MMA Fighting - Fighter vs Writer: Boldest Predictions for 2026, Most Vulnerable UFC Champion and Must See Fight This Year?

Episode Date: January 13, 2026

On the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer, UFC legend Matt Brown and Damon Martin give their predictions for the UFC in 2026 including the most vulnerable champion on the roster, the champion most likely to hold onto their title for the whole year, one must see fight and our boldest predictions for the year ahead. All this and more 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

Martha listens to her favorite band all the time. In the car? Jim. Even sleeping. So when they finally went on tour, Martha bundled her flight and hotel on Expedia to see them live. She saved so much she got a seat close enough to actually see and hear them. Sort of. You were made to scream from the front row.

We were made to quietly save you more. Expedia, made to travel. Savings vary and subject to availability. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Welcome back to the Fighter versus the writer. I am Damon Martin. He is UFC legend Matt Brown. And Matt is officially 2026.

We've been off for a few weeks. You've got a little vacation down in Costa Rica. Got a little holiday time off, but we are now about, at this point, less than two weeks away from the UFC schedule restarting. Of course, we will be doing a UFC 324 preview next week. But Matt, here we are back. It's 2026. Yeah, the UFC's been off too, right?

Like it doesn't feel like hardly anything's happened. It feels like it's been forever since I, watch the UFC card. Yeah. I mean, six weeks is what it's going to be between cards, which is almost unprecedented. But we're getting right back into it because we got 324 next week. And then we got UFC 325 to follow the week. So we're getting right back in the schedule.

That would be an interesting stat. When was the last time they had a six-week break? Like, I can't remember the last time it's been that long. It feels like it's been forever. I know they had like a four or five-week break last year because they had the pay for was real early and I think they had like the final card was like December 14th or something and then they were off for like a month I think but it didn't go six weeks so yeah this is pretty deep they're going six weeks before between cards but you know kind of builds the anticipation for you know the

first event on Paramount no more pay-per-views so you know got to get everybody pumped up to watch pimbleit and and gay G fight for the title exactly yeah just kind of ridiculous which I imagine you probably watched RIF last night right arm and I sure did compete and looking great. I got to be honest, man. Like, I thought that would be a time. I mean, now, grand, I want to give credit where credit is due. Armand looked about four weight classes bigger than Lance.

Paul, me, looks huge. And to be fair, we can't forget. Like, Lance is in his late 30s and hasn't wrestled seriously in probably, what, 15 years? 15 years, yeah. Like, I remember when he came out of Ohio State went into MMA. Like, I remember talking. Like, that's what I started talking about Lance. I was like 15 years ago.

So yeah, but still I was like, damn, like a 10-0 Techfall victory? Like I thought Lance would do better than that. Yeah. He just shut him down. You know, he did look a lot bigger and stronger, but still, I was like, damn, that was impressive. Yeah, same. I was pretty impressed by that. And not just the fact that he did it, but, you know, I mean, he looked good doing it, right?

Like, he looked like he has done some actual wrestling. I mean, Rockhold didn't look like he'd really wrestled before, you know. Like, I like Rockhold. I think he's a really respectable, extremely high-level athletes. but he keeps doing like all these different sports and like getting a big pump up and and not seeming to really perform that well I don't know I think he I don't know what's going on does he need to just stick to one thing or what I think I think and I like Luke I've talked to Luke I've known Luke for a lot of years really really good dude it just kind of feels like it's

time you know like you know like his at the end of his UFC career didn't go so well and then he did have that one winning karate combat he knocked out Joe Schilling so I mean that's something but then that's something i mean i mean joe's a way past his prime athlete too you know yeah but like he had that but he got you obviously got you know beat around it by mike perry and bkfc he got knocked up by darren till and boxing and now he had this like you know i mean he had like that one defensive scramble where he kind of split on colby but then like that was it like i just he looked like a fish out of water and it's just like yeah i don't know man like i get the competitive spirit like you want to keep competing but like at some point do you just say you know

Let me go be a model or whatever else you're going to do because it just doesn't seem like things are working out too well for him right now. He seems like the type of guy that would have like a lot of other options in life, whether it's modeling or, I mean, he's probably a little old for that. But, you know, whatever it is, like he seems like that kind of guy. I don't know him like that, but he comes across me like a smart guy like that. I think after the Darren Till fight, like he was very honest about like not being able really take punches, you know what I mean?

Like he got knocked out pretty brutally. And I think at that point he never used the word retire, but he's kind of like, yeah, I can't really take punches anymore. And to his credit, like wrestling's, you know, generally speaking, you're not going to get, I mean, you could get dropped on your head, obviously, but generally speaking, you're not going to take head damage in that sport. So, you know, maybe he does some grappling, things like that. I guess, you know, there's far less risk to there. But, yeah, it didn't. It really did look like a fish out of water.

And Colby's a good wrestler. Colby's an All-American, so he knew exactly what he was doing. But, like, it looked like Luke didn't really know what to do. Right. You know what I mean? Yeah, that's exactly what I thought. But anyway, it was a pretty cool show. I like that they're doing the RAF thing.

I like that show. I like what they're doing with it. You know, I'm curious to see how long it lasts, right? Because right now it seems kind of cool because they're getting big stars from M.M.A., you know, you know, Yo Romero, which, you know, we see what happened there, Bo Nickel. But, you know, I wonder how long people are going to stay interested in wrestling like that. You know, because wrestling is one of the things. Like, if you don't understand it, it's not.

not that fun to watch, right? You got to, like, know who's wrestling, what they're wrestling for. You got to know the moves that they're doing. You know, or else, most of the time, you're like, dude, what is this guy fucking doing right now? Yeah, it is. It's funny. We were, like, we've been covering RIA for MMA fighting. And last night, we did more coverage.

We had, like, an team of people. Like, the last two events I just do by myself because, like, I'm the wrestling guy. So, like, I know it. But this event, because it was bone, well, originally it was going to be Nicolio Romero. We had Colby's, where we let's just put like a few people on to like cover it. And we actually had a guy going down to the show because we have a guy close to Florida. So we went down to the show. And before it started, I usually do the results myself.

I was like giving our guy like a lesson on how to like write the results like TechVall versus Penn versus just scoring criteria. Like and the one that ended on criteria, I had to explain like, okay, he won. It was three three, but he scored the last point. So he got criteria. So he wins a match. And that, and then in America, which I still hate by. the way. Like, I get it, but I also hate it. Like, we have folk style versus freestyle.

Like, when you do the NCAA finals, it's folk style, which is totally different for freestyle. So it's like, it's incredibly confusing if you don't know the sport. And credit to Real American Freestyle, like, I think, like, I think they are driving more interest by bringing you into UFC guys. Like, you're watching Yo Romero go out at 48 and Blank Pat Downey in the last one. I was like, what in the hell is going on here? Like, I know Y'L's a freaking nature, but my God. And then obviously got brought back down to Earth in a pretty humbling way with Stephen B.

can and the 25, 2025 national champion. But yeah, it's been fun. And I think, I think, like, while the MMA guys have not been doing very well, I think it, I think it actually draws, like, some respectability to the wrestlers because you think, like, oh, well, you know, he was a silver medalist in the Olympics. He's a freaking nature. Yeah, but he's also 48. And Steve Buchanan just won the NCAA title.

And he's a legit, 205-pounder. Like, that is probably a bit of a mismatch. And it kind of showed what it was. So I think people are kind of gaining a little more respect for the wrestlers. Like, oh, well, I guess this is a different sport. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I don't know.

I guess it's just going to be interesting to see how that plays out, you know, because, you know, I like see wrestling get on the bigger stage more, right? It's been tried a few times and no one's done it with a lot of success. So it's cool to see, you know, another person trying it. But, you know, I think it's a tough sport, man. Which speaking of, I'm, I'm. I had a great weekend. I'm going to give a quick shout out to my son who got his second gold medal in a row.

He's on a 13 match winning streak this season for high school wrestling. So I got to give a quick shout to him. He made my weekend. It was my birthday weekend. And I was coaching all day. I'm coaching his high school wrestling team helping coach. I'm assistant coaching. And I spent my whole birthday at the tournament.

And I said, brother, like, I don't need to be here. I should be celebrating my birthday, hanging with some people or whatever. So you better go win this damn thing. And three pins in a tech fall. And actually the tech fall was like, you know, would have been a pin had there been another second left in the match. So. Nice.

