MMA Fighting - Fighter vs. Writer: UFC 297 Reaction with Alan Jouban Talking Sean Strickland vs. Dricus du Plessis Scores, The Problems Plaguing Women’s Bantamweight

Episode Date: January 23, 2024

The Fighter vs. The Writer returns as we react to the fallout from UFC 297 with Alan Jouban joining MMA Fighting senior reporter Damon Martin on the latest episode. We’ll discuss the main event fight where Dricus du Plessis dethroned Sean Strickland in a razor-close split decision in the main event. The scorecards were close but did the judges get it right? Plus, how should the judges be informed about accidental fouls like the clash of heads that actually caused the gruesome cut suffered by Strickland midway through the fight? We’ll also talk about Raquel Pennington winning the vacant women’s bantamweight title and the bigger problems facing that division in 2024 and beyond. A few years ago, the women’s bantamweight division was a marquee weight class but with Amanda Nunes and Ronda Rousey gone, the stars have disappeared and it doesn’t look like there are any prospects on the rise. We’ll also discuss some possible fights for UFC 300 and how we need to handle our expectations for that historic card. All that 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

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

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Betterment is full of ideas to help you reach your goals without having to babysit your investments. They help their customers invest so that they can go live their lives. Go to betterment.com to learn more. Investing involves risk, performance not guaranteed. Network. Versus the writer. I'm Damon Martin. I am very happy to be joining this post-UFC 297 world by one of my favorite co-hosts

on the show. He is one of the top analysts for the UFC. And of course, former fighter in his own right. I'm always happy to speak to Alan Joe Ban. Alan, how are you? I'm doing good, brother. I was out of town for the weekend.

Sun had a soccer tournament in Texas, but I was up late on my phone in the dark while they were sleeping, watching these fights, man. You know, you had the, it was one that obviously, you know, want to miss any fights, but the back and forth that led up with Drixie Duplacie and Sean Shrickeling, and then they became kind of brotherly friends during fight week, which is kind of odd surprise, but that fight itself was one that it was a couldn't miss for most MMA fans. So I thought he delivered as well, man.

It was a fun night of fights. Yeah, we're going to get into everything on the show today, you know, obviously breaking down everything to happen to UFC 2997, but I wanted to ask you, like, how great, like, is it kind of wild? And you, again, you're around the sport a lot beyond just. just like me as media. Like you're around the fighters, you're around, you know, obviously going to a lot of the UFC events covering the UFC events being an analyst.

Is it wild how much of a star it seems like Sean Strickland has turned into in the last like year or so? Like six months ago, I did a podcast with Matt Brown and I said there, he has, I basically said he had no chance to beat Israel out of Sanya. Like I just said there's no chance. Like it's just not going to happen. He goes out there and does it. And the transformation of Sean Strickland basically being a guy that no one believed could

become champion. To where we are now five, six months later to where he is legitimately, it is wild to see the transformation he's undergone. You know what it is? And I agree. It's the same thing a lot of people saw. A lot of people, including myself, didn't think that Sean had a chance. Now, I was one of the few guys, though, that, you know, because I've trained with Sean. And everybody that trains with Sean kind of has this insider information that, like, the guy is really good.

And he's very awkwardly effective. And so everybody that is trained with it. I think Chris Curtis had a lot of. of interviews leading up to and leading or following that fight where Chris, because Chris is the guy, obviously we know, trained with Sean Tricklin a bunch. You have a lot of friendships and then they'll kind of throw each other under the bus, but they have punched each other in the face, probably more than any two sparring partners when it comes to Sean Strickland. So he was one of the guys kind of leading the charge on saying, listen, you guys don't understand. Sean is deceptively good. I know he kind of

has his style where he's very upright. He kind of keeps his jab hand low. He kind of has that Philly. Shell style, and it looks like he's almost just sparring, but it's very effective and very tough. And immediately, I was always commenting on Chris Curtis's stuff before and after the fight, saying I'm in a total agreeance because every time that I sparred and I train with Sean Tricklin, he gave me hell. He gave me hell.

He was by far at Black House and Black House, when I was at Black House and Kevin Casey and Brian Ortega, Pedro Munoz, all these guys in UFC, we're all training with each other. He was the toughest guy in the gym. He was the toughest guy in the gym. he would go with the heavy weights, the light heavy weights, etc, etc. And at the time, he was still in my weight class. He was a walterweight, but he would balloon up to 210 pounds. He's six foot one. He's got this long, rangy jab that he could snap it out there like a piston.

And he's just this awkwardly effective guy. And I was preaching this for years and years saying, Sean is a killer in the gym. He just hasn't shown the world what his ceiling is yet. But I guarantee you, like his floor is higher than people realize. Like he's very, very, very good. Obviously, with the Israel out of Sanya fight, it's just, we thought Israel out of Sama was going to be too good, too long, too fast, too rangey, and too technically sound for Sean's style to work, but he shocked the world. And although I didn't think that that would happen, I definitely gave him a chance, a chance in there. But to go back to what you said, Damon, when he shocked the world like that, it's like his star power rose. And obviously,

you become a champion, then yeah, you get more followers, et cetera. But the world saw this guy that was much more relatable than some of these other guys. This guy that just calls himself like an average dude. He didn't want to be a superstar. He wanted to be this average dude that it had kind of a troubled pass that worked his ass off and made it. And his, his, his, his, his, uh, his brand, his style, his, uh, what's the word I'm looking for? Like his credibility, his, his, um, whatever. His following, it just went up, man, because his relatability. And I think so it skyrocketed.

And it took me by surprise because at the time going into that fight, you know, aside from John Jones and maybe Akana McGregor, Israel out of Sonia to me was the biggest star in the sport. Everything that he's been doing, the title run that he was on and his following alone, he was kind of the biggest thing that the UFC had up until that point. Yeah, it's wild. It's so wild. And then coming to this one, you know, we all knew how ugly things had gotten

you know, in a couple months, you know, going back to that press conference in December, the fight in the crowd, very public comments. And then the week before the fight, Sean's saying, you know, you say anything about my childhood, I'm going to stab you. And it got pretty wild. And then we see that embedded video show up. And, you know, Sean walks over, Drake has walks over his girlfriend. He's like, hey, I'm Sean, nice to meet you.

It's like the most cordial, like, you know, best of luck kind of situation. And then they were very cordial to the press comments. Like they put bad blood behind them. It was all good. And then they went out there and had a pretty. incredible five-round fight. It was a battle throughout, very close, you know, very, very close contest. On the night of the fight, when it was over, I scored it three rounds to two for Sean Strickland. Now, I said on Twitter, and I'll say it again now. Very close fight. I don't

have a problem with Dracus Duplice winning that fight. We're talking about one round of difference. And really, I think rounds two and three were so close that you can't sit here and say anything is a robbery. I thought round one and five were pretty clearly for Sean. Round four was pretty clearly for Dracus. Round two and three were both toss-ups. I said 48, 47 is the correct score whether you had it for Sean or you had it for

Dracus. I don't think it's a robbery either way. How did you see it watching it when you saw it on Saturday night? I saw it the same way. I saw three rounds or two, but I was leaning the other way. I was leaning in favor of Dracus. And a lot of that was really,

influenced by the, not only the cut, which happened before the fifth round, but like, you know, I'm in agreeance with you. I had it pretty even, I think, going into the fifth round. The fifth round,

I do believe I gave it to Drichis, where you said you gave it to Sean. But the reason for that was because of just the pressure that Dracus applied, right? Drichus was pressuring forward, landing takedowns, not necessarily doing a tremendous amount of damage,

but he was still kind of like, It separates the two. Sean was out striking him, but again, I hate how we always bring up the damage thing, but I just have to remind everyone, yes, damage overcomes punches. So this is exactly the example that they gave us during these meetings. Ten jabs is not as effective as one punch. And that's kind of the story of the fifth round. Sean Strickland was outlandingham, but they were jab.

They were jab, jab, jab, jab. They weren't fight inning. They were doing a little of swelling to the face, but they were jabbing him. Rodriguez would land one powerful shot, and then he would get a takedown. So that's what we would kind of separate the back and forth to me was the power of it, the aggressiveness. But again, I would not have had a problem at all. If they would have called Sean's name and still, because it was such a close fight and such a closely contested fight back and forth. And then again, the way that they ended it, the way that they kind of had that Max Holloway moment where the guys kind of say, let's just throw down, make it ugly, whoever lands lands.

