MMA Fighting - Fighter vs. Writer: Matt Brown Reacts to Islam Makhachev Turning Down Title Fight, UFC 333 Breakdown

Episode Date: October 27, 2026

On the latest episode of The Fighter vs. the Writer, UFC legend Matt Brown and Damon Martin break down everything that happened at UFC 333 including Alexander Volkanovski’s dominant win and what comes next for him, Petr Yan successfully defending his title and whether Song Yadong or Sean O’Malley should get the next title shot? Plus we’ll reach to Islam Makhachev turning down a fight with Carlos Prates and now Prates battles Michael Morales for an interim title in January. All this and much 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 megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hockey fans start your morning with Sirius XM Morningscape, the weekday podcast covering all things hockey, wherever you get your podcasts. Join me, Scott Lockland, alongside my co-host, Gord Stelick, and Tyler Mataraz, as we break down the biggest stories, moments and debates from across the league, giving you the hockey news you need before your coffee cools, and the group chat blows up. Sirius XM Morningscape, Last Night's Hockey, first each weekday morning. Welcome back to the fighter versus the rider after a brief, hiatus. We are back for the attack. I am Damon Martin. He is UFC legend Matt Brown. And Matt,

did you miss me? Of course I did. Always. Yeah, it's been a few weeks. Unfortunately, I had a bit of a medical emergency had to deal with, had to go in the hospital for a little bit. I'm better now. So we're back for the attack. No need to belabor that stuff. But yeah, so we're back and missed you guys. Appreciate everyone who tuned in. I did get a lot of questions. People reaching out. Like, where's the podcast? What's going on the podcast? So appreciate everyone. reaching out. But yeah, so we are back and got lots to talk about today, Matt. Oh, yeah, yeah. Good

weekend of fights, man. Yeah, where do we get started, huh? I mean... Well, UFC 33, UFC 333 is officially in the books, and obviously we saw Alexander Volcanov go out there and just put on an absolute masterclass, shutting down Mosa, Evloev, and then, of course,

Peter Jan defended his title and a back-and-forward Barnburner with Marabda Wailishvili. I mean, we You can talk about the entire car, but those two fights alone, man. It was a good night. Or a good day, I guess. A good day. We had a daytime.

Daytime for us. Yeah, it was actually perfect timing for a fight. You know, I wish they could do it at that time every time. But, yeah, I mean, what a great card, man. And, I mean, I guess you got to start with Volcanovsky, man. Like, what a fucking legend, bro. I mean, what's, I think, correct me if I'm wrong here. But statistically, he might be the only guy below.

170 and over 35 years old defending titles, right? Ever. I think so, like, I know that there was a stat like that. Yeah, yeah, there was a stat like that not that long ago. I think somebody else won the title past 35, but yeah, I mean, I think defending the title, I can't imagine there's anybody else. I mean, what Volka's doing at 38 is ridiculous. I mean, and, like, somehow getting better.

Like, he went out there, like, he beat Diego Lopez the first time, and then they basically made him rematch him again, and he beat him even more. dominantly the second time, and then he goes out there and just absolutely shuts down Mozar. I mean, it's ridiculous. Yeah, that's exactly right. And, man, you know, I thought, like, I actually picked Mobsar to win that fight based off of, like, you know, Volcanozzi getting older and, you know, the, with that statistics, you know, and it's like, you know, Mobsar. Undefeated young Dagestini coming in hot like all the momentum's going his way and I mean like you say you can't say enough about Volcanavsky man I mean he just shut down every single

thing Moussard tried to do you know beat him even in the grappling and I mean God this I mean you just like how long is it going to go on for you know I mean and Volkanah to do it you know at a high level at his age. I mean, that's not really totally uncommon, but, you know, to be one of the best in the world, you know, defending titles. And, you know, I think there's a lot of questions after him, you know, getting knocked out a couple times as to where he was at. And I was go ahead and, I was going ahead and putting my money on, you know, maybe that's, you know, kind of the downturn now. Of course, he beat Diego, but, you know, Diego is not Moussar, you know. So, yeah you just i mean this guy he's just firing on all eight cylinder still man and you know

like you said he's he looked to me he didn't look uh maybe as fast as he was back in the day but maybe that was because he was sick right we'd come to find out that he had the flu but his timing is so sharp like his uh his ring IQ is so sharp his knowledge of the sport um his scrambling is just out of this world. You know, his defensive wrestling and scrambling. I mean, we could go on all day about this, about Volcanovsky. I mean, we could do a whole show just on Volcanovsky. And let's not forget, Volcanowski is not known as a big finisher.

Like, that's not really his forte. Like, he's not known for that. He went out there and put it on Mosa. When he had him hurt in that second round, he put him away. And this is a guy who was undefeated. I mean, I mean, he had he lost many rounds in the UFC. Like, Mosaar had been incredibly dominant, and I'll be with you. I picked Mosa as well.

I'll be honest about it. I'm not going to lie about it. I picked him as well. But, like, he just shut him down in every way, shape, and form. And to go out there and actually finish him inside two rounds, I mean, that's remarkable because that's not really Volcanovsky's game. Volcanowski's game is kind of like, you know, pick you apart, you know, pepper you, you know, volume, hurt you throughout the rounds.

It kind of what he did to Max Holloway in their third fight where he just, I mean, he just put it on him for five rounds, but didn't get a finish. that's okay. You don't have to be a knockout artist every time. But to go out there and do that and put him away in the second round, I was like, damn, that's like, it's almost like Volka's getting better. And he's 38 years old and he's talking about retirement. He was being honest about that. But it's just like, dude, like this guy's, this guy's just, I mean, it's unbelievable the way he put that together on Saturday night or Saturday, whatever day, night, whatever. And, and just like shut down Mosar and put him away. I mean, that was just, that was, that was like the icing on the

cake. And I think you have to add in what a lot of people haven't talked about. Moussar wasn't just an undefeated guy. Like there's different types of undefeated guys, right? There's undefeated guys that haven't fought anyone. Like Mofsar has ran through that division as an undefeated guy. Like he is, he was probably should have had the title shot long time ago. You know, it has beat some of the best guys in division. And Vulk made it look easy. Vulk made it look like just another day in the office and apparently he did it with a flu too you know sick which I fought with a flu before and it's a you know in the first couple rounds at least for me from my experience the first couple rounds really aren't a huge deal I mean it's depending on how

sick you are it's not really such a huge deal because it's like you know so much adrenaline just kind of everything any type of pain or suffering goes out the window like you're in fight or flight mode And it's usually like, you know, around the third round, it's when you really start feeling it. You're like, dude, like, I'm not recovering, like, the way that I should. So, I mean, good for him to be able to get him out of there in a couple rounds. Because, I mean, you know, with him being sick, I don't doubt that that could have played a factor later in the fight.

Yeah, 100%. Yeah, we didn't get that far. He put him away in two rounds, so he had to find out if it actually affected him. Matt, we were all guilty of this, you know, whenever you win a fight, you have a big moment like that. you're always guilty of like what's next, what do you do next? And I know Volk addressed that on Saturday. He said, hey, I'm still feeling pretty good, so I guess I'll keep going,

which means, you know, if he had had a rough fight or obviously I think if he had lost, but I think he was probably at the point where he's like, you know, I'm going to walk away, I'm going to retire, which obviously he's earned that right. He doesn't need to do anything else to add onto his resume. But he mentioned, you know, potentially going up to 155 and fighting Justin Gage, you know, take him one more stab at that title when he, you know, he came up short in that. The first fight, Islam Macacha was incredible.

Now, obviously the second fight didn't go his way. He got head kick knocked out, but he also took that on 10 days notice. But the first fight was awesome. But now he's talking about that. And I know a lot of people are talking about, like, what do you do? Like, what's left of featherweight? I mean, I guess you could say maybe Jean Silva's out there. That could be an interesting fight.

My suggestion was if Al Jermaine Sterling can beat Kevin Vaheos coming up in Indian in November. I think Al Jamein would be an interesting challenge. But you also got to, like, here's my thing, Matt. Like, Dana was like when you're Vulcan, obviously, like, we'll pretty much let him do whatever he wants. And I appreciate Dana saying that. But the reality is you also got another part in that, and that's Justin Gachie. Like, how much is Justin Gachey going to be interested in his first title defense coming against the featherweight champion?

Is he actually interested in that? You know, obviously, Gajie has talked about retirement too. So if you're Alexander Volcanowski, what do you do next? Like, do you wait and see what Gagee? Do you just take the next challenger at Featherweight? Do you wait and see it maybe Algeman? Because I think Algeman and Volk will be a pretty good fight, like a pretty big. fight and I think that would add

onto his legacy a little bit more because Al Jermaine's obviously gotten established, you know, former champion, obviously a veteran. I don't know he gains as much by fighting as Jean Silva. No offense to John Silva, but it's like, what does that really add to his resume? Like, what does that really do for Volk? So, Matt, what do you do of your Volk at this point?

You keep the ball rolling, man. You fight, you know, like if you can go up and fight Gagee, do the super fight, that's obviously going to be a gigantic fight and that would be you know, it's a winnable fight for Volk and a winnable fight for Gagy, too. I think it's like a good, even matchup.

But, you know, you fight John Sylvie. You fight Al Jermaine. You know, you keep, you know, we always talk about, you know, trying to kind of retire on top in this sport. You know, I'm not such a huge fan of that. I don't think you retire when you're still firing on all eight cylinders, right? Now, I think here's a balance, right? You don't want to, you don't need to go until the wheels fall off.

But the wheels should at least be. be like shaking a little bit you know what i mean like when they're on tight and you got full tread like you keep fucking going man you know and really a lot of that i think um it's going to come down to volkenowski personally right like what does he feel like he has left to prove does he still feel like he has a chip on his shoulder does he still feel like he does have things left to prove i know me personally as a fighter i was i was on uh josh thompson's podcast yesterday and we were talking about this and I said bro I don't know I was talking to Josh as a former fighter I said I don't know about you Josh but when I was 43 years old I think is when I retired maybe 43 or 44 something like it

42 somewhere in there I still felt like I had shit to prove you know like that feeling never went away and I feel like of course you know I wasn't you know a john Jones or a valk or anything So I can't necessarily relate to that. But I bet they still feel like they got shit to prove. And if they retire, they're going to feel like they left shit on the table. They could approve it. You know what I mean? I think that's like a standard championship attitude.

But I think it really comes down to Valk, right? How does he actually feel about that inside? Does he feel content with his career and comfortable and that he has peaked out and done everything that he can do? You know, and look, the only, I mean, Al Jermaine, I shouldn't say the only, Al Jermaine is the real, you know, if you talk about physically, probably the safest fight out of those, right?

