MMA Fighting - Fighter vs. Writer: Alan Jouban Reacts to Merab Dvalishvili Dethroning Sean O’Malley and the ‘Conor McGregor Curse’

Episode Date: September 17, 2024

On the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer, UFC analyst Alan Jouban and Damon Martin react to everything that unfolded at UFC 306 including Merab Dvalishvili’s dominant win over Sean O’Malley and what’s next for each of them plus Valentina Shevchenko shutting down Alexa Grasso to cement her place among the all-time greats plus Michael Chandler finally booked a fight to move on from his long delayed matchup against Conor McGregor. Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nothing quite makes a holiday gathering pop like turning on the music. And if you're looking to set the mood, you should check out Sonos. With Sonos, movie nights feel bigger and more cinematic. While holiday parties come to life with music that flows from room to room, it's the kind of sound that makes a house feel warm and connected during the season. Want studio quality sound at home? Explore Sonos speakers, soundbars, and more at Sonos.com and discover how easy it is to build your own whole home audio system.

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

network. Welcome back to the fighter versus the writer. I am Damon Martin and we are living in a post Noce UFC post-UFC 306 world. It's always my great pleasure to welcome in one of the best analysts in the game. Lots to talk about with this event. It is always my great pleasure to welcome back in. Alan Joe Ban. Alan, how are you? I'm good, man. It's good to be here. I'm excited to talk about Noche. I mean, it was one of these events where I was at the edge of my seat, not only for the fights, but I wanted to see what was next. When you're talking about the worlds and the setup and the visuals, those 90-second movies that we got to watch, it was one of the, one of the events that, although I thought the fights did deliver, I was equally as excited

to see what else was in store that we haven't seen before. And just a fun card, man. I think it really, I'm hoping it really change combat sports. I hope we start to kind of sprinkle some of this into more sporting events that we do moving on. I said this. I talked to a couple of the guys from ESPN the week before the fight, and I said to them, I said, I've never written as much or talked as much about a venue as I have for this one.

I was like, I talked about the sphere as much as I talked about Sean O'Malley and Marduilashvili, because that became the show. And while I know it's a little tougher to translate on TV versus being in the arena, it was super cool. And I'm glad they tried. something different and did some cool things with the movies and the worlds and the backgrounds and

um i know dana has said you know they have a contract with mgm so probably won't happen again at least not anytime soon but i love that they did it and did something different because you know listen we're all there for the fights we all know we're there for the fights but you know just like when israel ad as sonya did his undertaker walk out or or he did the one with the dance in the front of it or we saw it's always fun to get a little something different this was something kind of cool and different We're in a world now with the TKO group and the merger with everyone with WWUFC and the entertainment aspect of fighting, I think, has never been higher, right? It's always been about fighting and we're all purists, most of us at least, are purists.

We love the fights. We love to talk about the fights and match up. What's at stake? Everything there. But the more that we add this entertainment value to the fighting aspect, the more exciting it becomes, not only for us, purists, but for fans in general. And I found that inside of me. I'm not really a WWE guy, right?

I don't really watch how much wrestling. But the entertainment value that we added to this show made me more of an entertainment-type fan if that makes more sense. I want more of this, in other words. Look, I don't care if it's just adding a bigger type of jumbotron at the apex, where we're getting some type of beautiful background, right? We don't have to be at the sphere every weekend, obviously. or once a year,

might not ever be done again. But if we could add more visual effects to the apex, we could add more seating there. Maybe when we go to two arenas, if we go to Kansas City and the Octagon Girls are now in Kansas City Chief's attire or something, the entertainment, the, oh, look at this.

This is different. This is interesting. This is fun. It made it a more appealing show, especially when you had like, you know, I'm not saying this fight. this card had it, but like lulls in it, right? You can't only expect, oh, I can't wait for this feature fight.

I can't wait for this main event. Even though those bangers on the prelims, when there's other things to look forward to throughout the course of a car that aren't even fighting, it makes the entire five, six, seven hours as you're there, more fun. And I loved every second of it at the spear. Yeah, it was great. And I'm just glad they took a chance to do something different like that

because I know it was expensive. I know it wasn't cheap to do it. But it was fun. And we were all, everybody was just on the edge of, their seat like what's this going to look like what's it going to sound like what are they going to pull off and credit to you know dana and and craig borsari and the team of the ufc pulling this off because it was it was a it was a spectacle and it was really cool and like i've not been to this i've been to Vegas a million times i've not been to the sphere yet now i'm like i need to go to the

sphere like i need to be in there and see what this is like uh because that was that was really cool and i like that it was something different like i said it's the only time i can ever remember a venue getting as much attention as the fights but it was a really cool experience. And it makes sense now, right? Dana was leading up to this matchup to this card and kind of saying the Spears is the star of the show. I remember even O'Malley, who they're promoting as one of the biggest stars in a sport. Is he going to overtake Connor McGregory? Is he going to be the next go-to guy in terms of ticket sales and the gate and all these things? And he was getting a little frustrated O'Malley because he's like, I haven't heard my name. It's all about the spear.

But when you watch the card, you understood why. You could have thrown anyone in there. And obviously, we had a great main event matchup, title fight, co-main event matchup, feature fight. We had names on there. We had matchups. But the spear was everybody was just an all. I mean, every time the 90-second movie would play,

and you would hear guys like Joe Rogan and D.C. who have done the most amount of UFC cards, Cadeside, John Anakin's, what? Well, not a lot surprises these guys is what I'm getting at. You know, you don't hear these guys often say, this is the best fight I've ever seen in my life unless it's a true banger. Not a lot surprises them. But when this 90-second movie would play,

you would cut back to the booth. And these guys are still stumbling over the words. Like, what did I just witness? What did I just, when I just saw the tale of the tape, and it looked like Godzilla and King Kong up on the screen because these guys are like five-story. high doing the tail of the tape it was mesmerizing i love that that they added that in there um and again if there's ways of just picking certain parts of these out and finding something that makes sense

financially and adding them into future shows i think it would it would be um it would it would give the fans something more and the sport would continue to evolve yeah 100% i agree i agree and i I know we've talked about the Apex before. I think we talked after they did the WWE show there. They were like, this is what it could look like? Like, come on, guys. Let's put in some bleachers.

Let's put in some things. I know they're talking about doing some construction over. I think in November, starting in November, they're going to do some. It's not the last month. It's now. Oh, it's for construction right now. Yeah, I think they're actually tearing down the walls this week,

this month. Yeah. So, you know, little things. Like I said, and because they keep telling people, Apex is not going away, but you can still make it better. Like,

you can still make it a little bit better. there. I understand why they're not going to leave it. It's too cheap and the productions in-house. I'm not even telling me they should leave. I'm saying, just make it a little bit better. Make a little bit better. You know, bring a little bit of a show into the apex and then people won't be like, oh, God, another apex show. So, you know, this was a good example of what they're capable of. Alan, at the end of the day, man, obviously it's all about the fight so we can't not start without talking about the main event. Marab de Wallisvili goes out there and delivers on a promise. He takes down Sean O'Malley. There were two rounds. I was shocked.

said this after the fight and I was like is that right Dana said there's like two rounds where Sean O'Malley threw like five strikes and I was like that can't be right I looked I think it was the second and the fourth round he threw five strikes one round landed five strikes landed six strikes the other round I was like that's insane to me Sean O'Malley landing

I said it I want to say it was like maybe after the third or fourth round I said on Twitter I said this was Sean O'Malley's worst nightmare this is exactly what he did not want to happen after Marab took him down in that first round set the tone he had he had O'Malley's Malley on his back foot.

It was everything that Mora B. Wiles really could have hoped for in that fight. And it was, in my opinion, Sean O'Malley's absolute worst nightmare. Yeah, I would agree. I don't think we saw enough out of Sean O'Malley. I think that we saw a bit of a defeated Sean O'Malley. I think he showed his cards early in this fight, right?

I think he showed his cards in his fight by the way that he went out there and fought, but also in the corner, right? When you saw him in the corner and his head was down and his coach was Tim Welch, right? Tim Welch is his coach. The conversation's going on in the corner, you know, sometimes they have to be that fireman type of speech, right? Like he's going to come out here with a fire. You got to put that fire out. You have to be the fireman. You have to motivate your corner. The Leon Edwards versus Usman one fight where you had to find some motivation in him. The coach knows his fighter best. And so they have a certain conversation. They

have a way of talking to each other. And maybe that's not Tim Walsh's style to try to ignite a fire. But if I see my fighter losing and he just doesn't have the motivation that is needed to overcome these circumstances. Because the circumstances were all morab all day. And, you know, O'Malley might have won one or two rounds. You know, the judge's scorecard's kind of different. And I think I gave him possibly, it might have been the third round or. something and possibly the last round, one of those.

But the momentum of the fight was on Marab. The momentum was there. O'Malley had moments where he would land a punch and you'd see, okay, that had a little impact. But then Marab was right on the gas pedal again. Marab never showed that the power bar was lowering. He never showed that the momentum of the fight was changing. And I'm always very big about this.

I always speak about momentum. You could land your hardest punch on a fighter. But if that fighter does not react, if he doesn't take a step, step backwards. If it doesn't give you the momentum, then what did that punch actually do? Unless we see blood and the judges say, okay, that's damage. But if you land your hearted punch on me and I smile and I take you down, I almost discount that. What did that punch do? You landed on the target. So what? You just got taken down by a guy that's smiling at you, moving forward and continued the momentum. Morab never let his foot off the gas pedal. Always continued the momentum.

even rounds where he didn't have his best round, or Sean O'Malley had a better round. Morab stayed in control, and I didn't see that urgency out of O'Malley. And I saw a bit of uncomfortability. You know what if it kind of reminded me in a way of, of Connor McGregor versus Kabib and the Magamatov, where there was so much at stake in terms of,

we know what the game plan is. Khabib has to take Connor down. Connor has to land a punch. Which of those two will happen? And the inevitable happen in both of those were the grappler who was more focused, better cardio, relentless in his pursuit, got those takedowns. And Rob, I think this is what we always kind of suspected, Damon, about O'Malley. I said this for a while.

I was always picking against O'Malley because I thought, there's still a flaw in his game. There's still a flaw in his game. I'm not seeing the entire fighter yet, the entire world round. fighter, right? You know? And then when he beat Peoriaean, which actually thought he didn't win, but he still went through a war and got a decision. So nonetheless, I can't gripe about it. Oh, he didn't win that fight. He went through one of the toughest guys in the world. Whatever you think, the score of course was still close enough to give him the fight. You have to start giving him credit. And then you put him on the biggest stage in the world, and he has a Connor

McGregor-ish-type moment against Joseo Aldo when he knocks out Aljewan Sterling. Okay, this guy has the X factor when their pressure is on he can deliver. So from then, I can no longer, okay, think, well, even though we haven't seen him against a big wrestler getting taken down, and even though O'Malley sometimes when he gets hurt, he kind of doesn't show that type of heart, I can no longer discount him as a well-rounded fighter, the champion, one of the best in the world. But this matchup was what we always thought would probably happen against this type of. of opponent and Marab that he would get taken down.

It would be relentless and we would start to see O'Malley kind of mentally fade. And I think that's what we saw on Saturday night. I think in my opinion after that first round, when he landed that takedown and really controlled Sean on the ground and was punching at him and kind of doing the Marab thing where he was just pushing him. I think maybe he went for the guillotine in the first round. He was just really putting it on him and Sean couldn't get back up again. I don't want to say it broke his will, but I think we saw him.

just like, like, forgive my language, being like, oh shit. Like, it was like the worst case scenario because that's, you know, you're, you know how it goes. It's just like when you say applying a submission in the first round when you're dry, you have a better chance of locking it on than when you're sweating, you can slip free. In that first round, you're at your absolute best when you should be able to try to block that take down. You know what I mean? Like, you're at your absolute freshness. That's what you're supposed to shrug him off, make him work, tire him out a little bit and then start lighting him up on the feet and things like that.

When he got taken down that first round and Morab controlled him, he didn't just it back up. He didn't pop right back up again. He was stuck underneath Marab and he was punching him, holding him down, kind of ragged all him around a little bit. In my head, I was like, this is the worst case scenario for Sean O'Malley right now. And it just seemed like he never, he could never get going in that fight. And I know, I think on fight night, it was either 49, 46 or even 48, 47, because as you said, I think Sean had a couple of moments and maybe the third round and you want to say the fifth rounds, you land that front kick to the body. It definitely did hurt Marab. But I hate the 10 point.

system. I've said this for years. I hate it for MMA. If you look at that fight as a whole, much like Bilau and Leon Edwards, Leon had that one round where he's on Below's back. Didn't do anything. Didn't really have any danger. He just won the position so he won the round. But I say, Bilau dominated that fight.

Leon was never in that fight. Same thing here. Like, yes, I understand technically I may have scored a round or even two for O'Malley just based on the scoring. But that was a dominant fight for Murab to Wailishvilla. There was never a moment where I was like, oh man, O'Malley's got him or oh man

O'Malley's, like I said, even in the third round, which I think again, I leaned a little bit towards O'Malley. It was just because he landed a couple more punches. He didn't really do anything. He didn't hurt him. He didn't look like Sean O'Malley out there doing damage like he did against Cheetah Vera. He just landed a couple more punches. I was like, all right, I got to score around.

I'm going to score it that way. But 48, 47, 49, 46. Ultimately, to me, it was a Mareb Dua Lish really domination pretty much from start to finish outside of that box. kick in the fifth round. And even then, he reacted, circled away, and got another takedown. And then it was pretty much over. So that was exactly what Marab needed to do.

And it was, as I said before, the absolute worst case scenario for Sean O'Malley, getting taken down the first round. It just never got better for him. And he never let his hands go. He never reacted well. You could tell when even when they're at distance, he wasn't throwing because he was fearful to take down. He was waiting for Marab to rush him and put him down.

And, you know, I, I, I talked to Marab's coach this morning, John Wood, and I brought this up kind of like in an opposite way. You remember this, Alan. When Anderson Silva would fight a lot of wrestlers in his career up until maybe Chelsanan, they would just be so dear in the headlights afraid of what Anderson was going to do to them on the feet that they just didn't react. They're like, oh my God, what do I do? It was like the opposite here where Marab was just like where O'Malley's like, I can't throw because as soon as I throw, he's going to duck under and put me on my back.

And that was the fight. That was literally the fight. from that first, as soon as he got him down the first round, I was like, this is probably going to get bad for Sean, and it never got better. There's been the comparisons of Sean O'Malley and Connor McGregor for a long time. And they have a lot of similarities in terms of star power

and being able to knock you out. If it's the power, if it's the timing, precision of the strike, whatever it is, they can finish fights in an instance, and they have star power. But O'Malley also has the Connemn-Mgregor curse, where when he is not the hammer and he becomes the nail, and if that opponent starts to style on them, when they're not styling and they're getting styled on, it defeats them. It defeats them. We haven't seen that.

Sean O'Malley is used to doing fade away threes after the knockout. Sean O'Malley is in the middle of a fight dribbling the basketball, right? The best sniper, the precision. when he's getting taken down and Marab's kissing him on the head and he's doing the lookaways for the kicks he was getting styled on and the mentality, the mental warfare,

the subtleties there for a guy that's a star. When somebody steals your shine, it kills those type of guys. He has similarities to Connor, great ones, but he's also got the Connor McGregor curse where you take away the stars shine

and you watch him just wither right there and he wasn't up for the big, big show in this matchup because of that. Marab did everything right in the fight physically, but mentally as well. He took that confidence away from O'Malley. I've always said star power, stardom in this sport can be both a blessing and a curse. Because when you are a star and you're on top of the world, when Conrader was at his best in 2016 when he knocked out Eddie Alvarez, he was the biggest star in sports, not just combat. He was everywhere. Ronda Rousey, same thing. When she was out there taking people down and armbarring them in 30 seconds, she was the biggest star in the world. But the

flip side of that is when it goes wrong for you, the world's going to turn on you a little bit. That's just how it works. You know what I mean? And that's across all sports. Like I said, Aaron Rogers in the NFL. He loses the game. You know, that's just, oh, the world ends for that guy. That's just how stardom works in sports.

You brought up Connor and Khab, and I love you brought that up because I had a very similar feeling watching Marab and Sean on Saturday night. But to the flip side of that, on terms of like the aftermath, because when Connor lost to be even 2018. He didn't fight again for about 15 months.

And he came back and he fought Cowboys-Sorone at Welterweight. I want to take nothing away from Cowboy, but it was, you know, we kind of saw what it was. He was kind of being set up. He didn't want to be there that night. He admitted it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and Kyle, yeah, I've talked to, I remember talking to Calvo.

Like, you could, you could just tell. But 15 months off after that fight. And then that's, that's really the last we've solved at Connor, because Porre fight, he had a couple good minutes, and then he got knocked out. And then the second fight, it was pretty lopsided. It obviously broke the leg, but it is what it is. My question is, how does Sean O'Malley react?

Because this is the first time he got whooped. He didn't just get beat. He didn't get the dead foot where he had against Cheeto the first time. And he can use that as like a crutch to say, hey, I got in. Yeah. No excuses. He got handled. For me, as a superstar, where do you go from here?

Do you come back and you say, man, give me Corey Sandhagen, give me Umar, give me the toughest guy you can in this vision. I want to fight in six months. Or do you take 15 months off, fade into, you know. I think this is a real pivotal moment for Sean O'Malley. Where do you go from here? So that's the question that remains to be unseen. Remains to be seen, rather.

We don't know. And I don't have an answer. I don't know what Sean's mentality is going to be. How soon does he want to fight again, the matchup? But I believe this, Damon. He got dethroned on Saturday, night on the biggest platform that any fighter could ever be on, this one of one spear, he got the throne. That's going to take something away from him. Now, he still has the opportunity to come

back, right? So if they give him Corey Sanhagen, and now it's a striking affair, and it's who's the smoothest dance partner, and now we get to see another fight that we want. We wanted to see how was he fair against an all-out grappler? He didn't pass the test. But now we give you a somewhat favorable matchup. Well, look, you want to strike? Didn't like the takedowns. We're going to let you strike.

Here's Corey Sanhagen. If he loses to Corey Sanhagen, Sean will never be the same. Now he's lost to the grappler. Now he's lost to the striker. There's no more. Yeah, it's not a, oh, it was a fluke with a leg, as you mentioned. Oh, it was a freaking Marab.

He's a machine. He shoots takedowns. It was a boring fight. That's what he's going to say. whatever. The guy was hugging me and humping me for 25 minutes. Corey Sanhagen knocks you out or outpoint you in a striking affair, I think O'Malley's never the same. And there's the possibility of having a rematch with Peirre Yon. I know Peirder Yon wants that fight that went to a decision. A couple of us

thought Peirrion won that fight. If Peir de Yon gets their rematch and now he beats O'Malley, rights the wrong from the decision that Peter Yan felt went the opposite way O'Malley would never be the same that was a pivotal point in his career Saturday but I think it's more pivotal pivotal this next fight this next matchup right because you have to come back

you have to come back and win in dominant fashion and say I want to reclaim my title but if he loses two in a row and different type of matchups on the feet now I don't think the confidence is ever there The swagger is gone because he goes into fights thinking I'm so far ahead of you guys in this game. You can't compete with me. And then when Maraub was styling on him, he didn't know how to go into like war mode. Okay, now I just got to grind this out.

I got to figure out of the way because he's so used to being ahead of the pack. He couldn't put himself in that, all right, bite down on the mouthpiece type fighter. It baffled him. We didn't see the motivation, the urgency because he's so far ahead of the pack. He's so used to it. his next fight, if it does not go his way, I think O'Malley is not the guy that we thought he was. I think his career, the trajectory is gone.

Two in a row, two losses in a row would be detrimental for him. And I think the reality is there's only a few people that are really in this situation when you got that level of stardom, right? I mentioned Connor. I mentioned Ronda, you know, where the star power almost outshines the fighting in a way. Like, Sean, and to his credit, he built that up, being on Twitch and doing all the things he did on social media. He became a star.

He's legitimately a star. But that also puts a ton of pressure on you, you know, when you lose. Because Connor, when Connor lost and he got thumped by Khabib, it wasn't close. Kabib took him, you knocked him down the feet, choked him out in the third, fourth round. It was a really bad night at the officer Connor. And then he takes 15 months off, and you kind of fade to obscurity a little bit. And, you know, and you kind of do your thing. There's only rare instances like that.

And I know, listen, Rhonda was a different situation. You got knocked up by Holly Holme, took off a year coming. back and obviously things didn't go any better for against Amanda Nunes. But that's the reality. When you have that level of stardom, you don't get many chances. You don't get to, you know, you don't get to just, you know, kind of, Sean O'Malley doesn't get to come back and slide into like the second fight on a pay-per-view. You know what I mean?

At worst, he's going to be a co-main event. And it's going to be a tough fight because, and I think this is, like I said, this is where we're going to find out what Sean O'Malley's made of. Is he, is he gung-ho fired up to get back in there and avenge that lost to Morab? And he's like, give me Umar, give me Deveson, give me, uh, Corey Sandigan, give me Peter Yan. Do you think I lost the Peter Yan fight? Let's run it back. If he's that guy, let's see it.

Let's see him go out there and do it. Or is he going to be the guy that we don't see for a year? And this time next year, we're like, oh, Sean O'Malley's finally coming back and he's fighting the number 10-ranked guy. He's doing a trilogy with Cheetah O'Air, something weird like that. That's not what we want out of him. So I think this next move is huge for him because the book that, that's been rid on the last two superstars off a loss didn't go well. Connor disappeared

and really has never been the same. Rhonda disappeared, came back, got vanquished by Amanda Nunes and she left the sport. I'm not saying O'Malley's that. I'm just saying like that's the situation you're in. Your next fight is really going to tell us a lot about who you are. For O'Malley,

if he would have got finished, if he would have been finished, rear naked choke and knocked out on Saturday night, I think we would have seen O'Malley take a lot of time off, right? Because that's when you go back and you have to lick your wounds, you go through the highs and the lows of fighting, the depression, and you just want some time away from it. I don't want, I don't want all these, this energy and these nerves and these interviews. I just want to chill, right? And

that's what happens when you go through those dark moments. It was a bit of a dark moment in terms of losing his title, but you know what a lot of people say when they get in these kind of moments where they're not knocked out though, but they're no longer the title, the whole, the champion. They're like, you know what? It's a huge amount of weight. lifted off my shoulders. And I can kind of see it more that way. I can kind of feel like, I don't know how O'Malley takes this entirely, but I could see him almost in a way being like, you know what, you know, like people wanted to see me against a grappler and it didn't go my way, but, you know, whatever. I'm not undefeated if he, if he would, you know, I think he at this

point he started being more realistic. All right, I got, I got my first legitimate loss. But, you know, it's kind of a weight lifted off my shoulders. Now I just want to go out there and have a striking partner like Corey Sanhagen. I can kind of see that. I really could see him coming back sooner rather than if he got slept. And it was something that he's kind of hiding from the masses. But I'm almost more curious to him and to see what do we do with Marabna? Right.

And there's possible matchups. You know, we know that. But in terms of star power potential, where does he go? Because obviously the UFC would like to have O'Malley, right? it's easy. He looks like a guy that you want to have on TV and his highlight reel backs that up. But as he's also seen historically with guys who have the Rocky story, they somewhat become the star as well, right? When Leon Edwards had that moment and he called his mom crying, that was the biggest Leon Edwards has ever been in his career. when Sean Strickland

beat Israel out of Sanya We were like, oh my God, Israel out of Sanya is one of our biggest stars in a sport, but Sean Strickland almost became his own star as well. Like love or may hate him, now everybody was listening to every word that he had to say and he became the star. Same thing with Drake his 2 plus C.

And so does Marab now kind of take the baton and become his own star? Now we saw all of his fans and his home country watching. I think, you know, we have star power. were there with him and Ilya. But how much I guess I'm asking to you from your thoughts of things, does he now become that A-side? Do we now see Marab, you know, is he the guy headlining or is he going to be on a card

with a heavyweight or something where he's the co-main event defending his title? I think Marab has built enough of a fan base now where I think there's interest. Because I think Marab going on social media, doing the funny videos with the fake of Mali, which was great. I think it's worked great for him. Yeah, and I've done a ton of interviews in Marab, and Marab's gotten a lot more vocal. You know,

he got pretty fired up about the Tim Welch stuff, and he, and, yeah, he got fired up about the Umar and Magamatov stuff during the interview with me. Um, I think he's getting out there a lot more and kind of becoming a bit of a, like, almost like a,

uh, a beloved character in the sport, you know, and, and he handled things in a much different way because, you know, I, I never understood the,

the, the disposition that people had towards Alchamaine Sterling. There was like this weird, like disdained for Al Jamin. I think a lot of that came from the Peter Yan disqualification, which by the way, is still not his fault. He didn't throw the illegal knee. That's not how it works.

He didn't, you know, he didn't do anything wrong. But I think coming out of that, people just had a certain feeling about Al Jamein. He just never recovered publicly from that. You're ducked out. You were an actor. You didn't really get hurt. Whatever the case may be. I think Marab has a chance now to really seize on this opening and say, you know, I can be that guy.

Now, will he be that guy? I think it all depends on what comes next. for him because Umar, like it or not, and I understood Marab's point about Umar saying, Umar got an easier path because of his last name, he got Corey, he beat Corey, credit to him, he beat Corey Sanhagen, but that is literally the one ranked fighter that Umar has fought. And Marab had to go through three freaking former champions to get here. I understand that level of frustration when you're like, hey, like I worked at 10 fight win streak and beat three former champions to even get here. This guy's got one win over a ranked opponent he's going to get a title shot.

Like I understand that, you know, a little bit of feeling. But name value wise, I love Devinson Vigaredo. He's a former champion. But let's be honest, Alan, Umar and de Mogamatov is going to be a bigger fight. It just is. Last name, Khabib in the corner, Islam hanging around. It's going to be a bigger fight. Go get the, go get the Umar fight.

That's going to be a massive fight. That's a headliner. That's a pay-per-view headliner. Seek that out. And then I think we're going to see the potential of Brad becoming a real star because I think he's got that kind of like he's got enough personality just like when he was in there like kissing O'Malley and doing the salute just like when he ragged all when he ragged on when he ragged on Suhudo a freaking Olympic gold medalist and he's shouting it at Mark Zuckerberg like that's the kind of

stuff yes he doesn't have to flash his style yes he's not going out there knocking people out he's not you know he's not finishing people he's got a ton of decisions I get it but it's that stuff that people will talk about so go out there and seek out a fight against umar or meggot you do that to Umar, you take him down and you start talking to Kabib in the corner. You're like, Habib, here's your boy underneath me. What's he doing? Dude, that's going to take him to another stratosphere. You're spot on.

You're spot on right now because, look, right now we still have kind of the honeymoon stage, right? And I know it just happens Saturday. But the Marab, it's the honeymoon stage, right? Oh, you know, look, look how dominant he was against a guy, this and that. But let's say he wins two or three fights and defends his belt. eventually, very soon, the honeymoon stage wears off. And people start talking, okay, is it going to be another 25-minute grappling match, this and that, right?

People are going to start growing tired of it. If they don't see the finishes, the same way that they turn on Balamah Muhammad and other people. People do that. It's just going to happen. The way that he offsets that is doing exactly what you're saying. You bring the entertainment value. The videos and everything were one thing he caught him kind of going and we kind of grew more of a character liking towards Marab.

But the antics in the cage, the styling on your opponent, the talking to the corner, all those things, he needs to continue this. Because if you have a somewhat, quote unquote, vanilla style to the masses, oh, man, it's boring. I don't want to see this. Those little sprinkles, those little sprinkles that you do, man, where you say something crazy or you do something crazy during the fight, you just make somebody start laughing out loud. What the hell did Marab just do? right that erases all that you keep winning but you have to have the entertainment value if your

style isn't necessarily entertaining right and so he's doing all the right things right now because eventually people who i think are going to turn on maraub if he continues to win they're going to turn on him and so he's got to keep entertaining the crowds and i think there's opportunity there because i think the umar fight is a big one i know again i know he's got issues with how he got there and i understand that but dude like i said that's a big fight um i think you know you get figurato who's out there. I think that's, you know, potentially a big fight down the road. O'Malley coming back, if he does recover and come back,

maybe he comes back and gets in there. So there's opportunity for Marab to shine. And now, you know, listen, the knock on Marab for the longest time beyond his style was like he wouldn't fight his friend. He wouldn't fight Al Jermaine. And so I was like, dude, you're giving up your own dream for Aljermain. That's no longer an issue. Al Jame is gone.

He's a featherweight. He's doing his own thing over there. That's no longer an issue. And so, yeah, Marab's got a chance. He's got a seize on the opportunity. and I think he will. I mean, like I said, he realized after beating Jose Aldo

and Aldo basically retiring, he's like, that's just that, like that's, in any other world, that should get you a title shot. It didn't. It didn't get him a title shot.

You got him a main event at a smaller arena in Las Vegas against Peter Yan. That's when he started realizing, dude, I got to play the game. Like, I got to play the game a little bit. I got to make these videos.

I got to get more lively in interviews. I got to get, you know, on social media. And it worked. And those videos with the O'Malley thing were hilarious. They were great. They were really funny. And his personality started to show through.

And, you know, just like I said, I remember early on in Kabeb's career when he didn't speak English and he was just going out there, malling people. People liked Kabeb, but the story on Kabebeeb early on was he got injured all the time and he just wasn't that exciting. But then Kabebe became Khabib. He started doing English, doing interviews, started doing the thing with Michael Johnson at UFC 205 where he's in there like, Dana, you've got to give me this title shot. He said they're punching Michael Johnson saying, you got to give me this.

give me what's mine. And the whole world's like, oh my God, like this guy. And Khabibu ends up being one of the, maybe the five biggest stars in our sport, 10 biggest stars in our sports history. That's how you do it. And I think that's his opportunity. He's never going to be Dustin Porey. He's never going to be Justin Gage.

He's never going to be Max Holloway. You don't want to become, you don't want to try to become that because you're probably not going to win doing that because that's not Marab. Be Marab as a fighter. Do your wrestling thing. Do your grappling thing. Break guys that way. But keep doing what you're doing.

Even the O'Malley thing was. great. So I think that's his path to start him and really at the end of the day it's all about winning but I think that's how he becomes like a legitimate draw is just being Marab and he seems to have fun with it. Like I talked to, I mentioned I talked to John Wood like he said after the second

round he said Marab was so excited he's like I had to calm him down because he was like he knew he had it like he was getting O'Malley down O'Malley couldn't do anything he was trigger he was gun shy he's like I had to like dude calm down stop having so much fun because you still got three rounds to go because he

He knew it. He knew he had him. He knew he had him beat. That fifth round of Marab reminded me the fifth round with Bilal Muhammad, where I'm witnessing this. And I'm like, just one more round. Just one more round. And he's going to do the unthinkable, right? And when I was watching Bilau, I was rooting for Bilau because he's a former opponent of mine and we're friends. And it was just like the guy that deserves the fight more than anyone. He was dominating that fight. But it was like, he can't get knocked out. He can't get submitted. He's got one round, and you know they're going to come out guns blazing.

I felt like I was witnessing, like, every second of that final round with Marab as well. I mean, it was just like, dude, just get through this. Rob, get through the round. Don't eat a knee. Don't eat a laser right hand. Watch out for those spinning back heel kicks from Rob. He did the damn thing, man. Like, all credit to Marab.

He stuck through the game plan. He didn't get tired. He didn't show signs of having, like, a weakness in there. Yeah, you got hit the body. That's something you can't really defend against. happens. You get hit in the body. He weathered a body storm. He could have folded right there. It's so tough. You know, you get hit in internal organs and your body feels like it's shutting down. Marab is a guy that has unlimited cardio, right? And he pushed through that for 30, 40 seconds, survived.

Got to win right here. It's a fun time to be a Marab fan. And I think we laid out the blueprint very nicely for him. He's got a big opportunity right there against Usman. That would be the biggest fight that you could possibly make. I think it brings a lot of eyes to the sport, especially at your first time being the A side of a card. And you continue the antics. You continue to style. You continue to talk. You continue to make things fun. If people don't find your style fun, you find a way to make it fun.

And Marabas figured that out early in his career. Yeah, I mean, listen, Chil Sanna became one of the biggest names of sport. Chell never. I mean, Chelle would probably tell you he was never exciting. He was never exciting guy. He took guys down and beat them on the ground. But how did Chelle become entertaining and became Chelsana? Now when you think of Chelle Sondon, you think of Chil Sondon, the personality,

you don't even remember they used to go in and out wrestle his opponents because he's Chale freaking Sondon. That's the whole point. So, yeah, become that guy. Like I said, Chale figured that out at some point in his career. He's like, you know what? Me just going on at wrestling guys and beating guys dominantly is not doing that. I got to get some personality in here.

And he did. And now Chale is one of the biggest names in combat sports, because he's Chail Sondon. So, yeah, like I said, be that guy. 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.

You know what's better than the one big thing? Two big things. Exactly. The new iPhone 17 Pro on Tullis' five-year rate plan price lock. Yep, it's the most powerful iPhone ever, plus more peace of mind with your bill over five years. This is big. Get the new iPhone 17 Pro.

at tellus.com slash iPhone 17 Pro on select plans. Conditions and exclusions apply. I don't think we need to spend a ton of time talking about what happened in the co-made event because Valentina was dominant. Alexa Grasso just never got going. She had a couple of moments with submissions, but really, I mean, it was fleeting. It was a really dominant. And even though people got kind of mad Valentina wrestled,

Valentina beat her on the feet, too. Valentina was out striking her on the feet and she just took her down over and over again. Here's my question, though, coming out. of this. Because we just talked about this with Sean O'Malley. Where does Sean O'Malley come from here? Where does he go from here? Does he get back to her? Does he get back and become a champion again? Valentina lost a fight she was winning to Lexa Grosso. She made a bad move with that spinning kick, got taken down and got choked out. And then the rematch, I thought Valentina won. Sorry, I thought she won. I did as well. To go through that, so a loss and then basically having it

taken away from you and then you wait a whole other year and now she's about to turn 37 a lot of people jumped off the Valentina Schochenko train going in this fight. A lot of people saw I saw so many people picking Alexa Grasso. It's just her time. She's younger. She's look better. And Valentina goes out there and 5045s her or 5044 is her depending on how you score the rounds. I mean it was just one-sided. Alexa never really did anything outside of a couple fleeting submission attempts. Do we need to start talking? about Valentina in the conversation of like, I know she has the losses to Amanda, so maybe we're not going to put her in the same, like, greatest of all time category yet.

But she's got to be in that conversation now, because to go out there and reclaim a title at almost 37, that just doesn't happen very often. It just doesn't. And for her to go out there and do what she did, I was blown away. Are you trying to get me started on this goat conversation? Oh, my God. What do you have? We have a two-hour show today.

I can't even get started on this. I mean, I feel I can go on forever because, yes, she is one of the top female fighters we have ever seen a thousand percent. It's just I don't want to start a whole new conversation. But if we had a women's Mount Rushmore, she's on there. If we had a women's goat, she is on there. Her only real losses came from Amanda Nunes. And obviously, you know, she's had some losses. But consistency level of opponent.

and just like there has to be a part of like like part of the reason that we don't necessarily use like Alex Paheda on the goal list yet although he's one of the hottest things in the sport and he's doing things that's never been done before I have to see somebody that is like the best well-rounded m-ma fighter in the world and although Alex Pahedas is this this phenomenon right now realistically I think the the elephant in the room is a number 24th. guy who's a good wrestler could probably go in there and beat him if he just had the right game plan. And I'm not, it's not a knock on Alex, but it's just, it's the truth. It's the truth. Like you have to, he doesn't have the experience in all the levels yet, right? And I know he's

working on it and getting better at a day by day and he showed some takedown defense. But it's the truth. Like you can't say this is the best MMA guy in the world, Alex Paheda. When we know that like at any point he could fall off, at any point, it would, the wrong matchup. Hints up his new matchup with Khalil roundtree. Go figure. Another striker. So, but what my point to this is, you look at Shefchenko. This is a well-rounded mixed martial arts. This is a goat. This is someone who is a kickboxing and Muay Thai legend and champion and did this throughout her career and she's beating the best girls in the world by outgrapling them by submitting girls by just the IQ of being able to take girls down at the right times and the

right moments in the biggest stages that's chefchenko she does everything perfect she's strong everywhere she's got that kind of you want to your jeanchech she'll get in your face and she'll posture on you she's got all the elements of a champion um and so she's absolutely one of the best um i thought she won that second fight i thought yeah you look at the age she's getting older But as you said, the first fight, she made a big mistake and she learned from that. The second fight, she did enough. It was a mess up on this judge's scorecard. This fight, she dominated.

So we don't need to see this fight anymore because in my mind she's really up two to one. She's definitely a goat. She's definitely a goat. Like I said, I'm trying to stay away from this goat list because when you look at the goat list or if you say Mount Rushmore, I think this is almost two different lists. But a Mount Rushmore would encompass four people. And I don't see a female on there when I think about. the best fighters in the world. But if there was a female list, she's definitely number two on that list.

Yeah, I mean, Valentin is a phenomenon. And like I said, a lot of people kind of jumped off that train after what happened in the first fight. And, you know, of course, the second fight, you know, listen, I get it. You get kind of screwed by the judges. You can come out and be like, God, you know, you kind of feel like, you know, woe is me. And I understand that.

And she's getting a little older. Alexis younger. I'm like, I understand it. But I was not, I was not on that list. I said, I just have too much faith in Valentina, to Schochenko, she made a bad move in the first fight. Credit to Alexa for seizing on that. She won the second fight.

I think the judges blew that one. It should have been her that night winning. And then she went out there at 1545 to her. She left no doubt. There's no doubt left. So, yeah, I mean, Valentina, and also, to your point about the goat list, like, let's not forget what she did at 135 before Flyway was even there. I mean, she took Amanda Nunes to the brink twice.

In the first fight, she was winning that third round, and the fight ended because it was only a three round fight. So she didn't get a chance. That fight had round four and round five. I think Valentina would have won that fight. The rematch, while it wasn't the most exciting fight, you could argue Valentina won. I didn't. I think I scored Amanda winning that night, but it was a very, very, very close fight.

Let's not forget, she went out there and beat Holly Holmes. She went out there and beat Giuliana Pena. Tapped her out. This is a woman who is a natural 125-pounder, and she was one of the top two or three bantam weights in the world. she's incredible like I said she's unbelievable and if she goes out there now and divins her title a couple times against the Minofiore or

Rosnaviyunis or the ones who are coming up right now I mean she's already there as you said she's already there she's already on the list but man she's just got a rare opportunity to just kind of put herself in a whole other category in these next couple fights

Damon and on the other side of the coin you look at the opponent Alexa Grasso I know I know people are saying Diego Lopez was saying like she just didn't perform that night. She was a little bit flat. What I can't

understand is, okay, I know she got out-wrestled in a second matchup. And there wasn't a tremendous amount of time for her to come back and all of a sudden be a completely different stylistic grappler. But what I saw, what I saw when I watched your fight on Saturday night was someone who was not even

thinking about hipping. not even thinking about sprawling, was not even thinking about stuffing the head. They were more thinking about Alexa Grasso, where's the submission? When I go to my back, it almost seemed to me like the camp was like,

all right, let's start on the back, go, let's pop the triangle, let's work the arm bar, try to get a knee shield, try to maybe stand up, but if not, let's work submission, submission, submission. Look, submissions are good,

but there's supposed to be a timeline in your head, especially when you're at this high level. And I love Alexa Grasso. So I really, man, it pains me to find the errors in her game. But there needs to be a time clock in your head where you go, you fight for your life not to touch the ground. That's got to be priority number one. The ground is hot lava.

We do not go to the ground. As soon as you feel anything on the hips, boom, you're exploding. You're sprawling. I didn't see that at all. It's like there was no wrestling in her camp because instinctually, this is just something. And when you wrestle, wrestle, wrestle, wrestle, you got people shooting on your legs and hips. You just become a sprawl machine.

Like, how many times in the fight did you see, did you see Valentina, like, faint the shot? And all of a sudden, Grasso, like, sprawl to the ground, right? That tells me when I see that, oh, they do not want to be on the ground. You never saw that because it was Valentina getting in on deep. And then Grasso just falling to the ground and starting to shoot submissions. I feel like the game plan was wrong going into this. He's got to be spraw-heavy. Don't go to the ground.

You go to the ground. You shoot submissions for 30 seconds to a minute. If you're not getting any kind of momentum from submissions, you abort that. You start digging under hooks and trying to find a way back to your feet. That was not the case. It was submission, submission, submission. Doesn't matter if I go to the ground from the beginning. And then at the end, if I'm not getting submissions,

still there's no urgency to get up as much as I would have liked to have seen sooner in that fight. I think, I don't know if it was a, the camp was not done. heavier on wrestling or she just had a flat night, all I'm saying is the urgency to not get the fight to the mat, which is what, which is what happened in the second fight that we're talking about. How was not that not priority number one going into this trilogy? Yeah, she like conceded the taked down and then just conceded operating off her back

for the entire fight. Like I didn't, like even with the submissions, like a lot of times, and you know this because obviously you do jiu-jitsu way more than I do, but a lot of times when you're throwing up submissions, you're doing it as a way to escape. You're throwing up the submission to make them react so you can hip out, you can get out of there, you can escape, you can scramble back to your feet, you can reverse positions, get back to your feet.

A lot of times the submissions aren't being thrown to submit. They're being thrown to get you out of that position. She just conceded being on her back, it seemed like, for like the entire fight. Like when she didn't get a submission, I didn't see her like scrambling to get back to her feet. She just kind of like went back to guard. Okay, Arm bar didn't work, went back to guard. Triangle choke didn't work, went back to guard. It was weird.

And it was a really odd way to approach it. And yeah, she just didn't seem like she wanted to get out of there. It seemed like almost like in her head. She's like, this is where I'm going to be, make the most of it instead of like, let's get out of here. Let's scramble free. Let's take her. It just seems like she conceded being on her back. And credit to Valentina, you know, she did an incredible job mixing these.

Because again, and to her credit, like I said, I think Valentina was winning on defeat too. She hit her with a couple right hands early that definitely got Alexis' attention. And then she took her down. and it was just that that's one of those fights as you said technically they're one one one one and one they got one you know one win one draw and one loss but we don't need to see that again like that was as lopside of a fight as you can imagine the title fight and like i said we got to move on eventually with the division just like you know we got to see so many times of devison figurato and brandonorino we got to move on you know fighters like minofi or out there obviously rosamie unis is fighting erin blanchfield coming up you got macy barber in the division um yeah I Natalia Silva, who just had a big winner with Jessica Andraj. We got lots of contenders coming up. It's time to see some of them get their day to try to get the title. I agreed.

I agreed. Look, whenever I went over this fight and I'll end it on this, I was asked my keys to victory. I didn't need keys. I didn't need keys plural, right? Singular. If Grasso stuffs to takedowns, she puts herself in a position to win. She couldn't stuff a single takedown. She didn't look good in the grappling.

She got to go back to the drawing board, whatever you want to say. But it's like that was the most obvious, that was the most obvious path to victory for Shevchenko. And it just seemed like that that stone was left unturned for Grasso's camp. Yeah, I agree. I totally agree. Obviously, also on the car, Diego Lopez got a huge winner, Brian Ortega. He's kind of announced himself as a contender. Now I think that's going to be really interesting to see where he goes from there.

because I thought he had a little, you know, more of a struggle than I thought he would have against a guy like Dan Igay on two hours notice. But again, to his credit, he did take that phone on two hours notice. And, you know, Dan Igay is a freaking dog. But he went out there and absolutely dominated Brian Orte. I was really stunned by the performance just because Brian's so tough. But man, he just took it too. Brian never let him get in the fight. Obviously, Zell Huber, Ruebovich's fight was amazing.

Lazy boy, that fight was phone with Odi Osborne. and that was really close. And obviously, Norman Dumont getting a big win, the freaking nastiest cut in the history of the sport and Irene Aldana. Over, like I said, there were a couple of moments, you know, not, you know, obviously, Raoulosa's open the card and the prelims,

which was wild for him to go out there and do what he did. Calling 50 Gs. He, Ross, man, Roses, you don't call out for 50 Gs in a performance like that. What was he thinking? I think it hurt him. It almost heard him because now Dana's like, this son of a bitch.

Like, he's asking for 50 Gs. G's and it was that type of performance is almost going to like push him away from getting another one. Guys got to be careful if you're going to call 50 G's let it be a blood bath. Let it be a Max Holloway moment. But if it's not one of those, don't even talk about the money after

the fight. I joked, I joked afterwards, he said that and I was like, that was like a 2928. I was like, I like, I like, Rozo's and he's a bright guy but I was like if that's actually going to get a $50,000 bonus, we're in for a bad night here. You see 306. And you know what else? He almost

He almost, God, he almost blacklisted himself Because not only did he call for 50 G's, but you know what he did after that? Do you remember? It's time to sit down and talk. I want to talk numbers with the boss. Yo, pump the brakes, dude. You barely escaped that fight right there. It was a good performance.

We all like you. You want the youngest guys. You got the Chiwiwi thing going. You got the huge chin. Like, there's something about you that's kind of catching on. You're getting momentum. But you're this young guy. And the UFC's kind of giving you.

opponents. They want to build you. They want to make sure you're well-rounded. They're not throwing you into the deep waters just yet. But after that performance and you're like, I want to sit down and talk numbers? Whoa. Dude, that's going to do the opposite. I guarantee you now.

Dana's going to be like, I got shit going on. You know what your contract looks like. We'll get to that point when you're... Like, he's just not there yet. He's trying to jump the line in terms of like his worth to the company. But he's just not there yet is he's not he could be there we've all we all like watching him and the guy is

spectacular for an 18 19 year old kid but he's not there yet to talk numbers with the big man i totally agree i totally agree so overall i think uc 306 was a success um i think they did a good job to matchmaking obviously as i mentioned the zill huber rivenovitch fight was insane uh that final rounds with the craziest rounds i can ever remember seeing of course and then of course the two title fights. So it was a really fun night. Alan, before I get out of here, before we get out of here, how can I not talk about the other biggest story of the weekend,

which is Michael Chandler, book to fight, not Connor McGregory. Charles Olaver and a rematch of UFC 309. Let me ask, just, I know, like Connor was doing BKFC, he's talking, he's saying, you know, maybe we'll do a co-promotion, all this kind of stuff. the other coast I normally have on the show Matt Brown has said for like a year and a half now Connor McGregor's never fighting again I don't believe he's fighting again just get it out of your heads I don't think it's going to happen and at the time when he first said it Connor got kind of pissed he was ripping Matt on on Twitter and stuff but Matt has consistently had that message I don't think

he's ever coming back he gets scheduled the UFC 303 breaks a pinky toe drops out of the fight now moving on doesn't get scheduled doesn't get scheduled doesn't get scheduled doesn't and now Michael Chandler is moving on to fight Charles Olivera. Are we starting to get into that dangerous, that dangerous area now where it's like, are we actually ever going to see Connor again? Because now Connor's saying maybe we could do a co-promotion with BKFC, which we know is never going to happen. I love BKFC.

I love what they're doing at BKFC. I'm just saying like, UFC is never going to cope promote with them. I don't know. I honestly thought December was a realistic possibility. then it didn't happen. And then Chandler finally moves on in his fight and Ola Vera, which is a fun fight.

The first fight was great. But I was like, I mean, maybe, maybe we are in that world now where we've actually seen the last of Connor McGregor. I mean,

I think we're definitely in that world where it's a possibility on either way, but I'm not ruling it out. I really am not ruling it out because I still lean towards and I hate to get kind of, I don't know,

not the word political about it, But I keep going back to the UFC having negotiations. I keep going back to the UFC, you know, the ESPN contract is up. Man, if they can go back to ESPN next year during negotiation, or go back to the negotiation table and be like, look, we've got Connor a couple more fights, right? The comeback is still there. It's still in play.

And so that gives them leverage at the table. Also, if the UFC, you know, every time I talk about Connor, it's just so much speculation that I have to like almost watch my words because I want to say one thing, I want to see the other, but it's all speculation. We really don't know. Is Connor going to fight again? We don't know. I feel that he will, though, if you ask me.

I feel that he will because of how angry he gets. You just said he went after Matt Brown, right? Why would he even care? I think he does care. I think he does want to fight again. The tough part for me is keeping them motivated, right? If they don't plan on fighting Connor until February or March of next year, keeping him motivated until they're not letting him go get off on any side projects or do anything.

For me, though, because I'm tired of speculating about Connor, the funnier, the bigger story was Michael Chandler pulling up his big boy pants and saying, you know what, I'm doing the damn thing on my own. I'm not waiting for Connor McGregor. And this flipped the script on Connor McGregor. I can't remember a time seeing Connor McGregor so defeated. looking when he led his response out about this. I mean, he was defeated.

He was like, ah, you know, maybe, maybe I can get something next year. I don't know. You know, like, I just trying to get a date. Look, you're the guy that tells the company what to do. You're the guy that tells the company who you're fighting and what way class you're fighting them. And all of a sudden, the power's not in play anymore. Now the guy that you were leading around on a little dog leash said, I'm not fighting you.

I don't need a way for you. Oh, it's Red Penny Knight. It's Red Pending Night for me now. I'm going to take a fight, and that's going to only am going to take this fight, but it's going to give me a chance to get back into the title possibility. I've already upped my brand off of your back, Connemer Greger. Thank you very much for upping my brand. I'm going to take that and leverage it towards another fight.

See you later. Maybe we do it again next year. Maybe we don't kind of. For me, that was the story. Michael Chandler, cutting the ties right there and saying, I'm my own man, I'm going to do my own thing. Thank you very much for the leverage that you gave me, Connor. Cona McGregor, just like we talked about

the mind games of Ovali and Marab, you can see he was defeated. He felt defeated. So that's my biggest worry is if Connor McGregor feels defeated, does he go out on a binge? Does he just go out and say, screw it? I don't need this anymore. Does he go do something else? But if he stays motivated, I do think we see

Connor McGregor because I think the UFC does want Connor McGregor to fight next year because of the possible deals they're going to get with other networks. I do give credit to Chandler though because I said that after June when that fight fell apart, I said, you've got to set a deadline in December. If you're not fighting Connor McGregor by the end of 2024, you got to move on. Because, you know, Chandler's

37, 38 years old. He's already missed two years of his career waiting for this fight. And I said, you can't wait any longer, dude. Like, you've got to move on because who knows. Like, who knows what's going to happen here. And credit to Michael Chandler, he did that. You know what? They came calling. They offered him Charles Olivera November, Big Card MSG. He takes it. Huge credit to him. And I feel for the guy. Because Connor is a big deal. Connor is absolutely a big deal. And I'll be honest, I'm not trying to knock Connor McGregor,

and I don't know if you'll agree with me or not on this, but I think at this stage in their career, like, Charles Olivera is a much more dangerous fight to Connor McGregor as far as, like, for Chandler goes. Like, he already fought him, and he sees that. He knows how dangerous Charles Oliver is. So, yeah, but I give him credit. Like, you finally is just like, dude, I can't wait anymore

because he's already put his life in career on hold for two years for a fight that has still not happened. And by the way, you know, he could still get the Conner fight. He goes out there and starches Oliverer, which he very nearly did in their first fight, he could easily get Connor in February, March, next year, or whatever, and that's still probably the timeline Connor would fight anyways. So I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility he gets that fight.

But I give Chandler credit for just saying, you know what, dude, I can't keep waiting because he's November's two years. That's a long time to sit out healthy at 3738. A lot of guys that 3738 are thinking about the end of their career. He just sat out for two years and missed out on two prime years of his career waiting for Connor. didn't have him in my heart breaks for him i i feel bad that he went through all this and still didn't get to fight but credit to him for just being like dude i'm done like i can't i can't sit around anymore just wait for a hope and a prayer that i'm going to get connor you know he went out there

and got charles oliver a dangerous fight big fight and uh and kudos to him man because like i said i had december is my deadline he beat me by a month for me damon the the biggest unknown is why did the ufc call chandler why did they call call him. Does the UFC know something? Did the UFC say, God damn it, Connor's never going to fight again. I mean, we know it or he told us or whatever it is. Let's call Michael Chandler and give him a new opponent. Or did the UFC go, you know what? It's time to pivot. It's taking too long. The dates don't work out right now. It doesn't really make sense to urge one of these guys back in right now. Conner's got things going on. We need Connor for next year to help promote this network deal that we're trying to get all this money for.

Let's call Michael. Let's give him a phone. fight let's keep them active let's tell Connor we're going to have him something early next year and make this all work out why did they decide after all this time okay let's call Chandler and offer him a fight that's what I want to know what information did they

have yeah no I agree and like I said who knows I mean you know I'd love it like all the little secret things going on the sily maybe this is motivation to get Connor back like dude you were we waited forever for this it's not we're not waiting more we took away your opponent so now Connor's literally saying I want to

fight and I don't have an opponent. So maybe that's the motivation. Say, hey, you, you waited forever. Like, we can't wait anymore. So here's Michael Chandler's going to fight Charles Olivera. Now Connor is kind of in limbo again with no opponent. And of course, it's Connor McGregor. There's options out there. He could fight Gachey. He could fight

Holloway coming off to Teporia fight. He could fight Poree. He can fight a million different guys that it's still going to be Connor McGregor. But the fact that the UFC took his opponent and said, yeah, we're going to go and match him up with somebody else. Maybe that's their way of being like, dude, we can't dick around anymore. We got to get you in there or not get you in there. One of the two things

are happening. And I also, I don't think you're wrong at all about the whole negotiation with TV deal. The only reason I said that I've kind of leaned both, I understand it, but I've also said I don't know that I totally buy it is because the UFC's just printing money right now. Like, Connor hasn't fought in three years. They've had their most successful financial years in company history these last few years. And also, the UFC is the only major sports property coming up that's available for a broadcast right still until 20. 28 and that's when baseball comes. I like baseball, but baseball is an older sport. It skews older with the audience. A lot of 20, 25-year-olds are not watching baseball right now. They watch the

UFC. The UFC's in a good position. And I comment on Saturday, Jeff Bezos from Amazon, sitting front and center for that sphere card. They know what they got. They know they got a big deal coming up next year. Now, does it make it more advantageous to have Connor on the roster? Of course it does. But I think they're in a great position regardless to say ESPN, pony up that money, because we're going to get a massive, massive deal. And if you don't give it to us, Jeff Bezos will give it to us. If Jeff Bezos doesn't give it to us,

Netflix will give it to us. UFC is about to back up the brink truck next year and just cash in on whoever gets them because for the next three years, there is nobody else available. No football, no basketball, no baseball, no hockey. Nothing else is available for these TV networks until 2028. While I think you're probably right,

like it's nice to have that as like a bonus. Like, hey, we got Connor. dude they're they're printing money right now like they're in such a good position man when i saw basis sitting their front and center on saturday i was like uh-oh i wonder the ESPN execs notice he was there yeah i mean from what connor said i mean Connor uh what dana said he's having everyone everyone who's in this talk right now is supposed to have a great seat at the sphere that night so man you you talk about people coming new into combat sports negotiating table and they're sitting at the spear for the first time they're like this

this is where we're getting into, I'm on board. So it really doesn't matter if the main event was a lackluster for some people. I think the spear was the star of the show. And the spear solidified it for the UFC. They knocked that out of the park with that show. Having everyone there was a beautiful move. As you said, the UFC is already making money hand over hand and to cap it off. I mean, the year's not done, but to cap it off with that type of event where all the execs were there for the first time, it was amazing.

We still have a December card to put together. I haven't really heard what they're going to do yet, but we got, you know, obviously coming up in a couple weeks, we got, you know, Raquel Pennington, Giuliana Pena. Maybe not the most exciting title fight in the world. Still not really super excited that Giuliana Pena got a title shot off two years off and not really beating anybody. But that's a whole other conversation. Yeah. But Alex Pereira and Kolo Roundtree is great. Obviously, Kayla Harrison making her return against Ketland Vieira.

And then you go right into Iliott-Its-Tipori and Max Holloway. How is that not like the most anticipated fight? I mean that. And then, of course, we finally get John Jones, Steve Moby-Ochich. I don't care. I understand the Tom Aspen all of it all. But John Jones and Steve A fighting is still special. It's going to be cool to see them finally throw down in Madison Square Garden.

We got another pay-per-view in December. So, dude, it just does not slow down. We got a lot of big fights still to come for the rest of this year. And I just realized, like, I talked to Coach John Wood this morning. He's also Calilow Roundtree's coach. Like, he just coach Marab on Saturday. They are now three weeks away from Kulow Roundtree fighting for a title. So this sport does not slow down.

now the best year in combat sports that i can remember i mean i know every year they make money year over a year more every year right and they're probably going to make a lot more money next year as well but you know we've been saying it all year man this the the the 298 299 the ufc 300 the spears i mean the moments that we've had uh it's it's it's been an incredible even even even outside of the UFC. You look at the boxing matches, man, in Ganu, what he's done, as much as I hate to admit it, Jake Paul, I mean, he's brought a lot of eyes at this sport. I don't want to see him versus Mike Tyson, but that's still happening. This is a combat year unlike any other, and I only hope it continues to get better. I don't know how we're going to beat it, though. It's going to be good. And you know what

else I like this week is they didn't schedule UFC event. We have a week to just kind of like marinate and enjoy what we just saw at the sphere. And then like we roll. We can talk here for a couple of days. You know what I mean? We don't need to get into a fight night. I enjoy that we get a little break here. Like they knew how special this event was. Let's let everyone talk about it for a week or so. And then we'll get geared up for the next UFC event on the 28th.

But I appreciate they kind of took a week off. Then we go into 28th and right into UFC 307. So it's going to be a busy rest of the year. Alan, you're always one of the busiest guys in the sport. Where are we going to see you at next in all your many, many travels and many, many things. You many, many hats you wear. Yeah, I'm, this is a slower month for me with the UFC. because we only have to re-events this month.

You know, we have a fight night, Paris, and a spear. And so I think just the next thing is going on is Paris. So I'm done for the month. I'm going to be working UFC next month. And then, man, I'm going to be going to China in November for, what's the name of that country that we're going to in China? Macau.

Oh, yeah, Macau, yeah, Macau, China. Macau, right, right. I've never been there. It's supposed to be basically, though, like, I've been to China a number of times, but the Las Vegas of China, right? And it's even kind of like China, but also I think there's like some Spanish region. There's a lot of stuff going on. I don't know much about it, but I'm excited to actually go there.

I don't always get too excited for China because it's a hell of a drive. It's a hell of a drive to China. It's a long flight. It's a very, very long flight in another world. But anyway, staying busy, man. I just did LFA color commentary last weekend. I had a blast over in Santa Cruz, but things are good. Hey, look, this is off.

This is kind of completely random, but when you were taught, it made me think of it a while ago. When you were talking about, I'm glad we get a week off. You know who didn't get a week off? Megan O'Leavy, did you see she did her damn thing at the Spears? She had to go over so much stuff. She had like four outfit changes. And then yesterday I go to this axe throwing place of my family. And on the TV, guess who's there?

Megan O'Levy, work in the NFL the next day. You talk about somebody that is just dialed in, could do it all in every sport. I mean, that card must have went late. She must have been exhausted. then she gets on an airplane, flies to this, does the NFL the next day. I just got to give her a round of applause, Megan. You were killing it. You were the best in the industry.

I love Megan. I adore Megan. I've known Megan for many, many years. She's so incredibly good at her job. And I saw that too. I saw her post on Instagram that she was doing the NFL gig the next day on Fox. And I was just like, good Lord. I know.

Because that card ran late. Like it didn't even. The card didn't even end until like it was like almost 2 a.m. Eastern time to go from there. and then basically go right into an NFL game the very next morning, which again, remember, that's West Coast time. So it's not like on the East Coast when it starts at 1 o'clock. That's 10 a.m.

to go right in there and start working that. That is insane. Like that, yeah, that's incredible work ethic to go right from one to the other. And Megan, Megan's like the unsung hero. Like she doesn't get a lot of publicity. She's not the one front and center and getting all the interviews and everything. But she is a workhorse. And she's very, very good at her job.

And, yeah, dude, it's amazing, man. Like I said, it takes a special kind of work ethic because I know when I used to fly out to Vegas, I used to fly out the very next morning. Like I would get the earliest flight I could. So I'd work until like 2 a.m. And I'd catch like the 5 a.m. flight just like get home. And the next day, I was just a zombie. Like I was just exhausted zombie to go from there and then go right into working the NFL.

That's insane. And have to be on your A game like that. Now, I was so impressed. Like I said, I was at this ex-strowing place I heard. And here's Megan Olivian. I'm like, what? She's doing this now. she is like the John Anick of her career.

You know, she just sets the bar so high. She like, it always seems to be perfect with everything. And, you know, I know I'm like cheerleading her up, but she's a friend of mine. And it just, it literally, if I had never met Megan before, I would have recognized her professionalism. And go, that's incredible. Because the spear was something that we've been working on for months, so much preparation and rehearsals. And to go and jump and to call an NFL, a complete other sport. had to, you know, just just flip the switch and go into another mindset and within a couple of

hours, man, it's impressive. It's very impressive. I adore Megan. Yeah, good, good shout out there because Megan's the best. And yeah, she's like kind of like the unsung hero. She just does her work and does it very, very well. And then, yeah, like I said, incredible work ethic and very talented on top of all that. So yeah, very good at what she does. And, man, amazing to be able doing that because I know me, man, I would have been sleeping. I would have been napping after that card on Saturday night, not running to the airport to catch a flight to go do an NFL game. So that takes a special skill to be able to go and do that.

So credit you, Megan, for doing that and making us all look bad. Stop working so damn hard, Megan. You're making us look bad. I feel lazy now, yeah. I know. I feel like I need to do more. Alan, it is always a pleasure to have you on the show, man. We love your insights.

Obviously, I know we talked about doing another episode here in a couple weeks. next week I'm actually going to be off because I'm going to Monday night football. I'm going to watch my bingles. My bingles battle the Washington commanders next week. So I'm going to be a... I'm going to the Saints game this Sunday, man. I haven't been to a Saints game in forever. So I'm trying to get my NFL, you know, watch time going again.

I just kind of dialed out the football. But I'm trying to get going again, man. So good luck to your team. How are your bingoes looking right now? They're 0 and 2. So it's not great. I'm sorry. I really did not know that.

Well, they had a battle yesterday with the Kansas City Chiefs, and it went down to the wire. It was a dumb penalty at the end, and the Chiefs ended up kicking a field goal to win it. But that's kind of like the Bengals' MMO. They always start slow, and then they get momentum as the season goes on. And yesterday should have been a win. They should have beat the Chiefs,

and it just kind of blew it at the very last, literally the last second, last second penalty, cost them, and they got a field goal. But I'm good. We're going to play the commanders on Monday. I went to Monday Night Football last year, and it was a blast. I'd never been to a Monday night game before.

So I'm going to Monday Night Football. next week to watch my bingles. I think it'll be a good time. Your Saints, good Lord, man. They crushed the Cowboys yesterday. 44 to 19. I was like, what is going on here? Oh, man.

I look, and I don't want to jinx myself, but I've only been to probably five Saints games in my lifetime. They've never won. They've never won. It's not me. It's just they just, I never went during like a good year or whatever. So they're looking pretty decent this year.

I'm hoping I'm not jinxing myself by saying it. But yeah, they looked good, man. They beat up on the Cowboys. They've got a pretty good offense this year. So it'll be exciting on Sunday. And the Super Bowl's in your neck of the woods this year. It's in Louisiana this year. There's all that talk about why didn't Lil Wayne get on there.

Yeah, I know. They need to put a hometown guy, a legend. To me, this is a whole other conversation. But Little Wayne is in the top, top three, top five at least, but top three, best, you know, rappers of all time. I mean, and he's a hometown guy. Like, Jesus Christ. So what are they doing here?

All I know is, like I said, I wanted it to be ordained and destiny because everyone kept saying this is the year that Joe Burrow will go to the Super Bowl because it's LSU. Yeah, LSU loves him. And I was like,

please, please is a Bengals fan, let's go to the Super Bowl and LSU. They love him down there. Louisiana. I have ants that every time they see Joe at a NFL, they're like, can you go get his,

I'm like, I don't just go get his autograph. I'm not even working that card, but man like people love them over here i mean he did such great things over at lsue he's a good guy yeah jemar chase of course also an lSU guy playing for us so yeah like i said i'll keep rooting hopefully it'll happen but yeah so uh yeah we'll have back a couple weeks obviously i think we'll i think we're going to reconvening me i think we talked about doing it after the paris card so i'm sure we'll catch up again soon and obviously keep up the great work and all the things you're doing

allan obviously to our audience we appreciate everyone that listens every week make sure to check us out. As always on your favorite podcast platforms, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and of course, over the best website in the world. MMAfighting.com. For Alan Jo Ban, I am Damon Martin, we will see you next week for actually two weeks from now, because next week we're off, two weeks from now for another edition of the Fighter versus the Rider. Thanks for tuning in. We'll see you then. We're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.