MMA Fighting - BTL Roundtable | Adesanya vs. Pereira, Volkanovski's Greatness, Run Back Pedro Munhoz vs. Sean O'Malley?

Episode Date: July 7, 2022

Saturday’s UFC 276 left MMA fans with a lot to digest in terms of storylines, future matchups, and topics of discussion — from Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira’s big wins, Alexander Volkanovski���s pound-for-pound status, and the unfortunate ending to the highly anticipated bantamweight showdown between Pedro Munhoz and Sean O’Malley.  On an all-new episode of Between the Links, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck and Jed Meshew will take part in a special roundtable edition where they’ll discuss Adesanya’s win over Jared Cannonier in the main event, and if the champion is getting too much flack for the fight. In addition, they’ll discuss Alex Pereira’s knockout of Sean Strickland and how big the fight with Adesanya will be for the UFC, Volkanovski’s shutout of Max Holloway and where he stands amongst the best fighters on the planet, whether or not the UFC should run the fight between Munhoz and O’Malley back following the accidental eye poke, a look to UFC Vegas 58, and more. 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

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

The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original, The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian

in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster, the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now only from Audible. The Vox Media Podcast Network. Anime Fighting Studios, this is between the links. And now, your host, my...

All right, we are alive, everybody. If you're listening to the podcast network, The iconic voice of Esther Lynn welcomes you to a brand new edition of Between the Links. And if you're not listening to the podcast network, well, you've got the countdown music. And that's all you're going to get. That ruled.

The countdown music was awesome. We should do that more. I've never heard that before, but that was dope. Hey, listen, I'm finding all these new things on Stream Yard. The reason why we did that is because E. Casey Liden is not here today, so I have to produce this bad boy myself. And I figured coming off of a storyline-filled UFC 276 event, Why not just bust out the old roundtable episode, especially since things are so crazy and hectic in Las Vegas last week.

We skipped to BTO. Yeah. It's a holiday week for the first time ever. Yeah. Wow. First time ever, huh? I think so. I think so.

You had a lot going on last week. You were doing a lot of stuff last week, Mike. I was. And I didn't want to wake you up at like 1 a.m. to do a BTL show. I didn't think that'd be very fair to you. I mean, it would have been fine. Like, I was just waxed. I'm full.

Okay. There you go. But anyways, I am Mike Heck being joined by Mr. No Gray area himself, Mr. Hot Take, Jed Bishu. How are you, my friend? You're doing great. I'm excited to have you back in my life. There was like a solid 36 hours where you didn't have something on our podcast network.

And I felt a little, it was like, oh, man, I don't know what's going on. Mike, Mike took Monday. Monday was off for Mike. I don't know what to do. So it's good to talk to you in person, buddy. It is good to talk in person. And I was only on the post-fight show for maybe 10 minutes, so I didn't get to hear a lot of what you had to say.

And there's a reason for that because I wanted to get it in real time. So let's just dive right in to UFC 276 because Israel Adasania successfully defends his middleweight title against Jared Cananier. Was it a barn burner? No, it was not. Was it a fight that fans inside T-Mobile Arena decided. you know what? We're going to beat the traffic and head home a little early. Apparently it was. We're fans at home overly thrilled with the fight. Not really. But a lot of people seem to be blaming the champion for this Jedbushu. They seem to be blaming Israel out of Sanya. Our own shot

Al Shadi wrote an article recapping the event and said one time's okay, two times maybe, but three times if you have sort of lackluster performances, it becomes a quote unquote trend. So is there anybody to blame here? Do we blame Adasanya more than Canaaner? Is the challenger more to blame? Are both guys to blame? What's sort of your take on the made event itself? I mean, you blame them both. I am more want to blame Israel, this, and you. And I will explain why, because there's been a very odd backlash to people being like, that fight blew. I don't, from many, many of our own compatriots, and we may find that com incredible website. I think you blame, look, you have to blame Jared Cannonier because he lost the fight.

And I said this with Carlos Barser, Rosnoe, Unis. The proof is in the pudding, right? Like, history is written by the winners. And because as he won, you can't say that what he did was wrong or bad or ineffective because he won, he won very convincingly and very cleanly. So by the most baseline definition, Jared Kennedy is more to blame because he could have tried more. He could have been more exciting. He could have made more attempts, but he did not.

And so there's that. The reason people aren't blaming him, though, I mean, there are a couple. The first is he lost. And there's just not, like, that's just part of being the champion. You are the guy, you're the standard bearer. You're the flag waiver. You're the guy who the exes are going to be at, good or bad. So if you are the marquee man and you put on a marquee performance, you get to reap those

rewards. If you are the marquey guy, you lay an egg, and whether you win or not, you lay an egg, you still have to take that on the chin. And I got really frustrated with Izzy's, like, indignance about being criticized as if he is some whole, like, levitating above the rest of us because he's

so good or whatever. Like, yes, he's the best middle weight in the world. When my pound for pound rankings come out next week from Mayfriand.com, great website, it will be Israel dissonia at the top spot. I am not taking anything away from him in that regard. But if you come out, you talk

a bunch of trash, better back it up. He came out talking a bunch of trash that this is fresh blood and I'm a vampire and I'm gonna shine bright like a diamond. And then he just didn't. Like he won, he won convincingly. There's a lame fight and this is not the first time.

And that's the other reason people are blaming him because Jared Canaaner has largely not had board. fights. I'm not going to pretend that I remember his whole catalog off the top of my head, but I can't really remember being like, oh, that fight was lame for him. Whereas Izzy's got a bunch of them, almost, like, depending on your definition of boring or bad,

you can make an argument that half of his fights in the UFC have not been fun to watch. And that's, that's on you, man. Like, yes, you are winning, and so that's okay. But you have to accept that calculus, right? You have to accept that winning and being beloved are not the same thing, and winning and praise are not the same thing. And it is certainly more financially responsible to prioritize winning over the other. But don't comment me with this, well, just remember, I can do your job, but you can't do mine. I'm above criticism. Bra, bra, bra, bra, bra, blah. I know, dude,

just like you didn't have a fun fight because you are not a fun fighter unless you have a dance partner who is going to engage you in exactly the type of fight you want. Again, at the end of the day, victory is what matters in this sport. And so you cannot criticize the win. You can criticize everything else about it. And I just don't have to pretend like it's a good fight. Like none of us do, and there's no reason to do so. It's all okay for us to say dominant fight, dominant performance, still the champ, still

the best in the world, the best fighter in the world. but like if you're not going to run headlong into his counters he is not going to fight you in a way that is fun to watch because that is not something he's interested in and and I'm going to keep saying as long as he keeps doing it because here I'll end on this the thing that made me the most upset this whole weekend I got upset a couple of times about post-fight stuff

and things that were said because some of it was really lame from the CKB boys but the thing that made it was like the most frustrating to me is where he, like, talking about Alex Behea, he said the exact same things he said about Jared Kennedy before the fight. He was like, oh, well, you know, when my back's against the wall, that's when I perform the best. And people are forgetting how good I am.