So, yeah. I'll give a quick shout out to the family blood there. Bloodline is running strong. And, you know, and the funny thing is my son likes Muay Thai better, right? He actually only started doing wrestling because he wanted to, you know, He's like, well, I got to be well-rounded if I'm going to fight MMA. He's actually a kickboxer and jih Tijuana, so it's pretty cool to watch. Oh, man, here comes.

The next Brown Dynasty is about to start. We'll see. We'll see. I actually don't encourage him to fight M.M.A. That's a of any rest of a thing. A lot of people think, you know, I'm going to push him to be an M.A. I actually tell him, like, bro, like, this isn't a sport you want to pursue. Like, you should pursue college wrestling, get a scholarship.

you know, and, you know, get an education and be, you know, I don't know, a good citizen of the community. And, you know, I don't know, live an easy life. You know, this is not an easy life being an MMA fighter. Yeah, absolutely. Also, I forgot to mention, of course, happy birthday to you for celebrating that. So I meant to actually, yeah, I was going to text you about yesterday. I saw a couple of happy. I'm terrible about remember people's birthdays.

I'm awful about that. So I saw a couple happy birthday messages like, oh, I should text them. I was like, well, we're doing the show tomorrow so we can we can talk about the birthday. So yeah, it's kind of funny though because with wrestling, and I know this is going to piss off like half our listeners here, I love wrestling. I love watching wrestling. Well, freestyle and folk style. I can't watch Greco. I'm just not a Greco guy.

But I'd rather watch wrestling a thousand times over than watch a jiu-jitsu match. Like, I jiu-jitsu just does not, grappling just does not really. I respect it, obviously. I love that. I mean, I respect the art of it all, but like I'd rather watch wrestling than than grappling any day of the week. I totally agree on that. You know, part of it's that the, you know, grappling is just slower pace, right?

Like, it's one of those things. It's almost like watching NASCAR race, you know, versus, I don't know, like a drag race. You know, it's like, you know, you got to watch so much boring stuff to get to something exciting. Almost like a boxing match versus MA in a sense, right? where it's like it's a long and sort of the build up to something big happening. But a lot of times, jitza, nothing big happens. Yeah.

I mean, you can definitely watch a lot of boring wrestling matches. It happens. But in wrestling, you got, you got three, two minute periods. Like, at worst, you're going to watch a boring six-minute match. You know what I mean? You're not going to be. The guys are scrapping. Like, they're going for it most.

You know what I mean? It's like just the culture. And also in wrestling, in wrestling, they have like stalling and, you know, you get penalized. Like, if you're stalling, they'll be, you'll be able to. lose points. So, like, you can't just sit there and do nothing. So, yeah. And I just, like, there's just last night watching, like, watching Kyle Dake and Caddy Magamatoff was awesome. Like, that was a great match. Two Olympians, two Olympic, gold medalists. Yeah. So, like, I just always, I've always

preferred wrestling. So I like, and by the way, R.F is going to come to Columbus soon. They told me they are going to come here because Ohio State obviously doing very well, number two in the nation, nationally. And of course, Lance Palmer is there. They have Kyle Snyder on the roster of some other guys. So we saw Nathan Tomicello last night and Johnny DeJulius, so they want to come to Yeah, how did Tomicello do? I actually

didn't see that. He lost. He got blanked. He got blanked by DeSanto, Austin DeSanta blanked him. It was a rough match for Nathan. But, well, you know, wrestling is a young man's sport. That's for sure. Like, and you'll see that in wrestling a lot where the older guys that

you know, they got all these credentials. They've done all these great things, but sometimes it's just that age catches up because it's such a speed sport, man. Yeah, it is. It's funny because I interviewed Kyle Dake before the match, and I didn't realize that he's 34, and I'm like, I don't know if he's got another Olympic run

in him. He's got two bronze medals, and I'm like, that's rough because 2028, that's still a few years away. Like, that's, and like, Kyle Snyder's kind of the same boat. Like, he's in his early 30s, and it's like, you know, we're still three years away from that. You know, two years technically now, but like, you know, I don't know, because I was talking, I interviewed Stephen Buchanan, who beat Yowell on Saturday.

And he was actually going to come to MMA. He had already decided he was going to come to MMA. And then he transferred to Iowa for his senior season. And he was like, I just got reinvigorated with wrestling. I loved it all over again. And he won a national title, and now he's determined to go to the 2020-old Olympics. Now he's a young enough guy where he could do 20-28 and still come into M-A. And he actually said, I still plan on doing that.

But now he's kind of gunner for Kyle Snyder because that's his weight class, 190-97 kilos. So it'll be interesting. Kyle's obviously been rap in America for a while, man, one of the most accomplished wrestlers out there, but by the time the Olympics come around, he's going to be like 35, and that's, you know, it's a young man in sports.

I'm just saying, so we'll see. Yeah, and, you know, the problem in that way, class is if Sedgulayev sticks around there, you know, and if he's healthy, and if he's Russians are allowed to wrestle in the Olympics, which... Or, I mean, Tadinov, who won the last gold medal. That's the guy who blank Kyle Snyder in the world, so, you know...

Yeah, what a tough division. But Sidulayev didn't wrestle, you know, And, yeah, I mean, I think you've watched that July before. Man, that guy is a freaking special son of a bitch right there, man. Is it his nickname the Russian tank? Isn't that literally his tank? Yeah, he's the tank. And I mean, there's no better way to describe him.

But he's, you know, he looks like a tank, right? And he can wrestle like a tank. But the dude is so technically sound, too, though. You know, that's what people forget. He does so much slick and. smooth stuff. I mean, I was blown away. I had a bet with a friend of mine because, you know, Snyder beat him the first time they went pretty handedly. And then the second time we put a hundred bucks on it. He said, said, you live's going to beat him because he's, you know,

in the weight class now. He's used to the weight and put the weight on it, et cetera, et cetera. I was so mad because he beat, said, he beat Snyder with a freaking, like a Peterson role, like a high school move. You know what I mean? Like, like, like, like, most, yeah, he's like just the most, the easiest thing I'd ever seen in my life. Yeah, it's, yeah, when you look at Sadja Lai, like he's got big legs, but his upper body looks like a brick house, like literally, his upper body just looks like a freaking, it's ridiculous. Like, I'm like, good God, this guy's like built like a brick wall. Yeah, but it's it because like I said, like, but he's getting older too.

So it's like, I don't know. And then Tajadino, Akam, Akamah, Tomah, Tom came out of nowhere and he blank Snyder won the gold medal. And then he ended up losing in the world's last year, which was kind of shocking. He had to, then Kyle Snyder got the gold in the worlds. He didn't have to wrestle each other again, but Todd Zedinoff lost in the semifinals, then Snyder went on to win the gold. So you just never know, man, that's the thing about wrestling.

You can always pick your family. If you would have told me back in 2020, I would have said, guarantee you Kyle Snikes or Kyle Dakes getting a gold. And he loses to Caddy Magamette gets blanked 11-0. I'm like, what is going on? So that's the beauty about wrestling, man. Like I said, when you're at that level, like, there's no guarantees. Well, that's a cool thing.

Watching you're at that level, I mean, if you've ever, been around a wrestling room which most people haven't right and obviously unless wrestle but uh man the amount of work and the suffering that they go through the amount amount of discipline and and and grind like you just can't describe it man like there's by far the hardest sport in the world i i get so upset when i'm having conversation with people and they talk about other sports being the hardest sports i'm a bro nothing even compares to wrestling like there's not even a close second. I mean, you got Muay Thai and boxing, you know, even MMA, which are hard in their own way. You know, the bumps of bruises, concussions is obviously a huge thing. But in terms

of the daily grind, nothing comes close to wrestling. It's funny last night during the event when Colby, I think Colby got a take down on Luke and the Chal Sun and goes, yeah, I knew it was probably going to go bad for Luke. He doesn't have any cauliflower ears. Like, you can tell he hasn't been wrestling. And I was like, that's like, it's almost like a mark of, uh, uh, you know, it's a, almost like a mark of almost like a mark of accomplishment having the cauliflower ears because he's been wrestling for so long. And he actually made that comment. I was like, that's actually not a bad point. Like you can tell Luke hasn't been wrestling for very long.

He has no cauliflower years. Whereas, you know, Nickel and all those guys, it looks like they've been to the grinder because they've been wrestling since they're like four years old. Yep, yep. So, well, I don't know. Some people just don't get cauliflower out here, though. Yeah, that's true. Some people, they just, I don't know how it works for them.

I know people have grappled for many, many years. And, you know, they don't have any recognizable cop-lider. If you look up close, you can see it a little bit here and there because some guys actually take care of it, too. Yeah. You can't treat it. You don't have to let it get all calcified and gross. You can treat it. Yeah, you can drain it and then you can not re-injure it again.

Like, there's things you could do. Yeah. That's probably what's going on with Luke. He's wrestled a bunch. You know, he wrestled with Kane and D.C. and those guys back in day. But it was a good comment. I thought it was funny. He's like, you didn't know that colorful.

or you can tell he doesn't know what he's doing or something like that. It was kind of funny. That sounds like some of a wrestler would say too, though. That's true. That's true. To that point, but we haven't even mentioned this start to show what we're doing today. Because next week we're doing UFC's 324,

we're going to do some 2026 predictions on this podcast going into next week with the first show. And speaking of wrestling and predictions, what we got going on this year, Matt, have you seen Gable Steveson? How close are we to get? I mean, Gable Stevenson has two MMA fights and people already like, you need to sign him right away. Joe Rogan's like, I think. he's already a tough five heavyweight,

which if you look at the depth of heavyweight, he may not be wrong, but the UFC needs to sign him like immediately. Get him under contract now. Do not let this guy, like, I don't know who else would sign him, but like don't let him get away. Dude, I mean, he could be champion literally today.

I think if he went in and fought Tom Aspinall or Surreal Gone or, you know, whoever was a champion, I don't think there's a chance anyone has against him. I mean, obviously you always have a chance at MMA, but I think he could be champion tomorrow. He's a freak athlete. And, you know, I know John Jones has taken a real interest in him.

Like, that's his prodigy. Like, he's kind of like, you know, I'm passing the torch to Gable's Deves. And then, you know, Brennan's job is my boy. I've known Brendan for many, many years. Like, I would consider Brendan a friend. Like, we've been around each other. We worked at the same company for a while. I first met Brendan going into the ultimate fighter.

So, like, I go back many, many years. I love Brendan. But Brandon had said something recently. He's like, basically, Gable needs to get away from John. Jones I don't know if that's the best role model to have and I get it outside the sport John has been a bit of a wild child and everything but every time I've ever talked to people who have worked with John John like in the room they talk about what a great teacher he is like what a great mind mind and obviously Brandon Gibson one of the coaches who works with him as well an incredible mind for the sport I don't I don't agree with that like get away from John Jones how is it how like I understand not every great fighter is going to be a great coach like look at something Mike Brown who I think is one of the best coaches in sport yes he was a WC champion but like he was never the number one pound per pound guy or anything like that. He went into coaching and now might, like no one would dispute Mike Brown as an incredible coach, right? Like he's, so you don't have to be a number, you don't have to be a 10 time defending champion to be a great coach.

And we've seen this in basketball all the time, like Michael Jordan, the greatest basketball player of all time. He's a horrible executive. He just, he cannot like lead a basketball team. So, you know, being a champion doesn't guarantee you're going to have success as a coach. But John seems to have a real mind for the sport. and he seems to have a lot of time and dedication into Gable. I don't think it's a bad thing to have a guy like that around, especially if you're Gable Stevenson

and you're trying to learn the ropes and become a great fighter. How is it a bad thing to have it like John Jones is your main sparring partner? How is that a bad thing? Yeah, I get where Brandon's coming from on that, though. All right, you do. I mean, I do. I know why he's saying it.

I know why he's saying it. Yeah, and I don't think he's totally wrong, but my bigger question with that would be, you know, Jones style is so different than Gables. You know, the style that he developed, the techniques that work for him, I mean, he's such a genetic freak, such a long guy and, you know, really uses that length, right? Whereas Gable's a short, stocky guy. You know, it's going to be a very different game that Gable is playing than John is playing.

So that would be my biggest question. You know, tactically, it's going to be a vastly different game for him. So that'd be my biggest question with it. obviously outside the ring yeah i mean i mean i mean it that's pretty obvious right like john's not the guy to you know mentor you in life right he doesn't need to be anybody's life coach right but even with with that said you know the other part that i would question and gable's been around enough hard workers that this may not even come into question but you know there's always been questions of how hard is john jones work right and um

You know, I'm sure that he puts in the time. I'm sure that he's not a slacker. And, you know, I'm sure he's in the gym often enough. But, you know, is he doing those extra reps at the end? You know, the reps that he can't do. Right? Right. When he's exhausted and he can't do another rep, does he go and go do another rep?

Right. I'm sure he works hard. You know, I'm sure. But when you're genetically gifted to be able to work hard, is it really working hard, right? you need to be able to push yourself past the limits of what you're capable of. And, you know, I mean, I would question if John has always done that or not. And, you know, that's, you know, that's not take anything away from John either. Obviously, he's done all the right things, you know, what he needed to do, right?

I mean, you don't need to do more than you need to do either. So, you know, there's kind of two sides to that. But, yeah, I would have a, I get where Brennan's coming. from and I would have my own questions on that if if I were Gable's manager or handler or whatever and you know helping him pick a mentor but you know I'm sure it's going to work out great for me he's the type of guy John's the same way where it didn't it it doesn't really matter where they go right like Jackson can only take so much credit for that because the dude could have trained in his garage probably and been a world champions you know what I mean like and Gable's probably in a similar boat

where it doesn't really matter where he goes. As long as it strikes some inspiration out of him and keeps him motivated in the gym and out of the clubs, you know, out of the cocaine, then, you know, then I think he'll do great. And I think like having John, like right now also, John's a coach, but he's also a sparring partner. And I think like I remember talking to D.C.,

Daniel Cormier, when he was getting ready to fight John the first time. And he had basically used Luke Rockhold as his like John Jones dupe because, you know, Luke is long and tall and he has great kicks and things like that. But Luke Rockhold is not John Jones. And I know no one is John Jones. But like John is such a long, like just a physical freak in terms of like being a light heavyweight. And even like as good as Luke Rockhole was, he's not as big as John Jones. So it's like if you're Gable Steven and you're 5 foot 10, six foot tall fight in heavyweight where you're going to go up against guys who are 6, 4, 6, 5 tall, tall, long guy. eyes, having John Jones as your main sparring partner probably isn't a bad idea because

like that's it like he's not going to emulate John Jones, but like knowing what it's like to go against a tall, long guy like John Jones gives him an advantage that like you just don't get because I think that I'm not saying that. I'm not certainly not making excuse why by Daniel Cormey lost to John Jones. John Jones is just a better fighter. But you can't duplicate that. And Luke Rockhold is good as he is. He's not John Jones.

You know what I mean? He's not long and he's not as long as big as John Jones. So like those are things you just can't duplicate in the gym. look at Kane Velasquez. Same body type as Daniel Cormey. Same body type as Gable Steeveson. I think Evan John, I think Kevin John's a big benefit for Gable because that's what he's going to be going up against the heavy way, guys who are six foot four and long and tall

and bigger reach and things like that. And how are you going to deal with that? But you're right about the life coach stuff. Let's not hang out on the weekends necessarily. Let's just stick to the gym. And to be fair, you know, that's a fair point that he needs long guys. like that, but that's a sparring partner. That's not a coach. Yeah, true, true. You know, so he, yeah, he definitely needs those guys to be emulating, but who's going to teach him how to beat that?

Is it going to be John Jones, who's never had to deal with that before? Yeah, I mean, I think John, like, John doesn't get enough credit for how smart. Like, he's got a great mind for the sport. Like, I think in terms of, like, tactically, he was always one of the most technically sound, like, tactically sound fighters ever. And, and remember, it's not just John Jones. He's got Brandon Gibson. He's got other people around him, people who helped John Jones, get to where he's at. So I think he'll be all right. And, you know, and when you hear John talk about it, like John seems to have a real passion for getting Gable to that next level. And I think that, that's a different thing. Like, he's not just like, oh, yeah, I have like 10 guys on working with Gables,

one of him. Like, he's putting his dedication into Gable. And, you know, that's it. Like, Gable's his guy. And so, you know, I don't know, like, I don't think it's the worst idea in the world to work with the greatest fighter to ever strap on a pair of gloves. So, yeah, it's never a bad idea, right? Yeah. But again, to Britten's point, I mean, he was talking more about the life stuff, which, again, is pretty obvious and clear. You know, that's not a good mentor to have. But, you know, I remember he brought up, like, you know, go work with Demetrius Johnson, right? And I was like, dude, that's actually a great idea, you know, because that's a guy who has dealt with longer people and bigger people than him, his whole career. And I've always believed, like, you know, when you

learn from the lighter weight classes, like they have so much more technique because they come up you know, through most of their lives, like dealing with bigger people, right? So they have to get more technical. They have to be fast. They have to be smart. They have to use their reactions. And they have to do the proper things. Whereas a lot of times the bigger, heavier, longer, heavy, you know, heavy weight type guys

and stuff, they get away with so much shit. Yeah. They just get away with stuff all the time, right? And they get used to that because they don't have, you know, it's so rare that you guys, that you get guys your size going against you. And then it's even more rare. that you get good guys going against you your size. Yeah, I just hope my big, and you know I'm a Gable, Steveson guy.

I've known Gable for a long time. I'm a big fan. I've said for a long time, like he's a future, for sure. And I think right now he's just such a physical freak. He's going to beat guys just based upon that. Like his wrestling and his athleticism is going to get him wins over top 10 heavyways today. Without a doubt, I believe he could do that. But.

Yeah, I mean, I would add to that real quick, too, right? Like, how much mentoring does he actually even need? Right? He needs the base level stuff. Does he need the greatest ever? Yeah. But I mean, I think over time, like, you know, when you get to a Tom Aspinel, you get to a Cyril gone, like, it's going to get harder. It's going to get tougher.

And I think that's where you got to, like, hone in and make sure you got the right people around you because, like, just being an athletic freak of nature, he's going to beat a lot of guys just because they can't deal with a explosive, nasty, powerful gold medal winning wrestler who could just take them down and absolutely mauled them on the ground. That's going to be, you know, probably 75% of heavy weights today. You know what I mean? Just because they just don't exist. I'd pick him to beat the champion today, you know, keeping it real. Yeah, I mean, he's a monster. And so, yeah, like, I wouldn't put my money against it if he fought, if they fought tomorrow. If he fought Aspinall tomorrow, man, I don't know.

Like, after watching the Gond fight, I don't know. And that's, I know Dominic Cruz said that recently. Like, he thought John Jones would beat Aspinall because Asperl's never really fought a wrestler. He's not wrong. Like, you know, Curtis Blaz didn't shoot for a taked out when they fought. Yeah, I don't know, man. like Gable gets one take down, you know, British guys aren't exactly known to be the best wrestlers in the world,

so, you know, might not go well for old Aspinel. I don't know. I'm not going to say it or predict it today and say, I think you'd win, but I'm just saying, best chance would probably be submission. I'm just saying, you're not wrong, is what I'm saying. You're not wrong. Well, that's my point is that how much mentoring does he really need?

Yeah. I mean, probably the most important, to Brendan's point, probably the most important thing that Gable needs is, the life coaching, right? How's he going to deal with fame? How is he going to deal with, you know, people? It's going to be a different level of fame when your UFC champion than gold medal, gold medalist, right? I mean, which is a pretty hefty level of fame. But he's going to be on the next level of fame because he'll be touted as the gold medalist and now heavyweight

champion. So, you know, this guy has, the stars are the limit for this guy, right? So, you know, that's probably the more important part keeping it real. So we were talking about doing predictions, and we're going to get into him now, but let me ask you how, like, in a real world, 2 and O is what his record is right now. I don't think it's going to be much longer before he's in. I think they're probably lining him up to go on the contender series this year, just so like kind of do the Bo Nickel thing, like raise the contender series, let him go on there, win one or two, and then bring him in the UFC.

When, what, how long does it take, and realistically, how long does it take Gable Stevenson to become UFC heavyweight champion? Like, if you're being real, it won't be different. year it's not going to be this year it's not going to be this year but how soon 2027 2027 2028 like how long do you think it would take gable steveson to become a ufc heavyweight champion i mean with a guy like this i mean i think the constraint is getting the fights but again i would pick him to win tomorrow so you know the the only constraint is you know his own patience how much time does he want to wait and will the ufc give him that opportunity

yeah that's the only constraint and if they gave it to him in 2026 I think he wins it in 2026. Yeah, I mean, right now you look at, I mean, heavyweight's dreadful right now. Let's be honest about that. And I'm not trying to like say that's the reason Gable would win. I'm just saying like he doesn't have a big hill to climb. That helps matters.

You look at Welchway, like we can name like five guys right now who could potentially get a title show. You look at lightweight five or six guys. Yeah. Heavyweight like right now, unless John Jones comes back, you got Aspinall gone and two? I mean, and gone is not even. into UFC's like who are we like what road does he have to travel really like you know what I'm

saying I mean put him against gone tomorrow you picking Gable Stevenson I'm picking Gable Stevenson right now yeah absolutely yeah like I can see you know the I could see the betting lines favoring Aspinall right that gets understandable sure I hope that if I happens next month so that I can put all my money on Gable Stevenson and get the underdog win, you know, because I don't know how you beat this guy until, you know, a Daniel Cormier, right, he could mess with the Gable Steve. Like, you have to be that level of athlete. There's so, so rare that you get that level of athlete in the heavyweight division.

If he stays healthy, like we may see what, what Cain Velascus could have become because Cain's entire career was marred by injury. But that guy, when he was at his best, I don't think anyone could have beat him in heavyweight. Like, literally, I don't think there's a single heavyweight on earth. would have beaten him when he was at his peak. I remember being in his first UFC fight. I remember John Fitch and I think it was Josh Thompson told me like, dude,

watch this guy, Kane Velasca, he was on the prelims. I was like, all right, all right. And he went out there just absolutely smashed a dude. But I was like, oh my God. And like he just healthy, he couldn't stay healthy. But at his peak, Kane of Alaska was the greatest, like in terms of talent, the greatest heavyweight of all time. He just couldn't stay healthy.

Gable Stephson's an even better wrestler and probably a better physical freak than Kane Velas was. Yeah, well, I don't know if he has the cardio that Kane has. That's true. X factor that Kane has over basically everybody, especially at that weight. That's true. That's true. Because you hear those stories, you know, the stories are that, you know, he was outworking the little guys that are known for their cardio.

So, yeah. Yeah, that's a whole other. And, you know, wrestling is all about explosion and, you know, in your six-minute matches. It's not you're doing a, not doing a 30-minute match. So, yeah, we'll see. but the sky's the limit for that dude. Like that dude is destined for greatness. Like it's hard to believe that he's not going to do great things,

especially now. Like he's coming in at 24, 25, whatever he is. Like he's not waiting until even when Cormier did like 30. Like he's getting in now. So he's got youth on his side too, which is scary. You know what I mean? Like you're not going to get him to slow him to slow him down like 32.

He's not getting that. So it'll be interesting to see what happens. Matt, let's get in some predictions. We're going to look at it 2026. And we're going to give some predictions for what we think is coming up. but I want to kick things off and ask about, we're going to talk about the champions and the current UFC champions,

kind of a two-parter. One, the champion who is most likely to hold onto his title this entire year. And by the way, that is a status regardless of injuries or, you know, like we're being honest here. Maybe a guy only fights once. Maybe the guy's in a weaker division. Maybe the guy, whatever the case may be. Who is most likely to hold onto their title?

And then the other side of that is who is the most vulnerable champion on the roster, who is most likely to lose their title in 2026. Obviously, you could look at next week's card and say, hey, it's Kayla Harrison. You think Amanda Nunes is going to beat her? Well, she's the most vulnerable champion. I don't, but I'm just saying you could say that. So let's start with the champion most likely to hold on to their title.

And that's across all divisions. We're looking at Tom Aspinall. We're looking at Alex Pereira. We're looking at Hamzaa Chamaa. We're looking at Islam Akachia. We're looking at Ilya, Alexander Volkanowski, Peter Jan, Joshua Van, is the first of the first. White White Champion right now.

And then the women's, you got Kayla, you got Valentina, and you've got McKenzie Dern. So of all the UFC champions, Matt, who do you think is going to be the hardest? Who is going to start 2026's champion and in 2026 is champion? I mean, I think I'm going to have to go to Kayla Harrison. I think that's a pretty easy choice, right? You know, it's kind of a low-hanging fruit there. But, you know, if she gets past Amanda Nunes, I mean, there's no one that's even really comparable to her in that division. I think that's a pretty easy one.

