MMA Fighting - Emergency Reaction: Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic CANCELLED! Interim Title Fight Booked For UFC 295!

Episode Date: October 25, 2023

Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic is OFF! Shaun Al-Shatti, Damon Martin, and José Youngs assemble to react to Jones' injury, Sergei Pavlovich vs. Tom Aspinall getting booked for UFC 295's new interim heavyweight title fight, Miocic's side of the equation, what this means for the heavyweight division, and much more. Follow Shaun Al-Shatti @ShaunAlShatti Follow Damon Martin @DamonMartin Follow Jose Youngs @JoseYoungs Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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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. Podcast Network.

News, gentlemen, we have breaking news. There is never a dull moment in this sport, is there? And what do you know? I am sitting here, out here in Phoenix, Arizona, just enjoying what is kind of like a legendary Arizona a sports night, Diamondbacks make the World Series. Phoenix Suns win the home opener against Golden State. And wouldn't you know it?

Dana White announcing that John Jones is out of UFC 295's main event. He has an injured shoulder that he injured in training. That fight against Steve Mioch is just straight off the new main event of UFC 2995. Alex Pereira versus Yuri Perthka for the light heavyweight title and the new co-main event. Sergey Pavlovich versus Tom Aspinall. Tom Aspin, or I'm sorry, Pavlovich, the backup fighter for this initial main event. That is now the co-main event for the interim UFC heavyweight title. Gentlemen, I'm with Damon Martin, Jose Young's, the night crew here at MMA fighting.

What the hell? What do you make of all this? Two events in a row, two events in a row where we lose the main event. And all this kind of craziness happened, John Jones. And just to make sure we're clear, it was a torn pectoral tendon. So Dana White said eight months he'll be out has to have surgery So I kind of guesstimated International Fight Week next year Just kind of throwing out there for John Jones return

But yeah I mean Like this sport this sport never ceases to surprise you When these things happen and pop up out of nowhere And Jones actually has a video of where he injured the show Where he injured the peck muscle which is pretty crazy But yeah he's injured out steep A no longer a factor I'm sure we'll talk about that in a second and now you get Sergey

who was the you know probably the legitimate number one contender really and we're really being honest with ourselves he was a legitimate number one contender and then Tom Aspinall the guy that everyone's super high on I mean they made a pretty good fight to replace it it's not Jones Miochich but it's pretty good Jose what do you think of the pieces we're left with here

and what do you make of Jones's pullout I mean I've been pretty what's the phrase injuries don't really phase me in MMA because I lived through 2012 where every single fight car pretty much fell apart. So John Jones and Steppe Miotr just both could have been hit by cars. I've been like, yeah, that makes sense because this is the USC specifically MMA. It's weird that we have video, but I think if this happens, if last week didn't happen and we had the original main and co-main event, I feel like the reaction probably would have been more visceral because it was like a pallet cleanser and then the injury were just like, yeah, we went through this and we got some great fights.

The injury itself, yeah, it's weird that we have video of it. It's like what Yuri Pohasca hurt his shoulder or chest real bad. And now John Jones seems like he has the same injury. Yeah, it's just disappointing all around. It's weird. It's also a bummer that was supposed to be the 30th anniversary. So, you know, John Jones, Steepa just felt like the perfect main event for that card. now we have Yuri Phraska who has what

two three fights in the UFC in Oxpere who has what five six fights in the UFC headlining the 30th anniversary card of the biggest MMA promotion in the world so naturally that's the main event we're getting but it's still a great fight the new colonel main event between Sergey and Tom Aspel probably was going to happen at some point anyway

if John Jones didn't come back if Steve Amiochus had indeed retired this is probably the fight we're getting anyway so I'm not disappointed we're getting the fight But like I said to people last week, I was down to see Islam Alex too. I was down to see Usman Hamza. I just wished it had happened under better circumstances with all the fighters healthy and both fighters, all the fighters involved getting full camps to prepare for the chaos. But yeah, injuries don't really fazed me.