And just because I, you know, just because I was bored in my last couple of fights. And so I didn't have a great day. He said the exact same thing before Canadiere. And now he's saying the same thing here. Fool me once, man. Shame on me. Fool me like seven times. This is just who you are, dude, and own it. Like, own it.

Own who you are as a fighter always. And that's just a much better way to go through life than being kind of petulant about rightfully being criticized for not being the most exciting fighter. Like, Danny Sabatelo, D-Sab's not an exciting fighter. Is that man ever being like, I'm the most exciting fighter? You guys just don't know what you're watching. He's like, no, stop me. I don't give a shit.

And that's like, do that. I'd respect that a lot more, honestly. Yeah, his whole thing is dominance is boring. And the only reason you didn't like it is because it's dominance. So he just, he drives right into the criticism. If you don't like it, stop it. If you don't like it, stop me. If not, you're just going to shut up a deal with it.

It's the thing is like, we talk, we joke about it and talk about how fighters are like the most sensitive of people. But I never felt that Izzy was that way. this man felt like bulletproof in his self-belief forever. Like did nothing ever got to him? Nothing ever bothered him. Like, okay, I watch anime and do all this. Like, I don't give two tugs about you guys.

Whatever you guys, what cool. And now it just feels like he does. He and maybe he doesn't internally or whatever, but he certainly talks about how much he doesn't care a lot. And that's just like the lamest thing in the world to me. It's so, I do just, just brush it off. Don't be indignant about stuff.

Like you're the champion of the world. Just be cool. It's not that hard. Yeah. And to be clear, if you felt the fight was boring, no one is telling you that you can't feel that way. Like it's totally fine to feel that a fight is boring.

I know like, yeah, a lot of people are saying you can't feel that way. It's a fight, blah, blah, blah. It's fine if you don't enjoy a fight. It's okay. I blame Canaaner more

because the writing was on the wall. The narrative was written. Even Adasani knew it. He listens and hears everything, which is why he said what he had to say at the post-fight press conference. I could do your job. You could never do mine,

which is kind of crazy. But everyone was saying, for Canaanair to win this fight, he had to treat it like Kelvin Gasol. He had to go in there and make it a dog fight, make it a war. And I think in a way, Adasani was expecting that to happen.

And when Cannonair decided to jump into a mid-range kickboxing match with this. He made a business decision, Mike. That's what they call that in the world of sports. He made a business decision. But of course, like Adasani is sitting there like, oh, this is what we're doing? Okay. It's like Steph Curry giving up a wide open three to do a triple somersault slam dunk.

Of course he's going to take the three and he's going to hit it. It's the best thing about his game. So if you're going to give him that wide open three and not put bodies on him, he's going to take the damn three. And that's what Adasani did. You're going to give him what he wants. Okay. I'm going to take it. and get the W because either way, no matter what happened in the featured boat between

Sean Strickland and Alex Baheda, is he's got a big fight ahead of him. Big money fight. Doesn't matter who won that fight, but he had to win on Saturday. And if Canada is just giving him the win, he's got to take the damn win. So I get where he's coming from. But it's, it is okay for fans to say, and even media members to say that the fight was not all that aesthetically pleasing, considering we just watched Volcanowski put on a master class. We watched Beheada with the vicious knockout. We watched Robbie Lawler and Brian Barbarina beat the shit out of each other for however

long that fight lasted. Like, you're okay to criticize it, but if we're placing the onus on somebody, I feel like you have to put it on Canaan Air because he ain't getting another title shot. This is it. This is his one opportunity to get in there, M&M style, one shot, one opportunity.

And he just fed right into Hadasani's game, which is really puzzling to me, because when he actually was aggressive, he looked like he had a little bit of success there, just didn't happen for him on Saturday night. So here's, I mean, here's why people aren't, outside of the aforementioned stuff, that Izzy is the name,

Izzy's the one to blame. Like, that's how, that's just how it flows is to the guy at the top. The reason people aren't blaming Canaanere, it's, one, he did try to be more interesting than Izzy did. Like, I think objectively, he at least made more efforts,

certainly as the fight went on. He did not do nearly what he should have. But he at least tried, like, The thing is he said it in his post fight, but he said it kind of not in the same way that I'm in the, like, I think it should be interpreted that. You know,

people used to say that stuff by Anderson Silva and GSP. They did because they put on boring fights. And Anderson Silva and GSP did not come to the stage and say, well, love me and I, like, I don't care what you think, but actually you're an asshole if you think I'm boring.

Like, that's not, they were just like, yeah, it was a tough fight. I did what I needed to do to win. and moved on with their lives, because that is the natural byproduct of this sport and excellence at it, where if your entire goal is to minimize risk, you are, by definition, not going to do the things that are the most exciting at all points in time,

because even if it's finite, even if it's very, very small, you know, infinitesimalty small, it still opens up opportunities. but at the same time people are going to criticize you because if you look at that fight, it was very obvious that Izzy could have done more. He did not need to because he was winning. And so if you are just over there really excited about victory and numbers, like, cool, I don't know why you're a fan of this sport, but like, yes, you are technically winning this argument,

but you're not winning the spirit of MMA because that is, he could have tried more, he could have done more, he could have put on more of a show, and maybe at a different point in his career, he might have done that because that was a thing that he was more invested in. But again, it's a byproduct of how dominance and victories are rewarded in this sport.

He's not going to step out of third gear when third gear is cruising comfortably to a win, and he's not the first, he won't be the last champion to do it. But you just got to take it on the chin, man, because, like, they are, real criticisms. Like, it's very real and it's extremely real and frankly also extremely real to consider that like, I can't believe I'm about to do this. Oh. For all his faults and there are many. Connor McGregor has never once in his career cruised to a win. That man comes out to kill you.

and I will argue that that is actually a substantially better and less risk-averse strategy or more risk-averse strategy than cruising in third gear because for however comfortable anybody feels, MMA it only takes a second and Jared Kennedy hits really hard and if Izzy had come out and just tried to stunt on him and blown his doors off in seven minutes, that's, you know, I'm not a math guy. that's 18 minutes less for Canaan E or two pull off the one-shot COU upset.

Like there's a legitimate argument for that. And I don't know whether that's what the calculus Connor made early in his career or if he just said, dude, all of these people are not as good at me, even though that was wrong. I'm just going to come out and blow their doors off. And he did. And that, there are a lot of other reasons why Connor is where he is, you know. But he delivered. He talked a mass amount of crap and he almost always, especially in his rise,

he always delivered. And that's how you get fans to buy in and to love you. And Izzy has been on the cusp of being a huge star, and he is still in context, a star in the sport. But the way you become the next level, that dude, that guy who can go be in movies and do all this other stuff, is talk all the stuff you talked about, Jared Cannon here beforehand, and then you deliver, you back it up.

