MMA Fighting - Fighter vs. Writer: Alan Jouban Reacts to UFC 300 Results, Praises Max Holloway for ‘Greatest Moment’ in UFC History

Episode Date: April 16, 2024

The Fighter vs. The Writer returns post-UFC 300 with Alan Jouban and MMA Fighting senior reporter Damon Martin reacting to the biggest moments from the historic card. While it wasn’t the main event, Max Holloway still stole the show after he demolished Justin Gaethje with a last-second knockout in the “BMF” title fight. The spectacular finish has been replayed millions of times already but is that the greatest moment in UFC history? Also who should be next for Holloway following this momentous win? We’ll also discuss Alex Pereira beating his fifth UFC champion in only eight fights as he continues his ridiculous run since transitioning from kickboxing to MMA. What’s next for Pereira and should he actually consider heavyweight? Plus we’ll talk about Kayla Harrison’s unbelievable debut where she took out former champion Holly Holm inside two rounds. With the win has Harrison already jumped to the front of the line for a title shot against Raquel Pennington? We’ll talk about that and so much more in the aftermath of UFC 300 on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer! 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

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

What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Does it ever feel like you're a marketing professional just... Speaking into the void. But with LinkedIn ads, you can know you're reaching. the right decision makers, a network of 130 million of them, in fact. You can even target buyers by job title, industry, company, seniority, skills, and did I say job title? See how you can avoid

the void and reach the right buyers with LinkedIn ads. Spend $250 on your first campaign and get a free $250 credit for the next one. Get started at LinkedIn.com slash campaign. Terms and conditions apply. Welcome back to the fighter versus the writer. I am Damon Martin. I am so happy to be joined today and this post-UFC 300 world do we live in by a retired fighter who is also one of the best analysts in the game. It is always my pleasure to welcome in. Alan, Joe Ban. Alan, how are you? I'm good, brother.

As I was telling you before we went live, I'm happy. I'm always happy to talk to you, man. But such an epic heart, such an epic weekend. And it was in my mind leaving that night. It was in my mind the next morning. It was like, I got to have to speak about this soon. You know, I want these, these emotions. while they're still raw and fresh on my mind to speak about it

because it was so much fun stuff. So, man, so happy to be here with you today, brother. Absolutely, man. I don't want to oversell it, but I don't think I am. You know, we knew going into this card, we all called it the best fight of the year, best card of the year, maybe the greatest UFC card in history, top to bottom. You know, we said even beforehand, I know we talked about this when you were on the show before, maybe it didn't have the super sexy main event that everyone thought it would be

with, you know, Brock Lesnar fighting, you know, George St. Pierre, something stupid like that. But we said top to bottom this was the greatest card. But again, top to bottom greatest card still got to pay off. Guess what happened? It ended up being the greatest card of all time. I mean, when you start with Devison Figuero and Cody Garbrandt, you have Kayla Harrison making her debut and just going out there and actually wrecking shop with Holly Holme. You have Yeri pulling up that incredible knockout. And then, of course, you know, Max Holloway doing what he did and Alice Perey.

I mean, this was, I don't think I'm overselling him. I say this was the single greatest fight card ever. It was. And you know what's interesting about this one I found, Damon? A lot of pay-per-views are built around some type of bad blood, right, or some type of what's at stake. And there was so much, there was so many storylines and so many champions and other things brought together all at once on this car that, that it, to me, I didn't see it at all. Like, you didn't really see much disrespect. The fighters almost had to force it. Like, you know, at the press conference, when we saw Jamal Hill and Alex Baheda kind of at the finishing sequence, kind of had a little bit of back and forth. That was about it. Jamal Hill kind of instigated that. But I think it was more of an overall feeling of every fighter there was honored to be there.

They felt every time they were asked a question, I just want to say I'm so blessed. I'm so honored to be a part of this. And so the feelings of having them create storylines wasn't needed in this one. It was almost like frowned upon. Like, dude, we're here on the pinnacle of the sport amongst champions amongst one another. Carry yourself like a champion. And I felt like that respect was felt throughout the entirety of this fight week.

It was ridiculous. I mean, it was just an embarrassment of riches. But again, just like any other thing, they got to go out there and fight and prove it. And boy, did they prove it. I mean, this was just nonstop finishes, exciting fights. And again, you mentioned stakes like no bad blood, but there were a lot of stakes on this card. I mean, Alex Paheya, I mean, coming out there and, you know, Jamal being a former champion, I think the fight that kind of slipped under the radar, even leading into the car,

was Zhang Wei Li and Yan Jan Janem, but that ended up being an incredible fight. Of course, Max Holloway, Justin Gachie, that was pretty much in everyone's mind, kind of like the people's main event, and boy, did that pay off. And then even Bo Neckle, you know, debuting and actually having to really work for it. Like, I think that kind of surprised people. Like, he didn't just go out there and roll through Cody Brundage. And to be honest, you know, year he was losing to Alexander Rackage. Rackick came out there, got more aggressively he normally gets, and that ended up being a really fun fight. I mean, it was just, again, it was an embarrassment of riches. But, you know, listen, typically when we come out of a big

pay-per-view, we're always talking about a big title fight, a big moment, you know, we always talk about the main event. But I think this is one of those rare occasions where it feels like we would be wrong not to start this show to talk about the Max Holloway knockout, which I have been calling. And again, I've been trying to distance myself a little bit because we are, we do tend to be prisoners of the moment in these situations and say, you know, oh my God, like, you know, it's like, you know, when Sean O'Malley knocks out Al Jemann, we're like, oh, my God, that's the greatest bantuan fight of all time. Yeah, we do get a little crazy with hyperbole.

But I don't know that I'm wrong in thinking, I don't know, I'm not saying that's the best knockout of all time, not saying that's the best fight of all time. Weirdly, the way I'm stating it is I think that may be the greatest finish of all time. Just the way it happened, Max walk into the center cage, pointing to the floor, saying, Let's go. He's up four rounds to one. I mean, all he had to do is wait 10 seconds and he wins the fight in a pretty lopsided decision. He says, no, no, let's take these last 10 seconds and just throw down go to war with one of the most dangerous guys in the history of the sport.

And then he flatlines him with one second to go. I don't know that I'm wrong in thinking this might be the greatest finish in UFC history. Finish. You know, it's such a fun topic. There's just so many ways that we can categorize these types of finishes, knockouts. And the way that I was initially categorizing it, and maybe still, moment. To me, it was the greatest moment in UFC history because of everything you just mentioned. What was at stake?

The BMF, two of the most dangerous men we've ever seen in the Afghan. He was obviously ahead on the score of cards. And two, the fight in jeopardy to take a chance because he knew we're here to deliver. fight the low-hanging fruit. This is the thing that everybody came to see. And if I, if I just go to the bell, which Max doesn't have that in his blood to just kind of, kind of, kind of coast to victory. But to put it all on the line with 10 seconds left for he got hit. He got hit one or two times in that exchange. For me, it was, it was not only him making the call out, which was epic enough. If, look, Damon, if, if nobody would have

gotten knocked out, we would still be talking about that moment right now. But the knockout came as well, which just amplified it. And so for me, it was the greatest moment that I can remember in UFC history, because what it did for me was it made me think that everybody in the world that was watching this shared the same emotion at the exact same time. And it was epic. I mean, I was there in a room with 30 people with my son, and we were jumping up and down and my phone starts going off. And I'm thinking about every one of you guys, everyone of my fighter friends, everybody that's watching the same thing, doing the exact same reaction, right? And so for me, it was the moment that it grabbed the moment.

And I don't want to backtrack too much, but look at what Max Holloway did to set this up. He wanted this fight. He stepped up in weight class. He's the one that started calling for Mark Coleman to give out the BMF belt. He's the one that really got most vocal about having the $300,000 bonus. He's the one that said, even though I'm winning this fight, probably four rounds to one. three rounds to one. I'm going to step in here. I'm going to do Max Holloway. And it all paid off. He deserved that moment, man. And God, it was such an incredible fight.