It's just disappointed. We don't get to see the greatest fighter versus the greatest heavyweight of all time. Yeah, I mean, a couple immediate takeaways from this, right? Like this is not equivalent to what we just experienced with this last paper view, but it's kind of close. Like you look at the 11th. That's like two weeks away, right? This is kind of close to the same timeline. I said on a podcast earlier today that is probably going to be out in a couple hours, if not out already, the ranking show that we were on, that I would give up every single fight on the rest of the calendar for 2023 if it meant that Yer Pera stayed alive just because that fight alone is the most.

my most anticipated fight that I've ever seen. Like that's just, that is everything to me. And so the MMA gods took that very literally, and they took away a very good fight, basically hours after I said that, I'm sorry everyone, this might be my fault.

Damon, well, my other takeaway from this, and I think that's one that we already seeing people talk about, steep Miochis, it's not really a part of this anymore. John Jones is the one that it's injured.

We have video of John Jones getting injured. Stipe Amioch, it's not on the other side now of this midterm title fight, though. And maybe that shouldn't be surprising. it always seemed like Steepa was coming back strictly for John, that John was the carrot to get Stepe to maybe do this last fight. He's getting up there in age.

It's 41 years old. John was sort of the legacy fight, the one that will bolster the resume. If Steepa goes out there and beats Tom Aspinola or Sergey Pavlovich, I don't know that that changes how we think of him, although it would be certainly impressive at his age. What are you, what's your take on it? It's still late in the night.

We haven't had a chance to talk to many people yet, so we're still just sort of figuring things out. Is that your take? Is your read on this? that if it's not John, Steve is just not going to do it. Yeah, I mean, it's almost 2 a.m. here in Ohio, where I'm two hours away

from where Steve-be lives, so I'm quite sure he's probably asleep by this point. So I haven't talked to him or his management team yet, but my guess is it's exactly that. I mean, he was coming back for Francis and Gano or John Jones. Those were the two fights

that we're going to get Steve Amiochich up and interested in fighting again. Francis is gone. John was the other one. And, you know, listen, I get it. Like, in theory, you just jump back in there and you fight Sergei Pavlovich because he was already the backup. But let's be honest with ourselves. If Steepa fell out of this fight, do you really think John Jones would be jumping, chomping at the bit to fight Sergey?

I don't know that John would stay in this either. John wanted Steepa, as much as Steepa wanted John. So I'm not surprised. It doesn't, it doesn't, it really doesn't surprise when this happened. I mean, it's a bummer. It happened, of course. And I'm disappointed because that was such a great legacy fight for, both of them for the sport and for all of us,

but I'm not shocked that Steepa just doesn't have interest in turning around on two weeks' time to fight this young, hungry, massive knockout artist heavyweight in Sergei Pavlovich when he was preparing to fight, arguably the greatest fighter in the history of the sport, John Jones. I don't blame him. I'm not surprised by that, and also you mentioned he's 41. Like, he's not a young guy.

He's 28. You know, maybe he just turns around and fights whoever they throw at him. But this is, you know, the greatest UFC heavyweight at worst of all time right now. Yes, most defenses, I think that's pretty clearly stated. Maybe the greatest heavyweight of all time. What is, I mean, as you said, what does he really gain a lot from maybe he pulls off, you know, maybe he beats Sergei Pavlovich? Does he really gain a lot? And maybe he goes out there and beats Sergey.

Maybe he gets injured. And then the John Jones fight is blown even worse. So, yeah, I mean, it doesn't surprise me. I think the writing was on the wall when they ended. announce the interim title fight, we think we could all kind of figure out if Jones wasn't there, Steepa's not going to be there either. Jose, what do you make of the Stepe portion of this? Is this, is this a worse fight that we're now left with because Steepa is not a part of it? Or would you say this is still like,

actually kind of a better fight without Steepa involved? Like if it was Stebe versus Sergei, for instance. What do you think? That's a very good question. That's a very good question. Is it better without steepe involved? Um, because I mean, I'll just tell you right now. My opinion, I think, I think this is a better fight with that. That's what I'm leaning. If this was Stepe versus Sergei, I don't know that I'm as interested in it as I would for I would agree.