It kind of solidified that. They look, both of these guys are having little momentum shifts. but the last 10 to 30 seconds of the fight, it was pretty equal. Both guys were landing at will or landing an equal amount of shots. So when it was all said and done, I sat back and I go,

this was close. This was very close, but was more memorable to me was the takedowns and the bigger punches and that snappy kick that Dracus has on the left side than Sean's jab, but didn't have a problem if it went either way, fun fight.

Absolutely. And, you know, the only downside, of a fight like that is people start having like revisionist history because the night of the fight again I scored a 3-2 for Sean but I said you know what I have zero problem if drake has got a 3-2 and that's the way it was I was like okay cool I got no problem with that you know I'd have to re-watch it I rewatched it um yesterday and you know I had the same conclusion I said you know what I could easily be see it being 3-2 dracus and then you know we kind of you know 48 hours later

I know Sean put up a post on social media today saying, I won that fight. The whole world knows I won that fight. I'm sure Dracus will say the same thing. I'm not sure what he said on social media. And I get it. Like, you're in the moment, you're living it, and you believe you won. And I'm sure Sean believes he did won. But I think my larger point here is that there's no robbery.

No one got robbed in this thing. Like if Sean had won three, two, Dracus wouldn't have a complaint. And Dracus won. I don't think Sean really should have a complaint. I get it. You're a fighter. You think you won, you fight, you believe you won the fight. I totally understand that mentality, and you should have a mentality.

But I don't think what I'm getting at is like there was no robbery here. There was no egregious scorecard. And we've seen those. Trust me, I'm the first guy in the world that we'll call it a bad scorecard. But there was no bad scorecard. It was a close fight. And, you know, it's unfortunate that in a close fight like that, one guy has to win and one guy has to lose. And I don't think, I don't think Drake has robbed Sean Strickland.

it was just a close fight and that's what's going to happen when you have a 48-47 decision and you have a couple of rounds that can easily go either way you can't really complain about that no there's definitely not a robbery there I mean it was just close competitive fight

one thing though now that we're bringing it up about scoring the rounds that I wish would have happened was you know I saw this morning as well the video that Sean or somebody put up showing the headbutt so we all remember it was I think was it the second or third round that the cut

happened on Sean's eye? Yeah, I want to say it was the third round. And at the time, I thought it was an elbow. It looked like I thought it was an elbow. And that's what they said on the broadcast. They said an elbow. So we all were kind of led to believe it. But third round of the fight, which I believe most of us did give the Drickers.

But I was influenced by the elbow, right? You see a cut on the eye. You see a bunch of exchanges. Drikas is shooting in, taking and take down throwing these big punches. All of a sudden, these guys come off of the fence. Sean is bleeding. Okay, something landed. But that's a tremendous amount of damage.

You got a big cut over the eyelid, and he's spewing blood now. But not only the cut, the damage that we're scoring, but it affected the fight. Sean, the momentum of the fights started to shift because then Dracus is picking up steam because he sees that blood and it kind of gives you confidence. And then Sean is kind of wiping away at the eye. He doesn't have that body language that he had in the first round. So it was a bit of momentum shift. What I'm getting at is I wish that, I don't believe this happened with the judges. but normally like with a headbut, if we knew it was a headbut and the referee saw that it was a headbut,

he would have stopped the action, hey, incidental headbut, take a minute, make sure you're cool, and then they'll let the judges know, hey, accidental headbutt right here, okay? You know, so don't factor that in in terms of damage, but also do factor in that there was an accidental headbutt, so if you see blood or you see body language changing, know that it was because of an accident. and it wasn't from a fair play strike. So that could have changed the things. And what I'm getting at is, if the judges would have known that there was a headbut

that caused that, maybe we would have seen Sean Strickland edge out a split decision victory in there. But we didn't know that at the time. All we did was see the damage. We saw the momentum shift coming from the headbutt, and that's why I did have kind of the momentum shift going in favor of Driggs-Ducle-C in a very, very close fight. Yeah, I totally agree.

it's funny you say that because I wanted to mention that like one thing because again during the broadcast when they said I think it was an elbow and they they showed the moment in the exchange and I thought it was too like I thought it was a legitimate strike now I do I do tend to you know I always always a little skeptical sometimes when it's when the damage is cuts and things like that because we we all know cuts can happen just from a glancing below you may not even land a good punch just because it just happens to glance on the right side of the eyebrow tissue on people yeah get cut open so I'm always a little hesitant to just immediately say, oh, whether there's blood, well, that's, that's damage.

Not always, that's not always the case. But with that one, I did because I thought he clubbed him with an elbow. And I was like, you just clubbed him with an elbow. And he came up and he's gushing blood. That's legitimate damage. We're two days later. And I'm just now seeing the video where like, oh, yeah, it looks like it was definitely a headbutt.

You know, Drake has kind of raised up during exchange. His head clashed with Sean. And you can see right after that the blood starts flowing. I do wish, like, I know we're very, you know, in the moment, rapid fine. all these kind of things are happening. But, you know, with technology where it's at, replay where it's at, you know, I wish that in that moment, you know, we could tell the judges, hey, that was a clash of heads, not an elbow. So factor that into your scoring. Not saying it should, not saying the Drake is still didn't win the round, but just under, because that, like, again, I don't think all cuts are judged equally.

You know, again, there's different kinds of cuts. But that, to me, looked like in the moment he hit him with an elbow. And I was like, that's good damage. That's real damage. It wasn't, though, if it's just a headbut. And I wish we would have that real-time reaction where we could tell the judges and say, look, this is what it was, not saying, you know, it's not illegal, but this is what happened. It was a headbut.

So don't factor that in. Because Sean's a bloody mess. You know what I mean? He's a bloody mess. And I said on Twitter, I said he's wiping his eyes that that could absolutely affect him the rest of the fight. Maybe it did, especially in that round. But again, I wish we could have that kind of real-time reaction where we're,

we could just tell these guys like, hey, be aware, this is what's happened. I don't know that it would have changed the outcome of the fight, and I certainly don't take anything away from Drake's Duplice, certainly not his fault. It was an accident. He was just raising up and Sean was coming down and they clashed heads. It happens. But I wish that would have been factored in, at least we could have known, and the judges could have known, because I'm watching the fight.

I'm writing about the fight. I'm reacting to the fight. I don't even know about it until two days later. I just, I don't think the truck caught it. You know what I mean? Because I think they showed an exchange. after that round because I remember right away during the round Sean was cut and a couple seconds later you heard I think John Enix said it seems to be from an elbow and usually when

that happens it's a producer in our ear saying we just saw it on tape it's an elbow so they're just kind of relaying the information that they got in between rounds I think they showed some other exchange which led us to believe yes like you said you saw something that looked like it was an elbow but it seems like it was not the actual shot it wasn't two days later that they really dissected this fight and saw like you're saying when it was against the fence and Drinkus went down for a takedown and he raised his head up. That was the actual cut. So it's just one that slipped through the cracks.

But if they would have been able to capture that actual headbutt during the round, then they could have related to John Anick. John Anick would have said it was an accidental headbut that happened. It was, you know, complete accident. But just so you know, then they could have relayed that and shot that to the TVs or the monitors that the judges are on and they could have factored that in. Again, this is, this may not have even changed the course of the fight because I still believe that was one of Jerichus's stronger rounds. But it's just for them to know to take that

into account going into the fourth round where now you might see Sean Trickland wiping the eye, not as on his toes. Because look, the one thing about cuts is not only does it visually show damage, but it takes 20% away from your power bar. My last fight that I had at the apex, I got headbutted very bad. And by, you know, by the end of the fight, as soon as I got out of the octagon, I was shut. But during the fight, I was probably about 50% close. And that took my power bar down. It was, they didn't catch it either. They called it a punch. It wore me down. That round, I believe I lost because it took that bitter. It was like, it's like eating a hard straight, you know, like eating a hard punch. So it takes your power bar down, even if it's an accident. So,

again, this is something we're just talking about that we're probably honestly never change in fighting, yes, we would love to, like we just mentioned, if it's an accidental headbut and the truck catches it, shoot that to the judges so they could factor things in accordingly. But at the end of the day, look, you can't expect the referee and judges and everybody to say, okay, Nate Diaz is fighting, and he's got a tremendous amount of scar tissue. He's even had things surgically repaired to reduce some of the scar tissue. So if he gets hit with a stiff jab and he opens up, it was only a 10% power jab. It wasn't a 90% power jab because he's got scar tissue.

These kind of things we could talk about, but you can't really expect the judges to know each fighter that well in their previous past of scarring or bleeding, you know, easy. So it's something, you know, it's fun to talk about. But that part of the sport, you know, it will never change. Some people bleed more than others. Yeah, absolutely. And listen, at the end of the day, you know,

regardless of the cut, regardless of how it happened, it was still a very, very close fight. And again, the cut, even with that cut, I think I'm with you. I think I scored round three for Drake. So it really didn't matter. It wasn't like that took away. It wasn't like a knockdown. If it was a knockdown off a headbud, that's a different story where you're scoring a knockdown.

But I don't think it really made a difference. And again, you know, Sean Strickland put up a great fight. Night of, I scored it for him. But again, very close fight. But, and I don't know that I don't really know that anyone was screaming robbery. And again, I understand as a fighter when you go back and rewatch it, you know, you believe you won. And I understand that. Again, I believed you won in the nights.

but there's no robbery there's no you know it was a it was a bad decision it was just a really really close fight I think we do get conditions sometimes when we disagree with the judge's score that we start we start crying robbery when it's not that was just a really

close fight that could have gone either way and it went Dracus's way and you know not his fault certainly not Sean Strickland's fault but that's just the way the sport goes sometimes and I have no problem with the result as even though I scored differently I have no problem with the result because we're just talking about one round

difference and those are and there's at least two rounds in there that I could have easily slipped and gone to dracus so um you know it is what it is and i understand sean's upset about the cut and upset about how it happened and you know you get a chance to go back and rewatch the fight you realize what happened in that moment and you started thinking man i know i won i know i won and i don't know that he even necessarily says it's a robbery he says you know i won the fight the whole world knows I won the fight. I love you, Sean, but I don't think the whole world necessarily knows you want to fight. I think a lot of people do believe Dracus won the fight. It was just a, it was just a close fight. You know, two things that I found interesting about that whole

fight and fight week. A, first off, Dana, I'd agree with you. You know, at the, at the post-fight press conference, they asked Dana and he said that he thought it was two, two going into the last, and he thought that Sean had did enough. And I found that interesting because I found, I found, I found that very honest of Dana, if I'm being honest. Because realistically, if you think about the bigger pitcher, you would think that UFC or Dana would want Dracus to be champion because that sets up a bigger grudge match with him and I'mabella Asana. That sets up a bigger fight going to Africa,

which they've talked about for years. And Dana White said this would be the year, 2024 would be the year that we break around. in Africa the first time. Now you have a South African champion. It just makes sense. But you can see at the end of the fight when Dana put the belt on Dracus 2 plus C that he wasn't super happy.

And I think it was just because he honestly thought that Sean had won. And I don't know what I'm getting at here, but you know how Dana is. Dana says it how it is, but he also is a promoter. And he has to promote what he thinks is going to be best for the company. And you would think that the Dracus winning would have been everybody's rejoin. because it sets up bigger and better matches, which makes more money at the end of the day. But Sean is a guy as well that...

We just talked about it. Like his stock, that's the word I was looking for about 10 minutes ago. His stock rose dramatically in that Israel out of Sanya win, which a lot of us didn't think it would happen because we're like, we had this guy here that he was kind of hit or miss sometimes in the UFC. He's lost a couple of water weight, then he jumps up to middleweight.

he lost to Jared Cannonier, he lost to some guys, he got knocked out by Alex Paheda. If he becomes champion, does it really make sense? Does it really feel like we have the best fighter on planet Earth at 185 pounds with the gold around his waist? I think a lot of people were skeptical about it. So I don't know if the UFC really was ready to back that. But Sean has shown that he's legit. And he has shown that people can get on board with him, even though he went over there to Canada. I mean, he somehow won the crowd over.

I don't even know what was happening. Like those interviews, it seemed like he was saying some crazy things when he had that one-on-one with a reporter. And it was kind of making him just go the wrong direction when he was starting to get in all the stuff about the gays and this and that. But then he wins him back right away. It's talking about how GSP never fought for you, but I'm fighting for you. And all of a sudden, they want to run up on stage and get and shake his hand. So it was like he has a way of relating with the average consumer. And I think the UFC has kind of recognized that.

But the other thing I just want to say real quick, Damien, before we move on on another topic or about this was I thought it was very big. And it showed a lot of character on the part of Dracus Duplice in that exchange that we saw and embedded. Coming up and shaking the hand of Sean Strickland and saying, you know what, man, water under the bridge, brother. We could be cool. I won't bring it up again. Because really, this is the biggest opportunity of Dracus 2 Plusy's career. And he's the one person that found a way to get into the head of Sean Strickland. Strickland, the guy that gets into the head of everybody and says all kinds of crazy stuff and somewhat crosses the line.

And now he found a way to somewhat cross the line on Sean Strickland. That could have been the trigger right there. He could have stayed on that the entire fight week and just had Sean Strickland flustered and not fighting like himself. But he said, you know what? I let bygones be bygones, man. I'm going to steer away from this. It's going to be respect. It's going to be about competitiveness.

It's going to be about let's go out there and put on a war for everyone. rather than going back to Sean Tricklin's past, which really would have triggered him. And I think that would have been the biggest, it would have been Connor McGregoring, like what he did to everybody else. Conner McGregor would win the fight before because he's in everybody's head.

He could have played that game against Sean Tricklin and he chose not to. So I've got to give Drickers credit on that one, man. He showed a lot of character in that buildup to the fight. I totally agree. Absolutely agree. And again, even though going back to the scoring, even though I scored the fight for Sean Strickland,

one thing I did Dana White did say, say afterwards, I appreciate it. Again, he said, I scored the five versus Sean Strickland as well. And somebody said, what about, you know, an immediate rematch? And he said, you know, that's just not really what we're thinking about. Because I think we do get drawn into too many of these immediate rematches that shouldn't happen. You know, I think rarely, like immediate rematches should only happen under a couple of very specific circumstances.

Of course, a draw, like what we saw with Devinan Figuero and Brandon Moreno, of course, they're going to run that back. Or like an egregiously bad. Yeah, Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shmchenko, or an egregiously bad scorecard like we saw years ago with Shogun and Leo de Machita, which was so bad. Like, everyone knew that should have gone the other way and so they ran it back. Or on the final one is, you know, just an incredibly long-reigning champion. You know, you dethrone Demetius Johnson or Anderson Silva when Chris Wybman did it. Of course you deserve an immediate rematch.

But this whole, like, it was a close fight so we got to run it back again. Like, come on. Sean became champion four months ago. Like, let's slow down. It was a close fight. Let's slow down on the immediate rematch stuff. And, and again, you know, the slam dunk is right there in front of us. It's the Dracus and Israel on a Sanya fight because that's what we were supposed to have last year

when Dracus couldn't fight after beating Robert Whitaker and he couldn't turn around and fight two months later and fight Israel in Australia. So don't mess this up. I don't think the U.S.C. is going to mess this up. It's Israel. It's Israel and Dracus. And my idea, why not do Strickland against Hamzod? that seems like a natural fit. Homzlats sitting out right now.

I know he's supposed to be the number one contender. Let's be honest. I love, I mean, he barely beat Kamar Usman on a week's notice, and Kamar is not even a middleweight. Let him get one more legitimate win. And you either do one or two things there. You either let Hamzot submit himself as the number one contender or Strickland knocks off the golden boy and becomes immediately right back in title contention.

I think that's my match, maybe. Let me play Sean Shelby and Mick Maynard here right now. So if I'm in the war room with you matching that, I'm saying, you know what? I think we have one name on the board that we both agree on. And that's Hamzaa Chimayev. I'm not going with Strickland, though, man. I'm going with Robert Whitaker. I'm thinking that's the guy.

Does Robert have a fight on the books right now? He's fighting Polo Costa next month. Oh, he is fighting Policosta. Yeah. That takes that away. But that's a fight that I would like to see because I think we keep talking about Hamzaa Shemayev possibly fighting for the belt, but he hasn't done enough. As you just said, he had one fight against Ovali.

in Usman, we need to see more. So that fight does make sense. But he needs to fight somebody up the ranks. And that's why I was going with Robert Whitaker, but Polo Costa makes sense as well. And as you said, the UFC has the money fight made out now, right? They've got Drickettsupilisi, the South African champion. They got the former champion, Israel, Al-a-Sanja, the African fighter.