And he did it with Robert Whitaker, because Robert Whitaker gave him the fight he wanted to do that. with. He hasn't done it basically since then because nobody else is consenting to the fight that's going to make him be a showcase fighter. But he has that in him. He could force people to fight fights that will let him showcase, but he won't. And that's, it's really frustrating also from that in that standpoint to watch here, because he could be a huge star if he would just kind of get out of his own way and try to be one a little bit more. I feel like before we move on to what this all means, I feel like

Izzy needs a guy who's not going to kind of crumble under the pressure. And what I mean by that is, I felt like Canineer was done on Wednesday. He went to that media day, didn't like the questions, and I've said this a couple of times, I'll say it again, everybody wants to be the champion

until it's time to become the champion. And you realize what that all means, the weight of all that, all the obligations, you got to sit up at a press conference when you don't want to, when you want to be focusing on the fight, and you have to do all these other things. And I felt like Cannonier showed up on Wednesday. It was like, okay, I think I know what's going to happen here.

This is what life's going to be like. And then he was like, oh, this is not ideal at all. So we'll see what happens with Cannonier. But in the meantime, a guy who is not folding under the pressure at all in any way is Alex Paheta because this guy just doesn't let anything rattle him. Showed up at MSG, UFC debut has kind of a slowish start and then blows the doors off of his opponent. Then he gets a tough opponent, Bruno Silva, has a tough fight, gets through it.

Then he fights Sean Strickland, and this fight became the biggest fight on the card. It became the most interesting thing all week. We don't like to talk about numbers and peek behind the curtain, but there was more interest on MAAfighting.com for Sean Strickland versus Alex Beheada than the main event or the co-main event. Just everybody, Sean Strickland did his thing, Beheada did this thing, his thing, and here we are. And Alex Beheada goes out there just bolt Sean Strickland. So now the story can be told to kickback. boxing fights, the knockout, et cetera. Here we are. Is this the guy to bring that out of Israel, Adasania? Now that he's got Alex Paheda, a guy who has two losses against in kickboxing,

he's been knocked out by Alex Paheda in kickboxing, although the fights were competitive and close if you actually watched them. As he was winning both fights. Is he should have won the first one and was comfortably winning the second until he got killed? 100%. Is this the guy? Is this the guy to bring that out of Adasani? Is this the guy that can sort of step in in that, almost palo-coster role to not just go out there and get a win, but to make an emphatic statement. I don't know. I have a lot of questions about it.

My assumption actually is no because the calculus hasn't changed. Like, is he still going to prioritize maybe more than ever prioritize a win over a performance. And the way he will prioritize a win is by, he's a better kickboxer. Like he's a better, more technically efficient and better kickboxer. boxer. He doesn't hit his hard, maybe isn't as tough. Um, and Bahaya is certainly not a bad kickboxer by any stretch. The guy's a multi-division glory champion. He's a more pedigree kickboxer, uh, than Izzy. But it's, I have a sneaking suspicion that Izzy, is he has not wanted to engage with any dude who could functionally hit him hard.

I honestly don't like Kelvin Gasolam was maybe the last person and it's not like Kelvin's an enormous puncher but he hits hard that was the last person I think is he was like comfortable engaging with that hit that hits hard

because like Robert Whitaker is not a bad puncher he's not a big hitter and he's still largely mostly didn't want to engage with him in that second fight the first one he just clobbered him coming in a bunch and killed him half of honestly the Yan fight was Jan can check leg kicks at distance

and that's like that's Izzy's go-to weapon when you aren't just going to duck your head in charge and then he tackled him to the ground a bunch the Yo-L fight which is still to me one of the funniest fights I've ever seen just ever

it is hysterically funny to watch that fight back because it is exceptionally clear after Izzy gets hit by the one right hand from Yowel early on. He's like, I'm just never going and punching distance of that dude again. No interest in it. And I kind of feel like Paheya has more acumen, more ability to force Izzy to be more active and do something. But like, I kind of think that largely Izzy's just going to point fight him again because getting into exchanges is not a path to success.

Like, I mean, it could be because he can succeed now against anyone in the world. there's also the chance that he just eats another big ass left hook because Alex Bahia, have you looked at that man? He is like designed by the gods to punch hard. His fists are enormous. They are like the size of toasters

and he has go-go gadget arms that stretch forever. That man is leverage and mass and that's how force works. It is no surprise to me at all that that dude hits as hard as he does just looking at him. He is built to clobber the brains out of people.

So I hope so, man. I hope because he will not be disincentivized like Jared Kennedy was. He is going to scrap. He is going to try and find openings and he's going to throw a volume. And he's going to try and make it a fight. But I think that'll be one of those ones where Izzy really gets on his bike and wins like an awful. Like it not an awful because it will be good, but it will just be like, yeah, Izzy mostly kicked him a bunch and ran away and wasn't there to be. hit and Pahia maybe it's even shoot to take down which would also be hilarious so at this point

I am twice bitten 18 times shy I will believe Israel Disney has a fun fight when he shows me as a fun fight but if you can't pull out a James Irvin or something for him he's probably just going to do this for a long time which is dominant but it's not making me tell my friends they need to cough up 75 bucks to watch this yeah prayer is uh it is Pereira not peheda I'm so used to. It's Perera? Okay. Yeah, it's Perera.

So his translator actually came in and was like, hey, it's Perera. And I was like, oh, okay. But I'm just so used to saying the names like that. Like Carl, it's not Carlos Diego Ferreira. I don't pronounce R's anymore. Everything's a soft R. 100%. 100%.

But Pereira is like the Brazilian Ivan Drago, like just not rattled, big power. You can tell it like a machine kind of makes him and creates him. what he is because he shouldn't be this good at MMA with this little experience. He shouldn't be here. Let's be clear. He might not be good at MMA. We have no idea if he's good at him or not. I don't think he is. I think he's good

at punching people in the face and they have expertly booked him. He has really done a great job of sliding in there. But like I said beforehand, I still feel less confident just because, I don't know, killer knockouts always add

a little question to you. But like, I Marvin Vittory just waxes him. So it's like, so Marvin Vittoria has a big blockhead and he's just going to come forward, pressure him, take him down, sit on him. Like that's just the thing he's going to do. And that's,

but yeah, uh, maybe, I'm hopefully, hopefully he'll bring something out in Izzy because you're all right. This dude ain't shook for the, the difference between him and Izzy this past week is really stark to me as far as like,

who actually cares what people say about them and don't. because Alex Barrow does not care. That man clearly just does not. It's just like whatever, dude. And Izzy is all wound up in his own head now or something. And so he's mad at the journalists and the internet. Dude, I don't know. It's all real weird.

But I hope that he'll be back to being cool and that fight will rule. But I am cautious to believe so. Black Friday is here at IKEA and the clock is ticking on savings you won't want to miss. Join IKEA family for free today. and unlock deals on everything from holiday must-haves to cozy at-home essentials, all the little and big things you need to make this season shine. But don't wait. Like leftovers at midnight, our Black Friday offers won't last.

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I usually drown it out with the radio. How's this? Oh, yeah. Way better. Save on insurance by switching to Bel Air Direct and use the money to fix your car. Bel Air Direct, insurance simplified. Conditions apply. You mentioned, we'll move on here.