I would agree because I feel like the narrative of the last few years of the heavyweight division has been, you know, DC and Steepay fought once a year for three years and that kind of held held the division up a bit. And then we got this breadth of fresh air with Cyril gone. And then he got, well, first Francis, you know, he climbed his way back in violent fashion and in the meantime gyrs zio was neck and neck and neck with him he decapitates gyrzino in jacksonville and then he regains the title and it just seems like that was like a breath of fresh air into the division sits out almost a year cyril gone rises fights francis francis

wins and then goes off to box tyson fury and it's like what's left of the heavyweight division it just feels like the heavyweight division has been stagnant ever since cane velasquez dc like steep thing kind of happened several years ago and I'm not saying steep A versus John like the winner is steep A versus John both of them might have retired anyway but I feel like Tom Aspinall and Sergey Pavlovich have they've arisen as like these young unbelievable talents in the heavyweight division especially Tom Aspinall like even John Jones has said like he's one of my favorite fighters to watch and I mean a Russian heavyweight with no emotion that's essentially just a heavier handed Fador versus essentially the future of

of the heavyweight division and Tom Aspinall. In terms of high-level martial arts, I think this is better. In terms of legacy, it's John Jones-Stepe all day. But I would agree with you. I'm not particularly interested in seeing steepe fought anyone other than John Jones, especially if it's Tom Aspinall and Sergey Pavlage. I'm much more interested in these legacy fights or Stipe as like, you know, the greatest fighters ever.

Let me throw out one wrinkle, though. Let me throw out one wrinkle, though, because here's the one thing I will say. And granted, this is heavyweight. So this fight may go three minutes. regardless. But at least if you do get Steve and Sergey, you get two guys on full camps because Sergey was preparing to fight on November 11th as a backup. You know, he was getting ready just in case because we knew there was a possibility

this could happen. Aspinall's coming off the couch. Like Aspenol fought in July. He hasn't fought since then. Hasn't been booked to fight since then. So we have no idea where he's at. We're back in another situation where it's Volcanowski-Uspin. We're going to talk ourselves into believing that he's been training and fully prepared.

ready to go but let's not forget last time we saw him he was calling out surreal gone in france you know that was his next that was expected to be his next fight sometime in 2024 so while i think it doesn't affect them as much because it's heavy waste and you know there's a good chance this was going to be over inside the first round anyways i do wish we were getting two fully prepared guys because i think people forget november 11th is right around the corner we are two weeks away from that date so sergey has gotten basically a full camp in tom aspen is going to have two weeks to get ready for a monster in Sergey Pavlovich. So, again, I agree it's better on paper.

And I think this is probably going to be the fight that would have happened next year because I believe that the winner of Steepa and Jones was going to retire. And I think the loser of Stepey and Jones was going to retire. This was probably going to be like the heavyweight title fight. I thought maybe like UFC 300, they would crown a new heavyweight champion with this fight. We're just getting it earlier than expected for an interim title that will become, weirdly, the new heavyweight title after Jones and Miotche's fight at International Fight Week next year. Like it's a weird, weird circumstance, but I think that's how it's all going to play out.

I don't think we can plan more than a week at this point because a month ago, literally, literally one month ago. One month ago, we were talking about John Jones-Stepe and Jeltsidomanna v. Curtis Blades coming up in November, neither of which are happening. So let's get through the next two weeks before we even talk about International Fight Week 20, for these divisions man these divisions are such messes at this point middleweight no one has any idea what's going on at middleweight the rankings don't make any sense sean strickland is completely upended the whole entire thing hamzat shmai of is out here potentially getting a title shot off beating a welterweight with no actual meaningful middleweight wins light heavyweight has been cursed for like two years now like it's just absurd the the level that that light heavyweight

has just reached in terms of unlucky circumstances and bad luck happening and whatever the worst case is, it tends to happen. We just saw it this past week with Johnny Walker. And now heavyweight, man, I think there, Damon,

you laid out a really interesting, I guess, just statement scenario, however we want to frame it of when John Jones and Stepe do fight next year, this fight that we're about to get will just essentially like become the champion after both those guys retire.

I wonder, man, do you, like, this is ostensibly for the interim title, but do you actually think that the winner of this fight will fight John Jones for the actual heavyweight title in their next fight? Or do you think the UFC will just go back to Stepe? Because ultimately, we were doing the Stepe fight because John wanted it, right? Like, John called for Stepe. That was the name John wanted. Stepe wanted John. And so it just kind of worked out.

