MMA Fighting - BTL | Next For Paddy Pimblett, UFC 282 & Bellator 289 Fallout, UFC Vegas 66

Episode Date: December 15, 2022

Paddy Pimblett's UFC 282 heavily debated victory over Jared Gordon has caused quite the uproar in the MMA space. Following Pimblett's fourth straight octagon win in as many tries, is it possible "The Baddy" has reached his ceiling, or is there more to come? On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel discusses Pimblett's win, and what should be next for him in 2023. Additionally, topics include the fallout of the main event from this past Saturday between Magomed Ankalaev and Jan Blachowicz, along with Dana White immediately booking Glover Teixeira vs. Jamahal Hill for the vacant light heavyweight title at UFC 283, other standout performances from the final UFC pay-per-view of 2022, Bellator 289 — which included more controversial judging in the main event between Raufeon Stots and Danny Sabatello, and Patchy Mix's impressive submission win — UFC Vegas 66 this Saturday headlined by Jared Cannonier and Sean Strickland, and more. Host Mike Heck is joined by MMA Fighting's Jed Meshew for another roundtable episode of the program. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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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. Our host, My! The iconic voice of Esther Lynn welcomes you to a brand new edition of Between the Links. Hope you're all having a great week. Hope you have recovered from the ruthless hangover. That was UFC 282. We have one more event this weekend for the UFC,

and then that's a wrap for 2022. We have the final independent Bellator event of 2022 this past weekend as well. We had judging controversies, stars emerging, a second vacant UFC light heavyweight title fight put on the books for next month. Lots to discuss. So this week, we're just doing it like last week. Another episode of the Mike and Jed Power Hour as I welcome in the exhibition king, Mr. No Gray area himself, the co-host of No Betz Bard, the winningest player in the history of the game.

I could read Jed's resume forever, but it's only an hour show. Jed, how are you, sir? I'm doing great. I am still just buzzing off UFC 282. So I'm really excited to talk about it. Busing, eh? We'll talk all about it. It was great.

It's been the most fun. I think the word you used was hilarious. It was hilarious. Still stand by. Still probably the funniest card of the year. Maybe it was 279 was the Nate Diazker fluffle right? That was yeah. Maybe 279 was funnier.

But this was right up there at the peak of comedy as far as the sport goes. Well, let's start with. the moments that got everybody all fired up and still has people all fired up. So we'll start with the UFC 282. The biggest story was not the main event or the draw in the main event or the aftermath or the new title fight being booked. It was the co-made event. It was Patty Pimblitz winning a controversial decision against Jared Gordon. And let me just say this, Jed, because I've thought a lot about this over the last five days. I have been a swinging pendulum with this one because on Saturday, and you know this because we talked before the post-fight show, during the post-fight show,

watching it live, I scored it for Jared Gordon 29, 28. Thought it was clear as day. Thought the only conversation that could be had about that fight in terms of the scoring was you either scored it 29, 28, Gordon, or 3027 Gordon. And you were not at all shocked by this result. Now, I was on team robbery on this one Saturday night, even Sunday morning, even for stretches of Monday. And then Tuesday, before heck of a morning, I decided, I'm just going to watch the fight again.

all by myself, no distractions, no noise, not even the dog in the room, no audio, no commentary. And I'm just going to see what maybe I missed here. And my scoring is exactly the same as Saturday. 29, 28 Gordon, gained the first two rounds, gave Paddy the third. But I will say this,

I understand where you're coming from because first was a clear Jared Gordon round. Two and three were very close, and they could have gone either way. So in a vacuum, watching the fight by myself, how I scored it, just based on how other people

may have reacted to it. 29, 28 score either way, even if you scored it for Patty, 29, 28. It's not a robbery. But then you look at the score cards and Doug Crosby and Ron McCarthy both gave round one to Patty

and both gave Jared Gordon the third. Those two individual cards for round one leads me to at least flirt with the robbery word. I'm not taking robbery home with me. It just didn't work out. Like maybe I went to the bar and I bought robbery a couple of drinks and I got to know her,

but it just didn't work out. So in your eyes, because of the way that like first round was actually scored, is there a case to be made for a robbery? Sure, for exactly that reason. Right. So that's been my stance the whole time. And like I totally get why people are upset by it.

the first scoring the first round for patty that being the reason he won is because all three judges gave him the first is nonsense like that's just a nonsense score um sure you can go look at the stats i'm sure somebody's in the comments right now being like check the numbers it's very close your eyeballs tell you the truth of that one i mean they it was pretty clear jared gordon was landing the harder more effective shots they landed about equally but gordon's were just much better That left hand was tethered to Patty's face. Patty had no answer for it. That's where the robbery can come in.

My issue has largely been, this has been so heated, everybody's been so upset, so gassed up about it. I still maintain that a 29, 28 Pimbleau scorecard is fine. It's not the scorecard I would personally give. Even on rewatch, I still think Jared Gordon took the first two rounds.

And I think that there is a better argument I think that you can have a better argument for 3027 Gordon than you can for even 29, 28 Pemblet, right? But I still think that that scorecard is acceptable. It is just the way they got there. And so if that's your justification for why this is a robbery, I'm with you. Fine. No issues because scoring that round is robbing Jared Gordon of that round, undeniably. but I don't feel like that's where most of this criticisms come from.

I don't think people are thinking that critically. They are just thinking Jared Gordon should have won the fight. It was 30, 27 Gordon, blah, blah, blah. And again, I agree that he probably should have won the fight, but I think that the overall scorecard is acceptable. So sure, I don't really, I've never really considered how we think of robbery in that, in that regard, right? Like, I've never thought about it as like, well, is it a robbery?

If the overall scores are wrong or the way they get there, you know, is wrong. But the overall answer is right. It's a method of, it's a question of process over result, I guess. The process here is very clearly flawed. So if you want to call it a robbery, I'm a little more open to that idea than I was on fight night, but I still have some trepidation about it. What did you learn the most about Patty Pimblit? I mean, the week was crazy for the man, said some things that were just not smart, and Ariel just dropped receipt after receipt after receipt on this man.