And I think I'm picking her to beat Amanda, so that's going to be an easy choice for me. Yeah, I mean, that is like literally the lowest hanging fruit because I'm picking her, not to ruin our preview show for next week, but I'm also picking her to beat Amanda. And then at that point, whew, man, it's, I mean, I know she talked about fighting Valentina, but that to me is like that, that doesn't, that I love Valentina, but I think she'll run in the same problems that Shang Wei found out going up to flyway. Like, Kayla is a massive, massive fighter, and I love Valentina. Valentina, but she would just be giving up so much size and power and ground game to Kayla Harrison.

And then, I mean, no, I'm not trying to take shots of people. I'm just like, Norma Dumont, like, do we're going to really give her a great shot to beat Kayla Harrison? Like, what are we doing here? What are we doing here? So, yeah, I think you're probably right. That was probably the easiest of one. For me, I'm actually going to go with, I'm actually going to go with Hamzaa Chamaia. It was my pick for middleweight because I like Nasreda and Mavovting.

tough fighter. I give him very, very little chance to unseed Hamzat Shamaev just based on what I've seen. Nasradiens is incredibly talented, great striker, very durable guy, but on the ground, it's a mismatch with Hamzot. And then you look at timing, you know, we might only get one Hamzot fight. We got Ramadan coming up soon. Probably, you know, we already got March's pay-per-views. We're already looking into April and May at this point. And if Homsot doesn't fight until May or June or even July, depending on how the White House card shakes out and everything, we may not get two Homsot fights this year. And then you look at the lay of the land of middleweight. You got M-Evolve and then you got, you know, I mean, obviously Brendan Allen's coming off a big win. I mean, Drickis, like, what's he going to, you know, like, Sean Strickland's fighting fluffy?

I mean, fluffy, I guess, because he's got great cardio, but, like, he's still got to wrestle with Homsot to get there. and it's like, I don't know. I just, I'm not saying Hamzat can't be beaten. He can, but I just don't, like, right now where middleweight's at, I just don't see anyone stylistically that's going to give him a lot of problems. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's a good call, too. It's going to be a tough guy to beat, you know, because I don't think,

I think on his way up, like when he filed Gilbert Burns, for instance, or even Usman, I think he was taking, like, a lot more risk, right? He wanted to put himself out there and be, not just be a wrestler. But I think now he's got the title. he's like, I'm just going to keep winning. I think we've seen it in the Dracus fight. He's like, I don't care what you guys think of me now. I'm champion.

I'm going to hold you down and I'm going to knee your butt up for 25 minutes if that's what I got to do. 100%. And by the way, good for him. Like, you know what I mean? Win however you'll win. When you become champion, like win however you got to win. And I think there will be times where he will get knockouts and things like that.

But right now, why should he? Like, he knew he could beat Dreykis and he ragged all drink us for 25 minutes. Like, why take that risk? You know what? For the fifth round, I think I'm going to go stand up with him. No, why would you do that? Yeah, and I think I see a lot more of that in the future coming up, especially with the matchups that he's looking at.

Yeah. Now, the other side of that I'm at is who is the most vulnerable champion? Now, this is, it always sounds like you're taking a knock on somebody when you say that because you're like you're predicting to lose their belt. And I think like the low-hanging fruit, and I'm going to, I'm always going to eliminate him from conversation because, like, I think Joshua Vann is going to get a lot of votes for that because he didn't technically, quote, quote, win the title. He didn't beat Pantosia.

Pantosia's coming back. He's got Monell Cop out there. But I'm not going to say, Joshua Vang is just going to surrender, lay down, and play dead. Like, I think he had a chance to beat Pantosia legitimately. It's just, unfortunately, the injury happened. But you look at the rest of the divisions out there. I mean, obviously, you got Aspinall coming back, hopefully, and going to fight Cyril again? We don't know for sure.

Pereira, I'll go through all the names again. But when you look at who is the champion looking at the UFC roster right now, who has the highest likelihood to lose their belt. And by the way, I'm putting a caveat on this, Pat, on this Matt. Not a guy who's just going to give up the bell. Like, it's not like, you know, oh, he's going to just get up to go to, like, you know, like I'll tell you right now, like, I'm going to talk about Pereira maybe going up to heavyweight a little bit. Not that.

Like, I'm talking about legitimately lose their title. Like, they're going to lose a fight and lose their title. Who is the most vulnerable champion on the UFC roster right now, in your opinion? man i think maybe i'm kind of picking some low-hanging fruit again but i think mackenzie durn just because like i don't think she's really uh you know her striking is still pretty bad you know uh you know yeah it's i'm not that overly impressed with her uh i don't really know about the division that much i'd have to kind of look through to see maybe who would have a chance of doing that to her but two words jangway lee she's going back to straw way oh well yeah there you go

There you go. Yeah, okay. There you go. You just called it for me. Yeah, she's still the best straw white in the world. Sorry, I love McKenzie. She's a sweetheart of a person. I really like her. Her talk to has been incredibly nice to me. And she is a great lady. But Zhang Wei is a monster. And that's just like, you know, like that was the,

Zhang Wei losing to Valentina Shepchenko is the worst case scenario for McKenzie Dern. Because like now she's going to go extra strawweight. And like I don't like anyone's chances to be Zhang Wei, much less McKinsey Dern. So you're probably right about that. I'm going to make a little bit more of a controversial pick here, Matt. And this is a guy I actually voted as my fighter of the year for 2025 because I think he had the most incredible performance, like the single one performance.

But I'm actually going to go with Peter Yan at Van der Waite. Now, I think Peter Yon's incredible. Let me be clear about that. What he did to Marab in that fight back in December was awesome. He just, I mean, it was like total 180 from the first fight. But my problem is, is I think Banterweight is incredibly stacked and incredibly deep. And I think in 2026, Yon's going to have to go through two guys. Marab de Walsh, really, who's going to get a break and get some time off and actually not be on his fourth fight in eight months or nine months or ten months or whatever time period it was.

And Umar and Obamara, which I know Umar has a fight cut up, but Devesant Figueroa. I love Devesant. I do not like that fight for him. I think Umar's going to win that fight. And we've all kind of talked about Umar's like the destined to become champion guy. if that's the gauntlet you're running in 2026, I don't like anyone's chances to state champion going against those two.

Like against Marab and Umar. Like maybe you get past Marab a third time or a second time. But then you got Ubar. And I'm like, I don't know, that's a gauntlet to me. And I love Peter Yon, man. He's an incredibly talented dude, but we did see him go on a bit of a losing streak. You know, and obviously like, you know, Sean O'Malley's still out there. There's no denying the U.S.

who would love to give him back in the title shot. And he doesn't. He technically has a winner for Yon. I know it's controversial. I know you scored her for Yon. But close fight. But I think if you've got to go through Marab to all Australian Umar in one year, there's a high likelihood you're not coming out on the other side of that with the belt.

Yeah, I see where you're coming from. I mean, I think Jan is that guy, though, and you know, the way he's looked, particularly the way he looked against Marab. But, you know, I think he'll get that done, you know. I don't mind that pick, though. I get where you're coming from. I think, you know, those are Uber tough fights. the biggest problem is you know fighting marab again which is just a fucking war no matter what like

their last fight you know young was pretty dominant but i guarantee he walked home with a lot of bumps and bruises and you know he got hit in the head a few times and you know and it's still 25 minutes of hell like that's just what marab is and that's what you're dealing with right and you know to be able keep that intensity up um you know umar is kind of that guy too right you know not necessarily the cardio of Marab, but you know, mentally that's a tough guy to fight. So I get your pick there, even though, you know, I think Marab's

going to come out on top on those, I'm sorry, Yon's going to come out on top of those. But I get where you're coming from there. You know me, I just take the low-hanging fruit on these questions. No, no, no. Well, I think, like, with Yon also, like, I think what Yon did in Marab was incredible, but it always reminds me, like, watching

Cody Garbrand go out and do that to Dominant Cruz. Remember that? That was just one of those brilliant title type of one. But then, after that, he just, like, when he fought TJ, he just couldn't put it together two times in a row, and then, you know, Cody just kind of had some, you know, obviously a lot of struggle since then. I wonder, like, I think Peter Ion, he's been a champion,

he's an incredible fighter, but, like, you put on that kind of dominant, just like, you know, total 180 performance from the first fight, was it like that night? You know what I mean? Did you just have that moment? And because we saw the first fight, Marab, you know, it wasn't like a, you know, it wasn't like Marab beat him up, but he, like, he couldn't do anything to Marab the first time.