That's not going to change eight months from now. Like, say, Sergey Pavlage goes out there and knocks out Tom Aspinol in 20 seconds. John Jones is not going to call for Serglai Pavlovich when he's healthy. Same with Tom Aspinall. He's not calling for Tom Aspinall when he's healthy. How do you think this affects the next steps in this heavyweight division? Because now, who even knows? Well, I mean, I think it's just, you know, like I said,

I think we were getting Jones and Steepay because Jones wanted Steepay and Stepe wanted Jones. They are both at a point in their careers where these are, we keep saying it, legacy fights that are kind of the end of your career, marquee moments accolades that you can't get otherwise and no offense whatsoever to Sergei Pavlovich or Tom Aspinall they just don't have the name

or the resume to command a John Jones or a Steepin Miochich right now they are in a perfect world yes like you just fight the next number one contender but Jones lives on a different stratosphere and Stepe to a certain extent does because at 41 you know I would like there was a point where I just convinced

Stepe was done. Like, he just wasn't going to retire. He was just going to become a firefighter and never fight again. Obviously, now he came back for the Jones fight. I mean, I just, I know Stepe well enough to know that I don't see him just being like, oh, yeah, give me Aspinol, man. I can't wait to fight that guy. Or give me Pavlovich, man. This is exactly what I get up for. He doesn't, he's coming back for Jones, the same way he would have came back for the Ngano trilogy. So, yeah, they're going to, they're going to wait. And again, what Jose said earlier, when you rebook Jones Miocchich, if it happens, as you said, let's not plan too far ahead. It's still a massive fight.

Like, it's still a huge fight. Like whether there's a title online, no title online, heavyweight, whatever it is. Still a massive fight between two massive names. So you're not really losing anything with that. And the heavyweight division in a weird way, in a very weird way, moves forward because we're getting the two guys we all assumed would end up fighting for the title. Anyways, I do wonder what they go with those out real quick. I know the UFC doesn't like to ruin one card to save another,

but would Pavlovich versus Jelton Almeda been a better fight? Because Jelton's actually getting ready for a five-round heavyweight fight. Like, I know you ruin South Paulo. I know you ruin Salpalo, but I'm just saying, wouldn't Jelton and Pavlovich been a better, not to say Aspinel doesn't deserve it, he does. I'm just saying like in terms of readiness, wouldn't that have been a better option?

Well, I mean, Damon, you are talking to some of the biggest Jelton Almeida fans on the planet when you're talking about to MMA fighting. Me and A.K. and a couple other this website would go to bat for that. But I think objectively, like, Jailson's just not there yet. Like, he, like Tom Aspinall has, if not the win that would sort of get him into this conversation. Like, he's definitely much more into it than Jailton.

I think Jailton needs what's about to happen next week in Sao Paulo to sort of propel him, right? Because he hasn't even headlined in a situation like that. Like Tom Aspinall has been that guy. Yeah, I'm just throwing out there as an option his readiness more than anything, not even deserve it as much as like he's ready to go. Jose, I see you shaking your head. What's up?

Oh, I just don't think that fight would have. Because, like I just said, the heavyweight division has been so stagnant. Why kill off? Because I don't think Jailton is heavyweight material. I just don't. I think Sergey and Tom actually are heavyweight material. So, like, Sergey goes out there. A, Sergey Pavlovich versus Jailton I made as the co-made event for the 30th anniversary.

just doesn't do anything just doesn't sell. Jelton O'Meda is actually a, he's growing in Brazil because I spoke with some Brazilian media out there. I was like, outside of Charles, who is any sort of superstar in Brazil? And they're like, Jailton could be, and Alex Breyer is on his way. I don't think you pulled Jailton Omeida from his first headliner

in his home country to fight a Russian that probably beats him. I think Tom Asperon right now probably beats Jelton Ammaida too. Just like Sean said, he's not quite there yet. He's not quite there yet. Jose, I am curious for your thoughts on what I asked Damon. Do you think what are the chances of the winner of this fight, this new fight that we have,