But the response he gets, the response he got when he walked out to that cage Saturday, you can't ignore it. He looked like a star. He was treated like a star. The reaction he gets from everybody in the space. You can't ignore that either, whether you like him or not. But the fighter, Jed, he's solid. He's a solid fighter. And of course, you know, there's little.

tweaks that can be made. There's always at least a little bit of evolution that can be made, not just an MMA but in sports across the board. Like look at the way Greg Maddox pitched in his mid-30s, totally different guy, still very effective. But is the guy we saw who fought Jared Gordon on Saturday? Like, is this him? Like, is this the ceiling in your opinion on Patty Pimbled? Yeah. Yeah. That's the, the things I learned the most about Patty Pimbleau are I was starting to have doubts about my i've been very critical of him since day one in the ufc because i have seen him fight before and this is mostly who he's been like he hasn't really added a ton uh but i was starting to feel like well maybe i'm wrong because a k lee was very like pro him because he's the prince of positivity

and he is still relatively young like there's a world where he could improve i struggle to think that he is going to um and again he's fine he's a top 30-ish guy guy. Like, that's, that's good in the scheme of the world to be one of the 30 best people at your job. Like, that's quite strong. I hope that one day I can be one of the 30 best people at my job. That would probably be an improvement. I assume I'm not at that point right now. Well, you know, like he's, I didn't learn the, the things I learned about him were not good, frankly. Like, but it mostly reinforced stuff I already knew right I knew he's a he's a bad striker and I don't think there's a way to get around it he can be effective and those are very different things I think

it's important that people like you can suck at striking like technically but still be effective because you can hit hard and you have a great chin like that's that's honestly a fairly common road for a lot of MMA fighters and patty's like patty's that he's got a good chin and he is willing to throw so he is effective but Jared Gordon is not anyone's definition of a good striker. Like he's a fine, competent, well-rounded all-around fighter. But he doesn't have huge knockout power. He has never inspired fear on the feet.

And he was piecing patty up. Like it's if he, I pitched afterwards, I don't know if we're going to talk about this or not, I think doing the Connor fight right now makes a ton of sense. And they should pull the trigger on that if they can make that happen. Because Connor will kill him. because if Connor can land the left hands Jared Gordon did and he certainly can, it's going to obliterate Patty. And so like it's as soon as he fights one good striker who can grapple with him to any extent, like he's done. He is done.

That's why Ilya Tupori is an awful fight for him. So I just reinforce that. I think the biggest thing I learned was how he reacted to it all, though, right? Because you learn a lot about people in their losses. And sure, that's not a loss. but for all intents and purposes, let's call it one, right? The bulk of people believe he lost.

And the way he handled it was really instructive. He, part of me, honestly, respects the hell out of just blind ignorance because I'm a huge fan of that. Like, I am, I know Ariel went on the show and yesterday and like dropped a couple more on Patty who is just like sticking to his story.

and honestly I have a little bit of respect for you just being like I don't really care about facts I'm just going to say my truth and if I say it loud enough that'll be the way it is for me and everybody else can get in line or not that's really problematic though if you're like trying to improve me better at life or a specific skill

and so him looking at that fight rewatching that fight he says that like already when we watched it I ain't got won all three rounds and believing that he is flawless and perfect. It's a whole, like you can't, you're not going to improve. And that's why you're going to plateau and be there at that.

You have to be able to, and maybe you can't. Maybe you as the fighter just, you have to have that insane confidence. We see it all the time with fighters. But most of them are able to be a little bit introspective and be like, here's where I had some shortcomings here, things I can improve on. Or at the minimum, their coaching staff will be like, yeah, you got to be better than this dude. And I'm not sure that Patty has that. in him to reckon, to seriously reckon with his shortcomings as a fighter, which is going to cap him.

It's actually been pretty amazing to hear some of the matchmaking suggestions for Patty because you have all over the board, man. All trains of thought here. You got, man, just give him squash matches in the UK, just go on the trajectory you were going on. Some are just saying keep him away from the top 15. Some say just run it back with Jared Gordon in the UK. God, that's an awful idea. It's the worst I've ever heard.

Some, I mean, even on heck of a morning, I've heard Dan Hooker, the Tote Ferguson fight comes up again and again. Both of those are fine. Antonio has come up. I had somebody this morning, and people actually agreed with this that just said, you know what?

F it, if this dude's as good as he thinks he is, let's just throw him to Justin Gagey and give him a single swim fight. They're Damon martining him. Okay, got it. It's just, it's wild to hear all the different suggestions. You mentioned, Connor. I doubt that happens,

although you make a compelling case. for it but realistically it is the best fight to make right now and i believe that with every part of me but realistically where do you think they go um it's really tough i think realistically the ufc takes a step back and fires him up another guy he can beat because all the people you mentioned are problems like it's a real like him fighting an auto morkano's a terrible idea We're going to kill him. And you're not even getting any Jews. That's the problem.

Here's the thing. Patty Pimbleau is not the golden goose. He is just not. Connor McGregor is the golden goose. Patty Pimbleau is the pig being raised for slaughter. He is not good enough to do the thing that if he could, if he was as good as Connor, great. then he can be another guy who can just poop out gold eggs forever and be a hero.

He's not. He just isn't that good. You need, he needs to get, get clobbered at the right time in the right way. My issues with the Jared Gordon fight beforehand were largely, if he, if Jared Gordon wins this, that kind of just, it's a waste of killing Patty. We want to do him in the, in the biggest stage, brightest possible. with someone who can carry on that momentum, right? Like, if Connor McGregor, instead of losing to Nate Diaz in short notice had lost to,

I'm trying to think of who's like the lamest possible lightweight. They could have thrown at him in short notice. And no one's like, Dracar Close or whatever. Like, that wouldn't have done anything for anybody. It was just like, all right, cool. Well, the Connor thing's done. Patty is going to lose. You wanted to lose to somebody you can take that shine.

Dan Hooker, I think, is a pretty good choice in that regard because Dan Hooker already is an established guy, fans, people like him. There, if Bobby Green comes out of this fight with Drew Dober, I'd say that there's some, you can maybe hope to turn Bobby Green into the next Jorge Mossfodal there. Both of those are valid.

Tony is the other way. I think Tony wins that fight, but that is the, that's the one fight of a guy who's above him that I feel like pretty good. That like Patty at least has a real shot at winning that fight. And the problem with that is once he wins that fight, then it's done. Then he's a ranked dude and he has to fight Armand Sarukian or whatever and he's going to get killed. So that's why I think Connor is the best one because it gets Connor a win.

And because it's Connor, it doesn't even take the shine off Patty that much because everybody's all stoked on Connor anyway. I think, though, when we talked about a thing on the post show, my guess is that we get Terrence McKinney. That's how that shakes out because that's also a winnable fight to some extent. If he can not die immediately and Terrence, people sort of know Terrence and that kind of feels like the way it'll end up shaking out here. Yeah, and Terrence has kind of built himself up to where he's at right now. This isn't like a UFC push. This is Terrence being Terrence. Yeah.

I like that idea of a win-win of Terrence McKinney because if Terrence beats him, Terrence already has some juice behind him, he just gets a bump. That one's the most palatable to me, but I still think they're better choices. Yeah, it's tough.

Like if we're going to give him a sink or swim fight against a championship level fighter, whether it be past or present, the one name that keeps coming to mind and Paddy's going to lose this fight badly, RDA, because if RDA wins,

it's, I know, but it's not, RDA is not fighting Connor. It's not going to happen. But this is like the next best thing for him probably. And guess what? If RDA wins, like he's not getting, like the division doesn't suffer is what I'm trying to say. Like if Patty wins, it helps him, obviously, and that gives him a boost.

But if RDA wins, like, it doesn't affect the overall landscape of the division. It doesn't hurt any other up-and-comers. In fact, it might even help some of the up-and-comers to fight R3D in the future. actually mean a little bit more. So that's why I put that idea out there. Like RDA is probably like a minus 500 favorite in that fight. But if we're going to do that, if we're going to give him a sink or swim fight, I think that one is is not a bad choice.

I'm still, I still think Dan Hooker is the one. Dan Hooker's still pretty young. If you're going to do that, Dan Hooker is the guy who I think can most capitalize on the paddy scalp. So that's, which is really, if they're Patty fans, I'm sorry. I'm here talking about the best way for him to lose because he can't win these fights.

It's not realistically possible for him to beat anybody in the top 20 of this division. Others than Connor. Connor might, I mean, I guess there's a world where he beats Connor. I think Connor would blow his head off, but that's at least possible. Well, Patty's going to be a very interesting story heading into 2023, no doubt about it. I'm curious to see how they book them. Curious to see how the ankle holds up after that fight with Jared Gordon, but

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We're actually to get to that in a second, but the main event of UFC 282, Jan Bolovich, Magamette Ankelaif for the vacant light heavyweight title. They fight to a draw. scored at 48, 47, Ankleyev. No issue at all with the draw after rewatching it, but Dana White shows up at the press conference.

He is just not a fan of this fight at all. And oftentimes when you hear Dana at the press conference just rip a fight, it's because it's his opinion, but we're also kind of an agreement with him and we kind of have the same reaction. But with this one, yeah, four and five weren't all that thrilling. But I got to tell you, Jed. And you probably agree with me. The first three rounds were very compelling,

especially when Jan started landing those leg kicks and started to do damage. I didn't think the fight was nearly as bad as Dana White thought it was, even on the rewatch. I didn't think I'd watch it the second time, but even watching it the second time, the first 15 minutes were pretty damn compelling. Yeah, if I weren't bad at all.

The truth is Dana doesn't even think that fight was that bad. He's just unhappy with how it ended. Like if that hadn't resulted in a draw, Dana would have come back and just been like, hey, Magermananglia lives, our new champion. Look at him. Showed the championship heart. Adversity, battled back through it. We'd been asking, you know, when is this guy ever going to see going to have to face some real adversity in the cage? And we saw it tonight, you know.

Maybe it wasn't the prettiest way, but he did it. It wouldn't have been an issue. The issue is entirely that they jerry rigged this whole thing, just trying to get a champion. and they didn't, and now they're here. And ultimately, I kind of think it works out for them in like the sort of the falling upwards that the UFC historically does. But this fight was fine.

This is not even a bad fight to go rewatch. It's certainly not the worst fight of the year. It's probably not the worst fight of the last, I mean, it's not even probably. It's definitely not the worst, like, main event of the last three months. When was the Grasso main event? This is in October?

Grasso Arrugio This wasn't even the worst This wasn't even the worst Magamette Anka Laif Main event This was not Angolaev Tiago Santos But by any stretch Was that this year

Was that last year though Trying to look at this I thought it was earlier this year It was March of this year Oh yeah That's like that's the worst event Of the whole year Which doesn't speak great to Magamette

At this point for being real But yeah it's I was fine I'm also okay with a on rewatch I'm actually less okay with the draw than it is now though it's still not like egregious I on rewatch it's it's 48 47 magamad for me I think he runs one one four and five pretty cleanly and I'm not quite willing to give Yon a 10-8 for round two or round three. So it, yeah, it's not awful.

It's not the worst scorecard I've ever seen. Again, I don't think it quite rises to what I'd view as a robbery because it is at least a reasonable person could look at that fight and be like, yeah, Jan wins it. But I think Maga Men should be the late heavyweight champion of the world at this moment in time. But now Glover-Teshirea, what a year it has been to? for this guy. He now gets to fight Jamal Hill, new main event, UFC 283 in Rio, gets the hometown fight he wanted all along,

still gets to fight for the vacant title. And Dana made this one real quick. This is my suggestion, like in the immediate aftermath if they were going to have Glover fight on this card. What was your initial reaction to this quick trigger booking? And how do you feel about it five days later, especially as a co-host of a podcast that has to do with throwing some shackles on the line for these fights?

it's categorically ridiculous but I'm kind of okay with it um it's a bit insane just because like this is why you're he shouldn't have vacated anyway you should still be the champion because like it was always kind of dumb doing it uh again we're going back to this phrase the process is terrible our outcome is good like and then so it all kind of comes out in the wash right uh because it was it was pretty much categorical bullshit that Glover was not getting the title fight is the former champion number one ranked guy and by the UFC's rankings

I think by our rankings very clearly should be involved in a title fight. The UFC comes to him on whatever six days notice and is like hey will you fight Magamad? No, I'll fight the other dude because I've already fought him. Totally reasonable request in stance room and the UFC's like

nah we're good. We're going to put magabat. The guy who by the way again Dana is just furious with So see how this all worked out from there. And he gets screwed over. He's theoretically next in line. But, you know, promises don't mean much, certainly with the UFC in the sport. Anything could have happened.

Now, instead of having to fight either Jan Belhovic, who granted he already beat, but at least at one point during that fight, Yon did catch him with something. And maybe Yon had, you know, Jan talked about having an off night that night or whatever. Maybe it would have been different. or Magman and Klyev, who I think is actually a really tough style matchup for Glover. Now he gets to fight quite possibly the best style matchup for him in the entire top 10. For the belt in Brazil. He came out of this thing smelling like roses. It's unbelievable for him.

And at the end of the day, I still will hold Yeh Prakashka as the number one light heavyweight in the world. Because he beat Glover when they fought. That fight was way more competitive than I thought. it would be. The fight was awesome. One of the very best fights of all time. Yeri wins. Yeri taps out Glover-Teshirea, which I would have never seen coming. So I will give Yeri the respect of holding that top spot down

until he fights again. But there is not a soul alive who will be unhappy with Glover Tashara, the UFC light heavyweight champion while Yer is recovering. For him to do it in Brazil will be a moment that Brazil card needed something. no disrespect to Figgie Smalls and Moreno 4, but that is not the top, the headliner that you need there.

This gives them the extra juice for that. And we're going to kick off the year in great fashion. So, yeah, it all came out okay. The process was terrible, but we got to a good end result. Who gets a 205-pound title fight first? Janbovich or Magamana and Goliath? I'm still going to say Angoliath, but I don't feel any level of confidence in that particular pick. Just I can't, because I believe Glover is going to beat Jamal Hill because Tiago Santos famed grappler that he is,

put Jamal Hill down at will. So I suspect Glover is going to be able to do it and do a lot better than Tiago Santos did. And I just don't see them running back, Jan Glover, too. That fight, well, Yan had like a moment or two. The fight wasn't wildly competitive. And both guys are going to have to get a win to get the, like, they're going to have to fight somebody. And my guess is I'll pick Magamette to beat any light heavyweight in the world at this point.

I got, I, it might not be pretty. Let's be real. It may not be an entertaining watch. But I do think he is good enough to beat anybody. at 205 right now. So that's at least a fresh matchup. Magamad beats.

Let me pull up the light heavyweight here. Rackage is probably done. They'll just run like Anthony Smith Magamad back or whatever. He'll win that fight and then he'll get the next one. I don't feel wildly confident, but I think that's the most likely outcome. UFC 282, obviously, a very interesting night.

We had 10 straight finishes to start the festivities. So we obviously talked the two biggest storylines, but top three standouts of the rest of the names on the card. Trick is Duplessi, for sure, just because he finally ended the Daryntill thing. We don't have to talk about Darren Till anymore. I'm thrilled. I'm so excited. He's going to take some time off and go back to not being very good,

which he's been the whole time. People just got confused. And DDP is He's a top 10 guy now He's going to get an opportunity At somebody up high, I would imagine And guy's awesome Guy's fireworks, fun as hell to watch

I don't think he's Probably doesn't ever challenge for the belt And I really confident he doesn't ever win it But guys just a great time to watch Great performance, super in on it Uh Ilya Do we need to say

Tattooed Attude obiterated Bryce Mitchell and Bryce come out with all I got the flu or whatever you got your ass beat son that's all you got I don't know about any illnesses you had

but I saw the fear in your eyes the first time Ilya landed on you and there's nothing wrong with that not a lot of people want to take him from that guy that dude is a problem he is for sure going to challenge for a belt and given that he's only 25, 27 good odds that he ends up holding the belt at some point in his life.

So that dude is like the number one with the bullet. And then the answer you're supposed to give, I'm not going to. He's not really going to talk about Roller Roses Jr. again. He's probably the true answer because this dude has got shine on him. People are very interested in his story. And if you're one of them, cool. I'm reserving my feelings on the matter at this point. So I will say for the third one, it's Edmund Chabathian.

Because look, Dala Lanchu, I can never say it, Dala Lungiambula, D'Alongiambula was pretty much tailor-made for Edmund. But this is what you wanted to see from him. He is still super young. He's still 25. He had some real tough setbacks, but this kid came in with a lot of promise, got overhyped for sure, settled back down, left the terrible fight camp to actually work with real professionals at Extreme Couture.

and looked better. And I'm not saying let's throw him in there with the top, you know, 10 guy immediately, though he might still be ranked in the OCS ranking. So he may get somebody like that. But he's still 25 with a lot of upside to him. And he's with a real team and a real camp and he looked good. They got him a win, which is really what he needed. He needed a confidence building win. String another one or two of those together.

And let's see where we've got with this kid because he has a lot of talent. So he's going to be my third choice. Yeah, Toporia's probably like one and two. Yeah. For being honest. I mean, that dude. By far, he's the top top man. He's the man.

What a performance. He needs to fight Arnold Allen, number one contender fight. I don't care whether the UFC hasn't ranked. That's the fight to make. My third choice, I'm not going to go with Rosa Jr. either. It's probably the safe answer. It's definitely a safe answer, but. I'm going on Curtis.

This guy is just. incredible he's incredible and i think people got to see really just how defensively savvy he is and just overall like creatively savvy because watching the fight initially as you're watching you're like oh walkeen's beating the crap out of him but if you actually like go back and watch it again and just turn the sound off you just see how good chris curtis is defensively he basically just let wakene just punch himself out and the first chance he got when he knew wakene was starting to slow down a little bit, he knocked him dead. Chris Curtis is great.

I don't know if he's going to be a guy who's going to fight for a title, but that man is going to fight for your money every single time he gets in there. So lots of fun options for him. Middleweight, Jed, is, it's pretty fun. Like, this division has made some moves this year. Has it not? We got a new champion in our chair. We got DDP coming up.

Roman DeLiodez. It's apparently he's fighting Marvitori now. Yeah, I saw that just dropping us slacks. It's reported. Not 100% confirmed by your friends at M.A. fighting, but somewhat confirmed. So that fight's happening. Chris Curtis making moves.

I forgot that the UFC has Jackramantson, like, stupidly high. It's like that feels like a big jump for Deleadzee, but he's actually eight in the UFC's ranking because they still have Jackramansen in the top ten, which is kind of insane, but, you know, okay. Yeah. Middleweight's a lot of fun. Middleweight is a lot of fun. Dary and Till holding the number 15th.

spot in the UFC rankings. Yeah, I'd be interested to see what they do with him. I'd like to see him go back to 170 if it's physically possible. He might have something left in him. I think it's physically possible. You heard DDP after it'd be like he's too small. DDP former welterweight KSW champion, by the way, who could never make welterweight again.

Like he's not the biggest middleweight there is, but he is a sizable middleweight and he dwarfed till. He felt it. It looked like it. I always, and this is hot take or whatever, I always thought Till could make it at welterweight. I entirely thought that that was a discipline issue and that moving to middleweight was not the answer because he's not very good.

And so at least be big. If you're not going to be good, be big. And it's, look at his success. The one win, like the two. good performances. I'm using good liberally because Kelvin Gaston was not a good performance or fight. Former welterweight Kelvin Gastilum and former welterweight Robert Whitaker. Like those are the two times he looked like not an awful fighter in this division. He's too, he's not talented enough and he's not big enough to compete against like Eric Brunson

or whatever. So I think he make welterweight. If Jose Aldo can make Bannonweight and apparently should have been fighting a Bannonweight the entire time, Darren Till can make Walter weight. I completely agree with you. So maybe that's the route for him. We'll see what happens. But before UFC 282 went down, and people were mad last week because we didn't give Bellator enough time.

We only gave him like five or six minutes at the end of the show. But Bellator 289 went down at beautiful Mohegan Sun Arena and scenic. Uncassville, Connecticut, the rolling hills and sprawling landscapes of Uncisfil, Connecticut. Main event, Raffion Stotz successfully defends his interim Bannabwe title against Danny Sabatello. I think the fight was probably closer than you thought it was going to be, Jed. We're going to take the Doug Crosby. Yeah, the Doug Crosby scorecard is an abomination. It's egregious. It's literally the worst scorecard I've seen all year and probably the worst scorecard I've seen in many,

many years. 5045 for Danny Sabs is a ridiculous scorecard. If he had scored it 4847 for Sabotello, I wouldn't have had a giant issue with it. I think the right guy won, but 50-45 Sabatel is ridiculous, but something tells me that this fight was a lot more interesting and competitive than you thought it was going to be. It was way, way more competitive. I'm trying to see if Bellator has stats on this one. And I'm not finding any,

because I would love to see the strike stats, basically, from Sabatelo. I scored it 48, 47. I was not watching, like, super critically, so take that with all the grains of salt you want. Broad structures, that fight looked like I thought, in that Sabatello is not very good striker and Stats is a better striker. I missed entirely believing that Stats would be able to shut down the wrestling game.

He really didn't. Sabatelo mostly got to his spots and pulled off takedowns with relative ease, frankly, against Stott's. I was surprised by that. And I will say we talked beforehand on the preview show or whichever we did. If Sabatello can win one of the first two, three rounds, things get really interesting. Because we were both pretty confident that Sabatello had won four and five. That's not really how the fight played out.

Sabatela won two of the first three rounds. Or if you're Doug Crosby, he won all of them. And then he also won four and five. and it was Stats who adjusted and kind of fought him off and it was a very different fight than I anticipated and honestly maybe this is unfair

but my biggest takeaway of that fight God's honest truth was oh Patchy Mix is the best man I'm waiting Bellator got it because I thought for sure it was Robin Stats like he has looked so good in all of his fights for the most part he's got the pedigree.

He's shown very good work with the hands. But a guy who was simply committed to wrestling him and could do it, he really struggled. And like you said, if you score that fight for Savitello, I don't think it's necessarily wrong. 5045 is wrong. But Stats was playing defense for a bulk of that fight. He just landed some more damage, which is, you know, the primary score. criteria at this point that's how it goes i think it like i said it's not unreasonable to say that sabotello won that fight and so the him doing it despite being him having that performance

despite being so limited raise my stock a little bit on sabatello lowered my stock a little bit on stats and then you mix in patchy makes looking like an absolute monster i'm like oh that's actually the best band i'm way in the world right there or certain the best ban on way in bellator probably not the world. Yeah, I thought Sabatelo clearly won the first round. I thought he won the fourth round. I thought Stotz won three and five. Two was the swing round because watching it live, I thought Sabatello won round two. But I got killed for it. So I went back and watched it again. I'm like, all right, I could see how you thought Stots on the round. But 40-40-7 of Sabatel was not out of the question. That would have been like the least controversial card

of the mini controversial scorecards this past weekend. I don't think anybody would have even really been upset other than Stats who would have obviously been livid, but I think it would have been fine. Patchy Mix, like you said, is a monster. I thought Maga made off. I mean, not saying he's not good, but I didn't expect that.

I picked Magamatov to win that fight. I just thought overall game, I just thought it was just slightly better than Patchy, but man patchy's finding himself right now he's making weight take not saying he wasn't taking it seriously but he's taking it all very very seriously not just in fight camp but you know just everything to do with this ground pre dude was i just couldn't get the whole galaher build out of my brain like you've been wanting this fight for a year and you finally get it in a big spot and then you miss weight and then you know you struggle a little bit with galaher you end up putting them away in the

third but you have a tough start you come back So by the time we get to Magamato, I'm like, eh, probably not a great overall stylistic matcher for him. Golly, was I wrong. What a performance. Put that man to sleep. And I think you're right, Jed. I think Patchy is the guy to beat right now.

And, man, Rafian Stotz versus Patsy mixed is a very intriguing fight now. Much more intriguing than I thought it was going to be. It's way more intriguing except for like, I think Stats is screwed. Just, uh, uh, a patty. Patsy Bix is going to take him down and he's not going to hold him because I don't agree with everything Raffin Stott said when he was on the M. M. M. Morrow this week. But certainly as the fight with Sabatello progressed, Sabatello's biggest issue in that entire, like he did nothing but find control positions and hold them. He effectuated no real offense. Patsy Mix is not going to do that. He is going to find, he is going to rope those big lanky arms of his around your neck and try to choke you unconscious as he is done. several times before at this point. So I think Stats is in a world of trouble. I'm sorry, there's, there's, I don't know if you can hear it.

I assume you can. There's a man blowing leaves right in front of my house. I'm staring at him in the face right now. And he just keeps doing it. Hi. Is he waving to you as he's blowing the leaves? No, I just waiting to him. Are you on air?

Are you on air? Okay. You can see me in headphones with the microphone. Still going about it. Okay. I know there are leaves right there. They could leave. They don't have to be. It would have been fine.

He's about to exit his way. So, okay. Forget where I was. I'm going to close it out, though, with this. I feel like I maybe said this at some other point. But one of my favorite things about this entire sport, Mike, is Patchy makes post-fight speech. Just killed me. Just, oh, he's back, good to know.

Um, other side now. But patchy mix just being like, yeah, I decided to take this seriously. It's, I feel like MMA is the only sport where that is like a really common refrain among world class fighters. Like you never, they're never interviewing the Super Bowl champion and they're like, Matt Stafford, you came to Los Angeles. What happened? Well, for 12 years in Detroit, I was just kind of half-assing it.

And I was pretty good. And then I was like, I'm coming to L.A. Maybe I should step my game up and try really hard at my profession. And then I won the Super Bowl. It happens like once a month that some fighter is like, yeah, so I don't really train ever. Like I would just be like, oh, I got to fight. Let me make weight. And I'll just go fight some dude.

I did pretty well. And I made it to top 15 in the world. I was like, oh, that's cool. And then I lost because that's not how that works for anybody who's not John Jones. so I thought, you know, maybe I might actually try. And Patchy makes just being like, yeah, I decided to take this as like a real sport and a profession and not something that I'm doing.

And now look at me, I'm good. It cracks me up. Shout out to Ryan Spann for starting that. Ryan Span being the guy. Wintery trend of, uh, maybe I'll start trading. And there's a big difference because like, I remember Jake Matthews after the Fiala fight. He didn't say that.

He just said, all right, I'm like a man now. Like, yeah, I grew up. Like, like muscles now. And I've finished puberty. I'm clicking now. Like, it's everything starting to click. It's not, eh, you know what? I didn't really try, but now I'm trying.

Love that. It's just the best. Like, I desperately want to see some, like, just to see one person do that in the NBA, whatever. It's like, like, like Russell Westbrook's just like, yeah, so I know the Lakers have been really bad. It's because I kind of wasn't given a shit. And LeBron sat me down.

I was like, I guess I'll try really hard now. And now we're winning. Just be unbelievable. Fake-ass sport, man. We cover a fake-ass sport. Speaking of post-fight speeches, Liz Karmouche, just beat the hell out of Giuliana Velasquez. That was an impressive performance.

Honestly, the most shocking outcome of the whole weekend for me. Why? Because the first fight was good. Like, not necessarily that Liz Karmouche won, but like she was losing that first fight until she wasn't. There was no doubt. She came out here and ran over that woman, ran over Julianne Velasquez. Like, there wasn't nothing for there. Best performance of, frankly, Carmuch's maybe not our whole career, but of the last like six years, probably.

She wants 135 pound division as a member of the esteemed MMA fighting global rankings panel. I really hope Bellator does this. I hope they do a Bannamweight division and bring in some new faces because Lord knows we need women's bannam weights to actually rank at this point because getting 15 of them in there right now is a struggle.

And if they put this division in there and Liz is a bannam weight, at least we can put her in one of those spots. At least we have somebody to fill that gap. But this is a tough one, man, having to decide between what is a Lucy Pudilova and who is the other one? I don't know.

I left number 15. Nina Landsberg, baby? I don't remember. I already had Landsberg and Pudolova in my rankings. And so I decided not to. Previously, I'm trying to remember her name off the top of my head, like a no name person. Like somebody who's the band weight champion out in some like rural bump show.

And I was like, I don't know, you've got like a six and one record. And I watched two videos. Like, you can kind of grab. Apple, sure. So there's, they're saying nobody. So yeah, Belator, make one and build it and hope they come. Don't build it because you have the bodies because you don't. They don't exist right now. But build it and try and try and make it happen because this was once the Marquis division. And now it's, it is what it is now. You know? So Belator independently done. Of course, they have the Bellator versus Rising card coming up on New Year's Eve, which should be a hell of a lot of fun to watch. It's dope. It's a dope card. Very dope card.

I'm very excited for. Pipple versus Clevercoist is a good fight. It's so good. And I love the Agent McKee fight. All those are going to be really interesting. It's going to be a fun event to watch. So hopefully we all get to watch it live and enjoy it for what it is. So this episode is brought to you by Peloton.

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Our buyers have got you covered. Marshalls. We get the deals. You gift the good stuff. UFC Vegas 66 Jed. final UFC card of 2022 and I got to say Jed top to bottom looking at this one

especially compared to a lot of the fight night cards that we have spoken about throughout the year on the show so it's pretty good this is a pretty solid fight night card is it not oh for sure I'm trying to I'm pulling up Orlando right now to see if I think

this is better than Orlando was because I actually think I think I do think it's better than Orlando was Orlando had some higher highs probably. I'm not even sure that's true because Suruki and Isma Gulaev is just chef's kiss. Like that's probably the best fight of the whole month for being real. That fight is incredible. Yeah, this card's great.

You know, you know me. Normally tell people, hey, just tune in MFFIN.com. Don't watch this one. You got a 4 p.m. start time. Very, very good card. looking at it like there is maybe two fights on this card that I'd be like unnecessary

if we got rid of them I wouldn't be in any way to like sad which is a huge rarity these days certainly for fight night cards usually you could paint with a broad brush and be like if we knocked off five of these it is not going to change my enthusiasm for this card at all

but now cards great main event Jared Kennedy Air versus Sean Strickland. Like, what are these guys fighting for right now? I mean, we do have a new champion. Sean Strickland just got bolted by Alex Pereira just a few months ago. Canada, obviously, hasn't fought Pereira yet, but is this just two dudes fighting? It's just two dudes fighting.

Shouts to Sean Strickland. Not a phrase I say a lot because Sean Strickland is not a man you should model your life, career, or personal thoughts after. Sean Strickland is maybe the hardest fighter in the world for me to deal with because every rational part of me dislikes everything he stands for but God he is compelling and funny as hell and it's I can't it's hard to separate the fact that he's an admittedly bad person and the fact that I kind of want him to

stay in my life in this capacity for a long period of time because I have so much respect. Maybe respect isn't the right word. It's the one I'm going to go with for him coming out and being like, if I fought Alex Pereira again, I'd do exactly the same thing. I know that that didn't work out for me at all. Would change nothing exactly how I would go about it again. Like, that's a man after my own heart, refusing to learn or adapt and just just being who you are to the absolute fullest.

That is, and he's probably going to do the same thing as Jared Canoneer. But probably he's definitely going to do the exact same thing as Jared Cananier. And maybe it'll work out this time because Jared Canonier is a fine fighter, but he is not a striker to the level of Alex Pereira, but it won't shock me at all if Canineer just knocks Strickland's head to the third row, which will undoubtedly be hilarious if it happens. So they're not fighting for anything. other than a paycheck and the amusement of, you know,

millions of fans around the world. And in the end, that's a pretty good thing to fight for. So I'm in for it. Ten minutes ago, you had somebody blowing leaves around. Mother Nature is blowing everything around right now. It is a freaking monsoon outside.

Winds, Allen. It's like midday. It's about right for the low country. Yeah, we haven't dealt with this in quite some time, but it's happening right now. Surukion versus Begulov,

just friggin' rules. It's a great fight. And I kind of feel for Armand here because I do feel he won the Gamrod fight and it was super close. I've watched that fight more than any fight this year. That's like if I need a boost

on the treadmill or something, I just watch that fight because it just gets me all fired up and I run a little bit faster and a little bit faster. He probably deserves better than this if we're being honest. But Isma Gulaf, I mean,

you can't fault the man's resume undefeated in the UFC. I don't think he beat Guram Kutatsalate. I thought Guram probably got that one. And that's what gives me a little bit of pause here, Jed,

because my gut is telling me that on paper, this fight is very compelling. It's just like one of those, ooh, this is a good one. But I feel like the fight itself is not going to be all that compelling

because I think Surukian is just going to big brother him for 15 minutes. And I think this could be his coming up part of it. I really do. I think this will be one of those. All right, maybe the Gamroff fight we didn't get to see his best.

There's a great fight, but maybe we doubted him a little bit. But I think after this one, I think people are going to come back around if they fell off the wagon a little bit. I feel like this is a really good matchup for Sarukyon. Tough because Isabgulov is technically very good everywhere. But Serukion is just one of those, at least in my eyes, he's one of those kinds of up-and-comers and prospects that just don't come along. all that often in terms of skill set and an overall game. I know you've been super high on him. I think there's a really tough fight for him.

I'm picking him to win because I'm also pretty high on him. But Isma Gulov is, I will be, I won't be like shocked if Sruki and just Big Brothers him, but I'll be surprised. Isma Gulaev has given up one takedown in his UFC career. it was to Kudaladez who kept the position for like a minute maybe. Like it's, he is a very good defensive wrestler. He hasn't faced anybody who is going to chain wrestle the way Surukian is, but he's still really good.

And he's got a great jab, just a great jab. And he has got the height and the reach on Surukin. And Surukin's going to have to navigate that jab. And I think this is this is going to be a battle. I'm picking Sarukin. I'm taking him to win by a decision. I think he is going to eventually get to his spots. But I don't think this is an easy night in the office for him.

And it won't surprise me if his Magulov manages to edge out like a gamrott-esque decision, you know, something where maybe Sarukian should win or more people feels he won. But the bigger spots, the bigger moments where it's, Magulovs and so Sarukian just kind of fall short shorten the cards again. I like this. This is a three round fight too

first if you're a Surukian backer. I just feel like Surukian had to have learned so much from that Gamrod fight. He had to just take it so much away from it and I don't know if his Buglov is able to take as much away from the grum fight but I mean on paper

just a sensational battle. Last thing here, this is a loaded card. We get some pretty solid names, some You know my favorite about this fight is, by the way? These guys would absolutely murder, like Justin Gagchi and Dustin Poyer. And I love both of them. But these guys are top 15 because lightweight is impossible, not because they are the actual 15, you know, 15 number. They should be like 5 and 7 or something like that.

These guys are unbelievably good. This fight rules. I'm so stoked on it. I thought you're going to say Patty. Oh, no. God. It wouldn't be close. Isma Gulov would probably get his first finish in the O.C.

against Patty. I think I have Surukia on like number seven in my lightweight rankings. That's how I have like five. I think I bumped him up after the Gamrot lost because I was just that impressed with that entire fight. I bumped both him and Gamrod up after that fight. I was like, yeah, both of these guys would beat Dustin Porreux tomorrow. So we're going to move both of them. What's the low-key banger?

What's the loki banger in this card? There's a lot of good ones. Oh, it's a good question. Does you dover Bobby Green count as low-key? I don't think so. Okay. I think that's the people's main, the actual people's main event. I agree.

That is the people's main event. You've been listening to No Bet's Bard. Low-key-banger. Manil-Cop. David Dvorak maybe. I just love Mnobre. I just love Mnob Cop. David Dvorak's going to probably try to make it not that much of a banger.

But you know, I'm actually, I'm going to say Jake Matthews-Mathews-Metheas-Mogglinger. I think that'll be my official answer, locking in. Just because Jake Matthews looked so damn good last time out. And Simmelsberger is not great, but he's game. And so this is probably going to be less of a banger than a real, maybe not a. a coming out party. I think Andre Fioho was a coming out party for Jake Matthews, but he is going to really establish himself as a guy you don't want problems with at 170.

So I'm going to pick that one. But it's tough to go wrong. His card's mostly great. Yeah. Cesarisoros is good, but that's a main card fight. I love the Matthews fight because I think he'll be able to show a little bit more on that one because you mentioned the toughness and durability. And the overall athleticism of Matthew Semelsberger, he's probably a little bit better than his,

than his record indicates. It's probably... Smilmberger is wild because my general belief is that if you're a plus athlete, you should be an A plus fighter because nine times out of 10 that pans out.

Similzberger is the 10th time when it doesn't, where he's just like fine. He is a way better athlete than he is a fighter and it's very frustrating. It's probably for me the battle of the Sayyid's

Naramagamato versus Akramana. Love the Saeed battle too. God, man. That's just, going to be fun. That's going to be that's going to be the Saruky on Gamrod kind of matchup on this card because

both these guys are just so scrappy and Normagabato is probably a little bit more well-rounded because I think his striking is better. I mean, definitely more well. Definitely. God man. This fight's going to the floor. It's definitely going to hit the floor

for big portions and the scrambles and everything that's going to go on down there. It's just going to be so fun to watch. it's just going to be so fun. So that fight rules. So shout out to those two guys. All this ever fight on this card, they're like three fights on this card

that are fine, that are unnecessary. But they're even watchable. Like everything here should be watchable. So good fight card. We've waited in a year. 14 fights. Looks like we're good to go there.

Last thing, we just found out a little while ago, confirm a multiple sources that this will be the main event. It's not happening in South Korea. It's actually happening at the UFC Apex. Derek Lewis versus Sergei Spivak back on the books, Jed Michoud. Yes, heavyweight battle. We are going to have some Apex Fight Nights. And I think this will be, no, this isn't the first one of the year. I think the Gasol and I'm avov card might be.

But this will be one of them. They're going back to the world's finest apex. Derek Lewis, Sergey Spivak, it's back on the books. It's back on the books. Five rounds of this, Jedmishu, potentially. Oh, yay. I truly hope that they're not five rounds of this event. It would be very tough. And this is at the apex.

You're like this event is happening at the apex. 1,000% it's happening at the apex. Dude, look at the fight card. Aside from having the road to the U.S. of C things. This is, is this just a fight card of like Southeast Asian fighters

that they're just, this is clearly supposed to be in like the South Korea card and they're just going to fly home to Las Vegas for no reason. Yeah. Incredible work. This is the best.

No, we don't know. I mean, we don't know what's going to stay, what's going to, what's going to go, but, uh, I don't know what they're going to do, but yes,

that is, I saw this one. I was like, it just seems, It just looks like a fight card that should not be happening in Las Vegas. And yet it is. Like any regular person could look at this and be like, man, okay, a lot of interesting choice for this to be in Vegas. You sure you didn't go on the road?

Nah, Apex, baby. Let's go. And then we get Derek Lewis, Spivak. That's fine. It's two-outcome fight, which I appreciate those. Makes very easy to know. Spivak gets the takedowns or he doesn't. and that determines the outcome.

My guess is he doesn't. It's hard to have any level of confidence in Derek Lewis after his recent run right now. So it's fine. It's a fight. It sure is a fight. And we'll see. Maybe Sergey Spivak will graduate from Derek Lewis to tie to Ivasa if he gets a win.

So it could be a banner year for Sergey Spivak if he can get the job done on February 4th. Is that the same? date is the Belator card? I don't remember the Belator stuff off the stop of my head. Hold on. Take a look. Let me see if I can pull this up semi quickly. February 4th, Bellator 290. Yes and

head to head, baby. Some head to head action. Yeah. Heavyweight counter programming. It is hard for me to figure out which of those heavyweight fights is better, which is a scathing condemnation of both organizations, if we're being honest. Well, February 4, it's going to be a very busy day. The following weekend will be very busy as well, of course, with the UFC and Per.

So when's a Super Bowl? Is it a 12th, I think? Okay, I was going to say, they're definitely not doing this on Super Bowl weekend, so, or are they in their lunatics? But no, 12th would make more sense. Yes. Well, that's it for this edition of the show. Tomorrow, normal stuff, preview show.

I will not be there. My vacation begins tomorrow, so I'll be off pretty much for the next couple of weeks. I think we're going to, yeah, I got to do a lot of traveling to see a bunch of family I haven't seen in like two years. So this is what we're going to do. I know what vacation is. That's interesting. Okay. I know.

I get to freeze my ass off. So it is what it is. Preview show tomorrow, probably 3 p.m. Eastern, People's Free Fight Show, Post-Fite Show. AK will need a co-host for on to the next one on Sunday. so we will still do a show. I think we're going to try to do a BTL next week. I think we're going to do it in podcast form, perhaps. Maybe our award will do our annual award show nomination program

where we just get a little roundtable. We round off our top five. We debate each other and say one of us is way smarter than the other. And then on to the next one programming is just going to be a lot of fun because AK and I will go through our 2022 predictions to see who was better. I went back and listened to the program. There were some really interesting topics. We fell short on quite a bit of them.

And then AK and I will have our 2023 predictions extravaganza where you submit all your questions, buy sell, make them interesting, think outside the box. AK and I will pick up the best 25 or so of them. We'll go through them and then we'll make our champion predictions and then our Mi Kaliente bold prediction of the year. AK and I were both wrong on our We Caliente bold prediction. What was it this year?

I can't remember. A.Ks was, let me see what they were. A.Ks was Hamzaa Shamiyev will lose a fight. And mine was Anderson Silva will win more boxing matches than Shamiyev as UFC wins. Did he only box the once this year? Maybe twice, but really won't one. You're pretty close, though. You were close in yours.

So I was close. I was close. I wanted to be a little different than Shemayev just loses. Yeah, no. That was a reasonable, you know, we, Kelly, and pay pick and you almost got there.

I was very, very close. Also, at the beginning of the year, that was a very hot pick because the idea that Shemayev would have fought like once, I don't think, I certainly wouldn't have believed you, be like, no, that's insane.

I already fight one time. He fought twice. Oh, did he? Holland and Burns. Oh, I forget that the Barnes thing was this year. April. In my head that that was, that was April? She's 2020 has been forever.

In my head, that was like last fall. I was saying earlier, like this year, some days I feel like this year's taken 15 minutes. And some days I feel like this year is taking seven years. It's just one of those years. Wild times. Well, now that I made an ass of myself, we can, we can, closer down. Hit the music, Casey.

Hit the music. We appreciate you on the ones and twos. We appreciate all of you for watching. And we'll talk some more for the next couple of weeks as we roll on in to 2023. We appreciate you for Jedmishu. Casey on the ones and twos. I am Mike Heck. The iconic voice of Estherlyn takes you home.

We'll see you next time right here on Between the Links. Good night, everybody. Love you guys. This has been Between the Links and M&A. production. Thanks for watching. Happy birthday, hey! We're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.