You mentioned that when the new MMA fighting rankings, the only rankings that matter come out, Israel Adisani is going to be your number one pound for pound guy. Yes, sir. He will not be my number one pound for pound guy. It will be the current reigning, defending UFC featherweight champion, Alexander Volcanowski after this performance against Max Holloway. This was a special showing. especially considering he basically fought 17 minutes with one hand

and still put on that kind of performance, shuts out Max Holloway. I don't think anyone really expected a shutout like this. I still think people expected a big fight. There were so many people in Las Vegas who were saying, Max Holloway is going to win. He's got that fire. He's got that energy.

He sold me. Holloway's going to not only, people say not only is Holloway going to go out there, he's going to go out there and finish Volkanowski. That did not happen. Al Jada Volkovsky gets it done, 50, 45s across the board. What an incredible performance. Why is Volkanowski not your number one guy?

Why is Adasigning a guy, especially after what happened on Saturday? So Volkanowski is my number two, will be. And that was, I rigged the system a little bit for him to be up number two. He actually still should be number four. I do pound for pound rankings, basically a point system, taking into account what you've accomplished in your weight class. Who have you beaten? and kind of how those

how those wins stand currently because I view pound for pounders a snapshot of the current moment so like Wolkenovsky has four top five wins

at 145 three of them are Max Hollow and one's Brian Ortega and the rest of his resume is Chen Sung who I think we have is a top 10 featherweight but maybe he's top 15

I mean that's like that's the extent of it of his featherweight resume which is not bad By no means am I saying beating Max Holloway three times is not good. Jose Aldo? Come on. Jose Aldo is a Bantam way now. Okay.

I do credit wins outside of like ranked competition outside of division, but it doesn't get as many points as doing it in your division because if you pound for pound battles as a divisional supremacy thing. And whatever and I'm honestly like I wanted to, I think I said in our in our thing, or like group slack or whatever that I wanted to find a way to break the system out

to just lie to myself and put him above Izzy because Izzy's fight was boring and I don't want to reward boringness but here's who Izzy's beaten I'm going to use the UFC's rankings just for sake of simplicity Robert Woodick twice Jared Canonnier

Marvin Vittori Derek Brunson Paulo Costa that is one through five in the UFC's middleweight rankings Alex Paheahe is number six on Strickland is seven and then you get on down Kelvin Gassum is 11 there but he has like five or six I think he has five wins over top five opposition according to our rankings he's got another several of them tucked away for middle thing they talked about it afterwards like who else is there

for Alexander Volkanowski to fight he's cleaned out his division actually no he's fought two dudes in the top five of his division so he hasn't cleaned it out at all uh you know who has Israel He's absolutely cleaned out his division. He has beaten everybody to the point that we had to jerry rig a series of fights to get Alex Pahia to be a contender for him. Like that's just, and I'm going to reward it. Even if maybe it's not the most exciting, it is, it was dominant. It was unquestionably dominant. Jared Canaanier had zero moments where it looked like he was winning that fight.

And dominance, duration, and, you know, wide level of opposition. Izzy has all of it. So he has to take my number one spot. Technically, Ustman and Inganu should be ahead of Okonovsky, but I gave Volko this little baby boost up just because it was such a good performance. But when Usman beats Leon Edwards next or end of this month, is that 30th? August. That's in August.

Oh, that's August one. Okay, yeah. When Usman beats Edwards in August, he'll reclaim this second seed. and in Gano I'm docking in points because he doesn't get to fight until January so I rigged the system so Volt could be number two

because if you're just doing it on like eye test, whatever I have absolutely no issues with you calling him the top pound fighter in the world I've thought Volk was a tremendous fighter for a long time he's only getting better absolutely no issues the only thing I want to see

I want to see him beat more people in his division I'm tired of him fighting Max Holloway 17 times I don't give a, I do not care. I'll watch it, but I don't care about him going up to lightweight. Featherweight is a really fun, really exciting division with a lot of prospects on the rise. Fight them, dude. Fight them.

Fight other people and say the same one dude for three years. So what do we do here? A lot of people are saying Josh Emmett thought he was going to be sitting cage side for this fight. So you could do that. Yair's fighting Brian Ortega, July 16th. I feel personally that if Yayaeer wins that fight, it's going to be him and Volcanovsky next,

depending on whether or not they shoot him up. But I mean, what else does Josh Emmett have to do? Because he, your eye favor on Sunday was pissed, was really pissed at apparently the treatment that Josh Emmett received on Saturday. But I don't remember anybody from the UFC brass saying, hey, Josh Emmett is the next guy. He's sitting Caged side and he's going to fight the winner of this fight. I don't remember anybody's side of Josh Emmett.

Yeah, that's because they didn't because I agree. I think that they think, if the Ayer beats Ortega, that's the fight they're going to make. I feel pretty confident in that. Unless they just give him what he wants, because the commentary team really was setting it up, like we're just going to do Volk it lightweight, even though they honestly aren't a lot of worse times to do Volk at Lightweight than right now, but whatever. So maybe they are just going to do that. Maybe that's why they short, shorted Josh Emmett, maybe Emmett has to fight the winner of

Ortega Rodriguez for an interim belter. Something dumb. I don't know. But if Rodriguez beats Ortega, I think you do Rodriguez. I think that makes sense. But mainly because I don't think Josh Jim had actually beat Calvin Cater, but if we're going on the officials, he did. And so, yeah, I don't think he needs to do anything else for a title fight, though.

I think he can just sit and wait. And that's because he should. He should be fighting for the belt. And that's the thing. If Alexander Volcanoz goes with delay, we'll have plenty of success. I'm not saying he won't. I think he'll beat a lot of top lightweights if you wanted to scrap. I'm not confident he would win the belt, but I do think Olivera presents a more winnable fight for him than some of the other ones up there.

But I don't care because he's not a lightweight, unless he's going to go be a lightweight, and then I care all the cares. I have all the cares in the world if he's just going to say, I'm going to go be a lightweight. But I don't need multi-division champion defending belts across my leg. No, pick one, pick a lane, and be in it. And if you're going to leave featherweight, that's fine. Totally do that. I'm okay with it. Go chase your dreams lightweight.

But part of it, you never see people, do you don't see Henry Suhudo saying, I want to go fight, you know, Max Holloway and then I'll fight Volk. You don't see Volk saying, I want to go beat up Justin Gaichi to get the right to challenge for a title. It's, I want to cut the line because I don't want to have to do the things everyone else does because that's an easier way to a title shot. And I get that.

I fundamentally understand that as an easier and some would argue justified way to view it. But I don't care. Like show me, if you want to do it, go up and fight somebody and fight anyone and then prove to me that you are a winning lightweight and okay, let's give it a go. But that's not how the sport has worked since Connor broke it in 2016. It's probably never how it's going to work again.