Aspinall Pavlovich, what are the chances the winner of this fights, John Jones, for the heavyweight title on the next fight? Less than 50, I would say. I think there's a chance because money talks, but I think there's less than 50. I think John was, John called out Steepen. Like, let's not, like John wanted this fight

just as bad as Steepay wanted this fight. I don't think John Jones is coming back to fight Tom Asperlish. He's definitely not coming back to fight Sergey Pavlovich. I think this could be a situation where if John's out for a while, the interim title just, you know, keeps being defended slash gets elevated to the undisputed heavyweight title. And like, honestly, John Jones, Stipe, do you even need a belt? I mean, it's nice and shiny and seems neat,

but like I don't think you need a belt for John Stipe to cement their legacy, especially if they were both going to retire anyway. It was going to be vacant anyway. So, yeah, less. than 50%, but money talks. Here's my prediction. Back in 2017, we had a very similar circumstance

where Michael Bisping was the UFC middleweight champion, and he was off doing his own thing, fighting George St. Pierre in a fight that had no actual meaning for the 185 pound division, because all of the best 85ers were sort of on the side here. Yoel Vermero, Luke Rockhold, Robert Whitaker,

all those guys, they were on the side. What they ended up doing is they did an interim title fight in the midst of all this between Yoel Romero and Robert Whitaker. Amazing fight. Fight in the night. One of the best fights of the year. Robert Whitaker wins.

And then he supposedly was supposed to fight the winner of Bisping versus GSP. And we all knew, even in the moment, those dudes aren't going to fight Robert Whitaker. There's no point for those guys to fight Robert Whitaker. Nothing's going to happen. And who do you know? Robert Whitaker didn't fight either of those guys. And he just sort of became promoted to undisputed champion at some point after Bisbing and GSP, both more or less retired.

That's how I think this is going to play out. I think the UFC is going to do what it's going to do with this fight. And then John Jones is going to come back. He's going to want Stipe Miotr still. That's the only fight Stipe is going to want. They're going to book that fight. And then ostensibly in the lead up to that fight, they're like, all right, the winner of this will fight the interim champion.

And then both guys will retire. And then the winner of this Madison Square Garden fight will just sort of become the champion at some point next year. What are you guys saying? 100%. 100%. It'll promote it. like you said, they'll promote it. The winner of this gets Sergei Pavlovich or Tom Aspinall.

They'll promote it like that. And then right after whoever wins, John Jones says, I've done everything I want to do in my career. I'm laying it down. I'm retiring. Or Stepe, you know, somehow beats John Jones, becomes the one person that should beat John Jones. Do you really say, man, I just beat the greatest fighter in the history of the sport?

Let me come back and fight Sergey Pavlovich. That makes a lot of sense for me. No, but one of them is going to retire. One or both are going to retire. And then, yeah, they're just whoever's the champs going to be. come to champ. Like, they'll promote it, but there's, there, I would, like,

yes, money talks. I think there's a better chance of John to fight Sergey or Tom, if there's any chance. Steve is zero. I'd say it's zero percent chance. He comes back and fights Jones. Because if that was going to happen,

Steve would have fought right now. If Stephen was going to fight Pavlovich or Aspinall, he would have done it right now, not eight months from now or six months from now or whatever. Like, he's ready to go. He went through a full training camp. If he's not going to do it now, He's not going to do it a year from now.

Like, let's be real about that. It's also interesting in the fact that I think this could have repercussions for a couple cards down the line because the UFC always does go to London or the UK in March. You would assume someone like Tom Aspinall who wasn't scheduled to fight in a heavyweight title fight anytime soon, probably would have been on the shoreless to head like that. And I was, I had long been saying that if Stipe did be John Jones, I bet they would have done the rematch at UFC 300. UFC Heavyweight title, the two greatest fighters of all time,

in UFC 300. I know everyone's saying Connor, but John Jones-Dipe is also right there. Now that obviously can happen. So you'd have to wonder what happens in the, you know, January needed a main event. January still needs a main event. December 2nd still needs a main event.

And that's like, what, a month and a half away? USC's got to do a lot of scrambling the next few months to get some main events under the belt. We've seen it though, man. I mean, this last paper view was an example. This event is a good example. They, when shit happens, they can make decent fights on a fly, man.

