MMA Fighting - HOAM | Sean O'Malley vs. Marlon Vera, How Aljamain Sterling & Merab Dvalishvili Factor In Title Picture

Episode Date: August 25, 2023

Sean O'Malley vs. Marlon Vera will likely be next in a massive bantamweight title fight after O'Malley's finish of Aljamain Sterling in the main event of UFC 292 this past Saturday in Boston. With the changing of the guard at 135, where does that put the former champion and his teammate Merab Dvalishvili in the title picture. On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck gives his thoughts on the bantamweight divisional championship picture with O'Malley at the top, why Sterling getting a rematch will be super difficult, and how long Dvalishvili may have to wait to get his chance at UFC gold. Additionally, listener topics include the PFL Playoffs main event between Clay Collard and Shane Burgos, Anthony Smith vs. Ryan Spann at Saturday's UFC Singapore event, Erin Blanchfield's ceiling in the flyweight division, the unfortunate passing of wrestling stars Terry Funk and Bray Wyatt, and much more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original, The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian 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 reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian

in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster, the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, ghosts in the machine, available now, only from Audible.

The Vox Media Podcast Network. And look at that. We got a roll. And the technical difficulties are behind us. It is August 25th, 20203, and it is indeed a heck of a morning. Yeah, look at that. See?

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Fighting Podcasting Network. Appreciate the patience. Hello, everybody. I am My Tech. Happy to be here on another Friday. We are knocking on the door of another UFC event. It is UFC Singapore. Headlined by Max Holloway versus the Korean zombie.

Will it be the final fight of the just super fun career of the Korean zombie? It seemed like it was almost a guarantee that it was heading in, but now zombie's saying, we're going to wait and see how this one plays out. It's playing the Joe Lozahn card right now, and I respect that. I respect that. But he's going to take on Max Holloway,

who's fighting with a pretty heavy heart with the Maui wildfires going on. You could check out his scrum. On the MA Fighting YouTube channel, you can check that out. So he's got a heavy heart. I think a lot of people are either listening to this program or listening after the fact, myself too, just kind of with a heavy heart as well because we found out yesterday for those who,

you know, even from a casual level, are a professional wrestling fan, we found out that Windham Rotunda, otherwise known, more famously known as Bray Wyatt passed away at the age of 36 yesterday. It's being reported by the great Sean Ross Zap that he had COVID a little while ago and it created some heart issues. And according to Sean, he died of a heart attack at 36 years of age. And I was just, you know, we see these wrestling deaths.

Like we saw Terry Funk died earlier this week and just an absolute legend. But a little bit older, a lot of mileage on him. But to see Bray Wyatt at 36 when he was just getting rolling again with this return, I mean, that one just stuns you. That one stunned me. What a great character he was when we got the sort of incarnation of the Wyatt family with Luke Harper who also passed away and Eric Rowan

and they were just awesome. He was cutting incredible promos. The character was unreal. And then they kind of changed direction. He turned into the fiend. And then he was just gone for a while and returned at the Royal Rumble and it was just an incredible return.

And they tried to get him going. And, you know, he was on. And then he was out again for a while. And now this happens. It just sucks, man. It just sucks. Condolences to the family, the friends, everybody in the WWB locker room, anyone that's going to have to perform at Smackdown tonight,

it's just got to be super tough. Anyone who is a fan of his, it's just rotten news. Absolutely rotten news. But hard to transition and move forward with MMA chatter and other chatter, but that's what we're here to do. It's a free for all Friday. So we can talk about UFC Singapore, Max Hollow versus Korean zombie,

sneaky good card. We're going to have a preview show at noon Eastern today. Myself and Jed Mishuda, get you ready for that car, which kicks off 5 a.m. Eastern with the prelims, and it'll be capped off by the hallway versus zombie fight. So we can talk about that. We can talk about the big stories in May.

I know the fallout of UFC 292 is still on a lot of people's minds. So let's get into this thing. And let's hear what you guys have to say about literally anything today. Four on sniper, get us started. All right. How about Cole? Cole are you there? Mike.

What's up, ma'am? Morning, Mike. Yeah, God, terrible news yesterday. I had the privilege of seeing watching him wrestle. I watched the Wyatt family versus the Shield at Elimination Chamber in 2014. And that was just an absolute treat. I mean, this guy made me feel things that I haven't felt from pro wrestlers in a while or maybe ever. So I just want you to talk about like how fucking good this guy was.

Why his legacy is going to live on? Like this guy is, he was different. So I just want you to kind of talk about that. I know you can go on and on about that. So that's all I got. Have a hell of a day. Yeah, he was different. And I remember like all the vignettes when they were trying to,

sort of introduce him and the rest of the Yid family to the public. And it was just super interesting because, one, the characters themselves were really just kind of eye-opening. And then two, we just hadn't really seen those old school vignettes introducing characters. And when they do it, it's very rare. And it's for something or someone special. And eventually they showed up and they debuted and they like beat the shit out of

cane and like kind of dragged him out and it was just man it was just crazy and then just the promos he cut and and just the whole thing with the chair and the the lamp all of it all of it the fiend thing i mean it was kind of i don't know i wasn't a huge fan of it the firefly fun house was kind of interesting i remember he had that fire five fun house match at russlemania with john sina and i was just like what in the holy hell is that but I oddly still liked it, it enjoyed it. And then he had the regular match with John Cena, one of the early WrestleMania's as well.