They're talking about going to Africa. You know what? Honestly, my goal, my goal, what I was hoping was that Dr. or one of these guys would win and then call out Israel and Sonia and that would be the main event at 300 right? I think that's what we're all kind of hope for because a lot of us are still kind of hoping

what's the big secret fight that's going to happen at 300 but Damon, if I'm being honest, I'm over it now. I'm over it. I don't think we need this superstar match that nobody could have thought of or there's a last minute put together type of thing.

We don't need that anymore. At least I don't need it. 300, I've come to terms with UFC 300 is now just going to be one of these cards that from top to bottom is superb fights, superb matchmaking bangers left and right. It's not going to have the Ronda Routis, the Rocklasners, then I don't think we're going to have this super fight turn around last minute with Israel out of Sanya and Jukkah 2 plus C, especially with UFC's Africa looming all in the distance. We're talking about going to Africa. Why would we take the two African fighters that could be the biggest fight and not have that in Africa? So I think that's the fight that happens now. But I do think that if they could get Chameyev on 300 somehow against possibly, like you said,

that would be pretty quick turnaround for Sean Strickland as after he just did a quick turnaround for a title defense. But to get Chameh on 300, I think would cement it as a solid card. And oh, by the way, here's a superstar in Chama, a guy that everybody wants to see, watch no matter who he's fighting. I think that would add to it. But as far as trying to make other stuff happen, I'm okay with it. Because at the end of the day, the UFC needs to make entertaining fights throughout the year.

And the more I think about it, do you really want all the best fighters and the best fights and the best matchups and the best title defenses to all go on 300? And then when we go to some other place like Saudi Arabia or like South Africa, and we go, oh, this is a decent card. No, I'd rather have it kind of evenly distributed where we had these banger fights throughout the year and say, oh, by the way, UFC 300 didn't have any superstar names on it, but damn, fight one through 15 were fire.

So that's where I'm at with it now with 300. Yeah, not to get too far off the subject, but I'm with you, listen, if you can do Dracus and Israel out of Sanya, I think Africa would be the better choice. But if they're both healthy and they want to do it at 300 and headline a big mega card like that and they want to do it, I'm okay with that.

You add on that. Leon and Bilal, I think we all know that's kind of coming down the pipe. Seems like that's going to happen at 300. Then you, of course, you already have Zhang Wei Li and Yan, Jan Jan. That would be a triple header title fight. Boom,

that's a great card. And they're stacking it where, like, the opening prelim is going to be like Cody Garberate against Devison Figueroa. Like, that's how much they're going to stack this card. I'm fine with that. And one of the thing you mentioned there.

And Dana said this last week, and I get it. Like, we all had this weird mythical idea in our head. the UFC 300 was going to be this insane, wild, crazy card. And you look at UFC 100, you had Brock Lesnar and George St. Pierre on there. He had UFC 200. John Jones originally was going to fight Daniel Cormier.

He had Brock Lesnar on there. Big, big card. Brock Leszor coming out was like a rabbit out of the hat. No one saw that coming. UFC 300, everyone's like, oh, it's going to be this. I had people saying it's going to be Rhonda Rouse against Gina Carrano. It's going to be Brock Lesnar coming back. It's going to be George St. Pierre and Khab.

And Dana kind of laughed when someone asked him last. I said, no, that was there. Listen, I had a thought about this. And when Dana, I don't agree with everything Dana says. Let me be clear about that. But what Dana said is absolutely true. Brock Lesder is about to be 47. Do we really want to see Brock Lesnar at 47 fighting Tom Aspinall or something? Ronda Rousey hasn't fought since 2016. It's been seven going on eight years since Rhonda Rouse.

And the last time, I was at her last fight, did not end well for her at all against Amanda. And it has. George St. Pierre has been retired since 2017. as well when he fought Michael Bisping. We got to let go with this. Like, what's the next? We're going to bring back Chuck Liddell? Are we, oh, Chuck Lidell's going to fight Tito in the U.S.?

Let it go. Like, I love that there's these big, huge names that we all love and adore. But do you really want to see Ronda Rousey at 36, having fought for almost eight years? Do you really want to see her back in the U.S. Are we really that desperate to see her back? No. Do we really want to see a 47-year-old Brock Lesnar come back and fight at the United? at this stage, you know, like, I liked what Dana said, and I agree.

Like, yes, would we all love these huge mythical fights? Sure, but maybe I'd like a better, you know, seven years ago, not now. Like, let it go. We don't need to see Rhonda Rousey back in the O.C. I agree. I mean, some of these names that they were dropping, just realistically, they don't make any sense. They don't make any sense. Now, the one super fight that, I don't know that it even makes sense.

But, you know what? if we're doing it for the fans and the fighters are willing to do this, then I'm okay with this. I'm okay to get on board with this. And that one is the one that they were kind of teasing that I don't know if this is even real. Okay, I don't even know if this is crazy. But the Tom Aspinall versus Alex Baheda going up to heavyweight and taking them on. If they drop that fight and they put that on UFC 300, that would be huge. That is one that everybody would start drooling over, right?

And it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I think it's sacrificing a great fighter in Alex Paheda because I don't think he stands at chance as much as I love Alex Paheda. Tom Aspinall, to me, is the baddest man walking planet Earth right now. And for him to go up and challenge somebody that big and that strong with that type of boxing and ground game, I don't think it would be a pretty night for him. But my goodness, that would have a lot of people tuning in to see that type of matchup. And that's some big names. And Tom Aspinall could headline the card.

I mean, he's the name Alex Paheda. He's a two champions. I mean, that would just cement it. And it kind of makes sense for Tom Aspinall because, you know, now he's waiting that we don't really know where he's going because of the Tom John Jones fight and Steepa. He kind of doesn't really know where to go.

I just, I thought Tom Aspenov said, he's like, look, I'm not a bully. But if they want, he wants to fight me, I'll take this fight. I'll go out there and take it. So I think the ball is in his court with that possible fight. Again, this could just be rumors or whatever,

but I'm just throwing things out there. that's a much more reasonable matchup than any of these guys that have been retired for five or seven years. And when I said the word balls in somebody's court, I think everything happening right now in the middleweight division, it all falls on the back of Israel out of Sanja. The ball's in his court. The ball's in Israel out of Sanja's court. Because if he wants to come back and fight and he wants to fight Drinkist 2 plus C, that's a fight to make. If he doesn't want to fight Dr.ryker 2 plus C, then I think, yeah, then I think you give Sean. Strickland and another fight. I don't want to see another

Jared Cannoneer fighting just yet. I don't think, you know, Robert Whitaker has a fight, but he's already lost a lot of these guys, even though he was a, you know, a phenomenal champion. But it's a lot of Sanja's decision. Am I going to sit around for another year or am I going to come come back and fight? And then that's the fight to make. But yeah, I know I'm kind of jumping around. Sorry about that. But 300 crazy names. If you're going to give me one crazy one, give me that one. Give me Tom Aspinall and Alex Pahito.

I like that idea as well. And listen, if there's one thing I've learned covering Alex Pira over the last couple of years is don't doubt that guy. You know what I mean? Like don't doubt him. And I agree. Tom Aspinall, in theory, should be a really bad matchup, too big, too strong, all those kind of things.

But who knows? Like I said, Alex Paya has continued to prove people wrong and do things he's not. He's not supposed to knock out of Sanya in like his seventh MMA fight. That shouldn't happen. But he did. You know, he shouldn't knock out Yuri Pahoshka in, like, his 10th fight and his like fifth fight in the UFC. That shouldn't happen. It did.

So, yeah, like, if you're going to give me a quote-unquote super fight, that's one I would be on board for. It would be a lot of fun. And, you know, does Alex risk something? Yeah, of course, you can get knocked out and you risk something. But if he loses to Tom Aspenol, is anyone going to say, oh, man, your stock really dropped because you lost to a heavyweight? No. And then who knows? Maybe he does catch him.