This is about as good as you could ask for a replacement. Last two things on this, and then we'll get out of here. Despite everything I just said about laying out that scenario, the Robert Whitaker S scenario, I am holding out the optimistic side of me. The little side over here on this part of my brain is holding out hope that potentially this may mean something cool for John Jones and what he does at heavyweight down the line because I think I am not alone here in not really caring about this Steepi-Mocchich fight in a grander scheme, right? Like, John Jones going to heavyweight has been such a big deal for such a long time

that if this was how it played out to me, I felt like this was going to be disappointed, that John Jones, after all these years, comes here, trucks a guy in Cyril Gan who's perfectly fine, but someone who has absolutely no wrestling, and then goes in there and fights a 41-year-old Steeper Mioch, who hasn't fought in like two years, beat Stepe, and then, then just leaves the game being like, I did it. I did the heavyweight thing. I beat the guy.

I beat the guy. And then just walks out with all the nuance of that left behind of like, oh, we didn't actually get to see him test himself against the best heavy weights in the world in that time. The optimistic side of me hopes that this means that maybe, just maybe, John will get a chance to,

not even get a chance, but that John will almost be put in a position where he kind of has to fight a meaningful heavyweight that poses a challenge to him, whether that's a Tom Aspinall or a Sergei Pavlovich or something like that. I doubt it will happen because, again, I already put out the scenario of the Whitaker thing. I think that's how it goes. But there is always another side to it. And just in case that side happens, that'll be pretty cool because I just, the steep A fight didn't do much for me.

I mean, remember, John, if John, you know, if John beat, if John beats Steepay, you know, that's one title defense. I mean, he's only got to get two more to tie the all-time record. But I don't think even John needs that. That's the thing. Like, John doesn't need that. Like he's so high up on everyone's all time list. Like I don't like will we will our opinion change of John that much if he just go on, if he goes on trucks,

Steepay and doesn't fight anybody else? Like are we going to lose respect for John? Like John coming back at heavyweight, it was just bad timing because if he fought in Ganu and then fought steepe, that's a pretty, that's a pretty good, you know, one two punch at heavyway, right? Unfortunately, Francis left.

And the heavyweight division right now, like you actually do. have some great young talent guys like Sergey and Tom, they just don't have the name value of what guys were a few years ago when guys like Verdum and Dos Santos and guys like that were still around. So it's a weird time where there's good young, for the first time in forever, there's good young heavyweights. They just don't have the name value or the brand name, so to speak, where they can command a John Jones, where it means something to John Jones, you know? And so I think that's the difficulty we're going to run into here, where Stipe, it was kind of the last man standing in terms of legacy fights at heavyweight with frances gone the heavyweight

division needs someone like hamzot that just is a psycho and just is so captivating tom is too nice of a guy sergey pavlovitch is basically white bread two incredibly talented martial arts but they're not drawn the eyeballs like dana white said or as daman martin said yeah well let's get out of here with this because this is what we're left with this is now the the main card for the pay-per-view in two weeks. UFC 2.95. Matt Vervola versus Benoit, St. Denis, McKinsey Dern, versus Jessica Androd,

Diego Lopez versus Pat Sabatini, Pavlovich versus Aspinall, Prashka versus Pereira. How do you rate that card out of 10, fellas? Seven. I'll say, man, that's tough. You know, I'll say,

I'll agree who's a seven based solely on the main and co-main. The undercard is bad. The other card is bad. Matt for Volvo versus Benoit. I don't, I wouldn't say, I wouldn't say it's bad because I had to watch UFC 294 at night over an Abu Dhabi.

Y'all got to watch it in the morning. UFC 294, that was bad. UFC 289, that was bad. This is better than both of those cars. Like, too bad is 289, like Mike Malotte in the co-main event of a pay-per-view and Amanda Nunes, E. René Aldan in the main event. That's bad.

Getting, you know, Matt Vervola and Benoit St. as the opener of the pay-per-view. That's scrap. Matt Snow has literally never been in a bad fight in his entire life. It's a good, it's not the best prelim. It's a fine prelim. We've had worse pay-per-view pre-lips this year. The whole card is seven out of time.

