it to Jose, Then I'm a terrible host. Jose gets the point. And he kind of nailed it with the zombie. The zombie ran so Gaitch could fly line is just incredible stuff. So when I got a great deal on a great gift at winners, I started wondering, could I get fabulous gifts for everyone on my list? Like this designer fragrance for my daughter.

It's just $39.99. How could I resist? This luxurious will throw for my sister. This gold watch for my partner? A wooden puzzle for my niece? Leather gloves for my boss? Ooh, European chocolate for the crossing guard? At these prices, could I find something for everyone at Winners?

Stop wondering. Start gifting. Winners, find fabulous for less. It's the matchat or the three ensemble Cadocephora of the fact that I just deniches so much. It's the ensemble. The form of standard and mini-regrouped, what old are men? And the embellage, too beau,

who is practically pre-to-donned. And I know I'd never these offriars, but I guard the Summer Fridays and Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez. Mm-hmm. I'm just to understand. The most best ensemble

a gift the fair desks of beauty, Way, Cifora Collection, and other part of quick.

Procurre you these formats and mini, regrouped for a better quality of price, on link on C4.A

or in magazine. Let's go to the other more fascinating story, like I understand that the co-made event was Anthony

Smith being Ryan Spam, but we're not going to talk about that right now. We're going to talk about what happened in the second

main card fight. Aaron Blanchfield, toughest to date against Tila Santos had as a

tough first round. She got dinged up pretty good, but she battles back. She wins the last two rounds. There's no controversy. It's a grimy, gritty decision win. But Jed, a lot of people picking this performance apart because Blanchefield didn't go out and completely just dust Tila Santos in Singapore. So as someone who is very high, you may be higher on Aaron Blanchfield than anybody else. How do you grade this performance and your reaction to the backlash of this all? I grade this performance a B plus, right?

Like, she won, which is the most important thing. I don't think it was controversial. Look, she had a hard fight, but I think I was talking about this with Ghee in Slack like during the event and afterwards. Think Tala Santos, no one's ever going to give her the credit because she is not like a captivating Mike presence and not a captivating fighter either. She's just like the Hafeila Sunsau of women's flyweight.

She's impossible to look good against and going to beat a lot of people. And I kind of knew coming in and I talked about it on the preview show that like this is the exact sort of good test for Blanchefield because as high as I am on Blanchfield, a lot of her success has been predicated on the fact that she is just a superior athlete to everyone that she has fought. And Tyler Santos is a hawse. Like she, and that's, that's a lot of how that fight played out is Blanchfield couldn't just throw her to the floor willy-nilly. And Santos is extremely physically strong, very competent in all areas, and just sort of held up under the pressure for a while. I also talked about this beforehand and it felt much more stark afterwards. This should have been five rounds.

I don't think anyone would be critiquing this fight if it were five rounds because the texture of that bout was pretty clearly going Blanchfield's way. She could continue the pace they were fighting, and Santos could not have done it for another two rounds. And so you didn't set Blanchefield up for success because every three-round fight is just more chaotic. There is more opportunity for somebody to succeed because 15 minutes is not a lot of fight time.

I think, look, you can't call this her best performance. It's not. but against, you know, one of the three or four best women in the weight class, she convincingly won. And in a five-round fight, I feel like she would have won more convincingly. I have no issues. You show me the woman who looks good against Tila Santos and then I will start really docking points from Aaron Blanchfield. But until somebody does it, because it ain't never been done, you just have to say, yeah, that's a fight where we respect Tila Santos more, not we. start saying Aaron Blanchfield just doesn't have it.

Jose, what did you think of the performance and sort of the negative backlash? I was pretty surprised because I even tweeted out she's only 24, so she's going to get ridiculously better than she is right now and she's already pretty damn good. And everyone was just like, eh, wasn't that impressed by this. What did you think of her performance and just kind of the negativity behind it, which I'm kind of surprised about? I'm obviously, I'm not down on the fight or the performance. because like we all said, like she got dinged up pretty bad against Tyler early and then adapted and won and that being able to adapt in the octagon after, especially losing the first round is something that champions need that does separate kind of the upper echelon from the people that are just really, really good.

So there were a lot of, there are obviously a lot of questions with Aaron Blanchfield. Like what would she do if she fought someone that was, you know, incredibly strong and athletic and a good grappler and durable? What will she do if she starts down on the scorecards, like, early on? Because obviously the Molly McCann fight, she just kind of tore through her. Jessica Andrade was, she watched Jessica Andrade and JJ Alders looked obviously great on that card earlier on in Singapore. But she kind of tore through her too. So I have a, I always, I feel like an NBA fighting. I'm always the last one on the bus in terms of hype, the hype trains.

And I always have questions for all these guys that everyone says, future champion future champion i always say well i have questions that i need answered i had a lot of questions about aran blanchefield and she answered enough uh in singapore i'm not saying she's going to go out there and just melt alexa grasso or valentina right now but now i know she has the ability to fight it was not the most aesthetically pleasing fight if rose or manorferro go out there just head kick the other one i'm gonna assume they leapfrog erin blanchfield uh but she won uh if any of anything she maintains her spot and at worst she's one more win away from a title shot or if frozen manon is just not a good fight uh if another carlos spars a rose fight then maybe she gets the

title shot especially if alexa wins and valentina's down oh two because again the champion also mentioned erin blanchefield an interview with gare m cruz on our site so anytime the champion is mentioning your name that's always a good thing so at worst she's one more win away at best she gets a title shot so not a bad place to be if you're in blanchefield We'll dive more into chapter two of this three chapter sort of mini Grand Prix at 125 in a minute. But Jose, I want to go back to you. Let's just say, for the sake of this discussion, let's say the fight between Fioro and Rose is not happening. Let's just say this fight is not on the books.