Maybe he does clip him and knock him out. and he just says, you know, I'm just going to go on the full-on, you know, I'm going to eat everything I can eat and get up to heavyweight and do it. Why not? But again, my larger point here is, like, I would be down for that fight. I would also be down for Dracus and Israel if they could make that quick of a turnaround. I certainly don't think Dracus should be forced into that because it is three months, literally three months away. But, yeah, like, we got to let go of this idea that we need some weird gargantuan, you know, out-of-now-now-now-ann announcement that, like, Ronda Rousey is going to fight Gina Carano to save the car. We don't need that. Like, give me, if you give me, hypothetically,

if you give me Dracus and Israel and you give me Balau and Leon, what's already on the card, I'm happy. I don't need anything else. I don't need you to throw everything else under the sun on the. I don't really have interest in seeing a lot of those fights people are throwing out there. If Dracus Duplice and Israel, don't jump on 300 and his headline above Balau and Leon, are you happy? Yeah.

I'm fine with it. I remember years ago. You remember that card? I can't remember what number it was. It was a card. I remember because it was in September, and I remember I went to the card. The main event was Demetrius Johnson,

and I want to say it was Chris Carrioso, I think it was the fight. But the undercard was like Connor and Dr. McGrager, Dustin Porrier, and I think Cowboy was on there. And there was like four or five really good fights. The main event just wasn't spectacular. We all kind of forgot that it was Demetrius

and Chris Carrioso was the main event. But the undercard was insane. It was a great card. I want, I, maybe I'm in the minority, but I really want Leon and Below. And throw that on there as a main event. And then they've already stacked a card. Like you're getting Justin Gaiti and Max Holloway. You're getting Devincent Figuero, Cody Garberra.

You're getting Bo Nickel coming back. You're getting Al Jeline Sterling making his featherweight debut. I'm fine with that. I don't think you need like this superstar. I think it's the opposite. If you're going to put, you know, the biggest fight ever on the car, like you're going to do Jones and Steepay, I don't need a jacked undercard

because we're getting Jones and Steepay. Like I'm fine with you if you have like a kind of an okay undercard. Here we're getting maybe the greatest card ever on paper and maybe we don't have the marquee main event. I'm fine with that. Damon does, does Holloway-Ga-Ga-Gy BMF title headline over the women's flyweight out or sorry, strawweight,

straw weight. Yeah, that's a good question. It's not a real title, so I guess not, but is my interest- And traditionally for our viewers, the bigger the weight class headlines, right? But it's not a real title, so to speak. And I mean, and I mean this with the, I mean, I have nothing but the utmost respect for Zhang Wei and Yan, Jan, like, they deserve the spot.

But am I more interested in Gagey Holloway? Yeah, I am. Like, I'm more interested in that fight. So, yeah, I don't think you can, though, because, We got to be honest, like there's no legitimacy to the BMF title. Like it's fun. And I'm glad they're doing it. I think it's a fun fight.

But yeah, you can't. I mean, you know, it's not real. It'll be interesting to see how they line that one up, right? I know they're going to get some. Either way, they're going to get some shit, right? Because if they put the BMF ahead of it, everybody's going to secretly kind of be happy, but be pissed off. Oh, the women don't get any credit.

This is even a real. They're going to say, this is some made up title. This is some bullshit title you guys are making it up. But it's secretly going to be happy. Like, we're giving you guys what you want, but you're mad at us right now. But if the girl's headliner, you're like, you're kidding me? You're giving this, this girl fight over the BAMF, the two baddest dudes. And you're like, nobody's going to be happy.

So they got to do whatever they got to do. I mean, you can't win it. You can't make everyone happy in this thing. But yeah, and then again, Balau, Balau and Leon, I think, is a guaranteed fight. I think people, if that is the headliner, I don't think people will be happy. but I think that it's a fight core, like you just said, that makes sense.

You see title fight, title fight, BMF fight, Cody Garbrand. I mean, all these names, all these matchup, it's like,

this is a phenomenal night of fights. It just doesn't have that one superstar. And again, I don't want to keep repeating myself. But I think, you know, the Tom Aspenov, a fight,

that would be the mystery fight, the super fight, the thing that makes everybody happy, and you can still have Israel, out of Sonia and Duplice in Africa. And then I think everybody wins in that. Yeah, I think it's,

I think it reminds me a little bit of 200 because I was there that week. I remember John Jones had the positive drug test and his fire, Daniel Cormey gets canceled. And they immediately shifted Brock Lesnar and Mark Hunt to the main event. And then everyone panicked and freaked out and said, no, no, hold on. And they made it the co-main event with Amanda Nunes and Misha Tate ended up being the actual main event because they were going to put Brock Lesnar in a non-title fight as the main event.

Now, above the girls had a fight, yeah. Now, was Brock Lesnar, Mark Hunt, the bigger fight? Yes, Brock Lesnar is one of the biggest names ever into the sport. But they kind of reacted to the backlash and they put Amanda and Misha. And I don't even know if a lot of people remember that that was the main event that night. The UFC 200 main event was Misha Tate against Amanda Nunes. But again, that's just so I don't think the UFC would do that to the straw weights. But, you know, by being honest, like I'm not lying, I would say, yeah, I'm more interested in Gachie Holloway because that's a freaking amazing fight.

But, you know, there's plenty of fights. there's plenty of fights that have been over top of others based on, you know, I mean, you know, the interim title at 296 or four, whatever number it was with Aspinall and Pavlovich. That was technically the co-main event because they were fighting for an interim underneath Pereira and Pajaska because they were fighting for the real title. So, you know, I think they'll end up putting the straw weights where they're going to be on that card. But, you know, I don't think we're done yet. I do anticipate we're going to get Leon and Bilal on that card. and I'm excited about that. I tweeted out on Saturday night.

Belial had that great moment on TV where they showed him in the crowd and he helped the phone that said, I'm going to bully you, son. I thought that was hilarious. I'm really looking forward to that one. I know a lot of people are not. I don't understand why.

I think it's a great fight, and they're stacking this card. Like I said, you know, C.D.R. is going to be great. You know, people need to call them to hell down. Yeah. I just don't understand why they're waiting so long, right? I mean, this is the fight that was the first fight on people's minds

when it came to 300. just in terms of timeline and the opposite. It's the fight that when you look at the Walthaway Division or you look at any of the divisions, you say who's next in line for the champ? This is the one fight that I think everybody's in agreement on and says, this is the next guy to fight. And we've been knowing that for a couple of fights,

but now there's no more people. You can't throw any random Kobe Covington's out there anymore. Bilau is the guy. Leon defended the belt. This is the fight. The timeline makes sense. We need another title fight. Bing, bang, boom.

They just haven't announced it yet, which is a little scary. Yeah, hopefully, hopefully. And we know Shab Katz injured too. If we're going to throw him in the mix, he's injured. Deal with an ankle injury. He's not ready. So don't, you know, let's just do it. I don't know.

Maybe they're just waiting to do like a big bang, bang combo. They want to announce that along with another title fight and do it at the same time. I have no idea. But yeah, I agree with you. I think that's the one. Support for this show comes from the audible original, the downloaded two. Ghosts in the Machine.

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Of course, we all kind of anticipate it's going to be Alexo Grasso and Valentina Chichinko at some point later this year. We don't know when that's going to be. It depends on when everyone's healthy and ready to go. But on Saturday night, we did see a new Bantamway champion get crowned. Raquel Pennington beat Myra Bueno Silva fighter. I think a lot of people were super high on going into that fight after she, whether it's on a record or not, she beat Holly Holme in a very impressive fashion, which is not easy to do. But let me be clear when I says, I'm certainly not trying to diminish Raquel Pennington's achievement.

Amazing achievement. Anytime you become a UFC champion, it's special. But we talked about Rhonda Rousey earlier. It is wild to me That 2016 Rhonda Rousie Connor McGregor are neck and neck The two biggest stars in our sport

You could argue at one point it was Rhonda At one point it was Connor They were going back and forth Rhonda loses to Holly One of the most shocking moments In the UFC history She comes back Amanda Nunes lays ways to her

Rhonda's gone Amanda Nunes becomes the person She is the man For lack of a better word She is the man She goes out there just wrecked shot beats every person who's ever held a belt beats Chris Cyborg she becomes the person then she retires that was June of last year we've now waited seven months to crown a new champion

Alan I'm being honest here and again don't want to take anything away from Raquel Pennington what in the hell happened to the women's Bantamway division that was the marquee division that was the division and now it's a wasteland like it is just not like there's nobody there Like it's weird. There was a while, well, maybe even still, where the men's light heavyweight division just made no sense, right? It's when John Jones left and then DC went up and all these things happened and it's just new champ after new champ and all the things that had happened

with the draws and the no contest and this and that. And the division makes no sense. There's not any clear-cut contender or superstar. Obviously, Paheta now came and where the goal. But now we look at the women's division, the Bannonweights, and he said a pretty good one. It's a wasteland. I mean, what do we do?

