MMA Fighting - Fighter vs. Writer: Matt Brown Reacts to Raoni Barcelos’ Medical Emergency and the Reality of the Dangers in MMA

Episode Date: September 29, 2026

On the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer, UFC legend Matt Brown and Damon Martin discuss the fallout from Raoni Barcelos’ terrifying knockout from this past weekend and Brown predicts that it’s far from the last time something like this could happen. We’ll also look at the heavyweight title picture and Josh Hokit getting a shot over fighters like Alexander Volkov and Alex Pereira. 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

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If you were someone you know is concerns about gambling, visit connectsontario.ca or call 1866-5-3-1-2,600. Terms and conditions apply. Welcome back to the fighter versus the writer. I am Damon Martin. He is UFC legend Matt Brown and Matt. Obviously, you are in a different location. And for people who don't know, you were in Vegas right now, headed out to Thailand.

Can you share with us your travel plans for the next week or so? Yeah, well, I'm in Vegas right now. I said, as I fought last night. Fortunately, it didn't go his way. It wasn't the best night. But then I'm headed to the airport in a couple hours to go to Thailand. Got my boy, Josh Pereira, fighting one FC. I hope we'll come back one in one at least.

You know, that's a, coming back O and two wouldn't be good. So got one more shot at it next week. So I know that coaching is like, you know, it's one of those positions where, you know, not everyone's going to win, not everyone's going to lose. Can I ask what you thought of the fight with Josiah last night? Yeah, you know, Josiah, look, I mean, he has as much talent as anybody you've ever seen.

he kind of reminded me a little bit like a gable stevesant. I think maybe he was a little laxadaisical. Maybe he didn't get fired up enough. You know, things come a little bit easy for guys with that much talent and athletic potential. So, you know, and I'll talk with him about this. I mean, I don't want to make, you know, a ton of shit public like that, you know, be putting out all our business out there. Yeah, you know, it's disappointing.

You know, I think he's at this point for him just that, you know, he didn't live up to his abilities, you know. and I think that's what hurts the most. You know, fortunately, he's healthy and no major injuries or anything. You know, he's good and he'll be back, you know, whether that's in the UFC, which hopefully they'll give him one more shot or, you know, I'll have to work his way back to it. You know, he's going to be back one way another, though I'm confident in that.

I mean, you see the potential. I saw it in the Jacoby Smith fight too. It's like, I see the potential. It's just sometimes things don't go your way. sometimes it doesn't go your way. Yeah, and that's, you know, there's one thing to have potential and there's other thing the second is executing on that potential.

And so far he has not executed on that potential in the UFC. And I think a lot of that is like, you know, he fought very good guys outside of the UFC, right? And, but he was able to, I wouldn't say cruise through, but he was able to, like, work through without kind of you know

maybe without putting everything of his heart and soul into it right UFC's just different man we've said that a million times we talk about you guys coming from other organizations and it's just different man you got to be a hungry young lion you know those guys are out for blood man

people are willing to die in that motherfucker and they're going to give every ounce of their soul in there and you know if you're not doing that then you're going to be left behind you know and yeah you know it's disappointing and you know I think if this guy with all due respect that was better if they were training in the gym I don't think Josiah would even have a break a sweat with them you know but under those lights is a different fucking world and that's where you know

Josiah's got to put it together as under the lights yeah I assume like after his fight you probably led but I assume you heard or probably heard through the grave I would have with the main event obviously with Roe Rosas and Roney Barsallis with that scary knockout, the medical emergency, all that, I don't know how much, were you around? I assume you were gone by then. Yeah, we were already gone back in the hotel,

but yeah, did they ever figure out what happened to him? We never heard what happened. I've seen the clips of the highlight and everything and, you know, got some medical updates on Twitter and stuff, but did they ever hear what happened? No, all I heard was he's okay. All I

heard was he's okay. Like, medically he's okay. He's not like an emergency situation or anything But that's scary, I mean, because I didn't watch it live. I was, I'll be honest, I watched BKFC yesterday because I wanted to watch Darren Till and Roald Romero And I watched the first like half I watched up to Josiah's fight because that's your boy. Of course, I'm going to watch a boy.

So I watched that and after that fight, I turned to you, I turned the channel. I was like, I'm just going to watch something else. I don't have to watch. I wasn't on UFC coverage last night. So I was like, I'm going to turn the channel. And then I heard about it on Twitter and I was like, oh crap. And so I watched the replays.