Coming out of this win in what you saw on Saturday, are you confident throwing Blanchefield into a title fight right now? Or at 24 years of age, would you like to see another one before getting to that? place. Maybe a Macy Barber. Seems to be a popular name that comes up. Would you like to see her fight one more time? Or are you just like, you know what? This performance in enough, I'm ready to just chuck her into a title fight and let's just see what happens. You're saying if Rose Manon doesn't happen.

Let's just say that fight does not exist. Like it just, if it's just the fight and then the title fights at two weeks. Then it has to, if Valentina loses it, it would have to be Aaron. Because like there's literally no one else. Like if in this perfect world that like now I'm not saying it's perfect world, but like in this world where it doesn't exist. I'm just going to say the meritocracy exists. And she's currently ranked one if not two in the UFC's rankings. So the only one of two above for her would be Valentina and Alexa Grasso.

And Alexa Grasso is currently number one pound for pound in all of women's MMA on the UFC on the UFC's ranking just because of Madanuna is retired and she beat Valentina. If Valentina wins, they'll probably do the trilogy. fight. If Valentina loses, then it's Aaron. Like, it has, she's literally only one left. I think Macy Barber is still a winner two away, especially if Macy Barber fights like, you know, a Lauren Murphy or a Jennifer Maya type fighter. I just not right. I think the time is now, especially if Valentina loses the time is now for Aaron Blanchfield. I think especially she's from New York. They're going to go to New York next year at least two times. It just makes sense. Are you with that, Jed? Let's just go.

What if Valentina wins? Do you just run it right back or do you give Blan's feel her shot first? I think if Valentina wins, they probably won't run it right back because Valentina was probably winning the fight before she got submitted. And so they just don't have to. That's why I hate immediate rematches. Don't think Valentina should have gotten one.

But, you know, I've been on that soapbox enough in my life. But yeah, if she wins, they're going to. assume that that is a historical correction and not rivalry. If there's nobody else, then they would be like, all right, let's do Grosso 3, but there are. There will be other options. So I think regardless of the winner, we are going to get a new title fight. If Rose probably, if Rose wins this weekend, probably going to do it. But I've been saying it, man, just Air Blanche feels the future and everyone with eyeballs knows it.

Like just put her in there. Like let's, we, it's not the one. worst thing if it doesn't happen, right? But like, I went through this exact same thing with Habib. And we all did. We lived in this world of like, well, there are people that make more sense than him fighting for the belt right now and injuries and layoffs. Like, sure, and that's fine. But at the end of the day, we all know. We all have eyeballs. We know who the best guy is. Let's just put the freaking belt on him. However, we have to bootstrap it and make it happen because it's better for him to be here at the top now than what happened with the beam? It took him three extra years to get

to the belt and then he only had three title defenses and the UFC couldn't market that. If I'm the UFC, I'm looking at Aaron Blanchfield and saying that's the future, but now, now is the time which is make it happen or else this is a weird sport. Shit can go wrong. Anything can happen and you can lose out on a chance to have a 24-year-old champion who is very likely to hold the belt for years and become a marketable star. Well, let's discuss the next half of this, you know, contender equation in round three. Let's talk about the two big fights for UFC Paris.

Point for round two goes to Jedmishu. It's one to one. Let's head to Paris. Let's head to Paris. And let's start with 125. conversation because this fight, at least in my eyes from what I've seen, getting the most buzz is Manon Fioro facing the former Straway champion Rose Nama Yunus, Thug Rose making the move up to 125 after a long career at 115. Jose, I'll begin with you. Thoughts on the move up here for

Rosamai Yunus. And this fight with Manon Fioro, first fight since losing the Straway title to Carlos Barza. And do you feel like this is the most fascinating fight of the card even more so than the main event? Yes, because it actually has title implications. If Cyril Gahn or Sergei Spivak win, they're not fighting for the UFC Heavyweight Championship next, they're probably going to fight a Pavlovich or a Tom Aspinall or, you know, Jailton Almeida or Curtis Blades or something like that. The winner of Manorov versus Rosenomé, especially if they have an impressive performance,

are probably going to fight for the UFC championship next. So in terms of storylines, that's the answer. in terms of popularity, I would imagine Rose is more popular than almost anyone on this card. Cyril Gahn is obviously very popular in France and Europe. I can't speak on how popular Sergei Spivak is worldwide, especially in Russia. But in terms of MMA fans, I would imagine Rose is the most popular. You know, her fights against Ioannia and J. Chick and Jessica Androd and Waley, these are three of the greatest women's fighters ever.

outside of that carlo fight, which was, in her words, one of the worst performances in the history of MMA, not really in bad fights either. If we're talking BMFs, Rose is right up there for women's combat athletes. So, yeah, this is without question

the more intriguing matchup on this card. I'm curious how she looks on the scale. She was never the biggest straw weight. She said immediate that the weight cut was always hard and it sucked in this and that. I never really felt like it was a massive deal for her, but maybe she's just good at hiding it. You know, it didn't work out for Yoana when she moved up to fly away

to fight Valentina Shenzhenko. So I'm very curious how Rose looks and whether her power that she had if Strawaway translates to fly away, especially against someone like Manon, who is stylistically done very well against bigger opponents. I'm curious how she does against a smaller opponent in Rose. Jed, I'm intrigued by this and have been for a while, because I talked to Rose, it was probably like October or November of last year,

and she had teased this move to 125. She said, you know, here's what I want to do. I want to do some grappling matches, maybe some jiu-tuituitous tournaments, and then I just want to lift a whole bunch of weights, and then we'll talk about what's next. And then obviously I followed up, and I was like, does this meet a move to 125?

And she said, you do the math. So we kind of figured this could happen. And when this fight was first confirmed, who were like, oh, this is, didn't really know how to think about it. But now that we're a day and a half away from this fight going down two days away, what's your take on this move up for Rose and this matchup in particular with Manon Fioro, who's been on a nice run, quietly sort of flying under the radar? It's certainly the more intriguing fight, the most intriguing fight this weekend,

because there are like seven questions that I have? I have no idea what Rose is going to look like at 125. I don't know if this is a good idea. She has sort of, like you said, laid this plan out, and I'm not sure why. It's not like she was doing poorly at 115, and it's also not like she was dominant at 115 and needs a new challenge. So it is a very odd, yeah, I just want to do this. Okay. I guess, sure.

Like you have two wins over the current champion and you're coming off the actual worst fight in modern history. It's just a very weird time to make a weight change. Like you see weight changes when it's like I'm too small to compete or I can't make the weight anymore. And to Jose's point, it never felt like she may have said that it was a struggle that never seemed to manifest in any tangible ways that like I could see. So it's a very odd move up. Mén-en-Fior's a very interesting opponent in that I don't think she's really good. but she keeps winning and she's a hawse and that like that's just going to test rose right there because the times rose struggled in her career were when people were just way more physical than

her and now she is going up a weight class and like I tried to dive into the Instagram I can't tell if she put 10 pounds of muscle on she looks exactly the same she always has to me so like I don't know if non if you can just like big sister her because I think Monon's up like a much worse fighter but you know she just is like hey rose sit down I'm gonna sit on top of you for the next seven minutes like it's gonna happen so there are a whole lot of questions I have no idea why rose is doing this in part because it feels like it like because it's a weird move and then if this fails what next does she stay at 125 because she put on the weight but now she's if she can't beat minotphiro she can't beat her in blanchefield she probably can't beat like valentina so what I just have

idea what the hell this is about other than she's probably going to get a title fight if she wins so okay uh i don't know what's in her head though and so it makes me really really like curious about what the hell's about to go down all right i mean i'll pivot to something you just said jad and then i'll get your thoughts on this hose as well what if rose does get big sistered in there what if she loses this fight jad like what happens what do you think do you think she does stick around at on 125 do you think she's just like eh not really into this anymore like a long hiatus like what happens here if she loses this fight it's probably a long hiatus because i don't i've never known what rose was into it i mean half of her post fight speeches were like yeah i hate fighting

and i want to have a farm um and you can do that you just go have a farm like you don't have to do this um i know that like i'm sure that there are people in your life that are telling you but like you just have your farm and that's totally fun America needs farmers. Like, it's great. So I don't, my guess is a long, like, you know, break at least, probably not over time. I'm like, yeah, she won't have a path forward. It depends.

If she really did put on 10 pounds of muscle, it's not like she can just go back to straw weight either. So, and let's be honest. I mean, I know there's been a conversation lately about women's flyweight being the best division in the sport. I'm here here to listen to that as far as like the best women's division. But are they like, who's the name of like BMF women's fly weights or like the legend fights in this weight class? Like, hell yeah, I want to watch Rosefighter. Chikagian?

Are we like super stoked for Rose Chikagian? No. So I think we're probably, if she loses, she probably is going to take some time off and reevaluate again and then come back in two years with some other like very strong. strange outcome, which whatever makes you happy, I guess. But it seems like you'd be happier on your farm. Just go do that. What do you think, Jose?

What happens with Rose if she comes up short here? I mean, we love to take chances and challenge ourselves and strive for greatness. And I think she deserves some props of respect for trying that. But what if this is MMA? This is the UFC. This is a loaded division where they're just hungry contenders all over the place. Strong for greatness by defending a belt, Mike. Defend a belt.

Strive for greatness that way. I hate the phrase, strive for greatness. It's so, oh, it's one of my biggest pet peeves, Mike. She can't defend the belt unless she wins the belt, and she's got to win Saturday to even get a chance to win the belt. Striving for greatness is defending a belt and making a sacrifice to do so. Going to win a second belt is a glory grab because there's no risk, because the expectation is that you lose any time.

to any fight in which you are not advantaged because, oh, you're the smaller dude. It's a low-risk, super high-reward thing. Striving for greatness is being Alexander Volcanovsky and fight Nilia Tuporia. That's fucking great, man. Ah, it's my biggest pet peeve. Jose, what if Rose loses the glory grab fight on Saturday?

She probably takes time off again and goes and lives on her farm. That's just the answer. Excuse me. I don't know, Rose, I stopped trying to figure Rose out a long time ago. She's taken these long gaps even when she was the reigning champion. Like she won the belt. She took a lot of time off, came back. And she's never really been the most active fighter.

A lot of, like, I think Rose is a very talented martial artist. But she's not fought a ton of people. She's fought a lot of the same people. Like she's fought Carla twice. She's fought on Whaley twice. She's fought Yawanna twice. She's fought Jessica Androd twice. Like the last time,

something really wasn't a match, like a rematch outside of like the first time she fought these individuals. Like she beat Michelle Waterson. And then after that it's just been a rematch, fight rematch, fight rematch, fight rematch. It's like Kayne Velasquez. Like he was super talented, but he fought a lot of the same guys until he just did it. So if she loses, she's shown that she's willing to take time away from the sport when she was the champion. Can't imagine she won't do it if she loses. Maybe she just refigures herself out and needs to find.

the love again on her farm. Pat Berry's obviously been a coach to a lot of other fighters. Maybe she goes down that route, but she has two wins over Wei Lee. She wants to go back down to Straw Wade and, you know, fight somewhere like Wei Lee again, wouldn't blame her. And I know Tatiana Suarez really wants to fight Rose at some point. So if she wants to get torn through by Tatiana Suarez, she can go do that too. So there are options if she loses, but I would imagine it's at minimum 12 months.

until we see her again as she loses. We will have a preview show for this card tomorrow at noon Eastern, but two last things about this car real quick. Jed, what is that stake in the made event between Cyril Gahn and Sergei Spivak? Is they just fighting for the Tommy Aspen all sweepstakes? Is that what this is? I mean, I think that's the most likely outcome. I will disagree on something Jose said earlier.

They could be fighting for a title shot. Not against John Jones. John Jones is not going to fight the winner of this, but it seems pretty evident based on everything that he is saying that John Jones either intends to retire after fighting Steepay or at the minimum vacating the belt and then leaving the sport until something peaks his interest, taking an extended time off. If that's the case, you take, you know, if Cyril Ghan wins this,

he is an interim champion who most recently just fought for the belt, and maybe you just do, you know, Sergey Pavlovich, Cyril Ghan, and maybe they let Tommy Aspinol get another win. I think that there's a world where the winner of this particular Spivak wins, you know, then he's what four in a row, good quality opposition, you could sell it. So I think the most likely outcome is the winner of this faces Tom Aspinall, but there is also a world where the UFC needs a new title fight and maybe Tom Aspinall faces Sergey. And then the winner of this gets to Jailton Almeida, assuming Almeida can beat Curtis Blitz.

So the winner of this is either as a dark horse for an interim title shot and certainly is one win away from probably a true title shot at that point in time. What do you think, Jose? What's at stake in this main event? I don't think the winner is going to get a title shot right away. I think Sergey Palovich is assuming John Steepa both retire in this world after Madison Square Garden. I would imagine Sergey Palovich is one half of that title. but especially because according to reports on him a fight. And he's going to weigh in as a backup for the second fight in a row,

second John Jones fight in a row. So I would imagine he's won half of any title fight, whether it's vacant or trying to fight Steepay or John or whoever else. In a perfect world where, you know, John and Steepa both retire, we're probably getting Tom Aspinall versus Sergei Pavlovich for the UFC Heavyweight Championship of the world. where that takes place, I don't know. And then the winner of this fight could be fighting the winner of Jailton

Almeda versus Curtis Blades for an actual number one contender. I am not even, I'm not on the Jailton-Lamata hype train like you all are. I think Curtis Blades beats Jailton Al-Meda. Cyril Gahn would be interesting and, you know, Sergei Spivak would be interesting, especially if they go back to Abu Dhabi next year. And from what I remember, the UFC has to give Abu Dhabi two title fights every time. If Sergei Palovich wins the belt, it just seems like it would make sense to stick him,

especially if it's Spivak, like two rush, all Russian heavyweight title fight in Abu Dhabi, especially because they can't go to Russia right now. But yeah, the winner of this is probably one win away from a title shot just because Sergei is one half of that. And I think Tom Aspinall is a step ahead of, uh, Cyril Gahn and Spivak, considering he beat Spivak, Cyril Gahn just lost his last two title fights he was in. I don't want to see him fight John Zones again. And honestly, if Steepay beats John Jones, I would imagine they do the rematch.

Like John Steeper. John Stepe too is the as the headliner for the U.S. No chance. No chance. Really? If Stepe beats John and he fights again, he's the dumbest motherfucker who ever lived. I will say that to his face. That would be the dumbest fucking idea.

You beat John Jones. You everyone knows you don't want to be here anymore. Just leave, homie. Like, leave. Don't learn the lesson D.C. should have learned when he knocked your ass out. He should have never come back and fought. That would be exactly the same. There's zero chance in my mind that he does that.

Not even for the cash. There'll be a lot of it. There would be a lot of money. That's the only thing that I think you would stick around. He's a firefighter. He's fine. He got a job. He okay.

I mean, honestly, firefighters probably make more than UFC. heavyweight championships at this point. So you're not wrong there. But I would imagine in this, again, in this world, as Stepe wins, I'm just going to assume they rematch and headline UFC 300 in April where that takes place. I don't know.

But Cyril gone and especially Sergey Spivak are not going to be fighting for the heavyweight championship next. Mike, bringing it on me or Casey bringing it on me. That's a message directly to Stepe. Stepe. If you go out here and beat John Jones and now, you know, they might go, you and say, hey, you got to run it back or you might look at the money. If it is anything,

I mean a penny less than a hundred million dollars, you tell them to shove it up their ass and you go out. And look, I don't, I won't believe it in my heart of hearts. I'll come out and call you the heavyweight goat. Like, that's what I'll say. It will be a lie and wrong, but you, if you beat this man, you don't fight it again. Why would you possibly do that? Just go out on top. go out on top that's my message to stepe last thing

um jad does this UFC Paris card get a star on the michulin scale oh god no this is the most bellator ass UFC card you ever gonna find look there are two fights that are like substantive and meaningful and there are some

other matchups that are okay the feature fight the binwasan deni tiago moises fight i think is really, really good. And then the rest of this is just locals. Like just, I mean,

a bunch of people, like a bunch of French fighters who have fought each other on the local, like scenes or whatever in Europe. And just in here doing stuff, teammates getting reshuffled against different opponents because of fallouts. Like, no, this is,

this is in no way. This aren't zero stars. Jose, what do you think of this one? 11 fights. It is daytime in May. You like this Paris card? For the fact that is daytime and it's super early here in Arizona, don't hate it.

It has one more interesting fight than UFC 293. I'll put it that way. Oh, well said. We'll be talking about that card next week on the program. But let's move on. Dana White had some things to say on Tuesday about a couple of the Banimights. who just happened to be teammates, much like Jeddin Jose, who are teammates as well.

The point for round three goes to... I am not a Banimoyt. Jose Youngs, it's two to one. Well done. Good stuff. The message to Stepe is great. I thought I'd get the point. I was extending an olive branch to Stepe.

I thought I got the point for that. I mean, I knew what you were trying to do, and I respect it, but I just couldn't give it to you. Unwrap Holiday Magic at Holt Renfrew with gifts that say I know you. from festive and cozy fashion to luxe beauty and fragrance sets. Our special selection has something for every style and price point. Visit our Holtz holiday shop and store or online at Holtrenfrew.com.

Black Friday is here at IKEA and the clock is ticking on savings you won't want to miss. Join IKEA family for free today and unlock deals on everything from holiday must-haves to cozy at-home essentials, all the little and big things you need to make this season shine. But don't wait. Like leftovers at midnight, our Black Friday offers won't last. Shop now at IKEA.ca.ca slash Black Friday. IKEA, bring home to life. So let's get to this.

Dana White spoke with the media after the contender series on Tuesday. He has asked about the Ban of Weight Division. He's asked about Al Jemaine Sterling and Robb, Welsh, really kind of saying, hey, listen, I want this fight. but if my buddy and teammate wants this fight more than me, like give it to them and then I'll wait. Marab in particular has been saying, look, I'll wait a year before I fight again,

but I'm not going to fight anybody enlisted for the belt. But if Al Jemate wants to go first, I will wait a year and then Algin get his rematch and then I'll fight after that, which has really pissed Dana White off. Dana's response verbatim, let me read this from MAAfighting.com website. everybody in this room and everybody that watches this video knows how I feel about this shit. I hate it.

And why did you even get into the sport if that's your mentality in the way that you think? I don't even want the title. I don't want the championship. We're friends where this were that. This is not you could be friends with everybody in this business. There's a lot of nice people in this business, a lot of good people. This is not about friendship. It's about finding out who the best in the world is.

And if you don't want to find out who the best in the world is, this is not the place for you. You should be somewhere else. There's plenty of places to fight where they don't give a shit what you do. It doesn't work here. Jed, what was your reaction to hearing those words if you're hearing them for the first time

that Dana White, president of the UFC, the company that is thrown meritocracy out the window years and years ago talking about these two guys who are close or are teammates and our friends. And let me just say this. I don't blame Dana for taking the stance. like I don't necessarily like completely blame him.

I understand why he's saying this. But when you heard all of this, what was your reaction to it? And then hearing it again, what's your reaction to it now? I need you when I'm done to explain why he's saying this. Because outside of, you know, him just being him, I don't get it. Like I agree that with the core premise that it's real dumb from Rob to just hamstring his own career out of the friendship that he has for for for for for for for out of particularly given the circumstances where i'll just not going to get another

title fight so why are we pretending like this is real and he had his time like he he had his time he was the champion it was great he had already talked about moving up this is about as clean of a break as possible and we know that the best case scenario is is a zero percent to happen so why are we living in a world or giving that any air whatsoever? I'll just never fight an amalgam. It's just never going to happen. And we all know it, and that's okay to admit. So I agree that it's pretty dumb in that regard.

I don't understand why Dana is mad or cares about it. That doesn't make any sense to me at all because why. Also, it's like just an abject lie about the like, this is the place where we find out who is the best in the world. Like, that's not the, you're treating that as if that's the primary driver of your fight promotion and it's very clearly not and again i'm not even blaming you for that you a business you're trying to get money i'm okay with all of these things we don't have to stand on ceremony and just lie because we are mad because this makes us feel some type of way and i don't understand it like

to me the only reason dana is mad is because this fly like this is even the most minute amount of of self-servingness and just not an unwillingness to adhere to the dogma that he preaches, which is dumb? Like, who get, like, why, why does he give a shit? His response could just as easy be like, okay, like, I think that's dumb, but like, I guess you're going to fight Sohudo or Umar or whatever. Like, if you just want to send wait, I don't agree, but like, you don't have to be like, this is, this is awful.

He sucks. Why is he even a fighter? We shouldn't have signed him. Like, why? Like this is just another example of Dana not being a good promoter. But, you know, I'm far from surprised at this. It's just a little sad always that this is, this happens regularly. Right.

And that's what I mean by I get where he's coming from because I think Dana has kind of taken the same stance as Sean O'Malley has when it comes to Al Jermal and Sterling where it's just like, hey, you want to rematch Aljo? and Sean O'Malley's answer was, didn't he say he's going to 45? Next question, please. Like, he's just taking what Aljo said and was like, well, you said you were leaving, so go leave. Why be mad about Marab?

Does Dana really want Marab to fight Aljo? Or I'm sorry, Sterling. Jesus Christ, I can't. Does he really want O'Malley to fight Mara? No, it's probably an awful fight for O'Malley. And is Mara a star? Like, I don't know what we're mad about. I just don't understand it.

Yeah. I mean, he's asked the question. He's just giving his response. And trust me when I tell you, I'm not defending Dana White here at all. Because there are things that I understand he says. And then at the other side of, you know, you should be somewhere else.

If you don't want to be the best in the world, go fight somewhere else. That's not what they're doing here. And Marab's manager came out and basically said like, okay, Dana, you want to figure out who the best in the world is. Marab should be fighting for the belts. because he is in my he is right now the number one guy he has done enough to earn a title shot so if you really want this to be about being best of the world then marab should get the title shot but now it's just a whole he said she said it back and forth so it is kind of weird

but i do understand good answer from marob's people yeah but we obviously know that that's probably not going to happen because we knew where this is all going to go hose we know it's going to be sean amalley versus chito vera two huge fight at bannamway but when you saw all of this How did you react to it? Literally zero reaction. I have the same reaction as if someone said, hey, I tied my shoes. Like, assumed you could and assumed Dana would have this reaction.

Like, I just jaded. Maybe that's the phrase. Like, Dana has said far worse things about fighters, and he's thrown fighters further under the bus. In fact, sometimes he's driving the bus that hits the fighters. So I don't know. I didn't really have an opinion because it's just part of, for the course at this point.

I mean, I disagree with it, but I just, I'm, we're going to, you're going to ask this same question about another fighter in like six months, you know? Does that make sense? Like, I get what he's saying, but I also don't agree with it. Like, agree with Jetson. Like, yeah, like Algeman said he was going to go up to featherweight, so you're holding him to that. I get it.

I still think he should get the rematch. Josie Aldo should have got the rematch. match against Connor. Steppe Miotto should have got the third fight against Francis. These things just don't happen. So I've stopped asking for them. Like I've stopped hoping that these things happen. So the second Al Jermaine lost, I was backstage with like, you know, Oscar Willis and

Danny Seguerra and Nolan King, we were kind of all talking. And we were like, yeah, Al Jambate's never going to get this rematch, right? And everyone's like, hell no, he's never going to get this rematch. And we all agree, like Marob's not going to fight O'Malley either, right? like O'Malley's going to fight Cheeto maybe Maybe And then

Sohudo maybe Like he's never going to fight Maraub He's going to do like a Connor thing Where he wins the belt and then maybe Fights once a year if he ever does So the second Sean O'Malley won He's like oh I'm

This is going to be how it is till I'm 35 Whatever I'm like I don't know about that Because you called Corey Sanhagan boring And Corey Sanagan is not a boring fighter So that fight too I want to see that fight probably not going to happen either. So just part of the course. You give these fighters all this power and then it blows up in your face.

He's probably never going to defend the title. I have zero opinion because the same thing is going to happen six months from now with a totally different fighter. If you are handling the careers of these gentlemen, Jed, and I see that look in your face, what are you telling these guys right now? Because both guys deserve to fight Sean O'Malley, but this isn't the world we live in.

So what do you say to Marab or Aljo? Do you say stay the course and maybe you get lucky and maybe risk the chance of really pissing off everybody? Or do we just kind of change course and accept reality and the modern times of what the UFC is? Like what do you think if you're on a conference call of these guys right now? They're like, Jed, you're Mr. No gray area. What should we do here?

What should our next tweets be? What should we say in our next interviews? What are you telling these? guys like i'm a straight shooter mike i'm known for it and i would i would look aljo in his eyes and i would say what you should do is get a time machine and not throw your face onto o'malley's right hand because that that's the only it's the only good outcome for you there are no there are no wins now losing that fight in that manner boned you like there is the best hope you have is to go to featherweight And that's saying a lot because I don't think you have a snowball's chance in hell up at featherweight of making a legitimate title run.

But you aren't. The only way you're getting a Bannonweight belt again is if you weight it out and hope that Cheeto beats O'Malley. Like that's it. And I think Cheetos is a really good shout of beating O'Malley. I do think that fight will happen. And then maybe you can parlay that in. But I don't care that you're a former champion. you are deep in the line of contenders

and you are not in the line of contenders so long as Sean O'Malley is holding the belt. If he is the king of the division, you are out on your ass and waiting forever. So go to 1.45. You've talked about it already. Just do it. Commit to it and maybe something can happen.

And Marab, you need to fight Henry Suhudo first because if you don't, Henry Suhudo is going to jump you line. Cheeto's going to get the next title fight. It's probably going to happen in New York, right? Maybe not. Maybe it happens later. But Cheeto's going to get the first title shot, and that's fine. You need to be the guy who is undeniable as the next viable contender. Because if not, he will fight Sehudo over you. Bigger name, better matchup. Like, you're just not going to do it. So if I'm Marab, hey man, you got to try and fight Sehudo as hard as you possibly can. And if I'm

talking to Aljo to just give up. Like, you shouldn't have lost, homie. You should not have lost. And I don't have any good outcomes for you now. Jose, your thoughts on this. What should these guys do now? I mean, if I'm a, I mean, I want the rematch. Alderman deserves any time someone has the record for most title defenses.

I know Jed doesn't agree with immediate rematches. I don't, I don't, I am more often than not on the same. I agree with that more often than not, unless it's, you know, a Joseo, a John Jones type situation where you're kind of in that pantheon of God-level MMA. I'm not saying Al Jemaine is there yet, but I do think he would deserve the rematch.

Cheeto could fight someone else. Marov can fight Sehudo, and then if Al Jermaine loses, he can definitely go to Featherweight. If he wins, he can definitely go to Featherweight, whatever. But that's not going to happen. I would tell Al Jalzor Man to just go up to featherweight because you ain't going to get that rematch ever

and then just clear the way from Mara. That's just what I would say. Yeah, how many times as he's talked about that weight cut being just awful on his body, if it's truly that bad, and we've all seen the photos that looks like his body weight, body fat is like in single digits, that is not sustainable for your career,

especially as you get older and just naturally bigger as you get older. Just go to featherweight, man. Try for a second belt. Alex Pereira did it. You can do it. Clear the way for your best buddy Marab, who should probably fight Henry Sehudo next and not sit on the shelf.

I can't imagine that fight against Joe Zalda also did Maraub any favors whatsoever. Dana probably remembers that fight. I don't think he wants 25 minutes of Marab just holding Sean O'Malley against the fence. So go fight Henry Sehudo. You beat Henry. There's really no argument that you should get the next title shot. do not fight umar and mark and maddof because that would just be a very poor business decision and then we can't wait for cori san he going to come back and win the title that's what i'll say

i kind of feel like if i'll just hit the 135 they're going to throw him in there with umar and that ain't fun look one of them it's it's it's either at this point it is either al jo or mara i'm gonna have to fight that one so pick flip a coin between the two friends whoever wants that ass whooped. I mean, if Umar and Corey Sanagan are both hurt, I would imagine they just rebooked that fight when they're healthy. Yeah,

maybe. It just depends on, as Omar hurt for though. Because Corey's out for like till summer. Cory's out. Yeah, Corey probably ain't fighting until like July, August,

September of next year at the earliest. Which is why I don't feel like the result in Boston didn't really hurt him too much. This broke pretty well for him. Yeah. It broke. If he wasn't hurt, if he wasn't hurt, it would have screwed him, but it broke well for him. I completely agree.

All right. Well, let's move on. Perhaps point for round four goes to, I mean, much like Aaron Blanchfield, just grimyming it through. Jedmishu ties it up, two to two. Just keep putting the chin out there. And if they can't knock you out, it doesn't matter. It's fine. All right. So let's go to the knock around.

There are multiple ways we could have gone with this, but I figure let's have a little fun. Let's have a little fun with this last one. Something has gone down this week that have gotten people pretty excited. So we're going to talk about it. Right here for the stock around, each of these wonderful colleagues of mine

are going to get one minute to respond to said question. And then the peeps can vote. You can vote in the chat right now on who you think wins between Jed Michoud and Jose Young. So, Jed, do you want to go first or do you want to pass it on over to Jose? Let's do it. Let's go first.

Why not? Yolo. All right. Well, God. We talked about the Korean zombie and what he has meant and what this last performance meant to the MMA community. And in fact, this performance and what this man accomplished and the farewell gave one man some goosebumps, gave one man some thoughts. about possibly wanting to make the walk one final time. His name is Paul Felder.

Paul Felder coming out and saying, zombie, isn't I saying, zombie, you got me excited to do this one more time. Apparently, Paul Felder, from what I'm told,

is going to get back into training a little bit, he's going to give it a few weeks. If he feels good after this few weeks, he's going to try to do this damn thing one more time. So, Jed, my question very simple. Paul Feller has had some bangers, some great fights.

He could do it at 55. He could do it at 70. So you are the matchmaker here. One last walk. Paul Felder calls you up and says, Jed, I'm ready to go. Book me one last fight. Book me this final one.

Who's it going to be and why? One minute on the clock, go. I'm so glad I went first. This is the easiest answer of all time. Small critique of Paul Felder. Don't even feel it out. Just say, yeah, I'm coming back. Because there's a dude at lightweight

who we don't know what to do. do with right now, who recently, either this week or last week, was like, I want to fight before the year is over again. His name is Dustin Porier. And I don't know if I need to sell this beyond Dustin Porier and Paul Felder will fist fight each other. I feel like, don't feel like anybody who knows who those two dudes are. Like, yes, please, sign me up for that. Co-main event on a pay-per-view, I'm absolutely in. Main event on a pay-per-view. I'd still buy the team pay-per-view. So you don't need to feel this out. Just say yes. Come back. for one fight with Justin Porre.

Porre didn't have anybody to fight right now because of how the BMF thing went. Fight will be absolute bangers. Both respect each other. It'll be sick. Like, why? If there's another answer, I don't know what it is. So good luck, Jose.

I mean, I think there's lots of answers here. There's lots of ideas, lots of options. And while Poria would be great, I feel like there's potentially bigger fish to fry for Dustin Porre. If he wants to hang out and hold out hope, maybe he gets an Nate Diaz fight. I'm sure he would take that over the Paul Feldor fight, but still a great idea.

Jose, you now take over the matchmaking chair here. Paul Felder, maybe wants to do this one more time. We've heard him say this before, kind of teeter-totters on this, as often fighters do, but I feel like this could be real that he may want to do this one more time. So what's the matchup here?

You can book Paul Felders' final UFC walk. Who are we doing here? One minute, go. Well, it's not Dustin Porte because that is a stupid answer because it is never going to happen. And the only thing that Jed should regret more than answering Dustin Porte is saying the phrase Yolo

in 2023 because that is also a stupid thing to say. It's right up there with having the dog in him. I'm still wary on if Paul Felder does come back because, you know, he was training for, you know, triathlons and marathons and all that stuff. And then he hurt his hip. So if you hurt your hip, probably don't fight MMA. I think he's just kind of trying to fill the void

that now that the triathlon training is out. So the actual answer is another lightweight that we don't know what to do with him because he is a future Hall of Famer who's lost a bunch of fights in a row. And that's Tony Ferguson because they're both veterans. If he beats Tony Ferguson, Tony Ferguson should just retire.

And Tony Ferguson beats Paul Felder. Paul Felder doesn't lose anything because he can just go back into retirement. think that's the fight. It's not Dustin Florey because Dustin Porre needs to fight RDA because they've never fought before. Jed, your response to Jose just name calling here wasn't ready for the for the little heel turn here. I'm fine with the name calling. Look, I find it amusing that for years I have been the biggest hater of Tony Ferguson and I'm the only motherfucker who doesn't want to see him get this life beat out of him because y'all are all trying to match him up with people who are going to kill him constantly i'm like no not me couldn't be me paul fell to three years off the couch going to beat the

soul out of tony ferguson and i don't need that on my conscience i stand by it fair fair all right well cash your votes cash your votes jim miller's a good idea for that fight nah why not for 300 do that one for 300 Who's going to complain about that one? Jim, Jim Miller, Bobby Green, you see 300. They've been talking about it forever. Paul Felder, Bobby Green, would be pretty fun, too. There's lots of ways we can go with this. I feel like Bobby Green is trying to, you know, have a trajectory towards the top 10.

I think Paul Felder should fight someone in the quote-unquote MMA Masters domain, the fictional division at Lightwave. Do you like... Dustin Boree, who's a fake top tenor because he never got. He ain't never going to fight any of the up-and-combers in this white class. He's saying never going to do it. Do you like the idea of Paul Felder versus Max Holloway at 155? Is that going to be bad?

Come on. Like, you just, well, Paul Felder is the dude you can't put him in there against anybody. It's fine. I'm going to, yeah, I'm going to watch Paul Felder fight anybody. I'm just being realistic. Like none of the fights that we want to see will probably happen because none of these guys will take. Like, Paul Felder will take that fight, but I don't think Dustin or Max will take that fight. Just don't do, just don't throw them in there with like Fiziv or Syrucian or anybody.

Yeah. I don't think Felder would even take those fights. Yeah, don't, yeah, that doesn't need to happen. Does not need to happen. Oh, my God, I had it better. Oh, my God. He should fight MVP at Welterweight. Oh.

He wanted to fight. He wanted to, he threw his hat in the Welcome Chandler to the U.S. see why not just you know welcome the other bellator free agent i love how shop got through his name into that hat oh and you would be shocked at how much murder you would be shocked at how many people in our social media were like look it i love this fight whatever why people i don't i mean walterweights because he wants someone in the top five and he's not shama at his out of the top five at walterweight definitely not fighting ballal definitely not fight the newsman and gilbert wants to fight dust in so shaffkat's literally just the next man up and i am

you'll well i will die on the hill that stephen thompson versus mvp would be so boring be such a boring fight so that's just my time they train together too yeah they're buds yeah they're really good friends and yes i actually don't i actually don't hate the shaft cat fight like i mean if you want to be top five you're gonna you're gonna have to fight these guys some point and might as well just fight these guys now. I feel like they're just going to rebook Shafkat and Gasolam for like later on this year. It's definitely what's going to happen. It's really dumb.

You don't like that idea? It's fine. I think it's I don't, it's whatever to me. I don't care about Kelvin Gasolm until he wins a meaningful fight in this wake class. Right. Because I'm not certain he's going to make weight and I, he hasn't won a lot of meaningful fights convincingly in his entire career basically. So he's he has the biggest gap of name like name recognition versus actual like performances.

I think maybe in the entire sport. Casey's here making us all feel bad. Are you all into the Burns, Porre? Like that fight has no interest for me. Not really care. No chance. I fight. Good.

I guess I'd watch RDA. I just. don't really care about that fight either. I just, I can't believe, but I can't believe Dustin Porre and Raphael de Sanoz have never fought. I mean, that's fair. They're two of the five greatest UFC lightweights ever. So I just, F it.

Fight now. That's an interesting. Whatever way class. I just want to see them fight. Two of the five greatest lightweights ever. RDA, top five, lightweight ever. I'd say so. I'm not sure Poyer is either.

there. Lightweight is like an impossible division, right? I think it's probably Habib, Habib, Tony, Benson have to be J, PJ have to all be there. BJ. So I have to have Habib, Tony, BJ Benson. Those four have to be in my life. Benson?

Oh, Benson's your top five, huh? He's got to be. I think we, when we did the dam on Benson, you, I really appreciate his career a lot more. Oh, yeah. When you went back and looked at him. I do. Like, oh, he's just way better than I remember.

I'm also just kind of talking about UFC lightweight. To me, Benson is a WEC Bellator lightweight. He's been in the Bellator longer than he was in UFC. I know, which was very odd. Yeah. It's a very odd fact when we got into that too. Very, very weird. Dustin and RDA holds a lot of records at lightweight.

Casey? I think the argument is for it. I'm sure. Yeah. Hey, we don't know who would win a 15-000. I'm sorry. We're all dicks. And somebody in the comments is,

screaming about Charles Oliver right now. Yeah. And they're absolutely correct. Yeah. Those people are absolutely correct. Charles is arguably top three. Yes. I think that's very real.

Not too. If he somehow beats Islam, good Lord. Good Lord. Beats Islam, it gets interesting. It gets real interesting. Casey, who wins? Oh. Is this clear cut?

Or do we need to play catch up here? Let the votes fly in a little bit more. We have a winner. Okay. Who is it? Who is it? You're a winner today with 60% of the fan votes is... I wonder.

And still, Chet Bashou. Shock it. Your name is it Brian Campbell? I cannot be defeated. I for one. and just flabbergasted that Jen was you won, be a VFN. Oh, man.

If it's not BC or Drake Griggs, I'm going to win the fan boat. Did you ever be Phoenix? No, no one's ever beaten Phoenix. Phoenix can't be defeated. I had dinner with her in New York when I was up there. She said she's, you know, she's in the Paul Felder thing where she's contemplating to come back to BTL. I will say

I have also had similar conversations and stay tuned for that is all I will say look Phoenix versus BC who two unstoppable forces who can win that would be something else that would be something else

I think there's going to have to be like a grand affair if we have both of them on at the same time or it's going to have to be like the style before we went to M.A. fighting where we have four people and then we just start eliminating people. Who's kind or Joe? We start eliminated people.

Maybe you're kinder Joe. I think that's you. I think that's you. I think people are calling you kinder Joe now. What does that mean? I have never been called kind in my entire life. More Joe. I was saying, you've ever been called Joe?

Usually old white men that can't contemplate that. My name is Jose called me Joe. How? I've heard. I've heard Joe. I've not heard Joe. I've heard Jose many times. Yeah, Jose is because people in England's can't say Jose for whatever reason.

It takes them a long time. But people will be like, what's up Joe? I'm like, not my name. That's not my name. But usually old white men. It's a nickname. Yes, it is. All right, Casey, hit the music.

We are done. Preview show for UFC Paris. Manana, noon Eastern. I believe it's Azakei and Jen Michoud. Maybe a Michoulin star will appear. It is not. It is apparently Jose. I'm definitely not on that tomorrow.

Jose and AK, my apologies. And then we'll have a people's pre-fight show, noon Eastern on Saturday to get you ready for UFC Paris because the thing starts at 1230. We'll post-fight show onto the next one. And then we're on the road to UFC 293, everybody. Jose will be logging some miles. And we'll get you ready for Adasani for Strickland for Jed,

for Jose, for Casey. I am Mike Hack, the iconic way of a special one, take you home. Good night, everybody. This is in between the links, an MMA fighting production on the Vox Media Network.