MMA Fighting - HOAM | Should Khamzat Chimaev's Next Fight Be For Title Following UFC 294 Win?

Episode Date: October 24, 2023

Khamzat Chimaev had to work for it, but he did what he needed to do on Saturday at UFC 294 — he defeated Kamaru Usman. Heading in, Dana White said that the winner would get a title shot against Sean Strickland, but was the performance from Chimaev enough to get him his first world championship opportunity? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck attempts to answer that question, why Chimaev should get more credit than he's getting for the victory, and where Usman goes from this past weekend. Additionally, listener topics include Islam Makhachev's big finish of Alexander Volkanovski in the main event, if Charles Oliveira or Justin Gaethje should be next, the doctor involved in two weird endings to UFC 294 bouts, Ikram Aliskerov's future at 185 pounds, 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 to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter 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 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 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. To the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Tuesday, October 24th, 2023, and it is indeed a heck of a morning. We are live on the MMA fighting Twitter spaces. You can hear the show in its entirety, shortly thereafter, on the MMA Fighting Podcasting Network. Hello there, everybody. I am Mike Hock. I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend, having a great start to the week.

A wonderful start to the week for Islammachachad right now, the undisputed, lightweight champion of the world just obliterates Alexander Volkanowski with a nasty headkick, gets the job done in Route 1. He got his closure. There are no more questions. It's all about Islam Mokachev.

and he's the guy right now. He is the guy. He is M.M.A. fighting's number one pound for pound fighter. He is not the UFC's number one pound for pound fighter, but he is M.A. Fighting's number one pound for pound fighter after that performance. That fight was not really all that competitive.

Volk tried his hardest, but I think once Islam need him in the face, once he had that sort of Anderson Silva-esque plum, the clinch going on and started to do. delivering those knees. The whole fight changed. And then the kick heard around the world that apparently New York Rick saw before anybody else did because he ruined the finish for us during the watch party.

But we love New York Rick nonetheless. Machchev lands a big head kick. It just goes bananas with the ground and pound. You could see Volk's eyes rolling in the back of his head. And then just the iconic image of Volk down against the fence. Everybody attending to him. And Islam Makachchev, cold as ice, doing the shush. Absolutely incredible performance from Islam Makachaf.

And it's going to be interesting to see where he goes next. Could be Charles Olivera, could be Justin Gaichi. I'm down for either. If I had my choice, it would be Justin Gaichi because it's fresh, it's new. We haven't seen it before. But at the given to Charles Olivera, I can't complain about it. But hell of a day for Islam Makachef on Saturday in Abu Dhabi. Hamzaa Shemayev leaves Abu Dhabi.

with the victory, but he also leaves the MMA community with more questions and answers following his 15-minute decision win over Kamara Ouspin, majority decision. I scored a 29-27 for Shemai F 10-8 first round, Ousman won round two. I thought Shemayev eke's out round three, but if you want to come on here and make a case for Ousman winning round three and scoring it a draw, like one of the judges did, you're not going to get a whole hell of a lot of discourse defense coming from me

because it was a close third round. It was a very very close third round. If Shamiya's doesn't land that takedown, Ousman is winning that round and squeaking out a draw, but Oshman deserves a lot of credit for the way he performed. Hamza Shemayev says he broke his hand, maybe

his wrist early in that fight, so that maybe slowed him down a little bit after just a super human first round. But kudos to uspin kudos to shemaiah for digging deep and kudos to hamzaa shemaya for the post-fight speech afterwards that was really good stuff very positive stuff coming out of his mouth normally he just goes ballistic and starts saying he's going to smash everybody not this time this was the complete opposite of the post-fight speech we heard after the kevin holland victory so hamzaa shimai if

on track in his new weight class of 185 pounds not new for the UFC, but new is. He's essentially going to be a full-time middleweight now, and he comes in with the win. And then we go to 205, we go to the feature bout. Magamette Inc. Live. Johnny Walker ends with the quote-unquote accidental illegal knee, scored a no contest or ruled a no contest.

Our friend, the doctor, Dr. Shitbag, comes in and just ask Johnny a question. Johnny does Johnny things in response, ends the fight. Almost a freaking melee in the center of the cage. Dana White has to come in and make sure cooler heads prevail. But it ends in an old contest. If that was a DQ, I would not have been upset about it. Because at this point, like what constitutes a DQ at this point? Like, really?

The doctor was bad. The referees, for the most part, were pretty bad on Saturday. It was just a weird card altogether, but still really good up the top. Icramal Scaroff is a bad, bad dude. Just destroys poor Worley Alvese with the flying knee. That guy's going to be a problem. I want to see him fight Robert Whitaker next. I don't think that fight happens, but that's the fight I want to see.

Test that dude. Let's see what he's got. I think he's one of the five best middleweights in the world right now. I really do. So let's see what he can do. Saita Narmaghamayev. Pung to a quick clock. 73 seconds, gets the guillotine over Mouin Gafferoff, nicely done.

Mohamed Mahayev, who I didn't even realize until hours later, maybe it might have been Sunday that he was down two rounds on two of the judge's scorecards to Tim Elliott before getting that arm triangle in the third round. Another submission win. Solid performance. We interested in the way where Mahiaf goes. You got patient Trevor Peek. We got the groin kick heard around the world

That has still been Just this big dispute on social media Should it have been a no contest Should it have been a TKO for Javid Basharad But all I know is that Victor Henry Who is one of the toughest dudes You will ever see at 135 pounds Was screaming in agony

And the doctor basically told him You know what? You didn't get hit in the balls You shouldn't be essentially feeling The pain you're feeling Because you can get kicked in the balls that guy sucks the doctor and now it's a whole thing with victor henry and josh barnet and javid basher out and doing cooper going back and forth on social media can't handle this shit can't handle this shit but hopefully victor henry is okay guess the pills are going to be useful moving forward as as he so eloquently put it on social media but that's tough especially what that was one of the fights we were looking forward to SD Dumas gets a decision win. Not a fight.

We're going to go back and watch again. Mike Breeden is a friggin' psychopath. Maham Mohamah proves the theory. Just cheat your ass off and you'll win. And that's what happened. Victoria Dutakova wins a unanimous decision. She was one of the higher, bigger betting favorites. I had a bunch of parlays going on and she was a part of almost all of them.