And it was a really good match. And there was that moment where, you know, Sina's got the upper hand and why it's in the corner and he does that thing where he bends his whole body backwards and he's kind of standing on his hands. And everyone was like, what the hell is that? But yeah, he's been an advocate for mental health. I know that.

that was a big thing with him. A lot of his promos after he came back were about that. And I believe it was Denise Salcedo, who covers the pro wrestling world, does a lot of interviews, does a really good job, posted a clip of Ray Wyatt's last press conference. And man, I highly recommend you just go watch that clip because it has a whole different meeting now. But super creative guy, incredible promo, made you feel. feel like something real was happening, even though it's a performance-based type of thing.

And Jesus Christ, man. That one stung. 36. 36 years of age. Just super sad. Oh, yeah. He'll have a legacy of being super creative. One of the best promos I've ever seen.

Just way too young. Way too young. Dax, hello. Hey, Mike. I got a quick one. for you. I haven't heard anything in months about the whole James Krause situation. Is there any update on that? I know there was an investigation, but just no, no reports, no nothing. Well, no, no, there's been absolutely nothing. It looked like it was kind of going to be a snowball

that was rolling downhill for a minute once this thing kind of got rolling, but yeah, nothing's really come of it. I've asked It was very tight-lipped early on I had acquired a couple of sources about some different things that we were digging into But you just can't go off of that You have to

Go a little deeper And Yeah really not much Still being investigated And that's really it I mean it's one of those things that People kind of forgot about But they really didn't

I know personally it's been something that I've been pretty much trying to dig my claws into almost all year long. And outside of like the beginning stages of all this, when things are really starting to ramp up, there really hasn't been much. There really hasn't been much. James is completely out of the MMA game. I am friends with him on Facebook. He doesn't post anything outside of, hey, here's this new property that I just repaired,

who wants to rent it who wants to sell their house kind of a thing back still doing the the house flipping thing which has been doing for years anyways so yeah

it's weird how this was the talk of the MMA world everyone was trying to figure out what the hell is going on and then it's just been nothing you know

we found out what happened with Jeff Molina and you know Jeff hasn't fought since then so yeah it's still Still developing and developing very slowly. And that's what happens in some of these,

like these things where it gets to a federal level and it looks like this one has. So, I mean, the last I checked is it was going to get pretty nasty. And this is months and months and months ago. And we talked about on the show when this thing first came out. But a lot of layers to it. And we haven't really peeled any of them back. everything is pretty tight-lipped at this point so trust me on this we have tried we have tried to get

more information that it just isn't there it just isn't there uh daniel hello hey mike can you hear me yep what's up man perfect perfect perfect first size of charm uh happy friday heck of a morning to you just wanted to talk about this freaking clay collard and shane burgo's fight i mean jesus man what an absolute barn burner for us a Wednesday night fight. I mean, damn, almost missed the fights. PFL putting on their playoffs on Wednesday. That's a whole other scenario.

But just kind of want your thoughts, I guess, more on just Clay Collard. I mean, damn, has this guy really had an unbelievable run in the PFL? And, I mean, I understand Clay Collard was in the UFC a long time ago. I understand Rob Wilkinson was in the UFC a long time ago. But I think from like a person that was probably in the UFC and just a little more recently, I guess I'd say OAM feels like the most successful fighter from the UFC to come over. Just kind of your opinions on Clay College performance and maybe why some of these UFC fighters are just struggling coming over. Thanks, Mike.

Yeah, Clay is just, he's always been this guy, always been super fun and exciting. He had a run in 2014 to the UFC. First fight he had in the UFC was Max Holloway. And that fight freaking ruled. Like that was a banger. Holloway ended up getting him out of there late because it was, you know, his first UFC fight. And Holloway was, I think it was 18th or that was college like 18th pro fight,

but Max is just, he's fucking Max, man. Then he goes out and beats Alex White and loses to Gabriel Benitez and then loses a splitie, which was a really close fight to Tiago Trader. And then he just is gone. And he's going on a nice little run. He's getting wins on the regional scene, fought a bunch for FFC. went into the boxing world was having a lot of success in boxing.

There were people talking about him being like the boxing fighter of the year in 2020. I think he went 5 and 0 in 2020, or he won 5 in a row and then lost a couple at the end there and then returns to MMA, returns to the PFL, and he is just

so fun to watch. Like it is a guarantee that this dude is going to be in a fun fight. And I remember the first, first time I interviewed him, it was either late July or August of 2019. And at the time, Devante Smith was, I don't even know what's going on with Devante Smith. That's something I have to kind of look at. He was supposed to fight John McDessie at UFC 241. It was August 2019. And something happened when McDessie had to withdraw. I think he got injured. And then Clay

Collar was going to step in on super short notice in fight and fight Devante Smith. It was the big comeback fight. And I was like, holy shit. Like, this fight's going to be awesome. And then something happened, I think, was some sort of health issue. It ended up being like a positive

drug test, I think. It's kind of a weird situation. And then Kamaworthy comes in and Kama knocks out Devante Smith. There's like two good buddies fighting each other. But I always wondered what would have happened if Clay got back in there and took that fight with Devante Smith. Like, where would he be right now?