I, you know, I listen, beyond, you know, I'm a journalist to cover the sport. And, you know, I have to, you know, even when I'm at, like, when I go to the fight cards, you know, generally speaking, you have to be a little subdued. You can't overreact because that's, you know, kind of unprofessional, so to speak. I was at home for this one. I was sitting at home for this one. And I still have a tendency to react to big knockouts, even though I'm on my computer and kind of watch on the TV at the same time. I probably disturbed my neighbors how loudly I yelled and screamed, oh my God, like 12 times in a row after watching that because it was one of the most ridiculous moments. And again, you could not write that script. Like if you were writing, if you were just like, if this was WWE and you were writing the script of how these fights would end and you're like, okay, I want this to happen.

I want that to happen. I want this guy to win, that guy to win. You couldn't have scripted it that this would happen. that Max Holloway in a fight that, you know, on paper didn't really make sense. I mean, he's a featherweight. I mean, I know he's fought it lightweight, but he is a featherweight. Make no mistake. He's been a featherweight in his entire career, one of the greatest featherweights of all time.

He stepped up and took on one of the most dangerous, nasty fighters in the sport who's coming off two huge wins, a big knockout over Dustin Porier, number one contender in the division. All the risk is on Mac's, you know, there's a lot of risk on Max's side. And then he goes out there and hits that spinning back kick in the first round, breaks. Gachi's nose, which to me set the tone for the entire fight, because I don't think Gaichi was ever the same after he took that kick to the face. But then

Max goes out there and wins other rounds. Like he's, and he looks great doing it. Like, he's picking him apart. And he's landing big shots. Like, these aren't just a little pitter-patter, you know, punches. These are big shots he's hitting with, and Gaichi just continued to show off that incredible chin and durability. But then that final

sequence to just say, let's just go. Let's throw down in these final 10 seconds. Everyone remembers the Ricardo Lama. But as you said, we remember the Ricardo Lama's moment. It was epic, but it didn't produce a knockout. We just remember how cool it was to see Max, they point to the floor, let's go. Boom, boom, boom. They're throwing bombs.

They're just throwing crazy haymakers. And that's how the fight ends. This one was that on a bigger stage and Justin Gachie got flattened, you know, face first on the canvas. It was the most ridiculous moment I can ever remember seeing in this sport. And I've seen a lot of ridiculous moments. I felt like I watched Justin Gaci drop. in slow motion. When they went there, we had already hit level 10 of exhilaration. They're doing it. They're doing the Max Holloway moment right now. We were already peaking. And then when that punch landed,

and Gaichi seemed to just fall like it was a building collapsing. I was so mind-blown of what I was watching. I mean, and it was like, I always say there's two parts to a knockout. There's the beautiful knockout, and then there's the fall, the reaction, because that kind of adds to. to it, right? The way that he kind of imploded and felt, and I'm not trying to obviously kick Gaichi wise down. I thought he handled it very professionally as well, coming out and saying I'm fine, everything is good. I'm a good spirit with my family. But for him to lay face down on that canvas and we have that picture in our head of Gaichi, motionless, face down on the mat, Max Holloway just roaring around the octagon, I don't think any of us thought we'd see that. You know, I picked

Max Holloway to win this, but I picked him by decision. You know, we were pretty damn close to hitting that. But to hit that, and I think he hit that with one second left, right? So that would tie Demetrius Might and Mous Johnson's record in a five-round title fight, finishing a fight with one second left. I mean, it checks every single box to be the greatest moment in UFC history. It's unbelievable. And, you know, Dana said something at the Post-Fite Press, and I totally agree.

You know, Max was already a star. Like Max headlines, pay-per-views. Max is a former champion. he is a very well-liked guy. Like when he shows up at press conferences, the crowd roars. He has a huge audience. Hawaii, in a weird way, is almost like its own country

where the fans from Hawaii support their local Hawaiian fighters, kind of like the Irish new for Connor or whatever. He was already a star. Like, let's make no mistake about it. Max Holloway was a star. But that moment on Saturday night elevates him to, in my opinion, superstar status. I don't know that, like, I'm not saying like every fight he's going to have

is going to be Connor, where it's almost guaranteed to be a million pay-per-views, but who's not going to want to watch whatever Max Holloway does from now on? Like that, on that, because to me, the biggest moment, like I was kind of argued with one of my colleagues yesterday about the greatest finish, greatest moment in UFC history, and he was arguing that it was Jaya Rodriguez doing that crazy back elbow to the Korean zombie in the last second.

I said, don't get me wrong. That's an incredible moment, incredible knockout, a great comeback because he was losing that fight. But I also think you've got to measure the stage. This was the biggest card ever. This was the UFC 300 card. To do that on that stage and produce that kind of a knockout. And again, we would still be talking about it.

He just threw down and had that 10 seconds and it was just a crazy awesome finish. But the fact that he landed that punch and put Gagchi face first and you're absolutely right. The way he fell, we have the image of him literally laying there motionless on the ground, Max ripping up in a prey. and then we realized there was one second left. It's unbelievable. And I think that whatever Max Holloway does next, the world's going to be watching. Like the entire world is going to be watching whatever he does next.

He definitely went, like he said, I mean, he was already a star, a superstar, but now it's just a whole other level. And it makes it so much more fun when we, the more that we build stars in the sport, the more eyes are on the sport. but the more we are so engaged to just tell this story and to talk about it more and more. I was trying to think, as you mentioned, the greatest knockout, as you had stated it earlier, I was trying to think of them earlier. And like earlier, what came the mind was,

and I saw John Anick posted something right before we got on his show, and he mentioned a few. Anderson Silver versus Vito Belfour, the front kick, right? Leon Edwards, obviously the more close one. Leon Edwards versus Kumar Usman. That happened not too long ago. that was one of the greatest. It was a comeback, same thing as well.

Connor McGregor, Jose Aldo, obviously now Holloway and Geishy. These are all some of the greatest knockouts. When I think about moments, I go way back to Forrest Griffin, right? The ultimate fighter fight. I mean, that was one of those moments that I literally, when the fight was over,

I was calling all my friends going, did you just see this? Did you watch this? And everybody had that same kind of, that same emotion where they were telling each other, did you see what it? Did I just see what I thought I saw kind of thing? And this had it all.

This had the knockout and this had the moment as well. And you said to measure Yaira Rodriguez's up elbow, amazing knockout. But the stakes, the platform, what was at stake, the biggest card in history? Max Holloway did the right thing at the right time. I said on Saturday night, whatever Max wants next, give it to him. If he wants the winner of, if he wants Ilya Teporia, give him Ili Teporea. give him I'lletiporia. And I love Volcanowski.

I totally understand him getting the immediate rematch, but I'm fine with the way that could play out. I said, if he wants the winner of Connor and Chandler, which finally got announced on Saturday night, I said, give him that fight. How big would that be for him to fight the winner of that one? I said, if he wants the winner of Islam and Dustin Porrier, which also got announced on Saturday night,

I said give him that. If you're Max Holloway, what do you feel like should be next for him? If you're calling your shot and you have this kind of power now to say, hey, I want this. And very few fighters actually have that ability to say, this is what I want. And the UFC will more than likely grant that wish. And it feels like right now he could ask for anything.

And the UFC would give it to him. What should be next for Max Holloway? I love what you just mentioned. I love, well, first of all, I think Ilya Tuporia is the fight that we have to make now. Because now he goes back to his rifle division and it doesn't cloud the lightweight division. Because the thing about this fight is it was the best fight that made no. sense, right? Because it messes up two divisions. Now you have a 45-ver jumping the line in the lightweight division, which is already kind of not making too much sense. But now, Ilya

is saying, this is the fight I want now after seeing what Max Holloway did. And now the elevation, the star status of Max Holloway is, is even bigger. His star is even brighter. That fight is now even bigger. So that is a bigger fight than fighting the former champion who we all love and respect with Alexander Volcanowski. So I think that fight makes a ton of sense. But I love the other one that you just said. The winner of Michael Chandler versus Connor McGregor, I mean, it doesn't get much bigger than that.

A lot of us are probably leaning towards Connor McGregor winning that fight. Well, I guess I am. I can't speak for everyone, but we don't know what type of Connor McGregor we're going to see. But that is kind of a tailor-made matchup for Connor McGregor is what I'm alluding to. That fight makes sense because now you have two guys

that can fight and have. headline one of the biggest fights of the year. And it doesn't cloud the division in any way, where if he went and jumped into the 55 rankings, it messes things up quite a bit. So I think Ilya Tuporia would be my number one pick and then possibly the winner of Chandler and McGreg would be the number two pick. Yeah, I think it all comes down to timing, of course. You know, that's how these things works. That's how Dustin's getting a title shot and I have zero problem with that. You know, again, from all we've heard, Arvin, Suruki was offered the shot. he just couldn't be ready in time.