So I kind of sweat that one out a little bit, but she gets a win. I kind of feel like Jun U. fry might not be long for this UFC world any longer. And then we got the debut of Sharra Bullet against Bruno Silva. And it was a fun fight. And Shara did Shara things. But Bruno Silva exposed some holes in this game. He's going to have to shore up that defensive wrestling.

It's going to have to get back, learn how to get back to his feet. It's got to have to be better with his takedown defense. This is a division you are just not going to do very well. And you're not going to climb the ranks very quickly if you can't shore that part of your game up. But that dude is incredibly fun to watch. and he gets the win in his UFC debut against Bruno Soto kickoff UFC 294. So a lot going on there. We obviously have no UFC this weekend,

but we have the Tyson Fury Francis Inganu fights going down on Saturday. So that should be interesting and weird and wild and wacky and all those other adjectives that will describe that particular matchup. and then the UFC is in Sao Paulo next week for the Jilton Almeda Derek Lewis card. And then it is onwards and upwards to UFC 295, John Jones versus Steepa Mietjich, Yuri Pajasca versus Alex Pereira, two title fights. And then we're just off to the races from this point on.

So let's get into this thing. We're going to go for about 30 to 40 minutes here. Well, let's see what you all have to say. We will begin. with Tom Morel. Tom, go ahead. Maximus. For me, the real winner

on the weekend was Usman. You know, I think he surprised so many people and you think an Usman with a full training camp could well have had a real shout of winning that fight.

But whether he does or doesn't get the chance to fight Hamza again, my question is two-folded. Has Usman created a blueprint on how to beat Chemaire when it comes to body type because sometimes maybe Hamzat might be too tall for his tactics that he employs.

So has Usman created a blueprint in terms of body type and tactics against Hansma Hansat, question one. And question two, who's next for Usman in the division, Mike, in your opinion? Hmm. Has he created a blueprint? I don't know if it's like a blueprint per se, but, and I think we kind of realize,

I kind of, I think we sort of learned something from the Gilbert Burns fight as well, that you just got to, the big thing with Hamzat is, and it was kind of the same, it's not exactly the same as Alexander Romanov, right? Because his, Romanov's drop from round one on is just so bad. But Romanov went into the UFC and he was just wrecking dudes in the first round, like just killing him. And then you have guys like Marching Tibora who can survive the storm and goes on to win the fight. And again, this is not exactly the same.

But Gilaburdens had a really tough first round but survived it and then turned it on, made things really, really competitive. And almost won the fight. There were still people I talk to who feel like Gilbertins won that fight. So I don't know if it's a – I think it's pretty clear at this point. And I know, and Shemaya can someone improve that, I guess, but I don't know if that sort of takes away, would make him great. You just got to weather a storm.

If you can weather that first round storm, you have a chance to beat this guy. You got a shot. And I think that's what Uspin sort of proved. Burns proved it as well. And to me, while Ustman was, and I would guess I would agree,

Ousman is the biggest winner. I feel like his stock rose the most on Saturday. maybe Islamakovich. I would say Islel Makkahev's probably the real winner, but Usman's right there. He created a lot more questions about Hamzaa Tchaimayev. And I get to tell you, maybe the second or third biggest winner on Saturday is a guy who didn't fight. It was Drinkist Duplice. Drinkus Duplice probably went in watching that fight as it began and was like,

oh, man, I have to watch these two guys fight. And then the winner of this fight is going to go on and fight for the title that I should be fighting for. I don't think that's the case anymore. I think Drinkus, Drickus, if his best friend is availability and the UFC calls and says, hey, we need you guys to fight in January or February or whenever. His answer better be yes.

And if it is, he's getting a tight, he's getting the next title shot. It won't be Hamzot. Just we don't know what Hamzot's injury is going to be. He's going to be out for a hot minute. It appears if he broke his hand or he broke his wrist. And Dr. Dr.C.'s duplice might actually have come out as one of the three big winners

on Saturday as well. So I would book the DDP fight, but I have to say, Sean Strickland versus Hamzat Shemayef is way more interesting today than it was on Friday. Because if Strickland, Strickland's tough,

very durable, very, very tough to finish. If Hamza does that to Strickland and Strickland can survive round one, and then Strickland gets four more rounds to try to turn the tide, That is a really compelling fight now. At first I was like, man, Hamzat's going to beat Usman,

and then he's going to go just destroy Sean Strickland. And I don't know if that's the case anymore. I'm not saying Hamzaa wouldn't win that fight because he could just go out and ice. There's a chance he could go out and ice. Hamza could just ice Strickland in the first round. But if he can't, if Strickland shows that medal that he shows all the time, that is a really interesting fight.

So, and where Oosman goes, I don't know. He called out DDP. I don't think he's getting that fight, although he could get a big one. It's going to be real interesting to see where he goes. Does he stay at 185? Does he go back to 170? On onto the next one, I went with the Shafcott Wonderboy winner. Those guys are fighting at 296.

Maybe he fights Robill Whitaker. I'd be cool with that too. I don't know what they're going to do with Oosman, but he's in a good spot. he's in a good spot he didn't really lose a whole lot in that fight Riley go ahead so I was just wondering about Volk saying he still wants the fight in January one what are your thoughts on that

I would assume you're probably not for that for one I'm definitely not I feel like before any title fight when a champion as defendants their belt for a long time the opponent. People always hype up the opponent. They're like, this guy is the guy to beat so-and-so.

But I feel like Toporia probably is the most difficult person Volk has had to face. So I feel like taking that fight right after getting knocked out is not a great idea.

And then I feel like if Max and Volk fight, honestly, I feel like Deporia, my just grappled the shit out of them. I think he might just be too strong. Yeah, what are your thoughts? Thanks, Mike. Have a heck of a morning.

Yeah, I mean, dude, that post-fight scrum with Volk was something else. It really was. That was just raw and real. And I think you got to know who Volcanovsky was more in that 12 to 15 minutes than maybe we ever have. And before I came to me, funny, I was talking to like, and I still try to talk to the prospects and the up and comers as much as I possibly can. But my role is so different now with all the content that I'm trying to be a part of and all the different things that I'm doing that I don't get to talk to a lot of the prospects as much as I used to, a lot of the regional guys. And what Volk said is something that these guys have been telling me for years. Like guys like Jay Perrin.

Jay Parrott is like a perfect example. He's one of the guys that taught me when it comes to this weird fight sport that if you don't have a date on the calendar circled in terms of a goal and a fight and when things are going to happen for you, you kind of struggle. You kind of struggle. You almost feel like in a certain respect, you have no purpose as a fighter. And that's just, that's a feeling you don't really want to feel. And Volk being one of the three best fighters on the. planet right now and a reigning champion feels that way a lot. And you would think when you get to the UFC and you find success and you win world

titles and all that, it's not really like that, but Volk's just a different cat. And that was really interesting to watch. But to your point, no, I do not want to see him fight Iliate Soporia in January. I'm not saying I don't want to see him fight Iliate Soporia. I just don't want to see him fight Ilya in January. That fight to me is much more interesting now, much like Hamzaa Shamaa versus Sean Strickland would have been. This fight between Volcanowski and Tuporia is much more interesting as well

because of what happened on Saturday. I would still pick Volk to win, but it is a different fight. It is clear Volk is turning the corner. He's rounding the bend. he's on the 11th or 12th hole right now, which isn't a bad thing. He's still going to be very good on the 12th hole and moving on. But this is, he's not in the 7th hole anymore. He's, he's on the back nine.

He's on the back nine. 12 days dose, none of that matters. He's on the back nine. But he's still incredibly good. But that fight can't happen in January. I don't want to see it. and if Volk's team is not going to be the ones to defend him and watch out for him, and look, at the end of the day, these guys work for the fighters.

So if they want to talk to them and they say, hey, we don't want you to fight, it's ultimately Volk's decision. He's a man. But I kind of hope the UFC in this position says, look, man, we get to save you from yourself. Do it at UFC 300. do it in March. Do it some other time. January is just too soon after you got absolutely obliterated like that.

No, I don't want to see it in January. I do want to see that fight. I just don't want to see it in January. If I'm the UFC, I am getting Sean Strickland and Drickus Duplice on the phone, and I am putting that fight together for January. That's the one I want to see. Strickland DDP for the middleweight title, that's how you open the year.

And then we could do, if that's on an honor, do the Giuliana Pena Raquel Pennington fight on top of that. That can be the co-main event. You get two title fights for Geronor to kick off the year. Plus you get Strickland defending his title. I think that's the way you go. And you just hold off on Volcanovsky Toporia. And if Toporia wants to fight, he doesn't want to –

I don't see why Teporia wouldn't want to wait another two months to fight Volk or three months to fight for the belt. But that's how the sport works. Yeah, concerning. interesting, fascinating, but concerning, hearing Volk talk like that. And I really hope he doesn't fight to Portia in January. But you know how Volk is? He probably is like, well, no one believes in me.

Everyone thinks him, no, it's not that at all. It's, we care about the guy. His fastball, he's not throwing 98 anymore. Still very good. But we might only have like four or five Volk fights left. at this point. He ain't 29. He's getting up there.

So it's just, it's just tough. It's weird to say it as not a fighter, because as I said on the post-fight show, he's not in the prime of his athletic career, but he is in the prime of his prize-fighting career because he's now making, like, really good money.

He makes the money every fighter wants to make, and he wants to make it now, and he wants to make it now, make it as many times as he can over and over and over again. But you've got to save the ban for himself. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. What? Sounds like Ojo time.

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concerned by your gambling or that if someone close you, call 18665331-2-60 or visit comics ontario.ca. 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. CV, go ahead. Hey, Mike, heck of a morning.

I don't want to bring down the vibes here, but do you think 294 should have been given the 151 treatment and should have been just like scrapped all together um like i'm like obviously not because you know the ucc's trying to make money but like i mean the main event was uh you know like it's supposed to be the olivera rematch but you know we had to get the volk short notice fight and man like it kind of ruined the first fight between him and islam for me just because you know it was just like a first round k-o and like this matchup could of like really marinerating like maybe for a year or two. The co-main event wasn't like an amazing fight or whatever,

but it was like intriguing in a sense that Usman was like kind of competitive against Hamzat and like that would have been a nice main event even though like they weren't really like planning to match those two up in a fight. And like I mean the like the rest of the card too, man, like the horrible that fucking doctor plus we got all like the staff infection nonsense like I don't know I'm kind of like rambling on here but like yeah what are your thoughts no they shouldn't no you can't scrap it it's a I mean they have a they have a business deal with with the Abu Dhabi government so you can't scrap it you have to do it so but I understand recover like if this is a Vegas card but I still think this all would have played out the same

let's just say after watching that and I understand like I understand you want to play the 12 days notice and all that stuff and yes

did it factor into it sure in some respects it did but you kind of saw Islam in the octagon as Bruce Buffor was introing him

and I had that feeling I didn't say it per se but even at the watchman I'm like man I'm not an arm-changered psychologist but Machcheth looks ready to go and he looks in incredible shape

it almost seemed to me like on that it was just one of those days for Islam where I don't care who you are and how much how much preparation you had he was going to kill somebody on Saturday he was going to run him over and I don't know if that you could have involved six months to fight that version of Machachev and I don't know if that fight goes a hell of a lot differently So in a way, like once those two guys fight again, it would somewhat ruin the first fight anyways because Machachev is going to make those adjustments and Machachev's the better fighter.

Is the younger, hungrier, just better fighter right now? And I think a lot of people, and I've talked about this a lot, have looked at the first fight, which is a fight of the year contenders for sure, but I think a lot of people also looked at that fight through rose-colored glasses. I understand why people,

people were like, yeah, Volk was really competitive. But the people that kept saying like, oh, Volk got robbed on in February, it's just not true. It's just not true. There's not, there's not been one time I watched that fight where I was like, oh, man, Volk got screwed. He should have won that fight.

Is on one. There was no if, Sands, or Butts about it, in my opinion. And then the more I've watched it, the more I've realized, he could have won four, like, Bacchev didn't have his, wasn't on his best, and probably won four rounds. Like, you can make a Casey won four. rounds there. So, no, you can't scrap it. We would like to have seen a more competitive fight, sure, but Islam's just that good right now. He's just that good. The co-main event was

what it was. The doctor was an idiot. But that the same thing would have happened. We would have had the same result in those two fights with the damn doctor, no matter who was fighting on that card. If we got Makachev-Oliva and we got Hamza Costa, that doctor still would have been an idiot on those two fights and nothing to do with those other two fights. So it was a weird one for sure, but to say cancel it, no, you can't do that. The hype heading in, everyone was so fired up for the changes.

There were so many people who said, this card's way better than it was with the other two fights. And I never really bought into that. I thought the main event was somewhat more intriguing. The co-main event was intriguing, but I wanted to see the cost of fight because I wanted to, like how much more interesting do you think the cost the fight would have been.

If the same thing happened, like Hamza just runs Costa over in the first round, but Costa survives. The bigger, stronger dude going on in rounds two and three. It's interesting. Costa's a little more reckless. And that was when Usen was at his best. Usen was getting,

having his most success when he was getting after it, when he was getting a little wild in there, when he was pushing the pace. Yeah, he was doing okay when he was jabbing. he was landing the jabs, but his, the most success he had in that fight was when he just went forward and threw a bunch of punches. I think Kasa would have been a little more balls to the wall there, and that's why I thought that fight was a little more interesting.

But kudos to Oosman again for doing what he did. Just a weird one. Like all, it's just, all it was just so weird. All it was just so weird, but no, you couldn't cancel it. Couldn't scrap it. Couldn't 151 it. Go ahead, four-course sports. How are you?

Yeah, I got you. All right, cool. So I wanted to ask, you know, Islam stopped, what's the quote, folk, and I think it was under half a round. But I feel like that was the only way that, you know, the Nays series would have stopped talking about Islam because I felt like if he would have rolled out a decision, I feel like there would have been questions about, you know,

can he fight somebody, you know, of a top caliber at lightweight? felt like his legacy would have been questioned just because you know two title defenses against a featherweight and 12 days notice if he wasn't going to be able to get out of Okanowski early you know people were going to be looking at

you know with question marks but I felt that the way that he knocked him out I shut a lot of that stuff off I was really intrigued on the Olivera fight I think Gage does deserve the next title shot I just wonder where Olivera stands

and I really do believe that Hamza would have would have finished Costa in round one. I think Costa, you know, doesn't have really good take-down defense, and I feel like he would have been, you know, ground-pounded out by Hamza, and I don't think he would have been able to survive the ending of round one if that fight actually would have gone as originally expected. All right, that's what I got to say. I disagree with you there.

there's a very rare world where Paula Costa were to survive that first round. Paulo's bet, like, who has run over? Like, Israel, Adasania ran over Paula Costa. But, like, other than that, like, who is just dumb trucked Paulo Costa? Who has gone out there and just run over Paula Costa? Nobody. Martin Vittori, like, Marvittoried him.

And just that weird card in 2021, where Costa's like, nah, I don't really give a shit. I'm not going to make weight. We're going to do it at 205, all that weirdness. Izzy killed him. But other than that, like, who has done that to Paula Costa? Paulo is a very tough durable guy. I know Luke Rockhold is not the Luke Rockhold who won the UFC middleweight title

and was the Strike Force champion and all that. But Luke Rockhold got Paula Costa in some really tough spots. And Luke Rockhold is one of the best. of all time with top position grappling and inflicting damage. Like normally when Luke Rockhold gets you in full mount, he kills you. He kills everybody. That's what made him so good. That's what made him the best middle weight in the world at one time.

And I know he was on the back nine. But Paul was able to survive all that. I don't know. Could it have happened? Sure. But Paul was not like a scrub on the ground. could Shemite. Like Shemayev's best chance to get him out in the first round to me was a knockout.

Scramble Fess on the ground. Like I actually think Costa would have done similar, if not better, that it was been. And that's why I like that fight so much. I think people were just vastly underrating Paula Costa. And he was just a bigger, stronger dude. Like, would he be able to control a bigger, stronger Paulo Costa? Like, Usma was in good shape, but he's a big dude. But Costa would have been like right around the same size and stature as Shemayev, if not bigger.

That's why I wanted to see that fight. So I don't necessarily agree with you in that aspect. So, and then, yes, I do agree with the other thing. Islam, to me, I don't think he, look, if Islam beat Volk, cool. Like, I wouldn't have been a 12 days, knows, would have been, well, it's unpressive. And I understood the narratives heading into the fight that, and I understood sort of what could have been in the aftermath of the fight. If Makachev goes out in 49-46's Volk,

well, Islam couldn't finish a featherweight coming in on 12 days notice. That would have been the reaction from a vast majority of the MA community. Not everybody, but you know who I'm talking about. There are people out there who would have been like, eh, not a great performance from Islam. It was boring, yada, yada, yada. and a Volk had beat Islam, then Islam's cooked. So it was kind of lose-lose in a lot of ways for Islam, unless he did what he did on Saturday.

Just annihilating Volcanovsky. Now you can't say a word about it. He went out there and blasted Volkanowski. It was so impressive. It was so impressive. And there are people still out there who throw out the ex-year, 12-day Zodas, yada, yada. You can't.

you can't throw out the excuse. Volk is a grown man. He is a grown adult who could have said no. He said yes. He was giddy about that fight. Felt he was ready. And then he got annihilated by the best fighter in the world right now. He's the best fighter in the world right now, in my opinion, is amok, Jeff.

So, but yes, in the overall grand scheme, trying to please everybody, which you can't, this is the only way you could please most people. is by going out there and just killing him in the first route. And that's exactly what he did. So as good as it can get for, is al-Makhchev. Cole, go ahead. Good morning, Mike. Morning.

I appreciate you shouting me out on the preview show and on the fucking watch party. That was fucking awesome seeing that. It's a great question. It's a great question. So the question is, like, did the people win on Saturday night who we needed to win for that the top four or top or top or four of the top 20 to be a thing i think so what do you think i think i think we're closer than we were heading in so if you guys aren't like if you don't know what we're talking about the question was that cole presented last week after talking to a buddy of

his was are we going to look back at ufc 294 as the night or the card where the four fighters and top two fights will be top 20 all-timers in the history of the UFC. And it's a really interesting question because two of the guys are there. I think Volcanovsky and Usen are already top 20 guys. Makachep was really close and Shemayev not there yet, but could get there. I think this, I think Machachep is there now. Like, I think there's a very, I think you can make a case, Machchief is top 20. He ain't going to be for everybody.

but for me, I think I could talk myself into it. He beats Justin Gachie. It's clear his day. Clear his day to me. Hamzat, I don't think he, I don't think he lost anything, but I don't think he gained anything. I think he's just exactly where he is,

where he was heading in. We just, we have more questions about Hamzat now than we did heading in. And that's never a good thing in this conversation. So I think the right people won to like make this, question more a little more interesting. I think Islam made a better case to getting into that conversation. I don't know if he's on everybody's list, but he's certainly right there.

He's behind the velvet rope, so to speak, not too far behind. Shemayev, as of right now, he's going to be waiting behind the velvet rope for a little while. He may not even get into the club tonight. But not saying he can't get there. That's just where he is right now. Potential-wise, he is going to be there. but we just still got all those questions that have not been answered yet,

and that's a problem with this conversation. So I would say we went from two to two and a half, maybe three, but Shamiya didn't improve at all. But he's still the most interesting fighter in the UFC right now because we don't know how good he is. We don't know anything about him in terms of his greatness potential. but he still finds ways to win. So I'm impressed.

I don't know there's a lot of talk about being impressed with Usman on the show, and there should be. I'm also impressed with Shamiya. If he broke his hand and broke his wrists in the first round, if it's as bad as he says it is, and still dug deep in round three and found a way to win, like, he deserves a lot of credit for that. That's championship medal right there.

That's championship medal. And he did the same in the Gillib of Burns fight. And I took a lot more positives from the Gilbert's fight than most. This one, I understand why some people don't take those same things away. But at the end of the day, as Shaheen Al-Shadi said, the wise word smith and his takeaway piece on Sunday, Hamzaa Chimaev checked off the most important box. And that was winning the fight.

And he essentially did it with one hand and one wrist against the second greatest wealth weight of all time. That's pretty damn impressive. but he didn't gain a lot in the top 20 greatness thing if that makes sense but still he's very impressive go ahead I'm doing good so I just want to ask two things

I'll start off with this one if Islam and Gai Chi Fetchi tell him the future what is your prediction for the fire and how is he playing and I just want to talk about Hamza very briefly just a few things firstly I'll start with his fighting style

he's a very good fighter overall I think he's also shown a lot of improvements with this Usman fight defensively a little bit of head movement I would definitely like to see him build on that more because I definitely fear that if he ever faces people like Jared Kenyon, then Ardysania maybe some guys who are light heavy weight

or Walter if he ever does go back down he needs to really learn how to create a very interesting striking defense and that leads to another point I want to make be his stamina. I think based of truly what according to his coaches that he contracted

COVID and affected his body some way after that, I think he's lost whatever good stamina he was able to maintain because when I was some of his old fight most of them were first round first round finishes but he did all he obviously knew how to

maintain solid stamina management not just over aggressively punch and all that. But seem to go COVID if somehow seemed to have just made his cardio worse and I also think it attributes to his

cleft chin that he got from a childhood which has definitely affected his breathing now that's just my criticism with his I think some things he could work on yeah definitely have an interesting defensive move set

one to prevent any you know cardio issues and two he can you know counter or parry some you know, strike his attack. His ground pound is really good, but I've noticed ever since

his fight against Rice McKee, or I think Li Jing Liang, his, whenever, when he tried to ground the pound burns and even now Usman, I just feel like he's not been able to do it in such a very dominating way like he used to. Because

when he first did it to John Phillips and, you know, Rice McKees, and even some of his early opponents back in the brave CF days. He was very calculated, time and precise, and he always made sure he hit their face, hit their body web, and it really got to them. But when I saw how, I mean, he did a good job against Usma,

my opinion, compared to Burns, but I noticed with both fights, he was just really rushing it, and that definitely affects his courage. So if Hamza wants to win fights in the future, my opinion, especially if he faces up the Dreekers de Pleissies, who could probably counter his wrestling,

the Rob Woodikers, and if he managed to get them down, he needs to really be patient, Punch, punch, punch, time, process. Don't overload the cardio because wrestling takes a toll on the body. And we even saw there with a Kevin Holland fight, despite how well he did in that performance, he was tiring out. Joe Rogan pointed it out.

So, you know, that's just my standard level Hamza. And I think also regarding where he's at this stage of his career in terms of the perception of you, many fans have about him, I believe in the same place that Leon Edward was. many years ago when he was on that run prior to getting his target shot because I remember a lot of fans were saying positive things about Leon. This car is a very good striker, very good on the

jiu-jitsu, but people also felt he was easy to be. There was much more to be decided. So I'm definitely curious to see where he goes next to his career, and I would definitely like to know your thoughts on that. Thanks for have a great day. Thank you, sir. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah.

Hop out of it, Absalaya. I don't know what, I can't. I can't, there we go. I got you. Okay. Look, he won, man. Like, again, he won. And didn't have his best night.

Far from him. And nobody in the history of the UFC, and probably will never see it again, somebody manhandle Kamar Usman like he did. Like, you have to be impressed with that. He looked like the best fighter we'd ever seen for five minutes against one of the best fighters to ever step foot in the octagon. But again, we have the injury.

He's fighting with one hand. And despite all of that, and despite losing the second round, despite all of the momentum going the other way, he dug deep and found a way to win the fight. So I am incredibly impressed by that. Incredibly impressed. Now, is he, did he have top-notch cardio? no. Did he need it? No. Because he still won. He still won the fight. So there's room for improvement, but still, that's, to me, makes him almost as scary now as he was heading into that fight. Because severely compromised, like momentum not in his favor.

still finds a way to take down the best defensive takedown artist in the history of the sport and still manage to get him down and win the fight. Like, you can't teach that shit. You cannot teach that shit. There's obviously room for improvement, but you cannot teach what he did on Saturday. You can. And Usumann deserves a lot of credit for hanging in there and all that. But yeah, we don't really know because he was, we don't know when the injury happened,

that. So I give him a little bit of a pass. This is still Kamar Usman. Like 12 days notice or not, that's still Kamar Usman he beat. And that was really impressive. Can you do the same to Sean Strickland? I don't know. And I feel like Uspen left a lot as impresses people are with Usman and they should be. I think Usen left a lot in there. I think if Usen was more aggressive, he might even, he might even gone out and finished Tom Zat Shemayev. When he started to throw more, when he started to get a little more crazy, that's what he was doing his best work. I even said like in the build on, like Uzman's best chance to win this fight, there are two things.

One, if he gets taken down, stay off your back. Because if Shamiov starts to posture up on him early in the first round, he's going to get killed down there. And Uzman did a great job. Yeah. Shemayev had him, had his back. and had the hooks in and had the body triangle and all that. That's not the position Uspin needed to avoid.

The position he needed to avoid in that first round is him being on his back. And Kumar did a great job defensively and was able to survive. Did really well. But the other thing was Ushman had a lure Shamiath into a battle, into an absolute war on the feet. And while he was still winning and landing that jab and finding success in the feet, Usman is finding more success when he was throwing combinations, when he was getting a little more reckless,

what he's throwing more than one punch. I just feel like Uspen left, I think he's going to go out of that fight feeling, man, I could have done more. I could have done more. But still, 12 days notice went in there and did the damn thing. So we'll see where he goes. I mean, again, we don't know how long Shemeyv's going to be out for.

We don't know how bad the injury is. I feel like DDP should get the next title shot. Strictly, DDP is still interesting. to me. Strickland Shemeyev is really interesting now. I think this is probably the best results because now Shemayev, who has looked at as a wrecking ball, now people feel like, all right, maybe, maybe the right guy with the right style can beat this guy. Like if he fights John Strickland and he 10-8 John Strickland, which is very possible. But Strickland survives and gets back to his feet and we start round two, you're telling me that a lot of people out there from a betting

perspective aren't going to go on to draft kings and hit live odds betting on Sean Strickland? Bet they would. Bet they would. This is actually a really good result. The intrigue surrounding Shemayev is actually bigger. And there's more questions about the man. It's nothing wrong with that. But as Shaheen said, as I noted earlier, he checked off the most important box.

He won the fight. And that's all that matters. He won. With Amex Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. Unwrap holiday magic at Holt Renfrew with gifts that say I know you.

From festive and cozy fashion to Lux Beauty and Fragrant Sets, our special selection has something for every style and price point. Visit our Holt's holiday show. shop and store or online at Holtrenfrew.com. Jayback. Mike, can you hear me? I got it. Great. Yeah, so that was one of the most bizarre cards I've ever seen.

Yeah, from like the very beginning, it just seemed like it was going, it was going like, you know, crazy. I mean, like, you know, the referee. What's the deal with the referee? I just don't understand. He asked a question. He answered the question. He answered the question.

It wasn't like he didn't answer it. He just said the desert. I mean, that's kind of like what Johnny Walker does. He's kind of a nutty guy, you know? And then it proceeds to be a disqualification. It wasn't a disqualification. So Donald's not I was going to ask you, actually, is why was it not a disqualification?

I've seen, like, Peter Yon, for instance, when he threw the knee against Al Jermaine Sterling, it was called a disqualification because when you throw a knee to a downed opponent, it's obviously on purpose. So I was just wondering if you could explain. why that wasn't a qualification and I'm a great day. I appreciate it.

It definitely could have been a disqualification. It definitely could have been a disqualification. It depends on how you look at it. It depends on how you look at it. Because like when the knee was thrown at first, I'm like, ooh, I don't think you meant to do that. And then if you slow it down, you're like, it's kind of hard to deny that

like maybe he just, I don't know. The Yon one is like so calculated. It's like you can see Yon have like an internal conversation with himself where like he knows it's wrong and he just says fuck it I'm gonna throw it anyways so like that was as clear cut of like

a DQ knee as you'll ever see this one was close but I'm not like I didn't even with all the replays I'm like yeah I didn't think of me like Yon like meant to knee Sterling in the face I mean let's let's be honest he absolutely meant to him in the face

he was just like hmm I shouldn't do this but boom, I'm going to do it anyways. And he did it. Magamad's a little more split second, but again, you want to make a case that it was a DQ, I don't hate you. I am mad at you. But it was deemed accidental.

And you can't look at the Yandhi from any angle at any point and deem that accidental. You just can't. So that was like the big difference. If it's deemed accidental, they look through the replays, the other officials agree, it's a no contest.

That was the difference. Yon's is not accidental at all. all. Like you can make, I can make a video right now, just like a fun content video of like, Jan having a 30 second conversation

themselves being like, man, maybe I shouldn't do this. I might lose my title. Oh, there's no way he's going to get out of the fight. Well, if I land this knee,

it's a good advantage. I'm already winning. Aljo no, he's losing. And he's just like, but I shouldn't do it. And then the devil on his right shoulder's like, just throw the fucking knee.

And he's like, okay, boom, and he throws the knee. It just, it was so blatant. This one, I'll listen to you but I'm not like completely convinced

it was blatant but it's just a weird result the fight just shouldn't have been stopped to begin with that doctor screwed everything up it's silly I'm gonna look at the comments real quick LP have you seen Dewey Cooper arguing with Josh Barnett

about the low blow any thoughts I don't like I I get where both guys are coming from like do what's Dewey Cooper? supposed to say. Is Dewey Cooper as the coach of Faree Pashiret? So say, yeah, Josh, you're right. It was illegal.

Of course he's not going to say that. But that might be one of the most interesting strikes ever throughout an MMA. Because like the more you look at it, the more you think, you know what? It doesn't look illegal. Didn't look like it really landed illegally. But then you see like D.C. laid it out perfectly. Because, like, when they showed the replay during that moment, they showed Basharat's foot, like, on the upper thigh.

And then D.C.'s like, no, no, no. Like, he's, like, rewind it, like, a half a second. And you saw the toe, like, three of the toes in between the legs. And you could hear it, too. Like, you could just hear it. And Victor Henry, like I said before, is maybe the toughest, is one of the toughest guys. Dude is fought in Japan.

He's fought for right. He fought everywhere. And he's fought some really good dudes and no one's been able to get that man out of there. So you think he's faking it? Like that the whole notion that he faked it, that he quit, I hate. I hate that whole thing. Because there's no way. There's no way that he just quit the way, like, just look at his face.

There is no actor on earth who could portray that as painful as he did. So no, this whole notion that he quit and all that is fucking stupid. But if you want to play the was it legal, was it illegal game, there's cases to be made. But sometimes, and I forget who said this, I don't know if it was like AK who said it or somebody else that I saw, sometimes a legal shot can land in an illegal spot. And I just think it was bad luck, really. But to say like Victor didn't get kicked in the ding ding, and he was faking it and that he quit and was trying to find a way out of the fight, I don't agree with that at all.

I don't agree with that at all. Let's just let these dudes run it back and we'll answer the questions for good. That's the beauty of the sport. All right, we'll take a few more and then I got to get going. Henderson, go ahead. Hey, Mike. Good morning, man. I wanted to talk a little bit about Volk and just the booking of the fight, you know.

one complaint that I have about the UFC is they don't seem to treat their like best fighters and champions in a way that actually helps them grow and be like long-term popular. And what I mean by that is they very rarely give champions, I wouldn't say a warm-up fight, but very winnable fights. I mean, I guess they did it with Izzy and Strickland, but it didn't work out for them. but with Volk, they had a very popular champion. He already had a fight book, and I understand he wants to take it, but he's not really in charge. And all this did was throwing him in in short notice. He took damage, which is not good for him long term. He also lost and got finished for the first time, which is also not good for him long term and his popularity.

And it didn't really help Islam that much. I mean, maybe among like the diehards, they could say, oh, Islam finally finished Volk, but with the short notice and everything, it's not like that's really what's coming out of this. So I feel like it was just a lose-lose. And as much as I disagree with a lot of the things Jed says,

I agree on this one. And I think that they should have just let it be Gamrod or found somebody else and used Volk in the normal way that was already succeeding. Because I'm worried as a Volk fan now, This might set him on some weird trajectory where either he's heard or he misses the fight or they do an interim title instead. And it just seems totally unnecessary. So I just wanted to hear what you thought.

Now that we've seen the result and we've seen how it played out, what you think of the booking and maybe if it would have been better just to go with Gamron. It's tough because it's so hard to answer these questions with the like knowing the result. Because if Volk went in there and finished Islam, like we're not having this conversation. We're thinking the booking is brilliant. Or maybe people say, oh, well, you just screwed Islam because he was supposed to fight a guy that he stylistically could beat 95 times out of 100 probably. So it's just tough to answer that question already knowing the result. Having said that, I do disagree with a couple of things. One, I think Islam came out of their smelling like roses.

And I think it's because of what happened. him just icing Volk and lamping him the way that he did this was the best thing that could have happened. M.A. Fighting's global rankings, he is the number one pound for pound fighter. The only rankings that matter, he is the pound for pound guy. That's it. There is no discussion. There is no controversy.

He is the guy. He is the guy. And I just don't, you have to also put into perspective that this card in particular, in particular from an annual basis is treated differently than your typical T-Mobile Arena pay-per-view. This is, in Abu Dhabi, this is with a government that demands, essentially, and that is paying for stacked cards. They're paying for big cards. Like, look at every Abu Dhabi card. Look at the one-two punch. Look at the main cards. Typically, you get two title fights on these cards. You didn't get two title fights here.

And yeah, the matchmakers matter. And yes, the UFC brings the cards to the table. But it would not shock me if the governing bodies have some sort of input on what works and what doesn't here. And I think at the same token, Gamrot, because of the weirdness of the build and everything, I think you needed to have a designated backup. And I think to me, this is the UFC saying like, hey, we're going to put Volk on the posters and all that, but if we get a Holloway Habib type of moments where Holloway can't make

weight or Vol can't cut weight or something weird happens, we have a backup in place because Islamakshiv has to fight on this card. He has to. And this is just to them like, hey, this is guarantees that Islam fights because this is I'm not going to say no to fighting Batush Gamron on like three days onus. But should they have gone with Gamron? I mean, in hindsight, sure, but do you really think that people would look at Islam differently if he 50, 45 to Gamrod

on 12 days notice? Would they be like, eh? No, I think he would come up looking worse, honestly, at a lot of people's opinions. But instead, he'd knocked out the guy who many believe was the best fighter in the world and did it in brutal fashion. And for Islam, too,

this is closure man that is he doesn't have to think about volk ever again he doesn't have to think about that first fight he doesn't have to answer any more questions about it it's over this that kick to the face might be the most important moment of islam mock chaff's career because now you can't say anything anymore it's over there are no more conversations about that first fight That first fight, it's like it never happened. And now this dude is going to be probably the, I don't know if he's going to be the fighter of the year or not. I'm kind of with Jed where like it's hard to award the fighter of the year

to the guy who beat the same guy twice. So I have questions there. But he's definitely going to be in the fight of the year. And probably one of the 15 best knockouts of the year. It's pretty good, pretty good year. pretty good year for Islam Makachev. But I think this is more important to him because now he doesn't have to listen to people

being like, well, you lost the first fight, even though he didn't lose the first fight. This one just ended everything. It's a great thing for him. Now he can just move on with his life. Volk is out of his life forever. LP, go ahead. Middle weights that you would choose over Alaskeroth,

and that's including Bellator, Even Chamaev. I know Chimayev already has a win against him. But I personally would favor Alice Scarev in the rematch. Just want to hear your thoughts. Thank you. That guy could beat anybody right now. I've been high on him from Jump Street.

I always said, like, him fighting on the contender series was just a waste of space. Like, what are we doing here? There are certain fighters just like, why? Why are they on the contender series? Like, I understand the bow-knickle thing. People come back to the Bo Nickel thing. And like, I get it. Like everyone, most people know who Bo Nickel is because he was because of the wrestling

pedigree and all that. No one really knew where Icaram was except for hardcore MMA fans. And those fans were just like, why is Iqra fighting on the contender series when he's probably a top 15 middleweight right now? And he just killed Wally Alves. And it's unfortunate we didn't get the Yemava fight, but we were talking about like some of the guys who may be the biggest winners on Saturday. I'll tell you who is probably like the fifth biggest.

winner on Saturday. It was Nasradi and Imovov because it did not have to fight that dude on Saturday. And now it's going to be real interesting to see where Icram Al-Scarap goes from here. Because are there going to be middleweights? They're going to be like, yeah, I'll fight this dude. Or is Iqramal-Scariff going to be the next

Marab or Umar de Maga Madov or guys of that nature where it's no one's going to want to fight him? He's going to be almost impossible to book. Curious. Curious. But on the next one, I picked, I want I'm

I want to see it right now. I don't want to wait for it. I think Ikram could, I'm not saying Acron would beat him, but I think he would go in there and that is a really interesting fight. I want to see him in there with the top five to seven guy right now.

And I know Worley Alvas took the fight on short notice and he was like a plus 500 underdog. I get it. But that's how you're supposed to treat a plus 500 underdog in those situations. You go in there and you lamp him. He is incredibly talented, and he's going to be a problem. So give me the Whitaker fight.

Let's go. Let's see it. I'm ready. All right. Kat, go ahead, and then we will wrap up here. Take us home. Take us home. Oh, crap.

I just got here. I thought you just got started. I don't know if any of what I said has been said. What I'm about to say has been said. Good morning, everybody. First, I need some positive PR. Yes, I was wrong. Islam was amazing.

I'm a notorious Islam. I'm a hater, but we got to give props where it's due. I do agree with you, Mike. I think it should be knockout of the year. You know, what he did of Volcanovsky was insane. I don't know if it's been spoken about, but I really wanted to hear your thoughts on the Sean Strickland and Hamzot deal. I just got here, like I said, but I feel like Sean Strickland is kind of tweaking.

Do you think he's just scared or do you think he actually has a point? Thank you, Mike. Have a nice day. No, he's not scared. He's not scared. Look, I told the story. Like, shout out to Mark Rwandi who put out the whole, this is how we got here thing.

But if you listen to this program like two weeks, like after this fight was booked, if you listen to a heck of a morning, I don't know if it was free for all Friday, last Friday, eight days before UFC 294. And I said I had a story about how this all came together. And I told you the story. The first phone call that the UFC made

about replacing Paula Costa was to Sean Strickland. They said, Sean, Why don't you defend your title against Hamzaa Chimayef on this card? And you want to know what Sean Strickland said? Fuck yeah. Let's go. Of course, his team was like, what, what are you doing? No, no, no, no, no, no.

You're the champion now. You don't need to do any more favors. Take some time off, dude. Like, you just won the belt a month ago. But you know, Sean Strickland. Sean's like, yeah, I'll fight him. And his team's like, no, no, no, no, no, no. You're the freaking champion.

You just won the belt. Enjoy it for a hot minute. Let them come to you with like, like, you don't have to do this anymore is basically what they were saying. And Sean was like, fine, cooler heads prevail. Sean wanted the fight on three weeks notice because that's when he got the call. He absolutely wanted it and he said he wanted to do it. And his team talked him out of it.

And then it was going to be canaan air. We know about what happened there. And then Costa might have been able to go. And now Oosman came in. So that's how Sean Strickland is not scared at all. And the next thing I'll say is if I'm Sean Strickland,

I'm doing everything of my power to fight that guy, to fight Homsat Shemiath next. That's the fight I want. I'm going all in on Shemayev. That's it. DDP is a really tough fight for him, but after seeing what just happened on Saturday,

if you're Sean Strickland, you're going all in. on the Shemaya fight, you have a path to victory. And the path to victory is just survive five minutes. If Sean Strickland survives five minutes against Hamzaa Shamaif, and that's an if, because Hamzaa can get anybody out of there in Route 1. But if Sean Strickland can be savvy enough and defensive-minded enough to get to round two, then Sean Strickland has a very good chance to win that fight.

That fight is so much more interesting to me now than it was heading in. Sean could beat Hamza Tchimae's. He's got to get out of the first round, but if he can, he has a chance. And Sean is not wrong when it comes to, like, does he deserve the next title shot? No, he doesn't. Drickus DuPosci has deserved it all along.

You go out there and you finish Bobby Knuckles the way that he did on a card like that, especially when everybody was not only one questioning the matchup, but two didn't think he had a chance in hell of doing it. he's the number one contender. But because he couldn't turn around on two months notice to go to Australia and fight Israel out of Sanya after fighting Bobby Knuckles,

he's out of the title picture? Like that is so stupid. That is so stupid. So I agree with Sean. I don't think Tom Zod should get a title shot off that win. Drink is two, even if he went out there and finished Usman. Like, to me, he would have gotten it,

but still I don't think that's a, enough to jump DDP after what he did. But I also understand this is the UFC, and none of that matters. This is about putting butts in seats, which is why I've been saying maybe the third biggest winner on Saturday was DDP. This is as good as it could be for DDP. Watching that fight, watching Shemai of squeak out a majority decision against a welterweight on 12 days notice, that's huge.

That's huge. Now, DDP's best friend is the schedule and availability, because whenever that phone call comes, hey, look, and let's just say it happens in January. Let's just say, look, we're not letting Volt fight in January. But we need a title fight in Toronto. DDP versus Sean Strickland, let's go. It would be, it is imperative that DDP says yes to that.

Because they ain't going to let him skip another one. but yeah, I don't disagree with Sean. But if I am Sean, I want that fight. I want that fight right now. And we'll see how long Hamzat's going to be out for and the hand injury. Someone jumped in the comments and said that it happened in the first round when Usman sort of DDTed himself to shake Hamzat loose.

But again, I also give Hamzaa credit for the performance. Like, was it what he needed to solidify a title shot? Probably not. but he won. He won and he was compromised and he was losing the momentum was leaving his side altogether. But he dug deep in the third round

and he got the win with one hand against the second greatest wealth rate of all time. Pretty wild. Pretty wild. All right. Panda in Carthick,

I see you. I'm screenshoting, but I have to go. I got to go. So thank you all very much. You are all great. We'll be back on Thursday. Panda and Carthick get to jump the line and get up front.

But appreciate it. I am working on as well editing up the first edition of swing rounds with Chris Weidman. So hopefully, I don't know if it's going to drop this week or next week, but I'm starting to put it all together. It's going to be sort of like a teaser more than anything. Like it's going to be an episode. It's not just going to be like a three-minute video, but it's going to be, it'll be lengthy to some extent, but it's not going to be like what I'm going to do fully because I'm only one person and I can't.

I just basically needed somebody to film it. And then some other things that we're going to tweak out, but it's still pretty funny shit. I play absolutely horrifically. And you guys will get to see that. And hopefully this week, maybe next week. But I'll be working on that this week. It's going to be a busy one. We're getting Ghana versus Tyson Fury.

that whole thing that we're just going to have to wait till it ends. And there you go. So we'll see you guys Thursday, 10.15 a.m. Eastern. Until then, have a great rest of your Tuesday. And have a heck of a morning.