And I was like, This is bizarre. Now, again, what I've heard is he's fine, which is great news, but I have no idea what happened. But it's scary when something like that happens. He's 39, so he's an older guy. I don't know. It's just, you know, obviously a medical emergency. Kind of like, remember when was it Macy Barber when she passed out backstage and there's like what happened?

And she's just like, you know, fainted or whatever. Kind of the same kind of thing. I don't know if we're ever going to get an answer, but it seems like he's okay, which is the most important part. You know, when I first heard about, I thought to myself, I mean, we heard a bunch of different rumors, right? Like you had a heart attack or a stroke, aneurys, a seizure, all these different things, right? You never know, until you know.

And the first thing I thought was meant this is the UFC's worst nightmare, right? Because we know it's going to happen at some point. Someone's going to die in there. Someone's going to get, you know, seriously life-changing injury in there. It's absolutely amazing that it hasn't happened up to this point, right? And that was the first thing across. This is the UFC's worst nightmare. And it finally happened.

And it sounds like it didn't, though, right? And you got to give credit or credit to do. You got to get pops to UFC for their medical team. You know, the medicals that they require before the fights. And, you know, they've worked with the commissions for a long time. You know, I'd like to give some credits to the athletic commissions. But realistically, the athletic commissions are the UFC, right? And, you know, but again, you know, Dr. Davidson is a hell of a great doctor.

And we'll call him Dr. D, you know, works for the UFC. You know, these guys, they've been on top of it, man. You got to give credit where credits do there. You know, they haven't had any serious life-changing injuries that I know of, no deaths. And it's been, what, you know, more than 30 years now. Yeah, I mean, it's scary, though. You know what I mean? Like, something like that happens when you just don't know.

But thankfully he's okay, it sounds like, and he's going to be out of the hospital or whatever. but yeah, a scary situation. And like you said, you don't ever want to be that morbid and be like, you know, it's going to happen, but it's going to happen. I mean, you know, we've seen it in boxing, you've seen it in football, we've seen another sport. Like, whether it's, I'm not saying like, you know, full on, like, I don't think, no necessarily see life or death,

but like those serious injury situations, like, like in football, I remember the first time I watched a guy when he, when he broke his neck. It was basically like, you know, paralyzed, like on the field. Like, that's freaking terrifying. It's going to happen. You're absolutely right. It's going to happen at some point. But thankfully, so far, it hasn't.

So, you know, I'm glad I'm glad Roney Varselaus is okay. But a very scary situation, you see you got to go down like that and not get up. Yeah, absolutely. And one of the things that I heard was that it was aneurism. Again, hearsay, who knows what's true and what's not? And I don't know. Mickey didn't really put out his medical condition that put him out of the fight over the weekend.

And it was a brain aneurism. So I thought that was a that's kind of unique a guy couldn't fight because of a brain aneurysm and a guy that ended up fighting actually having a brain aneurysm if that's the case. Yeah, and again, I don't know if Mickey, I don't think he even announced that or anything, you know, but fortunately, again, this goes back to the medical crew of UFC, right? Like, you know, he had a, it's not even a serious thing. It's something they've been monitoring for a long time. and just finally kind of crept up on him. It's going to be a simple procedure, something he'll come back from.

But they're like, no, you're not fighting. You have something wrong with your brain. So, again, more credits, where credits do. Absolutely, absolutely. Now, I mentioned you, of course, you're going to be going to be going to Thailand for your fighter in one championship. So we're going to be off the air.

No podcast next week, which is totally fine. We'll be off for a week. We talked about a lot of stuff last week on the show, but one thing we didn't really get to get into when you talked about all the matchmaking and all the announcements the UFC made. was the heavyweight title situation finally kind of, I guess, getting fixed, I mean, Tom Aspinall, you know, giving up the title. And now we're going to get Cyril gone and Josh Okut, which is going to be interesting.

I want to talk about that in the second. I'm curious, Matt, I remember, you know, when you had your back, I always bring this up, and I hate bringing it up. But I always remember when you had your back injury going into that Carlos Condent fight. It was like one of the most anticipated fights of all time, and you hurt your back. And you went to rest of your career and you never, your back was always, I mean, I, I, I always remember. I'm not, I don't think I'm telling any secrets here. Your back was never 100% after that. You always have back issues.