And so instead, there's a real world where Volk's going to fight whoever, Islam or, Oliver or Michael Chandler, I don't know, is somehow in the title conversation. I can't figure that out, but okay. They're probably going to let him do it, and in the meantime, featherweight is going

to have other young, exciting prospects coming up in all jockeying position until we get a logjam, because it's what happens. When the champion does other things and doesn't defend regularly, you get a logjam of what could be fun contenders, and it said it's like, all right, well, now we need, now we need Francis Inganu and Curtis Blades to fight a second time because

Steepa and D.C. are just holding the belt up, go and bring around the Rosie for a while. And now instead of getting both Inganu and Curtis Blades as fun title challengers, Curtis Blades is a lifetime away from a title fight because Inganu did end up winning the belt. And so it's just like, no. Like what if everybody just stayed in their lane, defended their title and moved on? Because I'll close on this point.

Volk is not the greatest featherweight of all time. He still has a lot of work to do in that regard because championships matter. Title defenses matter. Jose Althe defendant is about nine friggin times. Volk can go win a second belt, sure, that will not matter in my regards and in reasonable regards towards your goat status, frankly. But what would if he just sat and defended his belt because it is impossibly difficult to defend your title time in and timeout?

It gets harder each and every time. Volk is not the youngest dude in the world, even though he's getting better every time out. he has a finite window to defend his featherweight belt. That window is closing a lot quicker than I think any of us think. Because that window closed a lot quicker than we all thought it would on Max Holloway. It's just how this sport works. If I was in his corner, I would tell him, dude, you'll beat Josh Emmett. Go be Josh Emmett, be I. Rodriguez.

Get Arnold Allen, like, stack up some names underneath you the way Demetrius Johnson did. And then you'll be literally an all-time, all-timer, instead of a good champion who has multiple title defenses but ends up losing it because you took a failed attempt at 155 and got tackled to death by his own Makachev because mock will just roll him. So like, I don't know. I didn't like a lot of KB this weekend and all of their future plans, frankly. Fair enough. Yeah, I actually feel like if Volk's going to do it, do it now because I feel like the

most interesting title defenses he's going to have are coming like a year and a half from now. when you get Mavzar of Loyaf, when you get Tuporia, Arnold Allen, when you get these guys going on just an incredible run. I'm super interested in Josh Amariari Rodriguez because they're different people. I think Volk wins. No, that makes sense. Volks fought the same dude so much.

And yes, it's great. But I knew after the first one, the Volk was a better fight than Max, or at least that style was substantially more effective for him than it was for Max. But, like, Brian Ortega, that fight ruled. that fight was insane and awesome and it was like the champ was in legitimate danger

and like that's like I want to see that maybe Josh Emmett has that in him who the hell knows dude hits hell hard and Volcan get hurt like I want to see those fights I don't want to see him just cut the line of because the other end of it is 155 is super log jammed

already like there's so much going on there right now because Oliver is trying to fight freaking Connor again and so it's just like dude I to know who the actual best lightweight in the world is and I want the best featherweight to defending its feather weights. I want that kind of normalcy in my life. Please give me that instead of the endless masquerade of champ champs and money fights and all this. It's just exhausting.

Yeah, 55 is crazy. Just find some neutral territory and just freaking Olivera Makachathev fight. Enough is enough. Don't do it in Abu Dhabi. Do it in Brazil. Do it in Brazil. Mokachachov said you go to Brazil. Mokachachos down.

Do it in Brazil. If the UFC doesn't book that in Brazil, they have to just be doing something with Connor, which makes me sad. But like, doing that fight in Brazil seems to be the exact way to do this. Yeah, that's fine.

I don't want to see it in Abu Dhabi. I don't think Oliver has any interest in fighting Machachep in Abu Dhabi. And if they offer him that fight, he should just say no, I'll fight the winner, not in Abu Dhabi. Yeah, so, yeah. So it's still going to be a cluster.

And listen, Volcanowski's got options right now. If he wants to go to 55, I think the UFC will let him, but if he wants to stay a 45 and keep trying to rattle off these wins and try to catch Jose Aldo, he could certainly do that as well. Let's move on to another big story coming out of this card in the Bannamweight Division. We're all ready to see Sean O'Malley get his big test against a top 10 guy in Pedro

Munoz. Absolutely fantastic matchmaking, at least on paper. We saw the first round how it plays out. Two of the judges give Pedro Munoz the first round. Then we get the eye poke. Munoz can't continue. Fight is over. O'Malley and Munoz have their moments in the octagon.

O'Malley says he's sorry. Seems like cooler heads are going to prevail. Maybe we just go and run this back. John O'Malley doesn't seem all that interested in running it back because he claims it's a victory for himself, claims that Pedro Munoz agreed with a lot of people on Twitter that he basically saw a way out and took it instead of taking an L. That's what a lot of people felt.

Sean Amelie feels the same way. Henry Sohudo starts calling him out and says, you know, I'll take a, you know, I'll take a tune up fight with you and all that happened as well, which I actually thought, honestly, I thought that was the best thing Henry Sehudo has done since apparently doing the comeback was they actually challenge somebody that doesn't have a title, which I actually, I actually like that. But be that as a May, if you're the UFC right now, yeah, if you, if you're the UFC right now and you see how this all played out, are we just running this back?

are we turning the page and we have this in our back pocket? We can run this back, kind of like the Cheeto thing in a way. We can just rerun this back at any other point. Or do we just go back to this? Or do we go a different direction? Do we try to book O'Malley versus Sohudo?

What do we do here? Depends on what they're trying to accomplish for Sean O'Malley. Because I honestly don't know. Sean O'Malley dropped out of my rankings this month after that fight because he was losing. He was not winning that fight. and sure there was a lot of time left in that fight but what I saw made me

substantially left I've been high on him as a prospect because he's a really good offensive fighter his defense isn't much as defense is that he's long but offensively he's extremely potent and that can get you really, really far and I thought we'd mostly seen development and so it's like all right he's this

this is going to be a guy who's a perennial top 10 dude he still may be that he had absolutely zero ability to answer what Pedro Munoz was doing. He had maybe who was going to find it in the second half of the fight, but Pedro Munoz just didn't engage with him. He stayed at range and kicked him in the leg a bunch, and Sean Malley couldn't do anything about it. He didn't have the tools to close that,

to walk Munoz down effectively, to cut the cage on him, to get into the sorts of exchanges where he thrives and excels. and since Munoz wasn't giving him those, he was just kind of losing a not great fight. And I didn't see it changing. I did not see anything that looked like, oh, something really substantive here is going to break.

And so that gives me a lot of concerns about what O'Malley can be in the future. Because he's not young. He's not old, but he's like 27, isn't he? He's been in the UFC like six years. He's been around. This is put up shut up time. Like you got to start doing things and he's got the good wins.