But it turns out it probably worked out much better because he got to take the boxing route, get a bunch of wins in the boxing scene, and then ended up sounding with the PFL. And he is just loving life right now. Lost a Monfeo, lost a weird splitie to Alex Martinez. I thought he won that fight. And now he's going to fight OAM in a just a super fun,

final fight in November. That fight with Shane Burgos was incredible. It was incredible. And I know we live in a recency-biased world where the shiny thing we saw last is the best. I saw a lot of people on Twitter be like, this is definitely the fight of the year. It's not the fight of the year.

It's the best PFL fight probably of all time. It's definitely the best PFL main event we've ever seen. It's probably a top six or seven fight this year, which is really good because we've had a lot of great fights this year. But, yeah, hats off to both those guys. Hats off to Clay Collard, and it's just coincidentally enough, the two guys who were in the UFC had a little bit of success, but are now finding much more success outside of it, are about to fight for a million dollars in November. Love that story. Love that story.

I didn't watch the fight live. It's just, I cannot watch a PFL event live, especially at a Wednesday, because I just don't have that kind of time. but I woke up early yesterday morning and watched the main event and it was fucking incredible well done to both of those guys let's go to Jemir what's up Jemir

what's up man I was asking um when do you think the Vulcan to Bore your fight is going to be that is a wonderful question um I would because we don't know where So here's what I'm hearing right now

because this year was kind of a weird year. Remember, the first, three of the first four pay-per-views of 2023 were international pay-per-views. They were outside of the United States. They did Brazil. Then they did Perth

for the Volk-Machachev fight. And then they did Vegas for the John Jones return. And then they did London for the Leon Edwards-Kamar Usen rematch. what I'm hearing right now and this please this is we're all friends there so I'm just telling you what is being discussed right now

it's being discussed that January is going to be somewhere in Canada I don't want I only preface this because it's got me in trouble before by not prefacing it but I'm hearing Canada will host at least that's the plan

to host the first pay-per-view of 2024 Toronto has been talked about Montreal has been talked about Toronto's the city I've heard the most from about but it's not done like nothing is done these are just what is being talked about right now

because it's still only August and things can change very very quickly I wonder what the success of the February pay-per-view last year if they just don't go back to Australia again like I know they're going to Sydney in September but I kind of feel like

February just seems like a place to just go back to Perth again. And I don't know how long that deal is. But if they, I mean, if they're going back to Australia in the first quarter of 2024 and they're going to do a pay-per-view there, you have to do it there. You have to do it there. I know Teporia wants to do it in Spain. Zero chance that happens right now. Now if Teporia wins the belt, it becomes the undisputed champion.

That's another area that they can tap into. But I kind of feel like they're going to give Volka home game here. But I don't know what they're looking at for February right now. But wouldn't shock me if they did International International again. Then did Vegas in March? Maybe they do a second paper view in March. I don't know. But I would guess February, no insight whatsoever whatsoever.

But I would say give vocal more time to heal up. And due in February, why the hell not? It seems like a good time for it. And if they're going back to Australia, that's where that fight's going to happen. That's what that fight's going to happen. And I cannot wait for that fight to happen. That fight is awesome. That's an awesome title fight.

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a better quality price, on link on C4C or in magazine. Uh, Brent, hello. Yep, I got you.

Okay, cool. This is a question that I've heard on other shows and other programs. Just wanted to get your thoughts on the

strikers era that we appear to be in in the UFC right now and that's it, thank you. The strikers era? I mean, are we in the strikers era?

I mean, I guess we kind of are, but I feel like we're kind of entrenched in the grappling era in a lot of respects. Like, we've seen, like, I don't know if we're all the way there, but we're, like, we've seen Hamzaa Chamaif just kind of run through people, Islamachaf,

being the champion. We're seeing a lot of heavy, like, we saw John Jones at heavyweight, just kind of grapple people. Pantosia was grappling at 25. Al Jermaine Sterling was the champion for a while. I know Sean's the champion now, but I don't know if we're quite in the striking era.

Like even if you listen to like Ian Machado, Gary in his post-fight press conference on this past Saturday, obviously he wants to fight Wonderboy, but he said a million times, like, look, you haven't even seen my grappling. I'm the best grappling in the freaking world right now. I might just go mess around and win an ADCC world title. And no geek, because I'm,

I'm that good. I'm best grappler in the world. I don't know if we're quite in the strikers era. I know we got some guys coming in from the kickboxing world like Alex Pereira and others, but I don't know if we're quite there. I don't know if this is the strikers era. I feel like the times before that were the strikers era. It's kind of like we started off in the jiu-jitsu era, then we kind of went to a striking era. Then it's kind of been like mixing the martial arts. And now it's more still mixing the martial arts. We're seeing a lot. of high intensity, high-paced, just full gas tank that never fades grappling. And those guys are just super, super successful right now.

So it's an interesting thought. I'm sure if I really dug deep that we could find, you know, some different ways to, to prove that theory. But I don't know if we're quite in the, like, I don't know if I would look back at 2020, You know, 2020 to now is like, oh, this is the era of strikers. I mean, Yuri Proshka won the freaking light heavyweight title by submission against Clover Tashire for God's sake. It's wild.