Like, it's more than likely going to be more of a grappling match, or at least Al Jermaine's going to try to make it a grapple match. But if you're looking at John Silva and Justin Gagey, you know, you're probably throwing down. Like you're taking a big risk of getting big shots in those fights. So, you know, if he's concerned about his health, and his longevity and everything. You just wait for the Al Jemaine Sterling fight,

assuming that you're able to make that happen. If you're still trying to, you know, prove yourself and have big fights and have exciting fights, I mean, Justin Gage is the obvious one that, you know, like you said, of Justin will take that fight. Look, you know, that's a gigantic fight. If you want to prove yourself as a, you know, a fucking firm champion and you're ready to knockoff,

contenders. John Silva's right there. You beat John Silva, I think that, you know, it just solidifies even stronger how great Volcanovsky is. Yeah. I wonder. Last thing I'll say on that is unfortunately, you know, I don't think John Silva does quite as much for him. You know, that might be a little bit harder for Volk to get up for. Just, you know, John, you know, he's on his way up and everything. He doesn't quite have that name value just yet, in my opinion. Yeah, I agree. And that was my thing, too. It's like, that's what I said. If Al Jermaine wins in November, then I think Al Jermaine versus Volk is the fight to make. It's a big enough fight. And it does something for his legacy because Al Jamein's obviously

is obviously an established former champion. And that matters, like it or not, that matters. I wonder if Gachie would be interested in that fight because like Gaci kind of continues to hedge his bets on, you know, fighting again or not. And obviously he's got the title. He's shut down the I'lliot to pour a rematch, which I'm totally fine with that. I don't think he'd do that. rematch right away. The other option is Armand Saruki, and which, let's be honest, I think Armand's a much harder fight, no offense to Volk, just because, you know, you're coming up a weight class and stylistically, you know, Volk will probably stand in trade with Gaichy, whereas, you know,

you're in Armin, you're dealing with, like, incredibly high-level wrestling and submissions, and that's a much different fight. So I don't know, like, if you're Gaetia, is it almost more appealing to have a Volkanowski because it's not saying it's an easier fight. Certainly not saying that at all, but, like, Volk, even though he's a feather like he's a he's the greatest featherweight of all time i'm just going to say that out loud right now like he is in my opinion no offense to jose a alder or anybody else he's the greatest featherweight of all time i still think that matters and i think for gaetia's like that would

be a kind of a cool legacy fight to have that champ versus champ thing which is something he's never done before um and if he's not interested in fighting uh toporia which i get i understand that um you know i don't know like i i guess that's my question is like would gaiji you be and shit. I think you would. I think that actually is an interesting fight, and it does a little bit more for you in terms of like when you're all said and done. Like, hey, I beat the greatest featherweight of all time. I don't know. What do you think? Well, I'll tell you this. If I'm in charge of things, look, you basically got Gagian versus Serokee and or Gagie versus Vulk, right? Those are your two options. I would hate to see Serookin get screwed again just because, you know,

Vulcan gauges should be fighting each other for a big fight. If we're the UFC, that is probably the biggest fight you could discuss about all of these different matchups we're talking about. It just puts Saruki in another fucked up spot. Yeah. He's got to wait even longer. We know, we've talked about it like with Saruki and fought Rufi. Like, bro, it's solidified.

The dude deserves the fucking title shot. He should be getting the title shot. So, I mean, I think that's the fight to make. And Volk should stick around and fight either John or Al Jermaine. Or fight the winner. I mean, I mean, I know Armin had said publicly, like, he's like early next year, if they can book Armin and Justin in like January or February, and now obviously you got to gauge for how much damage you're going to take during the fight.

But like, Wolf just fought. And we're almost in November now. So, like, he could, you know, if he's willing to wait, like, you know, to like July or August, like, they could still, he could just fight the winner. Potentially, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And again, I think those are all good matchups for Volcanovsky, you know. Honestly, in my opinion, the toughest matchup out of all of those is probably John Silva. And it's also probably the lowest ROI on the fight, right?

And I just say, I mean, look, Justin Gage, he's got bombs for hands, too. But I think John Silva's like younger, more explosive and, you know, probably, I don't know, he's got some things. Maybe him and Justin are pretty equally, you know, tough matches. But I think John's, you know, just being younger and hungrier is going to, you know, makes him a little bit tougher of a matchup. We don't have as much film on them. But anyway, so again, I've never been a big fan of the going up in weights. stuff, you know, it must look like if GSP would have done it after seven title defenses, I'm like, yeah, okay, like, I get it. You know, if Anderson would have done it after eight

title defenses, I get it. Um, you know, after just two or three title defenses and Vulk, you know, to be fair, has, you know, he's beat most of the division, right? You know, there's not a ton of challengers out there for, but he does still have challenges out there. Al Jermaine is a legitimate challenger that makes a big enough fight to justify staying around there. John Silva's kind of the wild card there. And Saruki and Gajee should be fighting. Straight up.

Like, that should be the fucking fight. Like, I will not promote Armin and Serruki and getting screwed over again. Yeah, I think it should be Armin and Justin, and then I think Volt can either fight Al Jermaine or just wait. And if he wants to wait and fight the winner of Syruki and Gajee, and they want to give him that opportunity to go back up one last time before he retires.

I'm cool with that, but you can't, you can't keep shutting out Armin, man. Like, well, what does this guy have to do? Like, he didn't even need to, like, realistically, he didn't need to fight Marisa Rufi, and he went out there and knocked him out. You know, like, what else this guy got to do? And I know, I understand the whole thing with, like, what happened in that, the Islam fight, you know, the disaster with his back injury or whatever. How many years ago was that now?

I mean, it was like, too. It was like the beginning of 2025. It was almost two years ago. Yeah. So it's like, how long be by guns. Yeah, like, how long are you going to punish this guy? Like, come on now. Like, I have all the admiration for Volkanowski, but like, come on.

Like, either give Saruki into title shot or if Gaghi doesn't want to fight, then strip him in the title and let, you know, Saruki and fight, let Saruki and fight Volk for the vacant time. I don't really care, but yeah, you can't deny Volker. You can't deny Zeruki in a title shot at this point. Yeah, I agree. And that would be fun, you know, if Gagie was to retire or just vacate title for whatever reason what you wouldn't do i think he'd retire if he became the title yeah up um the both

saruki and volk i think would be a really really fun fight i think that'd be really fun but but again i i mean i'll just to circle back to answer the question very plainly and clearly if algeman wins it should be aljamaan volkanowski that's a big fight you get sarukin and gaigi that's a big fight talk about moving up in the future after after that there's a two two big fights that are absolute main event, cellar and fights. And then, you know, if you want to put the two together in some fashion later, then that works. I don't think right now it makes a ton of sense to do it. It's a fun fight.

It's a big seller. And that's what ultimately, right, it's about the bottom line. So, you know, in that sense, I think it makes sense. But in terms of, you know, again, I gosh, I don't think you need to be moving up. until you kind of cleared out all the challengers. And for Gagy, I do agree. It doesn't do as much for him as fighting Armis Rukian. If he beats Armist Rukian, it does way more for him than beating Volk.

And the problem with that is because Volk has already went up and lost. Yeah. You know, and of course, it was against Islam, which, but the, you know, the record books of the history books, like all we look at is he moved up and lost. We don't look at, you know, who he lost to or anything. So if he went up and lost again, they'd be like, oh, he's just simply undersized for that weight class. Right? That's what the narrative would be.

It wouldn't just be Gagey is better than him. So for Gagey, that's not a big victory. As big a victory as, you know, maybe us on the inside to understand all this, you know, we know how big of a victory that actually is. Like beating Vogue is never going to be easy. But it's a guy that moved up twice in law. Yeah. Yeah. That was the complaint Islam had for the longest time. I don't want to fight guys who are coming up because people are not going to give me credit for the win. And it's true. I mean, there is a certain, like, there is a certain truth to that. So like, I always kind of had Islam's back in that. So. And how many guys, I don't, you're the statistician encyclopedia here. How many guys have moved up in one? It's got to be in the like less than 20%. Yeah, I mean, Robert Whitaker is one guy who did it. I mean, but not as champion, obviously. He was just a Just a world's way.

I'm talking about as champion. As champion, I don't know. I don't have to really think about that. I don't know. I'm not sure I didn't think of any you have. Yeah. I mean, honestly, John Jones.

John Jones is won and Connor. Yeah, I mean, John, right? That's, yeah, he didn't fight the real champion, right? He didn't. But he did win. He did win a title. And yeah, Connor did go up and do it. Yeah, that's, I think those are the ones.

I can't think of anybody. Oh, and yeah, yeah, that's it. Yeah, because, like, Henry went down. Henry said, who did he went down at one. so yeah to be fair i mean you got to give credit or credits do Connor did it and probably you know the toughest challenge I mean he didn't defend his title at the lower weight

which is you know the the knock but going up and beating eddie alvarez was no joke i mean Eddie avarice is an absolute fucking dog and absolutely fucking took him to school yeah it was a pretty low upside of fight yeah but i'm not sure i don't really think about it but yeah it might be the only two I can think of is Connor and Jones. But yeah, it's not an easy thing to do. And like I said, lightweight's a snake pit anyway.

So it's not like whether you're fighting Gagia or your Sauru K, neither one's going to be an easy fight. So, uh, yeah, I guess like the other part you can look at there's like Gage used to be a lightweight too, right? So, you know, I don't think there would be quite as big of a size differential. Yeah. Well, we'll have to wait and see what happens. Uh, Peter Yon went out and defended his title in a great performance against Marab to Wildishvili.

Marab came out one in the first two rounds and then slowed down just the slightest. touch and Peter Jan took over his striking, his kicks, everything was just on point. I'll be honest after the first two rounds, I was like, well, this looks like it's going to be a lopside of fight. And then Peter Jan turned it around and defended his title. And rightly so, I think everyone had it scored 48, 47, the last three rounds from Peter Jan over Mrav. What do you say about Peter Yon's performance? I mean, my God, like, what a fucking amazing fighter, man. That's one guy I would like to see move up. You know, maybe fight Volk, right? That would be a,

fucking amazing fight. The Yon, I mean, he is just a fucking machine. I think he's the best fighter in the world right now. I put him pound for pound number one. You know, Marab is a machine. There's a reason they call him the machine. And Yon just has his fucking number, man. Nobody's beating.

The difficult part of this is where do you do with Marab now? Because he's just going to go through and walk through the entire division and beat all the challengers. So, you know, kind of puts Yon in a, or any challengers in a tough place to fight Yon because it's like, you know, if Maraba's the gatekeeper, it's like nobody's getting through that gate, bro. You know, who knows, maybe they will. But, you know, it's, Maraub is so good, man, and that's a tough gate to get through. Um, Yon, I mean, look, you know, I had to score it exactly the same. I thought that, you know, the only questionable round. was the third round. I had Jan winning the third

round, mainly because that body shot. Yon, man. I think he's the best fighter in the world, bro. I mean, number one pound for pound. Number one pound for pound, man. Yeah, I mean, I don't, I don't think that's a bad argument to make. And it was really an amazing performance. The adjustments he made, you know, to kind of shut down

Marabs wrestling and just like, I mean, it was, like I said, the guy just, it's remarkable how, like, he just continues to get better. and he had that little downturn where he had that ugly fight with Al Jermaine, and he had the quote-unquote lost to Sean Amalley. I know you still, to this day, don't think he lost that fight, but he technically lost that fight. Yeah, nobody thinks he lost that fight. But then, like, he's just turned it around lately

where it's just, like, he's just gotten better and better, which is, again, remarkable. And I think what makes me even more impressed with Peter Jan is, like, a lot of times when guys lose titles, they kind of go on a bit of a slide. You know what I mean? Like, they're, like, kind of downtrodden afterwards. He got better. I think we're seeing that.

Like, this Peter Yan is better than the one who won the title before, which is ridiculous when you think about it. Like, he's older, you know what I mean? Like, obviously, I think Marab is like clearly the second. He's in his 30s. I don't know how old he is, but he's in 30s. But, yeah, it's just remarkable how well he's done. And like I said, Marab is a puzzle that no one else has been able to figure out

except Peter Jan. So, and I love the band to wait division. Now, here's the question, Matt. You're Peter Yan. You won the title. You can put Morab behind you in the rearview now. You beat him twice in a row. There's no reason to do a third fight.

As good as both fights were, you don't need to do it again. Sean O'Malley has a win, technically, over Peter Yon, and Sean O'Malley is coming off a big win at the White House, and obviously Sean O'Malley's a bit of a star. Then you got Song Yadong who goes out there and knocks out Umarna Magamatov and kind of puts himself in position, but obviously he's fought Peter Yon in the past. So who do you believe deserves the title shot? Is it Song Yadong, or is it Sean Amali?

Yeah, I don't know who deserves it, right? That's a good question. Actually, let me phrase that. Who's going to get the title shot? Now, do you know, we don't like the word deserves around here? Who's going to get the title shot? You know what? If Song wasn't there in the crowd and they already started promoting that fight,

then I would have said Sean O'Malley. But he was right there, and they started talking about it right there while Yon was still in the cage. So maybe that's what they're already planning. But you got to think, you know, Sean's got the swag. got the win over him he's got the followers everything so you got to think that he's going to be the one getting the shot but you know song was right there man and songs coming off a big win so you know i can see it going either way i but you know if if i'm picking if i'm the ufc i give it to

sean to be honest and not just because of all the followers and everything he had the win over him i'm sure i bet yon probably once have fight back um so i think that's you know a fair fight to make too Yeah, I mean, listen, you know, Peter Yon just did Sean O'Malley the biggest favorite in the world because as long as Morav was champion, he wasn't getting another title shot because Mara had been Sean Ameli twice. I'm with you. And listen, I love Song Yadong. I think this research he's been on recently, he's been super oppressive.

And what he did to Umar was just ridiculous. I think we can all agree on that. But, you know, Song is a veteran. He's fought all these guys and has losses to a lot of top guys. That was kind of a knock on Song Yadong. Because every time he got into that top two or three, he would fight and lose. he would put on a good show, but he wouldn't come out on top. And he finally got that signature win with the win over Umar.

But, um, I mean, if you're Peter Jan, like, and, you know, you're obviously now you're, you're, you're, you're defending champion. You get, you get rid of Marab so you don't have to worry about him for at least the time being, at least for right now. Um, that, that blemish on his record, whether it's fair or foul, he has a loss on his record to Sean O'Malley. And it's not like Sean Amalley is like, remember when Sean won the title and he won that Cheetah Vera rematch back.

and we were all like, why are they doing this? Like, this makes no sense. Like, no offense to Cheetah Vera, but he doesn't deserve this. He didn't earn this, especially with the other guys out there, like Marab. But Sean O'Malley is coming off, you know, wins.

He's not, it's not like he's on a losing streak, and he beat Song Yadong, and he also just beat, you know, he also won that fight at the White House. And let's be honest, Sean O'Malley's a bigger name. You know, it's not, I don't need to sugarcoat. It's not a knock on Song Yadong, but Sean O'Malley's a bigger name.

And if you're going to headline a card with a bantaway title fight, what's the bigger Bantaway title fight? Is it Peter Yon versus Sondi Dung or is it Peter Yon versus Sean Amalley? That's the easiest question of the world to answer. Yep, totally fair. And again, I know it's kind of not really on anybody's mind, but the fight that I would love to see is Yon going up and fighting Valk. I just think that's a fantastic fucking fight, man.

I just, I think those are two of the pound for pound. I'm saying Yon's number one pound for pound. He's undoubtedly top five, right? Volcanovsky's undoubtedly top five. That's a fucking great fight. If we're going to be talking about people moving weight classes, I think that's a great fight. Just no one's really talked about it or even brought it up or anything.

I think it'd be exciting. But yeah, look, I'm with you, man. We love song. He's kind of, you know, what a great win. he's coming off of over Umar. Sean's the man though, you know? Like, you know, not just with his followers and everything,

but, you know, he's coming off wins. He's not on a losing streak or anything. He's, you know, he's a former title holder before already. And it makes a bigger fight. And to be honest, being that he had beat Yon before, it makes for a more compelling fight. Yeah. And like, and like you said, like we both said, like, it isn't like O'Malley's like limping into a fight.

Like, he's on a street. Like, he's won his, and he beat Song Yadong. Like, that's one of the wins he has. So, you know, I forgot about that. So that, I mean, that there kind of solidifies it, right? Yeah. I know people are probably, oh, not O'Malley again. You know, you're treating O'Malley different.

But the reality is, like, yes, he is a star. And that matters. But it's not like he's, it's not like he's undeserving. Like, you know what I mean? Like, they're not handing them this solely based on the fact that he has a winner of Peter John. Like, he does have a winner of Peter Jan. but he also just, you know, he beats a hobby at the White House.

He obviously beats Song Yadong before that. It's not like he's, you know, on his losing streak. You're just giving it to him. You're gifting it to him because he fought and beat Peter Yon, you know, like five years ago. He did, but then you look at the streak and, you know, he has the winner of her song. He has a winner of his hobby. Yes, he is a star. And he is a winner yon.