So they gave it to Dustin. I'm fine with the way that played out, but that's how this sport works. I think Tuporia is the right call as well. I think that's a massive fight for the featherweight division. It gives Max a chance to get his title back. I think that's a really difficult fight for both of them. But I'll be honest, like when I mentioned it on Saturday,

I kind of didn't really jokingly say it. I just threw it out as an option because, you know, Max had kind of commented on Connor after the fight at the Post-Py Press comments. I'm not opposed to that one either. like him against Connor or Chandler like could you imagine how massive that would be how huge of a fight that would be and again I'm kind of with you where if Connor wins I mean that's just on another level putting him and Max together again 11 years after their first meeting him coming off a knockout over Chandler of course you know Max coming off a knockout over Gagee December year in pay-perview or maybe November the Madison Square Garden card I'm fine with that too so again it's all about timing you know maybe maybe Max wants some downtime and maybe Ilya is going to fight sooner than he's ready in like July or something and they do the Volcanowski rematch. Okay, then you move on to Connor. I mean, there's no bad option for him right now. And you know, it's crazy. The way things work themselves out with the

UFC, obviously we have such a big roster and so many stars that we always seem to find a way, the UFC rather, always seems to find a way to make things work out, to make things happen. But I'm watching this fight card here in Lafayette with a lot of friends, a lot of Dustin some Porreya supporters and everything. And we all know Dustin's, you know, in negotiations. As we're watching this fight, Dustin's currently in negotiations with the UFC

about getting this title shot with Islam. But we're not quite sure if it's going to happen or not. They're still ways off about the money, or they were still off about the money. And it's just making sense. It doesn't always have to make sense. You know, obviously, Connor McGregor, change the rules of the game. But Dustin Porier was number four,

number five, and he had people ahead of them. And so if Gashi would have won or Charles Olaverer would have won, it would have made a lot less sense for Dustin to now get the title shot because these guys are ahead of them and they just won. I know it's a timing thing, but it couldn't have worked out any better for the UFC and for Dustin and everybody because the two guys, Charles Olavera and Justin Gishi,

who were ahead of Poyer, both lost on Saturday night. So now it makes the title shot for Dussum Poye make more sense. It's not just a random thing about, well, he's the only guy available for that date. It makes sense. They were ahead of them. They both lost. It kind of ushers Dustin right into that spot.

And as you said, yeah, we all know we saw the news come out that they did call Armand first. And I think that was the right call. Armand, you know, he beat Oliver, who I think was sitting at the one spot. So he did get the first call. He couldn't take it. Dustin's ready to say yes. He accepted it. Everything worked itself out that night.

So I don't like it. getting into, you know, never, I don't like getting into like this is the end or never moments, you know, like this will never happen for him. But, you know, Justin Gachie real quick, I just want to touch on this before we move on. Justin Gachie has been very honest and kind of said, even after the Dustoporier fight, like, I'm making this one last run of the title. You know, he knows his career doesn't, you know, just the way he fights, the damage he absorbs, he knows he can't fight forever. It's just the nature of the beast of what he's doing. And he's kind of said very openly, you know, I feel like I have that one run, you know, to get back

to the title. Now, we just saw Dustin Portia got head kicked knocked out by Justin Gachie last year, last July. And here we are, you know, not even a year later. And he's in a title fight off a win over Benoit Saint-Dini, who is not a top five fighter. Like, so when I say like, I want to say never because Justin Gagee could go out there. He gets, let's say he gets a rematch for Charles Oliver. He knocks him out cold and boom. He's right back in the title contention.

But this was a bad setback for Justin. I say going into the event, I thought he had the most to lose because he wasn't. the number one contender. He was, again, like it or not, he was fighting a featherweight. I know Max is put on the weight and the size, but he was, he's a featherweight. Like, he has like two fights at lightweight. He is a legitimate featherweight. And it couldn't have ended worse for him in terms of getting knocked out in that last second because as much as we're celebrating Max the other side of that is, Justin's image of him laying face versus on the canvas getting flatlined. I'm not saying never because that's just how this sport works. but that had to be like the worst case scenario for Justin Gachie on Saturday night.

I would agree. I think Justin Gachie had the most at stake to lose on Saturday night, and he put it all on the line. So we have to applaud him for stepping up and doing that for us. There's a couple scenarios when I see this. You mentioned it. Justin said, I'm making one more run at the title. That was taken away from him on Saturday night.

if he didn't get knocked out in that last second and he would have lost that decision by probably a 49-46 scorecard, possibly could have retired. You know, there was talks of him retiring without a win that night because that kind of takes him out of title contentions. But the same thing that you just mentioned, Dustin Borey got knocked out by Justin Gagey just about a year ago and won one big dramatic fight and now he is pushed back into the title shot. So it's not over. It's not over for Justin Gitchie. This was a huge setback. But if he comes back and now fights Charles Lever again in a rematch, or maybe fights the winner or the loser of the Michael Chandler versus Connor, Connor McGregor, any of those fights with a big finish or are looking very good in a victory could get him right back in title contingents as well. So I don't think it's over for Justin.

And I believe he's only 35 years old. So, you know, that's a number in this sport where people are trying to make. big things happen, but they still have some timeline left on some, some rubber left on the, on the, on the tires, so to speak, to make another run. So I don't think it's all done for him. I think he has some time to maybe try and get one more big win and get one more shot at the title. I like what you said. If Max doesn't take Connor, uh, Chandler, let Justin take that. You know, I think him and Connor is a fight we've all talked about. That's a massive fight. And again, I don't want to say never because we just saw it with Dustin. I mean, there's literally a,

an example of a guy who lost badly and got back in a title shot with one great win. And again, timing is everything. Who knows? Like I said, maybe Justin comes back and fights earlier. And then who knows, October? Like maybe his alum needs to fight. Army gets an injury. And Justin, that's just how the sport works.

So, yeah, as long as Justin wants to continue, he's still got plenty of opportunity to get back in there and fight for a title again. You know one thing? I didn't mean to cut you off the end, but I'm thinking about the possibility of the Holloway and, let's say, McGregor fight. The thing about that one is, if that were to happen, some maybe further along down the line, but that's probably going to be a welterweight, right? And so somewhat of a disadvantage for the 45 or the natural 45 or Max Holloway,

but it just adds to the mystique of the BMF that is Max Holloway, that he would in a heartbeat go up to 170 pounds and fight and fight Connor. I mean, that's the type of fighter that he is. He would have no reservations at all taking that matchup at that weight class. I almost feel like the Toporio Faisal one I think they probably should make and probably will make. But if I'm if I'm if I'm max, maybe wait till after June 29. Just see how Chandler Connor plays out because I mean Connor. He's wanted that rematch for a long time.

It would be it would be a massive. Chandler Connor is going to be massive. I think Holloway Connor would be even bigger. So yeah, like maybe just wait until you like if you can stay patient and they don't need to book you like immediately. Maybe you wait until after June 29. just see how that plays out because Connor wins, boy, you just, I mean, that is again, and listen, Max got a

$600,000 bonus on Saturday night, which is ridiculous, great for him, well deserved. You're going to get huge, you're going to get eight figures in your bank account fighting Connor, you know, with all the pay-per-view points and everything. So maybe you wait until after June 29th and say, you know what, maybe I'll just see how that one plays out.

He certainly is going to have so many options on a table that he could sit back and just wait to see which one is the more profitable one. Absolutely. Now, the main event again we all said kind of slipped under the radar it wasn't the big marquee name we all wanted but given how the fight card already played out like in a way i think Alex preheya and and Jamal Hill were a little bit playing with house money because the card was already so epic and so great that we were just like we're just like we're just like let's just have a great

end of the night almost like let's just let's just let's just go home in fashion and then for him to go out there and knock out jemalal the way he did in the first round and have that post-fight meme where he did the whole hands out, like here you guys serving him on a platter. Unbelievable. And Alex, you know, again, I know we are prisoners at a moment. And I said, like, I don't want to oversell Max as the greatest, what I said, the greatest finish. I agree with you, greatest moment.