I'm curious with Tom giving up the title and basically saying like, I got injured again in training and my eyes still messed up, do you think we'll ever see Tom Aspenol again or do you think we'll ever see the same Tom Aspinall again? I wish I hadn't answered. I have no clue. I don't, you know, I don't know shit about eyes. I mean, I wouldn't bless, man.

You know, I thought about that the other day. I never got eye-poked once in my career. Crazy. 50-60 fights. I don't know how many fights I had. You know, 30-something UFC, however many outside the UFC, close to 50, I think, a total. Never got eye-poked once. So, you know, I really don't know a ton about the eyes.

I can't stay much on it. I mean, I know Biss being fought with one eye, right? So, you know, is Tom going to pull out another British move and fight with one eye? You know, I don't know, man. I think that's just a hard prediction to make, right? You know, is Tom willing to come back with one eye if that ends up being the case, right? Is, you know, there's also all the kind of political side of this too, right? The drama between, you know, with Tom signing with Eddie Hearn and, you know,

we see all the no love loss between Eddie and Dana, right? And, you know, Tom has had his frustrations with the UFC and his treatment and things. you know, so I think there's more to the puzzle than just is he going to get healthy. And that just opens the door to even more possibility. So, you know, I truly have no fucking clue and no prediction. It sucks because Tom was like right on the cusp of becoming the guy. You know, like after the whole John Jones debacle. And weirdly, I think John Jones not fighting him made Tom a bigger name, a bigger fighter.

Because people were like, oh, John Jones is avoiding Tom Asper. he doesn't want to fight Tom Aspinall, which I don't ever think was really truly the case, but that's what it looks. Visuals matter. And I think Tom was on the cusp of becoming, like, a name, a big name. You know what I mean?

Like, you know how it is with heavy weights. Like, we always had this weird, morbid fascination with heavyweights. You know what I mean? Like, that's always been throughout history. And Tom had a chance, like, with the first Cyril Gunfight before he got eye poked. But he had a chance to become the guy, the guy. Like, he would have been a man

because John's gone. Heavyweight needed a champion. He looked unbeatable. And now, I mean, it's so crazy, like, two years later, like, he's not even into the picture anymore because of the eye injury. And we're going to have a new champion. Well, we already have a new champion. It's still gone. But, like, we're going to have a new undisputed champion here in a couple weeks

or whatever is November whenever the fight is. But inside, like, you got to feel for the guy, man. Like, talk about, like, I just think about that. Like, how, like, because when the John Jones fight wasn't happening, I would say the public narrative kind of shifted to like where they're supporting Tom,

where it's like, oh, Tom, you're the boogeyman. John Jones doesn't want to fight you. He doesn't want to, and now his career could be over. I mean, we don't know that for sure. I certainly don't want to put that out in the air and say he's done, but there's a world where he doesn't fight again. Man, you got to feel for a guy like that. Absolutely. And that's a great point to bring up to

because, like you said, right on the cusp. And look, every every superstar needs a rival, right? And Tom and John were building it up to be that rival. Who knows, unless John went and smashed him on the first fight, or if Tom smashed John and then he just ended up retiring, that was set up to be, you know, trilogy-style rivalry, right? And the heavyweight rivalry is going to be the biggest selling thing

you could possibly ask for in the sport. Like you said, he was right on the country. cusp of all these things. And, you know, it's unfortunate, you know, the fucking eye pokes, man. You know, fucking I poaks, you know. And you would think, you know, the UFC would be thinking what we're thinking right here. And like, we've got to fix this fucking eye poke shit. I'm not sure what's going on in their heads with not trying to fix it, you know.

I mean, between the gloves, but I still, I still put a lot of responsibility on the referees. Like, not to say you could control, you know. I think the referees need to do a better. job of actually penalizing and, you know, I've heard, now, I'll give credit or credit to do, I've heard it a lot more recently where guys are like, close your fist, close your fist, you know, put your fingers away. I've heard a lot more recently, but

still, you know, it happens. And then when it does happen, and listen, I'm not saying serial guns should have been disqualified or, you know, yeah, but like you've got to penalize people. Like that, how, like, that's just the reality of it. Like, if you tell the guy, you're going to get, if you tell the guy, hey, put your

finger, you know, put your fingers away, put your fingers away, He doesn't and you say, okay, point deduction. Now, you've just cost him in a three-round fight, you pretty much cost him the fight or basically told him you have to get a finish or you're not going to win this fight. But they don't do that. They just say, oh, stop the fight, warn, warn, warn, warn.