You know, it is crazy to me that when you look at the top 15 in that division, the biggest star in that division is Julianna Pena, because she could talk it. And she's the one that realistically, when we talk about Pena, she's tough. She's tough. But you can't just have a champion that's tough. and kind of now has a gimmick where she likes to talk trash, so it does make it more entertaining than some of the girls

that aren't as polished in the PR department that's selling fights. But, I mean, like, when you think about, okay, she shocked the world. She beat a minute and Nunez, Julianna Pena. They came back and had a rematch, and we kind of saw what reality looks like in that five-round beatdown.

It really was. It was a beat-down for 25 minutes. It was almost hard to watch. And now she could be the next champion. You know what I mean? She, her and Rocky are set to fight. Rocky been through highs and lows in her career, but there's no star as an division.

There's nobody that technically just stands out or has something about them that's special. It's just that those people are gone. So now the people that were the middle of the division are at the top of the division. And I think the belt is going to be changing hand one after another, after another, after another, other up to another. And really, I look deep down. I tried to look and I'm looking at the rest of the

division in the top 15, trying to find some spark, some glimmer of hope, right? Like, who's on there? I mean, Holly Holmes number six, Irene Al-Danya, she had her shot, Ketland Vieira, when I mean, there's nobody on there, Damien. There's nobody on there. Misha Tates, you know, in the top 15, love Misha, but, you know, her time has came and passed. And, the division, I think, is in shambles for a while. And we're going to have to find a way to correct that or find some new stars to emerge. Because otherwise, it's going to be title fights

where they're going to be the title fight and nobody's going to have any interest. You're going to have to throw some type of guy fight on there to make people want to buy a pay-per-view. Yeah, I mean, listen, Julianne Pena talks to talk, and she does have a winner of Amanda Nunes, and of course, that's impressive.

But you mentioned the rematch. It kind of reminds me of, And again, you know, I have tons of respect for him. But it kind of reminds me of Junior DeSantis going out there knocking out Kane Velasquez. They rematch and Kane just beats the brakes off him twice in a row. Like it was just ugly. Like it got uncomfortable at moments watching Kane beat up Jr. Who was just super tough and would not go away.

But Kane was just absolutely battering him for 25 minutes on two separate occasions. That's what we saw in the rematch. We saw an Amanda Nunes, I think got a little cocky, a man, you know, Juliana Pena Carter. rematch showed the real Amanda Nunes and she absolutely beat the brakes on Juliana Pena and I say this all the time Julianna Pena at the end of the day she talks a great talk she's three and two in her last

five fights in five years that's how many fights she's had in five years is five fights she's three and two and Julianna Pena does not hold a single win over anybody on the current active UFC roster not one not a single win her last three wins her last three wins Amanda

Nunes which again that is is a good win. Sarah McMahon, who is 43 and not the UFC anymore, and Nico Montano. Remember Nico Montano? That's one of her three wins in the last five years. That's a problem. Like, that's a problem. You can talk all the talk you want, but that's a problem.

And then you mentioned, like, at least at light heavyweight, as chaotic as it's been, you did have legitimate prospects, like a Jamal Hill. Or when Yuri Parashka came over and did what he did to Dominic Reyes and things like that. And Dominic Reyes was a good case. You know, after almost beating John Jones, you had a couple guys in there you could look at and say there. And then, of course, Alex coming up out of kind of nowhere and doing what he did. We don't have that a pants away.

There's not one fighter in this division that I can look at and say, I'm excited. There's one, in the top 15, there's one fighter, Carol Hosa, who's not 30. One fighter in the entire top 15 who's not under 30. It's Carolosa. It's wild to me, and I think a big part of the problem is, is that when the UFC introduced the flyweight division, a lot of the Bantuwaits who could have been good said, I'm actually a flyweight.

Like Valentina Shepchenko, I think, would be the Bantuweight champion right now. But she's a natural flyweight. And so she's stuck at flyweight, you know what I mean? And I said this on the podcast going into the card. I said, I think the biggest star in the division, those bigger divisions would be Kail Harrison, but she fights in the division that doesn't. doesn't exist. Fletherweight doesn't exist for women. It doesn't. There's two really good

fighters. There's three really good fighters of Hetherway, Larissa Pacheco, Chris Cyborg, and Kayla Harrison. That's it. Like, that's this. So it's, it's a weird position because Ronda's gone. Misha's not what she once was. Holly's 41 and, you know, not, you know, age catches up to everyone. This division is unreal for what it was. Like, when you think about where it was with Ronda and Holly and Misha and all these fighters. And now there's nobody. Like there's no John Jones prospect. There's no Yuri Pohashka prospect.

There's no Jamal Hill prospect. There's nothing, man. And I'm not trying to diminish what Raquel Pennington did. Congratulations. Happy for her. But you said something very telling. You said the fighters in the middle are now at the top. Is Raquel Pennington, Juliana Pena, Maribati.

Are they really the best in the world? are they best because everyone else is gone? That's a problem. That's a problem. We're going to have to figure this out. I don't think the fan's going to be very happy with some of the title fights or main events that we're going to be getting.

And again, I just keep scrolling for it, looking for something. I look at number 15, right? Chelsea Chandler. Remember, she's five and two. I mean, she's got seven professional fights under her belt. And she's number 15 in the world. And then a lot of the girls above her,

you know, they only have 10 or 11 fights. And you see girls like Misha Tate, she's number 11. Misha knows how to play the game. But again, she's on the other end of her career right now. She's a star. Everybody loves her. She's a sweetie. You know, I think her time has probably came and gone.

And I think we all realize that she's a name. But other than Misha Tate, Julianne opinion is the only one that's going to be able to get on the microphone and wrote somebody. So Juliana opinion is the only one that's going to get on a microphone and try to sell a fight worth watching, even though you might not care about the fight, but you're going to care about the back and forth, right?

The intrigue. How do you build a fight? If it's not the two best fighters in the world or believably the two best fighters, at least create some intrigue. But Julianne is the only one. I mean, Raquel Pennington, she's a sweetheart as well.

But, I mean, you know, she's not out there. She's not going to throw some bottles and she's not going to say something disrespectful to her opponent. As much as you're going to say, look, I have a daughter now. I have this new purpose in life. You know, we interviewed her at the fight night

a couple weeks ago and lead up to this fight. And she had one of the best interviews that she's had throughout a career, to be honest. I mean, she was just very focused and determined. And I remember we got them talking to her and going, that was a good Raquel Pennington interview, actually.

I mean, she had us just believing she's a new person. But I don't think it gets higher than that. I think that's the ceiling on it, you know, that she has a kid now. She's married and she's focused on this. but fans are only going to grab onto that for so long when they're forced to put $80 to buy a pay-per-view

on a fight like this. So, yeah, Bandaway Division, we've got some work to do. We need some new stars to emerge very soon in the UFC. Yeah, it's like you don't want to be the champion that gets the title shot because everyone else is gone. And I think that's the problem. Like even Myra Bueno Silva, as impressive as she was against Holly Holme, she was kind of the one you thought maybe could be the prospect and then she goes out there and loses

to Raquel. And we all remember the visual of what happened when Raquel fought Amanda. She got absolutely just demolished in that fight. It wasn't even close. And Amanda's gone now. And so you're kind of like, is that really, like, is that really the world we want to build on in this division? That, you know, because Amanda's gone, now, you know, Pennington gets her shot, Pena gets her shot again. And it's just, it's ugly. And I know Amanda Nunes hinted on Saturday night, like she kind of said, you know, we'll see, you know, I'm still a fighter, still feel like a champion. I don't know if her coming back would really save much. I mean, I think, you know, it would be a big fight if Amanda Nunes comes back.