But yeah, I mean, I guess this is a discussion to be had. It's an interesting time. It's got to get even we're, like, wait until it's like 10 years from now. And we get some of these kids who have been training since they were like four, five, and six. and they were like, nah, I didn't want to play baseball. I want to be a UFC fighter. Like, this game is going to evolve in a way that I don't think anybody's really all that ready for. It's got to be crazy.

Riley, hello. Two quick questions. One, what are your thoughts on Jiga finally returning? It's been like, I think almost like two years. And I feel like him versus Bruce Leroy could definitely be a fight of the night. And secondly, I just wanted to ask, what do you think of, like, Marab and, Aljo both calling out Starling, not Sterling,

O'Malley, because obviously they're best friends, but I don't know, I see Marab saying like, oh, I took his jacket however many months ago, now let's see if I could take his belt and Aljo's tweeting four months. I'll be ready to get my belt back, stuff like that. Do you think

there's any clash and there could possibly be a Marab Aljo storyline down the line? Thanks. Thanks, man. Yeah, it's good to have Giga back. I mean, he got thumped by Calvin Cater, like real bad. So this is a good comeback fight. Bruce Leroy's been on a nice run. A lot of people haven't really been completely sold on this run. But if he goes out there and beats Giga Chikaze, then you got no choice but to be sold on this run. So I think if you're going to come back after a long layoff like this, Bruce Leroy is like a really good opponent. I think style, style, realistically it's a good fight for him. He's clearly going to have the advantages on the feet.

Bruce Lee-Rae will have the advantages on the map, but Giga has really good takedown defense. He's got a pretty decent get-up game, and I just don't know if Chasaris going to be able to get him down. So, I mean, honestly, I think Casas probably watched a lot of that Calvin Cater fight. He's got to be the aggressor. He's got to get in his face.

He's got to make this real ugly, and he's got a chance to win. But I think this is a good fight for Giga. he's just going to kick Alex Casaris a lot more than likely, and it should be fun. The Aljo Marab thing, look, I get what they're trying to do, but I've talked about this a million times. One, Al Jermalind Sterling's never fighting Sean O'Malley again. That fight is never going to happen. The only chance that fight happens again is if Aljo goes to 45 and somehow wins the featherweight title,

and Sean O'Malley wants to win a second belt. That's the only way that rematch happens. Sean has no sold Aljo from Jump Street. And the big reason why is because of how each, if you look at how each of them individually built up to the moment, Sean O'Malley was very complimentary of Al Jemaine Sterling, called him the greatest Bannumweight of all time. If I beat him, what does that make me?

Just kept putting him over. And Aljo kept saying, I'm going to run this dude out of the octagon, and I'm going up to 45 and McCall Volcanowski. So if you listen to the post-fight press conference, when he was asked about Al Jermaine Sterling in a rematch, what did Sean O'Malley say? I thought he's going to 45. And then just said, next question,

he ain't fighting Aljo again. That is done. He's never going to do it better. Like, why would he take that fight? Sean O'Malley calls the shots right now. He is going to fight Cheeto Vera in the biggest Banimate title fight of all time. It is going to sell out, is going to do better numbers on page.

pay-per-view than the Aljo fight did. It's going to do better numbers on pay-per-view than an Al-Jer rematch should do. I've said this as well. If I'm Al Jemaine Sterling, the second Max Holloway versus Korean zombie ends, I am turning all my focus to Max Holloway. Now, he may lose that fight, but if he wants to get a shot of the title again, that's the quickest way to get there. Go fight Max, get his attention.

if you beat Max Holloway, you're fighting for the title. And then if you want the O'Malley rematch, there you go. As far as Marab goes, I feel like out of everybody in the Banimate division, I feel like Marab de Walsh really lost the most on Saturday, even more than Aljo did. Because if Aljo had won,

Marab's getting into a vacant title fight. He's in a great spot. Maybe he fights Henry. Suhudo probably wins that fight and is going to be the Banaway champion probably for a long time. Sean O'Malley is probably not going to fight Marab at all because why would he? Again, he calls the shots. He's going to fight Cheeto, tough fight. But if Sean O'Malley wins that, you think he's going to fight Marab? No chance. No chance. He's got either, he's either going to go up to 45. He's just going to take time off and go fight Gervante, which is just so stupid, but I get it. You want to

make that bag? And that's what Sean wants to do. He's not in the fight game. He's in the fight business. He said it a million times. I feel like Marab lost more than anybody on Saturday. And if I'm Marab, I am the biggest Marlon Verifan on the face of the planet. Plain and simple. I am the biggest Cheeto Verifan that has ever lived. And he needs to pray that Cheeto wins that fight. because if he doesn't, he ain't getting a title shot. So, yeah, I don't think those guys are going to clash. I know Marops said in some other interviews that he would wait a year to fight for the belt if Alja wants the rematch and Alger gets the rematch, but he's not getting it.

Is anybody hankering to see the rematch? Like, honestly, are you like, oh, my God, I have to see these guys fight again? No, because he got absolutely run over. Like, the first round was super close. but O'Malley just killed him. It was definitive. This wasn't like O'Malley winning a close decision. O'Malley sparked them.

I just don't think that fight happens. And I don't think the Marab fight happens either. I know there's a story with Marab. I think honestly Henry Sehudo is in a better spot to get that fight. If I'm Henry, I ain't doing shit. If I'm Marab, I'm focusing on my attention on Sehudo. Go fight Sehudo. Try.

But if I'm Sehudo, I'm not taking that fight. I'm sitting back and waiting to see what happens in December because Sean O'Malley will probably call a Henry Sehudo to Sean O'Malley's a really good chance to be Henry Sehudo right now at this point in his career, I think. So, yeah, I don't think Alch was getting that fight. And I don't think Barab's getting that fight anytime soon. I think Marab will get a title shot sometime next year,

but I think it's going to be an interim title fight because I think one shot O'Malley fights Cheeto and if he wins, I think he's going to take some time and just wait to see what develops. I told you, this division is about to get real, real weird. And some of you're going to like it, some of you're going to hate it. So it happens when you have a big star in the making.

Sean O'Malley is officially a big star. LaSalle, hello. Lesoul, are you there? You got to unmute yourself. All right, it's not working. How about Mike? Do we have you, Mikey? What's up?

Everybody. First of all, speaking of the Shane Burgos play a collard fight. If we're going to play, if I can play the semantics game for a second, that's the best PFL main event, sure. But if we're incorporating WSOF history, it can't overshadow the Justin Gachy Palomino fights. Oh, of course not. No, this is, we're talking strictly PFL. Yeah, strictly BFL.

Okay. Well, just for some of the people in the space of day, never seen WSO-era, you know, PFL, because I feel like it's funny because PFL is literally like, you know, an NBA franchise or a NFL franchise that changes their name. It's like, you're still the same team. It's just you change your name. You know what I mean? Still the same management. But I'm just, that's why I was thinking about it's like, man, yes, that's a great main, non-title main event, but like the Gachchi Palomino, like, heck just Gachchi's entire PFL career. WSOF career was insane. But, but yeah, listen, man, and I say this with all,

due respect to Marab. I like Marab, and he deserves his title shop. This was kind of annoying how some people on the MMA space was like, oh, well, you know, Sean is the only, Sean only got there because the UFC favorite. I'm like, listen, man, that can be true, but multiple things can be true. The reason why he got that title shot was because everyone ahead of him either got beat by Alcho or wasn't available to fight. And two, just to, you just touched on it, but this is just the fact, ma'am.

I don't want to hear fans or even Marag complained that he didn't get his title shot when all you have to do was fight your friend. You can't sit out and be like, I don't know if I find my friend who has the belt and then complain that you're not getting your title shot. You can't have your cake and eat it too and be like, well, that should have been me. I'm like, well, it should have been you, but you didn't want to fight your friend. So sorry. Sean O'Malley got his, you know, it's so funny how like a year and a half ago everyone was calling Sean

the fraud. Like, oh, he's just a pretentious guy. He's not really a real contender. And then he beats somebody that everyone thought, like, this isn't even about being a shot Amali fan. It's just objectively true. You know, people dog this guy and say, you know, it's funny. Everyone was like, well, if Aljo had more time, like, you know, if the UFC didn't rush him, I'm like, you know what, that's true too.

But you also have to take a look at Sean himself even said, listen, if this wasn't a title fight, I probably would have postponed it. But he took the opportunity and he was like, listen, man, that they wanted me to fight this fight at that day. So he took it. And he took the risk because it's interesting what the narrative would be if Sean O'Malley lost and then said, man, I haven't been able to grapple for six weeks.

You know what I mean? And also one note just to diverge for a second, man. Rest in peace, Terry Funk. Rest and peace, brave Wyatt. And if you can give me a couple of your memories from them, if you have any, that'd be cool too. All right. Be kind of another.

Happy fight week because we're all going to be up early tomorrow. So thanks, buddy. Thanks, man. Yeah. Look, at this point, if anyone is calling Sean O'Malley a fraud, you're absolutely out of your mind. Absolutely out of your mind. The dude, whether you scored the Piotr-Yon fight for Sean or not,

but it doesn't matter. None of it matters because in the record books, Sean O'Malley beat Piotr-Yan. And if you go back and watch that fight, there's a case to be made that he won the fight. I still think Yon won, but I'm like, I wasn't screaming out of my shoes like, oh, that's a robbery. You're not watching it live at the, like, doing the watch party at the time.

I was like, eh, don't really think he won that one. But I did my due diligence. I rewatched it. And you can make at least somewhat of a case that Sean won the fight. It was super close. We learned a lot about Sean O'Malley that night. And what did you think was going to happen? Of course he was going to get a title shot.

He stepped aside and let Sohudo get his shot. And then Sean O'Malley thumped out Jermaine Sterling. Like the man earned the title. You could talk about the road it took to get there. But when the lights were as bright as they could be, he came through in a huge way. And there's the injury and all of that. And here's the thing about that fight

that made it so interesting to me. One, obviously the vibes are in the air. Being in Boston, it just felt like Sean O'Malley was going to win. It just, you just could feel it. Everyone in Boston was so confident. Sean O'Malley's not even from Boston. He's from Montana. And now he lives in Arizona.

And now, like, he was treated like he was fucking Larry Bird. during fight week. It was nuts. And the way, it was just vibes. It just felt like Aljo could have the best performance of his life. And Sean could just, all Sean has to do is walk to the octagon,

he's going to win. It just meant to be. It was destiny of Sean O'Malley. And it felt that way. It felt that way, despite what the matchup was like on paper. It's a horrible matcher for Sean. And he admitted as such.

But it just felt like on that night, in that building where championship banners are hung in the rafters where the legendary players played inside the old and the new garden their numbers are retired to the rafters where some of the greatest moments in the history of sports took place in the city of fucking champions shot o'malley was due and this is going to be his night and damn it did he do it and he deserves all the credit in the world for it and now marab is in a really weird spot where he's probably not going to get a title shot.

And Marab's a super interesting guy. Like I could go out and be like, just be more interesting. There might not be a more interesting guy in the UFC. The Marab de Walshwood. This dude's like doing dives into like lakes that are frozen over and like cutting his face open. This dude's stealing Sean O'Malley's jacket. He's just quietly like one of the more interesting guys in the sport. he's kind of in the background of Aljo.

And it's just a weird place for him. He's not getting the fight. He's not fighting Sean O'Malley. It's not happening. I'm not saying ever. Unless Sean wants it, he ain't getting it. It's the Sugar Show.

We are in the Sugar Show now. He ain't Connor, but he's real close. He is real close. And this title win just solidifies it. And the UFC is going to strap the rockets to him until he gets far into outer space, as far as you can get, until he sent him to Pluto.

That's where Shotomalley is going if it's up to the UFC. So he's going to be very careful with his matchups. He's going to make as much money as possible. This is the world we live in. I talked about Bray White earlier. Terry Funk, Jesus, man.

Absolute legends. I remember I didn't really, the first time I saw Terry Funk was, I think it was like 89. And he had the feud with Rick Flair and they had this I think they did like a Texas death match or like a last man standing match or something

in New York and Clash of the Champions. I remember watching it and they just tore the house down. And then I remember obviously him coming to WWF his chainsaw Charlie, which was ridiculous.

But honestly, the Terry Funk guy I remember the most was the middle- aged and crazy Terry Funk that showed up at ECW, because I was a huge ECW fan. Loved it all through high school. Midnight 1am on Univision in Boston, I would either watch it live, the weekly television show, or I would set the VCR to record it, and Terry Funk was all over the damn place. And I remember ordering the first ECW pay-per-view barely legal, and Terry Funk won the ECW world title

in a triple, or he won a triple threat match and then Raven came down and like beat the shit out of him and then Terry Funk ended up winning it right before the lights went out. Super cool. Absolute legend. His promo is so ridiculous. The egg suck at you. You egg sucking dog.

Ah, Terry Funk. What a friggin legend, man. What a legend. But the ECW days. I remember him branding Cactus Jack. All sorts of craziness. Like ECW is like perfect. for that, dude.

And we lost a good one. We lost a damn good one with Terry Funk. Let's try Scott. Do we have Scott? I try to get Scott. It didn't work. How about YVMZ? Hey, Mike. Heck of morning. You too. I had a quick question.

Do you think, I wanted to get your thoughts on Anthony Smith. If he loses this one on this upcoming weekend, Do you think that's it for him or I don't know, why I would get your thoughts on that heck of morning? I don't know, man. Maybe. I don't know.

It depends on how he looks. I have not liked what I've seen from Anthony Smith as of late. I did not like what I saw it all in the Johnny Walker fight. So now they're putting his position against a guy who he already beats. and a guy that is coming off pretty tough loss himself but it just hasn't been a great run for Anthony like he got the doors blown off him by Magamette Ancolaev

Johnny Walker pieced him up and Anthony looked terrible in that fight I don't know I think it's one of those things we're just going to have to wait and see how this all plays out because I mean like Ryan Span like where are the betting on let me see the betting on the

right now they have Ryan Spat at a minus one 125. And like, when I look at that, it just seems like, wow, Ryan's ban's only a minus 125 favorite. I figured it would be much more than that. But I felt like Ryan Span was the guy after he knocked out Dominique Reyes. When he comes out and says like, oh, no, I'm actually, I didn't even actually trained before, but now I'm actually training. And then he goes out and gets tapped super fast. So it's a crossroads fight for both guys. But I don't know. I guess it depends on how he looks. Like if he goes out and has a war with Ryan Span,

he loses like a super close decision, and he looks good, then no. But if he looks like he did against Johnny Walker, then, uh, yeah, not good.

Not good. We'll have to see how this all plays out tomorrow morning. Uh, Four Corner Sports, hello. Hey, Mike. Um,

so it's a travesty that Aaron Blanchefield isn't, versus Tyler's onto isn't the coal main event. Um, two ladies that I feel like was it called, that should be in that position or what are they like the second fight of the of the main card I think it's ridiculous

but to kind of piggyback what the previous caller was seeing I was gonna like spin it around in the sense of like between Aaron Blanchfield Giga Chikaze and Anthony Smith who has the most to lose I heard BTL

and I feel like I feel like Blanchfield has some type of pressure because Rose is fighting next week. I believe it's next week, if not the week after. And she is fighting

Manifioro in Paris. Now, I feel like if she gets the win, in my opinion, I think that, you know, the U.S.E could catapult her into a title fight. I mean, unless, you know, the fight is not pleasant

and stuff like that, and Blanfield, you know, gets title Santas out of there in like the first, you know, in the first round or maybe even under the one and a half. But I just feel that there's a lot, you know, there's a lot of stake in that fight. I feel like even with a win, Tylen Santos is not going to get a title shot.

I think she'll be maybe like one fight away. And I had to look back on Zapology. I didn't realize that Anthony Smith hasn't won a fight since he defeated Ryan Span, which I think is pretty crazy. And then lastly, you know, rest of peace of Bray Wyatt. I've got to say one of the coolest, you know,

WWE wrestlers of this generation in quite some time. His debut was iconic, and the whole gimmick with the whole Wyatt family, it's sad to see that two out of the three are gone now. Rest and peace of Bray. Yeah, for sure. So let me try to remember the three names. She said, Giga, Anthony Smith, and Aaron Blanchfield,

who has the most to lose. It's Kikidcatsi by a mile to me. Because even if Anthony Smith meets Ryan Span, like this is just a fight. This is just a fight. Really. So I don't think Anthony has like a ton to lose here. I think people kind of think he's out the door.

I think his title hopes are gone. He's on a two-fight losing streak. So I think his road, heading into the Ankylaia fight, he was in title contention, certainly. And even, oddly enough, heading into the Johnny Walker fight with where the division was.

And Jamal Hill being the champion and everything, how timing worked out. Like Anthony Smith was kind of in line for a title fight there. But I think the door has been closed, and now it's just a matter of can he prove it to himself that he can still go out there and do it. Giga is coming off the long layoff. Giga ain't a spring chicken, man.

It's not like he's... It's not like he's a youngster. How old is Giga? Is he 35? Maybe older? How old is he? It's 34. He's 34.

I believe he just turned 34 today. No, he's 30, just turned 35 today. He's born in 88. Yeah, he's 35. August 25, 1988. So he is 35. Division's getting young and deep. So if he wants to make a title run, he's got to win.

He's got to beat Alex Casas. So I think the stakes are super high for him. Anthony Smith, not so much. I don't think a lot of people are like expecting him to win. But if he wins, great. And then Aaron Blanchfield like, yeah, she's got pressure on her, but not really. If she goes out and loses to Tyler Santos, who cares? She's 24.

She's got so much time. Unfortunately, for the Tyler Santos fans, I think Aaron Blanchfield is going to absolutely run her over tomorrow. I think you're all very aware of how high I am on Aaron Blanchfield. I think she's going to absolutely run over Tylos Santos tomorrow. But if she loses, it's not the end of the world. You just go back to the drawing board,

win a couple of fights, you're right back in there. Like, she's got so much time to get to a title fight. And when she gets there, and she's going to get there, she is going to fight for the title. And when she does, she's going to win it. And when she wins the belt, she can be the champion for a real long time. If it's now, great. If it's not, she's only 24.

Plenty of time to get there. but I do think she's going to win tomorrow and I do think she's going to be impressive and I don't know if it's enough to get her a title fight because if Rosamayunez beats Manon and Fioro by any way, in any way, shape, or form, she is fighting for the belt. That's it.

Sorry, Aaron Blanchfield. Like, Aaron Blanchfield could submit Tila Santos in two minutes tomorrow. But if Rosamuiz Bits Man and Fioro next Saturday, she's getting the title shot. Aaron's the up-and-comer. Rose is the certified star. I know there's a bad taste in people's mouths because of the Carla fight.

But Rose is a star. She wins. She's getting the shot. Try to etch her in the history books as a two-division champion. They're going to try. You know how the UFC likes to operate? And they're going to put the biggest stars in the biggest spots. So Blanchev and I have to get one more. Scott, hello.

Scott. Scott! you're muted scott can you hear me now mark yes i'm hiding can you hear me okay what's the last yes i got you i got you uh you're breaking up like crazy we tried scott we tried if you want to put if you want to put what your question was in the chat put it in the chat uh cole go ahead

hi mike uh since we're gonna end up getting this cheat over versus Sean probably later this year. Can you do me a favor and go on record and say that that Cheeto, Corey's scorecard for Cheeto is the worst of the whole year? Because it is. I think it is, like, that has to be the worst of the whole year.

I think that is worse than anything else that we've seen. I think it's worse than the Paul Felder RDA from a couple of years ago. That's how bad I think that scorecard is. So just what, like, what's your worst card of the year off the top of your head? that's a bad one that's a super bad one uh i know the sabatel of stott's one was like december but technically it's in the year that one's about as bad that might be worse i know it was december

but it is less than a year ago sabatel getting a 5045 over rafion stott's is a terrible scorecard i mean that that might be the worst scorecard i've ever seen let me see there have been There's been some tough ones. There's one recently that I thought was just absolutely ridiculous. Steve Rita, putting a scorecard in for the Karine-A-Silva-Marina Morose fight, was pretty weird since that fight didn't get out of the first round. Let me see. It was recent.

Was it 2992? Let me see. Maybe it was the week before. Hold on. maybe it was this one maybe was the luke de sancho's card there was a really bad one finish finish oh to fucking tony weeks man tony weeks had a really bad card i mean the right fighter would have won but the jacqueline ummarim montserat ruis fight like those were those first two rounds were about as clear of 10 eight rounds as you could possibly get and tony week

the boxing judge gave 2 10-9s like not 1-10-8 what fight were you watching were even watching the fight like that's the those are bad cards like those are bad cards but yes that that's pretty bad one that's pretty bad card we've seen a lot of bad ones

this year uh Cheryl I don't know why you're not getting through I'm trying but it's not working we'll try one more time Viking what's up ma'am thanks for selecting but I just I have just joined the space

and now I've selected so thanks a lot for that yeah man what's going on I just want to talk about the Aaron Blankfield and Tide's Sanchard I have been seeing watching

Blankfield's fights and she just notice that she's quite slow and she's able to get she gets hits a lot so everything tylus and plus will capitalize on that and marks her out thanks a lot and And just tell me about, tell me what your opi if the fight gets on. Thanks a lot. I mean, look, it could happen. We've seen Blancheville get dinged up from time to time. Like J. Galdorch had a lot of success against Aaron Blanchfield in the first round of their fight.

But I think her striking got a lot better since then. Like she went hammering tongs with Jessica Androj in the first round. Like, she didn't, I don't even think she. She shot a single takedown attempt in the first round of that fight. She stood in the pocket and just traded. Now, was it the prettiest thing we've ever seen? No. Did she get hit?

Yes. But Jessica Androge is a hitter. And she just went to war with her in that first round and held her own. I think she, maybe she did get a takedown like late in that first round. If memory was just to correct. But anyways, she was happy to stand there with Jessica Andrade. She took it like a champion. And then she just tackled her and subbed her in the run.

the second round. So I don't think Aaron's afraid to throw bombs with Tyler Santos. And honestly, I feel like Santos is pretty solid on the ground. Blanchfield is a murderer on the ground. There is nobody in this division who can match her physicality on the mat. There isn't. Valentina can't do it. Grasso can't do it, at least in my opinion. And I certainly don't think Tyler Santos can do it. Now, if this is a, if Tyler Santos keep this fight on the feet and have incredible takedown defense, she's got a real good chance to win this fight, but I just don't see it happen. I think Aaron's going to grab her and take her down and beat the hell out of her. She's so good at it. She's so good at it. And that's the scary thing about Aaron Blanchfield,

is that she is super good right now. She might be the best 125 pound female fighter on the planet right now. she could be. But what's scary about her is she's only going to get better. She's going to get a lot better. She's only 24. There are holes in her game, no doubt about it. But those are going to get tightened up over the next few years. So if you're Tylos Santos or anybody else in this division,

and I say this about, say it about Hamzot, said it about Shafkat, say it about Ian Gary. If you're going to fight her, fight her now. because if you fight her in two years, you ain't beaten her. So it's going to be an interesting fight. If it goes to the mat, it's Blanchefield's world. Hey, Mike.

Yeah, go ahead. Hey, good morning, Mike. Just a random one for you. So I saw a random fight that was, that's supposed to go down in a few weeks on my timeline on Twitter the other day. And it was between Natanz Levi and the guy by the name of Alex Reyes.

And I looked up Alex Reyes because I didn't recognize him. And it turns out this man is not fought since September 6th, September. 16th of 2017 when he lost to Mike Perry. So when him and Natan fight, they will be fighting on the six-year anniversary of his last fight, which was a USC debut. I was curious to if there was a fighter who has had a longer layoff that was under UFC contract, if you knew of any fighter, could you let me know?

Yeah, it's the Alex Ray's story is pretty wild. And if the name sounds familiar, the last name anyways, it's because it is familiar. He is the brother of former UFC title challenger Dominic Reyes. He's the older brother. We have not seen Alex Reyes fight since he made his debut against Mike Perry and just got obliterated. But he's been dealing with a lot.

He's had a lot going on. I'm trying to remember exactly what happened. I want to see if it was like a spine. There's a spinal infection. He had a spinal infection. And took a long time to come back from that. I know my man Nolan King spoke with him. And when he was diagnosed with this,

they didn't, like they thought it was so bad. They didn't, they didn't think he could, would ever be able to walk again, let alone fight. So, yeah, I don't remember like that long of a lay. where someone was just, I had one UFC fight, and then six years later, without anything in between, have another UFC fight?

I can't remember one. I'll have to ask Jose about that because he's got the elephant's brain when it comes to dates and weird statistical anomalies, but I'd be stunned if that's not the longest. Yeah, and you're right. It'll be the legit six-year anniversary

from Mike Perry fight when he fights the Ton Levy. It's a tough one to come back to, but good on him good on him and we'll see if he can turn things around for not just himself but for the race for the whole rayus family here for the whole rayus family let's see but all right everybody we are done again appreciate all the patience early on with the technical issues but we got through it we persevered and we battled and we did the damn thing

we'll do the damn thing again at the top of the hour. Jed and I will preview UFC Singapore. Live preview show, noon Eastern Time, so you can join us for that. We'll answer more of your questions. Sneak you a good card. And then tomorrow, 5 a.m., baby. 5 a.m. We're getting after it.

UFC action. I don't think there's going to be a people's pre-fight show for obvious reasons this time around, but I'll be up and at him on the desk for M-Afighting.com. at 5 a.m. Eastern tomorrow. Going to get to bed nice and early and get excited for a sneaky good UFC Singapore card. So thanks for tuning in this week. Whether it's live or on the pod network,

we'll be back here on Tuesday, 10 a.m. Eastern, we'll do it again. Until then, everybody, have a great rest of your Friday, and as always, have a heck of a morning.