Yeah, and it'll be a bigger fight. Like, no offense to Song Yadong, but it'll be a bigger fight. Yeah. I mean, all the cards are lined up for that to be the right fight. 100%. You know, I can't deny that. If they gave it to song, like I said, I mean, he was there in the arena, right? They started talking about it right there. I kind of had the feeling that was probably going to be the next fight.

If I gave it to him, I wouldn't be mad. You know, I wouldn't be upset or say the UFC's ripping off Sean or anything. But if you're the UFC, like I don't see where it makes any sense, then I give it to Sean. Yeah, I agree. I agree. Or have John move up and fight, Vol. Come on. You got to agree with me. come on, that's a fucking amazing fight.

That would be an amazing fight. I'm not going to lie. It's funny, you say, like, no one's really mentioned that, but it would be an amazing fight. I just don't know how much. Yon hasn't never really mentioned much about going to featherweight, so. No, because, you know, I don't think he's even, even big at bantam weight, you know. I don't think he cuts a ton of weight or anything, you know.

And he looks like the proper size for that weight class. But, you know, it would be interesting to see him standing next to Valk. I'd love to see like the size differential there because Volk isn't like a gigantic featherweight either. Yeah, it'd be interesting. I wouldn't mind seeing it. Like I said, let's see.

I mean, like I said, that also goes back to his vote going to be excited to fight a guy lower and weight and blah, blah, blah, blah. You go to all that conversation again. They gave it to you, Volk. You got, you know. And look, I think that's a very big fight. Maybe that's more of a down-the-road thing.

Again, depending on how long Volk is going to stick around. But look, if you get Jan and he beat Sean O'Malley, you get Volk and he beats Al Jermaine. That makes for a hell of a super fight. Even if they didn't do it for a title, they did like another BMF title, like for the little guys, right? Yeah.

And they did that at a catchway in between some. I don't know. I got all the ideas, bro. I like it. I like it. Just to run down the rest of the car, Lonnie Kavanaugh got a big win over Turibov, which was a super impressive win.

Alexander Volcock. Super impressive. Don't even run past that, bro. Come on. Lennie Kavanaugh looked fucking amazing. He did, he did. And Tim Ruff, it looked like an absolute murderer up to that point. And he got stopped.

Yeah, so that was. That was some of the best box. Bro, if he goes out and fights Van next or at some point, I mean, come on, bro. That's a Godi Ward fight right there. It's a good fight. It's good fight for sure. That's Godi Ward all over again. Could be.

Yeah, Joshua Van booked his next fight against Manil, Colin. I've plenty of time to talk about that. Yeah, which might be another Goddy Award. Dude, Josh fan, this guy, he's got a fucking murderer's rowing from. And his style is just built for war. And my God, I mean, look at who he's got coming up against him. With Manel Cop and now, you know, Kavanaugh. I'm not even thinking of the other people in the division.

But, you know, this guy, you know, are Tyra again at some point, not fucking even Pantosia again. God, this guy's got, I hope he's got a thick skull, man. Because I want him to have some longevity. He's got some battles ahead of him. Alexander Volkov, the true number one contender in heavyweight, got another way, maybe not the most exciting fighting in the world, but he took out Rizvon Kunev, got another win on his record.

Of course, Aaron Pico opened the car with a big knockout over Los Inquita, which I thought was a super impressive win for a guy. You know, I think we've both been very high on Aaron Pico for a long time, and let's be honest. You know, Kada didn't necessarily, you know, didn't necessarily do a ton for Pico in terms of, like, rankings or anything. But to go out there and dispatch them in two minutes, that pretty much shows, like, where they're at in the division. And Pico, you know, has been itching to get that top, you know, that top 10 status for a while. So he obviously went out there and got a big win. But overall, I thought 333 killed it.

I thought it was a great card top to bottom. The prelims had some great knockouts, some great finishes. Main card paid off. The two title fights were awesome. Like, it was a really, really good card. Yeah. I actually came in. I was with my kids.

You know, that's the downside of the middle of the day thing, right? Because you got to do stuff with the kids or with the family or you got, you know, other obligations or whatever. So I actually came in during the Kavanaugh fight, but I caught up. And, you know, look, you got to give PECA some love there, man. You know, the guy's been, you know, very highly talented for a very long time. Had some tough losses. And now, you know, and now I think maybe he's starting to come. around from I didn't get to watch the fight but from what I read like you know he actually took the

guy down some he's just wrestling got in some good ground and pound ended up finishing him you know we know we've been we've been big on him for a long time we know the sky's the limit for him his fight IQ I think or his ring generalship so to speak has kind of been his downfall it sounds like maybe he's starting to put it together now and when he puts together he's going to be a fucking problem. Yeah, I look forward to what he does next. I said, Pico's always been that guy. It's like, you know, he's going to get there. It's just win.

And, you know, he's 30 years old now. He's entering the prime his career. Yeah. He looked great. He looked great. Now it's the time. Like, there's no going back. You're 30. You can't, you know, you're not a young guy anymore. You're not 22 doing this. You're 30. So it's time for Pico. It feels like he's on his way to, you know,

where he wants to go, which is obviously becoming a champion. So overall, really, really good night of fights, really good day of fights. Prelims were great. Everything was was solid and yeah the daytime cards I'm a fan of the daytime cards I don't mind the daytime cards at all yeah it kind of depends on what the weather is outside

right that's true unfortunately Saturday was like beautiful weather and I was like man I kind of don't want to be inside right now for this but yeah you know look we live in Ohio bro we don't we only get you know 30 or so these days a year so yeah that's true try to enjoy while we get it

hockey fans start your morning with serious XM morning skate the weekday podcast covering all things hockey wherever you get your podcasts. Join me, Scott Lockwood, alongside my co-host, Gord, Stelick, and Tyler Matteras, as we break down the biggest stories, moments and debates from across the league, giving you the hockey news you need before your coffee cools, and the group chat blows up.

Sirius XM Morningscape, Last Night's Hockey, first, each weekday morning. That's true. Matt, before we get out of here, I got to talk about the other big news item of the weekend, which was the news that UFC 336 got in. announced for January, which we mentioned Joshua Van versus Manel Capp. But they also announced Carlos Prochus versus Michael Morales for an interim welterweight title.

And long story short, Islam Makachio was supposed to fight Carlos Prochess. He ultimately just turned it down and said he wanted to wait until after Ramadan to fight, which is, you know, starts in February, runs through March. Which, you know, that's nothing new. Obviously, Islam's never fought during Ramadan. But this fight was before Ramadan. And he put out a statement basically saying that like he just, you know, He just beat Ian Machado Gary who just beat Carlos Prochus, and he just wanted to, like, you know, shake things out and fight to the real number one contender.

Obviously, Prochus ripped him for, you know, turning down the fight and not fighting him. And obviously, they're introducing an interim title. They're not stripping Islam, but they're just introducing an interim title, which you know, my opinion on interim titles. Matt, what do you make of Islam's decision to basically turn down a fight and say, you know, he doesn't want to fight? Prochis, process needs to kind of prove himself against Morales. Like, I don't know. What do you make of that? Yeah, I was surprising to me that Islam did that.

I thought he would just take the fight and go. I didn't really think that he would get kind of into the, you know, the, I don't know, if you call it like the politics or whatever of, you know, who needs to beat who or whatever. But come on, man. Interim title. Like he just fought like, what, less than two months ago? Like, how long ago did he fight? August?

So, yeah, literally two months ago. Yeah, like two months ago. Like, come on, man. We don't need to do this. The interim title's not going to mean anything. I mean, it's an amazing fight, right? Morales, protest. I mean, we know it's, but you're knocking off a contender.

I'd rather see, I'd rather see Islam fight both of them. Maybe that's not what Islam wants to do. You know, I think he's kind of earned his keep there. And if that's what he wants to do, I think you say, okay, then, you know, you got to fight somebody. Like, who do you want to fight? You know? Yeah. But the last thing I like out of this is a fucking interim title.

Well, here's my thing. And, you know, I think you know very well my opinion on Islam, Makachia. I think he is the number one pound for pound fighter in a sport. And, I mean, he's just defied himself, you have two division champions, all these different things. But it's a terrible look. Like it or not, it's a terrible look when you openly saying you turn down the fight because you don't think he's deserving.

I mean, when you're a champion, the way I've always, I've always understood it. When you're a champion, you just take on the next best guy. And whether you like it or not, Prochus is the next best guy. And yeah, he lost Ian Gary, but he's also gone out there and picked up a couple of huge wins since. And I mean, he absolutely laid ways to Jack Delo and Madelena,

a guy you went five rounds with. So it's like, I just, like, Islam's legacy is set in stone. You know, he's a two-division champion. Most defenses in light, the headlight lightweight history. Now he's racking up welterweight title defenses. Like, no one's going to question his legacy, but at the same time it's like it's a bad look when you're openly saying I'm not injured I'm not hurt I'm not you know I don't have family issues there's nothing going on I just don't

want to fight this guy yeah that's a good point yeah it's not a not a great look I guess you know the counterpoint to that is like you know he is in a position uh being that he's done such great things and to our earlier point Islam is a guy who moved up and and won a title there you So we do got one. You know, I think I just I feel like he's earned that right. You know, I feel like he's earned that right to, and I wouldn't call it picking and choosing, you know, it'd be one thing if the, if he was like, you know,

I don't want to fight anybody for this amount of time or something. And again, this is where like I've talked about this many times. I've said this a thousand times. Like, I wish there was just some sort of standard. Like, the UFC just needs to make a standard. Look, if you don't defend for this long, we make an interim title. You know, I mean, because this happens in boxing all the time. You know, they're all like, you know, this guy needs to do this.

I'm going to fight this guy. I want to fight this guy. This is just standard combat sports stuff. When you get to that level, you know, you get a little bit more picky and choosy, as you should. So I'm not going to hate. on Islam being picky and choosy about this fight. But you got to fight somebody. And if you're ready to fight, you got to fight somebody.

Now, so if he said, I'm not sure exactly what he said. Maybe did he say, I'm coming back to fight in June? I'll be ready in July, you know, August, whatever. And they say, okay, then these two are going to fight and you're going to fight the winner in July. That's no reason to make it an interim title. Yeah. Yeah, I agree.

Yeah, the interim title. was dumb. There's no reason to make it. If Islam is injured, he's going to be out for a year, you don't want to strip the guy because it's Islam-Makatchev and he's earned the right to, you know, maybe he's a rare exception like that, sure. But he fought in August. He fought two months ago. Uh, January, I mean, January, like I said, that's not necessarily a quick turnaround, but like, it's not like, you know, it's like, you know, nine months later or anything. Like, if he fights in June or July, that's still well less than a year away. Like, what are we doing? Like, why are we injured? Like, I think they're doing, I honestly, I think they're doing it to kind of

punish Islam because Islam didn't take the I was going to ask that is that is that the UFC trying to punch Islam in the gut I think so like they're going to be like oh here's the new champion blah blah blah he's you know whatever and I think that's what they're doing there I think they're upset that he turned down the fight or he wasn't interested in the fight

yeah and you know what that's what it feels like here and that's what I think is probably our distaste for this in this particular situation right again we could talk all day about how we don't like interim titles and everything but particularly when a guy's like, look, I just don't want to fight this guy at this time.

You know, again, I don't know what the back behind the scenes conversation was, but if he's clear to them, look, I'm going to fight him March, April, June, July, whatever it is, then that's totally fair, right? Like, he's earned that right to be able to pick when he fights. So, you know, like I didn't like Dana being like, oh, he only fights once a year. So if you look back at the times that he's five, I think he's filed. I think he fought like twice in 20, 24. You know, it hasn't been just once a year.

And it's not uncommon for guys to fight once or twice a year now. There's a million people on the roster, you know? So ultimately, yeah, I don't like this entire situation. But what I do like, and I think what the UFC likes, is Morales versus Protest is a fucking hell of a fight. Like, this is an absolutely exciting fight. It just doesn't need to be for an interim title. Yeah, it's an incredible fight.

And, you know, weirdly, like, I don't have a problem with them fighting for, like, a number one contender spot or the winner moves on. I mean, like I said, it's not a good, to me, it's not a good look for Islam to literally come out and be like, nah, I just passed on the fight. I don't think that's ever a good look for a champion. I mean, like, I mean, look, like, every boxing champion has done that. Yeah. It's a, it's a very standard thing in boxing for guys to say who they want to fight or when they want to fight or give excuses for enough. and rarely, and especially in the case of Islam, like, you know, a lot of the fans are going to be like,

oh, he's scared of him or, you know, whatever. And it's like, it's like, that's not the case. Like, he's trying to maximize the end of his career here. Yeah, that, yeah, saying he's scared is ridiculous. That might be the dumbest thing you could possibly say. And like I said, I mean, he's, I understand to a certain extent, like, you know, protested, you know, lost to you and Gary. He went out beat Ian Gary.

I get it. And he wants to define a true number one content. And to a certain extent, I get it. because like if he fights process and Morales, you know, doesn't end up fighting anybody. We don't know where the hell Shavkat Rechmanoff is. It's like, okay, well, we got to have another contender. Maybe they just slot Morales in for the next title shot. Morales doesn't have to do anything else.

And it's like, well, is that really the way to go? Like, did Morales truly earn a title shot? Or is he just, like, kind of getting one, you know? So, I mean, listen, I don't really have. The protest in Morales is going to be freaking awesome. That's going to be a freaking phenomenal fight. I'm all for it. And with Shavkat missing an action, I don't know where he's at.

Like, you can't really depend on him to come back. and fight anybody. So, yeah, like, I get it when you say he's earned that right. Like, he is. Like, he's the number one guy in the world, number one pound for pound a fighter in the world. And he's not saying he's not going to fight either one of them. He's just saying, let them fight each other and I'll fight the winner when I'm ready to go

and, you know, June or whatever. And listen, I guess ultimately that's fine. But the interim title is dumb. We don't need that. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, and maybe it's not even a punch to the gut. You know, maybe the UFC's not trying to spite him in some way. Maybe they're just like, okay, you want to fight.

in June like we're just going to put an interim title in the meantime because we have a paramount contract and it requires so many title fights every year and you're only fighting once or twice a year so we need this many title fights you know you know so you know maybe we're just maybe we're just overthinking it a little bit and it's but I think we all agree like no one is interested in more interim titles I mean that's one of Dana's knocks on boxing all the time, right? There's too many titles and, you know, too many weight classes. And now, obviously, the UFC still has the same number of weight classes, but, you know, now we got the BMF title. We got an interim title in half the divisions. You know, the title fights aren't happening as

much as they need to. So, you know, it just kind of is what it is, man, but. And it's not like anyone's going to look. And the reality is no one's going to look at Prochus or Morales and say they are the real World Trade champion. No one's going to say that. right right i wish i almost wish they could have like a you know a a belt for number one contender like an intercontinental title like a w u.deme an intercontinental title yeah yeah something like that where it's like okay you get some kind of belt just to make it make it seem cool but but we know what's up here we know what the reality is yeah we do uh matt we got this weekend hanato wikano and tom no one back on the fight night trail and obviously we're getting closer to

Madison Square Garden. Two massive title fights for that card coming up in just a couple of weeks. Cyril Gone and Josh Hokit and Kayla Harrison, Amanda Nunes will have plenty of time to break that down. Matt, where else you got going on in life where people can check you out what you got going on outside the podcast. Oh, man, you know, I got the Instagram rolling along at I'm the Immortal. Somehow my Twitter has just been blowing up lately.

You know, I post not nearly as much as I need to, but, you know, I'm pushing like a million followers now most and that's uh that's uh that's going to be at i am the immortal also on x twitter x um they have got the facebook still going you know that's the immortal matt brown page on facebook um got the youtube channel now with uh the immortal podcast and yeah yeah so i'm doing the podcast now with josh thompson you know we're we're kind of collaborating on some podcast stuff. So be in front of this camera talking a fucking lot every week now. I love it.

I love it. Well, obviously, we were happy to be back. Sorry, we were away for a few weeks, but we were back for the attack. We will not miss another few weeks like this. We'll be back next week, of course. Obviously, appreciate it when the tunes in the podcast, make sure you check us out on all your favorite podcast platforms, Apple Podcast, Spotify, and, of course, over on the best website in the world, MMAfighting.com.

For Matt Brown, I am Damon Martin. We'll see you guys next week for another edition. of the fighter versus the rider. We appreciate everyone tuning in, and we'll see you then. Hockey fans, start your morning with Sirius XM Morningscape, the weekday podcast covering all things hockey, wherever you get your podcasts. Join me, Scott Lockwin,

alongside my co-host, Gord, Stelick, and Tyler Matteras, as we break down the biggest stories, moments and debates from across the league, giving you the hockey news you need before your coffee cools, and the group chat blows up. SiriusXM Morningscape, last night's hockey. First, each weekday morning.