But the problems in this division go far deeper than Amanda Nunes returning or not returning from retirement because there's just no prospects. There's no, you don't have a Yeri Prahashka. You don't have a Jamal Hill. You don't have an Alex Paya. You don't have any of these guys in women's bands away. You don't have anybody there. Like, legitimately, the most exciting thing you can do right now is hope that Valentina Shepchenko comes back to its way. And Valentina Shepchiko is in her 30s and she's been around forever.

Like, you have no, there's no exciting prospect, you know, coming up. And you can, you can say that about every other division. You can look at Armin Saruki and, you know, you can look at Ilya when he was coming up. You can look at Umar and Mugamagamah, a band. You can look at every, and even flyway. You can look at prospects, women's flyway. You can look at prospects there. You look at even straw weight.

You can't say that with women's bantile weight. There's nobody. There's not a single prospect you're looking at. Alan, if I said, I'll pay you a million dollars when you can pay one fighter right now in the Bantaway division who you think is going to be a star for three years from now. You'd probably concede and say, well, I'm not making a million dollars. Don't put me on the spot.

I don't want that question. It's a tough spot, man. It's a tough spot. And like you said, even if Amanda was to come out of retirement, Yeah, it'd give a little like a little bump, right? Oh, okay, that's exciting news. But look, it doesn't fix the division because even when Amanda was here,

it was Amanda fighting the next girl online, the next girl online, the next girl online. Now there's no Amanda. It's just the next girl online is the champion. And I think the belt's going to just change hands for a while. And we're not going to see any dominant champions or anybody that's really going to sell any peer reviews for sure. Yeah, I think of the UFC smart,

they go out and they scout USA wrestling. they start looking at girls who can wrestle at near 135 pounds and say, do you want to fight MMA because you got a real shot here? We need a bow nickel. You know, we need somebody to come in and get you excited because right now, again, I like Raquel Pennington. I've interviewed her a couple times. I've known T. Chetora's better more than I've known Raquel, but incredibly nice person. It's nothing against her.

But, you know, I think in, you know, when she was in the division when Rhonda was around, she's been in the division when Amanda was around. She was always like that number five, number six fighter. And that's not what we're looking for for a champion. You want the number one best in the world. And that's what you said is brilliant. The middle has become the best because the best are gone. That's kind of where we're at now.

Yeah, yeah. I think the only thing that could help during this time until we find that new type of star or that new fighter that could do that for us or become a champion, they might have to do some super fights. I mean, if some of these fly weights want to choose to go up and contest for the title, because some of the flyweight divisions, the Minot, Fior's or the, you know, you said, the bullet, Schifchenko, they've got some girls there that are very believable. There's not as many believable star champions as we have in Abandon Wates.

I liked the idea last year. I interviewed her about it. Aaron Blanchfield wanted to come up and fight Giuliana Pena for the vacant title. and the O.C. didn't go that route. But I was like, there you go. That's something. I was interested in that fight. I was like, okay, you peak my interest.

Aaron Blanchfield's legit. Didn't happen. You know, we moved on. But, yeah, like that, I think you're right. Like, that's kind of what we're going to, because that's a division that actually has legit prospects. Like, Aaron Blanchfield's the real deal. You know, you look at, you know, Tatiana Suarez is a 115.

She's the real deal. We need somebody like that of Bantzaway because right now there is nobody. And I don't want to diminish again. Congratulations, Raquel Pennington. Incredible performance. to get it done against a very tough buyer, Buena Silva. But yeah, it's almost like we're defaulting, celebrating because she's got a title, not because we really truly believe she's absolutely the best in the world.

She's just dominated the competition and, you know, deserves to be there. And again, that's just a reality of it. Go ahead, go ahead. No, I just think that's, you know, not to I don't want to keep banging on a dead horse here, but I'm just being honest. Like, I think that's just what we're dealing with now. And I'm in complete agreeance. Like, so much respect.

for this woman and I talked to Rocky the other day and like I said she had a great interview and she seems like in a new place in her career but she you said it already you know she was a girl that when the other top girls in a division she was somewhere in the middle now that they're out

she's at the top and so we just need to figure these things out you know it reminds me of a little bit almost like a Neil Magny you know a Neil Magny a little transition right there somebody that was always kind of known as that gatekeeper You know, he breaks records.

He's a tough dude. You can't ever count him out. And that's kind of who Rocky was until that the people in front of her are gone. So speaking on Neil Magny, that was a fight that I think they were building the Canadian star in Mallet. You know, I mean, they were trying to build him up, and he's a great fighter. And he's a finisher. You know, the problem with these finishers is, though, Damon, when you never see a judge's decision, you don't know what it's like to be in those deep waters, right?

And Neil Magny's the guy that lives in those deep waters. You can't ever count them out. traditionally if neomagny can outgraple you he went to fight if you could outgraple neil magni he loses the fight and this is a fight that neil magni was in trouble early in this fight he was he was getting beat up on it looked like the fight was going to be over but he was able to survive and get it to those later rounds and then he uses grappling where he can get on top and neil magni comes back with this spectacular comeback finish and i remember just tweeting neil magni with a bunch of exclamation points like this dude you can never count this guy out man he's a guy that although

He hasn't been able to ever been able to break into that like number one contender type guy. I don't even know if he's been in the top five yet. But he has lived in the top 15 and fought everybody. The toughest competition. And they go out and take out a tough prospect like that in their backyard in the late rounds, a comeback type fight. It was just a classic Neil Magnet performance. It really was super impressive.

And I think we all knew what that fight was. It was very much like, you know, again, I know he took the fight on short notice, but it was just like when they. gave Shavkat to Neil Magny and then they gave Ian Gary to Neil Magny. They were fights that you're trying to see is this because Neil Magny, I know the word gatekeeper, it depends on how you use the word gatekeeper. I think gatekeeper can be used as an insult, but I also think it can be a compliment under the right circumstances. If you're a guy who's just constantly floating around number 8, 9, 10 in the division and

you're the, you're the measuring stick to know if somebody's actually really good or if they're going to be, you know, maybe just a top 15 fighter. And again, tons and tons of fighters never make it to the top. 15 so there's no shame in that but we all kind of knew what this was you know he lost a shabcat shabcat now goes on and now he's one of the top you know two three guys in the world ian gary short notice or not went out there beat up neil magni we all kind of we all kind of gained some legitimacy for ian garry because he beat neil magny that's a real win mike milot mike mallet that guy was the next one he's the card the canadian star he's kind of the best prospect

put him on a main card of a pay-per-view, get through Neil Magny, you're going to be top ten, you're going to start getting those big fights. Maybe we talk about bringing back a fight night to Canada and it's a main event. And then he goes into those deep waters, you say,

and he just didn't have it in the gas tank to keep going. And Neil Magny, ultimate dog, would not go away, reversed him when he fell for that guillotine, I was like, this is going to end badly for him. He went for that guilletine. He fell to the ground. Neil got on top of him,

and he was absolutely dog-tired, exhausted, and Neil just blasted away at him. Good stoppage. I think the referee did a good job at the stoppage. And, you know, it kind of reminds me a little bit this is years ago, but when Neil Magny fought Kelvin Gasflam, and Kelvin, you know, started strong. If you don't put him away, man,

Neil Magny will keep coming. He will keep coming and keep coming and keep coming. And I think this is a fight. Like, Mike Malott could end up being a very good fighter, but he's not there yet. And I think that's what. this fight proves he wasn't there yet and neomagnos the testing stick and look you said like a lot of fighters i never made it to the top 15 so i got respect for neomagnin a guy that's lived there for 10 years

i mean the guy has been in the top 15 fighting the best guys in the world it he's just the best measure in stick and again i'm not using in a derogatory way uh being a gatekeeper a measure stick whatever you want to say but a guy that lives in a 7 8 9 10 rankings and you have to to go through him, but he's the best at it at saying, if you can get through Neil Magne, you're ready, you're ready for some bigger fights because he's a tough one. He's going to test you. The only person that I really saw kind of disposed, well, look, a couple of guys have gotten through Neumagney, but like dispose of Neil Magne without any sort of like back and forth I have to, you know, he didn't take any damage. He and Gary with those low kicks. He did a beautiful

job at just playing the sniper game on that one. And then Hafeiota Saños, Safeo de Sano just took him down, head and arm choked him in the first round. That was just another beautiful performance. But other than those guys, it's usually you got to win that third round against Neil Magnet. And this guy is a cardio machine. And if you're not ready for those type of things, then it's perfect that you lose. Because then you're not ready for five round, 25 minute fights against dogs that don't go away early. And Mallet is a guy that puts away guys.