But he just got taken down and had different takedowns for 25 minutes. So I'm just hedging my bets there Like going to that kind of a gauntlet Like who's got And I think you know I mean Islam Islam Akachev is the number one pound for pound guy in the world And rightly so

And I think his gauntlet could be tough But like you know Usman you sure seems like he's going to get a title shot I mean that's a much tougher matchup People are giving her credit for But still a winnable fight And then like I think he beats he and Machado Gary

Pretty handling I don't think that's really I think that's almost like a Give me my money right now I'll bet at all on Islam for that fight. And, you know, I think Michael Morales is probably the guy who could potentially because he's so big and strong, but, like, I don't know if he's going to get a title shot this year.

So, like, I just, you know what I mean? The two clearest guys to get Bantamweight title shots are set up. Marab should get his trilogy. And then if Umar beats Deveson, they're going to give him a title fight. Yeah, yeah. I was looking at maybe picking Islam myself, too, just because he has such a tough run. Like, I don't think Ian's going to be that easy of a fight for him. I mean, could certainly be proven wrong there, right?

Because Islam could just take him down in the first, you know, 30 seconds. And I think if that happens, it's probably an easy knife for it. But overall, I mean, when you look at the division of the Welterweight Division, I mean, he has a fucking gauntlet there to deal with. So, you know, that's not going to be an easy streak for him to get through. And I, you know, I think Shabkats out there. Shabkat's going to come back and fight. Like, he still hasn't come back,

because don't know when he's going to fight. So I'm like, I don't think Shavkat's going to get a title shot this year. So, you know, I think it's going to come down to Usman and Ian Machado-Garren. I think those are both winnable fights for Islam. And then if he fights twice, maybe, but like, I don't know. You know, maybe he only fights once this year. So I'm just playing those bets because I think Michael Morales and Shafkatt are probably the two, in my opinion, the two most dangerous guys to take that belt away from him.

But I don't know if either one of those guys are going to get a title shot this year. So, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Looking ahead, we obviously know some of the fights are already out there that we're going to get made this year. We already talked about UFC 324. We know at 325 we're going to get Diego Lopez and Alexander Volcanovsky 2. March we're getting Max Holloway, Charles Olivaire, which is awesome.

What a great fight that is. But we know the White House is coming up in June. We've got a lot of paperboard, numbered events where the hell you're going to call them now on Papermount Plus. Matt, I'm curious, what is the one? fight. If you're playing Joe Silva or I guess in this case, Sean Shelby or Mick Maynard, if there's one fight that you can make and see

in the UFC in 20206, go crazy. What's the one fight you would love to see most? If you were playing matchmaker and they gave you an open checkbook, what's the fight you would love to see this year, the fight you most want to see this year? Man, that's a tough. I would have to hear your pick first

on this one, because I've been kind of thinking about it and I got a couple of different ideas, but let me think about it for a minute while you're I want to hear yours first we got to put you on the spot this time so our final category

our final question for predictions is going to be our boldest prediction for 2026 whatever out there prediction we're going to make so I'm kind of contradicting myself I'm telling you how to contradict myself with what I'm going to say in the next category but the fight I most want to see

if you're just selfishly saying put a match together you want to see it's Ilya and Armand Sarukian that's the fight I most want to see Ilya looks like an unstoppable machine but watching Armand just absolutely mall people and now

he is the dominant grappler with Islam out of the division he is the dominant grappler in the division watching him ragdoll Lance Palmer and just I mean and ragdoll Dan Hooker and kind of ragdoll shah bullet in that grappling match like he didn't that's a legit middleweight I want to see that fight

I don't care if he headbutted his last opponent I don't care if he fell out of that fight in January I do not give a shit. I want to see Ilyat Teporia fights Armand Saruky and that is my that's the one I, and sadly I'm saying it knowing there's probably a good chance I'm not going to see it this year

realistically. If you're asking my fantasy matchmaking, the one I most want to see is I'm in Armin. I like that. I like that. But, you know, that's a fight that should happen. I mean, obviously Ilya has these things that he's dealing with right now, but you know,

that's a fight that should happen. When you said to me, open your checkbook and make any fight, you know, my eyes opened up and started thinking about the whole landscape of everything. And the first thing that comes to mind is Alex. I like watching Alex, and he's obviously a huge star now and done some great things. And I guess the first thought that comes to mind is John Jones, right? John and Alex, like, let's see it. being that that's probably not a likely thing to happen, even though it's not out of question, right,

for the White House card or something, maybe Donald Trump opens his checkbook. And now we get a few extra mill in there or something. You know, even if he were to fight Aspinall, like I'd be happy with that. I'd like to see Pereira fight. I think there's a lot of options for who he fights, but, you know, I want to see him have a big fight in 2020.

whether it's Jones, Aspinall, hell, even Surreal Gone. I can't think about it. It sounds like heavyweight. Well, I was trying to think of light heavy guys that would be exciting, but nothing really came to mind.

I mean, Carlos Olberg is probably the number one guy and then you got Yere Per Hashta, but he's already beaten him twice. So it's like, yeah, I don't really know. Yeah, that doesn't really move the needle. So, yeah, Alex Pereira, heavyweight. Let's see it. I don't disagree.

So our last one for our predictions is our boldest prediction for 2026. Now this could be out there. This could be maybe an easy prediction to make. When I say boldest prediction, like the thing that might seem out there that you're not sure is going to happen. You know, in your case, Conne McGregor comes back and actually fights at the White House. That would probably be a bold prediction for Matt Brown, considering you've been saying for about four years now he's never coming back, and I still have my disbelief that he's ever going to fight again.

Bold prediction, whatever that bold prediction might be. I'll tell you mine up front to go first. I'll give you a little bit of time here. My bold prediction, I'm going to predict that we're going to see two reigning UFC champions give up their belts without ever fighting. So my two champions. Do you have names on them? I do, I do.

I do. One is I'm going against myself with the Ily Armin fight. Ilya's going to a pretty nasty divorce right now. He's got stuff going on with his kids. And we've talked about this a million times, Matt. You've talked about this very openly when you went through your own situation in your personal life. When you're going through that, it absolutely serves as a distraction to everything else you're doing. You know what I mean?

Like it is a horrific situation to go through. He's battling for custody of his children. It's getting ugly. There's accusations. He's already released like two separate statements defending himself against accusations being made. Clearly it's getting ugly. And I know Dana has done a couple interviews this week and they've been talking about Patty and Justin. And every time he talks about it, he's like, they could fight Ilya.

they could fight Ilya And I'm like, is he just basically telling us that Ilya's not coming back anytime soon? And I think, you know, Ilias only got till June and that's one year. If we get into like, we're already matchmaking for March. We're going to March pay-per-view booked.

We get into April, May, and we don't hear anything. Like, I think there's a good chance they just crowned Justin or Patty, the undisputed champion. And then when Ilya comes back, he gets the first crack. I just, I don't know, man. I'm starting to feel like there's just something in the stars right now where I feel like I feel like I'll be out longer than we experienced. I think he's going to come back. He's going to fight again, but it may not be in June or July. He may not quite until October, November, something like that when he gets through all this. And my other one is Alex Pereira. Not because I think Alex is going to lose, because I believe in what you're saying. Alex is going to give up the light heavyweight because really who's he going to fight. I mean, I like Carlos Holberg, but like, does that really do much for anybody? And he goes up to heavyweight. And we got Tom Aspinall injured right now, eye surgery. We don't know when he's coming back. Alex Pereira, Cyril, gone for an

interim title or even a heavyweight title depending on how you want to look at it. Man, what a great fight that could be put that on the White House. I'd watch the shit out of that fight. So, Ilya, because of personal issues and Alex, because he's going to leave and go with heavyweight. Those are my two champions giving up their belts without ever fighting. One kind of an unfortunate situation, the other one, because we have a chance to see Alex Pereira become a three-division champion, which has never been done before. Well, yeah, you just stole what my bold prediction was going to be. It was going to be Alex Pereer going up to heavyweight and becoming champion. Aspinall is not able to come back.

But I'll go ahead and make another one. But it's, you know, I'm not really confident in it, though. I'm not going to say I have a ton of confidence in this, but if it comes true, it would be a cool prediction to have. And that is Ilya comes back. But the bolder predictions he loses. Oh. He comes back.

Comes back too soon, still dealing with all this bullshit, and ends up losing because he's not in the right headspace. but this is I think he'll is a smart guy that's why I'm kind of on the fence about this prediction a little bit right I'm not saying like I really believe this prediction or anything

but man fighters don't like not fighting they don't like sitting on the sidelines I can speak from my own experience every time I got injured and someone wants to watch a UFC card it's hard to watch you can't sit there and watch it

you want to be the guy in there you want to be the one of people are watching and I think he's going going to have that it he's healthy he's he's not you know it's obviously he's dealing with some pretty heavy shit but he's healthy he he wants to come back and compete and fight and i think he'll end up breaking to that and he'll end up coming back um but it's not going to be a good time and he's going to be dealing with shit and you know that's kind of two bold predictions to be honest well you i mean you you you've talked i'm not trying to put you on the spot here

but you talked openly and honestly about what you went through in your own situation when you were going through a divorce. And obviously, like, I know you've taught, I'm not trying to rehash like what you've already said, but I know you talked about like coming out of Diego Sanchez's fight when you, quote unquote, retired. It was a lot with that. It wasn't like you were like ready to walk away at that point. You were going to a lot of personal shit. You were able to go out there and get an incredible win, incredible knockout. But I could detail for you a dozen instances of guys who have been dealing with custody issues,

divorces, parents being lost, things like anything like outside of the fight. like not anything physically, that they're just not there mentally, and they lose. And I want to ask you, like, that's a real thing, I guess what I'm getting. I'm, I need to fight. He's still going through a divorce, still going on custody. I got to fight. He comes back in June. He's like, I'm taking on Patty or Justin.

You're not in the right headspace? I don't care how good you are. It can absolutely lead to your downfall. And circling back now to all the first thing we started talking about the podcast, every fighter is going to go through this Gable Stevenson's going to go through some of this when we talk about mentors is John Jones the guy that you want

when you're going through a divorce you know or whatever difficult situation so you know it's kind of circling back there a little bit but yeah man that's a you know we're still competitors I mean there's so many things that guys are going through that we have no idea about right they're not public about

They're not vocal about it and they're going through things all the time when we're fighting. So, you know, it's not an excuse, but man, it can weigh heavy on you. You know, there's deaths in the family. There's, you know, like I said, divorces, custody stuff, kids stuff, like kids get sick. You know, there's, I mean, the list goes on forever and ever. But man, when you go in there and you're going against hungry young lions, like you better have your head on straight. Well, that's, and that's the thing about Ilya, this is also a very public thing for him, too, right? Like, this is not, like, just happening behind the scenes.

Like, where he's at in Spain, he's a massive star. So, like, his divorce is a big deal. There's been all kinds of press reports. And, you know, he's had to put out statements saying, like, there were allegations of abuse and shit. And he's just, like, you know, fighting against. So that's heavy shit. Like, that's really heavy stuff. And we're talking about, you know, his kids in custody.

And you're right. Like, guys can, you cannot often tell guys just to stay away. Like, probably not in your best interest. to fight right now. It seems like right now he's taking that approach, but maybe on the 24th he watches Patty Pimbley go out there, submit Justin Gage, you get on the mic and say, Ilya, you little

punk-ass bitch or whatever, you know, and I'll be like, I want to come back. And then to your point, he comes back and he's not in the right head space and he loses to Patty Pimble. That absolutely can happen. Yep. So I'll put that prediction

out there. That's certainly I'm going to call it a soft prediction. You know, because I'm not saying I really think that's going to happen. Ilya does seem like he's got a good head on shoulders. He's being smart about it. He sees a long game. He's a prize fighter. Right?

We talk about it all the time. He's a prize fighter. He's here for the prize. He's not just trying to feed his ego or anything, you know, just trying to be a fucking warrior, nothing like that, right? So, you know, I'm going to call it a very soft prediction. But if it comes true, I still get the credit for it, though. What is concerning, though, right?

Like, because this isn't an injury. He's not rushing back from an injury to, so when you're going to personal shit, there's no time table. Like, you know what? It's not like the judge is going to be like, you know what? Let's rush your divorce through so you can go fight. You didn't go fuck. Like, you know, they're hash out assets and child custody and all kinds of shit. This could drag on for a year or more than a year.

You know what I mean? Yeah. I don't know how the courts work in Spain, you know, but over here it can mine last to two years. Yeah. And this is all. I mean, I don't know how long it's actually been going on. Obviously several months now. now, but like at some point he may just get fed up and say, I'm going to fight.

I don't care. I'm going to fight. And once again, if you're not in their right headspace, you can speak to this, Matt. It can fuck with you. Yeah, and the other thing you can think about that, too, is divorce, just because the divorce is finalized, like, things aren't all the sudden roses and rainbows and good again, you know, as hard as a woman is to deal with pre-divorce, they're not easier to deal with once you're divorced. It's not like everything gets better. So,

you know, again, like you said, there's not a timeline, you know, there's not a proper way to do it. And at some point, you just got to suck it up and do it, right? You just got to put your head down, bite down your mouthpiece, walk forward and go. What's too early? I don't know. So he might even come back, quote, unquote, too early and then win, too, right? So, you know, very soft prediction but I mean he's so talented I don't see him really losing to Gigi or patty but you know if you're not trained properly your your head's not proper you know anything can happen in there and those guys aren't slouches either you know I'm not taking anything away from them just Ili is that good and and I agree like Ilya like I just give by pure talent come back

and win regardless but when like you said this is not something just goes away and this has obviously been very public too like this is not like I said this is not happening behind closed doors we don't know what's going on like these are you know they're covering a front page news where he's at like in spain he's Connor you know everything he does gets coverage that and like now it's like he's not like getting custody of his kids and shit like that gets really nasty man that gets really ugly in the courts and you're dealing with that and that little bit of distraction and then you think it's over you know especially as public as it is with ilia he comes back and what's all the media talking about oh you know this happened you know what I mean and now it just

rehashes all that. He'll probably, he'll say the right things. Like, you know, not discussed from that, whatever. But, you know, it's going to bring back some of those memories. Yeah, we'll see. Yeah. If I get any predictions, I'm not a great predictor of MMA stuff. But I think that, I think, like, I know you're saying like soft prediction,

but I think, like, at worst, showing concern, like, what is Ilya's future? Because, like, no one was hotter than Ilius Depporia coming off that Charles old Vera knockout and now here we are whatever it is like eight months later and there's an interim title about to get crowned he's kind of out of the public spotlight for fight reasons he's in the public spotlight for his divorce and

custody and shit like that you know and I agree with you like some guys just like you know fuck it I'm coming back I'm fighting now and if he's not in the right headspace it can like you don't people discount like I remember talking to Jake Shields before he fought Jake Ellenberger and his dad passed away and his dad with him

were incredibly close and he's like I'm still fighting. I remember him telling me, like, I'm still fighting. Like, dude, what are you doing? Like, why are you, you're fighting a week later? Your dad just passed away. And, like, his dad was always in his corner. Like, they were, and he got absolutely demolished. Like, he just was, and he admitted afterwards. The guy, I should have never fought. I should have never fought. I should have never done it. But that's fighters, right? You fight. Fighters fight. And like, oh, I'm fine. I'm good. Divorce is good. Kids are good. I'm fine. And then you go in there and you had that little bit of

distraction, whatever it was. And when you're doing that, the high, highest level, it can absolutely come back to bite you. I'm not saying it will. I'm just saying you're right to have concern. Even if you're not saying he's going to lose, there's concern. Yeah, you know, because a lot of times just that extra little bit of cortisol can be the game changer. You know, you don't sleep quite as good at night. You know, your body just doesn't recover quite as well as it did because you stayed up, you know, an extra 30 minutes dealing with some court papers, you know, or you got a call, it stressed you out a little bit, and then the cortisol rises, and now your sleep is, you know, I don't know, 10 points on your score meter, a little bit

lower, right? You know, you get what I'm saying, and now your next day, you know, you got through everything, you pushed hard as you could, but, you know, your, you know, your bench press that's normally, I don't know, 285 is now, it's actually like 283 today, you know, even though you don't really notice the difference because you weren't doing 283 you were doing you know 200 for 25 you get you know it's like little things you don't even notice it and then and then one day you just wake up and you're like why to fuck i don't not feel the same that i did you know a year ago yeah 100% it's a real it's a real concern yeah it's so many uh so many inches and centimeters involved with this shit, you know, so many little things that, you know, the invisible things that you don't see,

you know, so many little worms crawling around in the brain, you know, little tiny little worms growing that you don't even know are affecting you. And not to drag this out longer, but just put this out there, even if Ili is on his absolute best day, he's absolutely, he's gone through an incredible training camp, he's on a monstrous role, you can still lose going against a Patty Pimble or Justin Gator and Armin Sauru, And if that's what he's fighting, on his absolute best day, there's a world where he could lose those fights. Now imagine he's going in there on his worst day or, you know, on a 50% day. Or, yeah, or 80% of, you know, I think that's the case for Arminus Rookie and for maybe and maybe just engaging.