And listen, I get it. Like, I don't think, I personally don't think Cyril Gahn is just a dirty fighter, but his technique causes his eyepokes and he doesn't really get punished. I mean, if you think about it, like, what, like, what is Cyril Gond lost? by eye poking Tom Aspinol.

Yeah, no, I mean, gained a championship off of it. And I've been in the UFC where I was in the UCC for a very long time. And, you know, the reps always come backstage and they tell you, you know, what the different rules are. They go over a few different things where the back of the head is. And I'd say for the longest time, I never heard anything. They never say anything about eye poax. Let's say in the last few years,

that's been a consistent thing that they bring up in that backstage talk with you. And they, you can feel the vibe that the refs are given off that they are taking it more seriously. You haven't necessarily seen that play out in the ring yet or Octagon yet. But you can, like the vibe that they're given off when they're discussing it with the fighters, they're like, look, if you're even pointing your fingers towards his face, you're getting a warning. And again, we haven't necessarily seen that play out in the action. but it does appear from behind the scenes. They are taking it more seriously.

And, you know, again, you can feel their vibe. You can feel them saying, you know, like, they're looking at you right now. I'm like, I will deduct points in this type of stuff. And again, we haven't necessarily seen a play out as unfortunate. But it seems like it's evolving more towards that. Yeah, I mean, listen, there's never going to be 100% fixed, but just like with the gloves.

It's like, why haven't we fixed the gloves? Why? Why is that still an issue? Why is this still an issue? I mean, I don't know why we can't do both. Fix the gloves and deduct points of the first foul. You know, they're not mutually exclusive fighting means, right? Like, do both of them. But, you know, when, like I'm going over to one weekend, and I was just thinking about this. I was like, you know, I watch one pretty regularly, like the Little Lepmoit Thai, the Mesa.

You never really see it over there. And they're only allowed striking. Yeah. And that their gloves aren't significantly different than the UFC's. So, you know, that, you know, I'm not suggesting anything by that, but I just found that an interesting, you know, observation. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you don't see, I mean, when the last time you saw an eye poke in like BKFC,

I'm trying to think, like, they wear their gloves and they're just punching. Like, why? You know what I mean? It's weird. We see it all the time in the UFC, but never, like, I'm trying to remember like BKFC. Like I watch BKFC all the time. I'm like, I don't remember the last time I remember an eye poke. Yeah, that's a good point too.

Yeah, BKFC one, PFL. This is a, it's like a UFC specific problem. And it seems, you know, again, I don't want to suggest too much here, but it seems to kind of be a few guys that it happens more often. It happens with a lot of guys. Don't get me wrong. And again, you know, I don't, I don't. things happen, right, nut shots,

eye posts, you know, they're going to happen. But it does seem to be more common with certain guys than others. I'm not saying they're doing it intentionally. Just stylistically, you know, being a, you know, having a straight arm defense and is going to cater towards that. But, you know, it's just an observation. You know, make what's one of it, folks, listening.

Yeah. Now, I got to ask them that because we know now it's going to be, obviously we've talked about you know it's going to be Kayla Harrison and Amanda Nunes which is a great fight by the way and then the main event of that card is going to be Cyril Gond versus Josh Hockis for the undisputed heavyweight title

now Cyril Gond is the heavyweight champion Dana White said I misspoke he is just elevating him from interim to undisputed that's fine did the U.S. do you make the right choice given Hocke this opportunity because I think we all know like Dana Dana openly said he doesn't

like Josh Hoket I personally like I said, I don't mind. I like personalities. I love personalities in a sport, but like, Hoke, it's just, I don't know,

man, it's hard to swallow. He's just like, it's like, it's like, it's like not funny Colby Covington. Like, you know what I mean?

Like, it's just like, I'm just, I'm just, you gotta have the guys that you don't like to, right? You got to have that.

That's what makes it all the more interesting is that, you know, people like you or Dana, like you guys don't fucking like them. And he's playing right into that. He's doing shit specifically so that,

certain people do not like him and it's working so you know i i think it's a good thing for the sport as long as he doesn't you know like connor went too far right over time he evolved into you know it became less original there wasn't you know you got to one-up yourself all the time right and as he won up himself it got too far right and you know a lot of people would argue that he started across the line when he talked about michel obama right and you know so if he keeps going down that line, right? Then it might start really actually turning people off. But right now, again, he's kind of at that threshold where it's like it's pissing

us off, but he's not really hurting anything. Yeah, I mean, it's not. Yeah, it's not really. It's just like some people are annoyed by it, but we're watching and that's what's important. But in terms of the heavyweight title, you know, I don't like elevating surreal gone to it. It seems very anticlimactic.

whatever it is what it is though right what do you do I mean because you argue that like I know I know you we've had this discussion before Matt I believe I'm I'm with you the UFC's not sitting our rooting for one guy to win over another or we want this outcome but is it better for the UFC if Josh Hokka wins because he does kind of give you give you a clean slate because like he's undefeated I mean he did have I mean that fight with curse blaze it was just amazing that was just an incredible back-and-worth battle I love that fight But you don't have that baggage. Like with Cyril, you're going to have that baggage of like, you're going to have the baggage of Tom Aspinall, the iPogue. You're going to have a baggage of he got absolutely mauled and destroyed by John Jones.

And on top of that, the whole Pereira, Alex Pereira, you know, shots the back of the head. Whether you agree or not, it's a big, I mean, Herb Dean's, like, let's one, that's Herb Dean now, he just gets massively booed. And I'm telling you, 90% of that is Alex, Alex Pereer. So is it better? Like, is it better for Hokka? Because, like, if Hokka wins, as bizarre as it sounds, he actually gives the UFC a clean slate at heavyweight. Because we haven't had a clean slate at heavyweight since, like, what?

Like, like, Steve A being champion or something? Like, you know, I'm not saying they're, I honestly don't think they're rooting for it. But I'm just saying, like, is it better if Hokka, if it's controversial as Hokka is, is it better if he becomes champion? Because then you can do Hokkaid versus Perey. there's obviously bad blood there you can do so like is it as bizarre as this sounds

is a Josh Hocke and heavyweight title better for the UFC I'll tell you my two cents on that is they don't get a shit either way probably like I think you're probably over analyzing it to be honest I think they're like

this is a fight to make it to win win if surreal gone wins yeah it comes with some baggage but they can market whatever the fuck they want, right? And, you know, he'll be able to sell out an arena over in France or UK or some shit, somewhere in Europe with Spril gone, still a win for him. You know, being he beat Alex Pereira. Look, all the controversy just gives people talking more, right? So I don't think that really bothers them too much. You have all the baggage you want. You're just talking

more about it, right? It gives us more talking points for podcasts, right? So, you know, I think it's a win-win for them one way or another. my only kind of argument against the whole thing or my issue with the whole thing is, you know, I think Volkov probably deserves it more, you know? I think he's probably the deserving guy to be getting a title shot right now over Hokit. And I think Hokit is getting it based off his mouth and based off his antics. And fair enough, fair game, right?

It's entertainment, not sport. don't forget that and you know deserve is not a word to be tossed around in this shit earned is all bullshit right so you know we understand that i understand why they do it um like said there's a lot of fights to make either way though i think right hans perera can fight either one of those guys and it's a big fight right he's still out there um volkov you know it probably isn't as big of a fight but he's a you know a good guy for either of those guys to fight might even come in and beat them. You know, there's fights to be made, right? And so, yeah.

That's a great point because Volga... I don't Volkov be gone. Like, that was the one to Negat. That decision still bugs me that he lost to have still gone. Right. And I agree. That's a very good point. Volkov is kind of like the odd man out, which really does suck because he's on a good

win streak. He's actually looked better than ever. And he's getting passed over because they know, it's going to sell the fight. And that's the reality. Like, Hokit, I'm not knocking Hokka as a fighter. I mean, he's whatever. He has 10-0, and he has, like, you know, the one win over Curtis Blaze, which is

the top 10 win, which is a good win. Curtis is a great fighter. But, like, they're doing this. They're doing this because they know Hokka's going to sell the fight because Cyril Gan doesn't sell fights. I mean, you're not saying, like, if people don't like Cyril Gaon, I'm just saying, like, he's French, he doesn't speak English very well. He's not going to say crazy.

He's never, he's never trash talk anybody that I can remember. I think the most trash. talk we ever heard out was responding to Tom calling him a dirty fighter. Right. But, but, but, but Hocke's going to sell. I mean, Hocke is going to get some, he's going to go crazy. You know this. As soon as they do their first press cards, you know it's going to go wild.

And that's what you always talk about with like entertainment versus sport. If this is a sport, it would be Cyril Gahn versus Alexander Volkov for the title rematch, a fight that I thought Alexander Volkov won. But because they need to sell, because they want people to tune in, because they want people to watch on Paramount Plus. Josh Hogan's getting the shot, and he's going to sell. Well, if it's a sport, I mean, just surreal God even have the title, right? Like, you don't win the title off of disqualification, especially in the first round, right?

So, you know, we could go deep down that round of all, but, you know, with that I said, look, we were talking, what, maybe five, six months ago about what's it even going to fucking do, right? Like, is it fucked? And here we are. And I said it back then and said, look, the UFC finds a way. There's always fights to make. They know how to build stars.

They know how to build fights. They are the masters. And here we are. Now we're talking about there are a lot of different options for both these guys. And it's pretty, it's suddenly within a few months, the UFC heavyweight division has some life in it. Yeah. Real quick before we get out of here, Matt, we haven't talked about it.

I got to bring it up. We doesn't want to use your opinion. Have you looked at UFC 3? It was a 322 or whatever hell of a paper. be a card this weekend. It's literally just weekend in Utah. Have you seen that card? Yeah, unfortunately, I have, yeah.

Okay, so let me add. I think I'm looking and looked away. Yeah. So it's obviously we know it's Natalia Silver versus Wang Kong for the women's flyweight title with Valentina Shepchenko injured now. Co-mainte event, Devison Figuero, Peyton Talbot, King Green against Estevan Rivovich,

Roberto Soldich. That's a good pickup for the O.C. get free as your pickup. Chaos Williams. A Teba Gautier versus Roman Coppulov, which isn't a bad fight. The prelims, trying to figure out there's like anyone there.

Damien Pinos is fighting. He's always good for a knockout. Marcus McGee, who's fun to watch. Anthony Wint, who made some nit noise on the Contender series. Johnny Walker's on the prelims. Hoffield de Sanyos is on the early prelims, which is kind of bizarre. Yeah.

Is this the worst pay-per-view? It's not a pay-per-view. There's no more pay-per-views, but the numbered cards, whatever you want to call them. Is this the worst card the UFC's ever put together

and try to tell you it's a pay-per-view or try to tell you it's a marquee event? There's a good argument for it, I would say. Yeah. And look, I kind of go off of what Dana says. Like, if you don't like it, don't talk to watch it.

And a lot of times, these are the types of cards that perform, you know, in terms of action, right? There's actually a lot of really good fights on that card, some names that are going to bring a lot of action. But when you talk about numbered cards, you say, marquee events, not pay-per-views anymore,

I don't know how you try to sell this is that, right? I don't know what, you know, I don't know what the conversation was, sitting down in the board meeting and talking about putting this together. And it's like, yeah, bro, that's a numbered card, you know, let's do it. you know, especially with the main event. I mean, it's not, you know, there's nothing to write home about, man, unfortunately. And I just, again, I don't really know what the UFC's going for with that. You know, if they're just trying to fulfill obligations with it, maybe,

or if it's, you know, if they actually think this is a sellable thing, if you try to build stars with Natalie and Wang or whatever, I just, I don't really know what the gameplay and strategy is with this. Like we always do. we will probably be watching and we will probably enjoy and here's the day in his whole like you know if you don't like it don't watch

it kind of thing listen in reality it's not that it's not that cards can't turn out to be great and have some great action great knockouts but you have to give people a reason to tune in first place right like it's not just like oh my God that car was amazing after it's over great after it's over but why would you wash if you look at you're like

my god who are these people and why am I why am I spending my Saturday night watching this versus, you know, I don't know, going to movies or hang out with my kids or whatever. I understand Dana's point of like let the fights happen before you judge them, but if there's just no name value or any or any value to the card, why are you watching? I mean, like, what is your incentive to tune in on a Saturday night and watch it? Now, like I said, thankfully this is on Paramount Plus and it's not going to cost you anything extra to watch like a pay-per-view, which good Lord, they're trying to charge, if they try to charge

$80 for this card, that would be a revolt in the EOC community. community, but, like, like, because the next two cards are actually really good. Like, you look at, you know, you look at the fights in Abu Dhabi they're going to be doing. That's a really good car with, you know, a couple of title fights. Obviously, in November, we got, you know, the Cyril gone, heavyweight title fight, and the finally abandoning this coming back, things like that. But, like, this is one of those cars were just like, why exactly are we doing this? Yeah.