But like this is where he should be stacking the kind of title ascension wins, you know, to get into that conversation. And Munoz was supposed to be a guy for him to do that. And he, whether he was going to win or lose, he was not going to win in the way that he was supposed to win, which is in itself a not a great sign for him. So if you're still trying to be high on him, if you still think, hey, this guy brings a certain fan base, like this is still a dude we want to push promotionally. I don't think you run it back because I think Pedro Munoz might

be a more difficult fight for him because Pedro really wanted to win and was approaching that fight incredibly smart. But then I don't know who you do. If I was me it was me because I don't I don't understand Sean Amality as a star. I accept that he is and that

people care about him but I fundamentally do not understand why. I would just book him against Adrian Yannes because that fight would rule like that would be super fun Janice probably kills him but that probably would be incredibly fun to watch but they probably won't do that

he is I don't know what's I'm trying to think of somebody who like is surely going to be a good win for him and to step up Rob Font I don't say that you win that way I don't know that's an interesting matchup for him

Rob Font might be the best because he can beat Rob Font I don't know that he will beat Rob Font Rob Fonts jab may give him a lot of problems but and Rob Fonts also relative length as far as the division goes. But like you can't have him fight Ricky Simone. Like that would just be an awful fight for him. Yeah, they would have made that fight already if that was the direction. Yeah, you can't, you can't do that.

You can't move him up. You can't really do the Cheeto because Cheeto's not going to take that fight at this point. It's a big step back for him. So yeah, I guess Rob Font is probably the right answer. Songy Dong would be fun, but also. killing off prospects isn't the best business strategy

so yeah Rob Font give me Rob Font that seems okay yeah if they run it back cool they could do fonts they could do a number of different things they could do Suhudo I actually don't mind the Suhudo one

because I feel like it's a win win for the UFC because if he beats Suhuda it's a very big deal and if he loses you could chalk it up to I know he's not the youngest guy ever He never beat Suhudo but yes that is fair I don't think that fights I don't think that just doesn't sound like something

UFC will do, but like, mainly because I don't think the UFC wants to do Henry Suhudo favors. Like that is my interpretation of this situation is they are not opposed to him returning, but they are not going to help him in any capacity. And giving him a softball win over a big name is probably helping him.

So my guess they don't do that. But it wouldn't be awful from that standpoint. Yeah. They should just do Sehudo versus Peodor Yan, call it a day. that's the fight that should be made i don't think i don't think so hoot takes that fight no and he shouldn't he shouldn't take that fight if he gets a shot at o'malley that's that's the one if he can get shot a molly instead of pejorie han but i think shahudoh is i still don't believe suhru's coming back

yeah unless the uc is going to do him the favor of an immediate title shot i don't think he's coming back which i don't think they will i mean at featherweight because i don't he keeps pretending like he wants to ban away I don't think he cares. I think he just wants to find Alexander Volkanowski. If they didn't give it to him in Jacksonville, they're not going to. I know he has to go through the whole thing of the USADA testing pool,

but they've given exemptions to people before. They really wanted to make that fight. They could have, and they chose not to. They went with the Korean zombie. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but they could have done the Suhudo fight right there and then, and they didn't do it. I can't wait until Henry Suhudo leaves our lives.

Retire and do movies, like, don't surround anybody. Like, I just don't need your pretend wanting to fight and starting beef with, like, everyone. By the way, my favorite commenter is a guy named the Real Mike Heck, and his image is the guy from the middle. And by the way, I've been Mike Heck longer than that guy was Mike Heck, all right? So I'm the real Mike Heck, damn it. Or my dad is the real Mike Heck, the senior. So he's actually got me by 20-20-some year.

I'm a junior. I'm a junior. Look at the Twitter. Look at the Twitter handle, bro. I have never noticed that. If that's in your Twitter handle, that has gone over my head. J.R. We'll see what happens.

Listen, if they want to run back to Pedro fight, cool. But even after all this, O'Malley has options. And that just shows that the way that they view O'Malley, and I just feel like the way that Pedro Munoz has been treated through all of this is just been horrendous. It's been really awesome. And then he goes on the MAA hour yesterday, And he could have just blasted everybody.

And he was like, nah, he's just the nicest guy. Yeah, Pedro's Salt of the Earth and fans can be dumb. Especially, it really feels like fans of, there's a, there's the Venn diagram of fighters I don't like and fans of theirs that I don't like is a perfect circle. It's just like, yeah. Yeah, of course you'd be a fan of this dude. If you think Pedro Frick and Munoz is faking an eye injury,

you nerds. I will say in their very, very slight defense, this is not a condemnation of Pedro Munoz because it just sort of how it breaks down or whatever. It is in fact a really bad look to when a doctor is asking you about

can you see in your eye. For the first thing you say is that's the second time. Like it's when one, it isn't second time. This is the first time. But it's just the optics of that were really, really bad of

can you see? Ah, he parked me in the eye already. Like he did it before. Like, that's, that's not the answer that anyone, that anyone of a certain range of, of IQ points is going to hear and be like, yeah, that's just a thing they say. It's going to immediately be like, oh, he's looking for a way out. Fighters don't look for ways out, guys. They, they, I can think of a handful of times when a fighter legitimately like was afraid of someone and didn't want to fight him or, quit in the middle of the fight.

Diego Sanchez took a DQ loss. He wanted a DQ win. That's like one of the only times in modern history that I will say, yeah, a fighter for sure just took the dobs. And remember the reaction from that? Oh, veteran move. I mean, that's what it should be.

It is. I mean, because again, I think Pedro should have faked it and been like, that was intentional. Give me my, because Sean O'Malley, Sean O'Malley should have lost that fight because he poked him in the eye. You know who didn't poke who in the eye? Pedro didn't poke Sean in the eye.

Somehow both of them, both of them suffer because Sean O'Malley cheated. Inadvertently or not, he did a thing that you are not legal allowed to do. That's called cheating. And one of them did nothing wrong and one of them did all the things wrong. And somehow this really great system we have

punishes both people equally because we don't feel like he meant to cheat. I'd still still very stupid I hate how DQ rules work as we said many times until the rules change until the referees start to step it up

just cheat your ass off cheat your ass up because nothing's ever going to get called somebody cheated this past weekend brilliantly I'm trying to remember who it was I can't remember it too I'll think of it because I definitely said it at the time I was like oh this person

very geniusly cheated in a fight they are loose it might have an Ian Gary No, not even Gary. It might have been Drick's Duplice in that first round when Brad was kind of getting the better of him. Did he like kick Brad low? Yeah, there are a few fence grabs too. I think it was Dracus Duplice

who did a little bit of, a little bit of extracurriculars in a veteran move and totally support DDP. Way to go, buddy. Yes, there's a good night for the middle-aid division. DDP shine. Entrimanis might just be like the guy. Oh, he's a dude.

Yeah. Would you care to guess how high I have in my middle ranking? I got to take a sneak peek year rankings. Yeah, because I filled mine out too. And I was just like, wow, you are insane. I'm going to say you put him like number four or something up in that neck of the woods. He's, he's, we still have some time. I hate he's at five right now behind Johnny Ebbling, but I may bump him in front of Johnny

Ebblin. Yeah, I think I got him up there pretty out. I considered three. I considered putting him behind Bobby Knox. I'm just being like, screw it. Let's run it. Dude. Some of my rankings this month are,

are saucy. I'm on one this month. I think you just did that just so they invite you on the ranking show so you can try to defend yourself. I really did it. My lightweight rankings, I just got fed up with that division and said, I'm clean in half. I'm done with this garbage.