He's awesome. I'm a fan of Mike Mallet a lot. But, yeah, I think he's just at a stage in his career where this is a great fight for him, where, yeah, he lost. But he went in there against a guy, then he goes, okay, this is the guy that if I beat him, I get to the next level. Now I know what it's like to be in those third rounds. Should I jump to a guillotine in the third round or late in the second round and go 100 and burn my arm out? If, you know, maybe not. Now, it's just so subtle changes to fight IQ or just not even that fight IQ, but knowing how to play the momentum.

to not gash yourself out because he's always finished finish finish finish he was searching for that finish against a guy that's not easy to finish and so now he just makes those adjustments this is going to make mike malott much better but it showed it man magny's still there maybe magny is still a tough guy to deal with you do not you know if you beat neil magni you're real i'm looking at his record right now you mentioned dos anius has that win he lost to santiago panzanibio at a time when ponsonibio was on an incredible run uh at that point he He lost to Michael Kiesa. Again, decision, certainly no.

And that was a main event. I was a grappling match, yeah. Yeah, it was a grappling match. And again, Kiasa, very, very tough. He lost to Shavkat. He lost to Gilbert Burns, and he lost to Ian Machado, Gair. And, of course, Gilbert Burns, we know, is one of the top guys in the world. I mean, you do not beat Neil Magny unless you are a really, really good fighter.

And again, I don't think it's an insult to call him a gatekeeper. Like, he's the gateway. If you can beat Neil Magne, you're real. If you can't beat Neil Magne, you're not quite there yet. And I don't know. you know, I know some people kind of use it as an insult. I don't. I think, man, to sit in that top 15 for 10 years and constantly be a threat to that, you know, and know that guys look at you and say, if I want to be a legitimate contender,

a well-to-it, I have to go through Neil Magny, that's huge. And, you know, Shavkat did it. And now he went on to beat Wonderboy. Now we're talking about Shabkat being a, you know, title contender. Ian Machado Gary did it. And we're like, okay, this guy's real. because I'll be the first one to admit. I saw questions about Ian Gary.

I wasn't sold on him. Oh, I do for sure. I definitely do. I mean, he's a snout. I might have mentioned this on your show before, but he's kind of O'Malley to me, where he's a sniper. He's a sniper from far,

but what happens in close? What happens on the ground? We haven't seen, we haven't explored any of those areas yet. He's the guy, the guy dropped. He's gotten hurt. He's gotten hit very hard by some unrecognizable names so far in his career.

So I'm not sold on him yet. But look, if you allow him to play sniper, he's going to snipe you up all day. So Ian Gary is very good if you play his game. You mentioned a guy a while ago, Damon, my buddy Michael Kiesa. That's a guy I could see them maybe pairing up Mallet with Mike Mallet with next. Because Kiasis is on like a little bit of a three-fight skid right now. Not going to be fighting up anytime soon. I think he's going to be fighting down.

And Malat coming off of a loss right there, I think Michael Kiesa is hitting around the 13th. the 14th ranking. I think that would be a fight that kind of makes sense. Mike's on three-fights kid. Mallet's on a one-fight skid. They want to move Mallat up and see where he's at. That could be a decent matchup. And Michael, he also didn't have his greatest performance,

but he's the guy that could look at this matchup and say, okay, I could wrestle this guy into the deep round. So I think it'd be an intriguing fight for both guys. Yeah, I think it would be a really good, and I like that bit of matchmaking a lot. And for Neil Magny, I know he's already mentioned, he likes the idea of fighting Wonderboy. I'm not totally against that idea.

Two veterans, you know, Wonderboy's coming off a, you know, kind of a tough loss to Shavkat. Magnus coming off a great win. I think that'd be a really fun one. I know Colby called him out, but I'm just, I don't know, I'm kind of over Kobe Covington calling anybody out at this point. You know, like, dude, just fight whoever they put in front you, man. Like, you know, if you want to prove yourself, then prove yourself, you know,

go out there. If you're going to fight the winner of Vicente Leuke, Sean Brady, you know, maybe I'll have a little more faith in you, but you losing to Leon and then calling out. the 40-year-old guy who also lost on your same card and thinking that's going to get you back to the time. I think Colby Covenant's days of calling for his shot are kind of over a little bit because you go out there and have that kind of performance. I don't think you deserve to call your shot. But I don't mind Neil Magnet and Wonderboy.

That's not a bad fight. I'm okay with that. And again, you know, he wants a veteran. That's cool. And, you know, you got to do what you did to Mike Malott. Good for you. But yeah, like I said, Neil Magny is a super tough dude. You do not look past this guy.

Again, I think we saw Mike Mollat took a test, came up short. You know, and I think that's, it's like, it's like your driving test when you're 16. You pass everything, then you got a parallel park. And you're like, shit, I got a parallel park to this car. Not quite there. I failed my first driver's test. I couldn't parallel park. I didn't take it a second time.

I think that's kind of what we just saw with Mike Mollat. He needs to learn how to parallel park. Yeah. Well, I passed my driving test, but I had to cheat on the written test because I wasn't studying for him for him a lot. He's going to go back to drawing board. He's going to study the guy. The guy, he's, he's somebody that will be up there.

I believe he's somebody that will definitely be in the top 15. I don't know how far his run goes, which he had to be seen. But he had a stumble in the UFC on a pay-per-view card against a veteran savvy guy. No harm, no foul. Go and get better. Yeah, absolutely. Well, overall, you know, listen, I'm not going to sit in light against that the UFC 297 was the best card ever. It wasn't.

You know, leading into the couple of the bigger fights of the card was kind of a, kind of a ho-hummed. kind of card. It was all right. There was a couple of decent fights in there. But, you know, listen, you know, not every pay for you is going to be a barn burner. Not every pay per view is going to be a blockbuster. And we did cap it off with a nice fight with Sean Strickland and Drinkus Duplice. And then we roll right into next month

with Ilya, Elia Tuporio, Alexander Volcanowski, Henry Sehudo, Marabda Walshawalishvili. Some great fights coming up March with O'Malley and Cheeto and of course, Dustoporier, Benois Saint-Deney, I mean, and then, of course, UFC 300. So it's not slowing down. This may not, I'll be honest,

this was not necessarily the blockbuster card, but we got some blockbusters coming up. I know that for sure. Yeah, $299 and $300 going to be pretty epic. And then I'm not mad at that Anaheim card that you mentioned and well. I think they only get better. They kind of, they kind of start, they started a little bit slow with this one, $297,

but $298 becomes a better. 299 becomes even better than that. And then $300 is going to be pretty epic. I think we have a next good couple of months for fight fans. Yeah, absolutely. Alan, before we get out of here, I always like to give you a chance. So what are you got coming up next? I know obviously you're always working the analyst desk doing things like that.

I'm still rooting for you to get that play-by-pay big. So what are you got coming up in the near future? Yeah, I'm working one of the fight nights coming up in February and March. And then, man, we're going to see that they're talking about going back to Shanghai China again. There was a card at the end of the year. We were supposed to go to Shanghai. And it fell and it was going to be kind of a mix of a fight night, mixed with the finals of the road to the UFC that takes place in China.

That fell apart. Something happened with America and China were traveling and fighters and it wasn't making sense. So they had to cancel that. They had to do a last minute shuffle of the fight card over at the apex. I think it was in November or December. But anyway, they're talking about going back to Shanghai possibly in March or April. So we'll see, man.

We'll see if it's going to cap off the road to the UFC finals. if they're going to announce a big fight in China with a big Chinese fighter main eventing it. But yeah, I'll be rocking and rolling. You guys will see me at the desk at least once a month, if not twice. I love it.

I love it. Well, Alan, it's always a pleasure to catch. I appreciate you with your insights. The UFC 297, I'm sure we'll have you back on the show to break down some fights in the very, very near future. Kind of gotten used to do a lot of big car breakdowns with you. So I appreciate you doing this as always. And obviously, I know you're doing the serious X-F-M thing as well.

So keep up to great work over there And we'll see you on the analyst desk And thank you as always for being here with us on the show Thank you, brother A podcast network Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap You're almost at the finish line But first

There, the last one Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes