MMA Fighting - HOAM | Should the UFC Immediately Run Back Alex Pereira vs. Israel Adesanya After Shocking UFC 281 Ending?

Episode Date: November 15, 2022

The UFC middleweight champion has a name, and it's Alex Pereira after a stunning fifth-round, come-from-behind knockout win over Israel Adesanya in the main event of UFC 281. While Pereira's win opens up the door to some interesting and fresh matchups, a rematch between the new champ and Adesanya would be massive, but is it the fight to make in the immediate aftermath of the UFC's return to Madison Square Garden? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck attempts to answer that question from a matchmaking perspective and explains why a rematch makes sense in multiple ways. Additionally, listener questions include the sad news of Anthony Johnson's passing on Sunday, Dustin Poirier's win over Michael Chandler and where he goes from UFC 281, the matchmaking of Erin Blanchfield vs. Molly McCann and why it was the right call even in hindsight, Frankie Edgar's tough retirement fight against Chris Gutierrez, 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

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You can hear the show in its entirety. or thereafter on the M.A. Fighting Podcasting Network. I am Mike Hack. Thank you for joining us. Man, do we have a lot to talk about? A lot to recap. A lot to discuss, if you will, following a memorable and outstanding drama-filled UFC 281 events, which went down this past Saturday at the Mecca Madison Square Garden in New York. Like I said, if you joined me on Saturday morning, we did like a little pop-up heck of a morning, just walking around the streets of New York, Saturday morning, when I got in ahead of the watch party, I just felt it.

There was a buzz in the air that something special was going to happen. And I'm not saying that people were running the streets of MSG or New York City near MSG, just chanting UFC or. talking about the fight, you could just smell that something special was going to happen. And man, oh man, did it deliver in spades on Saturday in the NYC? We have two new champions. Jean-Wey Lee submits Carla Sparza in the second round in a fight that honestly was, it ended in the second round, only took six or so minutes,

but it actually was a little more competitive than most thought it was. And then, of course, in the main events, another come from behind last round, finish to crown a new champion. Alex Pereira stops Israel Adasagna in the fifth round to win the middleweight title. Holy crap. What a moment for Alex Pereira. A lot of people still talking about whether or not the stoppage was a good one or not. I have no issue with it, but if you want to say that Adasania should have, or that he essentially earned the right to get knocked. unconscious. I'm not going to argue with you because Izzy himself feels the same way, although he doesn't have a huge issue with the stoppage after talking to his team. But

if you feel like Godassan, you should have taken some more punishment at this point in his career after everything he's accomplished, I'm not going to argue with you. But to me, at the moment, I was okay with the stoppage. We have a new champion. Dustin Porre and Michael Chandler, absolutely ridiculous fight. Chris Gutierrez. Frankie Edgar sends him into retirement with just a brutal knockout loss. Dan Hooker back on track, stops Claudio Pueas in the second round.

prelims were incredible. Great performances from Hanata Moikano. Ryan Span, speaking of sad knockout endings, Dominic Reyes gets knocked out for the third straight fight. He's not 0 in his last four. Big performance for Aaron Blanchfield against Molly McCann.

Hindsight, people think it's a terrible booking. I actually had no issue with it. I thought the booking was fantastic, and it served its purpose. Good wins for Andre Petroski, Matt Verbola, Carolina Colvo-Kavich. A little bit of craziness with the commission. During the Colvacovich, Savania Gomez-Hawrhus fight with the scoring, but I thought the right fighter won.

Mike Trisano, Sungwu Choi, forgotten in the aftermath of all this. This is one of the craziest rounds of the year. Trisano gets the big win. Montel Jackson back on track. Carlos Oldberg starts the card. off with a big knockout about a little under four minutes into the fight. So a lot to talk about.

We can recap. A lot of people have matchmaking suggestions, especially at the middleweight division. Do we run this one back? Do we not run it back? What do we do? So we'll open up the lines. I'll let you guys discuss that. And I also want to say before we do that, big shout out and thank you to everyone who

checked out the UFC 281 watch party with myself and G. We had an absolute blast, and it's just amazing to hear the feedback and see the feedback from it. A lot of people were watching while the broadcast is going on. People were checking in and out throughout the card at different points. And a lot of people have been watching after the fact. They watched it live, and then they've gone back to actually watch the watch party afterwards, just to relive it through our eyes. And that's pretty damn cool.

So I don't know what's going to happen. Hopefully we continue to do these. This is an important one for us because the first one went over so well. You have to prove that it's not a fluke. And then the viewership, the feedback was actually better the second time around. And one might be a fluke. Two is a trend. And I feel like we got something on our hands here.

I feel like it's just a different kind of watch along, different kind of watch party than most. we're focused on the fights and you're basically, we're basically doing the same thing. We're watching the fights and reacting to them as they happen. We're not going off on tangents about politics or any other thing going on in the world. We're just focusing on the fights and being fight fans for those few hours. And really appreciate everybody coming through and joining the fun, whether it was during or after the fact. So let's get to you guys.

This is your show the whole way. I can't wait to hear what you have to say. AA got right in, right in line. So let's see what he has to say about UFC 281. AA, hello. I'm good. How are you? I'm all right.

First, before I start my, I guess, my comments and questions, I just want to say a quick, rest in peace, a rumbled, man, that's just, that was devastating news, man. Sucks this, you know, it was too young, too young. Okay, I really enjoyed that. card, man, that was insane, as you said. I lost my voice for briefly after the main event. I was, like I said, I backed Alex during one of the spaces, but I'm upset for Izzy as well in a way because I do respect him.

My question is, what do we do with Dan Hooker now? He's got another win back that, like, his last two wins have been against unranked opponents. So I'm just curious what do you think they do with Dan Hooker now. All right. Have a heck of a morning and everyone. Have a great day. You're all awesome. Peace.

Thanks, man. So on onto the next one, I suggested we do the Dan Hooker versus Grant Dawson fight. I know Dan Hooker fans are not going to love that idea too much. But like I said on Saturday, I feel like Dan Hooker is sort of in the Neil Magny spot at 155. And again, no disrespect. There's nothing wrong with that. Neil Magny is the man. And Dan Hooker has a lot of Neil Magny's.

Magdi tendencies where he doesn't care who he fights. He wants the toughest competition possible. And I don't want to see Grant Dawson, Tony Ferguson, but I think Grant Dawson versus Dan Hooker would serve the same kind of purpose. And it would be a really interesting fight because Dan will just fight him and not care. I'd like to see that one in Perth. Give Dan some shine, give him that hometown fight. And let's see what Grant Dawson could do against a guy like that.

so I'm uh I'm cool with that yeah the rumble news man man so I'm sitting there at the airport on Sunday my flight got delayed like three or four times and just sitting there watching

the Buffalo Bills Minnesota Vikings game and I go on Twitter and I start to see all the tweets RIP Rumble Johnson and stuff and I'm like oh my god really are you kidding me 38 years old, is this real? So of course, I reach out to people. We confirm it a little while later.

And, yeah, I mean, like Ariel said yesterday, you can't just confirm this news with one person. You have to confirm it with multiple people. So I confirmed it with three people. Damon had confirmed it with multiple people as well. And man, it's just so sad. Just sad news. I remember one conversation in particular.

I've only talked to Rumble twice. Once was maybe in like 2016 when I was just getting going. I was doing some stuff with the UFC with my radio career. So when they had big fights coming up, we would get certain fighters. They would reach out and they wanted to get different play in terms of coverage and who was talking about the card. So I had reached out a few months prior

and I was like, I'd like to get on this list if possible. and then we ended up making it happen. They were working with a PR firm at the time. So I got to talk to Brumbo before the second fight with Daniel Cormier. It was just a great conversation. And then he retired afterwards. And I remember talking to Neil Malanson, who was one of his coaches at the time,

like right after he retired, it was like two days after that D.C. fight. And Neil was talking about Anthony and his preparation, and just what kind of guy he was. And then he comes back. And I got to talk to him a little bit before that fight with Jose Augusto for Bellator because it was supposed to be Joel Romero

and then he had that crazy fight with Augusto he gets dropped in the first round, comes back and finish him in the second and just listening to him react to everything afterwards after the long layoff and everything and just where his head was at. Just a good dude man. I mean it's just unbelievable stuff. Such a ferocious fighter.

One of those guys that we always talked about, when it came to weight cutting and stuff he's the first guy that comes up because you're just like how did this guy ever make 170 pounds and he was just must watch TV it's just must watch TV just so dangerous

and then he was doing it he didn't fight to 85 couldn't make the way he was just so big went up to heavyweight kind of found a home at 205 and I feel like that if he fought anybody else but Daniel Cormier for the belt,

he had a really good chance to win and become a champion. So just very sad stuff. Anthony Johnson is 38 years of age, passes away. I know there's different reports out there as to why. I know Rumble's just the kind of guy that wasn't going to tell anybody about how dire his health situation was. Because even with the people I confirmed with,

I was trying to figure out what happened. Because, again, you don't want to get this stuff wrong. And most people just said, look, it's not my place to say. And essentially, I was told the health issues who was dealing with had something to do with it, but that's why they couldn't say because if he's not going to talk about it,

they felt like they weren't in positions to talk about it either. Just dealing with that and just kind of making sure his wishes are sort of met. Because if he's not going to talk about it and didn't want anybody to feel bad for him or pity him, they felt like they weren't in the position to do the same. So that's just the kind of guy

that Anthony Johnson was. So 38 years of age, rest and peace, just getting that news after such a memorable UFC events. It's just a an emotional weekend. That's for sure.

So RIP to the great Rumble Johnson. Let's go to four-quarter sports. Tough to transition after that, man, but thank you. Good, rest in peace, Rumble Johnson. That man struck fear into to so many fighters. I mean, from my fondest memory of him is when he ended up knocking out Glover.

And that was a scary knockout. But I wanted to talk to you about the main event. The, I don't know. I don't know. I just feel like that there are some people that just have somebody else's number. And I think with Alex Ferreiro, he just simply has the number of Israel, Adasania. If I want to transition this into a different sport, it's like the Houston Astros and the New York Cankeys. The Astros have the Yankees number.

Israel Autisani is like the Inkees, and Alice Barreira is like Houston Astros. Whatever Israel is Adirah can do, it's not going to be enough. I feel like to get over the hump to defeat Alex Pereira. And I think maybe the difference of an eight-ounce difference from 12 to 4 ounces, because that's what they put in glory. Maybe he felt this thing in it.

I don't know what it is. Or maybe it was just a mental factor. But I just think that even in a rematch, I think it might be a similar outcome. If not, maybe Pereira is going to improve a lot more, and he'll get them out there a lot earlier. I don't know. What was your opinion on that? And then lastly, what was your opinion on the Hanato-Micano call-out?

I think it was fabulous. So, I mean, the Boycano thing was incredible. That promo was unbelievable. That's how to use your mic time. I'm sure the UFC wasn't overly thrilled with him because they were on ESPN news at the time, and he's just dropping F-bombs every third word. and it was like, I remember when I was a kid, like white men can't jump came out the movie

and people were like adding up how many vulgar words were said in that. This was like the 2020 version. It was just unbelievable. Love the promo. It was fantastic. Joe Rogan just handled it very well and just as much as he wanted to try

to get the mic away from him, Joe understood you can't. You just got to let this man go and do his thing. A plus knife for Hanata Moikano. And it's almost like, Like a lot of the names you talk about outside of the main card, it's just almost like it was forgotten with everything that happened on the main cart. As far as the had his number thing or have his number thing,

there might be true to that. We just don't know. I mean, we have the sample size that we've seen. And again, the stoppage kind of questionable in a lot of people's eyes. And I thought Izzy looked really good in that fight. The fight was playing out the way I thought it was going to go. where Pereira was going to land on. There's no way it wasn't going to happen.

But I think, I think Adasania's defense is going to be enough to make sure he wasn't hit clean. And through four rounds, he wasn't. Like he wasn't hit 100% with, with any of the big shots that Pereira was throwing. But what Pereira was doing very well throughout the fight is he was landing leg kicks.

And they were starting to add up. And if you go back and watch it, you can see it taking its toll. But Adasania just was able to check some of those. and what a lot of people aren't talking about in the finishing sequence was Pereira's leg kicks were so valuable in that fifth round.

He was drilling Adasania with those and he hit one in particular right before the closing sequence and it really got to Izzy and you could see it in his eyes and then he started lighting him up with those big shots and then Mark Goddard gave him chances and he felt Adasania wasn't intelligently defending himself and that's it. Pereira wins the time.

title and I don't know. I don't know if he has this number or not. That was one question we brought up in the preview show was, is there something there? Is this the kind of thing for Adasania where if he just can't beat this guy, is he going to be okay with that? And I don't know. And I give Adasania a lot of credit.

I think he's handled it so well. Goes on the M.A. hour. It does an hour with Ariel. Just amazing stuff. and we'll see what happens. I would like to see them just run it right back. I feel like the way things are lining up and makes sense. I'd like to give out of sannie some time.

But again, I mean, who knows? Maybe the UFC can't get the Hamza Atchamaya, Colby Covington fight put together. Who knows? But if we're not going to go right to this Adasania well, you could do that, but I don't know. It just seems really risky to do that. fight and then lose out on the big business that an Adasanya rematch will certainly get because

it'll be gigantic. And I know some people are like, well, he's three and O against him. There's no need for a rematch. I don't agree. I don't agree. Now, if Pereira goes out there and just deads him in the first round, I take your argument for sure. But with the way the fight went out, Adasania was literally three minutes away from defending his title successfully and getting one of those wins back. I think you've got to do it again because there's still questions. There's still questions. We didn't get a ton of answers. So I'm cool if they're out of back. I think it's a gigantic fight if the UFC does it. But who knows? Maybe Adasania wants to take like an extended amount of time off. We got Whitaker Costa fighting in February. And by the time

that fight ends, who knows it will be three, four months from now. But if the UFC could book that May, June, July that rematch, I think the timing works out good, but anything later than that, if we go past International Fight Week and that one's not on the books, the UFC might go a different direction and hope that

they can come back to it. But what a crazy fight. What a crazy night. Just everything, which is absolutely ridiculous. This is way better than 280, that's for sure. 280 wasn't a horrible card. I think the expectations were lofty and a little too high,

but this one just over exceeded expectations. Anderson, hello. Hey, Mike. Heck of a morning to you, man. It was real hard to see my boy Frankie go out that horrible, but that was kind of how I expected it might go, and that's just what it is. Otherwise, the card was great.

Just so many great finishes, and the fights leading up to the finishes were really good, too. Even the hooker fight was like just so strange that it was interesting. But one thing I wanted to just mention, and the Moikano post-fight interview really brought this up to me, I think, was that those post-fight times when the fighters are on the mic is some of the best stuff of the whole cards and some of the most memorable things. And it feels like the UFC is always trying to rush people off the mic, like whether they don't want the winners to have the mic for that long or they don't want to talk to the loser at all. and they just want to go to the commercial break. I feel like that's some of the best stuff on cards. And do you think there's any chance that the UFC would just start giving

fighters more time to talk and maybe even give them some time to talk before the fights? It's like a beginning of like a wrestling segment, you know, because like we've seen it in wrestling. That stuff, like that's what gets the fans fired up. And it would be so interesting, like, what are they going to say before the fight? Like, what are they going to say after? And these days doesn't really happen that much. So, all right, just wanted to see what you thought about that.

Otherwise, great card. I don't think they'll do the pre-fight stuff because, honestly, there's just so much pre-fight stuff already that it's, you've already heard from everybody. The media days that take like five hours and then press conferences and all that stuff, I don't think we'll do it anymore. I don't think they'll do like pre-fight stuff, like backstage segments before they come out. I'm not a huge fan of those because I just don't think you need them.

I just don't think you need them. and I don't know what they're going to do after the fact. I mean, it actually worked out for Moikano great that there was still 15 minutes before the top of the hour. So you could just let this guy, like I was saying, it was almost like Moikato became a guest on Joe Rogan's podcast. Because it was just a moment he had all that time. And Rogan even understood that they were in no hurry because the next thing is the main card. So they have all this extra time. And kudos to Boycano for taking advantage of that.

But yeah, I think it's just going to be the usual thing. I got to say, Rogan's, Rogan's been doing a better job of, of asking questions. It's not just the same fluffy stuff. You know, give us your thoughts on this, give us your thoughts on that. If something weird happens,

Rogan's asking about it. He's, he's doing a great job with that. I actually thought, I didn't have, I didn't listen to the commentary very closely because we're doing the damn watch party. But from what I saw,

I thought both guys, I mean, there were little things. you can pick apart like DC not getting Sylvania Gomez-Hores name right or or things like that and Rogan continuously saying

Pereira's MMA record wrong or how many fights he had wrong but other than that in terms of the actual commentary I thought they did a great job this is one of their better outings I could hear it like a little bit in the background because we have it on in the airpiece but it's just it's just it's really background noise for me

but I thought overall they did a good job. Rogan's doing a much better job with the questions. So, yeah, good stuff. Good from Oikano, taking advantage of the time. And yeah, I don't think we need any of the pre-fight stuff. I think it's just let's go. Let's get to the next fight. With MX Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining

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See app for details. So, hello. What's up? So other than that, this card was a great card to be like Rob Lowe at an NFL game. Just sit there with a cap that just says UFC and just say, go league. So many interesting things happen. So I have two things I want to talk about. Firstly, I don't think anyone would complain about this stoppage if it wasn't.

I think Adasania is the single person where people would react like this. Because there was no controversy. He was hunched over arms down towards the mat, head down towards the mat, not even, I mean, that's just not a defensive position in any way, shape or form. So I really don't see the controversy. And I, and the power of Helwam. Manny also magnifies this because he thinks it's premature and then everyone starts piling in and taking the side of him as well. So that's one thing.

And the other is, so I'm going to challenge you a bit. And the challenge is, you know, you said it was a perfect matchup between Meatball, Mully McCann and Blanchefield. and so I want you to keep that same energy and I'm assuming a lot here but bear with me assuming that Patty Pimplett beats Jared Gordon in spectacular fashion like the spinning elbow, the meatball Molly McCann

didn't fight before assuming he does that who is the win-win scenario fight at that point my thought is probably Grant Dawson. But I just want to see if you can say young up-and-comer who can do the same as Blanchfield just did with meatball, all even can. Love your work, man.

Have a good, have a good Tuesday. Thanks, man. So, yeah, the stoppage thing, listen, I get it. I get it. Like I said on Saturday, and I've said ever since, I don't have an issue with the stoppage. I think the stoppage is fine. could there be an argument made goddard could have let him go sure but i don't i'm not going to make that argument i'm fine with the stoppage the body language to me was was just bad it was just bad

body language is a guy that was just about done that's that's what the body language screamed to me was it wasn't a guy who was intelligently defending himself and i know some people look at it differently the way adasania sort of presented it i was just waiting for him to gas out so i could turn it on I get it. I get it. If you have an issue with it, that's fine. Me, I didn't have an issue with it. He was just getting blasted.

And I feel like had Goddard let him go a few more, he was going to sleep. He was going unconscious because that barrage was not going to stop. It was just going to get worse. Maybe he lands up flying knee up the middle. And we see what happened. It was just bad, man. Like, it just would have gotten bad, in my opinion. But again, it's hindsight.

We don't know. The Blanchefield Molly thing. I'll get back to that in a second. If we're talking, Patty, I don't think it's Grant. I think it's Jalen Turner. I think Jalen Turner would be the one because I think people see how talented this guy is. I don't think any of the top 10 guys are going to be rushing to fight this guy. So I just feel like this would be the best case scenario for him if Patty beats Jared Gordon,

which is going to be a tough fight for him. It's going to be a tough fight for him. And if he wins and I start to think, okay, maybe this guy's better than I thought. And then we'll give him an opportunity like that. And again, if Jalen wins, he's expected to win and he goes on and gets the rub. And if Patty loses, like, it's not the end of the world. Like he could just go back to doing what he does and be a popular guy who gets wins. There's nothing wrong with that.

You can make a great living doing that. You can make a tremendous living doing that. I heard Ariel specifically disagree with my take that this is perfect matchmaking. And I think he's looking at it more. And I don't think he loved it from the beginning. I think in hindsight, people think it was just a way worse matchup. But here's the thing. There's a difference between Patty and Molly.

And what I mean by that is Molly's in a division where there's just not a ton of fighters. There's like 30 of them, if that. Maybe 32. but Lightway is just, I mean, there's 80, 90 guys. So it's the build for Patty, you can take a longer time. You can't really do that with Molly. Like, it's kind of, it was kind of shit or get off the pot. And I know Ariel's thing was like, oh, you can't stop this momentum now.

This is bad batch making. This should have been a fight to build to the UK. I don't agree with that. I don't agree. You only had a short amount of time to make this Molly thing happen. And if Molly had come out there, and knocked out Aaron Blanchfield in the first round, she's fighting like a top five fighter.

Next. At worst, she might even get a title shell at Valentina. So what could have come from a win was gigantic, but a loss doesn't hurt her that much because, one, she wasn't expected to win the fight in the first place. Two, Aaron Blanchfield needed to be in somebody who was going to push her, talk a little smack, put her in a big spot and see how she reacts to the pressure,

which she did very well. three, if Aaron Blanchfield goes out there, did exactly what she did on Saturday, the conversation changes. Now, Tristan comes on the show all the time, and I'll probably go to him next. And we talk about how good Aaron Blanchfield is. The hardcore is understood how good she was.

But the casual audience, the fans who check in from time to time, they know who Molly is. They had no idea who Aaron Blanchfield was. And even that members of the media were slowing, kind of pumping the brakes on Aaron Blanchfield. AK talked about it all the time. She's 23. Let's just see what she could do.

Let's pump the brakes on her a little bit. And then she goes out and has a performance like that. And what was the constant thing everybody said? Aaron Blanchfield's legit. She's for real. And it's because she beat Molly McCann. And it was just the momentum that Molly had. Now, let's be clear.

Let's go back into time during this run for Molly. Timing was beautiful. It all worked out great timing wise. The momentum was a snowball. But let's look at who she beat. She beat the two worst fighters in this division. I don't mean this to be a jerk. I'm just telling you how it is.

Luana Carolina and Hannah Goldie are not world beaters. These are two fighters who are never going to be ranked that are probably a loss away from being released from the company. But they served their purpose because they got Molly over. How are you going to slow roll her? You're going to get like there's no, you can't slow roll her anymore because there's not enough fighters in this division. So you have to throw her in against a step up,

and you have to throw her in against a step up against somebody who needs the rub more than anybody. And that, to me, was Aaron Blanchfield. She had questions that needed to be answered in a lot of people's eyes. And even though Molly beat two of the not great fighters in the division, people knew who she was, and they thought she was a really good fighter. So her getting that win meant was just huge.

and from Molly, she just goes back and goes back to the UK and she fights somebody that won a contract on the contender series or loss of the contender series. And she still looks like a massive star. But now we know that Molly's not fighting for the title or anything like that. And that's okay because at least in my eyes, I didn't think she was going to get there anyways. Not because that's just it.

She's just not, Molly's a good fighter. And she's a tremendous personality. She's one of my favorite people to watch in the sport. From a fighting perspective, from a media perspective, she is awesome. She's great. But she's not going to win a title. She's not going to win a title. And if she beat Aaron Blanchfield, the UFC would have pushed her to that spot, like, almost immediately.

Because they understand that the time frame is limited. You only have a certain amount of time because eventually somebody in the top 10 is going to beat her. So you might as well make it worth the while and get somebody over that needs it. which is why I love the matchup. For the UFC, it was a win-win. It doesn't hurt Molly at all from a UFC perspective because they're going to go back in April or March to the UK and she's going to go on that card against someone she's heavily favored over

and she's going to win and the crowd is going to go insane and she's going to come back and look like a star and we're just going to be like, Molly's just great. Let's just watch her fight. She's not going to fight for a title. And that's okay. There's nothing wrong with that. And I feel like they could do the same with Patty.

they've given him a step up with Jared Gordon but if he beats Jared if he goes out there and beats Jared or if he goes out there and finishes Jared Gordon that's a good win that's a good win against like a top 30 guy at that point you have to give him the same kind of treatment

you're taking steps forward so now we're going to see if this guy's for real so throw him in there with the Jalen Turner and if he beats Jalen you're like all right we got something here like we have something here You keep them away from the Sarukyans and the gamrots of the world. You throw him in there with Jalen.

And if Jalen wins, he gets the same rub that Aaron's getting right now. And that's fine. And if he loses, so what? It's not a big deal. Molly can still fight at MSG against somebody now moving forward. It's okay. We now, we had questions. The question is answered.

She's not going to be a title contender. and again, that's fine. That's fine. There's nothing wrong with that. And she's going to do just fine and make a bunch of money and still be a star. She's a valuable piece to this puzzle. So she doesn't need to fight for belts. She's one of those fighters that is coming to the forefront that doesn't need to fight for titles.

She's popular no matter what. And eventually she's going to get popular outside of the sport too venturing into different things. She's got a bright future ahead of her, especially from a front of her, especially from a financial side. She's still going to be mega popular, but she doesn't need to fight Valentina. And that's okay. That's totally fine. Let's go to Tristan. Hello, Tristan. Thanks. How's everything?

Good. Before we begin, I do want to send my condolences to Anthony Rumble Johnson and his family. It took me some time to shake that off, man, because he was so good and such a great guy. So my condolences to him. As far observations to the fight, we saw with Izzy.

He was talking about the leg kicks a lot, and that's what really, I think it stopped his movement, so he couldn't be elusive as he wanted to be an encounter off of it. That's why he was backing up, and then he just started seeing him couldn't move right

because of the leg kicks that was given by Pierre. So, you know, it happens. And I think, listen, listen, when the rematch is put back together, he's going to take some time off, deal with some injuries, I think he's going to be back better than ever, so not too worried about his. I think he's going to be fine.

Also, too, I want to talk a couple of observations here. Aaron Blanfield, she's everything that we thought she was, and she proved it against Molly. And she did what I wanted her to do and got in there and did not mess around. Went right to her strengths, got her down, crucifix position, fights over. And that's how you're going to be dominant, you know, and that's how you're going to just be better from it, you know. And, you know, she said she wants the main event.

She needs to experience five rounds. So I'm really, really, really happy for her. I'm really, really, really think that she could be something here in a couple of years. The only, the trepidation now comes in. I think I did text you this about Tachianosaurus coming back. She, like she had posted somebody at Axon when she'll be back. She's already contacted the UFC say, I want to fight and book me an opponent. She said that she will fight someone at Flyweight for her first fight back.

Now, we have to see what condition Tatyana'sora is. And she fights somebody against an opponent at the Flyweight Division, and she feels good. She's going to stay at Flyweight. That's the concern because Tatiana Soros, if she looks good in her first fight back, and she's dominant and she picks up where she left off, that's where it's going to be a little tricky because if Aaron Blancher fights, Tantanosaurus,

that's going to be tricky because we probably might see who's the best grappler in that division. I really hope that she does go back to, back down to Strawweight, because if she goes back down to Strollweight, I think she's going to rise, she needs about maybe one or two fights, and she's back into the championship picture at that point.

But again, trepidation here, we got to see how she comes back from injury if she's going to be the same fire. If she is, then it's going to be very interesting how that, you know, whatever division she's in, either she's strode or fly with, how that's going to work out and play itself out. So we'll see.

You know, we'll see with that. Another observation, too, that was very interesting. Brad Riddell saw the post. He's going to take a step to break away. Something was off with him in that fight. I did not like his body language when he was getting hit and pieced up and I knew something was wrong

and he looked like this past fights, he looked like this I think with the physique fight the jail and turn of fight it was just the body language was off and knew something mentally or something was wrong there. It was surprising, you know, so

Mike, you know, just all your thoughts. It was a great car to love everything about it. Also too, Manato Monaco people forget how good McConnell is. People, you know, I know the loss for TK, the Korean zombie, the RDA fight. I know people who are. Is he okay?

But that guy, what he proved, he looked phenomenal, man. He looked like he's a player in this lightweight division. I'm not sleeping on that guy, and he's already ranked. So watch out for McConnell, man. He's going to be dangerous. This lightweight division, Mike, gets better and better every time. It's unbelievable. This is why the lightweight division is the cream of the crop.

It just gets better and better at every moment. So, Mike, your thoughts and everything I just said. Have a heck of a morning. Be safe out to everybody. And thanks. Yeah, A plus night for Moikano. A plus night. Boycano, and I talked about this in the post-fight show, to me,

Moycano is, I don't know if, like I said, I don't know if overachiever is the right word, but, I mean, he kind of is overachieving. Dude's good. Dude's real good. And I agree with Redell taking some time off because I'm with you. He just didn't look right from Jump Street and he didn't even try to defend the finish at all. And yeah, I think that's probably the best thing for him. With the Suarez thing, I don't know.

I would keep her in Blanchfield far away from each other, at least for now. If she's going to fight at 125, I think Cynthia Calvillo would be a pretty good choice, honestly. because Calvia will test her grappling a little bit and I think Swarres would probably win that fight, probably finish her. But Cynthia still kind of has somewhat of a name. So I like that idea. You could do that.

You could do our Ujo. There's plenty of ways to go. I wouldn't do Blanchfield. That's a terrible idea. I don't like that idea at all. But we'll see who she fights and when she fights. Let's go to Viking and then we'll go to Mikey. We'll get to everybody that's waiting, I promise.

I know everybody has a lot to say. Viking, hello. Viking. Hey, Mike. How are you? Good. How are you? I'm good.

It was good to see your reaction on that, and the Sahara fight. I believe that. I just want to talk about the people who think that Islam and Hamzaa, is going to fight and we are Muslim brothers and we don't fight with each other over a belt so and we are cool so that's not that's not going to happen and let's sit and just pray for my cat he's in a trouble all of all of you guys thank you mike thanks man yeah i don't think islam and homestead are going to fight and if they are going to fight it's

not going to be any time soon. But no, I don't think that fight happens. Of course, he found out, is Makachep versus Alexander Volcanovsky officially official for UFC 284? And, I mean, it was going to happen anyways, no matter what the result was at UFC 281, but now that Adasania lost,

it's already set up number one versus number two, pound for pound. And that's the way the UFC was going to do it anyways. Even if Adasani beat Pereira, they were still going to bump up market shop by the time that I fought yet that fight happened but yeah I think and then hamzad is uh who knows he's either gonna fight Colby or he's gonna fight Pereira I in a lot of people's eyes I don't know but date even said again at the at the press conference oh that press conference was just brutal by the way I don't know if you guys stayed up and watched that

as it was happening live but golly was that one of the all-time worst It was so bad. God, it was so bad. Again, let me just throw this out there to the aspiring media members. I know it is a goal of yours, if you are an aspiring media member, to someday get credentialed by the UFC and cover an event. And if that happens for you, I will celebrate your victory. But again, here's my advice. Just because you're there doesn't mean you have to have a microphone.

Does not mean you have to ask a question. And we'll go watch that Dana White Scrum and you will understand where I'm coming from. Because there are certain people who are just like, well, I'm there. I have to ask a question. I got to hear my voice on the stream. No, you don't. Especially if the question's been asked four times already. Stop doing that.

And then that one dude with the back and forth about Steve. Bay in the heavyweight division. Like, dude, we're not talking about that right now. We're talking about UFC 281. Enough is enough. Dane addressed it. Enough. Oh, it's just brutal.

I was going to do the post-fight show from the studio. And I'm just sitting there for an hour and a half waiting. And I'm just like, no, I'm just going to go back to the hotel and do it because this is ridiculous. Again, just because you're there does not mean you have to ask questions. Someone takes your question and you've got nothing else. Just don't ask a question. It's already been answered. Let's move this baby along a little bit.

Holy cow. They're just getting worse, man. They're just getting worse. Mikey, hello. This is going to be quick. Well, not quick. It's going to be long. But first of all, the ultimate universe

where John Jones and Rumble Johnson fought, man, what could have been, huh? Two, give me Dan Hooker versus Justin Gachey or Hanato Maitano. As for Michael Chandler, Please bring back Eddie Alvarez. I need the trilogy. As for Molly McCann, Aaron Blanchfield,

that's been talked to death. It should be easy for everyone to decipher how that matchup got made. Hawani has no idea what he's talking about. The UFC needs mid-card stars. Molly McCann's a mid-card star. They tried to promote her. You can have her with all these fight night cards that they have. They can have her main event, stuff like that.

The stoppage was fine and Izzy. If you get it gone longer, that's fine. Both thoughts can exist. I don't need the rematch, but, you know, it's like the thing with Leon and Kamaru. I don't need the rematch because there was a definitive finish, but if it happens, that's fine too, I guess. If Glover loses to Yiri, I would like to see Perrera fight Yeri Pajshka,

but that might be too soon to call. The featherweight interim title fight at 284 is dumb. And Dustin Poitie should get a title shot because the guy he last lost, he no longer has the belt, and people need to stop pretending that they don't want to see him fight, Islamakov, even if they think he's going to lose. Who cares? He's one of the best lightweights of all time. He deserves another shot.

Anyways, that'll be all. Great fight week to you guys. Have a good one. A lot to unpack there. Let me see what stands out. Yeah, Chandler Alvarez would be awesome. They could do it. I mean, with Chandler, it's, I think he's out of the, I mean, he's not out of the title

picture, but he's far away from being in the title picture because I just think the UFC likes Chandler so much and he's never going to be. completely out of it. But listen, he's a big fight dude. Guy's good on the mic. He sells his ass off. And all of his fights are insane. So, yeah, they do Alvarez.

I'm cool with that. They do Connor. I'm cool with that. But no Olivera. None of that stuff. Porre, I wouldn't give a title shot to yet. I liked the him versus Benile Darius fight. That makes perfect sense to me.

Do that. That should have been on Perth. I do agree. I don't agree. I don't know. Maybe you're just saying that having the interim featherweight title fight on the Perth card is dumb. If you're saying that, that I completely agree with you. Completely agree with you.

If the idea of having a featherweight title, interim title fight is dumb. I don't agree with you there. I just, I don't think it needed to be on this Perth card because it takes away from Volk. It just, it's an elephant in the room that doesn't need to be there. You could have done this March 4th card or whenever. I just don't like it there. And I feel like they kind of botched an opportunity with getting Arnold Allen in there. And again, like I think the two guys there are fine, but what's more interesting?

Yair versus Josh on a card that the current featherweight champion is fighting the lightweight champion for the lightweight title or doing Arnold Allen in the interim title fight? in the UK to get a massive pop from the crowd. I think you should just wait a month and threw him in there. But I don't, I'm fine that we at least have an interim title fight on the books. Just being on that card makes literally no sense. Not a fan of it. But the fight's happening. Again, it's an elephant in the room.

I'd rather see Porier versus Benny on that card instead of the interim title fight card. But who goes? Maybe we'll get, maybe we'll get all of those things. I don't know. The stoppage thing I agree with you. There's not a real argument. What's the other thing you said? Pereira moving up to 205 to fight year.

Okay. I like that idea, but only if Pereira vacates the middleweight title. I like the idea. Pereira vacates. It says, screw it, I'm done. Izzy, thanks for the cheese, bro. I'm out of here. I'm going to fight for the light heavyweight title.

That's my weight. You guys fight it out for this one that I already won. I've proven myself, I don't need to do anything else here. I'm cool with it. But if he goes up before defending the title to fight Yuri, not a fan of it. Not a fan of it. But if he wants to just dump the belt and go up, cool.

I'll watch the hell of that fight. I think everybody would too, but you don't need to be the champion while you do it. You can just, it's a gangster move to vacate and move up and do it. in my opinion. There are other things, but we will move on. Zee, hello. Mike, what's going on, man? A little upset

because I said Frank Edward was going to get it done in one, and while I quite frankly, literally ate my words. With that being said, I'm still mentally and emotionally recovering from that. The main event was awesome. My question to you is

who was licking their chops more watching the main event? Was it the Boers, Hamsat Shumayev, watching Israel at his Ania take down Pereira, control him, hold his wrist and keep him in that position? Or was it Robert Whitaker with Newfound Life at 185? Mike, I hope you have a good morning. Probably Whitaker. Probably Whitaker.

I mean, I'm sure Shamiath was like, okay, I can beat this guy. And I think you probably could have beat him anyways. but yeah, I think both of them were probably like, all right, cool. Like, you know, Wittaker is because he's like, now I can get another shot at the belt, or I don't know. I know there's a part of him that just wants to fight out of Sanya again.

But getting back to the belt, he's got a pass and he's got a chance to beat the champion right now. Of course, he's got Paul Costa potentially in front of. I know Paul has been saying, eh, maybe still your role on that fight happening, but yeah, I think both guys are right. And then the Frankie thing was just rough. I know I may fighting post of the clip of us reacting to that.

That was, that was just, it was tough to watch, man. It's tough to watch. I picked Gutierrez to win. I thought the fight would be a lot more crazy. I thought it would last a lot longer than it did. I didn't think Gutierrez is going to get him out of there in the first like that. But Chris looked good. The movement was great.

He looked big. He looked athletic. And he was just ready to go. And I didn't think there was really any way. way he could get over with this win? Because I was kind of against the booking to start because I was like, I just don't know if Gutierrez, if there's anything Gutierrez can really do to get over. And then he lands that flying knee in a couple minutes and the emotion afterwards and

how he handled himself in the aftermath. I think he actually got over a little bit. I think he actually did. Not to the point where the UFC probably wanted him to, but I think he got a little bit of a rub. Even with Frankie face first in the mat like that, which nobody wanted to see. But I think Chris actually got over a little bit. So yeah, tough for Frankie fans.

And I think we now realize, now Frankie can go on to the next chapter of his life and be dad and husband and maybe be a great coach someday and love to see Frankie maybe on the desk a couple times, get him in there to do those desks during. in the fight nights with Karen Bryant and company. That'd be pretty cool. But yeah, tough, tough to watch. Marshall's buyers travel far and wide, hustling for great deals on amazing gifts.

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Ahead is on deck. Hello, big fan of the show. I just wanted to see your opinion or hear your opinion on Hasim Ropman's opponent, Vito Belfort, pulling out, and now apparently Dan Hardy is the new opponent that he's going to face. Do you think that's going to be more of a challenging fight than Vitor Belfort because he's younger and he's, and now that

he's in BKFC, so he's been having boxing training of sorts. And this is an opinion, not a question. I truly believe Esa Sonia does not deserve a rematch against Alex Pereira, especially after losing him three times,

and Robert Ritterker should be the next guy up. Thank you. Have a good day. I'm trying to find this Dan Hardy. news um yeah i saw vtors out honestly i don't care at all i mean i really don't i really hope dan hardy's not fighting hasim rockman i have no interest in watching that i had little to no interest

in the vtore thing just because i don't know the the way vitor handled the whole holy field thing i just it was just left such a bad taste in my mouth. Like it really did. And I really hope Dan's not fighting Hasseem Rockman Jr. I don't want to see it. I haven't seen anybody really report it. So yeah, I hope

that's not actually happening. The V-Tor thing left the bad taste in my mouth because he knocked out a 58-year-old man who shouldn't have even been fighting and then he celebrated like he just knocked out Mike Tyson in 1991 and won the title. And the thing that really got me was

I obviously was there covering that event and I did that interview with Holyfield that got people talking a lot and then I did the interview with Vitor after his open workout and I asked him because it was like it wasn't long after the first Jake Paul Tired Woodley fight

and I asked him about his thoughts about Jake and that fight and he was just like it is shameful that I'm even being in the same conversation and the same sentence with those guys. It's shame on you for even asking me that question. Putting me in there with Jake Paul, like, no, I have no interest in that.

And then after he knocks out a 58-year-old Evander Holyfield, who shouldn't have been fighting, he calls out Jake Paul for a fight that there's just no way it's going to happen. I'm like, are you serious? After all that, after everything you said about Jake Paul, now you're going to call him out and try to get that bag? No, absolutely not. So him fighting Rockman, I would look and see if there is a result, but no interest in watching it.

And if Dan Hardy's in there, no disrespect to Dan, I have even less interest. Dan Hardy is going to be outweighed by like 50 pounds against Assam Rockman Jr. I have zero interest in watching that. So I hope that is not true. I hope that is not true. Let's go to a head. ahead what's up buddy Mike can you hear me

yes yes I can okay so firstly I wanted to and just mourn like everyone else here mourn the death of Anthony Johnson the thing is in terms of like favorite memories of Anthony

what stands up to me is UFC 202 not when he not out Glover Tashira, which was crazy. I'm talking about afterwards, the way he carried himself was just an epitome of class, the way he said,

thank you all over for not doing any antics, the way Connor and Nate were. But also, he actually told the crowd to stop booing Daniel Cormier. He went out of his way to do that. I think that's what shows Anthony Johnson and the character he is, he was but yeah i think one positive that came out of the death his death is that at least he's not

suffering anymore because we know he was physically ill for a while and of course the first option is we'd have wanted him to make you'd have wanted him to make a full recovery i think it would have been selfish of all of us if we just wanted him to stay alive and suffer so at least it's uh at least it's over. And the things, like, one thing is, well, at MMA fighting, like, I just feel like the Instagram post announcing Anthony's that could have been, like, a little bit, it could have taken, whoever wrote that could have taken 10 more seconds to literally construct a coherent sentence and show a little more emotional intelligence than just, um, just saying Anthony Johnson dead at 38. That's personally my thing, like, as in, because other outlets weren't doing

They were kind of just, they were being a bit more sincere about it. But talking about USC 281 now, Aaron Blanchfield is my hero. We should call her Aaron Blanchfield, the Mugamenev, because, wow, like, there are levels to this. She mold Molly. She brushed her shoulders off after being ruled by the disrespectful New York crowd. And also, with regards to the main event, Mike, I don't think we should have a rematch. we shouldn't have a real match because Mike when we're going to have another fight we're going to have a trilogy if izzy wins that's so stupid we should have this is what we should do as a matchmaker USC's unofficial matchmaker do herrara versus whittaker because whittaker's probably going to smack costa and then we do chimmaev versus izzie and you like colby belal and your welterweight division because that's that's a good way to match it up and like mike we were you said oh, it's so incredible how Izzy have handled this, come out.

Like, Art Post, immediately post-fight, yes. But when he was doing all these interviews, he was saying stuff like, my knee was hurt, and all this other stuff like I wasn't out. Mark, like he said, I agree with the stuff. He didn't really. And I don't agree with how he handled it, like in these interviews afterwards. And lastly, Mike, I've been willing to say this for some time.

Izzy said Alex was going to leave him. He was, Izzy said he was going to leave Alex frozen like Elsa. But instead, Alex left him sleeping, like sleeping beauty. Drop the mic, Mike. Thanks, ahead. Yeah, the Blancheville performance is great. And I love how she brushed the dirt off her shoulders, too. I thought everything about it was fantastic.

They're going to do the rematch, man. Like, they're just going to. It's too much money on the table. And if Izzy wins, they're going to do it a third time. it'll be even more money. It's a business thing. I get what you're saying. And even as he said, like, I'll fight him.

I'll fight prayer again, even if he loses the belt. That fight's going to be there. And if they could do it for the belt, they'll do it for the belt. It's going to be there. What was the other thing you said that I had an issue with? Oh, yeah. Well, a lot of people, like, here's what's interesting about this fight. A lot of people have forgotten that

Adasania was, if he, had like six more seconds in that round when he had Pereira hurt we're not having this conversation right now like he hurt Pereira bad and if he had more time probably would have put him away which is crazy but timing was on Mr. Pereira's side and that's it he didn't finish him Pereira got the finish in the fifth and I don't have an issue with Adasani saying like hey I could have been, I was okay. But he even said, after talking about coaches, I don't have a problem with the stoppage.

But any other fighter in the same position, I'm like, you know what? No one's going to say, no, my guard is the best. He was right. I was done. No, no fighter on the planet is going to say that in that situation after losing the belt and all of that. No one's going to say that.

Let's go to QP. QP. Yeah, I said to term on Mike. going. It was good, Mike. How you doing, Matt? I'm not, I'm not feeling all to Izzy slander this morning, and the reason behind a lot of it is, like, asinine. It's like, it's not even making sense. That's the second person in a row that said he don't deserve a rematch. I understand if you don't like him, but you got to respect the accomplishment. He didn't turn down any fights.

He made all his fights look easy. This, given Whitaker a rematch, like, did they forget that he lost to Izzy twice? Very convincingly, maybe the second time it was a little closer, but yeah, I'm just not understanding that. But I came on to X as an Izzy fan, like as an MMA fan, this is my first heartbreak, like watching a fighter that I really love fight and watching them get finished.

How do you think Izzy Fares against like taller fighters that outweigh him and that are taller than him because I just feel like, I feel like he a little hesitant on pressing go as far as when he gets to those later rounds. Like when he has to be the one that's the aggressor, I feel like when the fighter is the bigger, it's just hard for him.

Even when he's fighting like a smaller fighter, I just feel like it's hard for him to get around. Like if you look, obviously Alex is taller than him, and he was reaching up to land a lot of those punches, which is making it harder for him to sit down on him. It's just like, do you think that that's a struggle? Like, do you think that he's been so dominant? And this is coming from a fan.

Do you think he's been so dominant because he has the physical advantages on most of his fighters? or you think that it's just, I don't know, like him not having that power aspect of his game. Like, what do you think about, about, you know, that part of Izzy style? Thanks, man. Yes, and you being a fan of Izzy,

it was probably a rough for you to watch. Oh, man. Izzy, I mean, look, Izzy look good in the fight. If I have one knock on his performance, I actually grew with Dana White. I actually agree with Dana White. Izzy won the fourth round, but he also took his foot off the gas.

Like he had a chance to really steal all of the momentum. Like he had momentum, but you still felt like even after that fourth round that Alex was in the fight. Like he was in it. And Izzy could have turned on the gas. You could see Pereira was slowing down a bit. And Izzy just cruised.

And that to me was, a massive turning point in the fight. He still won the round, and he still was seemingly on his way to winning, but he had a chance to really take that power bar of Pereira down a notch in that fourth, and he didn't do it. So I think he's going to go back and rewatch that round and think to himself, man, I could have turned it up a little bit more.

But I also understand as well, like, you're winning. Pereira's power is still a factor, but you really just boosted that energy bar back up for him in that fifth round. And credit to Glover and Pereira's Corner for just giving him that great speech to really fire him up and put it in his head. Like, dude, you're losing. You have to finish or that's it. Do you want to be a world champion?

You got to knock him out. And he went out there and did it. So just a crazy fight. The whole rematch thing, like, I don't know if people are saying, like, he doesn't deserve a rematch. because if you're saying that, then you're wrong. Because he definitely deserves a rematch. I think people, this comes in ebbs and flows.

It comes in waves in M.A. Where some people, like, you're just cool with immediate rematches. And then other times you just see it so many times. You're just like, oh, I'm getting sick of these immediate rematches. Like, let's open it up and give these other guys a chance. And I get that argument. But it's just a different thing. Like, again, if Pereira went out there and knocked Izzy out in the first round,

I don't think people are clamoring for a rematch at all at this point. But the fact that Izzy was winning and then gets knocked out in the fifth, it's the same reason as, it's the same thing as the Usman Edwards rematch. If Edwards went out there and kicked him in the face in the first round, I don't know if people are clamoring to give Usman a rematch. Like maybe just Usman had won all those. So I don't know. But I don't think we're having the same conversation.

The fact that Izzy won or was winning, who's three minutes away from defending the belt, putting that one behind him for the time being, and then to have him losing the fifth like that, I still think there's questions. I want to see him fight again because I have questions. I have questions. And Izzy came out as the favorite in the rematch,

which doesn't surprise me. But I want to see it again. Sure. I just have a lot of questions. I didn't get a ton of answers. Let's go to On Topic MMA. We got what, D-Rox, Julio, the M, and one other person, I believe it's Barbarusa.

So those are the five we're going to get to before we've got to go. But on topic of M.A, you're up. Hey, Mike. I'm usually in here on my other account, Joe. I just wanted to say it's not Dan Hardy. It's Greg Hardy that stepped in to fight Rockmont, Jr., and I got in the space late, so I don't want to hit any topics, anybody already hit. But I think Wayley and Mamosch will be the next fight, and I'm really excited about that fight.

But that's it. I just wanted to say it's not Dan Hardy that that fight wouldn't work very well. But it is Greg Hardy. I don't know the date, but it's on tapology reported to be scheduled. Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle. All right, well, I mean, I'll be honest, I don't love that either, but it's better than Dan Hardy, that's for sure. At least they're somewhat in the similar way class.

Let me pull up. Let me see if I haven't. I knew it looked at it earlier. There we go. Is it in there? Hold on a second. Sorry. Yeah, I just saw, I think I just saw the press release.

Wow. Okay. Greg Hardy's going to fight Hesim Rockin Jr. very strange i guess yeah very uh very interesting yeah but i'm glad it's not dan hardy holy shit that would have been a nightmare let's go to d rocks

d rox hello hey what's going on man how you doing i was just asking i was just i was just i was going to say if there's there's a possibility if alex fight somebody else first before he fights uh isy because i know is he means

and then he was going to try to get some rest and time off before he fights again. I don't know. It's risky to fight. Like, I wouldn't throw him in there with, like, Poms at or anything. But, I mean, it all depends on timing, I guess. So we'll see how this Whitaker-Costa fight plays out. And if you do Pereira versus Whitaker, I mean, I'd be all right with that if he's going to be out for a little while.

Like, a prayer wants to go and Whitaker's ready and Otisani is going to be out another like five or six months, then cool. Like, that's fine. That's fine. But it's on O'Sana. If he's ready to come back and like fight in May, then you just do that. But if he's not, then go another route. I'm okay with that. Julio, what's up?

Hey, good morning. Has there ever been a more stoic, like, killer-faced? champion, let alone in the UFC as Alex Pereira. Like, I don't think, obviously, all UFC fighters are tough, but you just look at that guy that's just like, man, what a scary dude. Like, remember when Connor said he would invade Josealdo's favela on horseback and kill every man who is not fit to work? Like, he would run into Alex Pereira for sure.

And that native, you know, attiring, you know, spirit that he shows, like, it just, goes perfectly with him. Has there ever been any fighter like that, that stone cold killer looked like him? Yeah, there's a bunch. I mean, it's not the same, but I think there are certain fighters you know that they're just, they're about that life.

And there are two on this card in particular. I think Pereira, Dustin Porre is a little different, is a little less stoic, if you will. But you look at Dustin. de pourier and how he acts and like what he's like in the cage like you could just tell that dude is about that life like Dustin is about that life he's that dude Robbie laura another guy like you just you know he's about that life like he's about that fight life and killer be killed and all that stuff so uh but yeah I get it like even Pereira after he won the belt like you have to

you have to like force a smile out of this guy it's unbelievable it's unbelievable but yeah he's he's about that fight life, that's for sure. That dude ain't selling insurance after his fight career, I can tell you that right now. The M. Hello. How are you? Good. How are you? I'm good. Thank you. This was a great card.

Apart from seeing Frankie Edgar going out like in front of his family, it was a perfect card. It surpassed that 280 by a mile. It was also set to see to see a Ramble Johnson going. at this age

but back to the fight to the main event I think I think finally easier just he meets his match in the in MMA in this division because in my opinion I mean everybody knows that he had the size advantage

over all other opponents that he beat already but this one was the size of Pereira was huge I mean he matched him everywhere and he's stacked to the game plan. If Izzy did not take it to the ground, I think he would have been finished earlier than the fifth. This is my opinion.

My question to you is, how long do you think Pereira, though, stays in this division? Because we saw that he didn't make wait until the last few minutes. How long do you think he can stick around in this division? And, um, I want to circle back to Paddy Pimplet. So you said if he won his next fight, he could face Turner,

Jalen Turner, who is number 10 right now. So if Paddy goes on fights Turner and wins and he gets to the top 10, who is he going to beat after that? Thank you and have a good day. Thanks, man. So, I mean, essentially I was asked, like who do you do

like because I was defending the Molly versus Blanchefield booking because I felt like it was a win-win for the UFC someone's got to lose the fight but either way either Aaron gets a big push like gets the notoriety amongst like the casuals and the semi-casuals that the hardcores were giving her

because they all knew who Molly was they all got to see how good Aaron was or Molly beats Blanchefield finishes her and then she either I mean you can just throw it right into her title fight if you want because you know the option the time is kind of limited on on that push you need to know like can we do this or not we know she's a star but is she someone who can fight for a belt

that's why you book this matchup and that's why you book Patty versus Turner as well and if she if he beats Turner then he leapfrogs a lot of people he gets he probably gets a number one contender fight or a title fight next. It's weird to say, but that's, you need to find out if this guy's for real or not.

Like, is he going to fight for a belt or is he going to be a mid-card star? And again, nothing wrong with that. He could have a spectacular career being a mid-card star and make a lot of money. Just throw him on UK cards and let him do his thing and get the reaction from the fans. Molly's going to be the same way. I don't think the loss hurts, Molly. Like, I think it stings a little bit that she got. just trucked over, but

just throw her on there with another lower of the pack flyweight in the UK. She'll finish her and she'll be fine. This loss doesn't hurt that bad. But Patty's going to be Jared Gordon first

before we can have any of these other conversations. Let's go to Barbarusa. Good. How are you? I have a question about Michael Chandler wanting to fight Connemark I think I've said that before, there is a couple of fighters in the 155 division that didn't pay their dues for the upcoming contenders. I think Chandler and Justin are and should fight another contenders.

And we have another guy who did everything we wanted from him and he wanted the McGregor fight and he was very active. And I don't think that Chandler would help a lot with the paperview's number. And the one person I'm talking about is Charles Olivera. He fought everybody before getting to the title. He fought, I don't know, he was on seven or eight win streak. And right now, if he sits on his position as number one contender, I don't think any one of us would have a problem with that. so why Chandler and not Charles Olivera?

And let's be honest, unless it's Kabeeb or Renee Diaz, Connor McGregor doesn't need help with the pay-per-view. Thank you, Mike. I get it. I get it. I just, the reason why I am cool with Chandler Connor is because I think Oliver kills Connor. Like I do.

I think Oliver beats Connor handily. And I think if Charles had beat Mockachev, I think the UFC would have given him that wish to go fight for the belt against Olivera because Oliverers wanted it. But I think I think Connor Chandler is more competitive and it doesn't have full on impact on the division. Like Conner always has an impact in any division he fights at. But if you just throw Chandler in there and they fight at 170, like who's going to complain about that? Like, who cares? you don't have a ton left of Connor anyways by many accounts

he's only got a couple of fights left on this deal so you might as well just max it out and get what you can out of him him versus Chandler is just a fun like you know it's going to deliver you know it's just it's going to be a fight that's absolutely unequivocally going to deliver not and I think Oliver

I think Oliver beats Connor so I don't know if they listen if they did Connor Olivera I ain't gonna be mad at it but I just think you could just throw Chandler in there and it's like just two dudes fighting and that's why I had a kind of an issue with the Porre Chandler matchup to begin with

the fight was great in a vacuum the fight ruled and the fight was better than anybody thought it was going to be and the expectations are super high but the fact that there were so much there was so much on the line for those guys in this division didn't make a ton of sense to me

but now you throw Connor and Chandler in there it's just two guys fighting And I like, you know, just two guys fighting. This is not the same, but it's like Nate Ferguson. D.S. Ferguson. Like, there's two guys fighting. Two guys we know, two guys we like. They're just fighting each other.

And there's nothing on the line, but they're just fighting each other. And I'm more towards just two guys fighting at this point when it comes to those two guys, if we can get that. But listen, I'll watch Connor Oliver every day. Of course I will. Let's go to Kat. we'll take a couple more and I have to go. My question is...

Yeah, I am. Sorry, one second. I'm lagging a little bit. It's okay. Okay, so my question is for the lightweight division in regards to Banyel Dereux. Do you think it's fair to him to make him either fight Dustin Porriy or Oliver for the number one contender spot?

Because I feel like the UFC's kind of cooking him. I'd like to see him get that title shot. That's my question. Thank you. Yeah, I mean, it's tough. It's tough to watch Derrick Barryush get passed over, but unfortunately for him, two things are against him. One, he's just had such bad luck with injuries and stuff because, and who knows,

maybe this actually kind of worked out for him because he was supposed to fight Islam-Machachev. And while I would be very excited to watch those two guys fight and I hope we get to see it someday, maybe Islam just goes in there and trucks them. And then we're not even talking about Derrish as a title contender. So maybe the injuries came at a good time and that it sets it up to be. even bigger. And then the other thing that hurt Darius is that he has this great win over Matush Gamrod and he had the opportunity to get on the microphone and do something about it. I'm not saying, Darius, hey, Mokachev, you're a piece of shit. I hate you. I'll kill you in a

fight. But just, no, it's not him. But you just go out and be like, hey, Islam, you did an interview a few months ago. And you said that if I won the belt and then I beat Matoosh Gamron, you feel like I'm the guy, that I should be the guy fighting for the belt. Habib is a man of his word. Are you a man of yours? If so, I'll see you in fill in the blank month. It's not a trash talky promo. That's just him saying, I deserve a title shot.

Islam, you said I could have one. Are you a man of your word? But instead, what does Vidal Darius do? First, he just doesn't read the room with some of the things he said. And then the other thing you said was, eh, I don't care. I'll fight 10 more guys. No, why would you say that?

What are you doing? What are you doing? Like, don't play out, don't play the, I'm holding out, don't play the I-Yea-Rodriguez card, but don't say that. Don't say I'll fight 10 more guys. Yeah, go fight Dustin. That's a big name.

That's a bigger name than Gamrot. He beats Dustin Porier. There's, in a lot of people's, minds, there's nobody else. Darius is the dude and the only dude. And I think he beats us in Porre. So that'd be a good win for him. And even even when Islam, when they were still trying to figure out who Oliver should fight next, and they went back to Dallas. And Poria was like, I want to fight on that card. I'll fight anybody. Somebody. Anybody just say yes. Mokachev was coming off of the Bobby Green win. And we even talked to

about it on the show, I was suggested like, hey, Islam, just go fight Dustin. Just say, all right, I'll fight you, dude. I'll fight you. And then you probably would have smushed Dustin. And then there's your top five win. No one can doubt you getting a title fight anyways. In the long run, it didn't matter anyways, because he got the title fight and destroyed Charles Oliver.

But I don't know. I actually think Poirier beating Chandler was the best thing that could have happened for this division. because it takes Chandler out of the equation. Chandler's fun. Super duper fun. But I just felt like if he beat Dustin, he probably would have jumped Benny,

and I hated that idea. Especially when you got stopped by Oliveira and then you got dominated by Justin Gage. Super fun fight. But Justin beat him outside of, like one spot in the first round, Gage dominated Michael Chandler. It was fun to watch, but it wasn't a close fight.

So to me, you have all these other guys in this division, and then you got the Fizives and the Surukians and the Jalen Turners and the Isma Goulofs and all these other guys, the Grant Dawson's, the Moikanoes that are on their way up, trying to get their opportunities. And I just feel like it's going to take forever for them to get them because it's the same dudes all fighting each other. Like, let's mix this up a little bit.

All right, last one, Chris Chu a Peng. This is probably, I probably screw that up and I apologize. Let's see if we can get him in. Are you there? Hi. Hi. Hi. Yeah.

My question is, how much money can easy make for his UFC 281 match? because I've never seen any fighter reading his detailed income. So I'm very curious about it. Thank you. How much will he make for that fight? I have no idea. I'm sure he's probably getting like a flat 500 to 750 on top of paper viewpoints. Maybe he gets a piece of the gate.

I mean, whatever, if New York makes that information public, which I don't think they do, Um, it's going to say he's making like five or seven 50 flat, but that clearly isn't the story because he'll make a bunch more. So my guess is probably making, making a few mill. Made a few mill in that fight. Be my guess he's the A side of the fight and they sold them to Mass and Square Garden and sure the card did pretty damn good on pay-per-view. So yeah, I'm sure he's getting the, sure he's getting seven figures at least in his bank account. uh he probably already does and then he'll get more when uh the pay-per-view buys officially come in

yeah financially he's probably a damn good night for out of sonya but now he doesn't have the belt and the rematch he'll probably make even more money because the pay-view buys on the rematch are going to be better than this one so all and all probably wasn't a horrible night for ad sonya but i don't know i i no idea no idea all right i got to go a lot happened in the combat sports community. So stay tuned to MAAfighting.com for all of that news and all of that. We'll be back here on Thursday. And we'll do this again, 10 a.m. Eastern.

Sure, there's still some 281 storylines to talk about. We'll come back on Friday as well. MMA hour back again tomorrow. 1 p.m. Eastern lineup TBD. You'll find out tomorrow morning. If it's anything like Monday show, then we're in for a good one, ladies and gentlemen. So thank you all very much. I appreciate you back on Thursday. Have a great rest of the day. And as always, have a heck of a morning, everybody.