Let's rank the actual best lightweights in the world, not a bunch of old dudes who are squatting on rankings, fighting each other in a circle that then never giving contenders a shot. I love people are like, oh, you beat your eye halls, you're not a top five guy. He beat the hat.

I mean, he ran over your eye haul. I mean, there was not one point in that. I mean, there was a moment like the end of the second round and things got a little dicey, but he made a mistake.

I don't even think that got dicey. I, whenever something like that happens, I always should think like, he literally heard the clapper and was like, I don't care. It's like,

I gave up position. I'm not going to do it. anything for 10 seconds. I'm just going to put my hands over my face and we'll be at the end of the round real fast because I heard the clap for like five minutes, five seconds ago. We also had two retireans, Jessica I and Donald Seroni. So happy trails to both of them. Jessica, who knows, she might do pro wrestling. She might take the fleece Herrig route and maybe she ends up at BKFC, but she basically was just like, nope, I'm not getting the boot. I'll leave on my own. So responsible. Responsible choices from both of them. Good, good careers.

effort, challenge for belts. I mean, that's, look at the end of the day, that is all you can ask for in the sport is that you got your day in court, you got your chance to prove you are the best in the world, and you weren't. And that's okay, because being the second best of the fifth best, that's still an unbelievable accomplishment. Like, I mean, I know that we're the two best podcasters in the world, but like, we don't have like a way to prove that in a tournament of chance.

champions or something, but like, you know, so it's not the same. It's not the same as knowing that I'm fighting for the World Championship Belt. I am one of, I am at the bare minimum, one of the five best fighters in the world, and I have the chance to prove that I am no doubt about it, the best in the world. It's an unbelievable accomplishment. Both of them had it. So good, good on them. At Desjardin, we speak business. We speak startup funding and comprehensive game plans. We've mastered made to measure growth and expansion advice, and we can talk your ear off about transferring your business

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Hack the holidays with the PC Holiday Insiders Report. Try this PC Porquetta, crackling, craveworthy. You're going to eat. that? Who are you? I'm the voice for the next ad, car commercial, but I noticed that show-stopping roast and- Help yourself. Mmm, designed for indulgence. Precision crafted to navigate every corner of my mouth, all for just $18. Okay, okay. Try the season's hottest flavors from the PC

Holiday Insiders Report. Please feast responsibly. We'll do like a little bit of a potpourri round to wrap things up. We got to talk about UFC Vegas 58. It's going down this Saturday. We're kind of dude the main event's real good is it not Raphael versus Raphael this is a big fight this is a big fight this is a big fight this is a big one for RDA it's a huge one for for Zeeve this is like the perfect

next step up isn't it? You're hiding your face and I love this fight it's a very good fight I am legitimately excited and interested in it and if you've listened to No Betts Bard it's great podcast on the MMA Fighting Podcast Network you should go check that out drop last night

you will already have heard this speech so I apologize to you for those of you who are up on top of your MA fighting podcast streams. This fight bothers the holy hell out of me because it is

the stupidest thing that the UFC can't do things better. They are ostensibly a promotion. A promotion's job is to promote to get people to draw interest to their product, to get eyeballs to tune in.

This is an event that for being honest probably you shouldn't exist. Like they probably should have taken a week off. International Fight Week is last week. It's the biggest weekend of the year for the UFC to the Hall of Fame. There's an overload of UFC last week.

Next week, they're going to Long Island, then it's London, then we've got another pay-per-view. It's a big spread. So this is the card that is going to be forgotten. And so you could probably just not have one. Like you can just, hey, we're going to take a week off, and then we're rolling into Long Island. Hell yeah, let's get ready. Instead, they give us a card.

Okay, fine. having fights is always at least a good option for us to have so if you're a fan you got nothing to do Saturday great you can watch these fights but make people care because this fight has a baked in storyline it's baked in because literally raphael fazeve called for it he called out RDA by saying hey there are two of us in this town with the name hafael and this division ain't big enough for the both of us. So let's fight over it. And instead of the UFC doing anything fun about this, they just

rolled out a poster, put them at the top of it, here we go, here's another 12 fights for your Saturday, we're just churning through them, churn it through them, churn into, like make things stand out, make things interesting and fun. This is, what I pitched all, like, all just off the top of my head, but I actually

have come around to decide that this is the best idea. Make this for the golden name tag, a golden Hafeel name tag that's on the line. and do something fun and interesting. Like, be interesting. Be interesting. It's not that hard to just try, to be interesting,

especially when the fighters themselves are spoon-feeding you things. It infuriated me when Gaci and Eddie Alvarez fought for the most violent fighter on the world thing that they cooked up between themselves. And the UFC didn't do shit with that. They could have made a crown of thorns or anything cool and been like, hey, this is it.

And you don't have to just make one for every fight. not saying figure out a promotional gimmick and throw it at every fight because 40 of those is a lot of those and we don't need that every year but when they're there take them you did it with the bmf belt you can do it with this and say hey they're fighting for the thing and you can even up the stakes in the stupidest but most compelling way by saying you get the golden name tag they get to wear it it's like a chain you know like a turnover chain in football they get to wear it for all their future fights with or Raphael, and from now into eternity, unless they rematch, the UFC can no longer call him Rafael Fazeve or Rafael D'Aourgso.

It's just Dosangros or Fiziv or RDA. Like you don't get to you, for all their promotional things, just be like, no, your name is gone. You guys are fighting over the naming rights and this. They could change it on EA UFC 4, so it's just R Dosangios or whatever. Like, you don't have to do it. You can be fun and interesting. interesting. You can like your job and want to excel at it instead of just stamp, move on,

stamp, move on, stamp, move on. Got to get to 42 because that's when the paycheck from ESPN comes in. And so this event frustrates me to no end because it was a freaking softball to be cool. And they couldn't even pretend to be. They didn't even like, I'm not looking at the poster, but it's not Battle of their Raphael's on the poster, is it? No. Yeah, they didn't even do that. Like literally just a minimum amount. There's no Raphael to be found. Yeah, that's the worst title ever. Battle of the Halfails.

Like, that's it. Bam. That's at least something, a slight step towards interesting and giving a shit about your job and taking pride in your work. And they're just, they're just cranking them out because they've got to get to 42. And it sucks. It's so lame and it bothers the hell out of me every time I think about this fight. It's a good fight. It's a great fight.

Yeah. I think Gardia has a really good chance to win, honestly. Yeah, he's a lot. He's a very live underdog in this fight because he was a much bigger favorite than I thought he was going to be spending his minus 2-10 the last the last I looked yeah it's uh because he does really cool shit in the cage you know he gets all matrixy

um he picks fights with Connor because Connor doesn't know how axe kicks work which is real weird um you know it was he's he's fun he's dude he is a very fun fighter if the best outcome is for him to win because RDA's past his prime we don't

need another old dude coming up the top of that division so let the new blood win but RDA is still It's a tough out. It'll be a really tough fight for Fisiv. Love the fight. Can't wait to see what happens. Can't wait to see if this fight gets extended,

which if I'm RDA, I mean, you want to try to get him out of there early, but getting this to the fourth and fifth round, really interested to see what Fizib looks like when he gets to the championship rounds. Kyle Baralio is getting a second straight co-main event. It gets Armin Petrosian, Said Naraga, Madoff is back.

They must really like Kyle Baralio. And I think he's a good prospect, but like they must really like him to be giving him this feature. this heavy this early. Yeah. We get Saeed back and the Jedd-Mishu special, Jared Bandera versus Chase Sherman on the main card. I cannot believe, I don't want to go into it too much because we spent way too much time talking about our no-bets bard. I cannot believe that this fight is on the main card.

I cannot believe this fight is even happening in the UFC. These dudes are 0-3 and 0-and-4 in their last fights respectively. What the hell are we doing here? And neither of them are prospects. Like Vandera's, I think, 30. So, like, theoretically, he could maybe get a ranking someday, just because of the way heavyweight works. But, like, dude, what the hell are we doing?

Why is this? Why is this awful, awful fight on a UFC broadcast in the year of our Lord 2020? Massive fight for Cynthia Calvio. Definitely needs a win against Nina Nunes, who's bumping up to 125. I mean, that's the biggest fight on the card outside of the main event. Yeah, Michael Johnson, Jamie Mularky's got to be bananas.

Really like that one. Yeah. Ricky Terseos, getting back in. there, a ticket on Amon Zahabi, Antonina, Chofchenko, Courtney Casey, Cody Bundas, Trashon Gore. That fighting going to the judges. Yeah, 100%.

David O'Nama staying on the card, fighting Garrett Armfield, who I'm very excited, finally gets his shot in the UFC. Unfortunately, he's got to go up a weight class. He's good, Florida kid. Fought a lot for Shamrock FC, good fighter. Usually abandon weight. He has fought Onama before,

and they had a close decision fight, which I believe was won by Onama. Kennedy and Chichuco, Carmen Wilbertsin. In my opinion, the lowest, yeah, and the lowest of the low-key bangers, Ronnie Lawrence, Sadiqqqq Rahmana. That fights could be ridiculous. Fights very fun as well. Yeah, so if you got nothing to do on a Saturday and you don't have just a gigantic UFC 276 hangover,

watch this card. Look, all the fights are competitive. Like, every one of the fights, and I mean, the odds reflect it. Most of them are pretty close. if you're just looking for competitive scraps this should be decent if you're looking for name value that this ain't it dog

but some people who might do some things I'm coming around on the idea that Kennedy in Chiku is actually like maybe going to be a real problem he's just so big Mike he's just so big

he's the largest man alive so yeah I mean there's some prospects here some you know the main event's good. It's not an awful card. Not bad at all. All right. If you guys got like just random potpourri questions, sir them up.

Jimmy Flick's coming back, Jed. This might be the shortest retirement in the industry. 15 months. He's back. That's definitely not the shortest retirement. It's one of the shortest. I mean, it's not long, certainly, but there's no chance that's the shortest retirement. One time,

honestly, I think the best thing Tito Ortiz has ever done, in his entire career is retiring, but saying he was retired, but he was still going to fight. I forget the exact quote, but I wrote it. And like, it is paraphrased slightly. Yeah, I'm definitely going to retire. I mean, I might still take some, I'm definitely retired. I may still take some fights as they come, but like, I'm for sure retired. It's like, you're an absolute hero, Tito.

I don't think you know what retired means. What was your question, Mike? Something about Jimmy Flick? Yeah, he's good, I think. I mean, good for him. He, sure. He's a great, great name. He, he, he's a new, he hit the flying triangle choke, right?

On Cody Darden. On Cody Darden. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that was sick. So, yeah, good. We'll see. I mean, I doubt he's going to, like, make real noise or whatever, but fine.

Love the name. Love fun names. They're at least interesting. Jimmy, that's a wreck flick. I mean, it's not a bad choice. It's a good name.

Do we have anything else to? Well, I'm concerned because here in the low country, as you know, we, the weather forecast say it's going to be sunny and breezy and a nice day and all of a sudden

we get a whole bunch of freaking storms. Afternoon thunderstorms. No, but I think we're hanging on here. We're hanging on. Afternoon thunderstorms. We're hanging on. That is. my entire life growing up, you could just, in high school, my job was, I was a lifeguard,

a private country club. Outside of this job currently, the best job I've ever had, unbelievably fun. Got paid pretty good money for high school and I just sat at the pool all day. And we had adult swim on the hour for 15 minutes every hour. And every day during the summer, you were basically guaranteed to get a 32 hour and a half long break because at some point a thunderstorm was going to roll in for 20 minutes. Lightning Flash. All right, clear the pool.

Nobody swimming for a lot. It's like clockwork. Best job I've ever had outside of MMAFighting.com, the best website in the world. Before I came with M.A. fighting, I freelanced MMA for a year. I told my wife, give me a year. If I don't get a job, I won't cover it anymore. So I had to, obviously, if you freelance, you make no money at all. So I made very little

PA announcer for a minor league baseball team and they had a sunday every single game. When the sun peered over center field, it would stop the game and a sun delay. Yes, a sun delay. Every single game.

What is it because like the batter couldn't see because the sun? Yeah, pretty much. Okay, I just like, I don't understand what that would be the only thing that would make sense to me. But okay. And that it became a thing.

That's awesome. Yeah, they would celebrate it. Yeah, they played games. games on the field and all that stuff. It's like the same thing stretch. Yeah. It was like 30 to 45 minutes every game and there are certain things times where I'm like, I just want to like go home.

You know what I mean? Oh, yeah. I don't want to go home. I don't need a sun delay. I don't need a sun delay. I mean, that's just how that goes. Yes. I think we're done here.

I think we're done here. I think you're done here. Listen, we got a. Yes, Jed. Hey, that's the real Mike Heck Jr. The real Mike Heck Jr. That's hilarious. The janitor, Ian Eitor.

That's super funny. Wow. Well done. You win the game. Maybe you are the real Mike Heck Jr. After changing everything like that. So preview show tomorrow, 3 p.m. Eastern. We will preview this card a little more in depth.

UFC Vegas 58. We'll have People's Free Fight Show on Saturday as well. Heck of a morning back again tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. Eastern. Thanks for everybody for jumping on that. Well, post-fight show, onto the next one, all that fun stuff. A lot of people asking when we're going to cover events again. I have no idea. Jed and I might be a tag team in something in the first week of August.

Big event. Big event. You guys, I'm sure you've all been circling your calendars for it. So we won't spoil anything, but big event. Maybe the biggest event that's happened in months. Perhaps the BMF champion might be promoting an event right down the road. Jorge Masvidal. So we might make something happen there.

Maybe we'll play some golf. We'll play some golf and go cover some MMA. That's fun. We'll cover regional M.A. Who doesn't love regional M.A? Hey, that's how we all get our start. But we're out of here. For Jed, I am Mike Keck.

Thanks for watching, everybody. Appreciate you jumping out. Casey back next week, so the show looks a little bit more professional from a video standpoint. Hopefully we have an actual battle going on. But until that, everybody, thank you very much. See you back next week. Between the Lakes.

Good night. everybody.