Yeah, I agree. And, you know, maybe I've kind of had a little theory that, like, what the UFC is doing is trying to, you know, keep that narrative strong that like every fight card can be a great fight card. So watch all of them. Don't miss any. I don't, you know, that might be some stupid conspiracy thing that I'm coming up with on top of my head. But, you know, it would make sense that they would try to push towards that, right? where they don't have, it doesn't have to be a marquee name every time.

It doesn't have to be recognizable people and they can just pump out cards. And especially, you know, if his card ends up performing and have a bunch of knockouts and a bunch of exciting fights, then they can continue pushing that narrative. And then I think that does good for them in the long run, right? It doesn't have to be a name. It's UFC and we have the baddest motherfuckers and we put on the best fights. Yeah, I agree. I agree.

Well, you know, we'll see. I guess, you know, I mean, like I said, it's my job, so I'm going to watch, but like my enthusiasm to watch Natalia Silva and Wang Kong is about as low as I could remember for like a main event in a long time. I'm like, oh, boy, I'm really, really excited. I mean, you know, my opinion on women's in May right now anyways. But, yeah, so you're going to be one championship. Well, yeah, I'll be, yeah, I'll be cornering the guys. So we're going to be pretty busy at that moment in time. And I'm not going to be watching it backstage, you know.

I'm not going to be, but I got to see this, you know, but after his fight, you know, you know, he's not going to be like, bro, let's make sure we don't miss that fight, right? If that's Connor McGreg or fighting, you know, after the fight, he'd be like, hey, bro, let's check all the fighter or what happened with the fight. There's not going to be a single person asking or talking about it. Yeah. How is Josh looking ahead of his third fight and won? Very good.

I'm very excited to watch this. He's got the toughest test that he's had to date. you know he's coming off a big great knockout win this should this one you know i'll go ahead and say my uh this grumb is one i've seen here you know he got a spinning fist knockout in like 30 seconds maybe a minute something like that didn't get a fucking bonus for five a night they gave it to some guy who got decision and then last week i just seen there talking about knockouts of the year and he's on the fucking knockout of the year list.

I'm like, where's the bonus motherfucker? Come on, Chachry. Yeah, seriously. Because I remember, because I felt so bad for him in his first fight, he blew out his knee. And then his second ride, he scores his, like, spectacular knockout. I'm like, whoa, that's a hell of a way to make your second appearance in one championship. You know what I mean? Yeah, and did not get a fucking bonus.

And somebody had a decision got a bonus. I was like, and it wasn't even, like, you know, wasn't a spectacular. decision, you know, where it was like back and forth war or some shit. It was like, it was a really good fight. You know, it wasn't... Yeah. It wasn't a shitty fight by any means.

But it wasn't a fucking one minute. Knock on Chhatry. Let's go, bro. You got money. Come on. Let's get the bonuses right here. All right. Well, Matt, obviously, you're going to be gone next week.

You're in Thailand. So we're going to, obviously, as I mentioned, we're not going to be doing this show next week. When you come back, I'm sure we'll have plenty to talk about coming off of whatever happens this weekend with the UFC and I'll just a couple more cards from there. Hopefully your guy Josh gets the knockout. People want to check you out, follow along.

People want to follow along with Josh's fight. What can they do for this weekend? Yeah, I had I. I'm immortal Instagram and Twitter. The Immortal by Brown Facebook and the Immortal Podcast. And as always, there you go. And as always, we appreciate everyone tuning in. Make sure you check us out all your favorite podcast platforms, Apple Podcast, Spotify.

And of course, over on the best website in the world, mampfighting.com. For Matt Brown, I am Damon Martin. We'll see you guys in a couple weeks for the new edition of the Fighter versus the Rider. Thanks so much for tuning in, and we'll see you then.