Yeah, I'll go with that. I go. I can Mark Mattson throwing down on the prelims. I still got to go eight. Just for the, like eight, just for the main event. It could literally be a one-fight card with that main event, and I'm just, I'm still paying the money. It has everything to me.

Are we not picking Pavlovich or Aspinol who we're not going to see who we're picking? Come on real quick. We got to pick who. We got to say who's going to win. Hit me. Where are you leaning? I got Sergey. I am a Sergei Pavlovich believer.

Don't get me wrong. Aspinol's a monster. If he gets it on the ground, it could go bad in a hurry. But, dude, Sergey hits like a truck. And we saw when he stuffed Curtis Blades takedowns. And Curtis has obviously much better wrestling than Tom Aspinall or pretty much anyone else at heavyway not named John Jones or Steve. even meochich uh i think sergey knocks him out and i think it's just i think a part of again part of it i'm basing that on tom having two weeks to get ready for a big russian monster and sergey pavlovich

because i have no idea what tom's been doing right now fair that's fair where you lean it hose in a full camp i would probably pick tom aspinall i also just think sergey palovich has i've had i'm big into like i one of fighter answers questions and then the next fight they answer more questions and the next fight they answer more questions. I feel like Sergey has fought a different style of fighter, like his last five fights, and he's been doing the same thing to all of them, where Tom Aspinall has,

you know, Volkov is very good gatekeeper. He's like the Neo-Magny of the heavyweight division. And then Marching Tober was just kind of the last man. He had to fight Marching and Tiber coming back. That's why I was so disappointed that he got hurt against Curtis Blades. Because if he had done what he did to everyone else against Curtis Blades, I would have been 100% on the Tom Aspen's train. So the big reason why I'm not on the jail,

and I made a train, because I've seen him do three moves in the octagon. It doesn't very well, but he's never done it against a wrestler. That's why I was very excited for that Curtis Blades fight. Now we're going to see Jilton on May to do a front kick, blast double and take down against the fence into a choke. Rinse and repeat, would have loved to see him do that against Curtis plates. Yeah, I think I'll make it unanimous. I'm also leaning serving gay Pavlach.

I need to crunch a bunch of tape now. I was not a matchup I was really expecting or thinking about. But ultimately, Damon, I think I do side with you just on the preparation side. I don't know what Tom's been doing. And Sergei's a tough guy to come in there and fight on basically two and a half weeks notice. Maybe heavyweights the equalizer, right? Like this is not Kumar Usman coming in having to be ready for 25 minutes against a demon wrestler like Hamzaa Shamaev. Like heavyweight things are going to go pretty quick in this fight.

Both these dudes are first round finishers. Like if this gets into the second round, I'll be stunned. So maybe that affects how much preparation they actually need a guy like Tom to Aspinall. But I don't know. Right now, I lean Sergey, I've reserved the right to change my pick in a couple weeks. Let's, uh, let's not forget, Palovich was the backup of UFC 285 as well. So he's essentially been in camp all year to as a backup. And now, well, obviously now he's fighting, but backup mopped up Curtis Blades scheduled backup.

Now he's fighting for the title. So that dude has basically been on for the better part of 12 months. Well, who do you know? Being a backup fighter finally pays off. Buteus Gamrod out there watching this happen just being like, what the hell? Why didn't I get this treatment? I watched UFC 294 right like Gamrod was about three inches away from me

and he just wasn't the happiest guy in the room. I'll tell you that. Well, he's not the happiest guy in the room right now either. Nope. Nope. I'll tell you who is. Tom Aspenall and Sergey Pavlovich, all of a sudden they are in a giant fight.

We have this coming up in a couple weeks, very short time frame. But man, never stops being crazy in this sport. You can't go to sleep. Without some breaking news, just hitting you in like a ton of bricks. I love it so much. Don't love this one, but still, heck of a fight we've made out of it. I am Sean Oshadhi.

That is Damon Martin. That is Jose Young's. It's been an emergency reaction podcast to the latest breaking news. Keep it locked to M.M.A. fighting for all your combat sports needs. We got in Gone in Fury this week. The May hour on Wednesday. Lots of good stuff.

We love you guys. Take care. Okay. Only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first, There, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes.