MMA Fighting - BTL | Max Holloway To 155, Moreno Snaps Skid, Shavkat Rakhmonov Shoots Shot, UFC Vegas 100

Episode Date: November 7, 2024

After getting knocked out for the first time in his career in the main event of UFC 308 by Ilia Topuria, Max Holloway's featherweight career appears to be over for good, as he recently confirmed he'll be making the move to the #FC lightweight division. Is it the right move for the current BMF champion?  On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel reacts to Holloway's full-time lightweight jump, discuss who he could face next at 155, and if a third meeting with Dustin Poirier is the fight to make. Additionally, topics include Brandon Moreno's sensational performance at UFC Edmonton and what's next for the former two-time champ, other standout moments from this past Saturday's card, Rakhmonov wanting a fight with Kamaru Usman for the interim welterweight title at UFC 310, if the UFC should just wait for Belal Muhammad to heal up, UFC Vegas 100 this Saturday headlined by Neil Magny vs. Carlos Prates, and much more. Host Mike Heck moderates the matchup between MMA Fighting's Alexander K. Lee and EuroSport's Marcel Dorff.  Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Live from M.A. Fighting Studios, this is Between the Links. And now, your host, my... The iconic voice of Esther Lynn welcomes you to a brand new edition of BTL. Happy Thursday to us all. And here in South Carolina, it is dark and gloomy and rainy. And you know what? You might hear Mother Nature just rain down water upon.

us throughout the program, a nice nurturing, calm sound to get us through our Thursday. And what a show it shall be today. So let us introduce the combatants on this week's program and we'll get right to work first. He's the co-host and co-matchmaker for the hit show on to the next one. He's the Prince of Positivity, the King of the Dam North, the one, the only, my best friend from MMAFighting.com, Alexander Kaylee, AK. Welcome back to Beatsfiel, my friend. I am back For more punishment, the Jay Ellis of Between the Links. I'm not going anywhere. I'm right here.

Ready to take on old blood, new blood, whoever you got for me today, Mike, bring him on, bring them on. And also, come on, you spurs for all my football fans out there. Come on, you spurs. That's all I've got to say. And ladies and gentlemen, joining the show for the first time, at least in this iteration of BTL, he's owned by favorite people in the sport,

one of the most trusted people in the sport. and for good reason, a man many fighters have said publicly and have told me in various conversations over the years, if this man doesn't post a fight on social media, I don't believe it, 100%. So let us say hello to the great fight breaker himself from Eurosports. My pal, Big Marcel, Marcel, where is he at? There he is. Good to see you, my friend.

Good to see you guys. Thanks for having me. Always a pleasure, you know. It's great to have you here. Big Marcel has gone through Different generations of the program. AK has been as well back in the old Keith Schillen days where shows just lasted forever and ever because he would just argue every point. But now Big Marcel joins us here. So let's start with the best division in all of MMA, gaining a new fighter full-time. At least that's what it appears to look like right now. Max Holloway just competed for the UFC Featherweight title at UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi battles Ilya to Poria.

The fight was as great as we all expected it to be. It ruled Holloway actually looked damn good in the fight. And then something happened for the first time in Max Holloway's career. He got knocked out. He got knocked out bad by Ilya Tuporia. Teporia retains the belt. And that led to a lot of questions. What is Max Hollowe going to do?

Is he going to try to battle back and build his way back up the very deep and exciting featherweight division? Or is he going to go up to 155 where he fought at UFC 300 earlier this year? year knocked out Justin Gachie and won the BMF title. Max Holloway posts a video to his YouTube channel over this past weekend and says, I'm heading to 55. Seems like it's going to be full time. Let me just pull this up real quick.

Here's what Max said. You guys saw me kind of touch upon it at the press conference, and I can honestly say I think I'm done with 145. Your boy, like I said, we're only getting older. I've done 33 fights. This cut was easy, bro, but it takes a toll, cutting weight, period. it at whatever weight you are. Like I said, I had to give up ramen for my featherweight camps.

So I'm done with that. I don't ever want to give up ramen again. 155 here we come. And 155 is where I want to stay. So we will start with you, Big Marcel. Is this the right move? Because things don't get much easier up at 155. Yeah, true, man.

But at the same time, at 145, he has accomplished so much, you know. He lost to Tupuria, not going to get a rematchel. any time soon. Volk is still there. He lost three times to him. I think a lot of people think it should be two on Volk, but officially it's 3 and 0. So lightweight makes sense, man. And I mean, his last part of lightweight against Justin Gagee, that was amazing, man. He dominated for five rounds and then he knocked them out. So he's right in the mix there, I would think, you know, so it makes a lot of sense. I mean, the UFC can use him to put on the BMF title unless they always do when they can't find an actual title, you know,

so they have a headliner for some pay-per-view. So it makes sense for them. And listen, man, if he comes to lightweight and he fights, for example, let's say he fights Dustin Porre or somebody, you know, and he beats him this time, you know. I mean, he's right there for a title shot close to it. So it's pretty much, I expected it after he lost to Ilya. Plus, it won't get much easier to cut down to one.

145 to hold them time for him. So 155 makes sense. He showed the guys Justin Geichi. He looked really good at 155, I think. And there were a lot of doubts because of we went to 155 before. So I'm fully for it, man. I mean, Max Holloway, maybe Genducco, Max Holloway 3.0, you know, we saw 2.0. Maybe now we can see 3.0.

Who knows? I think he's still a great fighter. And I see him doing pretty well at Lightway, to be honest. AK, do you, Mack said that he feels like this could be his Phoenix Rising from the Ashes moment on his video. Do you agree? Is this the right play? Because, I mean, as I have been saying for years, and not everybody agrees, lightweight is the best division in the sport. And there are just some absolute murderers up there. Yeah, I don't know about Phoenix Rising from the Ashes. It's tough. He's not like super old when we look at just his age, like 32 years old. But in flight years, he's been in there for what, at least a 12 years.

years, probably more than 12 years. And if you're looking at how long he's been fighting the highest level of competition, I mean, it's a huge chunk of that time. It's not like he's been fighting for 12, 14 years and, you know, half his career was spent like on the regional scene. And he's been in the UFC for, you know, so much of his fighting life. And we've all seen it. We've seen him grow up. We've seen the highs. We've seen the lows. So I don't know about Phoenix Rising the Ashes. It is going to be tough. Lightweight is such a difficult division. So was featherweight. It does feel like he needed to close the chapter, though, on 145. And it's fine. He did almost everything he could do there. Three fights with Alexander Volkanowski,

none of the one his way. That's fine. The fact that he even got and I think deserved three shots at Volk says a lot about how great Max is. The fact that he was able to fight his way back to a title shot against Ily Tuporia. I think that says a lot about who Max is. And it's not like there aren't fights for him at 145. It's such a thriving division, but he's fought the best of the best. He's fended off contenders. He's played that role, right, of high-level gatekeeper. I don't know if you want to put him in that role again. I'm sure he wouldn't care if the UFC was like, well, this is where the money's at.

We want you to fight like featherweight, you know, top 10 guys and just to test them. I'm sure he'd be fine with it. But if he's thinking more about himself and about where he can still go, 155 is the way to go. It is a lot of rematches potentially, none of which I think fans would regret seeing it again, like Dustin Fourier, if maybe somewhere farther down the road, him and Gates G again. Because that was a dream matchup when it happened and it delivered in spades. and one of the best moments ever.

So, you know, I'm not saying next, but if he fuck eight you again, who would complain about that? It'd be incredible. Can he contend at 155? Is a little bit more of a tricky question. He does have the name. He does have a path there.

Because like we said, he can easily book big name opponents. I think Marcel was saying, like, you know, one fight, two fights. And if Islam's still at the top, fans would be very intrigued to see him fight Islam. He'd be a big underdog, but fans would still pay to see it.

They'd still support Max in that regard. So, yeah, I'll stop short of Phoenix Rising from the Ashes, but I agree, this is the move that had to be made. And it's going to lead to a hell of a lot of fun for the fans. So good for Max is what he wants to do. Hopefully he can eat a little more, not worry about such a severe weight cut and just have a good time. And most importantly, he's going to go out on his own terms. Get that ramen, son. Get that ramen.

You both mentioned Dustin Porier, said he would love that matchup to be his, I guess, quote unquote, last dance, so to speak, AK. And look, we mentioned it, a ton of fun ones for Max Holloway. We saw the Gagey fight at 300. It rocked him and Poyer for the interim title in Atlanta. Rocked. There's Chandler. There's Olivera who he has fought before, but it never really happened. Like, it's a fight that is in the books, but it never really got cooking.

So one of those two guys after the UFC 309, there's Dan Hooker and the list goes on and on. And oh, yeah, he's the freaking BMF champion, AK. So I know we do on to the next. one, we have the matchmaking program, but now that we know Max is definitely going to 55, what is the fight to make for him? What's his next move? Who's his next opponent? My best friends, I've been pushing it. I know every time I bring this up, I think I've brought up on two episodes of our matchmaking show so far. It's gotten kind of a lukewarm reception. There's a few people who chime in and go like, yeah, that makes a lot of sense, but I do think

people are looking higher up the rankings, maybe for, again, a fresh matchup that he hasn't had. I'm also looking at a fresh matchup. I think, I really think, Hanato Money Moikano can get this fight. I know not a lot of people talking about it. I know there's not like a ton of buzz, but Money Moikano is a guy who, if he fights for a title, it'd be great someday.

But he's, you know, every, all of his injuries, none of them are geared towards like, oh, give me a guy with a number of nexters name so I can fight the champion. He doesn't care about that. It's not his number one priority. He wants names. Max Holloway might serve a dual purpose.

I think if he fought Max Holloway and beat Max Holloway, that probably would put Hanato in the title picture. But either way, it's a marquee opponent. It's a guy with the name. Give them five rounds, please. Not that they might need it. One guy could definitely finish the other. But five rounds of that would be frigging sick.

That's the matchup I want to see. Honestly, if I could wave a magic wand and I had to pick an opponent for Max's debut, and I think it works timing-wise. If we want to see Max return either like late first quarter, 2025 or early second quarter, 2025. I think that works out really well for Moikano as well. So I get it. I'm ready to be flamed. I'm not looking at the comments yet, but I'm sure once I glanced down at them, it'll be a lot of what are you thinking? How has Moikano earned that? But he's one of the up and coming guys namewise in the UFC. People love Moycano. Fans love him. So it's a bit out of left field,

but I'm going money Moeco. I am waving my wand and a little bit of a crystal ball. I actually like feel strongly that's going to happen. Hey, look, there's president said A.K. Dustin Porey knocked out Benoit Sontini and got a freaking title shot against him Makachev. Hanato-Bankana kind of beat the hell out of Ben-Wasantini before getting him out of there. And who knows, maybe he gets to a BMF title fight. But let me ask you, Marcel, AK is a proponent of Max Holloway versus Hanato Money Moikano. Do you agree with him?

Is this the fight to make or do you have something else in mind? Yeah, I have something else in mind then. I mean, it's a fun matchup with AK says. Definitely. But at the same time, both guys also both at ATT. So I don't see why they would particularly fight each other. You know, they're really difficult in fighting each other over there because you also saw with Grand Dawson and with Gamroth and those kind of guys. So for Max, I think Max deserves, and I don't say Moikano is not a big name,

but I think Max deserves a bigger name, you know. He's probably going to defend the BMF title or something if he goes to lightweight, probably because we have now like Islam fighting Armand probably very soon, you know, and I think the winner of Chandler against Olivera was announced being a number one contender fight. So maybe the loser of that one. Or, yeah, like I said, Porier, man, you know, I know they fought each other before, you know, and I know that Porier beat him twice. But still, I think this is a different max this time, you know. And do we want to see a thing? third fight, maybe not, you know, but I want to. I love to see it, you know. I think, I think

Dustin is, Dustin is still amazing in the division. He lost his last fight, was for the title. Max won his last fight against Justin Geichie, and Justin Geichie knocked out Dustin Prairie before that for the BMF title. So, yeah, I love to see it. The third fight, I know it's two zero for Dustin, but at the same time, I think it's a super fun fight. But yeah, that's a That's how I think about it. Last thing on this, Marcel, true or false, Max Holloway will once again fight at 145 pounds at least one more time. Probably true. You think he does?

Yeah, one more time. If the matchup is right, I'm pretty, listen, if they, for example, would offer him a rematch next year against I'llia to Puraa or something, which I don't know. I don't say it will happen, you know, but if they would propose it to him, I'm pretty sure he's like, he's like all these fighters, you know, you want to adventure loss. You want to show that that one time you got knocked out, Max never got knocked out before and he got knocked out this time. The one time you got knocked out, that was, it wasn't a fluke, but he can then say like, no, it was a fluke, I'm going to now knock him out and they're going to show you I'm the better fighter. So if he gets that offer to fight somebody really well known or big in the division, I think he might go back to one for it. but I don't think he will make a run there. He probably tries to make a run at 155. That's what I think. A.K., does Max ever fight at 145 again? You never say never in this industry, but I'm going the other way, going the other way from Marcel.

I do think this is finally it. It's been great for him to have the option of both. It's what has made him such a fan favorite, why he's always in the pound-for-pound talks, because people know he can do damage at 145. People know he can do damage at 155. but I think it just serves him better to pick a division and stick with it. And in this case, it's a lightweight. Again, for me, the featherweight chapter is over.

There's still some fun matchups that we probably didn't get to see, some fun future matchups that we'd be like, oh, I wonder, you know, guys running out of considering right now, but say in 2025 some guys comment off, I'm going like, man, this would be a good, I'd love to see this guy in there with Max Holloway. But, you know, that can always be a hypothetical. Because I think that can have in a lightweight, too, who knows how long Max sticks around, maybe gets a chance to fight big names and also gets a chance to fight. some of the 155 up-and-comers.

So it's time for him to build, I should say, add another amazing chapter to his legacy in a new division. I'll say if I had to bet, no more, 145. We will see what happens. Fun Fight Territory for Max Holloway, the BMF champion. And we will see if Max can build his way back up in a new division. We'll see who can build their way back up here. The point for round one goes to Big Marcel.

He's on the board, one to nothing. Well done. Let the confetti fall gloriously upon your head, Big Marcel. All right. 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. Let's go from featherweight to lightweight, up to welterweight, because as we talked about last week on the program, we found out about an hour or so before BTL began last week. Blahmohama no longer fighting at UFC 310. His scheduled first title defense no longer happening December 7th, which leaves Shafcott Rockmanoff kind of in limbo right now. but he wants to still compete at UFC 310. He wants to have an interim welterweight title fight. And he mentioned Kamara Usman as a fight that makes sense for interim gold while Bilal Muhammad is healing up.