Alex Pereers eight-fight run, five former champions on his resume now in eight fights. And he's only got like 10 or 11 fights on his entire career. Like, it's not like he had like 10 fights outside the UFC. He was a kickboxer who came in with like three MMA fights. Now in eight fights he has beaten five former champions. This is one of the most unbelievable stories to ever happen in this sport, in my opinion. It's insane. I'm trying to look up his age so I could be.

Do you know how old he is right now? I want to say he's like 37 or 38. He's getting up there. He's not a young guy. And that was my point. He's 36. Okay. So a little bit older than you would kind of think.

I mean, I don't know how you visually look at him, but just to the sport, as you mentioned, he's been in the UFC for about two years or fighting for only a couple of years. And the resume that he has already masked with himself, it's just mind-blowing. And I remember watching him in glory and just thinking, this guy is something else. And then I remember watching him fight in the LFA. And he had that knockout that was just one of the worst knockouts I've ever seen in terms of somebody not getting up off of the kid. canvas. If any of our listeners have never seen this, go back and watch Alex Paheda in LFA, and he hits somebody with that patented left hook, and they don't literally don't get off of the canvas for five minutes. It was just eerie silent inside of the arena that night. That's the

type of power that he possesses. To come back and get into the UFC and do what he's done and taking out all these former champions and in the headline, the biggest card in the history, and to finish it the way that he did, the pushing away of a, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, who was the Herb Dean. Herb Dean, yeah. And then the finish with that left hook, a matter of seconds later. And look, the X's and O's of it, you see him,

he touches hands with that left hook, right? And he kind of makes a push-pull situation with Jamal Hill, forcing Hill to want to react. And then he kind of pump-fakes the right hand, but it was like a push-pull. He pumped-fakes the right hand just to set up that left hook, which was kind of like an uppercut. But it was a glancing blow with his pinky knuckle off of, like,

the nose of forehead of Jamal Hill, but it sent Jamal Hill on his butt. I mean, it knocked him off of his feet. And you can see immediately, Jamal Hill's eyes rolled back behind his head. It was, it was, it was, it was mind blowing the type of power and finishing capability that this man has with kind of a glancing blow, immediately following a low blow. I mean, it was another, just epic finish right there. But the resume that he has is amazing. I know he wants to fight on the UFC Brazil. There's been talks about that. We do know that he went in there with a broken toe that he got two weeks prior

to the fight. I don't know if that's going to halt any of this talk about matching him up with someone. But there's options here now too, right? We're talking about possibly getting a Tom Aspinall in there. Any of these other heavyweight, maybe he just wants to dip his toes in the water

in the heavyweight division. And maybe they don't need to give him a Tom Aspinall. I mean, I think at this point he deserves one of the top names or a title shot. He's he's got that type of trajectory. But anything that Alex Paheda wants to do right now, the UFC is going to back it. Because you know he's the guy that will deliver every single time he steps in there, injured or not.

I think he proved the UFC as well. Look, I went in there with a broken foot, broken toe, and I still delivered for you guys. I wasn't going to pull out for that. And I think that puts more trust in the UFC in Alex Baheda with the UFC headlining at a new weight class once again. It's funny because we all, I think we all have these guys or girls, depending on the picks, where it's just like, we don't do it on purpose, but we kind of tend to pick against them

because we're just like, this is going to be the fight. Like, this is going to be the moment where the other side comes out or he's fighting a wrestler and he's going to get taken down or whatever the case may be. Alex, just because I've covered the sport for so long, I'm like, this shouldn't happen. Like, eight fights in the UFC, let's be honest. He got Israel out of Sanya before he probably, quote, unquote, earned it

because he had the two knockouts. He had the two wins over him and kickback. boxing, including that huge viral knockout in the rematch. He, I mean, yes, he beat Sean Strickland, but even then, Sean Strickland wasn't the Sean Strickland we know now. Like, he wasn't coming off the out of Sanya win. Like, he was like number seven, eight in the division, and he knocked him out flat. He got the fight with Israel because of their shared history in kickboxing.

Then he goes out there, and he's losing that fight, and then comes down that fifth round, knocks him out, and we're all like, oh, my God. Now, everything changed, you know, less than a year later when Israel knocked him out. He moves up to light heavyweight. And I'm in the same thing I'm like dude take it on Jan Bolhovic Day 1 Yon's a good wrestler he's a good grappler Like this is this could be a bad matchup

And it almost was You know Yon did definitely have his moments He had that opening round where he took him down It was pretty bad for Alex And then he comes back and knocks him out And then again even Yuri Barashka Same thing I'm like man you know Year's a little wild

Year he gets a little crazy But he is a well-rounded guy You know we saw what he did on the ground With Glover to Cher I'm like I just I just I just can't pick him And he goes out there knocks out Yuri Parashka I don't think I can't

picking against this guy anymore. Like I think personally, like I don't love heavyweight right now only because we're already dealing with a mess with John Jones, you know, probably fighting Steepa and Tom kind out in No Man's Land right now. And, you know, I think Curtis Blades is probably the fight that

should get made. Curtis coming up the big knockout win of his win over Jelton Alameda and they have history together. Maybe July, I think that does make a lot of sense. And I don't know that we need... Blades versus who. Blades versus Aspenol in July. I think that's, yeah. The run of Baghdad. Yeah.

And I think I'd like to see Maga Man Ancalaia get the shot against Perhaya. I think that would be a good fight. Maga Mad coming up to a huge winner, Johnny Walker. But again, if they want to do Asphidal, I have no problem with that. But I'm just, I feel like I can't pick against Perea anymore. Like, I keep picking against him. This is going to be the fight where we're going to see his inexperience come out. And he just keeps proving me wrong over and over again.

our guy Matt Brown said on your show recently if you want to give Dustin Poria a title shot I got nothing to say about it because of who he is the same can be said about Alex Bejada you give him a title shot in any weight division you got nothing to say about it because this man delivers every single time he's got the death touch

in that left hook he delivers man I mean the guy's a natural born fighter it's it's unheard of in our sport for somebody to come in later on in life at this age and do what he has done in a short amount of time It's unbelievable. I mean, it's unbelievable. And like I say, again, I'm with you. If he wants to fight Aspinol and they want to give him in the Aspinall fight, I really have no problem with that because, you know, who wouldn't watch that fight? I mean, July is when they're talking about going to Manchester. That would be a huge fight for that card. And it gives Alex, you know, I mean, let's be honest. He's not fighting a 301. It's three weeks away. Like, he's got a broken pinky toe. It's not happening. And really, who would he fight on three weeks notice anyways? Like, I don't think they're going to throw Aspinol in there and try to build a title fight on three weeks notice. They're going to move forward with the card as it is.

They got Jose Aldo back. Like, they're just going to move forward. But July, Manchester, again, I don't, I'd feel really bad for Curtis Blades, but who's really going to complain about Alex? If he's like, yeah, give me that interim title fight. And, you know, let's just let, let's just let chaos rule and see what happens. I don't think anybody would say a word about it. And Blaze is deserving for some big fights.

But again, we're in the sport of entertainment. And Alex Baheda is a knockout artist. You're comparing that to somebody like Blades who is, he's going to take you down, right? I mean, it's two different ends of the spectrum in terms of excitement and what they bring in viewership. So Alex Bahadah could take whatever fight he likes right now and I'd be fine with it. Yeah, I'm in the same boat. Like I said, I think I think light heavy. I'd like Sam State Light Heavyweight, but yeah, I can't really complain about that.

Of course. Race the runners. Raise the sails. Raise the sales. Captain, an unidentified ship is approaching. Over. Roger. Wait.

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That's B-E-T-T-E-R-M-E-N-T-com. Investing involves risk, performance not guaranteed. Zhang Wei-Lee ends up going out and defending her title against Janjian Nan and in like the almost forgotten about fight because it had the unenviable position of being after Holloway Geichi. Crazy sequence at the end of the first round where she basically choked out Yanjong-Nan, but it went to the end of the round and the fight continued, which is ridiculous because, I mean, was done. Jan Jan Nain was out

on the campus and they woke her up and she gets back up and fights and it's a winning rounds later in the fight but I was in a way I feel bad for them because that was probably the least talked about fight on the card weirdly even though it was like the co-main event because you know obviously you deal with the language barrier Yan Jian Jain isn't the biggest name in the world

and they were sandwiched between the main event and the fight everyone was talking about which was Gaiti Yaluay but credit to his Yang Wei going out there and getting a big win the way she did and, you know, continue to prove she's one of, I think she is right now, in my opinion, the best pound for pound women's fighter in the sport. Yeah, she, she's definitely pound for pound, probably the best woman's fighter in the sport. I would agree with that.

I did think that we saw some holes in the game. You know, anytime somebody asks me about Zhang Wei, I say she's strong everywhere. You know, obviously she could strike very well. She got great submissions, but she got great wrestling, and she's physically, seemed to be stronger than a lot of the women women in the division. She got knocked down quite a few times. I mean, that was one of those fights that it was

a lot of back and forth. She'd be getting knocked down. She would lose some of the rounds. She would come back and get a dominant position and try to solidify the round. It was very back and forth. At the end of the day, she did what she had to do. She got the job done. I love how, although there's a language barrier

with Zhang Wei, that makes the connection harder. for the American fans to relate to her. But she's been doing her best efforts to just learn English. And she's got this very cute personality where she's very playful with all the fighters. And I feel like she's becoming a bigger star in the sport, not only from this card, but just because the efforts that she's putting forth and trying to be very playful and all the TikTok clips and her lifting up Francis Ngano months back, you know, last year, all that stuff.

All these things kind of add to it and make her a little more loved by. the fans by not just her fighting style, but her personality, because you have to love the personality or something about them as well. And so she has that going for her where if Jan Janan would have won, like really, she's a good fighter, but nobody knows anything about Jan Janan. I mean, there's nothing to sell to back her up as a fighter other than that she could fight. So it was definitely, it played in the right direction for the UFC with Wang Jali winning, Zhang Wei winning, because she's kind of coming into her own. She's kind of finding who am I as a champion?

Who am I? And she's kind of finding that fight right there, finding who she is right there. But yeah, good back and forth fight for one and I agree. It just got overlooked. I mean, there's so many huge fights on the card. When you throw a women's fight right there in between two of the best fights on a card, it's going to get overlooked.

Yeah. So now I don't want to undersell how great of a win, Armin Saruki and got over Charles Oliver because that is such a big moment for him. And to survive the way he did early against Charles, you know, wrapping up that guillotine, going later, I mean, to deal with Charles Oliver on the ground and volunteer to go on the ground, what Charles O'Levara and win that fight is a pretty amazing accomplishment. But I think we all kind of know what's next for Armand, you know, unless something weird happens, you know,

if our scenarios play out, you know, Max will be fighting either Ilya or maybe Connor or Chandler, which means Armin just has to wait for the winner of Porre and Islam, and then, you know, probably October and Abu Dhabi, depending. I mean, again, Dustin obviously has a great chance of winning. and then, you know, who knows what happens then. But, you know, in theory, whether it's, whether it's Dustin or Islam, you have to imagine Armand's going to get that guy later this year, you know, October, November. If it's Dustin, maybe November, Madison Square Garden, if it's Islam, October and Abu Dhabi,

I think we already kind of know where he's going. I don't want to undersell his win, but it was a great win, great performance. But, and to be fair, like, I think we kind of know what's next for Armand. Yeah, and I would wait. I would wait out if I was him. He just beat the number one guy. ranked number one, right under the champ. I mean, he looked good doing it.

He looked strong. And the areas of the fight that he won, it was the strengths that I thought he would have. I thought he would be a little bit just physically stronger in the wrestling department. Now, he got in some danger, as we saw in some of the guillotine and things like that, but he was able to weather the storm and just be the guy on top. And Charles Oliver, sometimes decision-making, I don't love, if I'm being honest. I remember at one point of the fight, Charles de Lavera was in, I think, full mount. He had a very dominant position on Armand, and he allowed Armand to sweep him and get into his guard.

And a lot of people saying, well, he's so comfortable in his guard because of the submission threat. But at this level, guys like Armand and Islam and all these other high-level grapplers, it's going to be very tough to pop a triangle on these type of guys. They're going to keep their elbows tight. They're going to look to pass. They're going to look to just stay safe and ground and pound and went out the round. And he was able to do that. I think if Charles O'Levara would have tried to stay a little more, I don't want to say aggressive on top,

but not concede to the sweep, to concede to going to his back where he is confident, but against these high-level guys, you cannot give up position. It's cost him an Islam fight. It costs him an Armand fight. It's just one of these things. That's why we love Charles Oliverer because he gets knocked down, comes back, and knocks you out. He gets knocked down, he comes back and slaps on a rear-necked choke. But against the highest-level guys, they're not.

not making mistakes. When he gets swept or he gets knocked down, they're there to capitalize on the opportunity or at least the positioning. And so little mistakes right there by Oliver, tremendous fight. Armand showed he is the real deal. And if I'm Armand, I'm waiting for that title opportunity for the winner of Islam and Porier. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you don't go anywhere. You take you just sit and wait. And again, that fight is only, you know, it's less than two months away. So, you know, why would you risk anything? Just not a long wait, right? Yeah. No, it's not at all. And I agree with you on Charles. Like, again, the visual, like it or not, I understand people like, yes, you can win a fight from the bottom.

It can be done. But the visual of that guy on top of you and you're just kind of stuck under him, eating little elbows, punches, things like that. It's a bad look and that's going to lose you rounds. And that's exactly what happened. And, you know, you're dealing with it. You know, it's, you know, Habib, when he was around, it's Islam, it's arm in these high-level wrestlers who know what to do and what not to do in the guard.

They're not doing something stupid and allowing you to throw up a triangle, throw up an arm bar. they know how to fight it and you're right like it's almost like he conceded being on the bottom and we're all like he has a great guard he does have a great guard but it's just nullified when you're facing a high level grappler wrestler like arman who knows i can't posture up i can't make big motions i need to stay tight stay inside seven at the elbows hit him with short shots you know just pepper away and then hit him when you can there were a couple elbows like he sliced them open obviously like again i think that was a mistake on charles olivera's part not to say he would have

one otherwise, but like I think he almost felt too comfortable on his back and it cost him. I want to get back to that moment in the fight where Charles Oliverer was trying to come back and make a comeback victory and he got on top and he tried to slap on a dars. And you saw Armand go flat. And it looked like you went limp for a second. And I was very worried that the referee or somebody who was going to jump in and stop it. But that's 100% defense. That's like it's one of the easiest defenses that you can do is you just grab the wrist of the arm that show you and you put your body flat because for them to finish that they need to get you on your side so they can kind of crush your shoulder into your neck closing off that artery on that

side and then the pressure from the arm closes off the artery on the other side when you go flat it distances your shoulder from your neck and allows you to use your body weight to stay flat and have room in between your shoulder and your neck to still have blood flow through the head so he did that i can't remember who the ref was but they did a good job was it was mark goddard i think it was Mark Goddard, yeah. He did a good job of recognizing, look, this guy looks like he's laying flat and limp, but he's defending it. He didn't step in because it would have been such a tragedy if they would have stopped the fight right there. And Armand would have jumped up and contested, you know, the stoppage and everything. It would have been horrible. So good on the referee on that one, recognizing what was going on in that position and good defense by Armand right there. Yeah, I was actually super impressed with that. I'm so glad you mentioned that because it would have been awful had they stopped it. But thankfully, a good referee did do it did his job and when you watch the replay you see him do it on purpose like he puts his arm down and lays down because it basically just relieves the pressure and charles can't get him if you ever watch it i'm certainly you obviously know far more about grappling than i do but i think i'm saying this correctly typically with a darchs that's why you see guys try to wrap the leg because you're trying to roll on your side and take the leg so you can't roll away from it what is the defense to a dars or an an anaconda choke is to roll away from it you don't want to sit there and allow them to kind of almost crunch you in a crate you in a crate you and because then it just tightens the hole. Him going flat basically just,

it was almost like a north-south choke, and there was nothing really applied there. He was fine. It's much harder to finish. In order to finish that, you have to go, like you said, hook the leg and try to force him over onto his side where you have more room to maneuver his neck and everything.

But he did a great job. You basically want to just be flat like a board, plank on the ground. And as long as you do that, you'll be safe. It gives up position. A lot of times when you do that, guys would then jump to the back or something. But again, he did it, didn't take any damage after that. It was a smart move, good defense. You just, it's about what's trying to kill you at the moment?

You survive that and then move to the next one. And he was able to survive what was trying to kill him at that moment. Absolutely. Bo Nicol, of course, opened the card. There was a little bit of controversy in terms of him getting on the main card. I never really had an issue with it. You know, I talked to Michael Bisping before the event. He said, listen, there's so much hype around this guy. He could be the American Khabibna Magamatov. There's a reason why because if you put him on the prelims, he kind of becomes just another fight. You put him on the main card, everyone's going to watch.

And I understood it. But afterwards, Bo was pretty down on his performance. He didn't love what he did in there. Cody Brundage did a great job defending and not really allowing him to get positions on the ground. He eventually got it and got the submission, got the win. But does Bo Nickel have a reason to be disappointed in that performance on Saturday night? You know, I think it wasn't the performance that.

He wanted, obviously, on such a big card. He was trying to look for a dominant performance, which all his performances thus far have been very dominant. And so to get on 300 to get pushed up and all the backlash against him, I think he wanted to go and show out and wanted to show the fans. This is why the UFC is pushing me so hard because I am that type of guy. I am him, right? He wasn't able to show that.

But really, it was just stylistically the matchup. Cody Brundage was a heavy dog in this fight. But Cody Brundage is a wrestler who's very strong, right? So there wasn't going to be a bunch of easy submissions right there or easy takedowns, even though he's the higher level grappler, is Bo Nicol. But Cody Brundage knows how to grapple, right? He's a former wrestler. He's a wrestler as well.

And he's physically. He said it. He said, I'm pound for pound, one of the strongest guys in a division. So it wasn't going to be an easy task. But Bo Neckle is like this blue collar type guy that he doesn't really get too emotional. If it's not going his way, he stays the course, stays the course. And staying the course led him to getting that victory. I think the sky is still the limit for him.

What I need to see, though, I need to see the fans either love him or hate him. Because right now, they're kind of just, they don't know if they like him or not. And that's not a good thing in my mind. When he gets on the microphone, they boo. But it's not like he's the heel type of hatred boo. He's not the type of the booze that I got to buy this pay-per-view because I got to see this guy lose because I can't stand him. It's he's been a favorite of the UFC

and he's been pushed more than other fighters and he's gotten some somewhat favoritism-type matchups. So that's why we're booing him. But I feel like he needs to find a way to either gain the loyalty and the trust of the fans or go full heel because he's kind of in a no-man's land now where people think that he's a prospect and he's got a lot of potential, but they don't love him.

And they boo him because they don't care for him because he's getting this special treatment, but he's not a heel. You know what I'm saying? He's got to find a way, in my opinion, to go one way or the other, where he's a must-see TV, but he's not there yet. So he's going to have to figure that out. But I don't really know what the hatred. I don't I say hatred.

The hatred is way too strong. The distaste. When he gets on the microphone, it's like old algebra. man Sterling, right? Where they didn't hate Aljo, but they just didn't love watching them fight or whatever reason. And so they boo, and that's how I felt like it was every time Bo Nicco would speak. The fans aren't, aren't feeling them right now.

He needs to find a way to win over the fans. He doesn't, the problem, I think what Bo Nicol, the problem he's having is, is that, A, you know, wrestling still isn't the most popular discipline for fighting because there's still fight cards where a takedown leads to booze. Like, not even like doing anything wrong. You just did a takedown. People are like, boo. that and he has while he does have knockouts on his record he's not going out there and doing what

Hamzad did when he came in he's just wrecking people when Hamzot came in he was taking people down and just absolutely mauling and wrecking them and I think that kind of turned people into Hamzad fans where people like we're so high on Hamzot and of course Hamzad had far more experience coming into the UFC but yeah I agree I think it's like you got to go one way or the other I think you know listen people people are smart and you know when you're a five and oh or and you're getting main card spots on pay-per-views over experienced guys, former champions, top-10 fighters. People kind of see that as almost like a sign of disrespect.

None of it's his fault, by the way. Like the UFC makes these cards. They put the bout order together. Bo Nickel has no power to say, I need to be on the main card. You need to put me on the main card. This is Dana White and Hunter Campbell and the team at the UFC putting him on the main card. But in a weird way, they may be setting him up for failure because people are kind of like, hold on now.

You're on the main card over Yeri and Alexander Rackett. you're on the main card over Kayla and Holly Holie Holm, you're on the main card over Al Jermaine Sterling's Featherweight debut. And so you're right. It's almost like they need to go one way or the other. And he doesn't have that style where he's just wrecking people like Hamzot. When Hamzot came in, he just mauled his first like three opponents in two weeks.

That set him up for the rest of his career. Like even though his last fight against Usman wasn't great, and if that had gone another round, you could argue maybe he would have lost that fight. But we still have that image of him to punch on Gerald Mershart, Merchard just crumbling under the way that epic three-round war with Gilbert Burns

Bo's just not there yet and you know we got to understand it's going to take some time and it's almost like in a weird way the UFC might be doing him a disservice by putting him

on such high level cards that people are kind of seeing through and saying why is this guy on here? I think he's got a steep road ahead of him if I'm being honest I think he has the ability and I think like I said

that he needs to try to final way to win over the crowd. But he needs to be cautious not to turn into a Joe Pfeiffer where he's getting pushed very heavily with the UFC, but he wasn't quite ready, like when he got that main event slot, and we talked him up. We talked about his knockout power, how strong he is, his mindset, what he's had to overcome, but he wasn't quite ready for some of these next level fights. They gave him a good opponent in terms of matchup right here, and he did pass the test. but now the UFC needs to probably pump the brakes and say, we need to continue to get these finishes.

We need to build this guy because if we give him these fights where he starts to kind of stall out again, all momentum is going to be lost. So the UFC has to play this very carefully, and Bill Nichols has a final way to continue delivering because now the expectations have been set very high with him. Now the guy that was on 300 pay-per-view, where is his next fight going to be?

I mean, he's not prelimming after this. He was on the 300 pay-per-view. He's only going to be on big cards. against better name worthy opponents. So they have to find the right matchups. And Bo needs to find a way to get these finishes to continue his trajectory to the top. And I like Bo.

I'm a wrestling guy, so I love Bo. I love what he's done. I know he mentioned like Anthony Hernandez, Fluffy Hernandez and Roman Coppiloff. I'm like, let's not do that. That's too much too soon for him. Like those guys were...

Those are the type of fights I was just saying that could stall him out. Yeah, Fluffy is like an incredible grappler and he's a top 15 guy. And Roman was basically on the, verge of that right before he lost to Fluffy. I think that might be a bit too much too soon. Like, let's not throw him in those waters

because he could go to the ground with Anthony Hernandez and that could go wrong. Look what he did to Hidalfa Vieira and what he's done to other guys. And Koppeloff is a nasty, nasty striker. And he was doing well against Fluffy until he got taken down to the ground and got submitted. So that to me, like

that's too much too soon. Let's not throw him in the deep water middleweight right now. And we risk him losing and then it all goes away. Because part of the mystique of Bo Nicol is undefeated, you know, this three-time NCAA champion. It all goes away if he loses in a fight he shouldn't be in. Yeah, I agree. Hernandez is the guy that makes good grapplers not look as good.

He's good. And you could see on the feet, Bo Nicol is still, look, he's had, I think before this fight, he's had six minutes of total ring time altogether and fighting. He's fighting on the pay-per-view of UFC 3. he's only fought inside of an octagon for six minutes in his career because he've all been early finishes he got a little bit of cage time experience in this fight but you can't put him in there where he's going 15 minutes and kind of a lacklust of type performance it takes away all the all the momentum that he's had and a loss as you said would detrimental to his career so be smart

in the approach of matchmaking with bull nickel in the future for sure so now obviously the prelims you know we're not going to be able to go through every single fight in the car but I feel like we got to talk about maybe the most buzzy fight coming out of U.S.C. 300 of the prelims, and that was Kayla Harrison's incredible debut. I've known Kayla for, I mean, before she became a fighter, my first interview with Kayla Harrison was after she won the second gold medal in the Olympics. And at that point, she was saying, like, I don't think I'm going to do MMA. Like, it just doesn't appeal to me.

And now, you know, she's, you know, coming into UFC. This time around, I have a lot of faith in Kayla. I've always said I think Kayla is one of the best in the world, but she just didn't have that level of competition in PFL, so she had to do what she's doing now. But even I had concerns. Like, man, cutting that weight down to 135. I mean, she won the Olympics like 174 pounds.

Like, this is a huge, huge cut. She did it. She looked good. She came out and absolutely wrecked Holly home. And, you know, listen, we can sit here and talk about Holly had maybe the worst game plan ever. Or should I say the way she fought, maybe not the game plan, but the way she fought was the worst idea ever to basically invite grappling exchanges, with Kayla Harrison.

But Kayla went out there first round. She's beating her up. Elbows, punches looks nasty. Second round gets her down, flattens her out, chokes her out about two seconds. You can tell how tight that choke was. That was the exact performance that Kayla Harrison needed. I think we all said this. I don't know how many.

We probably talked about this. I'm sure everyone's talked about this. Kayla Harrison is what this division needed because women's band to weight, let's be honest, had kind of become a bit of a garbage fire over the last couple of years with Amanda retiring and no real names emerging. The youngest fight in the top 15 was like 29. Like they had no prospects. Like it was a bad division.

Kayla doing what she did was exactly what women's Bantaway needed. Here's what needs to happen. Give Kayla Harrison an immediate title shot over Raquel Pennington. I think Taylor Harrison gets that victory. And it brings Amanda Nunez out of retirement. We revived the division. You still have Julian opinion in there talking good trash. and she could be a future opponent as well.

But Kayla Harrison, she is what we needed to inject into the division. She did what she was needed. She was doing 300. Give her the immediate title shot. She is great. She looks like it. She's so physically imposing and strong.

She's somebody that just when you see her pitcher, I want to see her fight. There's something about her, like her look. She knows how to work the mic. Whenever you give her a hot mic, she makes those callouts. You saw the video of a man, Nunes, waiting. She was waiting. She wanted desperately for her name to be called because she, she's going to come back, man.

She wants Kayla Harrison to say her name. You know what? I think Kayla Harrison's waiting on him. Let me get the belt. That's why I'm here. I'm here to be a UFC champion. Give her that opportunity. I think she passes the test. I think she becomes champion. She calls on a man in Nunes. We get the super fight that we all want. Everybody wins. Let's do it. Yeah, the biggest loser out of this whole thing, and I've been very vocal in my criticism of her is Julianna Pena, who at this point has been out for almost two years. Her last fight. It was in June of 2022. And, you know, she keeps calling for the title shot. You're doing yourself no favors by sitting and waiting. And I'm with you. Give her the time. Do not, do not risk this momentum that she gets off this winner of her Holly Holme.

Put her in the fight against Raquel Pennington. Let's be honest, I think Raquel would be a pretty heavy underdog to Kayla Harrison. Giuliana, I mean, I know my criticism with Giuliana. She literally has, I mean, I know I say this and people laugh, but it's true. Juliana doesn't have a single win over anyone on the current. active UFC roster, not anybody. Now, I know she does have the win over Amanda, but right now Amanda's retired. She doesn't have...

I mean, Kayla Harrison has one more win over-ranked UFC competition than Giuliana Pena does right now. Giuliana Pena is doing herself no favor sitting and waiting. I think she just got passed over. She needs to fight. I think Norma Dumont was the one I threw out after she beat Germain Durandami the other night a couple weeks ago.

Throw in there in Norma, one of those fights, and then you do... You capitalize on this immediately. Do Kayla and Raquel as soon as you can July, June, if they want to throw in there. Put them in the co-main event on the Connor card, whatever. Put them in there, let them fight immediately, and you're right. Then you bring back Amanda and then Amanda.

And let's not forget, there's a storyline there too. They were teammates. They had the same head coach for most of their careers until Amanda left and started her own gym. Amanda Nunes and Kayla Harrison would be the biggest women's fight probably since Rhonda was around, if I'm being honest. In terms of like magnitude, I think that's probably the biggest fight since Rhonda was around.

It's the fight that slipped through the cracks. It's the one that got away from us all that we all wanted to see now. We have an opportunity to revise that. I agree. You give her the immediate title shot. I think she passes that test. I think she becomes champion. Nunes will come out of retirement for that fight.

It's a huge payday. It's a huge opportunity for the vision. A huge pay-per-view for the UFC to add another big pay-per-view with the women headlining. I mean, you know, right now, what are they going to do? What are they going to do? Raquel Pennington versus Juliana Pena Pina. Raquel Pennington versus Dumas? I mean, like, it doesn't sell.

You have to throw so many other big names on there. You have to throw a Fourier or somebody that you've got to pay millions of dollars. This fight sells. I'm buying this fight. I'm watching this fight. They have a star. They have an opportunity to get the one that slipped away.

Move forward with it, like you said, use that momentum. Like we're talking about with all these fights. This is the storyline of this card. Now moving forward, there's so much momentum for all of these fighters. They need to just make all the right decisions, which I'm confident the UFC will do.

and capitalizing on all the new opportunities that we have moving forward. I don't want to, again, we've mostly talked about the winners in terms of what they have going on. I know afterwards, Dana White had said he'd kind of like to see Holly retire. She is 42. She's not, you know, young anymore. And I know Holly addressed this in her post fight, you know, in her little post on Instagram, saying that, you know, she just didn't follow the game plan. She did not perform it up to her abilities.

What do we think? I'm not a big believer in telling anyone to retire necessarily. I've only done it a couple times. That's usually because of fighters taking damage where I'm like, I don't want to see you get, you know, physically harmed to the point where you just can't, like, play with your kids later in life. I don't think Holly's to that point. So I don't know that I would call for a retirement.

But at 42, I think we have to be realistic and say that her time as a title contender is probably over. I know he never say never. And the whole Justin Gachey speech where one win probably puts him right back in the hunt again. But Holly at 42 in this division, it's almost like, like I don't think she needs to retire, but Holly has told me very openly, Holly told me this before this fight. She said, when the moment comes when I know I can't fight for the title anymore, I'm done.

I don't know that she can fight for the title. I don't think that's going to happen for her again, just being honest. I think that moment has came. I think that moment has happened. And I also don't think that as much as she is a striker and one of the best we have ever seen in a women's division, I don't think the UFC wants. to see her as the champion. And I'm trying to say everything I'm saying with so much respect because I really am a Holly

home fan. I've followed her career for a very long time. I've always rooted for her. I've broken her down so many times. I feel like I know her game so well. She's already had a tremendous boxing career where she's in a boxing hall of fame. She's came to the UFC. She's become the champion of the UFC band and weight division.

And she has one of the biggest comeback knockouts in the history of the sport when she had kicked Ronda Rousey. She's checked all the boxes. She is, her resume is full. I don't want her to become that fighter that finishes a career with either A, a lot of losses, or B, I hate to say this, but the fighter that when they see her on the car, they're like, oh my God, another Holly home fight. Because that's what it's going to become. When you're 42 years old and her style has kind of changed to a fight where she's, you know, she's kind of become a little bit more of a point striker or a grappler against defense type fighter. It loses the mystique.

She has had an amazing career where she's probably going to end up. I don't know. Would you say Holly Holm would be a Hall of Fame type fighter? You know, it's hard. You know, I, because I do disagree. I love Daniel Cormney. I disagree on some of the notion of what makes you a Hall of Fame. I think being a champion is certainly a big part of that.

But I don't know because the Ronda knockout is iconic. It's one of the greatest knockouts in the history of sport. But then, you know, her next fight, she loses. to Misha Tate. Great fight was a close fight, but she gets choked out by Misha Tate. You know, she lost in the Fedoway Division. Yeah, it wasn't maybe the greatest fight with Germain Durandami, but she did lose. She lost to Chris Cyborg. She lost to Amanda Nunes. I don't know. Like, I love Holly, but, you know, if she gets in the Hall of Fame, it's basically because the Ronda win and not really anything else. Because when you look at every other fight

she's had, like, she's not won the big fights. Like, she lost the Cyborg. She lost to Germaine. She lost to Amanda. She lost Amisha. Yeah, me personally It's a tough one to decide on that. I tend to set a higher threshold for my opinion of Hall of Fame. Like to me, to be a Hall of Fame, but to me, to be a Hall of Fame, you have to do something special.

I've argued, I think Jim Miller, even with his loss on Saturday night, he's a Hall of Fame. When you have the most wins, most fights, and you've been in the UFC for 16 years at this level, dude, that's a Hall of Fame career. Holly, though, I love her, but yeah, if you put her in the Hall of Fame,

you're putting her in for being the person who'd have thrown round around. You're not putting her in for a body of work. You know, you're not putting her. in for. Look at her career. You're putting her in based on one win, in my opinion. Which maybe there's an area for, like in the fight wing or something like that. But nonetheless, she's had an epic career and she's financially stable and she has the resume to do whatever she wants after. She wants to get into broadcasting or anything she wants to do. I don't want to see her career

just start to plummet with losses and uneventful type of fights because that's the territory that she's about to go into. So I would say, step out while you can now. She's still healthy. She's still in tremendous shape. And she could still live a very happy, healthy life after fighting because, you know, when I'm working these events and Holly Names is on, card is on the fight book, a lot of people are like, oh, another Holly home fight because they know a lot of time that means it's going to be a 15 or 25 minute fight. It's not going to have a finish. It's going to be a little lackluster at this stage in a career and i don't want that i don't want to tarnish everything great that she's done in her career so i would step away i'm agreeance with you fighters have to

figure out when they figure it that it's the time but if she's saying i don't want to fight unless i'm fighting for another title i think that opportunity has passed her by now yeah i agree um before we get out of here alan there were so many other great fights on this card i mentioned i think the one that kind of didn't really thrill us all the way through was probably al jamaine you know Calvin Cater, but he did a great job going out there and getting a win. Obviously, Devinson Figueroa seems like he's a player now at Bantzwe. Jessica Androge got a big win. We saw Diego Lopez, oh my God, what a performance that guy had against Sadiq Youssef.

We saw Hinato Moikano with that crazy almost walkoff knockout from Jalen Turner, which he will regret for the rest of his life. And then Hinato coming back and beating him. Out of everybody else in the card that we didn't talk about, is there one other performances that stood out for you that you're like, that was a great moment in this card in terms of the prelims because again there were so many great finishes so many great moments is there one that stood out to you do you really enjoyed well you know as his card was going on i felt like me and everybody around the world was probably going oh so far this is the fight of the night

or this is the performance because it was so much at stake with the bonuses right and so as i was playing out um i agree i thought the um the uh Diego lopez probably was going to get a performance bonus i thought he had his stock went up big time in that matchup the year prohatchez was versus Alexander Rackich. That was such a yeary type of fight. I loved it. That was my leader of fight of the night up until obviously the Max Holloway one.

Tremendous. And the one that you mentioned that I feel like he got away from him was the Jalen Turner knocking down Hanato Moikano, walking off as if he thought the fight was done, Anato Maikano was able to come back and get the win in that fight.

And you know what immediately came to my head? Jalen Turner's fight before that was the late stoppage win over Bobby Green, right? Where it didn't stop it. He hit Bobby Green so many times when he was already unconscious. It was a late stoppage. Jalen Turner probably was found himself in that same scenario once again where he had a fighter down and hurt. And he didn't want to inflict that same type of damage. He was going to walk off and let the referee save the fighter. It ended up costing him. It was a tricky situation for him. It's one that he's going to regret. But I do feel for the guy because I feel like he did feel bad

having the memory of just laying it on Bobby Green so many times when he was already unconscious but it ended up costing him in this fight so that just, it was one thing that just kind of stood out of my head from the prelims but yeah, those guys when you talk about Lopez stock went up dramatically Yuri Pajshka love the guy, I can watch the fight anytime.

Yeah, there were just, I mean, again, it's an embarrassment of riches. I was blown away by Diego, that's a guy I actually thought, like, if he stays standing with Sadik Yusuf, that's a mistake. Well, guess what? That didn't end up being a mistake. He knocked out Sadik Yusuf on the feet. A grappler, a guy who we know is a grappler, goes out there and knocks out Sadie Kusuf on the feet and does it in 90 seconds, which is ridiculous.

Hinato Moikano continued to do what he's been doing. This run he's on has been pretty incredible. Devincent Figurado going out there now grappling Cody Garbrin. I didn't see that coming. Cody's a good wrestler. And, boy, he took him down and choked him out. That was super impressive. So, yeah, there's just like, there's so many storylines.

just can't talk about everything without doing like a four hour podcast but it was again this was the best card in ufc history on paper and then it delivered on fight night it was this is everything the ufc could have hoped for for ufc 300 like they should be doing they should be popping corks and and drinking champagne in the office today yeah everything worked out right i mean all the back and forth who's going to main event i mean it stressed us out for months i was looking at my phone at midnight because I felt like Dana was starting to announce fights late at night sometimes. I'm waiting and waiting. We can finally all exhale and went down and we're happy, right?

Like it was the card that delivered, the fights delivered. We got one of the biggest moments in UFC history on that card. Everything worked out. Thank God we have a weekend off, right? I said that on Twitter. I was like, thank God they took this weekend off because I feel like I'm going to need a week just to process what we saw before we move on to the next fight card. How do you follow that too?

You follow that with a fight night? You know what I mean? Like, it's be tough. Yeah, I feel it's the next card is Mateus Nicolao and Alex Perez. And like, that's a fun fight. But like, be glad you got some distance. Be glad you got an extra week to like let people just continue to simmer and enjoy UFC 300 before you go in there. Because boy, do you not want to be the people following that card.

Yeah, it was a ridiculous, man. It was just such an incredible fight. Again, kudos. Also, I want to give credit where the credits do to UFC. Like production was great. All the throwbacks, the graphics. Like, this was. This was a perfect night.

Like this was, there are so many things that can go wrong in a fight card. Boring fight, bad disaster. Oh, eye pokes ending. There's all a million things that can go wrong in a fight card to make you have a bad taste in your mouth when it's over. Nothing went wrong. This was the perfect fight card. It's like I said, it's like Triple H came over from WWE, scripted how this fight card would play out, and that's what we got on Saturday night. The love letter to the UFC fans delivered, right?

Because not only did we get the cord, we got the action, every fighter made weight, right? Nobody, no fights got dropped out. Everything showed up just like it was supposed to be. We got what we wanted, man. It's like I went to bed that night and I could sleep well. It was a tremendous night for everyone. So now, Alan, I know you're one of the busiest guys in sport. What do you have come up in the near future?

Because now we're all going to be kind of coming down off cloud nine with the UFC 300. or what do you have coming up next? Yeah, I'm glad I get a little weekend off as well to kind of relax. But I go work some color commentary with LFA and Sioux Falls later this month on the 26th, Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Then I jump back on the UFC wagon, some apex cars. And then I'm going to be working color commentary on Road to the UFC, which is the Chinese tournament. If you guys haven't watched it, check it out.

It's on UFC Fight Pass. It's a lot of these up-and-coming Chinese talent. They put them in a tournament. You know, it's kind of like the, um, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, ultimate fighter or something where they're um this tournament the winner gets a contract signed to the UFC and obviously as you've seen china is starting to emerge with some with some talent i mean obviously the two women fought for the belt over the weekend but the men are starting to finally make their way into the into the UFC as well so i look forward to work in that and um hopefully

discovering some more new talent because i that's my favorite thing about the sport i mean it's these moments like this that i love but it's when it's when new talent comes on a scene When we discovered Hamzaa Chamaif over at Fight Island, when everybody was sitting at homes for a year, and we got to see these new stars arise, it makes fighting so much more fun. And I'm hoping we could discover some more of these new stars as we dig deeper into the big pool of fighters that they have over in China.

Absolutely. There's been some crazy finishes on this road to the UFC cars, so that should be a lot of fun. Always, obviously, glad to hear you doing the thing. Glad you're doing some commentary. I feel like you're going to be calling UFC cars sooner rather than later. And as always want to say a big thank you to everyone to tune into the podcast. Make sure to check us on all your favorite podcast platforms, Apple Podcasts,

Spotify, and of course over on the best website in the world, mMAfighting.com. Alan, thank you again for doing the show. Let's all take a, let's all have a collective exhale after a great UFC 300. And we'll be back next week with another edition of the Fighter versus the Rider. Listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Sacks Fifth Avenue makes it easy to holiday your way, whether it's finding the right gift or right outfit, Sacks is where you can find everything. From the perfect Chloe bag for your hard-to-shop for a sister to a prodig jacket for a fancy holiday dinner. And if you don't know where to start, sacks.com is customized to your personal style so you can save time shopping. Make shopping fun and

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