Patty Pimble, I think he should beat Patty Pimbleau on an 80% day. Probably, probably. That's what I see right now. We don't know, though. We don't actually know how good Patty is yet, right? you know, I shouldn't talk shit about him or anything, you know. But we just, the issue for me is we just don't know how good he is, right? He's fighting for the interim championship coming off a win off Michael Chandler.

You know, we know what Michael Chandler is, right? He's going to swing hard as hell, and if he hits you, he knocks you out. If not, he probably is losing. He didn't land it on Patty Pimba, and he lost. Yeah, true, true. Well, we'll see. And I do like your other prediction, though. I already said, like, Alex Pereira winning a heavyweight title this year.

I think there's a pretty good chance of that happening. I think there's, like, I said, like, I don't, I maybe, like, I think Tom Aspinall's probably a tougher matchup, but I think Cyril Gahn, that's a very win. It's a very winnable fight for Alex if you're asking me that question. It's a fun fight, really. It is. It is a fun fight. As big as Alex is, like, gone's still going to be the bigger guy in there, I think.

I think. Yeah, probably a little faster. Probably a little faster than Alex. Alex is not like the fastest guy in the world, you know what I mean? So, yeah, but tell me you wouldn't watch that. that fight. I watched the shit out of that fight. That would be a fun one for sure. I think that would be an exciting fight. I could see that being a White House fight for sure.

Yeah. So White House Connor coming back. Are you still not going on that bold prediction there? Matt? He ain't coming back, bro. Forget about it. I saw now, like, I think it was John Annego was like, I don't really want to see Michael Chandler fight Conner. I'm like, don't take this away from Chandler. Like, after all this time, don't take it away from him. Please. He's waiting so long for Connor. let him just live in that fantasy for a little bit longer. Like, you know what I mean? Don't take it away from him by Connor fighting somebody else.

Fair, okay. Who else would he fight, though? It doesn't make sense for, especially on a White House card. I mean, Chandler's like the most American son of a bitch ever. Like, you got to, it's got to be, if it's Connor, it's got to be Michael Chandler. Yeah. I did see, did you see the thing where I think it was like John had said, like, he does believe there's going to be like six or seven title fights and Oosman was like,

Who wants to watch seven title five-round fights? Right. I think there's a good point there. Like, have a couple title fights to do, but like, who really wants to sit through? Like, that's 25 minutes each. You could go, that can end horribly wrong. Like, you think it's a good idea until a couple decisions happen. Then you're like, oh, shit.

We're on hour four, and we've only got three fights through. And what, that's like every weight class, basically? Well, I mean, it's like half of them at least. Like, yeah, I didn't know. I hope they don't do that. I don't want to see seven title fights on one card. That's ridiculous. No, I don't either.

It doesn't add up either. It doesn't make sense. Yeah, no one wants to see that, I don't think. And you also bone the rest of your year because now you've got everybody fighting on one card. And what do you do in July and August and September when everyone's already just fought? Right. Yeah, I didn't even think about that part. Yeah.

I don't know. I don't know what they're going to do with this White House card. But for me, I don't know. like I'm not that excited about it, to be honest. You know, I'm not like, I guess it's kind of cool. Right. If you look at the whole history of like America and UFC, if you really zoom out real far, it's like, okay,

that's a kind of a cool thing, right? We have, you know, humans fighting in a cage, you know, on our, on our capital building, whatever he call it. I don't know, you know, the White House, right? But, you know, when you're kind of in the moment, I don't see anything really cool about it. Yeah, I mean, I think it's cool. Like, you know, it is historic.

Like, I get that, you know, and, like, probably first and only time ever, like, we talk about the sphere. Like, that's not even remotely closed. Like, no one's ever, like, you can't hold a basketball game on the White House lawn. So, like, you know, so this is pretty cool. I give him credit for that. But, yeah, I don't know. Like, we'll see how it all plans out.

Like, I kind of hope they just have fun with it. Like, do Connor Chandler. And Rhonda wants to come back, which I really hope she does it. But, like, do that. Have some fun fights on there. some really ridiculous fights. You know, maybe you do prayer gone for an interim title with Aspinol out, something like that.

But like, yeah, just, you know, I'm almost, I'd almost root for the goofy fights word I would be like, like, let's just do Islam and, I don't know, like, you know, just do goofy fights. Have Connor. Because there's only going to be 5,000 people there too. Like, it's not going to be the big, you know, giant arena. It's outdoors, which could always create havoc. Just, you know, have fun. Have Connor fight Chandler if he actually shows up.

or have, you know, Ron, whatever, do that. I'm cool with that. I don't need seven title fights, though. Let's not do that. I feel that. Just make it a UFC slash fight circus, right? Yeah, go for you. Yeah, just enough of a fucking dick kicking contest.

Right on the White House lawn, dude. Hey, you're on the White House. Just let them, no rules, right? Just let them do whatever they want and maybe have a, you know, beer and hand fighting match or something. Back in the day, I always read stories. Teddy Roosevelt used to invite heads of, state to have wrestling matches in the white house like do the teddy roosevelt matchery yeah yeah there

you yeah i'm with you i'm with you just make it a circus show you know and hell bring in fight circus you have some real fun with the dick kicking and that's politics right now anyways yeah that's politics anyways a fucking circus so why not just embrace it right there you go yeah uh all right uh matt obviously next week we're going to be doing our uc 3224 predictions uh Of course, with Patty and Justin and Kayla and Amanda, but there are other great fights of the cards. We'll talk about all that next week. And then we go right into UFC 325 with Volcanoz.

So back on the train here after a few weeks off, UFC schedules kicking back up. If people want to check you out what you got going on Matt. You launched your new podcast, by the way. Congrats on that. Yeah, yeah, two episodes out. Check it out on my YouTube, The Immortal 513. So, yeah, working on that little bit.

I got, you know, check my out my socials at I Amortle on Instagram and Twitter, The Immortal Matt Brown on Facebook. You know, we got the retreat coming up in July. So anybody want to come out July 18th, 25th, and Cassus Kissman, which is basically in Nisara, Costa Rica, we do a week of training. And they just drop prices for it, too. I think about 10% price drop. Got having trouble filling the last like three or four.

So they dropped prices for it. So there's only a few seats left. So jump on it, guys. And I know you addressed this, but I had a couple of people asked me about this. Like, you just started your podcast? Like, you guys not doing the podcast? And we're like, no, no, we're still doing the podcast. Your podcast is totally different.

You're not, this is like you're talking nutrition and, and strength of conditioning and training and things that just don't, you know, we do. Yeah, we do a lot more just like strictly MMA talk around here. But like, for people who were hitting me up to like, are you still doing the show? Matt? I was like, yes, we're still doing the show. Matt's going nowhere. He's just doing a seven.

podcast, just like I do a horror movie podcast on my side. So, yeah, just so people don't freak out. I come and people who are like, oh, man, is the podcast ending? I'm like, no, the podcast. Did you read the caption? He literally said, we're not stopping to do the podcast. Eh, it's something, sometimes you've got to tell people things more than once. Exactly, exactly.

All right, we're going to get out of here. This will be back next week with the UFC 324 preview. As always, want to say, thank you to everyone in Tuesday. Make sure you check us out on all your favorite podcast platforms, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and of course over in the best website in the world, MMAfighting.com. For Matt Brown, I am Damon Martin. We will see you next week for another edition

of the fighter versus the writer. Thanks for tuning in, and we'll see you then. Podcast Network.