Lots happening right now, but not a lot of answers. Obviously, we've been asking around. Nothing is official. There's negotiations, but nothing has been announced or revealed or reported at this point. So, A.K., first off, thoughts on a potential Shafkat Rakmanov Kamara Usman interim title fight if the UFC goes this route and is this the right fight with the options they have

or I guess I should say based on what they had based on something we'll discuss in a moment. Yeah, I'm so sick of this interim stuff and like I think Balal has commented already and said I'm not going to be out for he doesn't expect to be out for like six months. He got an infection.

It's been treated. You definitely want to take these things seriously. Like I don't think he's rushing back into the cage, but by all accounts, it sounds like he'll be ready for like January, February, March the latest. Like, that's not a long time. Like, he just defended the title. It's, I don't know, it's frustrating to see, does I say he defended the title? He beat Leon, right? Now, my brain is shutting down now.

But either way, it's not like he won this. It's not like his last title fight was that long ago. I think I understand the urge of these UFC to kind of keep things moving. So I don't think it would really be an indictment of him and his reign so far if they've been an interim title. I understand it's better for the fighters theoretically, right? It's like I think they were talking about it on Ariel's show. They were saying it might not benefit Shavcott and whoever's opponent is right away to fight for an interim title. But at least whoever wins then when they face Ball will get paper viewpoints.

So there's no reason not to do it other than fatigue on our side from the media, from the fans. It's always nice for a fire to say they won a title. Like Dustin Porriere, when he won an interim title. Technically, he's a UFC. You could say he won a UFC title. We all know whatever, not the undisputed champion in his division. But it's nice. It's nice to refer to Dustin Porrier, Carlos Condit, I don't know, Colby Covington, if you're a fan of his, and say, yeah, these guys won some form of a UFC title.

So I'm against it. but it is harmless. It's harmless. It guarantees a five-round fight. If it gives the guys extra money on fight night two, like at UFC 310, even better. You want to see these guys get paid, get compensated, be motivated to fight for a title.

It makes sense. When people see the name, Kermar Usman, they think title fight. So it's a very easy sell. I'm totally into it. My only question is, like, I don't know where Leon is in all this.

And I'm not blaming him. I'm not blaming him for not like being all up on social media and like, oh, like doing all these interviews. and where's my title shot and I beat Kamaru twice. He seems to just kind of be chilling and laying low. And I actually applaud that, but it is weird that the guy who just not too long ago has beaten Kamaru twice

is not in the conversation to be available for December 7th. But again, it doesn't sound like he's volunteered it. So I'm not criticized as a matchmaker's. This is just a curiosity thing. I do, and I wonder how the fans feel about it. Like, why isn't Leon piping up and why is he not part of the conversation? But yeah, perfectly fine with Kamaru, though. it'll be weird if he loses and then it's just like four straight losses and

I don't know but you know that the streak doesn't say everything right I'm wondering why Leon isn't popping off honestly I really I really am unless he's hurt unless he's injured then that's a whole different story but let's be honest big Marcel and you know this it took forever for Leon Edwards to get a title shot much like it took forever for Bala Muhammad to get his title shot and we both said when Leon fought Oosda the first time when Balal just fought Leon these guys have to win because they may never get another opportunity at fighting for a belt. So I'm kind of surprised that Leon hasn't chimed in.

And if I'm Kamara Uspin, I'm tweeting every five seconds to fight Shafkat at UFC 310 because he needs to get himself a title shot. And if he says no to this, if the UFC really wants to make this fight and he says, no, I don't see a path back to a title fight for him at this point, considering what is at Walter, Wade? So are you a proponent of this interim title idea,

Shafcott versus Uspen? Do you see something else? Or should they just wait for Bilal to heal up and just do Bilal Shafkat for the real belt first half of 2025? Listen, man, I'm an annoying punk. So for me, it's like I don't care about interim title shots. It just doesn't do it for me. At the same time, if I just make more money out of it for interim title, Fides, I'm all for it, you know. Belal is out, not very long.

He said, at the same time, if you look at from the U.S. perspective, and that's where they will look from it, you know, they need. Shavkat to head, they want them to headline, and there has to be a title on the line. Because nowadays with the UFC, there always has to be a title on the line with the pay-per-view. You know, back in the day, it wasn't the case. We also have the co-main event, again with Pantoja against Asakura. The UFC doesn't want that, apparently, to be the main event in Vegas, also take in mind that Asakura hasn't made 125 since Obama was president of the USA.

So, I mean, there are a lot of things to take in mind from the UFC not want to have that fight as the main event of the final pay-per-view of the year. So they have to look at Rachmanov. And then you look at the opponents, which are possible, you know. I mean, I was thinking maybe they wanted to do undefeated, undefeated against Ian Gary. Well, Ian's booked against Joachim Buckley now, so that won't happen. Jack Della, he probably is not available until February, I think, so that won't happen. I think Leon Edwards doesn't take a four weeks' notice fight while he was a former champion,

and he can pretty much jump in right in the title fight again. after he beats another guy in the division, you know? So that's why I think he's not spoken about, you know. And I think he, I saw a report earlier today that he talked to a certain website that he wants to be back in March or in April or something. So I don't think he wants to. So what's left is Kamaru Usman. And also Kamar Uisman is still above Shafkaat in the rankings, right?

I think Shafkaad is three and Kamaru was two, I think. So he's a former champion. I know he's 0-1-3. If you break down the fights, he fought. It was like he was winning against AdWords until they had kick. A competitive fight against AdWords, he lost. And he got destroyed in the first round against Chimaev, but then he came back and he almost got a draw out of it.

So he didn't get, how do you say that, completely dominated into those three fights. So normally I would say 0 and 3 title fight, and for title fight, absolutely not. But he's a former champion. He's one of the most dominant champions for a long time at Welterweight. I would put him right after GSP probably. So, yeah, I have no problem with it if they do it, you know. And also for Shafkat, I think if Shafkat beats Usman and solidifies and even more to let him fight for the title, you know.

And also Shafkat has to fight. He hasn't fought since December last year. So for him, it's important, I think. Personally, like I said, I'm not really big in interim title fight, so I agree with AK there. But if they want, they probably got to do it, you know, but because, Who else are they going to let hatline this event? They don't want to have Potosia as a career headlined event. So they have to do something.

And that has to be a title fight because it would be weird to book a three or five, five round fight for a main event of a pay-per-view while you have a co-main event, which is for the flyweight title. So they got to do something. And yeah, I'm really curious what they're going to do. I'm curious too. Because we had talked last week, maybe they just bump Chandler and Olivera to like 310 as the co-main event and just do pants and us occur as the main event.

Like, that's fine. Like, that's still damn good. As long as you soften it with a really exciting fight with two big names behind it. I think it's fine. But we're running out of time here. So I'm very curious to see how this comes together and what the main event will be.

But Marcel, you mentioned it. We were wondering, is Ian Machado Gary in the mix? Is Joachim Buckley in the mix and maybe fight for the belt? And it turns out they weren't because they will be competing in the final UFC fight of 2024, for the main event of UFC Tampa, a beautiful Amelie Arena. Were you surprised by this matchmaking and when it occurred, considering what was happening with the Welterweight title?

Of course, I was surprised with the matchmaking, man. I feel like I didn't saw this one coming at all, to be really honest, you know. If you also looked at the, I think there was a clip a long time ago where Buckley was saying, like, why you don't want to fight me and he and Gary explains that he wasn't interested in him. And I think this one was offered actually right. after Buckley's win as well against North Sultan, Ruzzi Boyev, to fight. And there's either 300 or 303. I think it was 3003.

I think it was international fight. What I've heard is that Buckley didn't took that fight. So I didn't expect this fight to be booked, but apparently Ian Gary couldn't fight somebody who was higher rank than him, and he took this fight. Listen, I'm good with it. You know, Buckley is on a very good streak. And the division hasn't lost since going to welterweight,

from middleweight to welterweight. and yeah, Ian is a good fighter. He's talented. He's showing that in every... He has a smart high fight IQ. I know a lot of people are always crapping on Gary that they don't like him, but if you look at this fight IQ,

he did exactly what he had to do against MVP to get to win. A lot of people would have just being stupid and lured into a certain thing. He didn't. He just stuck to the game plan and he won that fight. So that showed me that he had a high fight IQ. Yeah, I like the fight.

I think it's fun. Buckley has that knockout power, but one punch knockout power we saw against Stephen Thompson. But yeah, I was just surprised, let's be honest, because the UFC pretty much destroyed two options to fill in and 310. And I was like, okay, we can leave those. Those will not be fighting Shafkat. Only Usman is left now. So it was pretty weird. I think both Buckley and Gary would have been down to fight Shafkat, you know, but probably the USC was like, that's not big enough. We need a bigger name and then maybe they come with Usman. We'll see.

But yeah, I was surprising to me. But it's a fun fight, looking forward to the last fight of the year, December 14, Tampa. Yeah, let's go, you know. AK, everybody knows how I felt about Joaquin Buckley, the first half of 2024 with the callouts, the Connemer-Gregor callout being, in my opinion, the worst call-out in the history of the sport, some of the things that he continued to do on social media, the stuff with DC. He was quickly becoming one of the most disliked fighters on the entire roster to be. He just was.

He just wasn't getting over. He was winning fights and people gave him credit for that. But it was the other stuff that made people just so disinterested in him. And then he fights Wonderboy. And he comes in there and he has this moment with Kevin Holland. There's this hotel video of him, of Kevin Holland telling him, like, go tackle. this guy, Joaquin and them having a nice conversation. And then Buckley goes in there, has a fun fight with Wonderboy.

It's really, really fun and knocks out Wonderboy. And then he gets on the mic. And he does the thing, AK. He does the right thing. He calls out Kamara Usman. He says, I'm not at the title yet, but I'm coming. Give me Kamara Usman. Let's go.

And all of a sudden, he's back. It gives me hope for this world, AK, that when you fall down, you can get back up again. They're never going to keep you down. And now Joaquin Buckley is in a main event. He's in the main event against Ian Machado Gary at UFC Tampa. What's your reaction to this matchmaking? And if I told you back in March that Joachim Buckley would be in the final main event outside of the UFC Apex, would you have believed me? Mike, I'll be honest.

This, to me, was a little bit of a blind squirrel finding a nut moment. I don't want to say that Buckley doesn't know what he's doing. But I do feel like he just kind of fell upon the right callout. But he did a classic, I love these kind of callouts, a classic shoot for the moon. You'll land in the stars type thing. So obviously he didn't get Usman, but he got a guy with a ton of cachet right now, Ian Machado Gary, undefeated. I think, I would say a slightly less difficult opponent than Usman.

People may disagree. Mileage may vary. There's certainly an age gap at this point too, right? We don't know. Gary's on the rise. Usman presumably declining just from, you know, wear and tear in age. Like, there's not, no insult to him. It's just this is how, you know, how it works.

So yeah. And in that sense, Buckley got like a really, really, really good opportunity. And he's main eventing Tampa. I do want to echo kind of what Marcel said, though. And like, the UFC really made their job hard for themselves a little bit here. Because either one of those guys would have been a fine opponent for Rachmanov. Now, Tampa, I suppose, did need a main event. I guess they would have had to go with the McKenzie Dern Hebus rematch as the main.

Which I actually would have found interesting because I would want them to. to gauge sort of like how much of a star is Mackenzie Dern at this stage of her career? Because they've pushed her hard. She's pretty popular. Is she so popular that she can like carry a fight night card? I think so. And that's only based on what we've seen recently where like they, every time they go on the road, they break records no matter what is the main event.

Like Canaaner versus Imov at the KFC Yump Center in Louisville, that set a record. That set a record. And then that record was then broken by UFC Edmonton, which was, by Moreno and Abazi, that just set the North American fight night record for the UFC. So I don't know. I don't know if they needed to like pad this card. I wish they'd kind of see it. Like how insanely powerful is this brand right now?

Because I have a feeling they still would have done extremely well with Hebas and Dern at the top of the car. And then you got Swanson, Quarntillo, and some other. It's kind of a decent card. Like it's kind of a decent undercard. So but the bean counters of the UFC know way more about that stuff than I do. maybe they gauge ticket sales, social media interest, and they can tell like, okay, this is trending towards not selling out or training towards not cracking this number that we want. So I get it. It's a great matchup and a void probably in the works before, probably in the works before like, you know, Balal fell out.

Like I know, I know, Ian Machado Gary did that video after saying like that he released what he said about Shabkaa before, kind of suggesting he was going to step in there. But I'm guessing that there was already, it was either in the works or finalizing his fight with Buckley. and, you know, he's just putting it out there because he's Machado Gary. And, you know, that's what his team does. And that's smart. So, yeah, sorry. So I kind of rambled there. But to tie it all together, love this matchup.

Great opportunity for Buckley. We're actually really good opportunity for Gary as well. But the UFC just making their lives harder by taking two pieces off the table. So very strange, very strange situation we're in. Yeah, it's going to be an interesting fight. There's a lot to, I guess, be excited about. We still have to fill that hole for UFC 3. 10, but Tampa's got to get themselves a good one.

And who knows, Joachim Buckley could enter 2025 as like the number one contender at Welterweight, which is unbelievable to think about, but that's just the way the sport is. And let's talk about the aforementioned UFC Edmonton event. The event that just ended maybe 25 minutes ago. The point for round number two goes to the rambling man, AK, nicely done, one-to-one. On the board. He's on the board. Yes, the highest grossing UFC Fight Night event in North American history was this past Saturday.

UFC Edmonton in the main event. By the way, that card was Slog City. It just took forever and ever and ever. And it wasn't even, this wasn't like PFL pacing or anything. Like all these fights just seemed like they were all eight rounds. They just kept going and going and going. But Brandon Moreno returns to form against Amir al-Bazi, A lot of people had their eye on this fight.

Moreno coming in on a two-fight losing streak, losing a pair of split decisions to Alexander Pantoja, losing the flyway title. There are people who thought he won that fight. There are a lot of people who thought he beat Brandon Royval at UFC Mexico City back in February in a fight that if you watch Brandon Moreno compete, he just wasn't himself. Brandon's talked about not being himself.

His head coach, Saeed, has said to me and others, he wasn't himself in that fight. But boy, was he himself in this one, Marcel what a performance from Brandon Moreno your reaction to the five-round thumping from the assassin baby and what would you like to see next for him yeah he look really good man I think Brandon Moreno and he needed it you know although those last two fights were split decision losses you don't want to have three losses in a row you know and um he was I think only one judge at the first round for albasi I think he won over five you know um he looked really good the striking

was really good. It was super sharp. Albaazi never came in his own game, I felt like. You know, and yeah, I mean with Albasi, I still think the guy's super talented. He's still young. He will still develop. He came back after a really bad injury. I don't take anything away from Brandon, by the way, you know, but I felt like Albaazi didn't really show up like he normally does. But Moreno did amazing. You know, he was really good.

Yeah, who's next room? That's a difficult question. you know, listen, if Kaya Sakura beats Pantoja, I think he makes a case, but at the same time, Roy Val makes a case, and I think RoiVal makes a bigger case than Moreno. So for me, what I like to see, I think Moreno, call me crazy, but how fun would it be to see him fight at Suru Taira? I know Tyra lost to Roy Val, but Tyra showed in that fight that he is one of the top dogs in the division. It was close. He lost three to two, in my opinion, to Roy Val, but it was super competitive. just like Moreno Royval was competitive

bro give me Tyra against Moreno five-rounder do it in front of the crowd not in the apex they probably will do it in the apex but do a five round or Moreno against Tyra do it in Mexico in February

if they go to February you know I think it's an amazing fight man I mean do it and the winner of that one then the UFC can still fulfill their dream if Asakura wins and for example if Tyra wins to do that Asakura-Tyra-Rah fight, which they really won't, I feel like.

But, yeah, I think Rory Vela's a bigger case to fight for a title if Asakura wins. And that's the thing, man, with this division. You know, Pantosha beat everybody. So that's how I feel about it, Moreno against Tyra. You can do the Cara-France fight again. I don't need to see it again, to be really honest. But it's okay if they do it. But for me, I'd like to see a fresh matchup.

Moreno against Tyra would be fucking fun. I'm sorry, it would be freaking fun. Marcel, it's okay. We're not going to get to monetize. If you drop an F-bomb, it's all good. It's okay. A.K. What are we thinking here?

Brandon Marino looks incredible. You could see it in his eyes in the walkout. I told Safe Sayyud, I knew Brandon Moreno was going to win this fight when Buffer was introducing him. I could see it in his face. He had that focus in his eyes. We really haven't seen from him in his last couple of fights. And then he goes out there and pitches a near perfect game against Albaazi. What do we do now?

Now. So again, we talked about this on our matchmaking show. I think I forgot to express this idea, though. Maybe I said on the post-fight show. Brandon is kind, in my opinion, is kind of entering, listen, we just talked about this beginning the show. He's almost like the max hallway of the flyweight division right now, which is not to say I feel like he needs to go up to 135 any time soon.

Only he would do it for that Suhudo fight, which I guess it's not going to have. If he's going to stay 125, as he should, now he, I think he, he kind of has to play, again, that role of top five gatekeeper. That can lead to some really fun fights. That can lead to post-fight bonuses. Again, more fame, more paychecks. Again, Al-Bazi was a perfect example. A guy who was firmly in the top 10 of the UFC needed to really, really be tested.

People, you know, the beats Kai Kar-Franz, people were not convinced by that performance. It was a very close split call. A lot of people felt it should have gone the other way. So then you throw them in there with a champion, one of the three best flyweights to ever live. And this is what you see. You know, you get properly tested. And there's a lot of other names in the Albazi range who I feel like could be put in the same way. To continue the Holloway comparison, again, Moreno is like, again, young.

He's only 30. It feels like we've been watching a fight forever because, again, we kind of have, much like Max. We've seen him grow up in the UFC. Much like Max, he's had rivals at Flyweight that he's fought multiple times. I'm sorry, well, Max at Featherweight, Brandon at Flyweight, that he's fought multiple times. So there's going to be a bit of repetition there if we don't if we keep trying to match him up with only top guys Brandon Royval, Alexander Pintoja, Kai Kar-France, he just fought all these guys, fought them. And I'm fine with seeing him fight them again.

I just don't know if that's the path that they need to go. So if people listen to the matching show, I suggested something like Bruno, Bulldog, Silva, if he beats Min al-Ced Tampa. That's just an example. One, I just think that'd be an amazing fight. Two, Bruno would be on a hot streak akin to what I'll buy. was on and we'd really see a test. We really see a test that this guy could be a contender. And like Holloway, if you're Moreno, you string together one, two, three wins. Guess what?

You're back in the title picture, whether it's Pantoja who still has it by, you know, in 2025, whether it's Kai Sakura who gets it. Obviously, if Kai Sakura wins right away, you probably spoke him Moreno, but there are there are several paths from Moreno to get back to title contention. Again, some of them involve getting a big name right away. Some of them involved him, kind of grinding his way back. But he's in a very good spot after that win. And I think it did a lot to restore faith in the assassin baby brand. But yeah, I like him as the flyweight Holloway.

Again, look where Holloway's career has gone, right? It's gone pretty good. Yeah. Let's do Brandon versus Brandon 3 as I've been pushing for. Sure. Winner gets a title shot. Loser changes his name. I think that's the way to go.

I love that very much. Let's put a bow on UFC Edmonton real quick, AK. Outside of Brandon Moreno, who I think to me was the biggest story, the big shining moment. There were others in the third longest card in UFC history. Who was the low-key MVP of UFC Edmonton, A.K. Outside of Brandon Moreno, when your grandchildren say, Grandpa AK, tell me about UFC Edmonton in November of 2024. I know Brandon Moreno won, but what's the other memorable moment from that event?

I mean, I was going to say Alexander Romanov, but apparently the UFC did not feel the same way as it appears he has not been released, but was not immediately resigned in the wake of his workman-like unanimous decision win over Rodrigo Nassimento, I think, to put it fairly. There was actually a lot of standouts. This is one of those cards where I felt like for the most part it worked out for them, even if on paper it wasn't like it wasn't, didn't put on, you know, didn't let a lot of people's hair on fire, as it were. But I'll shout out Dustin Stelzvus. I'm going to shout out Dustin Selsus because he probably bought himself like two or three more UFC fights. And I think he's in some ways reframed how the UFC should look at him. He was very much brought in to lose to Mark Andre Berio. The odds certainly said so.

I know Mark Andre was something like a two to one favorite and even more than two to one favorite, depending where you looked. And for good reason. Stelzfuss is a guy who gets there and gets finished. But we always say win or lose, you need to keep people like that around. Like I wish they hadn't released Victoria Leonardo. Shout-out to Victoria Leonardo, who just got back in the wind column at Invicta. She happens to get in there and lose in spectacular fashion, or at least in her UFC career. There's a lot of other fighters like that.

Stultz was like one of those guys. But he's also one of those guys that can sometimes turn things around and give you an incredible finish. And that's what we saw at U.S. Edmonton. So I'm going to give him a big shout out. I hope he gets at least two or three more fights in the UFC. Don't care if he becomes a top 15 guy. I don't care if he becomes a top 30 guy.

That's not why you have guys like Dustin Stolzvus around. They'll get in there. They'll fight anybody. Sometimes they're going to make their opponent look really good. Sometimes they're going to make their opponent, give their opponent a serious reality check. And when you have people like that, those are actually like really, really fun fighters to watch.

So shout us to Stolzvus. Dustin Stolzis getting the show. Big Marcel, who's your low-key MVP of UFC Edmonton? Yeah, I have to really dig deep in my mind because I don't think it was that of amazing of a card, but if I have to pick somebody, I would say I really like Jasmine Justivis again. You know, I think she might be one of the best fighters in Canada right now.

You know, she's also, she's ranked. She's pretty high rank now. She beat Ariani, De Silva. I still have problems to say De Silva and not Lipski. It's so difficult, you know, because you have still Lipski in your mind, you know, but you have to think it's not DeSilva. Yeah, I think she looked really good, man.

I like Jasmine a lot. I think she shows a lot of growth in her fights, you know. If you look in her fight so far in the UFC, she only lost twice. She lost to Tracy Cortez in a close fight. And, yeah, she got completely destroyed by Natalia Sullivan three rounds. But, I mean, I don't see that as that can happen, you know, as Mike Huck would say, Nadi Eyes. So, yeah, I mean, I thought she looked really good. I like to see what's next for her.

I would match her up against somebody in the top 10. I think she can do well. She's not young, not to say she's old, but I think she's 35 or 36 now, you know. So if she has to make a run in the division, she has to do it now. And I think the time is right for her. I see a lot of fun matchups.

I would match her up with somebody like a Caitlin Cermanara. I think that would be perfect, you know, to see where she stands right now. So for me, if I had to pick one, I would say Jasmine Josephitious. AK, didn't you pick Serbinar as well? You picked her, right?

Friends forever. Marcel, I think we just had a Friends Forever moment. I love that matchup. Yes, I think it's time for her to see if she can survive a sermon narrating. You guys don't know what I'm talking about. I like the Justin Drogh fight, but still, there's options. And shout out to Yusuf Swal as well.

Big. Yes. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. Mike, what do you think? Maybe I'm crazy. I don't know if I'm even allowed to ask this, but Rosnamayunus lost to Blanchfield.

Why not do the third fight with her and Jessica Andrash? And you can do it at 115 and 125. So here's a thing that we've determined on onto the next one. And one of our listeners pointed this out to us. We're no longer going to ask for that fight. We're no longer going to ask for that fight. We're no longer going to ask for Derek Lewis versus Jarzini-Rosenstrike. Those are the two most sensible fights in the UFC right now to make.

and the UFC just refuses to put them together. So we're just not going to ask for it anymore because there's no interest there. Even though everybody wants to see it, they won't make it. So I don't understand the thought process, so we're just kind of giving up on it. But yes, to your point,

Nami Unis Androge 3 has been the fight to make for like four years now. And they're still not doing it. I await the day, Marcel, that we see you either break it yourself or we see that sweet, sweet Marcel tweet that says, Namajunis,

on George 3, either reported by you or reported by someone else. We are all waiting. We're all waiting for that day. Yeah. But not holding my breath, not holding my breath,

much like Derek Lewis versus Jarzina, Rosenstrike, who knows? Maybe Alexander Romano finds his way back to the UFC. We wish him well in this future endeavors, at least for now.

He could be back in the UFC tomorrow. Who the hell knows? But guys, we talked about history at the box office for UFC Edmonton. Now we're going to talk about history. And just, just history.

UFC Vegas 100 coming up this Saturday. The point for round three goes to goes to Big Marcel for asking questions and correctly identifying Natalia Silva as Natty Ice feature flyweight title challenger. Guys, it's UFC Vegas 100 time. Waiting for this. Our old friend GC has been building this up for like a year.

Jed has been building it up for like a year on No Bet Sparta. We are finally here. the biggest question we had, there are two huge questions we had this year. One, what is going to be the main event of UFC 300? And the other big question was, what is going to be the main event of UFC Vegas 100? And it's Neil Magni versus Carlos Prattis,

which if you told me this in January, I would have been like, take a run, take a walk, blow off some steam because you are exhausted and tired and you are sleep deprived. But that's what we're getting. I spoke to Neil Magny yesterday,

He said he was always the plan to be in the main event. He just didn't know who his opponent was because Carlos Brutus was booked against Randy Brown and Madison Square Garden. They moved some things around. And then Proudis was brought to Magnus detention. He's just like, sure, he's fun. He's tough. I'll go fight him. And fights just are falling off left and right, AK.

This event is just, it's everything you expected UFC Apex Vegas 100 to be. Is this what you expected, AK? The lineup, all the bumps and bruises this card continues to take. Is this just poetic for UFC Vegas 100? I'm a little disappointed there's no heavyweights on here. They let go of Sakai a long time ago. I had been campaigning for them to give Augusta Sakai a Las Vegas residence, a la Elvis. And that never happened.

And I'm still upset about it. He should be on this card. They should have given a call for this special occasion. I'm still processing this card, man. We just got sort of the, as far as we know, the final, you know, the final lineup today. UFC usually puts out a press release with the lineup, the updated lineup for Saturday. They usually send it on Thursdays. And yes, Magni Prachis, the main, Ricky Terseus, Bernardo, Sopige, the co-mainne, Mirchart, RDR.

Mirchart and one champion superstar RDR, third from the top at the UFC Apex, Luena Pinnero, Jillian Robertson. And I think bumped up to the main car, as far as we know now, Menser, Abdul Malik, and Dusco to Dorovich. So good for them. Some of their fighters got bumped down, whatever. Again, there was a lot of there was changes to the cards. So, uh, it's something, man. I, I made a joke about heavy weights. I'm actually also a little disappointed. There's not a lot of apex like all stars on here, if that makes sense. I get it. Probably some of those fighters, uh, who have competed in a lot of apex cars. Maybe they're just not with the UFC anymore. Magnet, I mean, the perfect choice. Company man has fought the apex many times. I think Matthew Semmelzberger has also fought the apex many times. I don't know if I'm forgetting. Other than that, I don't see a lot of names here who have logged like four, five, six Apex appearance. Maybe I'm, maybe I'm forgetting. I think the Moand Blackshear has also been here quite a few times.

I don't know, maybe I'm forgetting, but I'm a little disappointed. Like, legitimately, I know people probably think I'm joking, but this would have been a very cool way to sort of reward, I guess, reward fighters who had, you know, kind of helped them out during that pandemic time when they first started doing the apex, and then when they've stuck with it over the last few years because it is very cost effective. It is the most, like, the easiest way for the promotion to provide cards for ESPN Plus. Like, I, I, they would never come out and say it. Like, they would never just come on and build a card that way. Like, this is our commemoration and thanks to these fighters. But I would have liked to have seen more.

It's, it's fine. It's fine that they've done what they've done, which is, I would say, not treat it like anything special at all, which, um, again, most fans, probably won't either. Let's be serious. We're making a lot of jokes about it being, you know, Vegas 100 or Apex Card 100. Most fans are kind of like taking the piss out of it. So maybe it's, this is, you know, they've booked like other Apex cards, a few veteran names, some people making their debuts, some fighters who may emerge as future contenders. I mean, that's the process side of it in the main event. Um, Vinod Ritter is just really weird. What a weird addition that is. Uh, so yeah, I, I'm, I'm only disappointed that, uh,

they didn't lean into the 100ness of it, the apexe, of it. But otherwise, it's a normal Vegas fight card. Yeah, no, like the middle, Mirchart RDR should be the main event because doing UFC Apex 100 without a middleweighty made event is a travesty. It's an absolute travesty. We got no Brennan Allen. Khalil Roundtree is a is an Apex all star. Sean Strickland is the president of the Apex, but obviously he's not going to be headlining UFC Vegas 100 because he's a pay-per-view star at this point. But at this point, Marcel, when you look at this lineup, what it is, the ins and outs, the changes. Young Zach Scrogan getting his UFC debut on this card on short notice.

Is this the way you would have foreseen it if you could draw it up? UFC Vegas 100. I mean, I was laughing about the apex all-stars, Alex said. It's like it sounds like strikeout challenger, you know. Yeah, I mean, I don't think the UFC really. cares if it like 100, 1001, 102, they just fill the events, you know. So, Magni Prattis, we would have thought, yeah, in the beginning of the year. I think the beginning of the year, Prattice had no UFC fights yet, right?

He made his debut this year. Or was it earlier last year? I don't remember anymore. But he came from the Continental Series last year. But, yeah, I mean, the Apex cards are like always hit or miss, you know? Sometimes they're really fun to watch. And then you got the card. I remember that card with a.

Manda Lamos and Friana Chandaroba, a lot of people didn't like that card when it was announced, you know. And then actually the event itself was very fun, you know. I would say one of the most fun apex cards of the year. So we'll see. I don't know. I think it's weird to let Rainier made his debut on an Apex card. That's my opinion as a former two-time champion of one championship.

And obviously, as my country, man. But yeah, at the same time, I'm looking forward to, to the card. I think there are some fun matchups on it. Coming event, kind of odd. You know, I never understand. Dana always said, I remember him singing clips, every fight.

We have a specific place for on the card. We made sure that fight is there and that fight is there. I mean, I like Ricketts doer shows a lot, and I like Benardu Supai, but co-main event seems kind of odd, you know. Ricky needs a win, I think, and so Pye had the Fight of the Night debut, I know, but he got viciously knocked out as well.

So it's kind of weird that was a co-main event. I don't really mind. I was everything. So, but yeah, I never understand the bout orders, you know. It's like, I mean, let's be honest. Last week, Edmonton, who expected Cayao Machado against Branson Ribeiro to be on the main card, to be fair, you know? I mean, that was, I honestly more expected to have Romanoff against Nashimento on the main card because that was heavyweight fight. And the UFC always gambles with heavyweight fights.

So, I mean, yeah, what can I say? I'll watch it, but the card itself, there are some fun matchups, but it's a typical apex card, in my opinion. Yeah, the main event should have been Rebellis to Spain versus Tai to Ivasa. That's what they should have done instead of throwing Rebellis to Spain in the apex in general, against Austin Lane or putting him against Waldo Cortez-A-Costa, which I warned you about, do not book that fight. You will make Rebellis as non-fun as possible, and now the blueprint is there,

and Rebellis is on to other things. But last thing on this, Marcel, if you had to take a guess, state your case for what will be the fight of the night at UFC Vegas 100. Oh, great. You put me on this point here. Your face tells the whole story. What would be the fight of the night on this guy? Well, you know what I think would be maybe a fun fight? Maybe Gaston Boulogne was against Cortavius, Romeus, for some reason. I think that would be a fun style matchup, you know, and that can be a fun fight.

So if I have to pick, maybe I'm forgetting a fight, which would be really good as well, but that's the one that comes on top of my head. So I'm picking that one. It's a good one. AK, Fight of the Night. Boy, I'm going to go with Chuck Buffalo and Matthew Semmelzberger, I think. I got a good feeling. This could go a number of ways. It could end in a quick knockout.

It could end in a quick knockout. That's so, you know, that might bump it out of Fight of the Night territory. But I just got, I got good vibes. I think where both guys are, I don't know if the loser leaves town match, but it's going to be tough for whoever loses their UFC career is not going to be in the best shape. Samlisberger, it might be his last fight. So I think he's going to leave it all out there. And I kind of like Radke as a guy who's going to be like a good action fighter going forward,

you know, should his UFC career lost some time. So this to me is like the definition of a sleeper. It's like you're kind of looking at two names who are, I don't know, maybe hovering around somewhere from the 30 to 40 range in the Walterweight Division. But both guys have power. Both guys, you know, they like to throw. I like it. This is a Dana White.

What do you say? If you didn't know, now you know, whatever, his whole, whenever gets cocky about a fight being good between two people that no one, you know, those fight fans aren't familiar with. Everybody knows. And everybody knows is going to be good. Sure. Yeah. You have to scream it on the camera.

Oh, yeah. Here's a fight you might not know about. Gerald Gershardt. versus prettier to Ritter He's over from one. Like, no shit. Everybody's been talking about that fight. Of course it's going to be good.

Of course it's going to be good. By the way, shout out to Cody Stamon Blackshare, which you probably get the, if you don't know, now you know, stamp of approval because that fight's going to be really good. Cody Stamon needs, not only needs a win, but he needs like a memorable performance. Because he's so good, man.

He's so good. And he's got all the skills. He's been in there with everybody. but it's just he's like this generation's Jimmy Rivera. He just can't get over that like next level, like for some reason. And he's got everything. I was going to mention Cody as like a apex all-star, but he's actually like amazingly avoided the clutches of the apex for a long time. Like he was like everybody else during the pandemic.

Like yeah, he was in there quite a bit. But once they started hitting the road again, I'm just looking, he hasn't been in the apex since for like three years. years. He's been in the road. He's fought at two pay-per-views. He's fought in Austin. He's fought in Louisville. So good for, you know what? Good for you, Cody. Good for you for not being an Apex All-Star, frankly, and being up to be there in front of fans. Timber Garbo should have been on this card. Go ahead, Marcel. Let's be really honest, you know, there won't be any fight of the night on this card because there are no unranked heavyweights. So, oh, yeah, there you go. See? That's true. That's very, very true. All right. Well, they'll be ranked heavyweights

next week, John Jones and Steep A, and there'll be some other things happening. But the point for round four goes to my best friend, Alexander Kaylee, two to two, ties it up. And you know what that means? It is time for the knockout round one question. We'll decide it all. Both of these gentlemen will get the same question. They will both get 60 seconds to answer their question. And then the peeps will vote.

They will decide who wins the matchup because hashtag people power. AK, you are the last person on this program to. get a victory between the two of you. Price is right rules. Do you want to bid on the first showcase, so to speak, or do you want to pass it on over to Marcel? Have you noticed that on Family Feud? Do you watch Family Feud, Mike?

You're a game show guy, right? Of course. I've watched, I've seen all the hosts. Have you noticed no, have you noticed no one passes anymore? Oh, everyone plays. I've not seen anyone pass in years. Yeah, it's just like Price is right. No one play, no, but it's the opposite of Price is right.

everybody passes the first showcase on Price is right. I swear that like back in the older days, family feud, it was like even. Sometimes people would pass. Sometimes they would play. I mean, you want to play because it's more fun. But didn't people used to pass more? People in the comments, family feud fanatics, didn't people use to pass more? No one passes anymore.

Anyway, that's sort of a, I actually just wanted to know because I thought it was crazy. Anyway, obviously, Mike, that means I'm not passing. I'm going. I'll go. I'll be a modern family feud player and not pass apparently because I'm It's just not a thing that happens. Yeah, I always got to March. Shout out to Richard Dawson and Ray Combs, the 2-O-G family feud host.

And then it was like everybody that was on a sitcom, Richard Karn, the guy who played Jay Peterman on Seinfeld, all these guys got out in a few days. Yeah, there's so many hosts. But now Steve Harvey's doing the damn thing, AK, next Saturday is UFC 309. We have John Jones versus Steve Amy Hitchitch. We have Charles Oliverer versus Michael Chandler. And there were reports yesterday that that fight was in jeopardy. I'm told that is not in jeopardy.

In fact, I'll be speaking to one Charles Dubranks-Oliva. In about 90 minutes from right now as we speak. We got Cranea Silva Viviani Arrugio, Bo, Nicole, Paul Craig, Mauricio Huffy versus James Lontop, Chris Wydenman versus Eric Anders, Jonathan Martinez versus Marcus Begui, Jim Miller, Damon Jackson, Marching Taibora, Janata, Denise, Miquel, Ramiz, Brahimaj, Oban Elliott versus Basel Hafez,

Veronica Hardy, who continues to be the first fight of all these cards and win all the time, taking on Eduardo Amara. We lost Nikita Kralov versus Osama versus Mersakanaf. We lost David O'Dama versus Lucas Almeida, although Onama could remain on the card. So, AK, here's my question. We are nine days away from UFC 309. You just heard the entire lineup from top to bottom, AK, UFC 309 is blank. fill in the blank and show your work. Go.

UFC 309 is necessary. That's how I'll describe it. We need to get, no, I'm sorry. We need to move on from some of these things. The main event, obviously, I don't know how much BTL time has been given to talking about John Jones. Some ass well, I'll still. And I love BTL. Everyone loves BTL, but my God, if I never hear John Jones,

Aspinolomeo or just whatever talked about on the show again, it'll be too soon. So this invite needs to happen. I don't care if John Jones doesn't fight Tom Aswell, I want him to. I don't care. But to make it as it, is he going to retire? I know it's not going to happen on a fight night, probably. That's fine. But at least we'll get some idea.

We'll come one step closer to what's next for the heavyweight division. And this also goes for Michael Chandler. This man, he's fighting. He's finally fighting. It's a fight that no one really asked for, but it's a good fight on paper. And now I feel like he can move on from Connor McGregor. So the theme of this card is, it's necessary. It's moving on.

Bo Nickel is fighting again. And hopefully we can go into 2025 guys with clear minds and clear hearts. Necessary. AK's answer is necessary. UFC 309 is necessary. Let's bring in Big Marcel. Big Marcel, same question for you. UFC 09 or 09.

UFC 309 is blank. It's like match game. Fill in the blank. Go. USC 309 is like a yearly event in New York, which is normally stacked. You know, I know I think it's really like top heavy with John Jones, T. P.M.O. Teach. You have to see this fight, you know, it cannot be like canceled again or whatever because it really close up the division, in my opinion. They have an interim champion who keeps defending the interim belt.

It's completely charade that he is like the backup fighter in that fight because he won't fight. either John or either Steppe if one of the other not fighting. But we'll see who wins and what happens, I think they both retire, but whatever. Co-main event, Chandler against Charles Olivera. It's a fun fight, probably the most fun fight of the card. Not a fight I was really looking forward to, but it's a fun matchup-style matchup looking forward to it. Harini Silva, Viviani Araujo, young against old, upcomer against established fighter, looking forward to it.

Bonico can go further in the rank, it can be good in the rankings, maybe it beats Paul Crack. Paul Gregg and Maurice Rufi, big talent against Hamas, you on top, looking forward to you. All right. UFC 309. It is an event that is going to happen. And it is an event we will have a watch party for us. So next Saturday, by the way, we're going to back-to-back watch parties next week. Two nights in a row watch parties.

We'll have a watch party Friday next Friday for Jake Paul versus Mike Tyson. And then we'll have another one Saturday for John Jones versus Deepe Mietch. And by the way, quick programming note, as you guys cast your vote. for either of these two fine gentlemen. BTL will be on Tuesday next week. So we're going today, not on Thursday next week. It's going to be Tuesday. So right back five days after this.

We'll do it again. We'll talk Paul Tyson. We'll talk UFC 309. We'll talk about everything that happened to UFC Vegas 100. That alone will probably take 75 minutes just talking about that historic event leading into those two big cards. And who knows, maybe we'll have a UFC 310 main event to talk about and other things as well.

So go ahead and cast your votes. We'll have a preview show tomorrow for UFC Vegas 100. We'll have the Q&A. We'll have the post-fight show. We'll have on to the next one. And then it'll officially be fight week for UFC 309, the return of John Jones, the return of Steepaymeachich, and all sorts of fun things. So cast your vote. And as soon as we see Casey on the screen, then we'll know that we have a winner.

And that's a wonderful thing. So, AK how we feel? That last question was kind of depressing. I needed it. I needed some good. I needed the head. I know. You know, neither Marcel nor are seem particularly jazzed up. You know, we're coming to the end of the year. And it's been a pretty good year for the UFC overall. I mean, money-wise, so it's always a good year for the UFC. They're rolling in dough. But entertainment-wise, I think when it comes to making our best-of-listeners like that, we're going to have a lot of good stuff to choose from. So this is me trying to kind of end things on a positive note. And again, we could see fun stuff at 309. Like, Oliver Chandler is a fun fight. It's a fun. fight whether you care about what it means for like you know fatal implications or always channel they're now going to if you beat them can you get them a gregar fight forget all that stuff like this is two really fun guys we've seen them fight before first fight was super exciting and chris wyedman fight jim miller martin tabura Veronica hardy I mean we got I've got I've got a feeling

a case taking an extra amendment to you man for some reason yeah yeah don't let that affect your voting I apologize just to just to just to build this up. If there's one thing you don't want to miss this year on MMA fighting content, Jed Mishu is going to be watching Michael Chandler fight Charles Olivera live on the watch party. And if Michael Chandler wins or loses, Jed's reaction is going to be the greatest thing we have seen in this space all year long. And if he wins, oh my God, Jed is going to lose his mind. You might see his head pop off of his shoulders live on air. You do know I want to miss that. And I do see Casey here. He's got sleeves, long sleeves.

leaves a hoodie on. It's cold in Cali. Who wins, Casey? Oh, I was just thinking about Jed, if Chandler wins and then John Jones loses. Like, I don't know, he might implode, become like a black hole. Like, it just won't make sense. Oh, my God. If Olivera knocks out Chandler and Steepa knocks out John Jones, Jed might spin out of the building with, with happiness.

It would be unbelievable. All right. But back to the voting, we have a definitive winner. Your winner today with a solid 57% of the votes, Marcel. Big Marcel. Big Marcel comes on, gets it done. He defeats the great Alexander Cayley. Unbelievable.

What a debut. Here comes the confetti. Yes, let it raid upon you, Big Marcell. So congratulations. As you know, no cash prizes, but you do get to plug your stuff. You get 30 seconds to say whatever you'd like to say. Uninterrupted, the floor is yours. Yeah, I'm Big Marcel 24 on Twitter and Instagram. What can I say? Check my stuff on Twitter and Instagram. I have podcasts as well. I'm very happy to be here. Thank you so much, guys, for inviting me. Yeah, hope to be back one more time, you know.

to defend this one. But yeah, thank you so much, guys. I don't have a lot to say as much as thank you for inviting me. It was a lot of fun. And yeah, looking forward to keep following the show. I'm checking it all the time. So, yeah, thank you so much, guys. He doesn't need to plug anything.

If anyone follows MMA, they have seen Marcel's face pop up in their timeline probably once a day. So what's going on? There it is. Sometimes you got to, yeah, to get it to, okay. It's actually pretty funny because 24 is my favorite number. Thank you. I was literally just going to ask if I do one thing on the show.

It's my number. It's just your favorite number. That's it. Why 24? I'm born on the July 24, but it's actually nothing to do with it. I just always like 24. So that's why I use it. So I don't know what.

24 hours, the show 24. As there an athlete with the number 24, just like 24? Just 24. I don't know why. That's the scoop. You know, I'm going to tweet, I'm going to tweet this scoop. Marcel, I'm beating you to this scoop. People are going to find out of the 24 right now.

There it is. Well, we appreciate you, Marcel. Appreciate you, A.K. Appreciate Casey on the ones and twos. And now you can hit the music, Casey, because we are going to get on out of here. Stick with us at M.A.fighting.com. It is going to be a crazy, crazy week upcoming. we've got to get through UFC Vegas 100.

One has actually a pretty good card tomorrow. Anatoly Malkin versus Rugrug. Should be fun. Will it be? Who the hell knows? That's just this crazy and wild sport that we are a part of all the mixed martial arts. So thank you very much.

Back on Tuesday next week for Marcel, for A.K. For Casey on the ones in Tuesday, the iconic voice of Estuelan takes you home. Back on Tuesday. Good night. This has been between the links. Fighting Production on the Vox Media Network.